Elliott Davis, the investigative reporter for FOX 2's popular "You Paid For It" television series, visited a small group of members of the Concerned Citizens for Crystal City on Wednesday, October 8th.  St. Louis local television station KTVI regularly airs Elliott's program which features ongoing investigations into government waste in the St. Louis area.  Elliott has questioned officials from mayors to governors in search for answers.  Elliott also co-anchors evening newscasts on FOX 2 News on Friday and Saturday.

Due to scheduling conflicts, Mr. Davis could not make it our regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday evening at the Festus Airport.   But we are still hopeful that television footage will be filmed and broadcast at a later date.   

A Wall Street Journal article and supporting video were published on 9/16/2008.  The title is Jobs Unwanted, A Missouri Town That Saw Industry Leave Debates What Sort to Welcome Back.  

The article tells us for the first time that the Chinese company Minmetals has withdrawn financial support from the smelter project.  It also has the first quote from former United States Senator, basketball star and Crystal City native son Bill Bradley regarding his riverfront property that is at the heart of the controversy.

The article can be found here.

Council Member Says Bill Bradley Gave OK to Rezoning - 1/22/2008

In this Suburban Journal article that was published on January 22, 2008, Crystal City Council Member Ben DeClue is quoted as saying "Sen. Bradley was made aware of the proposed change to his property and had no objections."

Why won't Senator Bradley speak to the people of his childhood home and let us know why he agrees with plans that provide no protection for the nearby residents?  The article also references the proposed Festus Airport annexation by Crystal City.   It does not mention that the airport property is strategic in providing a new thoroughfare from Interstate 55 to the old PPG property and the Bill Bradley farmland.

Riverfront Times Article - 1/6/2008

Chad Garrison of the Riverfront Times has been following the saga of the smelter for many months.   Chad personally came to several city council meetings including the famous 'all nighter' where the city council didn't adjourn until nearly 3 a.m.  

He was fortunate enough to get a rare interview with Dave Jump (the owner of American Milling interested in constructing a barge port on the Bill Bradley property) and interviewed literally dozens of other people to get a unique perspective of the situation in Crystal City.  

Smelterville is the title of the Riverfront Times article that made the front page on January 6, 2008.

KSDK CHANNEL 5 NEWSCAST OF 12/6/2007

Ann Rubin from KSDK Channel 5 in St. Louis contacted us and wanted to do a feature on our story.  The program aired on Thursday, December 6.  

Ann interviewed Jill Thomas from Concerned Citizens for Crystal City and Richard Perry from the Crystal City Council.  In that segment Ann revealed the group's intentions to begin a recall initiative.  A billboard with that message will be erected on highway 55 near Crystal City and Festus, Missouri.

Here is the news segment that KSDK Channel 5 aired on that date.

FOX 2 TV NEWS INTERVIEW OF 10/3/2007

John Pertzborn from Fox 2 News contacted us and wanted to do a feature on our story.  The program aired on Wednesday, October 3 around 7:15 a.m.  

The video interview with Jack Ginnever is here!   They mispronounced Jack's last name at the beginning (Kevin Steincross was a lot closer).  And they label it as a "Lead Smelter" which is wrong.  That is unless the story has changed in the last few days!!  You may also notice some Rams football footage in the middle of the video.  Now we have something really newsworthy!!  Maybe the Rams are constructing the smelter!!

If more interviews are done we will post them here when they are available.

Here is another segment that Fox 2 TV News did on August 30, 2007.  This was before the big city meeting on September 5 where about 400 people showed up.  You might also notice that they put Jim Duncan's name underneath of the video segment where Tom Kerr is talking.