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Kirkwood City Hall quietly reopens
newly reopened Kirkwood City Hall
Febuary 12, 2008--Dave Docter, a Kirkwood police officer, puts his arm around Betty Montano, city clerk, as they walk through the hall of the newly reopened Kirkwood City Hall.
(Emily Rasinski/P-D)
By Todd C. Frankel
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
02/13/2008

KIRKWOOD — City Hall, a crime scene five days earlier, reopened Tuesday. It was anything but business as usual.

Black bunting was draped over the entrances. Yellow tape blocked the stairs to the second-floor council chambers. There were three empty hooks on the wall where the portraits of all six city council members once hung.

On this first day back, only a few contractors called the building commissioner's office to schedule inspections. Municipal court was still closed. The planning and zoning commission office was open. The public works office was open, too, with a day calendar featuring pictures of dogs reflecting the correct date.

But the halls were empty, the building hushed.



During the lunch hour, a single visitor walked up to the utility payment window to get electricity turned on at his new home. As the clerk handled her customer, three other workers stood at a back window watching the funeral procession for city police Officer Tom Ballman, one of six people killed last Thursday. The cars and cruisers wound down the street in a seemingly endless file.

Then a phone rang — "Kirkwood City Hall …" — interrupting the silence.

The man, his electric issue settled, walked out of City Hall with a city welcome guide. He stopped just outside the doors, standing with his black fleece jacket and Cardinals cap in the frigid air, where the flags stood at half-staff, giant memorials of flowers and signs sat under protective tents and an entire city seemed to be called to a halt.

He watched the funeral motorcade for several minutes, then walked off down the street.

tfrankel@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8110

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Services


William Biggs Jr.

police officer

The public is invited to a memorial service at 4 p.m. today at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 9 South Bompart Avenue in Webster Groves. A private burial is set for 11 a.m. Thursday in Gerald in Franklin County. The funeral procession will leave from the Kirkwood police station.

Connie Karr

City Council member

A private funeral will be held at 10 a.m. today at St. Gerard Majella Catholic Church, 1969 Dougherty Ferry Road, Kirkwood.

Service for Thornton


The funeral for the man who killed five people at Kirkwood City Hall last week will be held Thursday afternoon, four blocks from where the shooting occurred.

The service for Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton will be at 1 p.m. at Kirkwood United Methodist Church, 201 West Adams Street. A visitation is scheduled from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at Ronald L. Jones Funeral Chapel, 2161 East Fair Avenue, in St. Louis.

Thornton fatally shot two police officers, two City Council members and the city's public works director. He wounded two others, including Mayor Mike Swoboda. Police officers then shot and killed Thornton.

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