It's Party Time!

Starting tomorrow, old town Wentzville will host its largest celebration of the year; Wabash Days. A three day event featuring a carnival, entertainment, food, and craft booths taking up ten blocks along both sides of the railroad tracks. The annual event averages some 10,000 people enjoying the three-day event, there's something for everyone, in the words of John Lennon, "a splendid time is guaranteed for all." I will be volunteering all three days at the event in whatever capacity is needed and for those days the troubles of the world will be forgotten as I celebrate that small-town feeling.

As for today though, it was learned that the City of Wentzville has been served with a Federal civil law suit citing violation of civil rights and harassment charges. The plaintiff (a local business) is demanding a jury trial seeking $100,000,000 in damages, almost twice the annual City budget. Besides naming the City of Wentzville, Mayor Paul Lambi and Police Chief Robert Noonan were also named as co-defendants in the suit. It's inconceivable that an award that high would be granted but even a small portion would put the City in a world of hurt. Damages for claims include; unreasonable and unlawful seizure, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and conspiracy to violate civil rights. This will be a very interesting case to watch unfold in the Missouri Eastern Federal District Court in St. Louis. I plan to attend.

No One Knows The Trouble I've Seen

It's unfortunate when a city government loses touch with its people, but Wentzville has done just that. There is a little town near here called Wildwood, and it's beautiful with landscaped streets, parks, and spacious homes all set in a large wooded area. The majority of Wentzville's Aldermen love it and want to create the same thing here. The difference is that Wildwood was built from the ground up within the last 25 years and Wentzville is 153 years old. Wentzville Aldermen have pushed tree ordinances and overlay districts with strict appearance codes and enforce them with great vigor. It's so tough that when White Castle wanted to build here, they were told that they could not use their trademark white castle building; it had to meet the overlay code. Because White Castle saw the great potential of the location and knew the growth rate of our city, they bent over for the City. Our White Castle is pink! Yep, we have probably the only pink split-face block White Castle in the country. Some businesses turned and ran as fast as they could, like Red Lobster. When Red Lobster was told that they could not use their trademark building they said adios!

Wentzville's city government doesn't seem to understand that they are creating laws that are not popular with citizens and are keeping out businesses that our citizens want. These ordinances increase building costs, create a need for larger government, and in the long run the citizens pay the price in higher taxes, services, and fees. Wentzville already sports the highest sales tax rate in the county, and our elected officials don't seem to care.

An even larger problem exists because the City does not allow the building of homes that first-time home buyers and retired people can afford. Prospective buyers can either buy a 1940's prefab spec home, a $200,000+ groomed subdivision home, or buy somewhere else, which is what they are doing. Currently, Wentzville has 3000 lots ready to be built but no buyers are to be found. Home builders have had meeting after meeting with the City trying to tell them that they are saturated with mid- to upper-range homes and that they need to appeal to the forgotten group of first-time and retired buyers, but their pleas fall on deaf and indifferent ears. It's a sad state of affairs and one that must be remedied or Wentzville's future is bleak.

Our elected officials need to quit trying to be like everybody else and get in touch with the proud heritage that made Wentzville the strong, friendly, small town it has been for 153 years. We need to be proud of who we are, not who we are not!

Welcome To My Home Town

I came here to Wentzville in 2003 and in just days I fell in love with the town and its people. It has a long and rich history beginning in 1855. With a principal crop of tobacco from the 1820s to about 1880, here is where many of the large tobacco companies of our day began. Through the Civil War years, 1861-1865, the village was a stronghold of the Confederacy with training camps for soldiers who, after training, were sent to Arkansas, Mississippi, and other Southern states. In 1861, the Battle of Wentzville took place between Union troops from St. Louis, who arrived on a train. For several days, the Confederate villagers fired upon the train as it tried to move westward; when the fighting ceased there were 7 dead and some 30 wounded. The Wentzville Hotel was used as a makeshift hospital where soldiers from both sides were treated before leaving for St. Louis. The hotel was burned to the ground the night the train left, and it was never known whether it was torched by angry Confederates who resented treating Union soldiers or the Federals, who might have destroyed it to keep it from being used by the Confederates. The Hotel was rebuilt in 1867, in brick this time, 14 inches thick. After the war and the abolishing of slavery, tobacco factories closed down and other crops and livestock became king.

I hope that through this blog I can inspire people to take more interest in our community and help keep it a great place to live, play, and work. I will be talking about our history, our present (as our City government grows at a staggering rate), and hope for the future of a little tobacco town just wanting to get its crops to the big city.