West Newsmagazine Your online news source for West St. Louis County, Missouri

If you love art, Labor Day Weekend means one thing – it’s time again for the Art Fair at Queeny Park. Now in its 36th year, the event showcases original works of fine art and fine craft with 140 juried artists from over 20 states will participating. Among them are Ballwin resident and fine art photographer James (Jim) Gray  and painter Maggie McCarthy, of St. Charles. Gray has been involved in photography most of his life – beginning in high school with an old Kodak camera. “I converted my closet into a darkroom and bought an early single-lens reflex camera,” ...

National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has announced the final group of National Merit Scholarship winners. These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study. Local recipients include from Chaminade College Preparatory: Jack C. Yungbluth; from John Burroughs: Sarah A. Lowe, Neal Arthur Shulman, Nikhil Das, Hanna C. Kime, Blake F. Maune, Hannah R. Rodgers and Ethan O. Mathew; from Eureka: Brennen L. Lummus; from Lafayette: Amy H. Cui and Anjana K. Renganathan; from Marquette: Brian M. Schibler, Caleb R. Singer and Nicholas J. Shields; from Parkway Central: Haochen Xu and Christopher H. Zhao; ...

Hypertension-related dementia Upon review of years of data on thousands of Americans, researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine concluded that having untreated high blood pressure in mid-life appears to increase the risk of cognitive decline in old age. A study designed to track risk factors for atherosclerosis followed more than 15,000 adults for 25 years and included assessments of participants’ cognitive skills. Johns Hopkins researchers tapped into the study data, first gathered when participants were 48-67 years old, and found that compared to those with normal blood pressure readings, people with high blood pressure during midlife had a 6.25 ...

It’s almost time to play football again, but the new season brings changes. Gone are the old Suburban West and Suburban South conferences. The new configurations are based on school enrollments, location and sports offered. Parkway Central reached the Class 5 state championship game for the second time last fall. Coach Mark Goldenberg welcomes back five starters on offense and four on defense for his 12th season as the Colts’ head coach. While the Colts lost several key players from last year’s 13-2 squad, Goldenberg is used to the next class stepping up and keeping the program at a high ...

Celebrating 30 years in business Mary Tuttle’s Flowers, located at 17021 Baxter Road in Chesterfield Valley, recently marked its 30th anniversary. The shop provides floral arrangements and fine giftware to customers in Chesterfield and surrounding areas. It is open from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and noon-4 p.m. on Sunday, and may be reached at 728-0480. Pictured is Angela Carter.   PEOPLE  Progress 64 West has elected Brenda Bader Tucker, senior vice president/regional manager for Pulaski Bank, to a one-year term on its Board of Directors. Other directors recently elected to one-year terms include ...

John Stoeffler, a former Army Infantry officer who served in Korea in the mid-1960s, always has had a heart for soldiers and their families. But it is thanks to the efforts of local volunteers that he’s able to do something about it. In 2008, Stoeffler and his wife, Linda, created the Sweet Dreams Picture Pillow Project to provide comfort to children whose parents are deployed. Digital images, provided by the military families, are transferred onto muslin using a high heat press. Linda then bastes and stuffs each pillow before turning it over for final sewing by one of nine volunteers, ...

Celebrate Wildwood presents an opportunity for West County residents to enjoy food, music and festivites from Aug. 22-24. Attendees will enjoy a car and motorcycle show, fireworks, a parade and juried art show throughout the weekend.

Seventeen local students were among the 48 students whose historical family stories or art were  included in the “Grannie Annie, Vol. 9.” Released in May, the anthology is published by The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration, a nonprofit organization based in St. Louis that invites students in grades four through eight to interview an older relative, write a story and submit it to the Grannie Annie Foundation for possible publication. Students also are invited to illustrate their stories. After stories have been selected for publication additional illustrations are solicited from students in the St. Louis area. Local published authors include ...

After four failed votes, Rob Castle was selected on Aug. 7 as a new interim member of the Rockwood School District Board of Education. By a vote of 4 to 1 – with Keith Kinder opposed and Matt Doell absent – Castle was selected from among a total of five residents who applied for the open board position. Castle, 48, resides in unincorporated St. Louis County near Fenton and is the father of two Rockwood Summit High graduates and a current senior. He is set to take his oath of office during the Aug. 21 board meeting and will fill, ...

Parkway’s Board of Education approved a resolution Aug. 6 on the formal ballot language for Proposition S, a $94 million bond issue to be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot. The bond issue will require a 15-cent per $100 of assessed valuation property tax rate increase – an estimated $62 per year in residential taxes for the average homeowner. Patty Bedborough, the district’s chief financial officer, said the bond issue will fund school safety and security, maintenance, repairs, improvements, renovations and additions, such as roof repairs, heating/ventilation/air conditioning, plumbing, electricity, accessibility, middle school science labs, furnishing and equipping schools, and ...