Karla Smith Foundation extends services

When 26-year-old Karla Smith ended her life in 2003 with a self-inflicted gun shot, she left behind family and friends who needed help with severe grief.

Karla's family formed the Karla Smith Foundation (KSF) in Shiloh two years after her death. This summer KSF has extended its family support services to include home visits in the metro-east. The new program called “Visits with Families” is aimed at providing support for friends and family of patients associated with behavioral health care services.

“This is a program that we are just starting,” said Karla’s mother Fran Smith. “That is if someone is maybe not well enough to come to a support group, or if some people don’t like support groups, we are willing to visit with families in their homes. We will go to them.”

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O'Fallon conference center on track, developer says

Wet weather and a weak economy have slowed the development of the Regency Conference Center at Greenmount Road and Interstate 64.

Phosphate, fecal matter in Engle Creek exceed IEPA standards

Researchers have found levels of phosphate and fecal matter far exceeding state limits downstream of Engle and Spring creeks in O’Fallon.

The water samples were taken from Engle Creek near Reider Road and indicate the phosphate levels in the creek are 16 times higher than the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s standard.

The levels of fecal matter in the creek also exceed IEPA standards with storm flow levels of fecal coliform bacteria in the creek surging to three times the IEPA standard.

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Schachner in Africa building library

Debbie Schachner set out from San Francisco, Cal., in May 2005 following the American Discovery Trail on a trek across the U.S. to raise money to build a library in an economically-struggling African community.

In October 2007, five pair of walking shoes later, she arrived on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Henlopen State Park near Lewes, Del., and the end of her solo journey.

Now the hard work begins.

Subaru of O'Fallon closes without explanation

A year and a half after it opened with a $3 million new building on Central Park Drive, Subaru of O'Fallon has suddenly closed.

O'Fallon's new roundabout is open

The new roundabout intersection at State Street and Obernuefemann Road is open to traffic, Mayor Gary Graham announced Tuesday morning.

O’Fallon man takes organ show to Radio City Music Hall

A well-known O’Fallon organist is planning to fulfill a lifelong dream next month when he takes the stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Jack Moelmann, 67, said he will spend more than $100,000 to perform on Aug. 9 in the Hall.

Police investigate O'Fallon community center burglary

The O'Fallon Police Department is investigating a burglary that involved a safe belonging to the city's park and recreations department at the Katy Cavins Community Center.

Shiloh trustees approve development incentives

The Shiloh Village Board of Trustees Monday night approved a development inducement for Cedarhurst’s Shiloh Station development.

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$5.3 million water towers bring city into IEPA compliance

Work has began on the nearly $5.3 million construction of two water towers intended to bring O’Fallon into compliance with a complaint from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Refugee escaped civil war to find safety in O'Fallon

Imagine you are a seven-year-old asleep in your bed when the night’s calm is shattered by the sound of bombs raining down on your home and the gunfire of an attacking army.

As hard as that might be to imagine here in the metro-east, it is the life experience of Simon Majak, an O’Fallon resident who fled that nightmare into the jungles surrounding his Sudanese village one night in 1986 — by himself.

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