St. Mary Leaders Express Thanks To Those Who Helped

By MARK EVANS

mevans@stegenherald.com

During the departmental reports segment of the Nov. 10 St. Mary Board of Aldermen meeting, city officials took time to express appreciation to those who helped following the Oct. 24 tornado.

“I’d like to thank Brother Ed [Carter] at Trinity Baptist Church and their crew down there,” Fire chief Frankie Ullman said. “They put on a lot of dinners throughout the whole week.”

He was also praised Immaculate Conception Church, which provided shelter, along with Trinity Baptist.

Ullman said he was impressed by the “tremendous amount of responses that came,” including from St. Louis, from Illinois,” and other places.

Meanwhile, a Missouri Southern Baptist Convention relief team came in with all the brush removal off the roadways, as did road and bridge crews from Ste. Genevieve, Perry and Cape Girardeau counties.

“We give them tremendous thanks for coming in and bringing their dump trucks and helping out tremendously,” Ullman said.

He also thanked Presiding Commissioner Garry Nelson, plus Perry County Commissioner Jay Wengert and Cape County Commissioner Paul Koeper for coming and helping in the clean-up.

“They knew the time of need and they actually jumped in and helped out,”

 Ullman said. “I really appreciate that. 

“I was glad with the way people turned out,” Mayor Carton Wyatt said. “I had been down on human nature so much, here lately, with attitudes of people and stuff. I didn’t think there were that many good people out there any more. I couldn’t believe the response. And they were wanting to work; they were wanting to help. Some weren’t even able to and they were doing things.”

Alderman Karl Schultz, whose home was destroyed, expressed appreciation for all the help.

“It was a beautiful response by our first responders in the city,” he said. “As one citizen who has experienced a devastating loss of properties that I had here, it is something to know that there are people here doing the job right on the spot when people need help. While we personally did not need a lot of help, there were a lot of people in town that did need help.”

Alderwoman Annette Hacker added thanks for “the people who went and bought pizzas and distributed it out through town.”

“It’s just a crazy, crazy time,” Schultz said. “All the stuff they did for all the citizens of St. Mary was just beautiful. A testament to what real volunteerism and caring for each other is all about. I tank you very much.”

He was impressed with how even victims of the storm wewre looking out for one another.

“I think all the residents, even the residents that had real damage, they were jumping over, helping neighbors and helping other residents, seeing what we needed and stuff,” he said. “It’s kind of neat that the community came together like that.”