St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 19

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH METRO SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2003 www.STLtoday.com MELTING SNOWFLAKES Five-foot electric attractions in Springfield, are wearing out melting down. The 5-foot electric snowflakes that have lined National Avenue during the holidays for more than a decade are fewer and farther between. And the future is uncertain for about 340 white-bulbed aluminum snowflakes, battered after hanging from Springfield light poles every winter since the early 1990s. In years past, Springfield City Utilities has hung the snowflakes around town for the Festival of Lights, a citywide holiday light display.

This year, the flakes are hitand-miss downtown, and they stop at Grand Street, leaving some south side residents feeling loved Anoka them," said. resi- "I'd just like to know why. Are they just going to ignore the rest of the city and center everything downtown now?" The answer is yes and no. After years of management by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, the lights have a new owner this year the Urban Districts Alliance, based in an area known as center city. Under the guidance of the Jordan Valley Marketing Council, the group planned to center this year's light display near downtown, where many of this year's public holiday celebrations also would take place.

"We're refocusing the Festival of Lights on center city and Jordan Valley Park," said Louise Whall, spokeswoman for the city and member of the marketing council. All the snowflakes up this year are in center city. But the lights are becoming obsolete in downtown proper, where new, antique-looking street lights are illsuited for hanging snowflakes. Officials say Springfield streets have fewer snowflakes this year mainly because they are wearing out. "Every year, we've had to do some repairs and rewiring," said Whall.

"Some of them have been through several rounds of that, and they get kind of beat up out there." Rewiring and rebulbing the snowflakes is also expensive. Officials from the Urban District Alliance, which had no executive director for nearly three months this fall, said they did not have time to organize the repairs. "We picked the best of what was left and put about 150 up," Whall said. The first batch of 200 snowflakes was purchased in 1990, through private donations managed by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce. The plan was to coordinate Springfield's light display with others in Branson and around the lakes, hoping to draw upward of 200,000 holiday tourists and their dollars to the Ozarks.

The Springfield City Council endorsed the lights, and City Utilities agreed to donate electricity to power them. At $175 each, pennies to light THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Traffic moves along National Avenue in Springfield, last week under the lights of snowflakes, which have diminished to less than half of what used to grace street lights in the city. each night and City Utilities agreeing to hang them, the snowflake lights seemed a small price to pay compared with occupied local hotel rooms and increased tax revenue. By 1994, the chamber owned more than 300 snowflakes, and extended the original coverage area. During the light display's first year, tourism in Branson jumped more than 30 percent.

But holiday tourism never really caught on in Springfield. "It just really didn't take off," said Tracy Kimberlin, executive director of the Springfield Convention Visitors Bureau and an early organizer of the Festival of Lights. The snowflakes also had vocal opponents, and the City Council received letters of criticism for Family is tormented by Columbia, pair's disappearance 3 years ago 3A ST. LOUIS DEATHS Gerald L. Cutter Founder of kitchen and bath firm Gerald L.

"Jerry" Cutter, founder, president and chief executive officer of Cutter's Custom Kitchens and Baths in Des Peres, died Thursday (Dec. 25, 2003) at his home in Kirkwood after a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 57. Mr. Cutter was born in St.

Louis and grew up in Kirkwood. He graduated from Vianney High School, where he was active in the student council and later supportive alumnus. He attended the University of Missouri at Rolla until he was drafted into the Army in 1967. Mr. Cutter served a tour of duty as an Army communications specialist in Pleiku, South Vietnam, before he returned to his studies at the University of Missouri at St.

Louis. He graduated in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. After college, Mr. Cutter worked for two kitchen and bath companies in the St. Louis area and earned certified kitchen designer status.

In 1987, he founded Cutter's Custom Kitchens and Baths in Des Peres, a kitchen and bath design and remodeling company. His son, Jason Cutter of Arnold, will continue to run the business. Joseph C. Garger Helped run Garger Bottling Co. BY BETHANY PRANGE Of the Post-Dispatch The small soda bottling plant Joseph C.

Garger and his siblings inherited may not have been as well-known as Pepsi and Coca-Cola, but to their customers, the landmark Garger Bottling Co. represented an oldfashioned good family business. "Even though service is still the big thing, it isn't quite as tough as it used to be," Mr. Garger told the Post-Dispatch in 1985. "I remember when there'd be a picnic at Fairground Park and some group would order 30 or 40 cases.

I'd have to go over to the park when they were breaking up and start picking up the empties off the Did you ever try to find a couple hundred bottles in the dark?" Mr. Garger died Dec. 21, 2003, of complications from pneumonia at DePaul Health Center in Bridgeton. He was 89 and lived in St. Louis County.

A native of St. Louis, Mr. Garger joined his brother, Ollie Garger of St. Louis, and his sister, the late Alice Garger, in helping out at Garger Bottling Co. Their parents, Austrianborn George and Theresa Garger, had founded the business in their home in 1919.

At first, Mr. Garger's parents sold their seltzer water door to door and delivered it by wheelbarrow. Some of their best customers were speakeasies where the seltzer water was used to dilute whiskey. Mr. Garger left school after his sophomore year to work full time for his father.

They started the evening news," Jennie said. "But in my parents' case, I did not hear anything." Arguing over money The Zhengs moved to the United States in 1990, after he was accepted into a doctoral program at the University of Iowa. Five years later, the couple had a daughter, their first child together. In 1997, the family moved to Columbia, after Zheng was accepted into a postdoctoral program at the University of Missouri. Jennie stayed in Iowa City, where she was a student at the University of Iowa.

Charlie and Jennie said their father and stepmother constantly argued over money. He was sending money to his family in China, and he insisted his wife turn all the money she made as a waitress over to him. George Godas, owner of George's Pizza and Steakhouse in Columbia where Sun Xiang waited tables, said she constantly came to work with bruises on her arms and face. He said Zheng often showed up in the middle of his wife's shift to take her tip money. The waitress worked 12-hour days, seven days a week.

Violent battles at home continued and the relationship was made even worse when Zheng ininsisted their youngest daughter, whom his wife doted on, go to China as comfort for his mother. The woman was mourning the recent death of Zheng's father. D13 BY JENNY FILLMER Springfield News-Leader SPRINGFIELD, Mo. Springfield's snowflake era BY DIDI TANG AND JOHN SULLIVAN Columbia Daily Tribune COLUMBIA, Mo. He was a respected genetics researcher at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and she added to their income by waiting tables at a local pizzeria.

But three years ago, the Chinese couple vanished, leaving their children including a son in Columbia asking what happened. The couple's family in China say they anxiously await a letter or phone call but fear one or both of them are dead. University police say they conducted a thorough investigation into the disappearance of Zheng Yinzhou and his wife, Sun Xiang, but won't say what the inquiry entailed. Some family members are not convinced the investigation went far enough. It was late morning Sunday, Sept.

17, 2000, when 18-year-old Charlie Zheng awoke in his family's University Terrace Apartment in Columbia and found his father gone. Charlie said he wasn't worried because his father told him he was going to Iowa City to visit Charlie's sister, Jennie, and would be back in six days. The family's only vehicle, a white Ford Windstar van, was still in the driveway. Charlie said he still wasn't concerned because his father's friends often went with him on trips and I drove their vehicles. Mr.

Cutter was a past president of the MissouriSouthern Illinois Chapter, of the Nation-, al Kitchen Bath Association. Cutter Served as Visitation will be from 4 in Vietnam to 8 p.m. Monday at Bopp Chapel, 10610 Manchester Road, Kirkwood. A funeral Mass will be at noon Tuesday at St. Clement Catholic Church, 1510 Bopp Road, Des Peres.

Burial with military honors will low at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. In addition to his son Jason, among the survivors are his: wife, Claudia McGrath Cutter of Kirkwood; a daughter, Jill Cutter of St. Louis; another son, Justin Cutter of Kirkwood; two. stepsons, Jeremy Okler of Chesterfield and Eric Okler ofBallwin; his mother, Betty Cutter of Kirkwood; two sisters, Kim Dignum of Fort Worth, Texas, and Monica Bruening of' Fenton; and his brother, Min' chael Cutter of Colorado Springs, Colo. bat Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society, Hope Lodge Center, Hope's Garden, 4215 Lindell.

Boulevard, St. Louis, Mo. 63108.4 making flavored soda by the: mid-1920s. Mr. Garger and his siblings.

spent much of their lives in the one-story building in north Louis where the small bottling factory was housed. He left only to serve in World War II with" the Army's 80th Infantry Battalion. When he and his siblings took, over their parents' business, Mr. Garger took care of the sales and deliveries, Ollie handled. janitorial work and making the, soda, and Alice was the secre-: tary-treasurer.

Their customers included taverns, churches, American Legion halls, caterers and other businesses that, couldn't handle the minimum order major bottlers required. Mr. Garger and his sold the business in 1984. It was later closed. Mr.

Garger was a retiree of Teamsters Local 688 and ra member of the Knights of Columbus Council 981 and the" Holy Name Men's Club. He was also an usher at Mount Carmel Catholic Church in St. Louis. His wife, Rosaline Schepker Garger, died in 2002. Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m.

Sunday at Buchholz Spanish Lake Mortuary, 1645 Redman Road. A funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Norbert Catholic Church in FlorisInterment with full military" honors will follow at Jefferson Barracks National' Cemetery. In addition to his brother, his survivors include his three sons, Kenneth J.

Garger and Joseph J. Garger, both of Florissant, and John P. Garger of Oakville; and six grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to a charity of the donor's choice. the $37,000 used to buy them, and the perceived "waste of energy" used to power them during the Persian Gulf War.

Despite the critics and flat holiday tourism, the Festival of Lights grew to include 340 glowing snowflakes, with the chamber footing the yearly bill to repair and rebulb them. After more than a decade, the Festival of Lights became more of a civic event than a tourist draw, and the chamber reconsidered its commitment to it. "About two years ago, our board of directors re-evaluated our goals," said Chris Tuckness, vice president of community development at the chamber. "So we opened it up to the communi- learned that his stepmother who had been home as usual the night before did not show up for work at George's Pizza. On Tuesday, nine days after her father disappeared and two days after her stepmother vanished, Jennie Zheng called MU police and asked for help.

Now, three years later, Jennie says she isn't sure the help she got was nearly enough. Clothes, money left behind In the days after his parents' disappearance, Charlie said he expected his parents to walk in the door, to call at the very least. After all, he said, they left their clothes, luggage, and his father's bank account containing more than $30,000. Charlie said he allowed MU police to search the apartment, and officers took several items, including his parents' passports. MU police refuse to say whether they have the passports.

Over the next several days, police questioned Charlie, Jennie, their stepmother's sister, who lives in Columbia, and co-workers of the missing couple. MU police refuse to discuss the investigation. But Fred Otto, chief at the time, said it was thorough. Now chief of the University of Kentucky police department, Otto said MU police notified Columbia police and received assistance from their investigators, the Mis- ty, to see if anyone wanted to take over." The Urban District Alliance, with the help of the Jordan Valley Marketing Council, seemed a perfect fit, Tuckness said. All 340 snowflakes were officially turned over to the Urban District Alliance in October including the 190 that aren't fit to hang.

With fewer than half of them displayed this season, two specially built storage trailers wait full of snowflakes behind a City Utilities warehouse. "We have had a lot of people call and ask if they could be sold," said Barb Baker of the Urban District Alliance. "We would probably be interested, but they would have to be repaired by whoever buys them." A 18 Vi in. AL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sun Xiang (left) and her husband, Zheng Yinzhou, on their 1989 marriage license. Charlie said he was alone in the apartment with his stepmother, Sun Xiang, a waitress at George's Pizza and Steak House on Business Loop 70.

He said he and his stepmother didn't get along, and there was no mention of his father's absence. Charlie said the following Saturday came and went, but his father didn't return. The next day, Sunday, Sept. 24, Charlie e- mailed his sister asking whether their father was in Iowa City. He said he was unprepared for her reply: "Dad was never here! I wasn't expecting him." The same day, Charlie said, he souri Highway Patrol and the FBI.

Columbia police Sgt. Steve Monticelli confirmed the department's assistance but said he can't recall what it was. Officials with the highway patrol and the regional FBI office in Kansas City said if they were asked to help, they have no record of it. Otto said MU police sought the media's help by putting out a news release. But a check of area news organizations, including the Tribune, turned up nothing.

The Tribune requested a copy of the news release from the vice chancellor of administration, which oversees MU police, but was denied. Columbia police did, however, run a one-time 60-second Crime Stoppers spot on KMIZ-TV shortly after the couple vanished. For whatever reason, information of the couple's disappearance was not widely circulated, especially in the crucial days immediately after their absence. University of Missouri President Elson Floyd, who assumed office this year, said he knew nothing about the case and deferred questions to MU Chancellor Richard Wallace. Wallace said he has since learned of it but heard nothing about it at the time.

Jennie Zheng, who now lives San Jose, does not hide her frustration. "If a person goes missing in California, their faces are all over Nothing unusual at lab James Birchler, Zheng's supervisor at MU, said the researcher came and went as usual in the" days before his disappearance; He plans said to leave Zheng the never university. mentioned, Birchler said Zheng's research was not especially sensitive likely had nothing to do with his disappearance. He said Zheng might have been upset because. his grant was about to expire, but" relatives said Zheng was confident his computer skills wouldland him a good job if he could no longer work in a genetics lab.

Jennie Zheng said she and her brother have been tormentedabout their father's disappear-" ance. She said she made dozens. of phone calls to her father's friends and relatives throughout the United States and China. Three years with few answers have fueled suspicions for families. The Zhengs said Sun" Xiang could have finally snapped.

because of their son's abuse and" killed him. The Suns said Zheng, in a fit of rage, could have killed their They might never know what happened. Jennie said her est concern is for her half Xiaoyang, 8, who is still in Beijing with her grandmother. "To this day, we haven't told her directly what has happened," Jennie said. "It's really hard for us to tell this little kid that all of a sudden her parents are gone.".