Newsletter of the St Louis Triumph Owners Association Dec 18—MG Club of St Louis RUBCO breakfast, 9:30 AM at the Egg & I in Chesterfield, 1722 Clarkson Rd. Please bring canned goods

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Newsletter of the St Louis Triumph Owners Association

Www.SLTOA.org Vol 20, Issue 3 March 2018

Dues Are Due!

Not Much Polar— Plenty of Bear!

Pg 3

Photo by John Moore

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Calendar

20 Mar 18—Monthly SLTOA meeting, at Culpepper's,

3010 W Clay St, St Charles, ELECTION NIGHT and

Forest Park preps.

1 Apr 18—Triumph-MG Challenge IX, for the British Leyland Participation Trophy. Event in conjunction with

the 57th Annual Forest Park Easter Concours, host-ed by the Horseless Carriage Club of Missouri. At the Muny Upper Lot, details to follow.

17 Apr 18—Monthly SLTOA meeting, location TBA.

19-22 Apr 18—South Central VTR Regional, celebrat-ing 50 years of the TR250 at the La Torretta Resort & Spa, Lake Conroe, TX (north of Houston). Online regis-tration at www.texastriumphregister.org/969-2/, event flyer elsewhere in this edition of the Notes.

26 May 18—22nd

British Car Week, annual week of LBC awareness. Call up www.britishcarweek.org for info on events nationwide.

18-21 Jun 18—Triumph Register of America National Meet, in Blowing Rock, NC, hosted by the Triumph Club of the Carolinas at Chetola Lodge. Scenic drives along the Blue Ridge Parkway, breakfast runs, a funkhana as well as a concours and participants’ choice car show. Info at www.triumphregister.com.

7 Jul 18—16th

Annual Kastner Cup, at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Historics, Pittsburgh International Race Complex/PittRace, Beaver, PA. Details at www.pvgp.org/drivers/kastner-cup/.

17-21 Jul 18—VTR Nationals 2018, hosted by the Min-nesota Triumphs Sports Car Club at the Radisson in La Crosse, WI. Featuring 50 years of the TR5/TR250, info at www.mntriumphhs.org and https://facebook.com/VTR2018. Hotel registration information at www.radisson.com/la-crosse/vtr.

15 Sept 18—37th

Annual All British Car & Cycle Show, Creve Coeur Lake Park. Sponsored by the MG Club of St Louis with SLTOA handling the food conces-sion. More shall be revealed...

27-30 Sept 18—Triumphest 2018, hosted by the Triumph Travelers Sports Car Club in Sacramento, CA; joint TTSCC in California’s gold country in celebration of the club’s 60th anniversary. Info and online registration avail-able at http://triumphest2018.org.

17 Mar 18—JAGSL Coffee, Coffee & Cars at Just Jags, 7113 N Hanley Rd, Hazelwood, 8-10 AM.

18 Mar 18—First BSCC Autocross of the season. Show

around 9:30-10 AM, six runs for $35. For more information or to get on the email alert list for events, contact Racer Steve at [email protected].

18 Mar 18—22nd

Annual British Car Swap Meet & Au-tojumble, sponsored by the Chicagoland MG Club. At the DuPage County Fairgrounds, 2015 W Manchester Rd, Wheaton, IL, 8 AM-2 PM. Info: www.britishcarswap.info.

22 Mar 18—MGCStL RUBCO Breakfast, 9:30 AM at JJ Res-taurant, 1215 S Duchesne Dr, St Charles.

24 Mar 18—JAGSL Benton Back Roads Rallye. Meet at St Louis BreadCo, 9920 Kennerly Rd, 9 AM, followed by a drive to and through Benton County. JAGSL has invited the Triumph and Miata/MX-5 clubs, please RSVP to either Jim Hendrix at (636)227-2565 / [email protected] or Phil Taxman at (314)727-9179 / [email protected]. In the meantime, monitor www.jagstl.com/ and the online Growl.

24 Mar 18—St Louis BMW Club Winter Shootout, at Pole Position Raceway, 8000 Watson Rd. Open to all car clubs in St Louis, 22 participant limit, prizes awarded to top three finishers, raffle prizes to remaining finishers. 12:40-4 PM, first race at 1 PM, cost approximately $65 for three races. To register, visit website at www.stlbmwcca.org, look for the link in the NEWS section, pay through Event-brite.

25 Mar 18—MG Club of St Louis Annual Terry Fanning Rally. Meet at the Quick Trip on MO 109 just south of I-44; driver’s meeting at 1 PM, cars roll at 1:30 for about 70 miles through Jefferson, Franklin and St Louis Counties.

31 Mar 18—Annual Spring Wash-Up/Tune-Up, hosted by the Gateway Healey Association at Keith Bester’s gar-age, 115 N Sappington Rd, Kirkwood. Traditional pre-Forest Park Concours gathering, bring a dish to share.

8 Apr 18—35th

Annual April Fools Auto Parts/Car Cor-ral and Swap Meet, open to all cars and models, at GCS Ballpark, home of the Gateway Grizzlies, in Sauget (I-255 Exit 15). Opens at 7 AM.

14 Apr 18—2nd

Annual Meridian Village Car Show, 27 Auerbach Pl, Glen Carbon. 10 AM-2 PM, $10 per car, entry fee and food sale proceeds go to the Lutheran Senior Services Benevolent Fund. The residents will vote for their favorite cars to win trophies. Info (618)205-2133.

15 Apr 18—First SCCA Autocross of the season, at Family Arena, St Charles. Registration from 7 to 8:15 AM, $40 for SCCA member, $40 plus $15 weekend membership for non-members.

21 Apr 18—Cars & Coffee-Westport returns, 8-11 AM, at Westport Plaza. Monitor http://carsandcoffeestl.org.

Reminder: March’s meeting is

ELECTION NIGHT!

27-30 Sept 18—2018 6-Pack TRials, at Fontana Dam, NC. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the TR250. Info on lodging, registration and the planned drive over The Tail of the Dragon at www.6-pack.org.

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21 Apr 18—Annual Missouri Endurance Run, hosted by the MG Club of St Louis. Meet at Starbuck’s in West-port Plaza at 7 AM; driver’s meeting at 7:15, mileage check 7:30 and first car out at 8 AM. Open to all British cars built before 1981, no electronic navaids allowed, see the flyer elsewhere in this issue of the Notes.

22 Apr 18—BSCC Autocross No. 2. Show around 9:30

-10 AM, six runs for $35. For more information or to get on the email alert list for events, contact Racer Steve at [email protected].

20 May 18—SCCA Autocross No. 2, at Gateway Motor-sports Park. Registration from 7 to 8:15 AM, $40 for SCCA member, $40 plus $15 weekend membership for non-members.

27 May 18—BSCC Autocross No. 3. Show around

9:30-10 AM, six runs for $35. For more information or to get on the email alert list for events, contact Racer Steve at [email protected].

1-3 Jun 18—Annual Champagne British Car Festi-val, hosted by the Illinois Flat Land British Car Club on the grounds of the David Davis Mansion, 1000 Monroe, Bloomington. Info at www.cbcf-bloomington.com or con-tact Jim Broach (309)831-6601 / [email protected].

3 Jun 18—St Louis European Auto Show, at Taub-man Prestige Outlets, Chesterfield Valley, 11 AM-2 PM. Benefitting St Louis ARC, info at http://stleuropeanautoshow.com.

8-10 Jun 18—19th

Annual Car & Cycle Blowout, hosted by the Greater Ozarks British Motoring Club on the historic town square of Carthage, MO. For info, monitor http://gobmc.org/greater-ozarks-motoring-clubs-19th-annual-car-and-cycle-blowout.

10 Jun 18—SCCA Autocross No. 3, at Family Arena. Reg-istration from 7 to 8:15 AM, $40 for SCCA member, $40 plus $15 weekend membership for non-members.

15-18 Jun 18—Blackhawk Vintage Classic XXVI, Black-hawk Farms, South Beloit, IL. JAGSL is sending a contin-gent in support of Phil Taxman and his E-Type, other events include the Sprite/Midget Series race and Scramble Enduro. Info at www.vscda.org/events/blackhawk-vintage, also moni-tor www.jagstl.com/ .

16 Jun 18—Annual Hazelwood Baptist Car Show and Festival, 6161 Howdershell Rd 63042, 10AM-4 PM, at Cars, music, food! Online registration at http://hazelwoodbaptist.com/HBC2014/formsContact/CarShowSignup.php.

24 Jun 18—BSCC Autocross No. 4. Show around 9:30-10

AM, six runs for $35. For more information or to get on the email alert list for events, contact Racer Steve at [email protected].

2 Sept 18—Annual Heartland All British Car Meet, host-ed by the Kansas City Triumph Club. Details to follow, info at www.heartlandbritish.com/index.html.

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Polar Bear

2018

What a fun time we all had at the Polar Bear Run, this past month. We had over 25 cars that participated in the run. The route was planned by Creig Houghtaling with the pit stop hosted by Bonnie and Jack David. Bonnie prepared her deli-cious award winning chili. Thank you Creig, Bonnie and Jack, for your support in helping to make this such a successful event.

March is finally here and I forecast a few warmer days this month. I'm looking forward to driving in this year’s first Boe-ing Sports Car Club autocross, Sunday March 18th and I encourage all of you to give it a try. The Easter Car Show at Forest Park is scheduled for April 1st, Easter Sunday. If you are planning on participating, please submit your check to me (address below) by Friday, March 30th, or at our meeting on the 20th.

This month’s club meeting will be at Culpeppers, in St. Charles at which time we will hold the election of officers for managing our club. If you have an inter-est in any of the four positions, president, vice president, treasurer and secretary. Mark Morgan has offered to remain as secretary and will continue his fine work as secretary and editor.

In the past, the president’s office was filled by the outgoing vice president and required that we only elect a new vice president and treasurer. This election we will need to elect all three positions, presi-dent, vice president and treasurer. Re-member that these positions are two year terms, so if there is someone that you feel strongly that you want in one these positions, make sure to come to the meeting on March 20th at Culpeppers to submit your nomination.

As this is the end of my term as presi-dent, I want to take a moment and thank all of you for your support during my term as president. Although, my term will end in March I would like to reassure my suc-cessor that he or she will have my full support.

- Steve

Holy cow, what great weather (amazing what a one-week delay will accomplish here in the Midwest, eh?) and what a great turnout: one

TR8, one TR7, four TR6s, two Spits, one Spit6, six MGBs (including a couple of GTs), 3 MGAs, one XK120, two BMW Z3s, one Pontiac Solstice (Sonja Poropat’s new car; Mike was at a loss because the car didn’t have any wooden components), one BMW 328, one Mustang, one 1973 VW Super Beetle and one Ford Edge. That’s 25 cars, with probably 35 or so driving/riding in the cars. Wow…

As indicated, the weather cooperated: mostly clear in the upper 20s at daybreak, climbing into the low 60s. And yes, in accordance with tradition, several of the drivers made the circuit with their car’s convertible tops down.

But the big news was this: the bear arrived, in the guise of Rob Guinness, driving a red MGA. Needless to say, when the MG drove up with a white, smiling (uh, hungry?) visage of ursus maritimus (“nanuq” in the Inupiat language), it brought the pre-drive proceedings to an absolute standstill as everyone grabbed a camera.

The route took the caravan on something approaching a lap of St Charles County, up towards Portage des Sioux and then to the west, past Smartt Field. Regrettably, our planned stop at the Experi-mental Aircraft Association hangar at the airport fell through, as the EAA sponsor had to deal with a family situation and couldn’t provide a tour. Still, everyone drove on, finally arriving at Jack and Bonnie David’s for a post-run meal and short SLTOA meet-ing.

Prez Esteban called the proceedings to order and immediately thanks J&B for their hospitality (applause all around), followed by appreciation to route designer Creig Houghtaling and test driver Bob Carmody. He noted a really great turnout and thanked all who attended.

Segueing into future activities, Steve com-mented at length on

(Continued on page 5)

By Steve Moore

Triumph Thoughts

Photo by Glenn Owens/MGCStL

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the 20 March meeting, with the biennial club elections serving as the main feature for the evening. In addition, the club will start taking reservations for the upcoming Horseless Car-riage Club of Missouri BIG annual Easter Con-cours at Forest Park. He’s reserved 30 spots with HCCMO, we’ll undoubtedly need all 30 filled in order to hold onto the British Leyland Participation Trophy for another year. In addi-tion, some Gateway Healey Association mem-bers have asked to join in with SLTOA; el Presi-dente Maximo stated they were more than wel-come, along with Jaguars and any other Brit car owner. Whatever the turnout, as per usual we should see a good LBC contingent between the TRs, MGs, Morgans and other makes.

(Continued from page 4)

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Concerning events, Phil Taxman from the Jaguar Association of Greater St Lou-is (and owner of that immaculate XK120, among other leaping cats) invited the membership to participate in JAGSL’s big 24 March drive to Benton County, Illinois. The stops will include the Benton County Jail (comment: “Getting into the jail is free; there is a fee to get out”), a former Ford dealership/garage dating to 1910 and the shop of the number one Jaguar racing engine builder in the world. Other than any funds exchanged in return for a release from the hoosegow, the only cost for the drive will be lunch.

Lee Fox followed up by announcing the MG Club’s annual Terry Fanning Rally, scheduled for 25 March, details to follow. The annual Chicago British car swap meet, hosted by the Chicagoland MG Club, will take place on 18 March at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton. MGCStL is sending a contingent. Finally, Ed Kaizer advised everyone of his intent to push SLTOA’s annual, typically mid-October fall colours drive back a bit…in order for the participants to actually see fall colours. The later date for the drive should not interfere with the annual Vet’s Run.

Genial host Jack “BM” David concluded the festivities with the following words of wisdom: “If you brought food, take it home with you. She can’t eat it, I don’t need it.”

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Thanks to John Moore and Glenn Owens for the

photo support

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TR Tech

By Stephen Paur

For the several years I have owned my LBC I have been laughed at and abused for the anemic and asthmatic horns on my 76 TR6. About 3 years into the ownership I decided to try to improve the situation with some universal horns that would I hoped would improve things. Unfortunately, over time the voice of these items weakened like an elderly rock star.

I thought about going with The Roadster Factory Lucas re-productions but since owning Volkswagens all my life I decided to go with Hella horns offered by British Parts Northwest. The Hellas were a little less expensive than the Lucas items selling around $20 for a pair including the high and low note tooters but were almost identical.

When the horns arrived, they had a standard strip bracket bolted to the center of top of the horn. Before you attempt to in-stall them, you will need to remove this bracket to

allow the attachment of the horns to the factory frame bracket. The bracket delivered is tightly held on by a 10mm nut.

Installing them on the car is not too difficult. The correct way to swap them out was to open the hood and remove the fiber board Radiator Air Deflector. To remove the Air Deflector, you must get the valance support rods out of the way. To do this, remove the bolts on the front of the rods and then loosen the ones on the fenders so you can just swing them back and out the way. On the coolant bottle side of the car you can just lift the bottle and overflow hose out of the way until the rod clears it. This way you will avoid spilling any coolant from the return hose. Once the rods are out of the way carefully rotate the top of the Air Deflector toward the back of the car slowly and pa-tiently as not to tear the sides or bends on the bottom of the deflector. After the deflector is out you have a pretty clear shot at the horns on both sides of the car.

A triangular bracket holds the horns to the frame rail via a threaded bolt in the center that attaches it to the apex of brack-et. Remove the old horn by removing the nut on center of the horn. Lift, it out and carefully turn it over to remove the leads. Grab the new horn and attach the leads. Put the horn bolt through the bracket and spin on the bolt. Tighten the bolt so the opening of the horn faces the center of the car. Finish the work to install both horns and test.

If everything tests out and your new horns sound more like a Cadillac than a mouse squeaker, you were successful. Rein-stall the Radiator Air Deflector reversing the steps for removal.

Hella horns.

British Sports Car Hall of Fame

The selections have been made for the second class of in-

ductees into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame, located at

26651 Simpson Rd, Petersburg, Virginia. Per Kurt Ernst in

Hemmings Daily, 17 January, this year’s honorees all “...made

a significant and lasting impact on the British sports car indus-

try and hobby:”

Joe Alexander—founding member, Friends of Triumph

Chuck Anderson—founding member, Austin-Healey Club of America

David Brown, Aston Martin

Colin Chapman, Lotus

Anders Ditley Clausager, British Motor Industry Heritage Trust archivist/author

Joseph Curto—carburetor expert

Richard “Dickie” Green—racer/automotive executive

Geoffrey Healey—engineer/racer

Paddy Hopkirk—rally/racing legend

Tom Householder—Swallow Doretti expert

Joe Huffaker—race car builder

Al Moss—Founder, Moss Motors

Pat Moss—five-time European ladies rally champion

Bill Piggott—author/historian

Carroll Shelby—racer/automaker/team manager/promoter

Kjell Qvalle—Founder, Pebble Beach Concours d’Ele-gance

Rex Woodgate—Aston Martin mechanic, North American competition director

The inductees were selected based on their leadership and proven performance in any of the following seven categories: automobile clubs and associations; automotive dealers and distributors; aftermarket suppliers, parts manufacturers and the service industry; executives, engineer and designers; journal-ists and historians; competition and racing; and special contrib-utors and pioneers.

This year’s induction will take place on 2 June. For details including ticket information for the ceremony or to learn more about the British Sports Car Hall of Fame, call up http://britishsportscarhall.org.

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International Drive Your Triumph Day

Every 10 February Rye Livingston of the Triumph Travelers Sports Car Club (Bay Area) rallies the TR faithful to get their cars out for a drive, no matter what the weather. The event serves as a birthday salute for Sir John Black, the man who directed Stand-ard’s post-WWII purchase of Triumph and thus the single individual most responsible for paving the way for the TR-series sports cars and a number of sedans.

The response worldwide is usually incredible and after the big day, Rye posts all of the photos he ’s received; we’ll provide the address next issue. In the meantime, here are the cars of hardy SLTOA members who went out into the cold on the 10th.

Top left, Darold Johnson’s ‘71 TR6. Center, Steve Moore’s ’71. Top right, Greg Rieman in his ’78 Spitfire. Lower left, Jamie Kopstein’s TR3 (and remember, it’s summer in the Southern Hemisphere). At the right, Stephen Paur’s ‘76 TR6.

TRs in Print

How ‘bout that, there is a Triumph magazine, out of Great Britain – no surprise – and your local Barnes & Noble or Books A Millions may very well carry it. The editor found a copy Triumph World of the February/March 2018 issue at the B&N at Ladue and I-170. The format’s primarily owners, their cars and their sto-ries; this issue, for example, covers a 1974 Stag, 1976 Spitfire 1500, a 1952 Standard Vanguard, 1971 TR6, a TR3 and owner’s story about his 1967 Herald 1200 Estate and 1971 13/60 convertible. Elsewhere, Triumph news, commentary on the market for Triumphs, a couple of columns (including one by VTR legend/editor Mike Cook), features such as an article on the Dolomite 1850 and a series on Standard’s pro-duction during the 1950s. There’s also a pretty good classified section at the back (hmmm…1977 Dolomite Sprint, only £7450/$6975. Wonder what shape it’s in?).

You may not be in need of yet another car magazine BUT, if you live and breath Triumphs, this might be a good addition to you reading list. All else fails, if you can’t find a copy locally, you can order a subscription via the pub’s web page at (www.triumph-world.co.uk).

Second, something different, published by the Practical Classics magazine franchise: The Enthusiast’s Guide to British Leyland. Now, if you can get past the cover which features such immortals as the Austin Allegro and Morris Marina (the latter was sold over here in the states for a period…a very brief period), there’s actually a lot of good stuff inside for those of the LBC persuasion. The articles include profusely illustrated interview with Harris Mann; the photos include a couple of rare shots of BL’s aborted attempt to replace the MGB with a mod of the TR7. The magazine also includes an article on the late Tony Pond’s TR7 rally car.

All of the articles are entertaining and most of the cars that received a lot of abuse some 40 years ago are now collectibles (such as the Austin/Leyland Princess, which looks like a four-door TR7/TR8. Appropri-ate, seeing as it was another one of Mann’s designs).

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SLTOA’s on Facebook! www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_134416339926824&ap=1

St Louis Triumph Owners Association

Proud member club, St Louis Sports Car Council

www.stlscc.org

Quotable...

Synchronize those carbs lately? 1964 Airsyn ad, courtesy Mike Poropat

Flashback!

Auto racing began five minutes after the second car was built

- Henry Ford

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SLTOA Classifieds

51 Renown MkI—well main-tained, garage kept, odometer shows 50,492 miles. TDB3746E engine with manual transmission. Dod $9400 of chrome work, comes with man-uals and books, complete four-piece tool kit plus jack and grease gun, runs and drives

great. In Greenwood, NE (southwest of Omaha), $15,800, call (747)600-2212 (Craigslist) (1803)

62 TR3—In Floris-sant, good driver, needs to go to a good home! Asking $15,000, for more details contact David Bentley at bent-

[email protected], call (314)991-2502 or check out his Fa-cebook page (1705).

65 TR4A—Engine rebuilt with hardened valve seats, ceramic-coated manifolds, re-built carbs. New alu-minum radiator, rebuilt starter and generator, spin-on oil filter, new

clutch, all driveshaft needle bearings replaced, differential re-built. Polyurethane bushings and new shocks at both ends, new front springs. Dual stainless steel exhaust, new nickel-copper fuel and brake lines, brakes rebuilt. Much more, asking $38,500 in St Louis (Hemmings)(1803)

74 Spitfire 1500— Car has not been driven much, runs ok. In Festus, $3300, call Mark (314)799-4432 (Craiglist) (1803)

75 Spitfire 1500—Has been garage stored for 30 years, motor is free and floors are solid. Fuel and braking systems need going through. Has new interior set, top is so-so, $1800. In Springfield, MO, call (573)645-0080 (Craigslist) (1802)

77 TR7—White 2dr coupe, In fair-to-good condition, only 11,000 miles, runs good. In Olney, IL (US 50 NE of Mt Vernon), $4995, email [email protected] (Craigslist) (1803)

80 Spitfire 1500—Very original, no rust, solid driver with recent motor rebuild. New stainless Falcon ex-haust and muffler, clean interior and seats, new tires. Missing mirrors, wiper mo-

tor. In Maplewood, $2900, call Greg (314)954-4495 (Craigslist) (1803)

For sale—Triumph TR3, TR4 (no years given), three MGBs and a Jensen-Healey, would like to sell as a package. In Ken-nett, MO, down in the Bootheel, call (573)888-7829 (Craigslist) (1802)

For Sale—Original steel disc wheel and tire off a 1971 TR6 (spare tire), asking $200 OBO. Con-tact Darold Johnson (314)835-8522 or at [email protected] for more information and

additional photos (1705).

Wanted—TR2/TR3 frame, needed for TR2 restoration. If you have one or know of one, please contact Mark Baich at [email protected], Texas Triumph Register, Houston area (1712).

SLTOA Blog: News, commentary, opinion and sea-soned immaturity. www.sltoa.org/blog/

Best of Craigslist

MG Midget Cobra—Just completed 40,000 mile Arizona One of MG Midget Cobra with a 400HP 302 Ford V8 with Alum Heads, Dual Quad Edelbrock Carbs, C4 Auto-matic with TCI 2000 Stall Converter, Explorer 8.8 3.70 TracLock rear axle, Mustang II P/S R&P Front, 4 Whl Disc Brakes, All Professionally built Chassis ready to be driven FAST or to it’s first of many car shows…! Must See to believe the workmanship of this absolute ONE OF project…! Call Ron at 574-339-7214 anytime (NO TEXT NO TEXT NO TEXT). in Plymouth, IN (south of South Bend), $30,000 (Craigslist) (1803)

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Next Meeting:

Tuesday 20 March 2018

And Finally...

3010 W Clay St, St Charles

(636)916-3102

Show after 5-5:30 PM, enjoy a meal and good

company and then engage in the democratic

process...and remember,

Vote Early, Vote Often!

News item: Karl apparently has a new project….