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

N4 STLtoday.com ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH NORTH POST THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2002 Mayor of Moline Acres plans to choose nominee to replace ousted Hodges time. The vote this month found Hodges guilty of three accusa 1 i 1 By Sterling Levy Special to the Post-Dispatch Moline Acres Mayor George Murphy says he will nominate a replacement for impeached 1st Ward alderman Fred Hodges Jr. at the board's next regular meeting on Jan. 13.

Murphy declined to name his top nominee and said only that some people had been recommended to him. 'tff the board doesn't go along, IH try someone else," Murphy said. The appointed alderman will serve through April 2004. In the board's vote Dec. 2, two aldermen and Murphy were the prevailing majority over Hodges and Alderman James Willis, 2nd Ward, in finding Hodges guilty of three offenses.

The meeting's findings were not signed until Dec. 5, and on Dec. 10 Hodges was told that he was out of office. In late October, the board voted 2-1 to begin impeachment proceedings and listed five accusations against Hodges. Hodges was not allowed to vote at the I i I TRISHA SIDDENS John Flanders (left center), president of the Fort Belle Fontaine Historical Society and a volunteer at the Bissell House, shows an old oil lamp to Libby Phipps, 7, and her father, Tony Phipps, 48, both of Webster Groves, and Libby's aunt Jane Glenn, 47, of Chesterfield.

Flanders lives In Old Jamestown. Volunteer Linde Flanders (left) looks on. Wellston cuts expenses; two "official" phones are canceled "The house is really a tribute to Bissell's time and to his family. Some of the items are pretty amazing. Where else can you see a document with the signatures of Washington, Jefferson and Madison outside of a museum on the East Coast?" J.D.

Magurany, director of the Bissell House tions: using a city credit card for a personal purchase; approaching a restaurant manager to mitigate a prior incident under investigation concerning Hodges' use of a police badge to get free food; and abusing his authority by trying to order police to harass a group of residents and ticket their vehi cles. Hodges was not found guilty of obtaining the free food at the restaurant nor of leasing a street sweeper without authority while serving as president pro-tem of the board. Hodges won a three way race for a two-year regular board term last April. It was his third election as an alderman. Through his attorney, Eric Kayi-ra, Hodges said on Dec.

10 that he would challenge the removal because of violations of Hodges' civil rights, as well as the board's violations of the Missouri Sunshine Law. City Attorney John Maxwell said Monday no actions had been filed against the city on behalf of Hodges. such activities. The council approved a $44,930 contract, providing several small street improvements under the remainder of this year's federal block grant. County Asphalt was the lowest of three bidders for the work.

The other portion of the grant, totaling $96,800, also was used for street work, as well as the demolition of derelict housing. The 2003 grant also will be $96,800. Police Chief Robert Lewis told residents that his department would mount an effort to watch and perhaps board up vacant houses. Neighbors fear that the buildings are sheltering drug dealers or other undesirable persons. Lewis said he would investigate whether Wellston could board up the buildings and place a lien on the property, in an effort to recover the cost Lewis said police were watching a house on Isabella Avenue, where a resident has stabled two horses for at least two years.

Neighbors complained of odor, insects, loose horse hair in the air and general disruption caused by the horses; they say the situation gets worse in warmer weather. The building's owner has been charged with ordinance violations but says that the horses are "grandfathered" into the Candlelight Bissel House offers mix of holiday, history Continued from page 1 player in the Revolutionary War, fought in the French and Indian Wars and in the War of 1812 and commanded Fort Bell Fontaine, which is just up the road from the Bissell House. The New England native count ed Meriwether Lewis and Wil liam Clark and former Sen. Thomas Hart Benton as friends. He knew the explorer, Zebulon Pike and Lafayette, the great French general.

Some of the treasures inside the house include: a portrait of Bissell; his original military com mission that includes the signa-tures of Colonial-era heavyweights George Washing ton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison; Bissell's old sword, flintlock rifle and military insigni-as; lots of period furniture; and plenty of other antiques. Tell us what's happening; V- nine acres today. The family, land-rich and cash-poor, sold the estate piece by piece through the years to make way for farms and, later, subdivisions. The house gets swept and dusted daily. A new roof was installed this spring.

Workers also took care of some tuckpointing. "This place is so cool and so beautiful," said Julie Hanheide of north St Louis County. Her husband, Dave, said, "It's always been in good shape." Of course, keeping the house in such immaculate condition takes money, and the county is going through a budget cut. Several parks-department workers were recently let go. That means that tours of the Bissell House will be by appointment only.

Special events, such as the Craft Fair, will continue. Weddings, a big moneymaker for the Bissell House, will go on. Magurany encourages history buffs to take a tour. "Thaf the best way for people to show support for the house," Magurany said. "We want to serve people in the best way that we can." Automatic Climate (Zonttol Since 1956 Bridgeton 314-731-5000 St.

Charles 639-949-2300 If your group is planning an activity, the North Post is interested in hearing ibout it for the What's Happening column. Items for this column should be sent at least two weeks before publication date to Kim Taylor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 900 North Tucker Boulevard, St. Louis, 63101. Fax: 340-3058.

Items must include time, date, place and address, phone, sponsor and admission charge or fee. "What I like about the house is that it isn't roped off everywhere," Cordell Webb said. "You can really get close to what you want to see." The St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation runs Bissell House. A direct descendant of Bissell donated the house to the county in the mid-1960s.

Carolyn McDonnell, wife of aircraft baron William McDonnell, did much of the early refurbishing and acquiring of antiques. Most of the original furniture went up in smoke a long time ago. Bissell's daughters decided that the old chairs and sofas were so dilapidated that they set fire to them in the back yard after their father's death. J.D. Magurany, director of the Bissell House and one of the general's great admirers, refuses to criticize the girls for their scorching stunt.

"To them, it was just old furniture, and that's how you got rid of old furniture," he said. McDonnell set about finding antique furniture to fill the house. well put it in the paper THE CAREER OF THE FUTURE 1-800-288-3065 By Sterling Levy Special to the Post-Dispatch Wellston has cut cellular-telephone use by top municipal officials in half, after the issue reached a vote by the City Council. The mayor and police chief still have their telephones, but gone are the phones of the city administrator and assistant chief. The change was discussed in recent meetings and stems from the municipality's budget problems.

It was approved unanimously after a plan to eliminate all of the cellular phones seemed doomed for defeat. The majority of the council said that communication among officials, the public and other parties was vital. Council members Donald Garner, 3rd Ward, and Rico Ayuso, 4th Ward, were the strongest opponents of the cellular-phone use, which costs Wellston about $600 monthly for all four phones. The four officials still have beeper service. In other business: A proposal by Garner and Ayuso for Wellston to supplement private efforts by spending $1,000 on Christmas turkeys for poor families was defeated 4-2.

City Treasurer Rose Evans said, "If we pay for the turkeys, there will be other bills we can't pay." Wellston has been criticized in state audits under previous mayors for Need a good night's sleep? Christian Hospital E3 HealthCare" The Bissell family donated several pieces, including the general's old military desk, which will be going on loan to the Missouri History Museum as part of its Lewis and Clark exhibition. Visitors also can look at the collection of old fans and ornate clocks that depict other great houses, such as Washington's Mount Vernon and Jefferson's Monticello. "When the restoration work began, Mrs. McDonnell wanted to find items that would bring people to the house and get them interested," Magurany said. "The house is really a tribute to Bissell's time and to his family.

"Some of the items are pretty amazing. Where else can you see a document with the signatures of Washington, Jefferson and Madison outside of a museum on the East Coast?" Electricity, upgraded heating and modem bathrooms were added in 1934. Magurany still is not sure about stories that a golf course once made up part of Bissell's original estate. The Bissell property is about viv SUNRISE -O- RESTAURANT rlV 3500 N. Lindbergh Bridgeton, MO 63044 Tues.

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