ballwin
Police officer Randy Ferrell has been selected to fill the new position of Elementary School Resource Officer. He will serve as a liaison between the Ballwin Police Department and six elementary schools in Ballwin (all in the Parkway and Rockwood school districts, as well as Holy Infant Catholic School). Ferrell will be in a pivotal position in building positive relationships with students to improve the community’s future, police officials say. Ferrell, 35, has seven years of experience with the department, and his colleagues say he’s perfect for the new position. Ferrell and his wife have three school-aged kids themselves. Plus, he is approachable and has a laid-back demeanor that works well with kids. This is critical. Schoolkids need to know that cops are here to help, and they should feel comfortable talking to them. We don’t want anyone intimidated to seek help if they see something that’s not right or need help themselves.
st. louis
Could we be the next Silicon Valley? Would we even want to be? For a moment, forget about millennials making microchips and trying to digitize everything but their motherin-laws, and focus instead on the collective strengths in the biosciences we have arrayed right here in River City. A recent report produced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) supports the contention among committed bioscience businesses that we’re already all that and a bag of kale chips here in the StL. Our initiative—BioSTL—has been up and running for 15 years now. And business ‘clusters,’ the research shows, increase the productivity of companies and job creation, drive innovation, stimulate formation of new businesses, and support the survival and growth of small businesses. Plant science is the chief focus of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and BRDG Park in Creve Coeur, with Monsanto just to the south across Olive Boulevard. Cortex in the CWE, an incubator and more, is located in the same neighborhood as Washington University Medical Center. None of this is by accident. Donn Rubin, president and CEO of BioSTL, says a “deliberate approach … has put in place the people, ideas, capital, and infrastructure to create a vibrant cluster to spur economic growth.” The report also looked at the progress of analogous initiatives in Chicago, New Orleans and San Diego. Clusters can provide a framework for organizing disparate local and regional public policies and investments directed at economic development. The metro as a whole has rallied behind this, without that ‘city vs. county’ noise being much of a hindrance. It should be a source of pride that St. Louis is rubbing shoulders with other great cities, thanks to a successful cluster built on our strengths in medical and plant sciences. Entrepreneurs, take note.
affton
Cor Jesu Academy has opened its new, $8.9 million performance gym and student commons. This has enabled the Catholic all-girl high school to offer new courses and learning programs, while also growing its sports programs. The 40,000-square-foot, three-level addition is the second phase of the longrange campus enhancement plan to be completed. The project was funded by a nearly $10 million capital campaign launched in 2014 to provide a range of new facilities, including site improvements, more on-campus parking and increased financial aid for qualifying students. Now, the endowment fund provides financial assistance to 28 percent of the young women who attend Cor Jesu. The building addition features a gym on the first level, with two full basketball courts and space for volleyball competition, as well as permanent bleachers and expanded weight and workout rooms. On the second floor is a new dance studio that doubles as a multipurpose room, plus athletic offices and the student commons. The third floor houses four classrooms. The student commons was built in the space between the addition and existing school building and provides a dramatic overlook into the gym. A designated community area, the commons will allow students to gather, use collaborative study areas and meet with faculty. Founded in 1956 by the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Cor Jesu Academy features a student body of about 600 young women from 60 ZIP codes across the metro. Here’s to the next few graduating classes—including the Class of 2021, which just started the new semester and will spend all four years of high school in their new surroundings— and beyond!
st. charles
Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone? Oh where, oh where could he be? Well, first of all, it’s often the cops who help reconnect lost pets with their owners. But this time, the lost animal was actually a K9 working with St. Charles County police. And at 70 pounds, Tank is anything but little. A Hanoverian hound, he has a dark brown body and brownish-black head, and apparently has been quite the GPS device for the department right out of training. Cops alerted the media that Tank and his handler, Officer Courtney Spiess, got separated sometime in the early dawn hours of Monday, Aug. 21, but he wasn’t on the lam for long. He was located less than two hours later. He’s quite the four-legged dude to have on the force: At only 2 years old, Tank already has built an impressive resume. Within a day after his matriculation from K9 training, he and Spiess found an autistic teen who had wandered away from his family’s O’Fallon apartment and dangerously close to a busy access road; the same week, they also tracked down a dementia patient. Spiess, who trained with Tank for about five weeks, says he’s quite a guy … always eager to go to work. He’s one of only 60 or so of his breed—a hunting and tracking dog descended from bloodhounds of medieval times—working as police dogs. Let this be a warning to slimeballs, especially those with drugs, on the west side of the metro: You can run, but you can’t hide from Tank, whose secret weapon is his nose. If he gets to know your stink, you’re busted.
university city
It’s almost like Jerry Lewis couldn’t take the news of fellow comic icon Dick Gregory’s death, because the zany white guy died less than 24 hours after the activist black guy did. R.I.P. to them both, each much larger than comedy. Gregory died Aug. 19 at 84; Lewis on Aug. 20 at 91. So now, another bronze star on U. City’s Walk of Fame (on the sidewalks of Delmar Boulevard in The Loop) seems to be glowing a little brighter. Born in St. Louis, Gregory made light of the racial divide during the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: “I’ve got to go up there as an individual first, a Negro second,” he is quoted as saying in The Last Laugh: The World of Stand-up Comics by Phil Berger. “I’ve got to be a colored funny man, not a funny colored man.” Indeed. Some of the things he said were not designed to make people laugh, but to make them think: “The free man is the man with no fears.” Gregory remained active until a few days before his death, apologizing via social media that he’d have to postpone his Atlanta show until the end of the month. And he was in-your-face until the last. The president’s Twitter feed is #therealdonaldtrump; Gregory tongue-in-cheekily tagged his Instagram page @therealdickgregory. From a March 26 post: “As I approach my 85th revolution around the sun this year, I wonder why has it been so difficult for humankind to be kind. So difficult to be loving and lovable. For my militant brothers and sisters, please don’t misconstrue loving and lovable to be weak or submissive. Love will always be triumphant over hate.”