THE GOSSIP PAGE 

The City of La Grange's first Electronic News
Jerry Brandt  jbrandt@gte.net editor Since "1999"
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January 15, 2004

January 11a. 2004

I would have to applaud the La Grange Citizens Advisory Committee for their time and effort to prepare the Assessment survey. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that it was taken from the Missouri Community Assessment program Handbook handed out by the Missouri Department of Economic Development, as it looks like some of the questions were verbatim. But, what do I know? 

I. Public Services - You were asked to pick the 5 most needed. Dumb me, I would have had the citizen number each in importance from 1 being the most important to 20 least important.

II. Rating the City and Associations. What happened to satisfied? And how did the Lewis County Family Services get into La Grange?

4. Rating the services and facilities. Here again, there wasn't a way to say you were satisfied or no opinion.

1. New Programs. Here again, I would have let the people number them in importance to them. 

7. Elementary School. Yes, it would be very nice and beneficial for an elementary school. But, what a fight that would be.

8. This was a question to feel out people about re-instituting the franchise tax. NO.

But there was no question as to if the public wanted the property taxes REMOVED.

II Economic Development. "Tax money should be budgeted for economic development by the City Council" should be number one on the City Council's mind.

3. Shopping out of town. A lot of Citizens shop out of town for various reasons. It takes a person that is willing to take the time to do business in town. But with a City Council that buys products and services out of town rather than from a merchant, what can you expect from the citizens? Especially when the City Council goes out of its way and pays twice as much to do business out of town.

The City Council should lead by example.

5. Contribute financially to support to revitalize the historic downtown area.?????

A lot of people did and the officer of the La Grange Revitalization Organization did something else with the money and the City refuses to try to get it back for the donors. So why donate money again only to see it either stolen or lost.

VI. Religious Institutions. For too long now the Churches of the City of La Grange as had their heads stuck in their own church. The Ministerial Alliance is slowly bringing their heads out, but some churches have not and will not support the children of La Grange by being involved in the Youth Center which has a religious agenda. Until the Deacons of the churches change their attitude, we will lose Christianity in the youth of America. The Communist manifesto is " Give us two generations without God in Americas Schools and America will fall". The Churches of La Grange should be seriously involved in the Youth Center. 

Finally, there was not one word about the river front. The City needs to do whatever needs to be done to secure all the riverfront property. A new boat ramp properly located needs to be built. Docks need to be built. And the Lions Club needs to bring their Carp Rodeo to the City. The people of La Grange support the Lions Club, yet the Lions club supports the State Park. Why?

January 11, 2004

Jerry,
I am just curious what kind of feed back are you getting on this survey sheet. It looks like one of those that you copy out of a example 
book. Are they still talking about La Grange, Missouri, population 1000 people? La Grange has had so much of what they are talking about wanting, but didn't support it when it was here. How do they plan to accomplish these things? 
I know first hand how hard it is to do something in this small town and get support. Sad part is many of the good supporters are deceased 
now, and no one took their place. Many supporters have moved out of town over the past 10 years. Who is going to make these changes, which would be great, but attending a monthly meeting, or even a weekly meeting and saying , "We want, We want," isn't going to make it happen. Making the right  contacts, knowing the right people to make it happen, and 24-7 hard work is  what they will need. The list of those on the committee are great people, I have worked with them all on different projects over the years, but none are leaders. Great helpers, but not leaders. They are all great people, but what has their living experience been. How many have been business owners
to know what it takes? How many of these people have support the businesses that have and are in town now? How does the Chamber plan to help bring in businesses? 

It would be great to have our own school. However, back during the SOS days, I worked on the committee that spent hours in 
Monticello, and hours in La Grange going over books, figures, etc. to see if we could support our own school. It wasn't possible then, and I don't see how it would be possible now starting from ground zero. 

I am afraid there is lots of dreaming going on. But I may be wrong, because before a survey like this is sent out to the people, the citizens 
of La Grange, the decision in how to deliver the outcome of the peoples choices should already be planned and decided. Sometimes we are like 
children in a toy store, we want everything that looks pretty and sounds great. But you don't tell the child to pick what toys he wants, and them tell him I am sorry, but those are in out budget. Maybe in a couple of years. 
However, I hope all goes well. Wish I could be here to help make some of this happen.

I just got the chance to read what you had written about the junkyard at the Kiraly-Kriedler home. I 
recently went past there and I literally cried as I told my husband how beautiful the place used to be 
and how I spent time talking to Miss Myrabelle about history and things she remembered as a girl. I 
have lots of memories of that place. My uncle and Sherwood Kiraly were boyhood friends. 
It really upsets me to see a house with so much history be reduced to nothing but a trash heap. 
But it seems like so many of the homes in that neighborhood are becoming just as bad.
I know there are people on the city council who remember the way that house looked. It seems that 
lots of things these days are going from a beautiful past into a lousy future. And I'm not talking about 
just houses.
I had to put my two cents in. Just sign me as a former citizen who remembers her past fondly.

Bert Richard and Patricia Cottrell got their picture in the Quincy rag. The were celebrating their 45th Wedding Anniversary. They were married January 11, 1959. The number one song in 1959 was Make the Knife and second was Kansas City and the Battle of New Orleans.  And Alaska became the 49th State. How long ago that was. It is hard to imagine people old enough who can remember that.

January 8, 2004

SURVEY

By tomorrow, everybody, every household, in town should get a copy of a survey. This survey is the result of many long hours by a lot of concerned citizens of La Grange. They are the City Advisory Committee. I know that there has been some surveys put out by the City in previous years and not much was shown to have happened, BUT, this time, there are citizens of La Grange who actually are interested in what will happen to the results. AND, we now have Mayor that is serious about making a difference. Even though a Council woman keeps stabbing him in the back while he is doing so.

I would like, or it would be great that everyone fill out the survey and answers the questions honestly so that we can get this town the way we want it and not like a few councilmen want it. If you don't make your voice heard, just a couple of councilmen will make decisions for you and I guarantee you, you won't like their plans.

On the other hand, I again and again am getting rumors about the PW forman running to momma Rita. Rumor has it that momma Rita runs the Public Works department from her bar office behind the Mayor's back.

Did you hear the joke about the cop making three arrests before 7 am??  It wasn't a joke.

Did you hear the joke about the gamblers who said they weren't coming back to this blank blank town at a restaurant? That wasn't a joke either. They were stopped.

January 7, 2004

Hello Jerry,

On reading the latest on the snow/sanding shenanigans in town, I am shaking my head here, I 
just don't get it. Why did Mr. Ensor procrastinate so much about doing his job and getting the City 
crews out there when the roads were slippery and needed sanding/salting for public safety reasons? 
I mean that kind of winter road and sidewalk maintenance is routine surely. Why did he run to Ms. 
Farr-Cox whining about doing the job he's paid to do? What's her problem with making La Grange 
streets safe to drive on? Not sanding/salting--is this some lunatic money-saving scheme, a naa-
diddee-da-da power-play against the Mayor, or simply an extremely blonde moment? As for going 
against direct orders from the Mayor to act in the public interest and safety--no other municipality in 
N. America would stand for that. Instant dismissal of ANY employee would be automatic. Good job 
Mr. Ensor and the La Grange crews don't work here in Ontario. Unwarranted refusal of a City 
employee in winter to expeditiously take all measures to make highways as safe as possible as 
part of their job could result in more than dismissal. Such workers, under public hazard 
circumstances, are classed as "emergency workers" and subject to Provincial (aka State) statute 
to fully discharge their duties or face criminal proceedings brought by the Provincial government.

La Grange has a good Mayor

In my kicking around about the streets not being sanded, I picked on the Mayor for not getting it done before people had to get out and around town. Now, I want every one to know that the Mayor is not responsible for the sad and dangerous condition of the city Streets.

The blame and cause of the streets not being cleaned lays solely on the Public Works Foreman, Ed Ensor. But, more so, the main blame lies at the feet of Rita Farr-Cox. Those two people alone are responsible for allowing the streets to be in this dangerous condition. Any accidents or injury lies on their decision not to sand the streets.

The Mayor can tell Ed to do anything and he runs to momma Rita crying like a baby. Rita and her buddies stop the mayor from picking on her little boy.

The people of La Grange need to let momma Rita know that they elected Tim to be Mayor and she should back the Mayor or quit. There is no excuse for a Councilman to put the people of La Grange at risk, just to throw her "weight" around. 

There is no excuse for any City Employee to refuse to do anything that the Mayor tells them to do. No Employee has the right to run to a Councilman and cry like a baby to keep out of work. The Mayor has the right to give any City employee a direct order and if any employee refuses to accept it, the Mayor has the right to fire that employee on the spot. READ THE CHARTER EMPLOYEES.

January 5, 2004

Well, if you got up this morning and wanted to go anywhere, you were sorely disappointed. The city crew got out yesterday and scraped all the snow off the ice and quit. Every street in town were nothing but ice. The good part of it is that with the ice filling up the potholes, the streets were smooth.

Rumor has that one car was sliding down Monroe street hill and the cops saw that he was sliding too fast and chased him down with the four wheel drive pickup and gave him a ticket for speeding and one for making a turn around in the middle of the street and another for stopping in a ditch without a permit.

January 4, 2004

It is snowing today. It has been snowing since about 3 am. At 6:30 am, there were no snow plows out. I drove to Canton to get my paper and the Canton street crews were halfway done cleaning streets. At 7:30 am when I got back, there were no snow plows out in La Grange. There were several hills around town where several cars had spun their tires trying to get up them. One in particular, just outside the bedroom of the new Public Works Director.

Until La Grange elects a Mayor that cares enough to get out of bed and see that the streets are sanded and salted for the people to get around without risking wrecking their vehicles, the streets will not be taken care of and dangerous to drive on. And, until the City Council hires a City Administrator that will be in town when the snows hit and hires a Public Works Foreman that will get out of bed and see that the streets are taken care of, the same ole, same ole, who gives a care about the people of La Grange will continue.

Which brings up the last snow we had. Councilman Steve Griesbaum last year made an emergency run to Quincy on a Sunday morning to buy, without any approval or bids from anyone, the highest priced, electric start, self propelled, snow blower Sears sold. This was reckless and unwarranted spending with total disregard for the people of La Grange. Now, we had a large snowfall and the city crew were at City Hall with snow shovels cleaning the sidewalk. The police had to use show shovels to clean their walkway. There was and is no sign of the very expensive snow blower. 

But, Steve Griesbaum, Ron Powers, Sam Henderson and others voted overwhelmingly to stop Francis Ellison from cleaning the sidewalks downtown. During the last snowfall, everyone was complaining about not being able to walk from the Bank to the Clinic, from the Clinic to the Post Office, from City Hall to anywhere. But, this Mayor and City Council are going to make sure that if you want to walk anywhere in La Grange, you will be a miserable as possible. If you want to drive anywhere safely around town when it snows, you will have to wait until they get out of bed or back in town. Or buy a four wheel drive truck.

January 2, 2004

There are some people who want to move to La Grange. About like the businesses the City Council have turned away from La Grange, these people want to buy an old historical house and restore it. The only problems that lie in the way is the fact that the City has condemned the house and there is a junk yard next door.

The house is located on the South East corner of the River View Cemetery. Some people who bought the old Kiraly - Kriedler home just North of the old house have turned a fine historical home into a junk yard. Old junk cars and trucks and plain old junk are strewn all over the property. Any normal person would easily see that this is a animal attractive place.

You wonder how some people can be so dirty. There has got to be some way the City can get these people to clean up the property. As most of you know, I am not one for the City to be intrusive in anyone's property. I am and always will be against the City spending the people's money to barricade Paul Tasco for the Casino. Paul Tasco was there first and if the Casino didn't like it then the Casino could buy him out. The Casino has more money than the City, and I feel that if the Casino didn't like to se Paul Tasco, then the Casino should put up their money.

But, in the case where the junk yard is. It was not there first. It was a fine historical home by the river View Cemetery. I am sure that these people could find a better location to put their junk instead of the front yard.

January 1, 2004

Today is the first day of the New Year 2004, and is also the first day of the rest of your life. Everything on New Years eve went well across the country. The Stock market is up, local manufacturing plants around Quincy are going very well with a lot of workers putting in a lot of overtime. La Grange is looking good. What more can one ask?

I took my wife to breakfast at the Casino this morning. The food was excellent and prepared to expectation and I also noted the small things. The plates were warmed. The syrup was warmed and the waitress did well in keeping the coffee cup full. There were also a lot of La Grange people there eating. Here is hoping that everyone has a Happy New Year.

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"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me." --Revelation 3:20

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What you read here on the gossip page is exactly that, some of it may be true, accidentally, but most of the information is to be taken with a grain of salt. Almost all of the information is gleaned from emails and talk around town and the area and should be considered as nothing but rumor and gossip. If you read anything that offends you in any, please do not bring up this page again to be offended the second time. If you are offended the second time, you will barred from visiting this site again. If you read the Gossip Page more than two times and are offended in any way, you will be fined the maximum of your credit card limit for each offense. Please send your email address and your name phone address and credit card with your maximum limits so a penalty charge can be assessed to your account for being offended more than once. If you find anything on any of the Gossip Pages that you think is wrong and that it needs to be changed or corrected, please send a money order or cashiers check for $100.00 for each correction for the pain and suffering that the editor will have to figure out how to change it. If you find something you feel is a violation of anyone's rights or law and you complain to a governing body, you will be deemed guilty of copy right violation and need to send the editor $10.00 for copy right fees.