Ellisville discusses, passes motion on parking disturbances

 (...for West Newsmagazine...online Oct. 22,2021...my first event covered for the city of Ellisville)

A bill regarding parking annoyances was the subject of discussion and interest at the Ellisville City Council meeting held Wednesday, Oct. 20. Not only did all six council members weigh in on a bill amending current regulations to prohibit parking in specified places (Bill 3725), but it was the only one of four legislative bills that drew a series of public comments. The discussions led to one section being amended and another totally removed.

The meeting began with an already amended version of a piece of legislation focused on what to do about automobiles parked for prolonged periods on city streets.

That section read: “No person shall park a vehicle on any roadway for an uninterrupted period of time longer than twenty-four (24) hours except in an emergency.”

Ellisville resident Marilyn Niebling voiced her disagreement with the proposed time period during the public comments portion of the meeting.

“I hope we don’t do something that’s going to make parking harder for obedient residents and nice neighbors in order to solve a problem that exists in some areas,” Niebling said. “In my mind, 24 hours of having to get out and move your car is an effort. Where I live, we do not have driveways. I can’t put my car in my driveway. No one pretty much can on my side of the street where I have to park or my guests have to park. There’s only parking on one side of the street, which happens to be that same side. Therefore, it would be challenging if you have overnight or out-of-town guests for the weekend to be concerned with going out and moving the car every 24 hours, and trying to figure out how to get it shuffled around.”

As an alternative, Niebling proposed a 72-hour window.                                                   

Ellisville Police Chief Steve Lewis also said that there was similar ordinance passed in his 24 years with the Chesterfield Police Department where the window for car removal was 48 hours. However, Lewis agreed with Niebling's proposed 72-hour time frame. He also added that the concern is targeted toward individuals who consistently disregard neighbors and block streets and driveways in subdivisions.

“I always envision this to be a complaint-driven type of ordinance,” council member Vince McGrath (District 1) said. “The problem District 1 is having is not just somebody coming through to a park and parking there for awhile. We’re talking about people parking on a street continuously for weeks at a time.”

Meanwhile, Dan Duffy (District 3) specifically disagreed with a section of the bill that read: “No person shall park a vehicle on any roadway which adjoins a residence unless the person has as his/her destination a residence adjacent to such street."

"We have a lot of young families who drive to the neighborhood parks, have to park on the street, and it’s not their street, and it doesn’t adjoin a residence of their destination," Duffy said. "They’re heading to the park. I know at Meadowlark Park, lots of times the park is fairly crowded, people drive to the park and park adjacent to residences that are near the park. We’ve never really had problems with that. So, I would hate to see that limited by this part of the ordinance.”

Ellisville council members ultimately agreed the section should be removed from the bill.

                                   (Photo Source:  Pixabay)

Council member Mick Cahill (District 2) brought up additional points regarding the 72-hour rule and its potential enforcement.

“How would you know if the vehicle doesn’t come home for the day, come back for the evening or vice-versa?” Cahill asked Lewis. “Maybe they go out in the night and park all day there, like a night shift nurse. I truly believe this has to be complaint driven.

“I would also like to know how are we going to let the homeowners know this because you’re saying this would be no tolerance, and if a homeowner doesn’t know that this is an ordinance; they’ve been parking in front of their home for years … and maybe only drive their car on the weekends, and take the bus during the week, or have a different vehicle that they drive and keep in their garage, and leave a car on the street, although no one’s being bothered by it, nobody knows. So, how is the city going to come around and notify everybody of this?”

Lewis responded that first, once there was a formal complaint, officers would come out and do visual observations, note that in Ellisville’s log, electronically note the location of the vehicle, and return the officer to observe that violation in the same location. At that point, he could issue the summons or parking ticket.

He added that he complaint would start in the notification. For example, the three-day violation wouldn’t start because the car was there for five days. Once the police are officially involved is when the three days would start.

“Then, my direction to the officer would be that we make contact,” Lewis said. “We would mark that car in some fashion, and we would contact that owner within those three days.”

The bill was passed by a council vote and became Ordinance 3494, with Cahill voting in objection. The ordinance will be full force and effect 30 days from and after its approval by the council.

Unique Wildwood businesses share sweet connection

 (West Newsmagazine, 10/4/2021)

There’s an art to making beautiful cakes and scooping perfect portions of ice cream. Just ask Wildwood entrepreneurs Tiffany Thompson and Steve Christensen.

For most of the summer, Thompson’s 3-foot-tall birthday cake in honor of Bagnell Dam’s 90th anniversary was paraded through the Ozarks. The cake features icing that replicates water and waves. There are boats and fish – all the things you’d associate with Lake of the Ozarks. The top tier resembles the dam itself and bears the celebration’s logo proudly proclaiming: The Best Dam Birthday Bash!

Tiffany Thompson with her Bagnell Dam birthday cake.

It all looks good enough to eat. But Thompson would not advise it. The cake’s ingredients came mostly from Home Depot and Menards – Rubbermaid totes, buckets, sewer hoses, spackling compound and tape. Yep, it’s fake.

While Thompson’s creations are “fakelicious,” there’s nothing inedible about Christensen’s passion.  He’s the Scoops Guy, who recently opened a Scoop School at 2612 East Ave. in Wildwood, right behind the Grover post office. 

Just as Thompson is an expert at creating fake cakes and other food and drink items, Christensen is an expert when it comes to the world of real ice cream, frozen yogurt, frozen custard and the like.

The Brisbane, Australia, native is the executive director of the National Ice Cream Retailers Association. As such, he has spent the last couple of decades training individuals and management around the world in all the details of entering into and maintaining top-notch frozen dessert stores. His journey to Missouri was, of course, ice cream – or custard – based and a bit circuitous. He moved from Australia to Michigan to Missouri.

“St. Louis stole our hearts,” he said. “It’s a big custard town and there’s great premium ice cream here, too. St. Louis is very central, and (students) can get some great ice cream while they’re here.”

Christensen has been in West County for the whole 17 years he’s been in the state. “I love the family feel of it,” he said, “and I’ve always strived to have the facility close to where we live.”

Years ago, Christensen’s organization purchased the Silky’s in Ballwin and did training there at the Mr. C’s facility. He said it was nice to learn how to run a shop within a shop, but the facility was limited in terms of space. His second location, inside St. Louis County’s business incubator on Spirit 40 Park Drive in Chesterfield, offered a large auditorium but no retail section. 

“In our new location in Wildwood, we actually have both,” Christensen said. “We have a great training room, a lot of space and we’re building an ice cream shop in the front of our facility. So, we have space dedicated to training, inventory and a functioning ice cream shop … Cherry Hills Creamery. You got the scoop on that! We haven’t told many people.”

It may be the one aspect of his work that Christensen has kept quiet. He has literally traveled the world teaching the nuances of running a successful frozen dessert business to tens of thousands of people in seminars, trade shows and workshops. For well-established businesses, he works with stores on a consulting basis. 

“They may seek a few areas of improvement, to hand the business down to a relative or totally get out of the business. In some cases, franchise management teams from various parts of the country are brought here to get up to date with their training,” he said. Then, he added, “Potential independently-owned ice cream shops are really our wheelhouse.

Scoop School boasts a three-day standard course that’s roughly 50% theory and 50% practice. The theory part is in the classroom learning about finance, operations and marketing. The hands-on portion is making ice cream and everything else – from scooping treats to rolling waffle cones.

Christensen also maintains a YouTube channel and icecream.video website that features some 250 videos about all aspects of the business. Recently, Scoop School videos surpassed their 1 millionth view.

Steve Christensen (back, center) with Scoop School graduates.

“We’re unique in that we train the theory and business of ice cream as well as the hands-on. Yes, it’s important to learn about small business finance, marketing and how to lay out your store. But everybody loves standing in front of a freezer or a custard machine, and having that beautiful, fresh ice cream or fresh dessert coming out – it’s pretty hard to beat.”

Unlike Christensen, Thompson had absolutely no experience in the food and beverage industry before she created “Fakelicious: Fake Food for the Real World!” In fact, she said her business grew out of a childhood hobby and a desire to amuse her father during 2020, when COVID-19 meant she couldn’t take him out to eat or bring him real food.

As a child, Thompson made fake food out of Play Dough, boxes of sticks, or whatever else she could find. She made similar items for her granddaughter. Then, last year her hobby took a different twist.

“My dad is a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in the Columbia VA Hospital,” Thompson explained. “We weren’t allowed to see him for 14 months during COVID, so I started sending him fake food.  Once we got in to visit him again, they still wouldn’t let us bring real food in. So, I would bring him a Cardinal baseball hot dog made out of clay. He loved it!”

And Fakelicious was born.

“I’ve always been an artist,” Thompson said. “In high school, I won the state Best of Show at the State Art Competition in 1986. I’m good at painting and drawing, and can do just about anything creative.”

She said she goes into restaurants now and says, ‘I can make that better.’ For a growing list of clients, she does. Restaurants and stores use Fakelicious food for staging and photoshoots since real food can lose its appeal over a very brief period of time. Thompson’s food looks as real and fresh as “just served.”

“Margaritaville in Lake of the Ozarks is going to have me stage their bridal room,” Thompson shared. “If people are planning to have a wedding there, they can see how it will look with plated food, a fake wedding cake and champagne. They can also pack it up and take it with them when they do bridal shows.”

Thompson said she donates a portion of her profits to the Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri. She chose that charity because of the assistance they gave her in 2015, at a time when she personally knew what it was like to not have food. She also donates many of her creations to silent auctions and other charities such as Camp Circle Star and those working to increase breast cancer awareness.

Her food, she said, meets more people than she does. But perhaps not for long, as her fame is growing.

Locally, Thompson has created lifelike toasted ravioli for Pasta House and frozen custard for Ted Drewes.

“Now that people are getting to know the product and the name, I can do more,” she said. “I’m even talking to Busch Stadium to see if I can get my fake hot dogs and cotton candy into the Redbird Club so they can display their products. I would be so excited to be able to get my food into Busch Stadium!”

For Thompson, Fakelicious is part therapy, part business and all fun.

“It just makes people happy!” Thompson exclaimed. “People just don’t know that they need fake food in their lives!”    

That may not be true of ice cream or frozen custard or frozen yogurt.

“Frozen custard is always near and dear to my heart,” Christensen said. “We started off in that business. But the country’s being taken by storm by these small batches of micro creameries that offer a number of premium ice cream products with unique flavors, locally run and made. So, it’s kind of a toss-up currently between custard and premium ice cream.

“The beauty of the business is that everybody loves ice cream products. Particularly in these days when life is a little uncertain and there are some challenges, it doesn’t take a lot to go down to the local ice cream shop and get a little treat … it’s like a 15-minute vacation.”