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News Briefs - April 1-14, 2009
St. Louis region
Metro service cuts take effect
Cuts to Metro’s bus and train system took effect March 30. The greatest impact is being felt in South and West St. Louis County, where numerous bus routes have been eliminated.
However, residents of the urban core are also feeling the effect with a severe trimming of service. For instance, a major bus line such as the 70-Grand now runs every 15 minutes instead of every 10 minutes at peak times and the 97-Delmar runs every 30 minutes instead of every 20.
MetroLink runs less frequently, too. In the portion between Forest Park and Emerson Park station MetroLink trains now run every seven minutes; formerly they ran every five minutes. In the portion where the line splits in two — with the final destinations of the airport to the west and the Shrewsbury Lansdowne I-44 station to the south — the frequency of trains has been reduced from every 10 minutes to every 15.
Metro anticipates losing a significant number of riders as a result of the cuts but says it has no choice given its financial situation. The transit system also raised fares at the start of the year and has laid off many employees. The layoffs have been planned in three waves and will total about 550 by the end of spring.
Four colleges join forces in new nanomedicine consortium
Four local education institutions have become part of a new consortium called the St. Louis Institute of Nanomedicine Working Group.
The collaboration will result in joint research projects and the sharing of equipment, rather than the construction of a new facility.
The collaboration’s founding members are Washington University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis University and St. Louis Community College.
The focus of the group’s work will be developing and evaluating new nanotechnologies for use in health care; pursuing commercialization of those technologies; and work force training and public education.
The research will include exploring new ways to diagnose diseases and to deliver drugs to targeted locations. The group will also focus on training undergraduate and graduate students in the field of nanotechnology, increasing the pool of individuals with an interest in the technologies.
The project’s start-up costs are covered by a $1.5 million grant from the Missouri Life Sciences Research Fund, which funnels money from the proceeds from the state’s 1998 tobacco settlement.
Clayton
City details timeline for possible smoking ban
A month after announcing their intentions to explore stronger non-smoking policies in the city, Clayton’s aldermen have drawn up a tentative timeline to discuss a possible ban on smoking in public places.
The aldermen plan to hold a pair of public hearings during the Board of Aldermen’s meetings on April 28 and May 13. Mayor Linda Goldstein said that those hearings are intended to get comments from Clayton residents as well as from the Clayton Chamber of Commerce and business owners in Clayton.
Goldstein said that the process is being taken slowly so that people would have the time to write or e-mail the city with their opinions.
Goldstein said the Clayton hearings will be for Clayton residents and business owners only, and will not include experts on either side, debating either the dangers of secondhand smoke or the benefits of air-filtration systems. She indicated that opinions from experts have already been heard, and the hearings are for people in Clayton to express their views.
The city is currently processing data from a survey regarding smoking in public places that had been commissioned. The adminstration held a private meeting March 31 with restaurateurs to discuss the potential ban. A new group called the Restaurateurs Alliance of Clayton business owners, headed by Frank Schmitz of tapas restaurant BARcelona, has formed in opposition to the potential ban.
The earliest that a bill could be presented for a vote would be May 26.
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