Crestwood Swim Club wins their conference for the second time in a row!
From a reader of the blog, this deserves out congratulations!
"Crestwood swim club won their swim team conference division for the 2ND time in a row!"
If the Swim Club will send me a list of the participants I will gladly place them here! Folks, please join me in congratulating these fine young athletes on not only an outstanding performance, but an outstanding feat, as I am given to understand this is a very hard thing to do!
I have a niece who was on the Stanford Swim team, and missed the Olympics by 12 seconds, so this is a sport that is measured in "nano seconds" and requires talent, ability, and a will to win!
I am proud of them!
Tom Ford
NO. 357
"Crestwood swim club won their swim team conference division for the 2ND time in a row!"
If the Swim Club will send me a list of the participants I will gladly place them here! Folks, please join me in congratulating these fine young athletes on not only an outstanding performance, but an outstanding feat, as I am given to understand this is a very hard thing to do!
I have a niece who was on the Stanford Swim team, and missed the Olympics by 12 seconds, so this is a sport that is measured in "nano seconds" and requires talent, ability, and a will to win!
I am proud of them!
Tom Ford
NO. 357
posted by Crestwood Independent at 17:27
50 Comments:
What no comment's?
Tom Ford
Wow! I must say I have more respect for you now, Tom! I have not heard a positive thing about the club in ages! ;-) Kudos to them! PS who let you know they won? Just curious! Do we know for sure? DId you check up?
Wow! That is a shocker! I didn't think they did anything but drink (hence the liquor license thing) and make noise. I also have a niece who swam state in high school and got her start and scholarship from the early days at her private swim club... She is now at MIZZOU swimming...
No comments because you are FOS
I think all of us in Crestwood and all Kohls shoppers can take pride, for it was public money that built the baths. Without the public funds, those kids would not be there swimming, and winning. We have two public pools in Crestwood. It's just one is easier to get in than the other.
Just a curious question. I am neither pro or con swim club private or otherwise; however, my question is: is it true that the larger percentage of pool members are NOT Crestwood residents? There are a few former swim club members that stay away because of all the controversy. It makes me curious nothing more.
1:57 Am blogger: We wish her good luck at the college level! That's where it get's interesting!
1:39 AM blogger: I have no idea who that was that made the statement that they won. Since it was "anonymous" I guess it must have come from a member, and they Woulden't lie, would they?
Tom Ford
7:25 AM blogger: Gee wiz, did I spoil your bowl of pablum, or did you just trip over the dog?
This is a happy thing blogger, lighten up before you pop a blood vessel!
Tom Ford
Congratulations to the Crestwood Swim Club. I hope they win a cash prize so they can offset some of the money that Kohl's shoppers will be paying.
Who is in this conference?
Which schools are in this conference?
Are you planning on listing Whitecliff and Lindbergh results of their swim teams?
10:36 AM blogger: You bet I will! If someone would please E-mail me the results, I will post them for all to see.
I think it's important for our young men and women to get all the praise when they deserve it, so if you have results, please send them to me.
Tom Ford
THis pool is an abomination. Everything about it is bad. Why would you want to acknowledge the team winning conference? It is meaningless and does not benefit our city in any way. I am dismayed that you would promote this! After all, you completely disagree with the very existence of the pool and its construction. Why would you post this propaganda?
"THis pool is an abomination. Everything about it is bad. Why would you want to acknowledge the team winning conference? It is meaningless and does not benefit our city in any way. I am dismayed that you would promote this! After all, you completely disagree with the very existence of the pool and its construction. Why would you post this propaganda?"
4:04 PM, July 21, 2007
Well my friend, I feel that these young athletes have no dog in this fight, thats why!
The way it was paid for, and the way it is run have nothing to do with the fact that these kids have shown us that hard work and training pay off!
I think we need to differentiate between the way this deal was done, and the simple result that these kids won an honor.
Promote the club? Not on your life, but credit where credit is due!
Tom Ford
You just don't seem to get it. A phychologist on TV recently explained that a certain percentage of people seem to have a 'chip' missing. In some responses from people it seems they do not understand what they read and interestingly enough, it's not the people with low educations that seem to have this problem. When you read about the judges that simply do not want to punish child abusers appropriately, people who make a life's work of studing the human brain seem to use the missing chip explanation. Is not being able to interperet information an indication of a missing 'chip'?
8:33 PM blogger: To whom do you refer? Please explain yourself, if you can!
Tom Ford
http://brentwoodswimclub.org/
Warson Woods Swim Club
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&q=swim+club&near=Warson+Woods,+MO&fb=1&view=text&latlng=38605153,-90387196,7117982342570539237
http://mac-stl.org/athswimmingredswimteam.html
http://www.geocities.com/bulldogsswim/
Tom, I think you just like stirring the pot. Now you want to celebrate the swim club. Make up your mind fella!
Now I don't want to get into the thick of it about the swim club and I, for one, don't understand the logic behind the new pool. All I know is that I don't condone using public money for private enterprise if that is the case.
Tom, your comments make you look foolish to say the least; so I am going to conclude that you just like to stir up things. You know you don't give a tinker's darn about who won the swimming conference.
I can safely say, however, that those people whose homes abut swim club property have a lot to be upset about and I am talking for decades.
It's part of the history of the swim club and how they have gotten what they want with the support from city hall, and it speaks volumes about aldermen, many who are dead and buried and all the favors they did. Aldermen who for years ran Ward 2 and did exactly what was asked of them by the swim club and were members themselves.
Year after year they were re-elected with the assistance of those who belonged to the same church. If a person ran for office, and belonged to St. E's, they were infallable and there was no need to do anything further about it. You still have it happening today.
If you were a member of St. E's, and ran for office, it didn't matter how bad or good you were, you got elected every time.
If you think things are any different today, you are wrong. I pity anyone who thinks they can beat a St. E's, Swim Club candidate and tries to run against him or her. They have their own society or so it seems.
I feel sorry for those who still insist on fighting the good fight with swim club issues, while the city doesn't even try to control the water runoff issues or noise and nuisance issues or any other issue regarding problems with MSD or for that matter, old underground storage tanks that are still underneath all the property in that area. Many details about what happened in that respect are buried along with the bones of the aldermen who helped make it all go away.
The property of the homes abutting the pool are worth zero dollars today and nothing will ever be done to turn it around because nobody at city hall has the guts to do it. And even if some forthright person did try to investigate it, it would be thwarted because nobody wants to make waves; they may not get re-elected next time.
This is a very, very old problem and it will never, ever change. Come back in a hundred years, and you will see, the mistakes and misdeeds of mayors and aldermen will never be disclosed or be scrutinized.
How do you know the value of the homes next to the swim club are now worth nothing?
Gosh, there have been at least 5 or 6 homes that share direct property lines with that pool that have sold with no problem since the pool was built...what do you base this claim on? If those homes are worth zero dollars, I would like to buy one. What a great deal. Who do I contact to purchase these homes that are for sale for $0? Please advise.
Why do you bother to try and convince people of the facts? It really is not worth the effort. Nice try though
9:24 am Stop the play on words. I didn't say the homes around the pool never sold. Pay attention. Some have sold over the years. But how much did they sell for; I say the sellers had to drop their prices and got less return because of abutting the pool. And stop being so smug. If you want to buy those properties because of their lower price, as you state in your comment, then I rest my case. But don't think you will get a high return when you sell them. Most people try to buy low and sell high. Some day ask the neighbors who live nearby. Ask the people who have lived around the pool for many years. They will tell you all about the Crestwood Swim Club.
9:24 AM
Perhaps you and swim club members kelleher et al should buy out adjoining residential properties. Perhaps these residents could get above assessed value, just like the swim club did?
By the way, last week there was a party or a meet. The city parking lot was jammed. Can city vehicles park, namely police cars, get in and out? Who is liable if there is a problem due to this?
8:04 pm 7/23 blogger: I guess you want me to blame this kids for this swim club mess, right?
I will tell you what's foolish, a person who can't look beyond the "mess" and give credit where credit is due!
A person such as yourself for instance!!
Tom Ford
What about the rights of the children that swim at the Crestwood Swim Club?
Are they safe?
How many underground tanks are buried and where are they located?
Are these underground tanks under Detjen, Bali Court, Rayburn, Rosaire, and Sappington Road?
Please tell us to stop all of the cancer. Enough is enough with the acute leukemia and cancer.
There are ways to clean up the hazardous waste.
Was the new Crestwood Swim Club built to keep the underground tanks and hazardous material buried from odors?
What was in these underground tanks? Benzene, TPH, and Ethybenzene, diesel, oil, chemicals?
Years ago there was a very wealthy lady who owned a Gulf Service Station in Crestwood. It stood close to the intersection of Watson and Sappington going west.
It stood close to where the old Boatmen's Bank building was. This lady being wealthy, was very influencial with Crestwood elected officials. Too bad we can't raise her and those officials from the dead and ask them questions about what happened to those underground storage tanks when the station was removed.
When this Gulf Station was torn down, the underground storage tanks were never touched and the people governing city hall never said a word about it. Instead they overlooked it.
Now we come into this century, and I have never heard or saw one thing done, then or now, to "clean it up" and address that problem, and I have been here since Crestwood was a cow pasture.
Records show an increase in the number of persons with cancer problems all in the residential properties in the lower elevations from where those storage tanks are. Contaminants run down hill, like water, and have affected areas such as Rosaire, Bali Court, Rayburn, Samoa, and other areas in Ward two. It's not a good feeling if you live there.
So you tell me if this doesn't reek of people getting favors from our forefathers and because of it, people like you and I are paying the consequences.
Also tell me that when building the Swim Club years ago and building other things on these sites for years including the government center, watson plaza, Kohl's and now the new swim club, that nobody has cared enough to investigate it.
All you ever get when you ask questions are mixed messages and when someone tries to show things to us from previous studies, nobody cares.
The truth is out there; but no one in this city that has the power to get something done about it wants to do it.
All the politicians have done until this point in time is want their day in the sun. I would like to see something in writing from the EPA giving me the research, or somebody showing me proof that the people governing this city care enough to get straight answers.
Just my thoughts.
I believe all you need to do is call City Hall. My alderman has stated that all of those tanks had been removed years ago. Keep stirring the pot - empty pot that is.
Does your alderman or the city have PROOF or DOCUMENTATION that those tanks were removed years ago?
Do you have proof that if they are still there they are causing any health problems?
Urban fairtales if you ask me. This mayor has everything under control to if there was a problem, he would have told us so. After all, he is more worried about bombs from Iran that what happens in Creastwood.
Urban fairytales or bombs or whatever, I thought one of the reasons for the tax increment financing that THF Realty got for the Kohl's property was for environmental remediation, namely, the underground tanks/residue in the ground and asbestos removal from the old office building. Is there proof that environmental remediation took place?
You see what I mean? One blogger says they were removed years ago and one say that remediation took place recently with THF. They both can't be right. I would like to know if it is a fairy tale or if it's true. As you can tell from the previous bloggers, nobody knows anything for sure.
I was told by a resident who lives near the development where Kohl's is located that they were advised that they would be notified of the day the asbestos was to be removed. Never happened.
Also, anyone remember seeing underground tanks being brought up on that corner????? Pretty prominent corner.
Do these questions have answers?
Ever notice when there is a querry from a blogger about something serious like the asbestos and underground gas tanks and were they ever eliminated, there is no response, no comments .... but mention any progress that our Mayor had a hand in in any way and the comments pour in like beer at the Strassenfest!
8:42 pm Yeah, and they are all negative. All you have to do is give Roy one ounce of credibility and the politics of negativism takes over.
Didn't see anything good happening with prior 2 mayors but they are praised and honored. Had the others been so great, we would still have had the previous CA to deal with until his ultimate death. Will never understand how this city and the BOA could have allowed him to take over total control.
Oh My Gosh, the negative comments will come flooding in now. Just watch. This heading might end up being the biggest and longest one on this blog. Can you feel the love?
10:30 AM blogger: Now you have done it! Get your flack jacket on, and stand by!
How dare you challenge these fine people with the facts?
Tom Ford
Yawn!
7:38 AM blogger: Up past our bed time last night were we? Or is it an overdose of prozak?
Tom Ford
A bit of food for thought!
Just a little something to think about.
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up.
Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.
I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.
That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.
I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"
One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."
This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."
"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious." "It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver.
"You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"
"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.
She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.
"I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR(Fresh Air interview of Daniel Shore) on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors.
They didn't open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.
You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.
This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.
I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.
I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just
seemed easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.
Today I took the final step...I joined the Democratic Party.
Tom Ford
"I believe all you need to do is call City Hall. My alderman has stated that all of those tanks had been removed years ago. Keep stirring the pot - empty pot that is."
10:51 AM, August 01, 2007
This is good news. Except City Hall does not have the answer nor the proof. Nor does Spiritas. Maybe you could have this alderman, of whom you speak, make a statement and offer proof at a board meeting and put our minds to rest on this subject. Why don't you initiate this? This undoubtedly needs to be verified. If and until this happens, we will remain skeptical and seek the truth. This is the way human nature, intelligent beings and concern work. This pot you speak of is long over due for a timely stir. When people defend the need to keep municipal queries secret, they are the ones who stir the pot. You, sir, wield the spoon on this one. You have done no more than lift the confusion and lend energy to the task.
We hope you will chose to get us an answer and proof.
11:27 pm I agree with your comment. His alderman told him/her what he was told, but he has no more proof than the rest of us. He is just doing what everybody does on the BOA, listen and believe what they are told. Where's the beef?
In the meantime, the answers to our quetions are all no more than hearsay. There should be proof stuck in the Public Works files somewhere and some type of certificate should have been given to the City of Crestwood by the EPA or governmental agency veritfying their findings. The words of people in this town surely cannot sustain us and we would be stupid if we were satisfied with them. Especially when it comes to something of this magnitude. However, this alderman as well as the other 7, could get off their duffs and make some phone calls and do their jobs to find the answers, and show their constituents they care. That would be a first.
Hold that thought come April. Press on.
Sorry for the confusion. A former city employee had told me that all the tanks had been removed.
Pure propaganda!
How about trying again.
Were the tanks dug up?
( ) YES
( ) NO
When _________
I think this question should be directed to the Mayor for an answer.
7:36 am Good Morning. Before the mayor or anyone gets involved as you so mentioned, in the underground storage delimma, you have to first get their attention, so first you have to hit them over the head with a baseball bat.
These UST problems have plaqued this city for many years. No one has come up with documentation that they were removed. Don't you think that is strange?
Many, including the mayor, have to be made to understand that this is an unresolved, and very serious issue with potential detrimental affects on the city, and it is not going away.
Many of our elected officials have entered this political arena in the Third Act of this whole scenario, which is almost as old as some of them, and they have no idea of its origin. But, it's easier for them to believe the word of people who are believing the word of neighbors, friends, associates, and some elected officials who have only been told about the UST's by word of mouth from other inept people who have never shown them proof. Yet, when they cash a check, they need to show proof that they are who they say they are. Isn't this as important or more important?
Many have been duped by swim club members, previous big wigs who never had any proof in the first place of the storage tanks being cleaned up, and many have treated it with total ignorance and indifference.
This town is soooo ridiculously inept about this issue and frown on anybody who is otherwise concerned. They will argue about a loaf of bread or other things of much less importance at board of aldermen meetings, but the important things are disregarded. Many are to busy tap dancing for their constituents so they can make it again in three years. Most of them are only interested in their clout.
So, be my guest in trying to get something done. If you speak at a board of aldermen meeting, you better have a big long petition signed by people and even then, I will bet you it gets tossed aside.
If you speak at a board meeting, you could be ridiculed for caring and could be considered looney in this city.
Try it and see what happens.
7:36 AM blogger: Well I stood to the mike at the last work session, and except for Alderman Bland rolling his eye's, holding his head in his hands, and looking at the desk (what are you gonna do,) everyone else was quite attentive!
I feel that if we the people speak, they MUST listen, and if they don't, well I would then and there call them on it.
Does anyone really think that our elected Rep's. do not wish to hear from us? Each time I have said something, they listen, I may not get my wish, but they do listen!
If your worried about some "concerned citizen" from the audience saying something, Don't! Because if they were that "foolish" then you can put them on "front street," and they don't want that believe me!
So in closing, go for it my friend, and never forget that's why they get the big bucks!
Tom Ford
How about all the Aldermen have come in on the 3rd act, not just some. Fact is however, the Mayor was an Alderman in the 2nd act of this, so he I am sure will get the answer for you. I am a bit surprised that you haven't asked him by email, his address is on the City website.
Have you written a letter to any of the 3 local newspaper asking your question, have you called Mr. Elliot Davis with your concerns?
If doing these simple things are to much for you, then I guess the issue is really not that important to you. But posting on any blog will never get you the answer you are looking for. When you get your answer let us all know what it was.
I have written to the City Engineer (Mr Jim Eckrich,) Alderman Pickel, and Alderman Knarr requesting positive proof of the transaction to move the tanks, as well as asbestos abatement (the old bank bldg.)
I have requested to see copies of the EPA certificates, the site they were moved to, and the recieving signatures.
As soon as I have a reply (or no reply,) I will aprise you of it's content, so let's wait and see.
Tom Ford
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