St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 83

ke (Ctate Bust THE ST. CHARLES COUNTY EDITION OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH HfMrtfkl lH P-l-lli-fNMrli Thursday, Sept. 9, 1982 Farm er Fights Plan To Flow Creek Tested For Toxins After 18 Dog Poisonings Waste Water Over His Land said. "We're looking for any toxic substance that may be in the water." The department has learned that a couple residents were using poisons against mole that contained strychnine, Heusler said.

"We're trying to zero in on those that we can reasonably say were poisonings," he said. The Sheriff's Department, the county Health Department and the local branch of the Humane Society are Jointly investigating the poisonings. Not much else has been learned about the poisonings, Heusler said. He added that burglaries in the area appear unrelated to the incidents. It was suspected that the dogs were being poisoned by burglars to make entry into homes easier; most of the dogs had been poisoned at night.

But the burglaries did not match up with homes that had dogs poisoned. See CREEK, PageS Water samples from a creek through a subdivision in St. Charles County have been sent to laboratories in Jefferson City to be tested for possible toxic chemicals. The samples were taken after the poisonings of 18 dogs were reported during the past year in the Harvester area, officials say. Two deer and a dog were found dead next to the unnamed creek last spring, of ficials, say The animals were found together in one spot, said William C.

Heusler of the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department. Although the deaths are several months old, officials have decided to test the creek because it runs through the northern end of The Bluffs subdivision, off Caulks Hill Road south of St. Charles. The subdivision residents have reported 18 dog poisonings during the last year.

"We're checking the creek to see if that may be the source of some of the poisonings," Heusler to the proposed sewage disposal system in a letter to the Division of Environmental Quality, Missouri Department of Natural Resources. He hopes that his objections, as well as those filed by the city of Lake Saint Louis, will influence the department to schedule a public hearing on the issue and, ultimately, to reject the proposal. ESCA Consultants Inc. of Urbana, 111., has recommended that the health center's sewage be processed in a factory-built aeration waste-water treatment plant. The plant would have a capacity to handle 7,000 gallons a day.

The treated effluent would flow over Stealey's property for about 2,000 feet to a tributory of Peruque Creek about two miles upstream from Lake Saint Louis. Terry A. Harmeson of ESCA said the processing of the sewage would include its collection in a screening basket and an extended aeration process. Then the waste water would go into a clarifier in which the solids are settled out. Henry L.

Stealey owns a 280-acre farm next to the site where St. Luke's Health Center is being built at the southeast edge of Wentrville. And Stealey is seeking an alternative to plans for discharging waste water from the center onto his property. Stealey said an engineering report prepared for the city of Wentzville offered three options for handling the disposal problem. But Stealey suggested a fourth option: Construct a holding tank on St.

Luke's property to collect all the waste water, pump out the tank periodically and transport the waste to Wentzville's treatment plant near Flint Hill. He said a similar system is used for the Oak Bluff Preserve subdivision of Lake Saint Louis, which is a short distance downstream from his property on Peruque Creek." The subdivision is not yet hooked into that city's main sewer system. Stealey has written strong objections Finally, the effluent would be chlorinated. "There may be some more factors once we get into the design," he said. The purity of the effluent, he said, would be within accepted limits established for activated secondary treatment plants.

Harmeson outlined two other alternatives to handling the health center's waste water. But he concluded that neither was feasible. He said the recommended treatment plant would be an interim solution until the city of O'Fallon can extend its sewage disposal system to the Warsen Hills subdivision, just across U.S. Highway 40-61 from the health center. Stealey says the proposed discharge would endanger the area's ecology.

He described the land as fragile, with thin topsoil and 30 percent slopes. Stealey said the former operation of a sewage treatment plant upstream from his farm used to result in fish kills in Peruque Creek. The plant was closed when Wentzville constructed a new plant north of the city. Besides farming, Stealey operates the Quail Ridge Riding Stables with horses for rent to the public, bridle paths and nature trails. "We have attempted to maintain the area in its natural state," he said, noting that the proposed waste water would flow through the riding area used by his customers.

St. Luke's has built a storm-water drainage system, which will discharge large volumes of water over the same area, Stealey said. He raises another question. "Discharge entirely from a commercial health facility with possible virus infections should not be allowed to discharge into a lake downstream used for boating, skiing, swimming and other recreational purposes." 4 Sites Studied For New Bridp. 1 frgl ip U.k4 srtrr A iar asjg yver Mississippi V-JI I--' 7 jm- i Engineers recently started to survey appropriate federal, state and local agencies, including the administrative St.

Charles County Court, for recommendations on the project. The bridge extends from the northeastern comer of St. Charles County to Alton in Illinois' Madison See BRIDGE, Page 3 1, nC tni-x i. Kftf iw5 my By Karen Koman OtthSt.CharlBPot Highway officials in Missouri and Illinois are considering four possible sites for a bridge to replace the Clark Bridge, which carries U.S. Highway 67 across the Mississippi River at Alton.

Three of the proposed sites are within 2,000 feet downstream of the existing two-lane bridge. The fourth site is 6,500 feet downstream. The two-lane bridge, only 20 feet wide, has been the cause of traffic jams and congestion on both sides of the river for years. Engineers estimate that 13,000 cars travel on the bridge daily. About 60 percent of the traffic starts out from Illinois.

The project is a joint venture of the highway department of both states. The final cost of the bridge will depend on the site chosen. The project is in the early stages, said Kent L. Moskopf He is the district planning engineer with the Illinois Transportation Department's highways division. His department is responsible for all preliminary studies on the proposed bridge.

The project has yet to win final approval from either state's highway department. It will be submitted for approval after a series of studies and required public hearings are held. Early environmental studies indicate that there would be only a short-term impact on water quality resulting from construction. There would be minimal losses of vegetation, fish and wildlife habitat, Moskopf said. One of the proposed sites, known as Alternate 6, would cut a swath across Ellis Island.

That proposal would require some alteration in the plan for Ellis Island's development for recreation. The development is proposed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on land created from spoil along the Missouri shore, caused in part by the construction of Lock and Dam Number 26. Alternate 4 would infringe on the Henry Street Park at Alton. Environmental and other feasibility studies for the proposed bridge, under discussion since 1951, have been stepped up since January.

Lynn T. Spnc Children riding their bicycles Wednesday alley between North Fifth Street and Benton 1 afternoon north away from Morgan Street in an Avenue in St. Charles. On Their Way Shots Fired In Drug Bust By Deputies Seven officers of the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department were involved in a shooting incident at 3 p.m.

Wednesday on the parking lot of a motel in St. Charles County, Sheriff Edward Uebinger said. The officers had been making a narcotics-related arrest at the time, Uebinger said. Five men were arrested at the scene, but no one was injured, Uebinger said. At least one bullet struck a car in which the five suspects were riding, the sheriff said.

During the arrest, the driver of the car tried to run down a sheriff's detective, Uebinger said. Details about the incident were sketchy. Uebinger said it was unknown how many shots were fired. He refused to make public the names of the officers involved. "We're still gathering more information concerning the investigation," Uebinger said.

The sheriff also declined to identify the motel, saying the owner had requested that it not be revealed. A white powdered substance believed to be cocaine was recovered at the site, the sheriff said. The seven officers involved included three detectives and three road deputies. Uebinger said he would reveal more details today. Schools Buy Fewer As Books' Costs Rise The district probably will get about $46,000 from the state to buy new textbooks this academic year, he said.

This figure is $2,000 more than its allocation last year. Van Meter added. But this expected increase comes after the allocation for textbooks dropped to $44,000 last year from $45,682 in 1980-81, he said. The district tries to control textbook spending by buying books for each basic subject once every five years, Van Meter said. "If we tried to replace every book on a yearly basis, our costs would be astronomical," he said.

Last year, the district used its state See BOOKS, Page 2 The allocation that the district gets from the state to buy textbooks decreased in the last academic year to $211,354 from $219,451 in the 1980-81 academic year, he said. The district's enrollment declined, and the state had less money to give out for textbooks, Sterling said. The district's allocation for the present academic year has not been determined, he added. The state's allocation for textbooks is determined by the number of people aged 5 to 20 living in a school district. The decrease in the St.

Charles district's allocation made buying new textbooks difficult because the average set of textbooks costs from $30,000 to The rising cost of books is causing school district in St. Charles County to keep textbooks in use longer and refrain from increasing their libraries' purchases, district administrators say. Also, many school districts are getting less or about the same amount of money from the state to help buy books than in the past. Don Sterling, assistant superintendent for business and finance at the St. Charles School District, said the price of the average textbook has risen 10 percent every year over the last couple of years.

The district's response has been to buy new books less frequently and to find ways to maintain its old ones, Sterling said. $45,000, he said. The district's library budget has decreased to $46,214 for this academic year from $52,819 for the last year, Sterling said. This cut is part of a districtwide reduction in spending, he added. School districts will continue to cut purchases of books if state aid or property tax revenues do not increase, Sterling said.

"You can't allow budget deficits," he said. Gary Van Meter, Orchard Farm School District's assistant superintendent, said his district's budget for textbooks will increase slightly over last year. But the library budget will remain the same. Evangelist Is Sentenced To Prison In Sexual Attack Prongue Farm Sought As Youth Fair Site A traveling evangelist from Dallas has been given the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison in connection with the sexual abuse of a woman from St. Charles County and the burglary of her apartment.

Charles L. Smith, 37, also known as the Rev. C. Smith, was sentenced to the Missouri State Penitentiary by St. Charles County Circuit Judge Fred Rush on Tuesday.

Smith was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison' for first-degree burglary and five years for first-degree sexual Judge Rush ordered that the sentences be served consecutively. In July, a jury in St. Charles County Circuit Court recommended the maximum sentences, after finding Smith guilty in a three-day trial. Smith read from a Bible throughout the proceedings, and carried it on the stand with him while testifying. The victim testified that she had been attacked in her apartment June 8, 1981, by a man who had been hiding in her bedroom.

She said the man had thrown her on the floor and began sexually attacking her, but fled after she began screaming. The victim said she had been going back and forth from a laundry area in the apartment See SENTENCE, Page 2 produced a start a new Workouts at the St. Charles Boxing Club have strong, successful group of fighters about to season. See Page 8. A search committee for the St.

Charles County Youth Fair has asked the St. Charles Park Board to give the fair a permanent home where the livestock may roam. The committee thinks the old Prongue farm may be just the place. The city of St. Charles paid $300,000 for the 72-acre farm at Muegge and Hackman roads in 1978.

The plan was to develop the farm as a park. A master plan was drawn, but the city has never had the money to follow through. Richard L. Ash, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said the cost of developing the park according to the plan was estimated at $2.8 million in 1980. John Knoll, spokesman for the search committee, said, "Our proposal will hopefully help them out with the pinch they have." The has been searching for a new home for the fair for two years, Knoll said.

The fair has outgrown its present site, the 19-acre grounds of the Wentzville Community Club. The fair board wants to expand the annual event from three days to five days. And the board wants to return to the concept of a St. Charles County Fair, where adults as well as youth would participate, he said. ''That makes the competition that much more intense.

And the younger ones learn from the older ones," he said. The committee looked at possible sites in Wentzville, O'Fallon and St. Charles, Knoll said. Prongue has the best possibilities of all the sites because it would provide ample room, and "there's a different kind of atmosphere here the rural atmosphere in an urban-type development," he said. The search committee has proposed that the fajr board and the city Parks and Recreation Department develop the park together.

The fair board's contribution would be a sports complex, an amphitheater, arenas, parking and an exhibition building there. Knoll said: "We're shooting for a five-day fair. That leaves 360 days each year for the park department or any other organization to use the facilities." Other uses for those facilities would be considered in the fair board's plans, said Melissa Knoll, a committee member. During the fair, livestock would likely be tied in open shelters with concrete floors. "And once the fair, is over, they could use them for pavilions.

Of course, they would have to be steam-cleaned," Mrs. Knoll said. The park board has asked the committee to consider its master plan in developing the site for the fair. That's fine with the committee. Mrs.

Knoll said: "We don't want it to look like a fairgrounds. We want it to took like a park." Knoll said the park department SeeARK, Page 2 1 Man Gets Probation In Crash That Killed Mother, Daughter index Page 2 Page 2 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 6 Page 7 Page 7 Julius Toth of St. Charles has been placed on probation in connection with a wrong-way auto crash that killed a woman from Kansas City and her 9-year-old daughter in December 1980. Toth, 69, of the 1300 block of North Second Street, was sentenced Tuesday by Circuit Judge David Dalton of St. Charles County.

Toth had been charged with two counts of manslaughter. Judge Dalton sentenced Toth to two 10-year but the judge suspended the sentences and gave Toth 10 years' probation instead. Authorities said Toth was driving the wrong way on Interstate 70 when his 'car collided with a car driven by Elizabeth O'Neil. Also killed in the i crash was Ms. O'Neil's daughter, Heather Cunningham.

Toth, who was driving east in the 1 westbound lanes, had just entered 1-70 at the Missouri Highway 94 entrance, i authorities said. Court records showed that Toth had been given two citations for driving while intoxicated in St. Charles on Oct. 16 and Nov. 19, 1980.

Deaths Night and Day St. Charles Calendar Lindenwood's women's soccer squad seeks a national ranking Cable TV listings For the Record Classified ads Legal notices i.