• For City Council Candidates:  The forum will be held on Thursday, February 25, at 7:00 p.m.
• For Mayoral Candidates:  The forum will be held on Tuesday, March 1, at 7:00 p.m.
• Both forums will be held at Robinson Elementary School, 803 Couch Avenue.

The following names have been listed on the certified ballot filed with the Board of Election on January 22:  For Mayor:  Timothy E. Griffin, Scott Stream, Gina Jaksetic. For Council Member: Mark Zimmer, Maggie Duwe, Ellen Z. Edman, Nancy Luetzow, Kevin E. O'Brien.

• I-64, St. Louis County, auxiliary lane closed westbound from I-270 to Mason and Mason to Maryville Center Drive. In addition, the ramps from northbound and southbound I-270 to westbound have been shortened. Lane restrictions will continue until spring 2016.
• Route 115, St. Louis County, one lane closed eastbound and westbound from North Hanley to Florissant Road, through early 2016. In addition, there will be no access from eastbound Natural Bridge to Florissant Road.

Barre Fitness:  Now on Wednesdays and Fridays! Taught by Cindy Fernandez.  Energetic core conditioning class using the ballet barre to increase strength, balance and flexibility. Prevent falls by increasing core strength, flexibility and balance. Participants will need to bring a mat and light weights. Resistance bands will be provided.

~ Kirkwood OASIS 312. Wednesdays, Feb 3-Mar 16, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Fee: $52; Sessions: 8.

~ Kirkwood OASIS 305. Fridays, Feb. 5-Mar 18, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Fee: $46; Sessions: 7.

I saw a recipe for nachos the other day, accompanied by a photo of a big plate of chips piled high with queso and black olives and other good things.  And I thought: Oh, yeah, that's what I'm making for the Superbowl game!!  My brother asked for jalapenos, and if my daughter were here, she'd be making us some excellent guacamole to go with. Of course, my taco meat will be made with ground turkey and I'll have lettuce and tomatoes too, but it's still gonna all be sitting on top of chips that were most likely fried. And that's okay.  It will be my "last meal" before we start our Biggest Loser contest here at work next week.

Yes, we are doing that again. 

We're not competing with Webster this year, but we nevertheless have some serious competitors on staff.  So serious that this year we will have two winners - one woman and one man.  For some reason, women and men lose weight differently, and so our winners in the past have all been men.  Some of the women have worked pretty hard at it but men see it as a mountain to be conquered and all their competitive instincts kick in. Which has been a little frustrating for our female employees.  In addition, we're doing a secondary contest for the "moderate" losers, because we firmly believe it's healthy for most people to lose between one and three pounds per week.  Everyone who stays within those parameters will be eligible for a drawing for a small prize.  And then in six months, we'll have a six-month follow-up weigh-in for all who lost weight, and everyone who kept off the weight (within a few pounds) will also be entered into a drawing.

The City's Employee Wellness Program ("WOW - Working on Wellness") has kicked into high gear over the last year, but our focus has been primarily on the health and well-being of our employees. So losing a bunch of weight to win a monetary prize is fun, but our goal is really to help people get their "numbers" into a healthy range - their weight, their cholesterol, their glucose, all of it.  A lot of our programs over the past year have focused more on fitness than weight loss - encouraging staff to "Walk at Work" and to incorporate that "magical" number of exercise minutes (150) into their schedule every week.  Our Finance Department has done daily stretching sessions, and a few months ago they did a little "plank" challenge right there in the office.  (So if you walked in to buy trash bags, and everyone was on the floor, now you know why.)  Each year, we see more and more employees step up and participate. It is GREAT to see people become focused on their health. 

And this is a great month to do a Biggest Loser contest because it is once again "Heart Health" month.  So if you see me out there tooling around downtown Kirkwood at lunch time in my sneakers and down coat (photo, right), you'll know why. 

Happy Valentine's Day!  Happy Mardi Gras! Happy "Heart Health" Month!

See you on February 18.

Stay warm out there.

Beth von Behren, PIO/Editor