MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.

St. Charles Mayor Sally Faith said she has received numerous calls and emails about the Sugar Plum Fairy controversy, but none from the shop owners and restaurateurs on South Main Street — the commercial area most impacted by the story that has garnered nationwide attention.

The tale of the Sugar Plum Fairy who was fired for cursing while taking a drug test has drawn national attention and local outrage.

State senators came to the St. Charles campus of Lindenwood University Thursday to listen to constituents’ thoughts on whether Missouri should enact a health insurance exchange. The lawmakers got an earful.

St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann still opposes the creation of a tax-increment financing district for the Lindenwood Town Center project. But as TIFs go, this one is not that bad, he told an advisory panel Thursday night.

While the St. Charles and St. Peters chambers of commerce plan to merge, other chambers want to keep their independence and any attempt to create a countywide chamber seems remote at this time.

For the past several years economic developers here have been working to entice relatively new industries such renewable energy and information technology to St. Charles County.

Not surprisingly, school districts in St. Charles County raised their tax rates for 2011, according to the county Registrar’s Office. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean taxpayers will pay more because a reassessment of property by the county Assessor’s Office lowered the valuations of many property owners.

Whether passage of legislation to create a subsidized air freight hub, dubbed the China hub, would have benefited the Premier 370 Business Park in St. Peters is unclear.

Mercy Health’s announcement earlier this month that it plans to build a hospital and other facilities in St. Charles County doesn’t seem to worry the two health care providers that already have a major presence here.

A downtown restaurateur says he plans to challenge the legality of St. Charles City’s tourism tax.

Walton Construction Co. and many of its subcontractors went to court seeking payment for work performed at Ameristar Casinos’ hotel and parking garage in St. Charles. In resolving one piece of that mechanic’s lien enforcement, Vee-Jay Cement Contracting Company Inc. in St. Louis accepted a $600,000 settlement for its outstanding bills.