St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 89

Veterans Home: University City approves 18 apartments for disabled veterans Chip Tynan: Trees raid nutrients and sun from flower beds Clarissa Start: Pineapple sage keeps on growing and growing i I THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1995 (Lrn ri kt CAMPAIGN '95 HAZELWOOD- Arts, Education Events Conducted Voters Will Face Annexation Ballot Despite Deadline RIGHT: Eileen Gannon, 17, a member of St. Louis Irish Arts, teaches Caroline Ragsdale, 8, an Irish dance. The lesson was part of an Irish dance workshop Saturday at Webster University during Arts and Education Weekend. By Phil Sutin Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Hazelwood officials will ask voters in two adjacent areas on April 4 whether they want to become part of the city, even though a judge has set June 7 as the date for completing one of the annexations. Last week St.

Louis County Circuit Judge Robert L. Campbell said an 11.76-square-mile area to the northwest could join Hazel-wood on June 7. cost." Winchester said he and his allies would prefer that the area remain unincorporated or that part of it join Bridgeton. He has criticized Hazelwood's methods in winning annexation elections. Hazelwood poses two questions to voters in the areas it wants to annex: Do they want to join Hazelwood? Do they want fire service from Hazel-wood or from the fire district now serving them? The districts involved are Robert 1 (3 -m ks? a But the City Council Monday night put back on the ballot a proposal to annex that area and most of Burke City to the southeast.

City Administra In 1993, the state Supreme Court stripped two areas from Hazelwood when it invalidated the County Boundary Commission. son and Florissant Valley. Hazelwood has tried to annex these areas since 1991. After the first set of elections in 1991, the northwest area and Burke City became part of Hazelwood. In the spring of 1993, the state Supreme Court stripped the two areas from Hazelwood when it invalidated the St.

Louis County Boundary Commission. Last April, voters in Burke City agreed to rejoin Hazelwood. Two months later, voters in the northwest area strongly favored re-See ANNEX, Page 3 tor Ed Carlstrom said Hazelwood wanted to make sure the annexations would stand up to any legal challenge. If no one appeals Campbell's order, Hazelwood would seek a court order to remove the propositions relating to the northwest area from the ballot, Carlstrom said. Richard Winchester, an opponent of the annexations, said he and some supporters would like to appeal but "a lawyer would charge $250 an hour; we can't afford the Post-Dispatch Photo by Jerry Naunheim Jr.

ABOVE: Timothy Borders, 7, holds a valentine he made for his mother Saturday at a workshop at the Herbert Hoover Boys' Club, 2901 North Grand Boulevard. OVERLAND BELOW: Lesley Turnbull of the Magic House helps Amenta Bell, 6, make a Valentine Day card at the Herbert Hoover Boys' Club. Post-Dispatch Photo by Larry Williams Fired Officer Gets Another Drug Test v- From DePaul, the samples were taken to Dr. Marlou Davis, physician for the Overland Police Department. Davis told the board he never saw the samples; they were put in a lab and picked up by Biotech Labs in Creve Coeur.

Pleban asked Biotech employee Jim Buel why test results were not received for eight days when the turnaround time is normally two days. Buel said, "The samples were received the day before Thanksgiving, and I was gone on Friday, so it was Monday before I could do the testing." Pleban said in an interview that records show "Don gave the sample on the 21st, but the tag on the specimen said the 22nd." Pleban also said the Biotech form gave the time of the test as 2:35 p.m., which would have been nine hours before the test was actually done. "Not only was the time wrong on the Biotech form," Pleban said, "the date was scratched out." See POLICE, Page 3 By Linda F. Jarrett Post-Dispatch Special Correspondent Following a six-hour hearing to give fired police sergeant Donald Gault an opportunity to clear his name of drug charges, the Overland Board of Aldermen decided to offer Gault another drug test. Gault was dismissed following an accident at Page Boulevard and Woodson Road on Nov.

21, in which Jerald Friedman, 52, of Chesterfield, was seriously injured. The board found Gault guilty of failure to use emergency lights on his patrol car, careless and imprudent driving and illegal use of a narcotic marijuana. Gault's attorney, C. John "Chet" Pleban, questioned the credibility of the procedures used in testing urine samples Gault gave at DePaul Hospital after the accident. Gault told the board that after the accident he gave Acting Lieutenant Russell Coffell two urine samples.

At that point, he said, the bags containing the specimens were unsealed. 3 0 BELLE FONTAINE NEIGHBORS Aldermen Vote To Renew Cable Franchise For City Bellefontaine Neighbors would get more money a year from the cable company because more items would be included in the calculation of gross revenue. Bellefontaine Neighbors currently receives about $54,000 a year, or roughly 5 percent of Continental's profit from the sales of cable service to the residents. Under the new contract, he said, everything on which Continental makes money, including home shopping and pay-per-view, are included in the formula. This could amount to a substantial amount more each year, Doerr said.

Thomas Hopfinger, Continental's area manager, said residents could expect more channels in addition to the channels added at the beginning of the year. When the system is updated to fiber optics, the capacity of the See CABLE, Page 3 By Andy Kravetz Post-Dispatch Special Correspondent The Bellefontaine Neighbors Board of Aldermen has voted to renew the municipality's cable-television franchise with Continental Cable for the next 20 years. The board decided to renew with Continental after the company promised to continue being involved in public service and to begin updating its system to fiber optics no later than June 1996. The board wanted to renew for 15 years, the same length as the previous contract with Continental, but Alderman Robert J. Doerr, 4th Ward, who worked on the contact for the past two years, said the term was changed to 20 years after Continental promised to update its system and keep it competitive in the area.

Doerr said the new contract assured that 'y-a'iMl -yjl Post-Dispatch Photo by Jerry Naunheim Jr. CAMPAIGN '95 ST. LOUISST. LOUIS COUNTY Maryland Heights Wants Voters To Approve Commercial Area Joe Cavato, director of planning for St. Louis County, called the plan.

problematical. He said the county was studying its implications. Bond issues require a four-seventh favorable vote to pass. Annexations need separate favorable simple majorities in the municipality and the area proposed for annexation. Here's a rundown of proposals on the ballot in the west area: County provides the service free, Kinsella said, but trustees prefer Maryland Heights police service because it is closer.

Trustees would need voter approval before the utility tax would be levied, Kinsella said. The village does not levy a property tax or taxes on other utilities. Hazelwood For the third time, the city is asking voters in two areas it has been trying to annex whether they want to be part of the city. City officials said the third set of elections would clear legal obstacles that have prevented the annexations from becoming permanent. Voters in the two areas twice have strongly approved annexation with the city The areas are 11.76 square miles northwest of the city and most of Burke City to the southeast.

The northwest area has about 9,400 residents and Burke City about 1,900. BALLOT, Page 4 By Phil Sutin Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Maryland Heights Officials wants voters on April 4 to add a major commercial area to the city. They are seeking to annex all the commercial area on the south side of Lackland Road from Lindbergh Boulevard to Interstate 270. Maryland Heights filed the proposition with the St. Louis County Election Board on Tuesday, the deadline for putting proposals on the April ballot.

The 450 acres Maryland Heights wants to annex includes office buildings, hotels and Wirtz School of the Special SchooM District. The area includes a few residents, City Clerk Carol Turner said. The proposal stops on the north boundary of the campus of Jewish Community Centers Association and of subdivisions between that area and Interstate 70. least likely to be improved. They are in the best shape because they have the least traffic, he said.

Topping estimated the village would have to raise its tax rate by 48 cents for each $100,000 of assessed valuation to retire the 15-year bond issue. The village's tax rate last year was 30 cents. The owner of a house worth $60,000 would pay an additional $54.72 a year in taxes to the village. Ron Baron was the only trustee who voted against putting the proposal on the ballot. He said the village needed a $250,000 bond issue for street repairs.

Cheaper methods could be used to repair streets, he said. Topping noted that Baron is not an engineer. The city, Topping said, is following advice of the WVP engineering company, which was paid $8,000 for its work. Breckenridge Hills Officials are asking voters to approve two new fees a $25 yearly license fee for each space in parking lots and a $45 yearly fee for each rental car based in the city on July 1 of each year. Bridgeton Officials are asking voters to approve a $300 annual fee for a license to sell liquor by the drink on Sunday.

They also want to charge $25 for a yearly license fee for wine tasting at establishments that sell packaged liquor. Champ Voters will consider granting Union Electric a 20-year franchise to operate in the city. Passing the proposal is the first step Champ must take toward levying a 5 percent tax on electric service, City Clerk Mary Kinsella said. Revenue from the tax would pay for hiring the Maryland Heights Police Department to patrol the village of 14 people. St.

Louis Municipalities Bel-Nor City officials are proposing a $600,000 bond issue to pay for rebuilding or repairing about half of the village's six miles of streets. Frank Topping, chairman of the Board of Trustees, said most of the streets that would be upgraded were arterial collector seets. Streets ending in cul-de-sacs.