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Read more on Page 11A about the Kiwanis Club of South County’s Outstanding Students of the Month.

Library news ............... Page 2AOpinions ..................... Page 4ABirths .......................... Page 5AChurch news ............... Page 8ACalendar...................... Page 10AOur town ..................... Page 11AAround the kitchen ..... Page 1BNuptials ...................... Page 5BHomes and gardens .... Page 6BClassifieds ................... Page 7B

Inside the CallHouse Speaker Tim Jones, R-St.

Louis County, said the chairman of the committee investigating a report of improper behavior by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster intends to issue a report before the end of the year. To read this story and view other web-exclusive content, go to www.callnewspapers.com.

Web exclusive

Sunset Hills aldermen advance impeachment-related measures

Business boasts three lottery winners;odds good it’s luckiest office in America

Until new Lindbergh elementary built,district to face ‘a compromising time’

County Council to weigh recommendationsfor Lemay developments, Affton rec centerBy GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

The County Council is set to take up recommendations made by the Planning Commission on three housing develop-ments in Lemay and a 24-hour recreation center proposed in Affton.

However, other proposals in Oakville have either been withdrawn by the devel-

opers or held for further study.The planning panel is holding all pend-

ing proposals for cell towers in light of a new state law that appears to restrict the county’s ability to deny the towers. That includes a tower proposed at St. Francis of Assisi in Oakville, next to the school’s playground.

(See WEIGH, Page 14A)

Mehlville, Lindbergh, Fox all receivenational character education honors

Volume 17, Number 47 2 Sections, 28 Pages Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 callnewspapers.com9977 Lin Ferry DriveSt. Louis, MO 63123

First of two partsBy GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

In a sign of the growing importance of character education locally, officials from the Mehlville, Lindbergh and Fox school districts accepted national character awards for their districts or schools in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.

This year’s list of the Character Education Partnership’s new National Schools of Character was dominated by Missouri,

largely due to the five schools honored in Mehlville, which was also named a National District of Character for the first time.

In the partnership’s program book for the national ceremony, it called the Mehlville phenomenon the “Missouri Magic” and asked, “What is special about the water in Mehlville?”

Lindbergh Schools first gained the Dis-trict of Character recognition in 2008 and was renewed this year, and Sperreng Middle

(See NATIONAL, Page 12A)

Missouri Lottery Executive Director May Scheve Reardon proclaims real-estate broker Norm Polsky’s south county agency ‘the luckiest Coldwell Banker office ever’ as she presents agent Jenifer Elam with a $3.8 million check. Pictured, from left, are: Kim DeLapp of Arnold, Jamie Bone of Lemay, Reardon, Elam and Elam’s partner, Lea Harthcock.

See related story, Page 6ABy GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

The Sunset Hills Board of Aldermen continued to move toward impeaching Mayor Mark Furrer last week, conduct-

ing a first reading of two impeachment-related bills and trading allegations of bullying with the mayor.

While aldermen took no actual votes on the impeach-ment front, before and during the meeting, two aldermen publicly made statements that the Board of Aldermen is

being bullied and intimidated, with one calling the mayor a bully outright and the other implying it.

When Furrer asked veterans in attendance at the Nov. 11 Veterans Day meeting to stand up and be recognized, the

(See ADVANCE, Page 6A)

By MIKE ANTHONYExecutive Editor

While construction of a new elementary school set to open in August 2017 will alle-viate Lindbergh Schools’ booming enroll-ment growth, the next 36 months “will be a compromising time” for the school district, according to Superintendent Jim Simpson.

Lindbergh’s enrollment growth has been

far stronger than district officials had an-ticipated, Simpson told the Call.

“... The size of the growth is much higher than we expected,” he said. “We were looking at growth at about 100 to 150 (students) a year, and now we’re at the 250 range. So it’s a different speed of growth, rate of growth, and so that somewhat has us

(See COMPROMISING, Page 4A)

By GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

When Lemay resident Jamie Bone won $1 million in the Missouri Lottery last year, her fellow real-estate agents at Coldwell Banker Premier Group’s south county office considered her pretty lucky.

When the office’s top-producing agent, Kim DeLapp of Arnold, won $100,000 on a scratch-off ticket last year, she thought the coincidence of two co-work-

ers winning the lottery was “surreal.”But last month, agent Jenifer Elam of

south county won $3.8 million. Now it’s undeniable that real-estate broker Norm Polsky’s agency at 4044 Butler Hill Road is the “luckiest Coldwell Banker office ever,” as Missouri Lottery Executive Director May Scheve Reardon phrased it when she presented Elam with her mil-lions — and, of course, her big check.

No one disputes that the south county(See ODDS, Page 2A)

Page 2A - Call Publishing, Thursday, November 20, 2014

Lucky offi ce workers wonderwho will be the fourth winner(Continued from Page 1A)Coldwell Banker location is the luckiest Coldwell Banker agency in the country — but with three employees who have won the lottery since last year, it may just be the luckiest offi ce in America.

Perhaps even more extraordinary than the offi ce’s winning streak is the fact that none of the three lottery winners have quit their job at Coldwell Banker, and all plan to continue working.

When DeLapp’s boyfriend called her last year to scratch off a ticket he bought her as a birthday present over the phone and then told her it was a $100,000 winner, she fi rst assumed it must be an elaborate prank by her co-workers, who had once set her up with a fake winning ticket.

“They’re all always playing surprises on us and jokes, so I didn’t know if it was real — one time, they all had me going here in the offi ce, and I thought I’d won $10,000,” she said. “It’s very free-spirited here, and we’re all family. We have great energy, we really do, running through this offi ce. We have so much fun.”

The south county offi ce is one of three offi ces of Coldwell Banker Premier Group, which has 150 agents — and yes, those agents have joked that they are going to have to transfer to the lucky south county location, Polsky said.

Although each of the winners bought their tickets in different stores, their sto-ries are similar in other ways. They did not select their own numbers. They had all played the lottery on and off, but didn’t buy tickets on any set basis. They all thought someday they might win, but were shocked when they did.

None of the three winners have spent all the money yet, and the three are saving for sensible purchases like college funds, trips, school and houses, Reardon noted.

The biggest and most recent winner, Elam, became a regular lottery player with her partner, Lea Harthcock, not because of the offi ce winning streak but because of Harthcock’s father, Ron. For the year before he died in January, Ron Harthcock

moved from Springfi eld to St. Louis to be closer to his daughter and Elam, and required some unique admission fees when they visited him daily.

“You couldn’t go into his house without a lottery ticket and Krispy Kreme donuts, so we got into the groove and we’d buy us some and him some,” Elam told the Call. “You add it up and it’s 10 bucks here, 20 bucks there. But, never the big one. He always wanted to win, and I heard him that day (I won). So he was our blessing.”

When Elam created a vision board with her goals for 2014, she included winning the lottery. But after her father-in-law died in January, she didn’t buy a lottery ticket until October, when she won.

The fi rst winner, Jamie Bone, won on a ticket she bought at Sam’s Liquor in Lemay, and found out at the store when she came in to check her tickets, while television cameras rolled. The video of her reaction to winning the lottery has been used in a study on body language.

“They’re using it to show when people are in anticipation or they’re about to fi g-ure something out, something devastating or exciting, how they look,” she told the Call. “People thought that it was fake.”

Bone has used her windfall to pay for a new house and college funds for her two sons.

And with the lucky streak coursing through Coldwell Banker right now, DeLapp believes she may even hit it again and is now a regular lottery player, when she wasn’t before.

“I’m a regular player now — especially after seeing the odds of some people re-winning, too,” she said, hand to her heart. “It’s in here, I just can’t explain it. I feel like I will hit it again.”

The offi ce does not have a formal lot-tery pool, but when anyone at the agency makes a gas-station run, he or she asks around if anyone wants a lottery ticket. And as they win the lottery one by one, those lottery runs are getting more popular.

None of the other workers in the offi ce are jealous of their co-workers’ good for-tune, DeLapp added.

They just wonder who the offi ce’s fourth winner is going to be.

• Odds

Cliff Cave, Weber Road library branchesto close for six months during renovationsBy GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

The good news for St. Louis County Library patrons at the Cliff Cave and Weber Road branches is that next year, their libraries will be gutted and reno-vated from top to bottom, essentially trans-formed into brand-new libraries.

The bad — and perhaps unexpected — news is that the libraries will be closed for six months next year so that those renova-tions can happen.

In a surprise announcement to the library board this fall, Executive Director Kristen Sorth said that the library’s systemwide renovations are so extensive that all the library’s branches will be closed for six months, in several stages — except Tesson Ferry and Lewis & Clark, which are being replaced with new buildings.

The Weber Road Branch in Affton will

close for six months beginning in February or March, along with the Jamestown Bluffs, Indian Trails and Rock Road branches.

During the second stage of renovations, the Cliff Cave Branch in Oakville will close for six months beginning in August, along with the Oak Bend, Natural Bridge, Prairie Commons and Samuel C. Sachs branches.

After Sorth’s announcement of the clos-ings, library board President Lynn Beck-with told Sorth that it is critical that library offi cials update the public on when their branch is going to shut down and why.

“I don’t think most people will envision our branches being closed six months,” he said.

It’s all part of the library’s Proposition L master plan, under which it is also building the Grant’s View Branch as a replacement

(See RENOVATIONS, Page 14A)

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