PETITIONS TO SPARE GROUNDS A HIT AT ST. VINCENT PICNIC

PERRYVILLE -- Esmond Steele remembers riding six miles in his grandfather's horse-drawn wagon to the St. Vincent de Paul Parish Picnic when he was a child. The 63-year-old remembers his grandmother baking pies for the picnic in their farm's wood stove and taking along freshly slaughtered chickens and just-picked vegetables to cook on the picnic grounds.

He was one of more than 10,000 people who gathered at the picnic grounds Saturday and Sunday to drink beer and lemonade, eat pork burgers, funnel cakes, and home-made ice cream, watch their children ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpet and a merry-go-round, listen to live country music, play bingo, greet old friends and sign petitions.

The petitions ask the Vincentians to reconsider their decision to develop the seminary picnic grounds so the site can continue to be used for the annual parish picnic.

The Congregation of the Mission -- commonly called the Vincentians -- owns the picnic grounds. The Catholic order announced June 3 that it intends to invite developers to lease the 650 acres it owns that surround the 55 acres of the old St. Mary of the Barrens Seminary. That includes undeveloped woods and farmland on both sides of Interstate 55, as well as the picnic grounds.

Its plan included developing a nine-hole golf course on the picnic grounds. Fr. Bill Hartenbach, the provincial of the Midwest Province of the Vincentians, said June 3 that the Vincentians would work with the parish to find another site for the picnic grounds.

The plan also calls for an outlet mall, commercial and light industrial development, another nine-hole golf course, a hotel and conference center and residential subdivisions.

All 96 of the annual picnics have been held at the same site across Route 51 from St. Vincent's Catholic Church.

Melissa Steele, daughter of Esmond, said the picnic wouldn't be the same in a different site. "If this ground could talk, it would tell stories," she said.

The land looks like an aging county fairground minus the barns and farm animals. Wooden structures with peeling paint, roofs and no walls shelter volunteers selling food and drink, souvenirs and chances at games. The buffet house has unpainted corrugated sheet metal walls, but no one seems to mind.

"I want the seminary picnic the way it is," said Joan Bobbitt, who drove with her husband to Perryville from their home in Warrenton. Bobbitt, who grew up in Perry County and can trace her roots back to its early settlers, has come with her husband for 33 straight years. "It's like one big family reunion," she said.

Vickie Pringle is from Perryville but and she and her husband continued to attend the picnic for the 10 years they lived in Quincy, Ill. "You get to see people you don't get to see the rest of the year," she said. "It's a nice family thing to bring your kids to."

John Darin of Perryville leaned on a baby stroller as he said he supported the petition. "There's so much tradition here that binds the community together," Darin said. "If you'd have come here 50 years ago, you'd probably see the same thing."

He objects to the Vincentians' plans for development. "When you get developers, businessmen and politicians together, I don't see how they can do anything Christian," Darin said.

Theresa Courtois of Perryville said the location is important.

"It's right on the 55 and 51 bypass," she said. "Put it in the woods and we're going to lose."

Of those approached at the picnic, only Jesse Crump of Ste. Genevieve didn't seem to care about the site. "Golf course or picnic, they'll find another place to have it," Crump said.

Linda Wibbenmeyer, one of the organizers of the petition drive, said more than 2,000 people signed the petitions Saturday. Hundreds more signed it Sunday.

Wibbenmeyer said parish officials will carry it with them to a meeting with the Vincentians in St. Louis today and Tuesday.