Hannibal Board of Public Works reforms raised before council

Posted by mpoletti – June 6, 2012

With a trio of rate increases awaiting approval this week by the Hannibal Board of Public Works board, an outspoken figure from Hannibal’s political past raised questions about the utility at Tuesday’s Hannibal City Council meeting.

Former Mayor John Lyng spoke briefly to the council at the outset of Tuesday’s meeting, asking the council to take steps to “gain some accountability for the Hannibal Board of Public Works to the citizens who own those public utilities.”

Lyng, who served as mayor in the early 1980s, said the customary public hearing on rate increases that will be held Thursday evening, just before the BPW board votes on those increases, has become a formality. He called for “some second level of approval of rate increases,” with electoral accountability; the BPW board is appointed.

“And yeah, I’m looking at you fellows,” Lyng told the council.

The rate increases set for a vote Thursday include a 5 percent residential-only hike in electric rates, 8 percent for sewer and 10 percent for water. In total, the three are expected to add $10 to the average monthly utility bill.

Lyng criticized the minimum customer charge in all three divisions, which also is expected to rise. However, he said the hike in electric usage rates, in particular, comes at a time when wholesale power costs are dropping for the city. He likened the residential-only increase to Ford hypothetically raising prices on cars only for its own stockholders.

The former mayor also called for the council to write into the city charter owner approval — that is, voter approval — of financial borrowing and major investments. The latter was a jab at the massive Prairie State Energy Campus in southern Illinois, of which the BPW is a part owner through the Missouri Public Utility Alliance; the plant has yet to begin generating power and revenue, but the BPW already is paying for its construction to the tune of $300,000 a month. (Note that all MPUA member cities have some financial skin in the plant as members of that organization.)

Although the BPW is considered part of city government, its operations traditionally have been fairly detached from City Hall. Lyng said the council should be doing more to hold the BPW accountable.

BPW General Manager Bob Stevenson and Board President Randy Park were in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, but did not speak or offer a response to Lyng’s comments.

The council took no action with regard to the former mayor’s remarks, but Fourth Ward Councilman Barry Louderman acknowledged that the council and utility have had a “tenuous” relationship through the years.

This isn’t the first time a Lyng has called for BPW reforms in recent years. His son, former Sixth Ward Councilman Jeff Lyng, was similarly outspoken about the utility.

Twain tie turns up in ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’

Posted by mpoletti – June 4, 2012

A re-imagined Abraham Lincoln takes a break from slaying baddies like Joseph Nash McDowell, the real-life macabre doctor who inspired Mark Twain Cave's spookiness, in this poster from the summer blockbuster "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter." (photo courtesy of Hollywood Reporter)

Here’s a fun one from one of Hannibal’s Mark Twain heirs apparent about an upcoming summer blockbuster’s possible nod to Twain and Hannibal.

Jim Waddell, a prolific Twain portrayer in Hannibal, emailed me over the weekend to tell me he’d been thumbing through a copy of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” the 2010 novel by literary revisionist Seth Grahame-Smith that imagines our 16th president as a slayer of the undead. A film adaptation is set to be released later this month.

Waddell, who has done some interesting research into Twain’s Hannibal childhood, soon found that a figure who fascinated the young Samuel Clemens — and inspired no small share of Mark Twain Cave’s spooky vibe — figures prominently in the book. From his email (emphasis mine):

Imagine my surprise when I read in chapter eight that Lincoln sends his cohorts to kill the dreaded vampire Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell. This is the same man who stored the corpse of his daughter in the Mark Twain Cave.  Her likeness is visible on the ceiling of the submarine room, traced on the limestone with the carbon produced from the flame of a torch.  B.F.M. Farthing wrote an acount(sic) of how he, young Sam, and several other boys snuck out of school to view the corpse and got lost in the cave.  The chapter in AL:VH that addresses McDowell is exciting and graphic.  It will be interesting to see how its(sic) represented in the movie.

Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi” briefly touched on McDowell’s gruesome medical experimentations. However, I’m willing to bet Twain never imagined McDowell as a vampire. Maybe this re-imagining of McDowell will inspire a new interest in his real-life fascination with the macabre and how it touched one of Hannibal’s best-known landmarks.

Here’s the trailer for “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” My colleague Matt Hopf blogged recently about a new Illinois Office of Tourism ad that likewise painted Lincoln as an action hero of sorts.

Speaking of Twain and medicine, a recent Flavorwire post about the notebooks of famous authors included Twain’s thoughts on a comedy about a physician-turned-playwright.

Self-confessed abuser from Hannibal seminary dies

Posted by mpoletti – May 10, 2012

A former Catholic priest and bishop who admitted to abusing a young man at Hannibal’s old high school seminary has died.

Catholic News Service reported Tuesday, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Wednesday, that Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell died recently in a Trappist abbey near Charleston, S.C., after a long illness. He would have turned 74 today.

O’Connell resigned as bishop of south Florida’s Diocese of Palm Beach in 2002, the first bishop to do so in the heat of that year’s Catholic clergy abuse crisis. The day before his resignation, he admitted that he had abused a teenage student in the 1970s at the all-male St. Thomas Aquinas Preparatory Seminary in Hannibal. That student, Christopher Dixon, later would receive a settlement from the Diocese of Jefferson City; however, the diocese never admitted to the allegations against O’Connell, which ultimately were documented in Time magazine.

O’Connell was ordained a priest in the Jefferson City diocese in 1963 and named rector at St. Thomas in 1970. He went on to serve as a bishop in Knoxville, Tenn., and in the Palm Beach diocese, where his ministry career ended. He was never formally defrocked.

The hilltop St. Thomas campus is now home to Hannibal Christian Academy.

Bill could take teeth out of smoking bans

Posted by mpoletti – May 2, 2012

On the heels of last night’s first reading on Hannibal’s indoor smoking ban comes a bill in the Missouri legislature that could restrict smoking bans in the Show-Me State.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a story today about a bill in the Missouri House of Representatives (HB 2103) that would prohibit Missouri cities and counties from banning smoking in establishments that derive 60 percent or more of their revenue from alcohol, tobacco or entertainment. That would apply to casinos and to many bars, bowling alleys, bingo halls, pool halls and similar businesses.

In a sentiment many smoking ban opponents in Hannibal have echoed, the bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Melissa Leach, says that would leave a smoking ban up to individual businesses, not local government. Leach represents Springfield, Mo., which last year passed a citywide smoking ban that she claims has hurt local businesses. (A measure to repeal the smoking ban is on the June ballot there.)

The Missouri Municipal League opposes the bill, saying that taking the teeth out of local government- or voter-approved smoking bans is a blow to local control.

It may be a moot point anyway. Less than a month remains in this Missouri legislative session, and with the bill headed to the House Small Business Committee this week, even Leach acknowledges it would take a miracle for both chambers to pass the bill by the end of the session.

It’s possible that Hannibal’s voter-approved smoking ban could become part of the debate. Rep. Lindell Shumake, R-Hannibal, sits on the Small Business Committee.

Hannibal voters approved Proposition 1′s indoor smoking ban last month, and the Hannibal City Council gave a first reading Tuesday to the smoking ban, though not without a prolonged debate. (A very public thanks to my colleague Matt Hopf for covering that debate for me last night while I handled a conflicting assignment.) The final council vote is May 15.

Hannibal’s smoking ban would go into effect July 1. It’s unclear what effect Leach’s bill would have on existing ordinances if it is signed into law.

Mark Twain Commemorative Coin Act passes in U.S. House

Posted by mpoletti – April 20, 2012

In this screen shot from a C-SPAN video stream, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., speaks in the House Monday about the Mark Twain Commemorative Coin Act, which he introduced last summer. The House bill, which had 298 co-sponsors, passed Thursday by an overwhelming 408-4 margin.

After repeated attempts in Congress to mint a Mark Twain commemorative coin died in committee, the U.S. House this week greenlighted a bill bringing the coin closer to reality.

The House voted verbally Monday and via the yeas and nays Thursday — that is, through a formal roll-call vote— to pass HR 2453, the Mark Twain Commemorative Coin Act. The bill received 408 yeas, 4 nays and 2 “present” votes in Thursday’s roll call vote; 17 representatives did not vote.

The bill had 298 co-sponsors on both sides of the political aisle, including the entire Missouri congressional delegation.

If signed into law, the budget-neutral bill would provide for 100,000 collectible $5 gold coins and 350,000 $1 silver coins to be minted in commemoration of Twain’s legacy. They would be issued in 2016.

Collectors and other buyers would pay a surcharge on each Mark Twain coin — $35 for each gold coin, $10 for each silver coin. The revenue from that surcharge would be split among four historic Mark Twain sites: the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal; the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Conn., where Twain lived and worked for 17 years; the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y., where Twain worked from a summer home for 20 years and later was buried; and the Mark Twain Project at the University of California, Berkeley.

Cindy Lovell, the Mark Twain Boyhood Home’s executive director, said when the bill was introduced last summer that the coin could generate $1 million in revenue for the Hannibal site.

The move to produce the coins follows the U.S. Mint’s move late last year to scrap commemorative coin production as a cost-cutting measure. The bill, if signed into law, would order the Mint to produce the coins.

The yeas-and-nays vote followed a brief debate period Monday in which one of the bill’s two main co-sponsors, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., offered remarks on the importance of the bill as a way of honoring Twain’s legacy and supporting the institutions keeping his legacy alive.

Luetkemeyer briefly described the work of the four Twain sites, saying the revenue generated by the coin would help them “continue to spread awareness and educate the public” regarding “a true American figure.” (In a special treat for the Twainiacs of Hannibal, which sits in his sprawling district, he noted the upcoming May 15 centennial of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and name-checked Lovell and Curator Henry Sweets.)

The other main co-sponsor, Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said the coin will be produced “at no cost to America’s public, but enriching Americans all across this great nation, I dare say across the globe.”

Co-sponsor Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., also spoke on what he called “meaningful legislation,” saying: “Mark Twain’s life and legacy have left a lasting impact.”

After the remarks, a verbal vote was taken on the bill, with a resounding chorus of “yeas” and no “nays” audible in the House chamber. However, Luetkemeyer quickly called for the formal yeas and nays, a vote that was postponed until Thursday.

Despite Twain’s own disdain for Congress when he was alive, congressmen spanning the political spectrum frequently invoke the great American humorist’s name, as the congressional newspaper Roll Call noted last fall. That makes the bill’s widespread, bipartisan support unsurprising, even though two previous House bills and a Senate bill died in committee in previous sessions of Congress.

In a Facebook post immediately after the debate and initial vote Monday, Lovell offered hearty praise for the bill and the legislators who had helped get it passed. Following the yeas and nays, she wrote in a press release Friday: “As we celebrate the Boyhood Home and Museum’s hundredth anniversary this year, we are keenly aware of the importance of historic preservation and especially the costs associated with it. This would be significant for all four Twain sites.”

The measure now heads to the U.S. Senate. Lovell urged Facebook friends to appeal to their senators to get the Senate bill, S 1929, passed quickly so the bill can be signed into law in time for the Hannibal museum’s centennial.

Hannibal Community Theatre facility back on Building Commission’s radar

Posted by mpoletti – April 3, 2012

Hannibal’s Building Commission devoted a significant portion of its meeting to discussing City Hall’s crumbling next-door neighbor, the former Maryland Hotel at 314-18 Broadway. However, the other buildings they discussed included another landmark in the downtown area: the former Hannibal Community Theatre facility at 515 Lyon.

The majestic church, once home to a Catholic parish and then an American Legion hall, was condemned in 2009. The theater group used the church’s basement as its theater for several years and still owns the building, but left when the building was condemned. It has been using St. John Lutheran School’s gymnasium for a performance facility.

The Building Commission said Monday that no work has been done lately on the building, long an agenda item for the commission. Building Inspector Joey Burnham said the building is structurally sound, and it was removed from the commission’s pending demolition list last month. However, City Engineer Mark Rees and commission member Lou Barta, the Third Ward councilman, said the building still has brick issues and needs to be tuckpointed. They suggested putting up construction fencing around the old church to prevent falling brick from causing damage or injury, much as the city has around the former Maryland Hotel to mitigate the hazard of its falling stucco.

Commission members intimated that it could be politically dangerous to tear down the old church because of its historical significance. However, Mayor Roy Hark said the commission needs to get back in touch with the theater and urge further action or at least learn its wishes for the building.

The commission took no action Monday and will continue to monitor the theater for another month.

Another Hannibal poet comes out of the woodwork

Posted by mpoletti – March 15, 2012

Last May, I wrote a story about Jerry Welch, the owner of American Decor in Hannibal, who also is a prolific poet and children’s author. I posted a clip on this blog of Welch reciting his children’s poem “Illume and the Moon.” Another local poet stumbled across that post and commented with some verse of his own about an erstwhile Hannibal landmark, the water tower at Pleasant Street and Country Club Drive that was torn down a few years ago.

With his permission, I’m reprinting the poem Robert Winthrop wrote in that comment. Enjoy!

 

The Old Water Tower

 

Ay! Tear the water tower down

That stood on Pleasant Street.

A landmark generations old,

A memory so sweet.

They say its time has come and gone;

It’s old and past its prime.

Like some old beauty, paint and care

Can’t stop the March of Time.

But does it not deserve to live

For service long and true,

A reservoir for God’s pure wine,

A beacon ever new?

Could any skinny cell-phone tower

Replace its sturdy grace,

Its symmetry, its criss-cross legs,

It’s seeming sense of place?

What boy did not a challenge find

To climb its lofty height

To write his class’ logo

One silent, springtime night?

What weary walker has not gauged

His progress up the hill

By distance from its silv’ry peak

And gained a renewed will?

Would Pisa let its tower fall

Like Babel into dust?

Would France turn Eiffel into scrap,

A twisted pile of rust?

Will we, a “white town drowsing,”

Let go another prize

And only realize too late

Through rueful, teary eyes?

Typos are nobody’s friend in covering breaking news

Posted by mpoletti – March 14, 2012

The Marion County Sheriff’s Department had a rough day Sunday, when two deputies shot an armed suspect outside Fiddlestiks restaurant in Hannibal. But at least they didn’t have as bad a day as one Washington TV station did while covering a shooting.

Media critic Jim Romenesko tells us that WJLA/ABC 7 was following a shooting in the Washington suburb of Kensington, Md., when they got a tip that the suspect had shot and killed himself. They diligently tweeted as much.

There was just one problem with their tweet. They didn’t write “shot.”

Go to Romenesko’s website to see a screenshot of the tweet. (Caution: As you might have already guessed, it contains one of George Carlin’s seven words you can’t say on television.)

Yep, even we in the media mess up sometimes.

A friendly public safety reminder for St. Patrick’s Day

Posted by mpoletti – March 13, 2012

St. Patrick’s Day is a big day around here, on both sides of the river. In Northeast Missouri, we have the annual festivities in the Clark County hamlet of St. Patrick, the only municipality by that name in the world. In Illinois, Quincy has its big annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. Those are only two events that come to mind. And when St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Saturday … well, Rodney Hart says it best: “It’s gonna be HUGE.”

This may sound like it came from the Department of Duh, but there’s a certain element of rowdiness to the assorted revelry on St. Patrick’s Day. The organizers of Irish road bowling in St. Patrick, for example, aren’t inviting people to bring rolling coolers just so they’ll have something to sit on between turns. There’s a reason there are so many Irish pubs in the world, and why they’ll be so crowded Saturday.

The infographic I received by email this morning reminds us to revel responsibly on Saturday. Be safe, folks!

Hannibal Parks and Recreation skate park opens early for spring break

Posted by mpoletti – March 12, 2012

A biker rides the ramps at Hannibal Parks and Recreation's Hannibal Ramp Park in Huckleberry Park.

Although it won’t ramp up its hours for the spring and summer until April, the Hannibal Ramp Park is open to local skaters and extreme sports enthusiasts every day this week for the Hannibal School District’s spring break.

The skate park in Huckleberry Park will be open noon to dark every day through Sunday. Admission is $2 on weekdays and $3 on weekends, with safety equipment available for rental. Helmets are required; pads are encouraged. A waiver and release of liability must be signed before any skaters or bikers enter the park.

After Sunday, the park will resume its usual noon-to-dark weekend hours for the rest of March. It also will open from 3:30 p.m. to dark Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays in April, and from 3:30 p.m. to dark every weekday in May. It is open noon to dark every day throughout the summer.

For more information on the park, go to hannibalparks.org.