■ The Doe Run Co. plans this year to start demolishing the five main buildings that made up its Herculaneum smelting operation, as well as the 11 remaining houses from the company’s voluntary buyout program. But the 550-foot-tall stack that dominates Herculaneum’s landscape will remain, at least for now, said Chris Neaville, Doe Run’s asset development director. The final days of the lead industry in Herculaneum are counting down in an enterprise that has endured in the city, first as St. Joseph Lead Co. and then as Doe Run for more than 120 years. See Tracey Bruce’s story.
■ Award-winning woodcarver Randy Litzau, 58, of Arnold said he got his first taste of the hobby as a young boy when his grandfather gave him a piece of cedar and a knife and told him to carve something. Litzau has worked to hone his woodcarving skills ever since, and his dedication has paid off. He recently entered a hand-carved mantel, which he titled “Cabin in the Woods,” in the 2016 Midwestern Woodcarvers Show, held late last year in Belleville, Ill., and his entry won the People’s Choice Award, as well as first place for relief work and second place for best in show. See Kim Robertson’s Page 1 feature story.
■ Work has started on a two-phase expansion of A Safe Place, Comtrea’s domestic violence shelter, that includes upgrading the infrastructure and then building a $3 million transitional housing complex for victims of domestic abuse. The first phase will connect the shelter property to public water and sewer. Work started Feb. 27, said Susan Curfman, Comtrea CEO. A groundbreaking ceremony for Mary’s House of Hope at A Safe Place will be held at 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 17, at Comtrea’s Bridle Ridge Acres facility, 5 Bridle Ridge Spur, in Hillsboro. The public is invited. The ceremony is not being held at A Safe Place because the location of the shelter is kept secret. See Peggy Scott’s Page 1 story.
■ Residents of Sulphur Springs, a quiet unincorporated community of about 25 homes that sits at the confluence of the Mississippi River and Glaize Creek in Imperial, are up in arms over a proposal to establish barge fleeting operations in front of their homes. Simpson Materials Co. of Fenton has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to establish four fleeting operations – essentially barge parking lots – that would accommodate a total of 79 barges. See Steve Taylor’s story.
■ Editorial Page editor Patrick Martin writes about a wackadoodle Democratic Party notion that the way to electoral victory in the future is to move further to the left. What? Did they pay no attention to the events of November 2016?
■ Leader Sports editor Russell Korando names his first All-Leader boys and girls prep basketball teams.
*** Don’t forget to spring forward.