Tim Lloyd

The St. Louis County Council is mulling over a plan to build an up to 10 acre zip line course above Greensfelder Park in Wildwood.   The course would be developed by Maryland based company Go Ape and includes five zip lines and around 40 treetop obstacles.

It’s estimated that the public-private project would bring in an extra $40 to $60 thousand dollars a year in revenue for the county.

St. Charles County Chairperson, Nancy Matheny, rattled off revenue projections then lit up when she got to the part about having enough money to give employees a raise.

“For once we’re not fighting over pennies because there aren’t enough to go around," Matheny said.  "It’s still a conservative budget, but thank goodness there’s enough to make it through and not cut services any further.”    

Blake Hurst is president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, and he sounds kind of exhausted when talking about a farm bill that remains stalled in the House Agriculture Ccommittee. 

He says if lawmakers really want to slam the brakes before rolling off fiscal cliff, the farm bill is a pretty good place to start.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) will shut down one lane of the eastbound I-64 Daniel Boone Missouri River Bridge this week.

The lane closure will be between 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m from Monday through Thursday.

MoDOT Spokeswoman Linda Wilson-Horn says the closure isn’t expected to have a serious impact on traffic.

The average age of farmers in Illinois is getting older and a new program spearheaded by University of Illinois Extension aims to reverse that trend.  

The three year training program for new farmers started this morning and will focus specifically on small fruit and vegetable operations, which are generally cheaper to get off the ground as compared to commodities like corn or soybeans.

University of Illinois Crop Sciences Professor, Rick Weinzierl, says each new farmer adds another small business to the state’s economy.