respublica

Hillcrest Neighborhood Parade 2008

Each 4th of July the Hillcrest neighborhood of Clayton holds a parade for everyone and anyone in the area who wants to participate.  Even dogs.  Hillcrest is an area roughly bounded by Wydown on the north, Dartford on the west, the Concordia Seminary campus on the south and almost Skinker to the east.  The parade begins on DeMun and Arundel heads north to Aberdeen where everyone turns west and heads to Dartford and then back down Arundel to Demun.

Each year everyone dresses in red, white and blue, kids decorate their bikes and adults decorate their dogs.  Kids are given big chunks of chalk in order to make a giant American flag on the surface of DeMun.

Alderman Judy Goodman on the right in the photo below, represents Ward 1 in which Hillcrest is located, always attends the parade and helps hand out small goodies to the kids.

Here they all come, parading back to the start point on DeMun.

Let's see some of the dogs who took part.

Ben's in the passenger seat of the golf cart and Georgia has to stand beside it.

Here come a couple of good sports. It's pretty cool out today so they're lucky they're not hotter.

Little dogs walk too.

Lola!

After the parade the kids could have horseback rides

Donkey cart rides

And a tour of Clayton's fire department vehicles

All the bikes and wagons got parked neatly

All took place under the watchful eye of one of Clayton's finest.

Happy Birthday USA.  From one neighborhood in America's heartland, Clayton Missouri.

Did you know department

The city of Clayton has only two gas stations.  And both are so close to the boundary of two other municipalities you might even question whether Clayton has any gas stations at all.  One, a Mobile, is in the middle of Clayton road at Big Bend.  The south side of Clayton Road is in Richmond Heights and the north side is Clayton.  So the middle is?

The other is a BP Amoco on Forsyth near the old Famous Barr building, now a Wash U satellite.  Could almost be in University City.

I just found it interesting that a city as large as Clayton and a city which gets visitors from all over each day because of the county building and major offices, would not have more gas stations. 

Like every other city.

Another walk

When you walk west on Ellenwood, you end up leaving the neighborhood and enter the Washington University dormitories on the South 40.  It is an obvious entry or exit.

If you should turn and look back you'll see the longest, straightest, sidewalk ever.  Well, maybe not the longest, but it's among the straightest.

Back onto Wydown, the parkway between the east and west driving lanes are being watered tonight.

Storm water planters

At a recent meeting of Clayton's EEAC committee, we were shown a large poster which had a rendering of the planned changes to downtown.  One of the items of note was the addition of storm water planters which will be placed next to storm drain openings.  Storm water planters are used to catch much of the rain water runoff before it gets to the drain. 

The water goes into the planter's soil and is contained.  Any water which flows out of the planter when the soil is saturated, is much less that without the planter and, has had many of the bad chemicals filtered out. This link shows how they are used in Portland, Oregon.

This is an especially good idea for Clayton, a city in which many of the storm and sewer lines are combined.

Oak Knoll Park

Tonight's walk was a trip through Clayton's Oak Knoll Park at the corner of Big Bend and Clayton Road.  It is the home of the St. Louis Artists Guild exhibits.

There are a few pieces of sculpture on the grounds, this one can be purchased for $6000.  I like this one very much and if I had a spare $6000, I might be tempted.

We had no idea about this one and it does not appear to be for sale.

Early Summer's evening walk

The MAtH and I decided to take a walk after dinner tonight.  We began at DeMun and headed north from the Concordia Seminary campus.  As we crossed Wydown Blvd, we noticed a drinking fountain in the parkway which separates the east and west traffic.

Not only is this nice for people walking through, but there are two dog bowls available for pets to have a drink as well.

Then we cut through an interesting passageway leading from Wydown to another street which may have been Ellenwood.  There was an old iron gate propped up against a fence.

After a bit we came to the Washington University School of Art on Skinker. 

Robert Burns is for the birds tonight.

Wash U's art is not only in the gallery, but all around the outside.

At the top of the stairs leading to the main quad sits two quiet gardens, one on each side of the steps.

More sculpture near Graham Chapel and the student union.

Yes, it's a rabbit.  A contemplative rabbit.

Then near the South Forty dorms we find the last of the art.

As soon as we got to the South Forty which is along Big Bend beginning at Wydown, we could hear the Seminary's Carillon.  Every Tuesday evening in June there is a carillon concert and people come from all around to have a picnic supper on the seminary grounds and listen.  We followed the music home.

Clayton city manager appointed

After a rather long search, the city of Clayton has chosen a new city manager, replacing Mike Schoedel who resigned last fall to take a position in the private sector.  The Board of Aldermen have selected Craig Owens who has been the city manager in Rowlett, Texas, since 20054.

Rowlett Texas is in Dallas County, near Garland and has a population of nearly 55,000 with a city budget of $81 millions and 350 employees.  In Clayton he will oversee 7 departments with 180 employees and a budget of $37 million.  Owens has a bachelor's degree in political science from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Kansas. 

He previously was the city administrator in O'Fallon, Illinois and assistant city manager in Hazelwood, Missouri.

The Dallas Morning News must not think Clayton is much of a job compared to Rowlett when they reported the story today.

Rowlett City Manager Craig Owens resigned Wednesday to take a similar position in far smaller Clayton, Mo.  Clayton is near St. Louis, and Mr. Owens previously worked for two other cities in the area.          

Mr. Owens, 39, had worked for Rowlett for more than five years, including the last three as city manager. His resignation is effective June 27.

The U.S. Census Bureau's most recent estimate, in 2006, put Clayton's population at slightly more than 16,000, compared with nearly 55,000 for Rowlett.  Mr. Owens' salary in Clayton wasn't immediately available. He received a $145,000 annual salary plus a $600-a-month car allowance when he became Rowlett city manager in 2005, City Council member Cindy Rushing said at the time."

About those purchased Renewable Energy Credits

After last week's posting on the Clayton Ecology and Environmental Awareness Committee's decision to send $2000 to Pure Power for renewable energy credits-Wind,  city Public Works Director, Paul Wojciechowsi, sent an email with information on just how much CO2 we were bypassing.  By putting that money into wind energy, the power companies will be using 730,224 fewer pounds of carbon from coal.

The money was enough to purchase 33 blocks of REC per month or 396 blocks annually.

Clayton Farmers Market 2008

Today was the first farmers market of the season for Clayton and even with the terrible spring planting season
we've had around here, the tents were full and the crowds came.

For some reason this guy was there to play his guitar quietly in the background.

All the rain and cooler temperatures we've had combined to produce lush blooms on all the Knock Out Roses.

No dogs allowed at the Clayton Farmers Market.

Asparagus was a huge seller.

All the rain has made for a bountiful harvest for things which come back every year.  The grower of these asparagus could hardly keep up with the demand even though he brought many bins full.  I was there at 9, half an hour after the market opened and he had already gone through a big stack of bins.

Red leaf lettuce and radishes were going well too.

Getting to the counter for radishes meant elbowing your way to the front and holding your ground.

One of the most popular stands was run by the cheese making people.  Notice the bit of liberty they took with the Proverbs verse.

The Iron Chef competition is back this year featuring two teams of chefs and their sous chefs.

I don't know what the secret ingredient was because everyone seemed to be working with something different.

This chef is sculpting carrots.

Biver Farms from Edwardsville had a stand, these organic farmers are fast becoming a staple in the St. Louis area. 

They grow beautiful things.

There were bakers in attendance and

SLU coffee.

One of the sons of the man selling radishes was the most serious faced young boy, but I just loved his hat.

I ended up with a bag full of radishes and red leaf lettuce and asparagus and Thai basil.  Biver Farms had Thai basil today, something a number of us have been looking for this spring.  Next week the asparagus seller will be bringing in the first strawberries of the season.  Get there early or they will be gone.

Renewable energy support from Clayton

At the monthly meeting of Clayton's Ecology and Environmental Awareness Committee last evening, the board voted to participate in Ameren/Pure Power's Renewable Energy program.  The committee's entire yearly budget of $2000 will be used to purchase renewable energy credits (REC's).

This is not the same thing as buying carbon offset credits, whereby someone buys credits from someone who supposedly uses the money to plant trees somewhere.  The REC's go to a specific location overseen by a company which is producing alternate energy, and the location is very local.

Here is how this works in its simplest form:  The whole country is on the same electric grid and federal standards will soon require that 15% of each state's electric power come from alternate energy sources.  Currently most of our electric power is generated by coal, a source of much of our CO2.  Newer energy sources are/will be coming from wind farms, solar, geothermal, and water.

In Missouri, a company named Pure Power operates a wind farm in the northwest corner of the state.  As money from REC's comes to PP, they are able to operate at a greater capacity and provide more and more alternate energy to operate the Missouri grid.  Ameren has partnered with PP and buys a certain percentage of their energy needs from them.  Ameren also is the umbrella through which the money from REC's flows to PP.   

The $2000 initial expenditure from Clayton will be enough to power most of the street lights in the city or one of the major buildings.