Anti-Smelter Slate Wins in Crystal City

Residents of Crystal City couldn't keep their elected officials from approving a plan last December to bring an iron-ore smelter to their Jefferson County township. Yesterday many of those same residents expressed their continued disapproval for the project in the one place their opinions count: the election booth.

In Tuesday's municipal election, a slate of candidates affiliated with the anti-smelter group Concerned Citizens for Crystal City (C4) won all four open city council posts. Of the three contested battles, the C4 candidates each collected approximately 59 percent of the vote. (Ward I incumbent Della Selmon, a critic of the smelter, ran unopposed.)

Crystal City voters also approved yesterday a bill to annex the Festus Airport. Members of C4 speculate that the city wants the airport for access to Wings Enterprises' proposed $1 billion smelter.

For more on the controversy surrounding the smelter development, see my story, "Smelterville," published January 16 in RFT.

-Chad Garrison