The Fleecing of the People by the City of St. Ann
With Northwest Plaza in utter ruins and Walmart discussing a move literally "down the street" to Bridgeton, the City of St. Ann's Police Chief, Bob Schrader, is desperate for revenue that will keep his ailing municipality afloat. St. Ann is the only municipality in the state that uses a speed camera to issue tickets. The speed camera operates in a (school zone) on Ashby Rd. at Hoech Middle School. The zone is a 25 MPH drive. Numerous tickets have been issued in the past months. St. Ann holds a special hearing court for this single 'gold mine' alone on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 12:30pm (midday!?). With a full house of violators, the judge casually asks "If you can't pay today and need a continuance, please line up and we will set a date for July 15."
RiverCity Examiner asked how 'victims' of this 'revenue scam' would feel about the Governor imposing a moratorium on their fines until the state legislators could determine if this is even constitutional. Not surprisingly, most felt that this would be a GREAT idea.
Here are a few of those approached.