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.”

Keeping the Faith: Former St. Charles mayor to deliver message at Alzheimer’s Walk

(In MidRivers Newsmagazine, Sept. 1, 2021)

When Sally Faith was running for various public offices, she used the catchy campaign slogan, “Put Faith in Government.”  When faced with re-election, it was “Keep Faith in Government.”

Over the past 10 months, if Faith had a new catchphrase, it would have morphed into something outside the realm of work and into something far more personal. A likely candidate in both title and lyrics would be Billy Joel’s song, “Keeping the Faith.”

Mayor Sally Faith (left) with Officer Shelley Shirk and “Lilly”, one of the city’s police horses. [File photo: City of St. Charles]

Late last year, the former member of the St. Charles County Council (District 5), Missouri House of Representatives (District 15) and two-term St. Charles mayor, was diagnosed with early-stage dementia.

On Saturday, Sept. 25, Faith will deliver a 5-minute, 9:30 a.m. speech to kick off the Walk to End Alzheimer’s at St. Charles Community College. Coincidentally, she served on the college’s first Board of Trustees for a total of nine years.

Alzheimer’s is often described as a journey and Faith’s began when a couple of her girlfriends called her son, Howard, and told him that Sally should be checked out immediately for what seemed to be a deep depression. Faith said she was upset that friends didn’t call her directly.

“But I decided to go to the doctor,” she said. “My son went with me, and I told my doctor, ‘I wish these friends of mine wouldn’t have helped me.’ After giving me some tests, he told me, ‘Well, I think you should call your friends and thank them.’ He sent me to a neurologist, who was very blunt and said, ‘You have early dementia, and it’s not curable.’”

After the diagnosis, Faith thanked her friends, then she and Howard gathered more information about dementia.  Although Faith had been a caregiver for her mom, who also had Alzheimer’s, she said she knew little about the disease, one of the more than 100 forms of dementia.

“I truly believe people should accept it,” Faith said. “It’s not something you want to wake up, have a cup of coffee and talk about but it’s important to get it done early. I can tell I’m changing now that I’m aware of it. Before, I thought it was because I was retired after working morning, noon and night for so long, or it was the pandemic keeping me from going to many places. I knew something was just not right. I just didn’t know what it was.”

About six months ago, Faith started seeking support. She found a group run by Nancy Young and also reached out to Mary Williams, who is in charge of the St. Charles Walk To End Alzheimer’s and knew Faith during her mayoral years.

“Mary talked about the upcoming walk,” Faith recalled. “We went to a meeting and she asked if I would be willing to speak there. I told her I would be honored. It’s not a secret and it’s going to be my focus to say, it’s OK. It’s not catching. It’s not something to be embarrassed about. It’s what it is, and we can deal with it the best we can. You need family support, and I need social support. I like people, I’ve been around people and I reach out to people.  I want to keep in touch, and I want to do it now before it’s too late.”

Williams said Faith is an anomaly. “Most people don’t feel comfortable talking in public about any form of dementia, she said, “but Sally is just right for this role … I’m sure she will inspire many!”

After retiring, Faith had planned to write a book about her three decades in the political arena. But with her recent diagnosis, the subject of her book, which she hopes will be out at the end of the year, has changed dramatically. Its title is likely to be “I’m Losing My Memory. I’m Not Losing My Mind.”       

“When all this happened, it’s like what do I tell my friends?” Faith said. “I told them, ‘I found out I have early dementia, and I’m going to write about how I’m dealing with it.’ Then, there’s dead silence. No one knows what to say. A few of them said, ‘I will keep your secret. I won’t tell anyone.’ After a couple of them said that I thought, ‘Wait a minute! I’m not a secret. I have things to say.’ 

“My call is to say, ‘Hey! You’re not the only one out there!’”

 Faith said the book is “powerful, and it’s also painful” but it portrays the need for humor in our lives.

“I’ve got things to make them laugh,” Faith said. “The more we laugh, the more our heart listens and our head opens up. So, humor just has to be included. It’s sad that some people can’t laugh.”

Her advice, which she will share with participants at the walk, is simple: Don’t be embarrassed and make the most of the time that you’ve got.

Walk to End Alzheimer’s Promise Garden

To participate in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s: Participants can signup at the Sept. 25 event; however, it is highly recommended that they register in advance at ALZ.org/sccwalk. Walk participation is free, but donations are the goal. Walkers can participate as part of a team or as an individual, in memory or in honor of a loved one or not.

Each walker will be given a flower in one of four colors to signify their reason for participation. For instance, Faith could have a purple one for someone who has lost someone to the illness or a blue one for someone living with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. The sight of those flowers en mass is a signature of the Walk to End Alzheimer’s.

Williams added that there will be four separate entrances to the walks, and there will be free food, drink and other surprises for participants!

RBG Tourney Big Hit on All Counts

 

(This is another of my paid published articles from some 25-30 years ago…as I have always enjoyed covering events of a charitable nature, helping with the St. Louis Volunteer Meetup group events and doing P.R. writing for not-for-profit/charitable organizations.)

     The jingle, ‘You deserve a break today’ could not have been more fitting for the third annual Rubin, Brown, Gornstein and Co. Coed Softball Invitational played Saturday and Sunday at Shaw Park.

     After experiencing 100-degree temperatures at the tournament for two consecutive years, this year’s participants received a reprieve.  A break in the heat wave brought comfortable temperatures in the 70’s and low 80’s for this year’s activities.  The tournament was also a big break for the Ronald McDonald House, raising $7,400 for that charitable organization located in the Central West End.

     “The purpose of the tournament is two-fold,” said Steve Hays, the creator of the event and auditing CPA manager at RBGF and Co. “One, to raise money for charity, and two, it’s a good avenue to get all the clients together.  The first year, we held it for the Dream Factory, and this is the second year for the Ronald McDonald House.  We know they do a lot of good things in St. Louis, are kids are of interest to all of us.”

     According to its executive director, Libby Gutberlet, the Ronald McDonald House is a temporary home-away-from-home for out-of-town families with children who require care at St. Louis hospitals for serious illnesses like cancer and cardio transplants.

     Since the Ronald McDonald House charges just $5 night for a stay, contributions are necessary to maintain the 90-year-old building and to pay for electricity, sheets and laundry facilities.

     “We’re a small charity,” Gutberlet said.  “Since only 30 per cent of our income comes from the McDonald Corporation, most of our donations come from softball, golf and other fundraisers.  We depend on community businesses because we don’t have the budget or mailing list that major charities have.  The Ronald McDonald House is important because without it, out-of-town families who couldn’t afford hotel facilities used to sleep on hospital floors, in lobbies or parking garages.”

     RBG and Co. is no stranger to athletic events. The Clayton-based CPA firm has a special trophy room on its premises that is filled with mementos from its company softball, soccer and basketball team successes.  One of its men’s softball teams has captured the Shaw Park League championship some nine years in succession.

     That same competitive nature was evident in RBG and Co’s coed softball tournament.  Beth Friend pitched a four-hitter as University City-based Tomco blanked Midwest Petroleum, 3-0 to reach the finals against Cord Moving and Storage.

     “I haven’t had much sports background,” said Friend, who actually works at nearby Gershman Investment Corporation.  “I’m only here because my husband works here (and plays third base).  I thought I did pretty good this game.  I won yesterday, too, but it wasn’t a shutout.  I might even try a softball team next year.”

     Another Tomco star was shortstop Joe Doyle, a Webster Groves resident who walked and singled in his two plate appearances against Midwest Petroleum before going three-for-three with two RBIs in Tomco’s 10-5 loss to Cord in the title game.  Dave Johnson, Jim Vorio and Dave Bolesta had two hits apiece as Tomco rallied from a 10-0 second inning deficit.

Parc Place of Vlasis unveiled at Ballwin P&Z meeting

 (This appeared on July 8 in West Newsmagazine)

Now that firm plans are in place for the new Ballwin police department building, to be located on Kehrs Mill Bend Court behind the Regions Bank at 14915 Manchester Road, a good deal of attention is being focused on what to do with the old government building site and its surrounding area.

In fact, that was the lone topic of discussion at the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) meeting on Tuesday, July 6. The meeting culminated in the initial approval of the three applications for the proposed Parc Place of Vlasis.

Aerial view of proposed Parc Place at Vlasis (Source: V Three Studios LLC)

Attorney George Restovich, representing Ballwin resident Brent Evans and Landau Group LLC, gave the opening remarks regarding the project, which will:

• Consolidate three lots at 14811, 14819 and 14821 Manchester Road into a single lot.
• Rezone the resulting lot into commercial property.
• Implement a Manchester Road revitalization overlay district (MRD).

Along with approval on each of those items, the developer sought site plan approval.

“This project takes the three properties that are currently not in use and tackles very difficult topographic hurdles to create an entrance to Vlasis Park; a gateway so to speak that is unique, visually appealing and inviting. It also satisfies the need for more affordable housing of the highest quality,” Restovich said.

Rendering of the proposed Parc Place at Vlasis (Source: V Three Studios LLC)

According to Gabe McKee, design principal at architecture firm V Three Studios, the proposed five-story building would feature 197 rental units; green rooftops above the parking garage, gym and yoga workout areas; lounges; an event space; an outdoor area suitable for a food truck court; and a retail café on the ground level, the only non-residential segment of the plan.

Commissioner Grant Alexander expressed concern over the residential nature of the development.

“Part of (the MRD), as I understand it, we’re trying to promote this whole mixed-use and economic development piece,” Alexander said. “This is obviously heavily skewed toward multi-family with a very small retail faction. Toward that economic piece, I understand there’s no written requirement, but to see more of that might be quite appealing. When I see multi-use I kind of think of The Brentwood Promenade. I see the first level that’s pedestrian and it’s all walk-up. Then, everything above that floor is multi-family.”

McKee responded that what is being currently considered as a utility section could later be converted to another retail space.

Rendering of the proposed Parc Place at Vlasis (Source: V Three Studios LLC)

Another major bone of contention was parking. The developer is proposing 237 parking spots for 197 total rental units. P&Z chair Mark Weaver noted that elsewhere in the city, a formula of 1.5 parking spots per dwelling unit is used.

“If they did that, your apartments would have 294 spots,” Weaver said. “That means you’re 57 spots short.”

McKee noted that a 1.2 multiplier was used to determine parking needs, based on current market rates for similar Ballwin developments. 

“There was not an actual coded parking requirement for a building of this type, so we looked at what market rate was for the area,” McKee said. “There is the ability to fit more spaces, but as you can see from the site plan, we’re close to maxing out because of some of the amenities, such as a food truck court.”

Weaver was not convinced with that assessment, noting that the proposed number of spaces would be suitable for mostly one-bedroom and some two-bedroom apartments, but that’s not what is proposed for Parc Place of Vlasis. 

The breakdown of the proposed development is 22 one-bedroom/one-bath units, 26 two-bedroom/one-bath units, 99 two-bedroom/two-bath units and 22 three-bedroom/two-bath units. McKee deemed the parking sufficient for guests and tenants with up to two vehicles, as well as a modest number of parking spaces for retail locations.

In regard to traffic concerns, Scott Goforth, also with G&W Engineering, made reference to a traffic study by the Lochmueller Group, which looked at Manchester Road as well as access points on Seven Trails Drive and Andrews Parkway. The onsite traffic report was adjusted back to 2016 data to account for the effect of COVID-19.

The report showed the traffic numbers would not appreciably change; however, commissioner Olivia Pieknik mentioned that there were bound to be additional delays and perhaps decent periods of cars blocking traffic at both the nearby QuikTrip and Wendy’s.

“I’ve been in the business for 16 years now and peak hours in the a.m. and p.m. were almost always the same no matter where I went in the city,” Goforth said. “It’s 35-45 minutes, then it winds down after that.”

Other issues addressed included the likelihood of more stop signs surrounding the complex, a potential crosswalk at Andrews Parkway and a potential nearby bus stop for children attending Ballwin Elementary.

If approved by the Ballwin Board of Aldermen, a groundbreaking could take place in the first half of 2022. Construction is expected to take at least six to eight months and the complex should be move-in ready by spring or summer 2023.

Ballwin is Poised to Add Flock Safety’s Cameras on Manchester Road

 (Here is the longer version of my West Newsmagazine article posted on June 16, 2021.)

Police departments, businesses and homeowner associations alike have been flocking to Flock Safety at an exponential rate since the 2017 inception of that Atlanta-based company.

     Following a presentation from Territory Sales Manager Lisa Dunn at its June 14 board meeting, Ballwin voted unanimously to purchase two Flock Safety cameras.  One will be aimed westbound and the other eastbound along Manchester Road. 

    “At Flock Safety, our mission is to eliminate crime,” Dunn said.  “We do that by detecting the evidence that goes through these cameras, decoding that information with the software that we have, and then delivering it into the right hands.”

     The official name of the equipment is Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras.   Flock Safety currently boasts service of such items to 4,000 cities nationwide.

     The police department, which is how Ballwin serves to utilize the cameras, can then look through to see when vehicles that fit a certain type and color passed by a specific area.

     Dunn proceeded to show specifics of how the software works in processing information so vehicles can be recognized more easily than by any traditional or even other recent methods.

     “The main difference of our camera systems is that we can do wide-scale deployment, and that’s by utilizing solar panels and LTE (Long Term Evolution as in 4G wireless) connectivity,” Dunn said. “But we also utilize a vehicle fingerprint technology.  This gives you more information on the vehicle itself for the officers to be able to look through that evidence and find the right vehicle in question.

     “The technology that we use is called Machine Learning Technology.  Whenever a vehicle passes through, a camera is motion activated so it takes a series of pictures.  We are able to then pick up the entire vehicle so that when the criminals come into the area with no plates or even with a stolen plate.”

     Each image can be expanded to give more information, including how many times a vehicle has passed through and where it’s been over the past 30 days. Dunn gave a demonstration of how the system can quickly go through some 2,700 objects to narrow down the details to five in the case of recovering stolen vehicles.  Dunn gave an example of one stolen from Ellisville, and with the help of a camera there, the vehicle was quickly found in Florissant thanks to that municipality’s cameras.

     The methodology has also helped stymie kidnapping cases as in her example of one in Memphis that was solved in a positive manner in just one hour’s time.

     In response to Mayor Tim Pogue’s inquiry, Dunn said that the information is readily available to a police department for 30 days before being stored on Amazon Web Services.

     “It’s your guys’ information,” Dunn said.  “We do not share it.  We do not sell it.  We only share it if you want us to share it.  Again, with the multi-agencies, they’re all sharing with each other, but they have to let us know if they want to share.”

     Per Alderman Kevin Roach’s (Ward 2) question, the cost to the city would be $2,500 per camera per year with a one-time installation fee of $250.  Dunn said that normally, the purchase numbers by municipalities depends on the city’s population & number of officers.  Current area municipality camera numbers include 10 in Fenton-10, 17 in Wentzville and 18 in O’Fallon. 

     “The chief wanted to start with two and see how it goes, and then we would go from there,” Roach said.  “That was his recommendation.”

      “Also, we’re working in cooperation with other municipalities,” Alderman Jim Leahy Ward 3) said.  “To be honest, we have one major thoroughfare (Manchester), and that’s where we’re putting them.  So, I agree with the place we’re starting.”

     Concerned that it could drastically affect the workload for Ballwin’s dispatchers and officers, fellow Ward 3 alderman Frank Fleming mentioned a different sidelight to the camera issue.

     “The case we talked about (at a previous meeting) was that the license plate determines if there’s a warrant, and our dispatcher has to kind of run the additional information,” Fleming said.  “That’s primarily what we’re still talking about, right?”

     Police chief Doug Schaeffler confirmed it could readily be used for warrants and also for other violations. But he reiterated that, even though that will take a lot more time and effort from his department, that’s part of their job.

     As yet another selling point, Dunn added that her company’s software is adding and releasing new features every quarter.  They work with countless law enforcement agencies who tell them precisely what’s needed to do their job to the best of their ability. 

     “One of the things they were saying is that we need more identifiers on the vehicle, whether back rack, top rack, bumper stickers, etc,” Dunn said.  “So, we just released that last quarter. We do take every advice from our law enforcement agencies to best help them.”

     Finally, Alderman Michael Finley (Ward 1) had the floor just prior to the unanimous passing of the motion.

     “One of the reasons we went to this exercise was to allay any concerns about personal liberties being hindered,” Finley said.  “We’ve done our due diligence, having this discussed at two meetings.  There have been two sessions where citizens could have come and voiced any concerns.  Nobody has. I haven’t received any adverse communication from constituents, so I wanted to have that duly noted in the minutes that there has not been any negative citizen feedback that I’m aware of.  If there is, I assume my colleagues would let us know.  Otherwise, everything looks in order to proceed.”

Justice Grown to Add a Medical Marijuana Dispensary in Ballwin

 (This is the longer version of my May 13, 2021 West Newsmagazine article)

     When Mitch Zaveduk stepped to the podium at the May 10 meeting, Mayor Tim Pogue and nearly every Ballwin board member had at least one question for him. 

     Zaveduk was representing petitioner Justice Grown or Justice Cannabis Company for Bill 4096 that read as follows:  “AN ORDINANCE GRANTING A SPECIAL USE EXCEPTION TO JUSTICE GROWN DISPENSARY FOR OPERATION OF A MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY AT 14787 MANCHESTER ROAD.”

      By a unanimous vote (except for Ward 1 Alderman Michael Finley, who made an early evening exit), that entity was successful in obtaining a Special Use Exception for a medical marijuana dispensary at the former location of Callier's Deli, becoming Ballwin Ordinance 21-13.

     Just prior to Zaveduk's 25-minute interlude, Alderman Kevin Roach (Ward 2), with his city's concern in mind, had an inquiry for City Attorney Robert Jones.

     “Is this petition or proposal in compliance with federal law, specifically the Controlled Substances Act?" Roach asked.  "If it is not, does the city have any liability if we were to approve it, and it is not in compliance?”

     “Marijuana is considered a Controlled Substance under federal law, and that’s why doctors are not allowed to write prescriptions; that's why it's a cash business" Jones replied.  "There’s a number of different kinds of restrictions that were imposed when the Constitutional amendment was passed by the voters.  But I don’t believe there’s any liability to the city in allowing what the state constitution allows. The vast majority of the United States now either allows medical marijuana or recreational marijuana despite the list of controlled substances in federal law. I don’t have an answer as to why the feds have not made some kind of issue out of that.  Maybe the gentleman who’s here to represent the petitioner can tell you the answer.  I don’t think it imposes any liability on the city to follow state law.”

    Zaveduk added that more changes are likely on the horizon, starting with the SAFE Banking Act that on April 21 passed through the U.S. House of Representatives on its way to the Senate. If it passes there, it would be almost certain to be signed by President Biden.

    If that occurs, it won’t clear cannabis off the list of controlled substances, but according to Zaveduk, it will pave the way for federal recognition of cannabis as an industry, and allow the national banks to start doing banking with those entities. He added that the obstacles Roach and Jones mentioned would also be overcome.

     That kicked off Zaveduk’s lengthy question and answer session at the podium after Zaveduk mentioned that Justice Grown is sometimes known as Justice Cannabis Company with Missouri licensing under Growing Jobs Missouri, LLC.  According to current Missouri law, each entity can hold no more than five licenses. He added that the actual dispensary name may be simply referred to as BLOC.

     Alderman Ray Kerlagon (Ward 4) asked, “Do you anticipate more businesses moving into the general area wanting to compete with you?”

      “No.  Actually, I don’t, and for a couple reasons,” Zaveduk said.  “First of all, as an industry, we try not to crowd each other too much.  Once an area is staked out, it kind of boxes out. It’s not like a car dealer or gas station where you go across the street from each other to get the customer on the right side of the street.  That’s not how we operate.  Our customers are destination customers who pre-order their medicine online and come in at a designated time to pick up.  So, it would be a convenience factor for the residents of Ballwin and nearby areas.

     “Here in Missouri, it’s a medical only state.  So, our dispensaries will only be dispensing to patients who have a medical card from the state of Missouri.  If the state changes their mind and has a referendum down the line in a year or two for recreational sales, we could do that.  But right now, this is a discussion for opening a medical dispensary in Ballwin.”

       Justice Grown also has a cultivation license and is going to be building a roughly 200,000 square foot cultivation facility in Hazelwood.  So eventually, they can sell their own product. Zaveduk said that since there aren’t many cultivators up and running right now, there’s a lack of supply, so there’s not much rush to open a lot of dispensaries without cultivation facilities.

        Pogue clarified that per Missouri law is, cannabis has to be grown in Missouri, cultivated in Missouri and any manufacturing has to be done in Missouri to make it a solely Missouri product.  Zaveduk added that anything grown in Missouri also has to be sold in Missouri

     “What type of safeguards will your store utilize to prevent smells from emanating to your immediate next door neighbor?” asked Alderman Ross Bullington (Ward 4).

     “Smell comes into play more when you’re dealing with cultivation and processing, and that’s not on the table here,” Zaveduk said.  “With dispensing, the product typically comes in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag that is bar coded.  We’ll be required to track our product by what’s known as ‘seed to sale.’ So, when we sell the bag, we can tell you that this was grown from this plant; that was housed in this room, it was cloned off of this seed…to purchase.  We track it the whole time. Everything is pre measured, and it comes in a zip-lock, air-tight sealed bag.  So, there is no smell.”

    “There’s also absolutely no consumption allowed of anything on site. These are patients who have something like PTSD or some other problems with cancer or lymphoma.  So, they’re going to come and they’re going to pick up their medicine and they’re going to go home. We won’t let anyone in the store use it and certainly not on the premises, either.”

     Zaveduk mentioned that his parent company bought the entire 2,500 square foot site.  They will be leasing to current tenant Batteries Plus and will be seeking an additional tenant to fill the singular vacant building.  The dispensary is set to be just .6 acres with parking for about 33 cars.  Proposed hours will be approximately 10-6 Mon-Wed, 10-8 Thurs-Sat, and 12-6 on Sunday with 25-30 full-time jobs.

     In response to questions of the building’s security, Zaveduk added theirs will be state of the art.  Not only will there be some 30 cameras both in and outside the building, but he said that he’s had discussions with the Ballwin Police Department to ensure that the latter will also be allowed to be part of the process, offering them a direct feed to the premises.

     “For HIPA reasons and the Privacy Act…since these are actual patients, we would ask that you not turn the camera on and just leave it on,” Zaveduk said.  “But any time you need it for emergency reasons, the camera will avail itself to full access.  It’s all Internet-based.  So, you’d be able to log into an Internet site to immediately have access to all the cameras. Our cameras are high depth to the point where they have extremely high-facial recognition, and we will also be able to match the faces that are getting out of the car.  We’re going to have cameras all over the parking lot, so if a couple a few days later says, ‘Someone hit me in the parking lot.  He was driving a red car, and got me around noon,’ we can do a search with our software. We can assist the police with that, and avail them with this technology as well.  As far as security within the building, we use thumb prints and retinal scans, and biometric security.”

     Zaveduk’s final comments were more of a look at the present-day industry and what it will likely morph into for the remainder of this decade and beyond.

     “To be blunt, a lot of people see this as a golden egg; an opportunity to really get into the ground up on something,” he said.  “So, it’s been a very sexy and attractive industry to a lot of investors.  Many of those are even license seekers where they would put together lawyers and spend the money that it would take to successfully submit an application to the state to be awarded a license.  But yet, as you (Roach) said, not actually having the expertise and background to operate the cannabis within the space, client issues we have to deal with and on-boarding for staff.  So, a lot of people just partner up with more experienced operators.  We’re in the infancy stages of this industry.”

     The stipulations for the Ballwin site’s Special Use Exception are as follows:  https://www.ballwin.mo.us/pageimages/DocumentCenter/4096_-_Medical_Marijuana_Dispensery.pdf

 

Serengeti Steve: From Ballwin to Hollywood!

 (Here's the full, unedited version of what appeared online yesterday in West Newsmagazine! The photos are from that version, straight from Ceriotti's Reptile Experience website.)

     If you saw ‘Serengeti Steve’ Ceriotti on a pair of national reality shows, you might cringe like viewers experiencing ‘Fear Factor’ or ‘Stupid Human Tricks.’  However, if you attended one of his thousands of Reptile Experience performances, Doctor Doolittle might more readily come to mind.

     The Ballwin resident became a herpetologist some 25 years ago.  His initial prime duty was extracting venom from snakes for cancer research.  Since then, Ceriotti’s career has taken some interesting twists and turns which includes raising and caring for some 200 species of reptiles and arachnids.

     But Steve is FAR more than simply a pet owner.  He shares his passion by performing at parties, school and scout groups, at libraries, plus fairs and festivals throughout Missouri and Illinois to the tune of some 600 shows per year!

     “I came up with what I thought was a crazy idea because I had what you might call the entertainment bug, as I’ve always been very outgoing and extroverted,” he said.  “Also, I felt like I needed to relay my education and information about these animals that so many people are terrified of.  I thought a neat way I could do it would be to bring some of these animals to events.  I’m talking everything from alligators to big anacondas to you name it.  Before I knew it, I had so much business!  So, I got out of the venom extraction business, started doing this full-time, and I’ve been busy as can be from day one!” 

     Ceriotti’s prime moniker is a story in itself.  It began prior to a Channel 5 ‘Show Me St. Louis’ interview. The show’s hostess asked for his stage name.  But Ceriotti didn’t have one.  She told him that he MUST have one. 

     “First, she threw out Safari Steve,” Ceriotti said.  “I was like, ‘I don’t know.  It doesn’t have much ring to it.’ Then she asked where a lot of the animals came from.   I said that I do a lot from Africa, have some Australian things, and everything else from the New World.  So, she said, ‘What is that area from the plains of Africa?’  I said, ‘Serengeti?’ She said, ‘There you go!  Serengeti Steve!’ It was born literally at that moment!”

Check out some of his online videos to easily feel the passion, knowledge, comical flair and highly-memorable entertainment value of his public appearances.

     Steve admits he’s done so many performances at a variety of venues that it’s often difficult to recall specific ones. However, there have been some truly unforgettable ones.

    “One that sticks out in my head is actually a sad story,” Steve said.  “A lady called wanting to know if I could bring just one of my alligators to a party.  When I asked her what the party was for, she said it was for her nephew who had cancer.  This was so tragic.  The kid wanted nothing more than to hold an alligator. They told me Make a Wish could not make it happen. That’s when I decided I was definitely going to be there!’”

      With latter knowledge that the very young Sunset Hills boy had terminal-stage leukemia, Steve adjusted other shows to book that party.

     “The kid was beside himself that he got to hold what at that time was about a four-foot alligator,” Ceriotti said.   “He was just glowing!  About a month later, I ran into somebody who was a friend of the aunt who scheduled the party.  She told me the kid had passed away.  It was tragic, but I was happy in the sense that a great day doing what he wanted.”       

     Steve has met several sports celebrities along the way, which is well documented on his website.  He said that just like the rest of us, they have kids, and they love including him at their parties.  Ceriotti mentioned an event with Albert Pujols.  Steve wanted to talk baseball with him, but Pujols wanted to talk about Steve’s business and how he got into reptiles.

     Many people are aghast when checking out Ceriotti’s https://www.reptileexperience.com/ website and his variety of videos found on general searches under ‘Serengeti Steve.’  How can anyone be brave enough to interact with most of the reptiles as he does?

     “All the animals are what we refer to as being ‘conditioned,’” he said. “They aren’t trained because you can’t train reptiles.  Their brains don’t have the capability of training.  It doesn’t work with all reptiles.  But basically, it’s interacting with them enough at birth…which always works best…and for a certain amount of time, depending on the species, we work with them, handle them, and they get to a point where they don’t fear us anymore. “

     Ceriotti added that there are only two reasons an animal would bite you.  One is basically called a feeding response.  The animal thinks we’re food.  He wants to eat us.  The other reason is a defensive response where they think we are something to fear, and they have to protect their babies or territory. When conditioning comes in as constant handling, they don’t look at their handlers as something to fear. 

     Steve’s local and regional performance events demonstrate how well-conditioned his reptiles are. They interact smoothly with all the children and adults in his audiences.  So, most participants no longer get freaked out by their mere appearance.

     That said, ‘Serengeti Steve’ went well beyond the 100 per cent safety factor performer during one of his national TV performances. Enter the 2012 America’s Got Talent finals in Las Vegas.

     Ceriotti began by walking calmly toward the three celebrity judges.  Moments later, there were ghastly expressions on the faces of Howie Mendel, Howard Stern and especially Sharon Osbourne, as Steve opened his mouth to have two massive Madagascar cockroaches crawl out.  But that was a mild prelude to his successful act of kissing a black Pakistani cobra.  one of the deadliest species of its kind in the world. That stunt could lead to instant death with one quick bite from the cobra’s fangs.

     “Basically, they need you to ramp it up, if you will…for each episode, a little crazier and a little more dangerous,” Ceriotti said.  “That is one of the more dangerous things to do.  So, that’s why it progressed into that for that round in Vegas.”

     Previously, Steve worked with a man born and raised in the Belize rain forest.  That man was the one who trained Steve how to handle and extract venom. What TV audiences don’t know, the show’s producers helped push the danger factor to a fever pitch.

    Explaining the part about jabbing with the medicine, Steve said, “That was Hollywood nonsense.  It did not make me a happy camper.  Drama draws attention.  Granted, you can be allergic to venoms, but they said they weren’t going to fib on national television. They said, ‘but can you have the anaphylactic shock kind of reaction?’ I said, ‘Sure.  If I get bit by this thing, and I’m allergic to the venom, I’m in serious trouble.’ So, they said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to hand this guy an Epipen,’ and I was like, ‘O.K.’ Then they gave me some lines to say, and I said, ‘Well, if I do get bit, that wouldn’t be a bad idea because I don’t know if I’m allergic to the actual type of polyvalent venom this type of snake has. I’ve never been bit, so all I know, I could be allergic to it.’ But again, that’s not the biggest problem.  Just being venomated by that kind of snake is probably going to kill me without immediate medical attention.”

     The most recent act of simple showmanship was on the April 7 episode of ‘Game of Talents,’ filmed in Hollywood last November. Donning a white tuxedo with gold bling, Steve was accompanied by four dancing girls with machetes and fire blazing all around. They all walked forward, coming to a stop in front of those guessing the talent.  Then Steve opened his mouth and a venomous scorpion began to emerge; thus, the title, ‘scorpion wrangler.’

     That performance was similar to Steve’s previous St. Louis audition of America’s Got Talent. Both were made much easier because of what happened on April 22, 2011. That’s when Ceriotti entered the Guinness Book of World Records.

     “It was odd because I had seen a show about a year before called The Guinness World Record Attempts, Book of Attempts or something like that,” Steve recalled. “I watched it, and saw a lady who set the world record of two minutes, three seconds.  I thought, ‘Well, just knowing scorpions, one, they’re very nocturnal, and two, they love to be in very small, confined areas.  They’re relaxed in those areas.  They crawl into very small holes to hide during the day and they come out at night.  So, I thought, the reason she can do that is, as long as you put that in very carefully and don’t hurt it, just keep your lips close It’s a nice, small dark area.  So, I figured I’d try it.”

     After filling out some 50 pages of paperwork, Steve sent in the paperwork for that performance. He originally planned to perform at CBC, where he graduated in 1987. But it had to be at a public venue with no admission charged and not a private institution that charged tuition.  Since one of his neighbors taught at Parkway South, Steve chose that venue.

     “The scorpion will actually shut down in your closed mouth,” he said. “Occasionally, you’ll feel the legs move a little, but if for any reason you think the scorpion is uncomfortable, you quickly open your mouth.  But on that day, it basically sat in there.  The only reason I stopped at 17 minutes and 17 seconds is after I broke the 2-minute, 3-second mark, many people left.  I didn’t realize it because what I’m usually doing is closing my eyes and slowing my breathing.  At one point, I opened my eyes and saw my wife (Janice) and our kids kind of doing the thing where you put your fingers by your throat to say, ‘Stop!  Stop!’  I didn’t know why.  Was there some kind of weird emergency?  Why are they telling me to stop?   I started to realize that half the crowd of some 1,000 people had left because I’m doing it so long that they’re getting bored to death. I broke the record, then they hung out for another five or six minutes.  They didn’t know how long I would do it, so people started to leave. At that moment, I opened my mouth, and that’s when the timer stopped at 17:17.”

     Back to the reality of his regular household events, Steve shared one more memory from just over six months later. He and his wife were sitting in a field box when Lafayette High School graduate David Freese became a lifetime legend with his dramatic ninth inning, game-tying triple and eleventh inning walk-off home run in game 6 of the 2011 World Series against the Texas Rangers.

     The Ceriottis were also supposed to be going to game seven. But a rain out set it up against a Halloween party scheduled by a party planner.  But he thought, ‘This is St. Louis.  These people are obviously going to postpone their Halloween party.’

      “I called the party planner and asked, ‘By the way, are you still having that party tonight?  This IS St. Louis and it IS game seven,’” Ceriotti said.  “She said they most certainly are! I said, ‘O.K.  I will be there.’  I showed up, noticed there were ponies on the front lawn of this very nice home. Kids were getting pony rides in their Halloween costumes.  Suddenly, as I got a little closer to the house, I thought, I know this house.  This is Albert Pujols’ house.  Then, I thought, it can’t be!  Albert’s getting ready to start game seven.  I walked up the driveway, saw Dede (Deidre) Pujols and I their son A.J. (Albert, Jr.). I thought, ‘What the heck is going on here?’  I said, ‘Hey, Dede! I don’t know if you know this, but your husband is getting ready to play game seven in like 10 minutes!’  She looked at me and said, ‘Steve, I was not going to have this party canceled just because of a baseball game.’”

    So, Cerliotti performed his show outdoors by the TV that was brought nearby.  But the kids were all watching the show and not the TV.  Steve admitted he was kind of watching the game, too, because it was game seven of the World Series!  At one point, he thought his show would be even less important.

     “I looked down at AJ and said, ‘Did you want me to hang on for a second and take a little pause because your dad is up to the plate with the tying run on second base?’“ Steve said.  “AJ looked over his shoulder at the TV, looked back and said, ‘No!  No!  I want to see the animals!’ His dad has been a superstar since he was a baby, and to him, it was just his dad playing another game.  It’s no different from my kids in college now; all those years thinking all these other kids want to see all these animals. But it’s just their dad. That’s just an alligator.  That’s just an anaconda. Not a big deal.”

    Meanwhile, Serengeti Steve admitted that his only real fear in life, which actually terrifies him to the point of shaking just thinking about it, is heights…even climbing more than three rungs up a ladder.  Also, as far as animals go, he wouldn’t go into a lion’s cage or pet a bear because he doesn’t have the knowledge of them from years of training like he’s had as a herpetologist. That’s precisely why he gets so much enjoyment from his regular performances….even when he puts an alligator’s snout in his mouth and pretends to mildly bite down on it.

     “It’s fun because even after I do my programs, I get a lot of adults come up to me and tell me, ‘That was great!  That was fantastic!’” he said. “It’s nice to hear, but they usually say ‘Not only are you funny and educational,’ but the adults get a bigger kick out of this stuff than the kids do.  And that always make me feel good because I know I’m entertaining everybody in the crowd.”