St. Louis Mayor Ralph Echtinaw

It's November 2024, and I just came into possession of a paper I wrote for an eighth grade class in May 1973 when I was 13 years old. It’s headlined “10 day diary,” so perhaps that was the assignment (as it was obviously done for a class). At that point in my life I had been an avid reader of World War II military history, hence my decision to put myself in the position of a pilot on the Doolittle Raid. I corrected the spelling and punctuation but changed nothing else: April 17, 1942 Not much happened today, but I’m so worried about my plane I’m usually at it every 15 minutes. Checking the instruments, figuring out gas consumption. But I just keep thinking about Tojo in his fancy palace. I would give a million dollars to see the look on his face when they tell him American bombers just bombed Tokyo. April 18, 1942 I slept good last night and woke to the sound of gunfire. I ran out on deck and one of the cruisers was hammering away at a Jap boat on the horizon. I hurried right to th...

  If you subscribe to my online newspaper, the St. Louis Sentinel, you saw a Brian Buysse article about loud vehicles last month. Brian has been to three city council meetings with the same issue. Many motorcycles are too loud. Search for Brian’s name on the Sentinel site to find a 2023 article about him. I sympathize with Brian. He's a great guy. But there's only so much the city can do. I have a similar situation with loose dogs. As an avid walker I have been barked at in a threatening manner by unchained and unfenced dogs at least twice a year for the last five years. It's scary and unsettling. I know one couple who stopped walking in my neighborhood because of the dogs. How many more like them are out there? I now carry a golf club or a baseball bat on walks to protect myself. I haven't had to use it and hope I never will, as I'm sure the dog would get a few licks in, too. My problem is not with dogs but with owners who are careless enough or thoughtless enough ...

“Stronger Together” is the title of a 2016 presidential campaign book by Hillary Clinton. I didn’t support her candidacy, but that title applies to St. Louis and Alma, who have partnered in several ways over the last 16 years. Perhaps the most important collaboration is the Gratiot Area Water Authority that provides both cities with drinking water from six wells in Alma and Arcada Township since 2013. GAWA was formed following two serendipitous situations in St. Louis and Alma. St. Louis needed to stop drawing water from local wells that were at risk of contamination on account of the Velsicol site. And Alma had more capacity than it needed following the closure of the Total oil refinery in 1999. The two cities spend $1.8 million/year on water that they sell to residents (following a markup designed to fund infrastructure maintenance). St. Louis along is expected to spend $834,000 on water in the 2024/25 fiscal year. Solid waste authority Back in 2008, the two cities partnered to creat...

  If you pay utility bills at city hall you’ve probably encountered one or more of the city’s three student interns. All have done outstanding work and are off to university in the fall. The city’s co-op students work primarily in customer service, waiting on the counter, posting payments, issuing receipts, answering phones, sorting mail, processing utility bills and more. During the school year they average 10-16 hours/week each. But they take on other projects, too. Ava Frost “has done a great job with auditing and updating cemetery records and producing some PSA and promotional videos,” said Finance Director Bobbie Marr, and is headed to Davenport University to study business management and accounting. Curtis Brashaw, the SLHS valedictorian this year, also worked on cemetery records and video production. He’s off to Notre Dame University this fall. Payton Kuhn, a 2023 SLHS grad, is in her second year of working for the city. “She is a detail-oriented and organized individual and...