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Gerry Frierdich update: A mixed bag

I have good news and news that some may see as troublesome about my friend Gerry "Chief" Frierdich. I'll start with the good news, but I hope you'll read on about developments in the court case against the driver of the vehicle that struck Gerry's recumbent bike.

Pat Colle, of Jerseyville, Ill., was the winner of the second of two Bacchetta recumbent bicycles that were raffled off to raise money for Gerry's ongoing recovery. Gerry pulled Pat's name from a pool of hundreds of raffle tickets during a Feb. 7 mouse race benefit in Belleville. According to Gerry's CaringBridge site, Pat bought the winning ticket from me back in January during the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation's Midwest Bike Expo & Swap Meet in Collinsville.

Congratulations, Pat! Have fun riding your recumbent on the backroads of Jersey County!

As regular readers of this blog know, Gerry was paralyzed from the chest down on Aug. 17, 2007, when his recumbent was struck by a pickup truck on South Green Mount Road in Belleville. Gerry has made a lot of progress since then. The court case involving the person accused of driving the truck has not.

Keith Joseph McCoy, 24, was charged in late 2007 with two counts of Aggravated Driving Under the Influence, a felony charge in Illinois. The case has sat in St. Clair County Circuit Court with little action being taken since then. Hearings, including one that had been scheduled for today, continually have been delayed.

The hearing was rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. March 31 in Courtroom 409 of the St. Clair County Building in Belleville.

The only motion, other than routine motions for discovery information, that has been filed is one by McCoy's attorney, Richard Sturgeon, asking that McCoy's statements to Belleville police be suppressed. The motion contends that when police took a statement from McCoy immediately after the accident, that he was not advised of his constitutional right to remain silent, even though he was not free to leave the scene and that he was a suspect.

The motion also contends police made promises to McCoy to obtain a statement, but the motion does not detail the promises. To date, St. Clair County prosecutors have not filed a written answer to the motion.

Having covered the court system in Madison County back in the 1980s and early 1990s as a reporter and having first-hand experience with the system after the stabbing death of my brother, Wes, in 1996-97, I can say cases get delayed frequently for a variety of reasons.

While I'll continue reporting facts on the court case here, I really can't play the role of an advocate and voice opinions on an issue so close to home. While I avoid editing stories about Gerry as part of my job at the Belleville News-Democrat -- I'm much too close to Gerry and his fundraising efforts to edit the stories -- I still have to handle them as part of my role as a page designer. It's probably for the best that I stick to the facts here.

Labels: advocacy, Belleville, Gerry Frierdich, St. Clair County

Roger 1 comments links to this post 7:11 PM

Friday, March 07, 2008

Belleville to develop new bicycle trail

In case you didn't read about it in today's Belleville News-Democrat, the city of Belleville, Ill., is planning to build a new bicycle trail.

The West Belleville Bikeway would connect Citizens Park with Dapron Drive near Memorial Hospital. By my calculations, that's only about a mile and a half, but the city hopes the trail eventually extends north and south to allow people to ride their bikes from one side of town to the other.

The News-Democrat also reported that the neighboring community Swansea also applied for a state grant for the second phase of its bike trail, extending the trail from Centennial Park to the MetroLink Trail and East Belleville Bikeway in Belleville. Village leaders had put the phase on hold last year while they waited for Metro, the St. Louis mass transit agency that operates the MetroLink light-rail system, to complete plans for a second phase of its trail so the two could connect.

Angela Fletcher, a spokeswoman for Metro, stated in an e-mail to the News-Democrat that the next phase of Metro's trail is planned to run three miles from North End Park, where it connects with the East Belleville Bikeway, to the Memorial Hospital MetroLink station.

Even with the proposed trails, we have a long ways to go. Our neighbors to the north, Madison County, has about 100 miles of trails. St. Clair County only has about 15 miles.

The News-Democrat article also includes a quote from Jim Klenn, the co-producer and director of the documentary "Tour de Donut: Gluttons for Punishment." Not surprisingly, Jim is in favor of extending the Belleville area's trail system.

Labels: Belleville, St. Clair County, trails

Roger 0 comments links to this post 1:43 PM

Friday, February 16, 2007

MetroLink bicycle trail to be expanded

The Belleville News-Democrat reported Thursday that St. Clair County, Ill., will see major bike trail construction in the next year. Linking trails will eventually cover 10 miles of ground, said Mike Buehlhorn, executive director of the Metro-East Parks and Recreation District.

The proposed extension to MetroLink's bicycle trail would travel to the Swansea and Memorial Hospital MetroLink stations. It would mostly run parallel to the MetroLink tracks, and construction could start next summer and take about eight months.

Taulby Roach, project manager for MetroLink's bike path, doesn't yet know what the extension to Memorial Hospital will cost, and bids have not yet been sought for the project, the News-Democrat reported.

Meanwhile, the village of Swansea is planning a trail that will connect the MetroTrail with and existing trail between Centennial Park and Old Collinsville Road.

To see a map of existing and proposed St. Clair County trails, download this map (PDF file). The map does not include the Scott-Troy Trail, a trail under development that will link Scott Air Force Base with the Madison County Trails system and Troy, Ill.

Labels: Belleville, cycling, Illinois, St. Clair County, Swansea, trails

Roger 0 comments links to this post 12:31 AM