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News Briefs - July 21-Aug. 3, 2010
University City
City council chooses Lehman Walker to be city manager
The council of University City announced July 13 that Lehman Walker will become the new city manager effective Aug. 2. His predecessor, Julie Feier, submitted her resignation to the council April 12 after four years as head of city administration. She has had a shaky relationship with the council, especially since three council members introduced a motion to remove her last December.
Walker had served as director of community development in University City for almost 12 years before he left in 2009. He is currently serving as director of community and economic development in Evanston, Ill.
“Mr. Walker will bring his extensive experience and knowledge of University City to this job,” said Mayor Shelley Welsch. “He knows the challenges we face as a community –– fiscally and otherwise –– and has the background and temperament to work well with the council and residents, as we face and deal with these challenges.”
Welsch said that the council first voted to use a consulting firm to conduct a nationwide search but decided to handle the recruiting and hiring process itself. “We never contracted with a search firm but found the person we need directly,” she said.
“The council is pleased that we were able to attract a manager of his caliber, in a time frame that works for us and at minimal cost to the city in these tough economic times,” Welsch said.
Richmond Heights
SSM St. Mary’s opens new vascular center
SSM St. Mary’s Health Center opened the Vascular Access Center July 14 after a four-month renovation at the Medical Office Building in an effort to provide much-needed care and a better quality of life for patients on dialysis.
“The Vascular Access Center at SSM St. Mary’s will provide full-time, proactive dialysis access care for renal patients,” said Dr. Alejandro Alvarez, interventional nephrologist who is heading the center, in a release issued before the opening.
Dialysis, a procedure that cleanses a patient’s blood of toxins, helps the body by performing the functions of failed kidneys. It requires reliable and repeated access to the blood stream through a surgically created vascular access.
“This center will work in partnership with the patient’s primary clinical nephrologist, vascular access surgeon and dialysis center coordinator to create a multidisciplinary team that optimizes the patient’s vascular and peritoneal dialysis access,” Alvarez said. “This ensures the renal patients we help will have a healthy and uninterrupted dialysis schedule.”
The Vascular Access Center will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday for same-day, next-day and follow-up care. To assist dialysis patients in accessing the center, SSM St. Mary’s reconfigured the entrance sidewalk to include a handicap friendly door-front, drop-off area for vehicles.
Forest Park
Zoo elephant suffers miscarriage
On July 8, the St. Louis Zoo announced that a pregnant Asian elephant had suffered a miscarriage overnight. The 38-year-old elephant, Ellie, was 36 weeks into a 22-month pregnancy and due to deliver her calf in late summer of 2011.
Previously Ellie has successfully given birth to two calves, Rani in 1996 and Maliha in 2006.
“We are sad about this loss,” said Martha Fischer, curator of mammals at the zoo. “Ellie’s health appears to be quite normal. She has received regular prenatal checkups, including physical exams, blood tests and ultrasounds. She has also been on a prenatal diet and exercise program.”
Keepers, curators and veterinarians have been monitoring Ellie closely since July 5 due to a discharge and changes in her blood progesterone levels.
“Our veterinary pathologists will see if there is any problem, but we don’t expect to detect anything,” Fischer said. “Miscarriages unfortunately happen among mammals, usually in the first trimester.”
Ellie’s daughter Rani is pregnant and due to deliver in early summer next year. Both elephant breedings were recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Elephant Species Survival Plan, a national cooperative breeding and management program. Ellie was impregnated by Raja, the zoo’s bull elephant.
There are fewer than 35,000 Asian elephants left in the wild and they are facing extinction. “Given the shrinking population of Asian elephants, the St. Louis Zoo is committed to conserve this species,” Fischer said.
St. Louis County
County to use federal grant for anti-smoking efforts at schools
St. Louis County, with a $7.6 million federal stimulus grant, is launching a major assault on smoking.
The money, to be spent over two years, is about equal to what is now spent statewide from state and federal sources.
The first target will be schools, colleges and universities in the county, which officials aim to make totally smoke-free by February 2012.
Some of that work has already been accomplished. All 24 school districts in St. Louis County ban smoking on their campuses. And some universities, including Washington University, Fontbonne University and St. Louis University’s medical center, also ban smoking campuswide, while others are moving in that direction.
Some, such as the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Webster University, still allow smoking outside. And the county expects its message to affect students when they are not at school.
“We want to show that tobacco use is not cool,” said Craig LeFebvre, a county health department spokesman. “The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] ranks clean-air policies by different categories. We’re shooting for the gold standard –– an indoor and outdoor tobacco-free policy.”
The county health department was named a recipient of the grant in March. In all, the Department of Health and Human Services handed out 44 grants totaling $372.8 million.
The grant has been allocated in several ways, including $2 million for a media campaign targeting smoking; $1.5 million for outreach projects; $1.3 million for salaries and benefits for nine new hires who will work through March 2012; $1 million to the Center for Tobacco Policy Research of Washington University and the St. Louis University public health school; $500,000 to Tobacco Free St. Louis; and $500,000 to the county for administrative costs.
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