Click here to leave an anonymous suggestion for the upcoming Crystal City audit.
Click here to send an email suggestion. This will show your
email address and may not be anonymous.
Or mail a letter to Crystal City Audit, P.O. Box 584, Crystal City, Missouri 63019.
The Missouri State Auditor's office is about to perform an audit on the city of Crystal City. We'd like
to thank everyone that signed the petition to make this possible. You have once again shown that
our city government is run by the people of Crystal City.
The C4 (Concerned Citizens for Crystal City) group has received a lot of criticism lately from the status quo that secretly
negotiated a deal to bring an iron ore smelter to our town.
The C4 group has been accused of misleading the public and being financed by competing projects.
The truth is that the C4 group is independently financed by the local community via donations and fund raisers.
And C4's goal has always been to do what is best for the city. To that end C4 has been beating the streets of Crystal City to find
out what the people really want for their future. These door-to-door campaigns began from the very
beginning, starting with flyers that urged the citizens to come to the first public hearing about the smelter on
September 5, 2007.
Since that time C4 has made it their goal to inform the public about what is going on and for each person to make an individual, educated
decision. They have made at least a half of a dozen door-to-door campaigns to inform the public and to get opinions
about current issues. During those campaigns C4 heard many people express concerns about how Crystal City is run.
This audit then is the result of the most recent petition drive that was conducted. In that petition drive
the amount of signatures needed to request an audit were met and exceeded by a significant amount. As a result, the
state of Missouri will perform a completely independent, unbiased audit on the procedures and finances of Crystal City.
But this is not a C4 audit. It is a Crystal City audit.
It is paid for by the citizens of Crystal City and it is an audit for the benefit of Crystal City.
This is your audit and we sincerely want you to contribute to it. If you have any issues that you would like addressed
please consider leaving an anonymous suggestion or use the other methods mentioned earlier. Please be assured that you are free to
let us know whatever you want and that your message will be completely anonymous if desired.
CRYSTAL CITY VOTERS DECIDE
On April 8th, 2008, Crystal City citizens finally had a chance to make their voices heard through a city council election
and annexation issue. The results
are in. All four of the C4 (Concerned Citizens for Crystal City) endorsed candidates won their elections: Della Selmon in Ward 1,
Dan Portell in Ward 2, Debbie McKenna in Ward 3 and Terry Laburay in Ward 4. Except for Ward 1 which
was uncontested, all ward voting percentages were approximately 59% to 41%.
The annexation issue also passed 63% to 37%. Voter turnout was very high with approximately 41% of the registered
voters participating.
Our mission has always been to give you all the information that you need to make an informed decision. To that end, we have
provided a series of Trust Issues that have been inserted weekly into the local newspaper, The Leader, and are also available
online by clicking here. Each of these Trust Issues cover an important topic
relative to the April 8th election.
The annexation issue is becoming clearer. We attended a Festus city council meeting on Monday, April 7 and learned
a lot about the motives of both Festus and Crystal City regarding the annexation.
We know that this area is a prime spot for a thoroughfare providing access from highway 55 to the
proposed smelter facility and that Wings owner Jim Kennedy has been interested in purchasing the Festus Airport and
land from other private property owners around that area. See Trust Issue #4
for more information.
The Concerned Citizens for Crystal City organization has also mailed a set of postcards to all of the citizens of Crystal City.
These postcards are reproduced here.
Watch this video to understand why the citizens are upset about the recent zoning changes.
OPPOSITION TO SMELTER MOUNTS
In the Labor Tribune publication dated February 21, 2008 the Jefferson County Labor Club announced that they would campaign for
candidates opposed to the smelter plan.
On January 19, 2008 the Disability Resource Association issued a press release that they would stand with the citizens of
Crystal City that oppose the iron smelter.
See more recent documents in our documents section.
In a letter dated February 11, 2008, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has responded to a complaint of firebrick and glass cullet in Plattin Creek.
In that response MDNR is demanding that PPG sample the firebrick, do a metals analysis of Plattin Creek and investigate the firebrick
and glass cullet for removal or capping. MDNR states that these actions should have been part of the BVCP (Brownfields/Voluntary
Cleanup Program) that was done on the PPG property.
Probably the most important information that needs to be gathered is whether or not the firebrick contains Chromium 6.
Chromium 6 is the substance against which Erin Brockovich campaigned. It is highly toxic even in small doses.
In their letter to PPG, MDNR has requested a work plan from PPG. In an article in the Leader local newspaper published on February 20th,
Wings owner Jim Kennedy stated that this cleanup program will not impact the plans to build the smelter in Crystal City.
New videos from KJFF interviews and a video about why Jim Kennedy should move on.
IT'S STILL NOT OVER! You believed it before and you need to believe it now.
The City and Wings Enterprises will not stop without your help and your continued opposition.
The Concerned Citizens for Crystal City group has been having weekly meetings since we heard of the iron ore
smelting plans. Everyone is welcome, even if you don't live in the area. The meetings are held at the
Festus Airport.
CITY PASSES ORDINANCE FOR ZONING CHANGE
On Monday, January 14th, City officials passed an ordinance that literally changed the face of Crystal City. It was
also announced that Crystal City intends to annex the Festus Airport. The annexation will be on a ballot
in a special election in April.
Here is the major zoning change that will turn all of the Bill Bradley property and the
surrounding area into an industrial zone. Our group (CCCC) was allowed to view and photograph the planned zoning
changes. These changes are presumably necessary for the planned iron ore smelting facility and supporting barge port
facility.
The major changes are illustrated in the picture to the right. You can click on the picture to view a larger
version of it. The area outlined in blue is the area that was previously zoned M2.
It is the old PPG property being leased to Wings Enterprises. The zoning classification of M2, General Industrial,
is the most permissive of the two industrial zonings. The other industrial zoning classification is M1, Light Industrial.
The area outlined in red is the new area zoned as M2. There are two exceptions.
They are the areas that surround Hugs Landing Road (including the Plattin Rock Boat Club) and Howard Dohack Drive. This entire
area is currently zoned as RC, Conservation District. Permitted uses of RC zones include agricultural activity, parks,
parkways, scenic areas, wildlife refuges, golf courses, cemeteries, picnic grounds and boat docks.
We took a picture of the old and new zoning maps that are on display in City Hall. The picture can be found
here. It is hard to discern the differences in the colors.
But the biggest change is that the large chunk of land that was zoned RC, Conservation, is now proposed to be zoned M2, General
Industrial. This is changing the zoning from the most restrictive classification to the most permissive classification.
And the new map shows that there will be no RC (Conservation) zoning. RC is
not even on the legend anymore.
VIDEOS
What better way to spend a holiday than to sit down with your family and watch the latest videos about the Crystal City
Smelter Controversy. Here are the latest videos.
IF YOU ONLY HAVE TIME TO WATCH ONE SET OF OUR VIDEOS - THIS IS IT!
Speechless - Part 1
Speechless - Part 2
TO THE PEOPLE OF CRYSTAL CITY AND SURROUNDING AREAS:
Thank you for taking an interest in Crystal City's recent actions regarding the PPG site. You probably
have a lot of unanswered questions about what the smelter deal means to Crystal City, Festus and the surrounding
areas. Frankly, we have a lot of questions too. But we also have a lot of answers.
And we're getting more answers daily that we'd like to share with you.
We know that an agreement has been signed between the city of Crystal City, PPG and Wings
Enterprises. But it is not too late.
We are a growing group of concerned citizens that just want to be sure that our voices are heard. Our goal is
to stop the smelter. We are not anti-jobs and we are not anti-city. We are not sponsored by
any other organization.
Our justification for our actions is that the smelter will change the very complexion of our community for generations to
come and that this very important decision should not be made by a few in secret. Let your voice
be heard!
If you disagree with this objective you still owe it to yourself and your children to stay informed. There
is a forum for open discussion. All opinions are welcome.
Come to the next C4 Meeting Wednesday, July 23rd (board meeting).
