EX ALDERMAN NEWSLETTER 24
May 04, 2011
By John Hoffmann
FRED MEYLAND-SMITH GOES AGAINST CONSTIUENTS WHO TURNED OUT FOR PUBLIC FORUM: Alderman Fred Meyland-Smith showed lots of confidence three weeks after he was re-elected running unopposed. On Tuesday April 26, Fred ignored 84% of the speakers at the public forum, many from Ward-3 who were against adding new parking spaces to Longview Park.
Instead of voting with Hank Vogt, the lone area resident representing immediate neighbors of the park, against adding parking, Fred voted with the rest of the Longview Parking Committee to conduct a parking survey of the lot from mid-May to mid-September. This delays a decision and possibly cools down or wears out the opposition.
“People in attendance (at the public forum) had a decided bias," said Meyland-Smith at the meeting.
WELL DUH…anyone who spoke at the Forum whether they were the two for more parking or the 17 against adding new spaces, they each had expressed a specific opinion or in the words of the often double speaking Fred Meyland-Smith, they had a “decided bias.”
I don’t know what “decided basis” long time Planning and Zoning board member Dennis Bolazina had when he spoke against adding more parking. Bolazina does not live next to the park and has been a respected member serving the community for a long time.
Frankly the committee chairman Skip Mange has a “decided bias” since immediately after the forum with the overwhelming lack of support for paving park space without an admitted “scientific parking survey” Mange stated he saw a need for more parking.
Don’t forget it was Mange as mayor who wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars that saw a large number of deer die a miserable death back in 2000. Mange was a leader for the Town and Country deer roundup and relocation to southeastern Missouri, where most of the deer died from capture myopathy when their organs shut down from shock and stress. Here is a guy whose basic religious beliefs are prayer over medicine, who medicated a bunch of deer, captured them and had them die.
CONNECT THE DOTS: Keep in mind four of the five members of this committee have two things in common. They all serve on city commissions or are currently elected officials. Carolyn Huether and Mange have both been appointed to commissions by Mayor Jon Dalton, while Mange, Huether, Wright and Meyland-Smith are all listed as “supporters of Dalton.” Only Vogt has no ties to Dalton or city hall.
Dalton needs the parking, because he spent $1.5 million to build the glass double-wide addition to the Longview farmhouse only to find that no one wants to rent it. I think he is for building more and more parking until they can rent the damn place out every weekend. You could put 200 parking spaces there and I don’t think you would be able to rent out a space that only holds 100 guests and servers.
HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN IT HOLD? "I don't want to tell people if they don't get the first 66 spots they're out of luck," was another comment made by Meyland-Smith.
Frankly if you figure each car in the 66 spaces represents 2.5 people using the park that puts 165 people in park. Add another five or 10 who may have walked to the park, you have to think that maybe you reached the maximum amount of people for that park to handle at any one time.
If the 66 spaces are filled it tells someone to come back later or try one of the other city parks are better yet Queeny Park which is huge and has ample parking less than a mile away.
CLAYTON ROAD SIDEWALK/TRAIL IS DELAYED: The construction of the new sidewalks along Clayton to just east of Topping is scheduled for 2011. The rest of the project to Bopp Road is scheduled for 2012. Of course Lynn Wrights likes to call the wide sidewalks, trails.
I have notice there has been no preliminary work getting done along Clayton Road east of Mason Road and asked director of public works Craig Wilde about it. He said there were still issues about getting easements rights at two locations and some issues with American Water. He acted like these are slight delays, but I think more like late summer or early fall before you see much getting done.
ONE LESS STORE AT TOWN AND COUNTRY CROSSING: Planning and Development director Sharon Rothmel loves to tell us of all the new businesses that maybe going into town. (I say maybe because Rothmel and Mayor Dalton often will announce that stores like Lukas Liquors or a Day Break restaurant are moving into a shopping center when in fact they are not.) However, Sharon rarely announces when a business goes El-Foldo!
The Susan Lynn woman’s clothing store at the Town and Country Crossing is no more. The website has been taken offline and the phone has been disconnected. Susan Lynn still had Christmas sales advertised on shopper websites. I thought a number of stores might close up during this recession after Christmas. This appears to be the first..
TOWN AND COUTNRY STATE REPS VOTE AGAINST FAMILY FARM RIGHTS OR THIS LITTLE PIGGY BOUGHT A LEGISLATOR: Yeah, I’m a city kid, but my father grew up in the small farm town of Carrolton, Missouri and my wife grew up on a mid-Missouri dairy farm, so I wasn’t surprised, but I sure was disappointed when Jane Cunningham, Sue Allen and John Diehl voted against family farmers and voted for the large factory pig farms in passing House Bill 209.
To me this bill is clearly taking away property rights from small farmers or other residential homeowners in rural areas. The Post-Dispatch had a recent editorial about this legislation. The change in laws takes away property owners rights to sue for damage to their property after a one-time payment is made. If the damage continues you are out of luck. The damages can include manure run off and noxious odors that lower the value of your property or forces you to stop using your property.
I thought Republicans were against more legislation on the back of the little guy and were for individual property rights. Well Town and Country State Reps John Diehl and Sue Allen are not, nor is State Senator Jane Cunningham. They all voted this bill.
So did Cole McNary, Gene McNary’s son who lives just outside of T&C in Chesterfield.
Huge pork producer Smithfield Farms wanted this legislation passed. Guess who got a Christmas ham on December 20 from the Smithfield lobbyist? Cole McNary, John Diehl and Jane Cunningham, that’s who!
Nothing says Christmas better than enjoying a flavorful Smithfield ham and then voting to eliminate the constitutional rights of small farmers and other rural landowners in April in favor of a Smithfield factory hog operation.
CHRISTMAS PIGS: I tracked all Christmas Hams given out by Smithfield lobbyist Jewell Patek. 27 hams were given to Missouri Senators. (Actually it was 28…according to records Republican Chuck Purgason, the Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senator in the August primary got two hams, but he only voted once.) There were four No votes from senators who got hams…all belonging to Democrats.
42 state representatives received hams. 34 voted yes on the bill and three voted no. The no votes all belonged to Democrats.
When I was a kid one of my friend’s dad was a Republican state rep. The Republicans were a very small minority in Jefferson City. The Democrats controlled everything, with a huge block of Democrat big city machine legislators and Dems from outstate. The handful of Republicans were from mostly suburban areas. At the time Jeff City was full of incompetent department heads appointed by the Blair, Dalton and Hearnes’ administrations due to political connections and not qualifications. Kit Bond was the first break on the Democrat strangle hold. Back then you rooted for the Republicans to bring better government to Jefferson City.
Then along came Ronald Regan wanting to remove big government from the back of the citizens. “The American citizen needs less government, not more,” was the slogan Regan preached.
30 years later and things have apparently changed with Missouri Republicans, especially ours out here in West County. They are all for putting more government on the back of the citizens, especially the ones that don’t live in their districts and all in favor of big business.
The sponsor of Bill 209, Republican Rep. Casey Guernsey from Northwest Missouri not only got a Christmas ham, but also got a $250 campaign contribution from the Missouri Pork PAC. But wait there is more. He also got a $500 campaign contribution from Town and Country’s John Diehl. .
GOVERNOR NIXON GIVES OUR WEST COUNTY REPS A SECOND CHANCE. On Monday May 2, Gov. Nixon vetoed this bill. The house and senate bills passed by such large numbers they appear to be veto proof. Perhaps our representatives will do the right thing and not vote to override the veto.
IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED TRY, TRY AGAIN: I was at the Community Relations Commission before their fundraiser in January at the Longview Farmhouse that featured a cover charge for wine, paintings from local artists and music from a quartet from the Town and Country Symphony. At the meeting a member of the commission who seemed to be behind the fundraiser told the commission how she had arranged to get photos of the even in the Ladue News! Nothing says SNOB, like the Ladue News.
I looked for the photos and never say them. Then this week I noticed on the city’s website we have a new link to City of Town and Country Photo Gallery. This party is the first item you can click on. Unfortunately non of the photos have descriptions with them so you have no idea who is in the photo.
TOWN AND COUNTRY EX-CONVICT AND INTERNET OPERATOR SUES CRITIC: Regular readers of this newsletter know about Brian Marchant-Calsyn who lives on Topping Road. Brian served time in the Federal Prison in Lewisburg, PA for manufacturing and distributing LSD. After getting out of the joint he work briefly for S&K Investment until the two Town and Country founders of S&K were convicted of running a Ponzi scheme and sent to prison.
Next Brian changed his name to Brian Marchant-Calsyn, although he sometimes go by Brian Calsyn.
From 2000 to now he has set up the following companies on the internet: MyInjuryClaim.Com, Internet Recruiting Group, Strategic Research Network, Health Career Agents, Inc. and now the newest company Zeal Sales, Inc. In the case of MyInjuryClaim.com an unfavorable article in the Wall Street Journal, plus some court actions in Illinois put an end to that business.
Complaints with the Attorney General and lawsuits seemed to do in the others.
Brian has had a nice stay in Town and Country. He operate Health Career Agents out of the office building on Mason Road and the North Forty Service Road without a city license for years. When I filed a complaint about this the city refused to cite him. He also cut down trees for a fence around his property without a permit and installed tennis court lights without a city permit. Both times he was not cited.
Health Career Agents is still a Missouri Corporation and lists its address at 14248 F Manchester Road. That happens to be the location of the UPS store that rents post office box service. It is also the same address on the Zeal Sales’ website.
Over a year ago Larry White, a disgruntled investor with Health Career Agents from Michigan, started websites titled Health Career Agents Sucks and Zeal Sales Sucks. White claims he lost $49,000 he invested with Brian and Health Career Agents. The websites listed a lot of Brian’s background from public records and articles. White wrote on the websites how he simply wanted to warn future investors as to what happened to him and what information he missed checking into the background of Brian.
In April Brian sued Larry White for defamation, injurious falsehood, tortious interference with a business expectancy, tortious false light, invasion of privacy, and tortious intrusion on seclusion.
I wrote a piece for another publication where I wrote about remembering back 30 or 40 years, how every once in a while you would read a story of see someone who thought they bought a lemon from a car dealer. After getting no satisfaction, they would walk in front of the dealership with a picket sign proclaiming they had been sold a lemon. Eventually the dealer of the zone manager for the auto maker would often fix the problem.
Now a-days dealing with ‘internet businesses” it is a little hard to know where to walk around with a picket sign. The good old use of the First Amendment! I have to wonder if White’s websites both offer a warning and aren’t a little bit of walking in front of the dealership with a picket sign.
CARTOONS:
My general requirements for sharing a cartoon is 1) Must Make me Laugh 2) Not appear in the Post-Dispatch. I am breaking my rules for this that appear in the PD because it made me laugh so hard…you have to be a dog owner…
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