St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 125

Bask THE ST. CHARLES COUNTY EDITION OFTHEST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Wednesday, September 25, 1985 Copyright 19SS, Si. LuaU PoM-DbpMch Proposal For Psychiatric Hospital Attacked, Defended "I'd really like to see this proposal considered on its merits and I'd be very interested in what is being added to the delivery of mental health services in St. Charles County." addition at Weldon Spring.

He also said his company had written a letter of intent to ask permission to put a 100-bed psychiatric hospital in St. Louis County. But he told a reporter Tuesday that is just to be in contention in case the review committee finds a need for more beds. "We'd be crazy to build a psychiatric hospital in St. Louis County at this time," he said.

Douglas J. Holbrook, who made the presentation for Charter Medical said a $9.4 million psychiatric hospital would be built on seven acres along Zumbehl Road, south of Interstate 70 in St. Charles. He said it could be open in late 1986 or early 1987. The other hospital would be on Chesterfield Airport Road, south of U.S.

Highway 40 in St. Louis County. See HOSPITAL, Page 4 St. Charles County By Patrick E. Gauen Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Karl Wilson, psychologist and community leader in mental health care, testified Tuesday that Charter Medical Corp.

will have a hard time justifying construction of a 100-bed psychiatric hospital in St. Charles County. In a hearing at Noah's Ark Restaurant in St. Charles, Wilson joined Alan Barry, assistant vice president of Community Psychiatric Centers, in opposing Charter's application for approval from the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee. Another 100-bed psychiatric hospital, proposed for Chesterfield, is part of the same application.

Community Psychiatric Centers operates St. Charles County's only free he said. Barry brought statistics to cast doubt on the plans. He said the population of the overall metropolitan area was not projected to increase, and that the region already has 1,501 psychiatric hospital bed spaces, not counting 475 more in chemical dependency units. It is, he said, a ratio of 0.62 beds per 1,000 population, well above the 0.15 to 0.4 he said is recommended by the National Institute of Mental Health.

The occupancy rate of psychiatric beds in the area has fallen, he said from 81.3 percent in 1983 to 74.4 percent for the first half of 1985. And, he added, other hospitals have been converting medical-surgical beds to psychiatric beds. Barry said the Charter plan was different from the 40-bed residential center proposed by his company as an Representatives of both the review committee and Charter have denied any link between the hospital's sale price and the psychiatric hospital reviews. Wilson said there are 18 or 19 drug and alcohol dependency programs already operating in the metropolitan area, and three hospitals offering psychiatric care just in St. Charles County.

"I don't see a lot of excess demand," Area Salaries Below In t. Louis Wilson seized on earlier discussion of criticism that the application might be influenced by political pressure from St. Louis city and county leaders eager to come to terms on the purchase of the former Charter Hospital as a public hospital. "It's terrific that St. Louis city and county get an answer to their needs.

But it bothers me that St. Charles County would be a pawn in all that," he said. The house was built around 1857 by Lorenz Wolf, a German Immigrant and blacksmith, who lived there until 1862. Wolf sold the house to Henry August Ruebeling, a merchant and shoemaker. Mrs.

Landon Schlueter, now of Defiance, lived across the road from the Ruebeling house during her girlhood in Hamburg. "It was known as the Ruebeling house," Mrs. Schlueter said. Mrs. Schleuter, with some difficulty, tried to recall her childhood In Hamburg.

"We were as happy as larks we had ball games, we went to a one-room school (Francis Howell, now one of the largest school districts In the state) the railroad was there. My uncle had a store. It pains me to talk about it. "Everybody had their own homes," she continued, her voice quavering. "Then the government came in and said 'get out' and there was nothing to do but shed your tears.

That was home. We all had to get out" The railroad Mrs. Schlueter mentioned was apparently responsible St. Charles County By Patrick E. Gauen Of the St.

Charles Post Entry-level jobs in St. Charles County pay $1.25 an hour less, on the average, than in St. Louis and St. Louis County, but a state employment official says the disparity is normal at this distance from the center of the metropolitan area's market. The comparison was circulated this week among members of the St.

Charles Chamber of Commerce. Officials say the comparison provides a handy way for employers to gauge whether they are paying prevailing wages for a particular position. The numbers on the table circulated showed a range of pay offered for a particular job and the average of the extremes. The average of wages listed for a group of job classifications in St. Charles was $5.13 an hour compared with an average of $6.38 for a group of classifications for St.

Louis. The St. Charles group had 56 job listings while the St. Louis group had 53. "The rates get even cheaper as you get farther away from the metropolitan area," said Eugene Wilson, head Rubble is all that remains of the Wolf-Ruebeling home on Missouri Highway 94, about five miles south of Highway 40-61.

Fire Destroys Pre- Civil War House standing psychiatric hospital, at Wel-don Spring. Wilson said he was upset that Charter officials never proposed the hospital to the local mental health care providers, such as Four County Mental Health Services, of which he is executive director. He complained about the speed with which the application is being reviewed, and said he was dismayed to have first learned of the project from a newspaper story. "I'd really like to see this proposal considered on its merits and I'd be very interested in what is being added to the delivery of mental health services in St. Charles County," Wilson said.

The application was filed with the review committee Aug. 30, and a decision is expected at a special meeting of that committee Oct. 2. ment had evacuated Hamburg along with Howell and Toonervllle, to make way for an ordnance plant at the beginning of World War II. The plant was built about a mile northeast of the house.

Henry Graham, a captain for the district, said he had spent about 10 years of his childhood in the four-room, two story house. Graham said his family was among the few who moved Into the area after the munitions company had moved out in 1943. Graham said he remembered seeing pictures of the house In an earlier, prouder time, surrounded by outbuildings, with an orchard at the rear. A two-room frame addition with Indoor plumbing had been added before the government takeover. Graham said the addition had long since rotted and fallen away, but the original brick structure had stood until Monday evening.

"The walls were about a foot thick," he said. Graham's family was the last to occupy the house. The Grahams left In 1959, he said. Next month, five regional finalists will be selected. They will receive $5,000, a trip to New York and a year's supply of dog food.

The dog will get a medallion. Then the public part of the contest will begin. People throughout the nation will be able to vote for the finalist of their choice by calling a certain telephone number during a certain time period. Separate telephone numbers will be assigned to each entry, and the finalist with the most votes will win. A small fee will be charged for the calls.

Last year a call cost 50 cents. The telephone number and the fee will be announced after the five finalists have been selected next month. Danielle Thess and her dog "Bandit" made it to the final five last year, but ran a poor fifth with 8.461 votes. The winner. "Buddy" and his owner Ann Louise Zacbry of Lanett got 35.339 votes.

"Buddy had a great campaign manager. She could have done wonders for Mondale." said Karen Teitelbaum, one of the contest's spokesmen. Sherry Brockgreitens got as far as Those of the St. Charles office of the Missouri Division of Employment Security. That agency compiles the local statistics.

Wilson said the St. Louis category represented St. Louis and St. Louis County. Wilson said the numbers on the table represented the pay offered for those jobs by employers seeking applicants through the Job Service.

They are rough numbers suitable only for general use, he said. He cautioned that the figures, compiled annually in April, do not represent prevailing wages for people already working, but only the prevailing rate for entry level positions. Also, Wilson said, employers tend to be conservative with the rates they post. "A lot of times It's negotiable," he said. "If they say $4 an hour you might go down there and get yourself $5." The figures also don't apply to large or chain operations (fast-food clerks get about the same pay in both areas, for example) or to union work.

So while there is a listing for maintenance carpenter, for example (average $6 an hour in St. Charles. $9.58 in See PAY, Page 4 Wentzvllle's animal control Is provided under contract by a private firm Municipal Animal Control owned by Edward Kltson. Hunter has said she was dissastisfied with the response she got from Municipal Animal Control after a cat suspected of being rabid bit her 8-year-old son last month. Hunter said the boy came within hours of having to undergo expensive and sometimes painful rabies shots.

But it was determined in the nick of time that the cat had not been rabid. When her complaints were aired at a Wentzville aldermanic meeting in August Mayor Donald F. Sheets said that the problem could have been handled better. Kitson, who was in the audience at the time, made no comment other than to say he would make some procedural changes in handling animals suspected of being sick. After that meeting.

Hunter went to Roberts about the county taking over. Roberts said Tuesday, "I didn't see anything wrong with the way Municipal Animal Control handled the situation." County Commissioner Jane C. Schmidt said that she didn't see any pressing need for the county to do See ANIMAL, Page 4 Official Rejects Animal Control For Wentzville St. Charles County By Marianna Riley Of the St Charles Post Fire has destroyed a pre-Civil War house that was the only remaining structure In the hamlet of Hamburg. The house, known as the Wolf-Ruebeling home, was on Missouri Highway 94, about five miles south of U.

S. Highway 40-61 In southern St. Charles County. The fire was reported around 5:20 p.m. Monday.

Cottleville Fire Protection District Chief Jim Lltteken said the entire inside of the house was burning when members of his department arrived about 5.30 p.m. They fought the flames for about two hours and then took down the remaining walls, which were dangerously weak, Lltteken said. Lltteken said he had no idea how the fire started, but he suspected vagrants might have been responsible. The house had been part of the town of Hamburg. The U.S.

govern St. Charles County By Jim Dustin Of the St Charles Post The St. Charles County Health Department could not take over animal control for Wentzville even If the municipality asked the county to do that' That was the message Paul D. Roberts, county Health Department coordinator, gave members of the St. Charles County Commission Tuesday morning.

"The county does not have the capacity to handle any more animals. We're at capacity now, and over pacity." Roberts said. Wentzville officials haven't asked the county to assume the duties, but a Wentzville resident has. Roberts said that Patricia Hunter of the 200 block of St Charles Street had approached him about the county taking over rabies control duties in Wentzville. Roberts said that the county can't just waltz In and take over.

Wentzville would have to request county services. The community currently assumes responsibility for animal control within its city limits, as Is done in the four other largest municipalities in the county. Those communities are St Charles. O'Fallon. St Peters and Lake Saint Louts.

I unn yinanr.ttlSt CIWlBS POSt for the community's prosperity during the late 1800s. Before that, the town had thrived because of river commerce. But by 1940, Hamburg had become another victim of World War II, part of the 15,000 adjoining acres that supported the munitions plant near Weldon Spring. After the war, the Missouri Conservation Commission got title to what is now the 7,000 Busch Memorial Wildlife Area and the University of Missouri got the remaining 8,000 acres on which the old Hamburg structures were located. The commission eventually bought the university's land in the late 1970s and cleared It for public access.

The Ruebeling home, however, had been identified several years ago as a candidate for the National Register of Historic Places. That home was allowed to remain. The state had recently been seeking a tenant to take the house over on some long-term lease arrangement, according to Larry Gale, director of the state Department of Conservation. Sherry said. "He is loyal, trustworthy, faithful, devoted, cheerful.

lovinR and caring all the qualities necessary for any best friend. I believe that there is no better friend than my best friend, Chewie." 'Best Friend9 St. Charles Girl's Dog Advances In Contest I i ti l' 4 Hr' mtm, ii mm. 1 i jti St. Charles By Jim Dustin Of the St Charles Post Described as "loyal, loving and caring," the dog of a St.

Charles teen-ager has been named a semifinalist in the Purina Dog Chow's "Search for the Great American Dog" contest The dog "Chewie" belongs to Sherry Brockgreitens, 14, of the 1000 block of Tompkins Street "Chewie" and Sherry as an entry were among 500 entrants nationwide selected as semifinalists. The contest is an annual event in which the winner's picture along with the pet are put on about 8 million Purina Dog Chow bags. If that is not enough encouragement to enter, as an added incentive the dog's owner gets a cool S2S.000. The dog gets a medallion. In the first stage of the contest 10 semifinalists were selected from each state.

Sherry Brockgreitens and Chewie were one of four entries selected from the St Louis metropolitan area. Wednesday Cable TV listings Page 6 Classified Page 7 Movies Page 3 Night And Day Page 3 Obituaries Page 4 St Charles County In Brief Page 4 St Charles FoodRecipes Page 2 Sports Pages 5-8 Sherry Brockgreitens, 14, of St Charles and her dog Chewie. They are among 500 entrants nationwide selected as semifinalists in the Purina Dog Chow "Search for the Great American Dog" contest she did by submitting a picture of her and her dog. and a short essay saying why Chewie should be the winner. "Chewie.

the wonder retriever, is my-feest friend because he Is always there whether I need him or not," 1.