In my time as an editor at Patch, I’ve began to notice some strange going-ons with the addresses of business, schools and other institutions in West County that came into the fore in an article published last week. The story concerned Marquette High School in the Rockwood School District and its recent top 10 placement in U.S. News and World Report’s survey of Missouri high schools. All in all, good news, but our ever-vigilant readers clued us in that not all was right with our article. It wasn’t a grammatical mistake or an errant typo, but instead singled out what I had written as the …

On behalf of myself here at Chesterfield Patch and all of our St. Louis area sites, I'd like to wish everyone a warm and happy holiday season. By the time you are reading this, presents have probably been given, received and torn open, leaving you surrounded by the shrapnel of shredded wrapping paper. Now with the hard work done, I hope you are able to enjoy the gift of spending some unhurried time with family and friends. Patch is here to help you relax as well with a bevy of seasonal stories from our Holiday Guide topic page. Here are a few highlights: Holiday Photo Contest Winners …

It's turkey time in Chesterfield and elsewhere, so I hope you are preparing to hunker down with family and food.  If you are one of the many individuals tasked with a job to do today -- whether it's staffing a gas station, manning a convenience store register or helping keep our streets safe -- then I want to extend my sincere appreciation for all the hard work you put in.  Either way, it's important for us all to take the time to reflect on and to be thankful for the friends, family and other loved ones that we have. I hope you all have a happy and (relatively) stress-free Thanksgiving.  As …

Like many media organizations across the country, Patch has been extensively covering the scandal that engulfed the Boy Scouts of America with the release of the so-called "Perversion files," a trove of documents detailing cases of sexual abuse of children that were never reported to police. The scandal hits home for many here in St. Louis, with cases of abuse reported in Hazelwood, Kirkwood and possibly more communities in the area. However, it's also a story that impacts a broader section of Americans, namely all those who grew up participating in scouting, like myself.  I was involved with…

We've launched a new feature here on Patch aimed at helping you save some cash on your weekly food and shopping bills.  You can find it on the right side of the front page after scrolling down a bit under the heading "Grocery Specials." This service, put together by the good people at Patch HQ, allows you to browse weekly and daily specials, and print coupons for local stores including Walgreens, Trader Joe's and Schnucks.  It's geared for the coupon crazy and shoppers of the who-needs-a-list variety (such as myself) with the ability to search by store or individual item and add them to your …

Greetings, faithful Patch readers! I'm Frank Johnson and I'll be taking over the helm here at Chesterfield Patch as your new local editor. I've been freelancing for Patch sites in St. Louis for more than a year, covering meetings and doing the occasional stint as a guest editor. I'm excited to now be settling down in West County and I look forward to learning all there is to know about Chesterfield.  Before I get to know you, I'd like to tell you a little about me through that most useful of word processing devices, the bullet point: I hail from the central Illinois city that was made …

Anita Rosamond makes the whole world smile with you once a month on Saturday afternoon at one of Chesterfield's best kept secrets. Smitty's, near the corner of Clayton and Baxter roads, is the standing-room-only site where you can see, hear and touch live music in the suburbs. No cover charge. Smitty's sells plenty of food and drink during Rosamond's wing-dings. The food is good, and affordable. Servers are very, very nice. Rosamond plays the piano, but is really an good singer, entertainer, and personality charmer who gets the crowd pumped to classics, love songs, fun music. And she's cute …

A 55-year-old Chesterfield man who drove drunk into a teacher's car nearly a year ago, killing her, is due to be sentenced August 17 in St. Louis County court. Patrick McCormick told the courts he was depressed, and no longer working at Saint Louis University Medical Center as director of buildings or grounds, when he pleaded guilty June 22. McCormick drove his car around a curve August 26, 2011 on Wildhorse Creek Road and according to officials, crossed over the center line and crashed into Janet Esrock's car head-on, critically injuring Esrock, and her teen son Jonathan.  The mother and son…

"Free rent" is not a sign too commonly displayed in my world. Now I'm not an economist by any means, but mortagages, car payments, credit cards, paychecks, taxes and more, are part of my world. In other words, the economy and housing values, for example, have not been great since at least late 2007, when someone declared Wall Street in good shape, right before its collapse. But here in Chesterfield now we see a "FREE RENT" sign as a come-on to call and lease commercial space. And not just one space, it looked like three storefronts. On the other hand, Prestige Outlets mall developer Bill …

For some of us, it was hiding in plain sight for the past six or seven years. It's yet another Chesterfield city park, and there's a bank sitting in the center of it.  It's the William F. Dierberg Meditation Park at 13701 Olive Boulevard, across from the Brunswick Zone bowling alley. That's right, the park is not just the the huge rock pile with the cascading water, along Olive Boulevard at the River Valley Drive traffic signal with bench, flower bed, green grass—and the big sign that reads: William F. Dierberg Meditation Park. The two-acre park surrounds Montgomery Bank on three sides, up …

A fourth-grader asked U.S. President Barack Obama a tough question in a public question-and-answer session during a New Orleans rally—"why do people hate you?" The president raises his eyebrows, then gets time to think by asking the boy's age, getting up a round of applause, and hugging him. He gave his name as Terence Scott. Listen to the answer the president gives in this short video clip here. Click on the arrow.  Happy July 4th!

Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legislation to require affordable health insurance in America, I thought—that's not much different than requiring I buy insurance when I register my car, and homeowner insurance when I take out a mortage to buy a house. So, what if we had to choose among those sorts of insurance, which would we choose? So I asked in a poll. (Click here to still vote.) The result was two out of three chose health insurance for themselves, over car insurance. Now I'm not saying I want to give up my car in order to do that; the house, maybe.  How about you? Any of …

Chesterfield Patch threw a party Wednesday at Kirkwood Station Brewery, and all the tech savvy social sorts in the St. Louis area showed up—members of Social Media Club STL. It was nearly standing-room-only at some points during the bash. Club members also revealed the election of their officiers for the new year. With questions & answers, Patch People shared the insider view on what makes us tick. There was food, drink, music and prizes, and 150 people who know social media makes life better. Thank you all. If you didn't make this one, see you at the next one? —JW

I discovered the August G. Beckemeier Conservation Area by chance along Olive Boulevard in Chesterfield, when I pulled over to take a cell phone call. It turns out there is a half-mile wooded trail down to a Missouri River overlook. Portions of the property were once a peacock farm. A home of the Beckemeier family was torn down in 2007. The trail opened to the public in 2008. It's located 1.3 miles north of Faust County Park, between Hog Hollow and Ladue roads.  The 54 acres were donated to the Missouri Department of Conservation in 1996 by Beckemeier's daughter, Minna Waldmann. It was …

While my heart aches for three little orphaned raccoons, I'm still glad they were rescued alive from the attic. The mother was trapped on the roof by pest control devices. It didn't end well for her. I'm thinking bad Kharma for me. However, Chris and Matt, wildlife technicians, showed me the little cubs they moved out of the attic. They were in a box. I gave them a can of cat food. I had to do something for them. I felt so guilty about sacrificing their mother to the eviction process; it felt wrong. A week or two earlier, I had watched the parent raccoon carrying the youngsters one-by-one up …

You've heard of Woodstock? I'm now calling Chesterfield's free summer concerts on Tuesday, Faustock! Chesterfield's annual Tuesday night series in Faust County Park are so overwhelmingly well-attended that I'm good-naturedly calling them Faustock. (Faust County Park + Woodstock.)  For those not familiar with Woodstock, the 1969 music festival was a huge rock concert with a half-million people attending over three days, in a farmers field in upstate New York. The Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce organizes the local concert series, and the city and businesses are sponsors.  Last Tuesday's first…

A diner wrote a review Saturday of Chesterfield's Fiesta "Modern Mexican Cuisine" reataurant that just opened in Hilltop Village. Stephen Ricci responded within barely an hour after Chesterfield Patch put out the call Saturday for someone to reveal whether they had eaten at the new Fiesta, and who it was.  Congrats on being the first one! ★★★★ Fiesta review, by Stephen Ricci Great atmosphere and outstanding food. Had the chicken fajitas, plenty of chicken and fresh vegetables. As an appetizer I had the empanadas and they were very tasty. Reasonably priced and good Mexican food...you can't go …

The neighborhoods along Baxter Road are strangely quiet now that MoDOT work has closed a section right smack in the middle of Baxter Road, between Clayton and Clarkson Roads. Baxter Road closed Election Day, Tuesday June 5, for removal of a section of road over a creek at Isleview, to enclose the creek in a concrete culvert. And then rebuild the road over that. Estimates are Baxter Road will be closed about four months at that juncture. Country Ridge, a residential street that crosses Baxter at a traffic light, is now open after months of closure. The light is flashing red—stop, look and …

Chesterfield Valley's The Original Pancake House is the only one in the whole state of Missouri. It moved into town four-and-a-half years ago, according to workers there. The chain, founded by a couple in 1953, has at least 100 restaurants all over the country, but Chesterfield's is one of the few in the surrounding Midwest states. So I tried it out Saturday about lunchtime. It closes at 2:30pm every day. The chocolate chip pancakes rocked. They arrived with warmed maple syrup on the side, and chocolate syrup as another side. Delicious. Much to the dismay of my dining companion, I later used …

Nordstrom rack promises to open September 6 in Manchester, at Highway 141. Granted, it's not Chesterfield, but darn close. So what does that mean for proposed outlet malls battling it out for primacy in Chesterfield Valley along Highway 40/64? Anything? Seems like competition. Has that been taken into account by developers spending $175 million and $275 million on two 50-acre outlet malls in Chesterfield? The Chesterfield Valley outlets say they'll open in late fall 2013—more than a year from now. They all say they are shopping for tenants. Now I'm sure there are studies and legalities about …