Problem with django app after Apache restart via cron

My Django site goes down and gives me a python ImportError for a module I use in my views.py when I attempt to restart apache using any type of cron job. I have tried for example:

• • • • • ~/webapps/mydjango/apache2/bin/restart

I've also tried setting up a python script to run with cron using an os.system(r'./restart') command but I get the same results as the above cron expression. The error is strange to me as a newbie since all of my modules import just fine when I restart apache via a standard command using SSH, i.e. cd webapps/mydjango/apache2/bin ./restart

The reason I need to restart apache is because my views use a pickled dictionary which is updated once daily with a file I fetch from an FTP site. So the process downloads the text file, parses the text file into a dictionary and stores the dict as a pickle. I then open the pickle file and load the dictionary into memory to use for my views. The need for the restart is that unless I restart apache, my Django app won't use the most recently downloaded/saved pickle so the restart serves to force Django to load the most recent pickle. I certainly open for suggestions on how to better handle this data persistence problem. although I've considered a Django model, I have reservations regarding the amount of work it will take to create the model and furthermore I'm worried that after all that work I will be tied to the Django model and will lose the portability that the pickle provides.

Thanks a ton!