All Entries Tagged With: "unincorporated North County"
Photo Essay: Dave Naumann’s Native NoCo
An adventurer at heart, local attorney Dave Naumann likes going off the beaten path to explore the hidden natural areas of North County.
As the year closes out and I look back at all the reasons I’ve had to be grateful in 2011, I can’t help but think of you, dear NOCO readers. Since I launched this blog two years ago, I’ve gotten to meet so many amazing people, both here in North County and throughout St. Louis. Hundreds of you have emailed with story ideas or insightful comments, and quite a few have even offered to help. Thank you!
One of those generous “helpers” is David Naumann, a Florissant attorney and lifelong NoCo resident whose passion is hiking and biking North County’s many unspoiled pockets of wilderness. Dave knows the area’s trails and hidden pathways probably better than anyone, and lucky for us, he always brings a camera along.
He has been offering to share his images for months now, and I finally got a chance to pull them all together. I have to admit, some of them are so gorgeous, they even made me wonder if they’re really in North County. But of course they are!
Many thanks to Dave Naumann for these beautiful photos, and to everyone who read NOCO and supported North County this year! You are truly appreciated!! Enjoy…
Save our North County parks from closing!
A budget dispute at St. Louis County has threatened to close a number of North County's finest recreational gems, including Sioux Passage Park and its popular disc golf course. Photo: flickr/GuyFuNGo
Some call it a political game. Others say it’s a genuine crisis resulting from a bad economy. Whichever way you feel, one fact remains: Following St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley’s recommendation for significant budget cuts in 2012, some of North County’s most beautiful parks are scheduled to be closed.
Dooley’s plan to save $10 million and achieve a balanced budget calls for closing 23 of the county’s 50 parks, including several of the most exceptional and historically significant parks in the area. In NoCo, the closure list is outright brutal, and especially disappointing given that Dooley is a North County resident. On it are some of our most valuable local treasures…
- Fort Belle Fontaine – the site of the first U.S. military post west of the Mississippi, where Lewis & Clark camped both before and after their epic journey. Also home to unique WPA structures from the 1930s and incredible walking trails by the Missouri River.
- Larimore, Kinloch, Castle Point and Bon Oak – These smaller parks provide the only public recreation area in their respective neighborhoods.
- Sioux Passage Park – A 188-acre natural wonderland where you can fish, ski, hike, ice sled, play frisbee golf, and launch your boat into the Missouri River.
- St. Vincent Community Center & Park – This Normandy-area landmark sits in the shadow of one St. Louis’ most striking historical buildings. It’s also a vibrant community hub, offering swimming, playgrounds, bike trails and a rec center.
- North County Recreation Complex – St. Louis County recently spent $1.8 million upgrading the facilities here and the place has never looked better. Countless NoCo residents enjoy the Olympic-sized swimming pool, fishing lake and indoor basketball and volleyball courts.
If you agree that closing these parks would be a great detriment to our North County community, make sure your voice is heard! You have two options:
1) Attend the public hearing tomorrow, November 15, 6:30pm, in the St. Louis County Council Chamber, Administrative Building, 41 S. Central Ave., Clayton, 63105.
2) Contact your council reps directly……..Charlie Dooley: (314) 615-7016 or cdooley@stlouisco.com, District 1′s Hazel Erby: (314) 615-5436 or HErby@stlouisco.com, District 2′s Kathleen Burkett: (314) 615-5437 or KBurkett@stlouisco.com, District 4′s Mike O’Mara: (314) 615-5439 or MOmara@stlouisco.com.
In case you’re interested, there’s also an online petition to save the county parks. And here’s a list of other links (Facebook pages, etc) where you can support the parks as well.
Volunteers needed for the Confluence Clean-Up
Over the past decade, the nonprofit Missouri River Relief has removed nearly 600 tons of trash from Missouri's waterways. Next up: the Confluence...
FROM THE NEWS WIRE:
The Great Rivers Greenway District is encouraging area residents to join them on Saturday, Oct. 29, and help support Missouri River Relief in its effort to clear trash and debris from the shores of the Missouri River. The Confluence Clean-up, which is the last scheduled event of Missouri River Relief’s month-long, statewide effort to clear litter from the Missouri River, aims to clean up the area near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
Volunteers will be ferried by boat starting at 9 a.m. to different riverbanks and islands along the Missouri River to pick up trash that has washed ashore. Additional volunteers are encouraged to clean up trash along the trails and parking lots of this area.
Volunteers of all ages are needed and will meet at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area Boat Ramp, located at 801 Strodtman Rd. in Spanish Lake. Registration starts at 8:30 a.m., although volunteers are encouraged to register in advance by visiting www.riverrelief.org.
Participants will be provided with water, lunch, t-shirts, work gloves, trash bags and transportation by boat to the various clean-up sites. Missouri River Relief will also be providing lifejackets, but encourages anyone who brings a child to also bring along a proper-fitting lifejacket to keep each child as safe as possible. Following lunch, additional volunteers will be needed to load trash onto the trash barge.
The Confluence Clean-up is the final event of the Big Muddy Clean Sweep, the keystone project of Missouri River Relief’s 10th anniversary celebration. This month-long endeavor, which began on Sept. 26, has included community-based cleanups along the Missouri River, educational field trips, river festivals, barge tours and celebrations across the state of Missouri from Kansas City to the Confluence in St. Louis. The Big Muddy Clean Sweep spans 170 miles in eight towns on the Missouri River, including Kansas City, Jefferson City, Washington, St. Charles and St. Louis.
“We are excited about the opportunity to support Missouri River Relief in its efforts to clean up the Missouri River,” said Susan Trautman, Executive Director of Great Rivers Greenway. “We want to congratulate Missouri River Relief on a decade devoted to restoring our rivers, and we encourage area residents to join them in their fight to beautify the Missouri River and surrounding areas.”
Volunteers participating in the Oct. 29 Confluence clean-up are encouraged to wear work boots or tennis shoes (no flip flops), work clothes, bug spray, sunglasses, sunscreen and bring refillable water bottles. Trash collected from the event will be hauled on a sand barge and unloaded at terminals on the Mississippi River for recycling or for disposal at landfills. To learn more, visit www.riverrelief.org or call 573.443.0292.
NoCo gets some love in new StL Guidebook
If you’re an out-of-town visitor to St. Louis and you go to one of the official tourism websites, you’ll probably notice a suspicious void in the northern parts of the metro area. Nothing to see here – that’s the message you get. And yet, those of us who live in NoCo know that our neighborhoods absolutely do have tourist-worthy stops. But how are we supposed to attract visitors when many of our locals won’t even venture north?
Enter Amanda Doyle. An associate editor at Where Magazine – St. Louis and co-founder of the late, great Commonspace e-zine, Amanda recently authored a new book on St. Louis neighborhoods and, lo and behold, North County has its very own chapter! Though Amanda lives in the Tower Grove area, she has a close friend here in Ferguson who inspired her to run a story about our revitalization efforts way back in 2005, so I’m not the least bit surprised that her new book offers a broad and thorough tour of North County.
Truth be told, Amanda’s Commonspace website was one of my inspirations for NOCO, given its focus on “grassroots civics and culture in St. Louis.” Now I’m hoping her book, which features a number of NOCO advertisers and many of my own favorite local spots, will spur lots of new visitors to our businesses and attractions.
Included in the mix are Fort Belle Fontaine, Cork Wine Bar, White Barn, Columbia Bottom, Hendel’s, BJ’s, Thies Farm, EarthDance and quite a few other North County gems that have been showcased here on NOCO. You can also learn about dozens of other independent local establishments throughout the St. Louis area, even in the Metro East.
Amanda’s book is called Finally, a Guidebook to St. Louis by and for St. Louisans, Neighborhood by Neighborhood and it’s published by Reedy Press. Grab your own copy for just $18 right here.
Are you getting ready for the big day? NOCO is a proud sponsor of the 3rd annual Live Well Ferguson 5K