Mold Remediation in Arnold, MO

ST. LOUIS (First Alert 4) -- Ron Counts is the longest serving mayor in the history of the City of Arnold, but after 16 years in office he was defeated in Tuesday’s election, coming in fourth out of five candidates.

“He’s done a good job but that’s a lot. And it’s time, I think it’s time for a change,” said Bill Moritz.

Four-term city council member Bill Moritz won the election for mayor in his first campaign for the office.

“This is my first time doing this, okay, I think I’ll be pretty good. I was the manager for many years at Boeing. And I’m an engineer,” he said.

Moritz said his priorities include a road project at Old Lemay Ferry Road and Richardson Road, improvements in northern Arnold and a street light program.

In a statement released Wednesday, Counts said, “It’s been a wonderful 16 years. I feel like I left our city in excellent condition. We have a wonderful city, and I wish them the best, and I wish our new mayor nothing but the best.”

Four years ago Counts ran unopposed, but the seeds of his defeat in this election can be traced back to the fierce opposition to the proposed Arnold Parkway in 2024.

The two-mile, two-lane roadway would have connected Highway 141 and Richardson Road and would have cost an estimated $75 million. Opposition grew because it would have required the acquisition of a large part of the Water Tower shopping center and 38 homes, some by eminent domain.

“It was going to go behind my house,” said Jessica Bess.

Bess became one of the leaders of a citizens’ group that opposed the roadway and led an effort to recall Mayor Counts. The city abandoned plans for the Arnold Parkway and the recall effort was dropped, but Bess said the efforts launched a movement to bring change to city hall.

“You know you think in your mind I wish I could do something, I wish I could make a change, and we came together and made a change. It’s possible but it is so hard, but it’s possible,” she said.

Bess has done more than fight city hall. She ran for city council, defeating incumbent Mark Hood, one of three incumbent council members who lost their races for re-election. Swearing in of the new mayor and city council members will take place April 17.

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Real Madrid remain confident of completing a deal to sign Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold as a free agent.

The No.66’s current terms remain set to expire in 2025 with a u-turn over his next destination football looking highly unlikely at this point in time.

Indeed, David Ornstein has noted that the Reds vice-captain is ‘expected’ to agree a free transfer to La Liga.

Reports have already begun linking Arne Slot’s men with potential replacements at right-back, including Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong.

Van Dijk & Salah contracts won’t change anything

Fans hoping that the positive news around Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk’s contracts might change Alexander-Arnold’s mind will be bitterly disappointed.

Fabrizio Romano confirmed that the 26-year-old remains on course for a summer exit from the potential Premier League winners.

The formalisation of the process has yet to take place, with Real Madrid still needing to inform Liverpool when they officially sign the footballer.

“Yeah, that’s the expectation. I keep receiving many questions on that,” the journalist said on the Here We Go podcast.

“Let’s wait for the formal steps. Formal steps means Trent signs the deal at Real Madrid, Real Madrid call Liverpool to say, ‘Okay, we’ve signed the player’. This is always part of the process when it’s about top clubs and free agents, so let’s wait for those steps to say he’s done.

“Again, I can confirm what we said one month ago here: The idea is absolutely for Trent Alexander-Arnold to go to Real Madrid. The plan is very clear, there are no changes; the expectation is for Trent to be with Madrid next season.

Romano went on to add: “I know after the excitement you have for two players like Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk maybe for Liverpool fans they have this dream of completing a comeback on the transfer market and trying to keep Trent.

“But my understanding is that Real Madrid are still very relaxed and confident to make it happen.”

Trent Alexander-Arnold prompts outrage

We can get behind a need to “try something different” when the team a Liverpool player is leaving is significantly worse off than the one he’s heading to.

However, we’re still struggling to neatly match up Trent Alexander-Arnold’s plans with the current state of this side under Arne Slot.

We’re firmly on course to win a 20th English top-flight – to match Manchester United’s tally – and otherwise engaged in a strong first campaign under Jurgen Klopp’s successor.

Confirmation of Salah’s extension, with Van Dijk expected to follow suit shortly, only serves to further ensure stability as we head into the 2025/26 campaign.

That’s also all ignoring the local context around Trent’s decision to cut ties with the red half of Merseyside, despite his personal brand having capitalised on Scouse identity and Steven Gerrard’s heirdom.

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Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick has issued a third subpoena to the City of Arnold as part of an ongoing audit into the city’s administration of two Transportation Development Districts (TDDs). The move follows the city’s refusal to provide unredacted documents, which Fitzpatrick contends are essential to the audit.

The subpoena comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the City of Arnold, challenging Fitzpatrick’s authority to access the requested documents. The audit began on November 6, following multiple whistleblower complaints concerning the Arnold Triangle TDD and the Arnold Retail Corridor (ARC) TDD, both overseen by the city.

Fitzpatrick criticized the city’s resistance to the audit, citing repeated delays and limited cooperation. On March 10, he issued subpoenas to the Mayor of Arnold and the ARC TDD, which led to increased responsiveness. However, the city later provided closed meeting minutes that were heavily redacted. The State Auditor’s Office requested unredacted versions, leading the city to file its lawsuit.

“The people of Arnold should be outraged by the efforts of city officials to prevent our auditors from accessing records detailing how millions of taxpayer dollars have been used by these TDDs,” Fitzpatrick stated. “Missouri’s constitution, laws, and caselaw make it clear that city officials can’t hide behind redactions in an attempt to obfuscate the truth.”

Fitzpatrick called the city’s lawsuit a waste of taxpayer money and said it appeared to be an attempt to delay the audit process. He said the third subpoena was issued to expedite the legal proceedings. If the city does not comply by May 1, Fitzpatrick plans to file a counterclaim asserting his office’s legal authority.

“Given that city officials have demonstrated they have little to no understanding of the law pertaining to the administration of the TDDs they created, it comes as no surprise they have an equal lack of understanding of the legal authority my office has to conduct audits and obtain documents relevant to those audits,” Fitzpatrick said.

The audit includes a review of whether the ARC TDD used funds to buy real estate outside its boundaries and whether it used TDD funds to pay off city debts. Auditors are also examining potential conflicts of interest involving city officials who also serve as TDD officers and are reviewing the overall administration of the TDDs.

Liverpool's charge to a second title of the Premier League era has been played out under the shadow of three contract sagas at once, with senior players potentially heading for the Anfield exit.

Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk were all set to be out of contract in the summer, a state of affairs that would have left manager Arne Slot with some major puzzles to solve ahead of next season.

The Reds are expected to lose England right-back Alexander-Arnold, who is gearing up for a widely reported free transfer to Spanish giants Real Madrid.

When that news broke, Alexander-Arnold's relationship with a section of Liverpool fans started to crack too. The Liverpool-born star is a one-club man who's been at his boyhood club for more than 20 years but his decision to pursue a new challenge after winning it all at Anfield hasn't gone down especially well.

The outcome of Salah's negotiations has been more popular. The Egyptian's lucrative new contract was announced on Friday and fans are thrilled.

Alexander-Arnold's reaction was inevitably under the microscope and the news that he liked Salah's Instagram post marking the forward's new deal met with a mixed response from fans.

Some posters on the r/LiverpoolFC subreddit interpreted the like as a hidden message about Alexander-Arnold's own future, while others pointed out that it was a like on social media and doesn't indicate anything at all about his impending move to the Spanish capital.

Trent Alexander-Arnold has been linked with Real Madrid. Image: Getty

"Yes but when did he like this? And do the numbers in the timestamp when he liked it correlate closer to Liverpool numerology or Madrid?" asked one user knowingly.

"Gonna massively over interpret this, thanks!" confessed another.

"I’m genuinely looking forward to him leaving so we can move past this boring saga. As soon as the new season starts it will completely forgotten about. I just don’t understand why people are getting so worked up about it. We will replace him and we will be fine," wrote one circumspect Red.

The most downvoted comment? "Lizard boy."

Ultimately, Reddit fans gonna Reddit. Nobody is under any illusion about the depth of meaning of an Instagram like.

It's just a bit of fun and if Alexander-Arnold liking Salah's post means he's "saying there's a chance" then why not enjoy it?

"Well he is a scouser and even if he leaves, he wants the club to do well? It’s just a social media post, come on, no need to dwell on it…"

Featured Image Credit: Getty

Topics: Liverpool, Liverpool Transfer News & Rumours, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold

Mohamed Salah has started a trend of a post-match selfie with every Liverpool goalscorer – but there was no such treatment for Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Salah has taken up more responsibility as a leader in his eighth season at Liverpool, speaking frequently about his role as a mentor to his younger teammates.

He has also stepped up on the pitch more often than not, with 32 goals and 23 assists in 47 goals – albeit without a goal in his last six games and only netting in one of the last nine.

The Egyptian has made a point to recognise the input of those around him, too, with a new tradition of posting a selfie with each goalscorer after games on Instagram.

But following Alexander-Arnold’s winner in Sunday’s 1-0 victory at Leicester, Salah’s post-match post was absent from his feed.

There was still recognition of the right-back’s crucial moment as part of the 32-year-old’s Instagram story, but the lack of Salah selfie got fans talking:

Reading too much into it or is it a little weird that Salah hasn’t posted his match winning selfie with the goal scorer? (Which he’s been doing all season)

Salah didn’t take a selfie w the goal scorer today…

— Belinder (@_bubblxs) April 20, 2025

Salah knows EXACTLY what he’s doing by not posting the goal scorer selfie

— ??? ?? (@joepearce_) April 20, 2025

No Salah selfie? ??

— The Kop Watch (@TheKopWatch) April 20, 2025

Has Salah not posted the selfie?

— Abigail Rudkin (@rudkin_abigail) April 20, 2025

It's actually so crazy Salah not posting that selfie with Trent ?

— RYAN (@6thiagoat) April 20, 2025

There could be all manner of reasons, of course, with it possible that Alexander-Arnold was not available in the dressing room afterwards due to other obligations.

But in a campaign full of speculation and, certainly where Salah is concerned, innuendo regarding the futures of three of Liverpool’s most important players, supporters’ theories are to be expected.

Both Salah and Virgil van Dijk have now committed their futures to the club with new two-year contracts, but Alexander-Arnold is still expected to be heading for the exit.

The vice-captain dodged questions over his future during a rare post-match interview with Sky Sports, while his wild celebration in front of the away end only led to further question marks over his motives.

In reality, all supporters will want at this stage is transparency from the Scouser – who is considered set to join Real Madrid on a free transfer but has again insisted: “I’m not going to speak on my situation.”