Alderman Newsletter 24
May 19, 2009
From John Hoffmann
SAY GOODBEY TO CHARLES SANDERS HAULING: I got a telephone call on Monday from Charlie Sanders, the 79-year-old owner of the larger of the two Sanders Hauling Companies. Charlie said he had decided to go out of business at the end of the month. Charlie threatened to do this in February in a letter filed with the city, when the Trash Task Force had recommended that the city go with a single hauler. That letter was the push that got the new trash ordinance past.
Mr. Sanders did not bring up this issue when he spoke with me. What Alderman Steve Fons could not legislate out of business, age apparently has. Mr. Sanders said he was about to turn 80 and he had enough trying to run a trash hauling business day in and day out 52 weeks a year. He has been hauling trash in Town and Country since the mid-1960s.
He will try and sell off some routes to his brother Robert’s company which also goes by Sanders Hauling. He also mentioned that after notifying the city director of public works, Meridian Hauling has called him and he may sell off some routes to them.
THE SOUND BARRIER: On Monday May 11th there was an 8am meeting hosted at MoDot with the MoDot head of the St. Louis region and a St. Louis County Highway Department chief engineer with elected officials concerning the Highway 141 extension.
While I was serving as the chairman of the Public Works Commission a group of residents from the Middlebury Lane and Kings Cove that sit along the east side of Highway 141 north of Clayton Road came before the commission. In 1988 the state opened just the section of the newly divided Hwy 141 from between Highway 40/I-64 and Clayton Road. There was not much traffic on this short piece of road. In 1992 a federal law was passed that ordered sound abatement (sound walls) to be done when using Federal highway funds.
When the completed section of Hwy 141 from Hwy 40 to I-44 was opened in the mid-1990s everyone got sound walls except the folks on Middlebury and Kings Cove. The noise levels shot up and now people are having trouble selling houses due to the noise. MoDot’s answer for this was that they did not have to do anything because the Federal law was not passed until 1992 and the small section of 141 was opened in 1988 and they are not going to do it now.
The new immigrants of Creve Coeur: The meeting featured a number of well known local politicos. County Executive Charlie Dooley was already there when I arrived and sitting at the head of the table. Several County Councilpersons were there, including Colleen Wasinger, the former T&C Alderwoman. Mayors Harold Dielman of Creve Coeur and John Nations of Chesterfield were there. Several state reps were there, including Sue Allen, from western T&C. Attending from T&C were Aldermen David Karney, Tim Welby and me, plus the director of public works Craig Wilde and Capt. Gary Hoelzer of the police department.
A resident of Middlebury had emailed me, Tim Welby and Craig Wilde letters addressed to MoDot St. Louis regional chief engineer Ed Hassinger and to Sheryl Hodges, the County’s project engineer and asked for someone to give the letters to both parties. When it was clear that Craig and Tim did not deliver the letters, I handed my copies to each person.
The Highway 141 project is going to expand Hwy 141 to a multilane divided highway from Hwy 40 in Town and Country to the Page Avenue Extension in Maryland Heights. MoDot is going to build the section from Hwy 40 to Olive and the County will construct the section from Olive to Page.
Gary Earls, the St. Louis County administrator said it would be like the “Transcontinental Railroad.” This odd statement forced me ask if he meant for MoDot would be using Irish construction companies and the County would be using Chinese companies.
LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY: I was sitting next to Colleen Wasinger and had told her the issues with the folks in Middlebury and King’s Cove subdivisions. When questions were taken Colleen asked about sound abatement and was told this project would only affect one house.
I then spoke and gave the story of the two subdivisions. I mentioned that one subdivision had McMasions owned by millionaires and was gated, but the other subdivision was not typical T&C homes, but modest homes of working families, who could not sell their houses, because of what happened to them thanks to MoDot and asked if they would get any relief from noise abatement when MoDot increased the volume of speeding cars past their property.
MoDot assistant chief engineer, Karen Yeomen’s, spoke up and said she could handle my question. She said there was a noise study done in 1993 and due to the size of some lots and costs it was deemed inappropriate to build sound walls. She then said she had sent me and Craig Wilde copies of the sound study.
This was untrue and thankfully Craig backed me up on this even if it was contrary of a sister PE.
What really ticked me off was the fact that she was commenting on a 1993 study. Here is what was going on in 1993. Cheers was one of the top rated TV shows. Unforgiven won the Academy Award for best picture. TWA had rid itself of Carl Ichon and was still a major national and International airline. Bill Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd president of the Untied States and Travelgate was suddenly a new term. The Buffalo Bills become the first team to lose three super bowls. A bomb in a van in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center blew up. Four federal agents are murdered at the Branch Davidian compound in Texas and a 51 day standoff ended in a deadly fire. The World Wide Web was born…all these were things that happened just in the first three months of the year. From May to September, Chesterfield Valley was farm fields and they were under a lot of water.
In other words 1993 was a long time ago and it was pretty stupid for Ms. Yeomen’s to be hanging her hat on a study from 16 years ago.
CLASS ENVY: After the program, both Colleen Wasinger and Sue Allen contacted me separately and wanted to know why I referred to Middlebury as “regular folks” and didn’t I think the wealthier people in Kings Cove should be considered equals.
I had to remind both of them that in the real world most people in St. Louis County consider people from Town and Country as rich snobs. The County Executive is from working class Northwoods. He is a Democrat who is the head of a 5-2 Democrat controlled County Council. Town and Country is a solid RED Republican area. The MoDot engineers and other workers are from places like St. Charles. I am playing to these people who are a lot more interested in the problems of homeowners who are nurses, school teachers and tradesmen, than those who are doctors and lawyers.
CHANGES FOR THE DEER: An ordinance drawn up by City Attorney Steve Garrett which enters into an agreement with White Buffalo of Connecticut to conduct deer management services for $149,850.
There are suddenly some changes. Originally the Deer Task and the city’s own deer management resolution called for the sterilization of up to 100 deer first and before any sharp shooting could begin. While the deer herds in Town and Country are about to increase by 25% with new sets of twin fawns soon, many residents were unaware that the city was going to spend $75,000 giving deer hysterectomies before actually reducing the herd.
Now the contractor admits they can do both at the same time. This will reduce the amount of time it will take White Buffalo to be in town. While the resolution calls for 75-100 does to be sterilized and up to 100 deer including 15 with antlers to be shot, the contract does not guarantee either. Sterilization will involve three people up to 25 days.
Sharp shooting involves two people for 10 days.
If they don’t reach their goals, they still get paid and go back to Connecticut.
In the agreement White Buffalo requests the use of motor vehicles during shooting. I have no problem with a pick up truck being used as a mobile deer stand to allow a proper downward shooting angle or ATVs to get out to deer stands. However, I have a problem with people using an ATV firing hip shots at deer.
The agreement does not call for White Buffalo to remove deer carcasses. Currently we are paying a private company about $200 a carcasses to remove dead deer from around peoples’ homes. Let’s say they do shoot 100 deer and another 10 die from the sterilization operations. That is $22,000 over the budgeted amount for deer management to remove deer carcasses.
WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM?: Well in November the Board of Aldermen during the budget process was told the Conservation Commission wanted all Beautification Grant money ($25,000) to be used for deer management instead.
Since that time the Board has already handed out $13,000 in Beautification Grants in 2009 that was not in the budget. There is now a bill by Alderman Steve Fons to take $23,000 for the $116,000 budget reserve to be use for Beautification Grants.
Well, well, well…suddenly there is a $22,000 shortfall in deer management.
The Mason Valley subdivisions have been crying for deer control for years. The 2009 Beautification Grant money is originally put into the Deer Management funding…then Mason Valley comes along and wants $5,000 of city funds to fix up private property. One would think they should pick deer or new shrubs.
I understand the Takara subdivision will be asking for Beautification grant money soon. Many residents in this subdivision have been calling for deer management.
THE NEW DEER TASK FORCE: The mayor has promised to appoint a new Deer Task Force…this one will be called the DEER HERD IMPLEMENTATION TASK FORCE. (Say that three times fast.) Mayor Dalton has promised to make this a citizen committee with only one or two aldermen appointed. Excellent…he will be appointing more voters to another committee that he created, very politically astute, but not an efficient way to run government…creating more and more committees, task forces and boards and pack them with supporters.
FOR SALE: Other than Chuck Lenz, the meeting was attended mostly by Deer people. Two or three spoke at the meeting against the idea of shooting deer and giving others hysterectomies at the same time. Again these are people who are more interested in the health and safety of deer than you and me.
Now Jim Ambrozetes, who nine months ago had promised to move if any deer are killed, spoke and again promised to put his house on the market if the city shoots any deer. So apparently there will be a home in Town and Country Estates on the market later this fall.
COVER UP THOSE LICENSE PLATES: If you remember from the last news letter, I introduced an amendment to an ordinance that would not cost the city anything, would help law enforcement, make an existing ordinance simpler to understand and traffic citations easier to prosecute.
The amendment would spell out in the existing Town and Country ordinance that it is legal to cover up your license plates with tinted covers. I think the local police under enforce obstructed license plates, which is a violation of state law and is cross-referenced vaguely in the local ordinance. This was a real no-brainer. However, I knew that some members of the board would vote against it just because I introduced it.
On May 11 it came up for a vote. It was defeated 1-5 (Fred Meyland-Smith and Phil Behnen were absent from the meeting).
WARD ONE DECIDES ON CLAYTON ROAD: Mayor Dalton also announced that our new Police Commission chair, Nancy Avioli and our old Parks & Trails Commission chair Lynn Wright will head the new Clayton Road Task Force that will decide how Clayton Road will be configured when the I-64 project is done and the road is returned to city control. Both are alderwomen from Ward-1. Of course that altered section of Clayton Road is also in Ward 2.
The mayor at neighborhood meetings has been stating how much bicyclists say they like the new center lane and perhaps we should keep it the way it is. Of course I disagree for several reasons. First of all, until the new sidewalk is completed it would be unwise to not return to the wide shoulders on Clayton Road. It is extremely unsafe to walk on Clayton Road. This was brought out at the Thornhill Homeowners Association meeting where the mayor was taking his usual 40-to-45 minutes, when he got to his bit on Clayton Road and how much the bicyclists love it with the center lane. A mother got up and told the story how her daughter, a regular long distance runner, recently was hit by a car on Clayton Road and broke her leg.
Secondly the left turn lanes were not primarily installed for people making lefts. Before the shut down of Hwy 40/I-64 people were predicting gridlock on Clayton Road and the left turn lanes were put in to be used by emergency vehicles to respond to calls during heavy traffic. Of course there are long sections of the road where there is no place to turn left, but where we now have left turn lanes.
THE SHINING: Another part of mayor Dalton’s endless speech before homeowner groups is how the new stoplight at Clayton and Topping shines directly into his bedroom. But it doesn’t bother him at all because it means people are safe. Now I have looked at the direction of the Westbound traffic lights, the cones around each light, the heavy vegetation in the mayor’s backyard and his neighbor’s yard and I just cannot figure out how that darn light can shine into any room in his house on Tundra Ct. I can understand how if he looked out and could actually see Clayton Road he could see the light reflecting off the pavement. But if a lousy traffic light is shining into his house, maybe he is completely aware how the residents abutting the planned Westminster Christian Academy High School feel about banks football stadium lights pointed at their houses.
SEWER GAS: The mayor at the first Board of Aldermen meeting of his second term announced how he was going to work on getting a sewer lateral insurance program in Town and Country (one of the only municipalities in St. Louis County without one). The proposal would have to be put to the voters. The mayor said he wanted the finance commission to study it and then have it go to the Public Works Commission.
The mayor also indicted he wanted this on the November ballot because more people vote in November than in April. Of course this November there are no federal or state wide races to attract voters. I also checked with the Board of Election Commissioners and learned there could be a MSD issue on the ballot. That is not good as it would confuse voters from one sewer issue to another.
But if the mayor wants to get something on the November ballot he does not have much time. He needs to get it to the Board of Election Commissioners by August. The next finance commission meeting is scheduled for June 19. There are currently no Public Works Commission meetings scheduled at all. The Public Works Commission likes to be able to study an issue, meaning it would need two meeting before deciding anything. The last time the Public Works Commission looked at sewer laterals they voted not to place the issue on a ballot. At this pace it does not look like the sewer issue can make it on the ballot in 2009. The mayor needs to send it to both commissions immediately and have them look at it at the same time if there is any chance for this to be on the November ballot.
MORE MONEY FOR NEW STUFF AT LONGVIEW OR SEND IT UP THE FLAGPOLE AND SEE IF ANYONE SALUTES…HEY WAIT A MINUTE, WHERE IS THE FLAGPOLE? In the 2009 budget funds have been appropriated to put up a flag pole that was donated to the city at Longview Park. We are talking some serious funds, $5,000 to put up a flagpole. A couple of us brought this up during the budget discussion and were assured that the price was reasonable and the item was approved.
Well new plans were submitted for work around the Longview Farmhouse and they do not include a flagpole, which we have budgeted $5,000 for. I asked about this and was told by Parks Director Anne Nixon, that the flagpole was too tall and was not appropriate for the park. (She was off work from late September-to-early December on maternity leave.) She had thought maybe it should be at Preservation Park. (Remember all the residents who were all upset about the too tall cross proposed to be erected along North Forty Drive? Well now a city department head wants to put a too tall flagpole on North Forty Drive. The pole is currently being stored at the city’s salt facility along Hwy 141. Apparently this pole is the size that you see in front of car dealers along Manchester.