City Council - Regular Meeting

a lot of three seconds i think that's what probably does it with those lights because you don't have the glow coming from the windows yeah seven yeah carlos it was last year too

You're welcome.

We are going to start. If everyone would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you roll call please.

Mayor Gibbons here. Councilmember Arnold here. Councilmember Burkett here. Councilmember Jack Sedeck here. Councilmember Lavender here. Councilmember McClain here. Councilmember Schaefer here.

Very good, thank you. I have an amendment to the agenda. The petitioner voluntarily is withdrawing their applications pertaining to bill number 11140, 11141, and 11142. May I have a motion and a second to amend the agenda to remove these bills?

Motion.

Second. Very good. Thank you. Any discussion? This is a voluntary withdrawal, and it is from the Offenburg property, so that you all are aware of what we're talking about. The applicant has withdrawn with every intention of coming back. This gives Council some time to amend the code. I think there were several people that said from now on they want to be able to review projects on a Council level. So we're going to, it'll give us the opportunity to look at amending that. Mr. DeBrecht is here. If anybody would like to speak with him, he's more than willing to talk with you after the meeting as well.

We'll need a vote on that motion. Okay. Before we're done.

Just quickly. So I'll just say quickly, the other option was to try to add a special condition to the zoning applications. And a number of council members felt that was not the correct way to do this through the process. The correct way would be to change the code, to change the ordinance, and so that it would equally apply to all applications going forward. and not have a special condition on these three applications. And so I appreciate the petitioner's willingness to withdraw these so that we can go through the normal process and do this right.

And the seller's willingness to agree to that as well. OK. Any more discussion? OK. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay.

Very good.

We'll move on. There are no special recognitions or presentations tonight. But we do have, at this time, the council will recess to conduct a public hearing regarding a request for staff initiative zone code text amendment regarding correlated color temperature for lighting of sports fields. You're not Ms. Mullins. We have a different Sarah. We have a different Sarah. Now I can't come up with your last name.

Your M is just fine.

Okay, Sarah M. Do you wish to enter exhibits into the record?

Yes, the city has five exhibits to submit to the record. Exhibit one is a one-page affidavit of publication signed by Rose Bryant showing that the ad advertising the public of these proceedings was placed in the St. Louis Countian on August 28th, 2026. Exhibit two is a one-page affidavit of publication signed by Randy Drilling is showing that the ad advertising the public of these proceedings was placed in the Webster Kirkwood Times on August 28th of 2026. Exhibit 3 is a three-page memorandum from City Planner 2, Amy Lowry, to the Planning and Zoning Commission dated August 19th of 2026. Exhibit 4 is a one-page report of the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting dated August 20th, 2026. And Exhibit 5 is the Kirkwood Code of Ordinances, including the zoning ordinance, the comprehensive plan, and the zoning district map, which may hereafter be enforced.

Thank you. Mr. Lamb, who will present this issue to the City Council?

City Planner Amy Lowry will present the matter.

Thank you. good evening mayor and council um just as background in january 2025 the city council approved a text amendment to the zoning code that requires all outdoor lighting be installed with a maximum color color cord and correlated color temperature of 2700 kelvin um to accomplish this there was a new subsection 2552- uh D9 added to the code that stated all lighting fixtures shall not exceed a correlated color temperature of 2,700 Kelvin. So this applied to all outdoor lighting fixtures in the city, including outdoor performance areas, sports fields, recreation facilities, and play fields. The Planning and Development Services Department received comments from the City Parks and Recreation Director that 2700 Kelvin was too low for some project upgrades for sports fields and racket sport courts in the city parks. And in addition, the city currently has an application under review for St. Louis Community College at Merrimack for new soccer baseball and softball fields that they intend to light and as part of the application the new fields were proposed at a CCT of greater than 2700 Kelvin so staff initiated the zoning text amendment that would Make a change to 2552D9 to read, except for outdoor performance areas, sport and recreation facilities and ball fields, all lighting fixtures shall not exceed a correlated color temperature of 2,700 Kelvin. this change would mirror uh an existing portion of the code that is just above that at d4 that reads except for outdoor performance areas sport and recreation facilities and play fields all lighting fixtures installed shall shall be at a minimum full cutoff where no light is permitted at or above a horizontal plane at the bottom of the fixture So we prepared this change for the Planning and Zoning Commission, and they approved it at their August 19th meeting, and they're recommending that change to City Council.

Thank you, Amy. Does Council have any questions?

Amy, what level of the color temperature is currently at these fields so they're getting ready to replace them, right?

The fields at Merrimack do not have any lights on them right now. The sports fields in the city have about 5,000, I believe. That's what they have. The Parks Department has been told from their lighting supplier that that is... what should be used for these fields.

And how did we not catch this when we put this in last time? We just didn't think of it. Nobody brought it up. Nobody thought about that exception. Correctly.

There's also a memo in your attached to my memo or actually not a memo, but a sheet on NCAA best lighting practices where they say that they recommend 4500 to 5700 Kelvin for sports fields.

Any other questions? Okay. We'll move to public comments.

Oh, sorry. There are other lighting ordinance components, correct? So this is just correct in the 2700 Kelvin?

This would just correct the 2700 Kelvin for those specific outdoor performance, sports and rec facilities and play fields, which are already not required to have full cutoff lights. Okay.

trespass the light trespassing would not change just none of that would change just the color temperature gina keep waving at me sorry you're down there um okay we will go to public comments jessica has anyone filled out a form for a public comment not not at this time very good thank you are there any further questions from console No, okay, hearing no further discussion, this public hearing is now closed. The bill will be on the October 1st city council meeting agenda for first reading approval. Now we'll move into public comments.

Public comments, three minute limit per person. The public comments portion of the meeting is an opportunity for the city council to listen to comments from citizens. It is not a question and answer session and the city council will not respond to comments or answer questions during this period. The mayor may refer any matter brought up to the city council to the chief administrative officer or city clerk if action is needed.

Jessica, have there been any cards filled out for comments?

Yes, there are. We have quite a few, starting with Tom Moser.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, audience. I'm here to talk about the tax abatement or However you're terming it in the last order of business tonight, I'm tired of businesses coming into town and saying, oh, we'll build this, but we have to have tax breaks. They want tax breaks. They don't want to pay the taxes. But if they need a police, they call a 911. And who's serving that? People and equipment that is being supplied by the citizens tax money that they are refusing to pay. They got money, they wanna build a business, they need to pay the taxes. Our equipment, our ambulances, our police cars, our fire trucks, they cost a lot of money. Our schools need a lot of money. And when they're gonna be shortchanged up to $5 million, because somebody's deferring their taxes, that is not right. And anybody that votes for that is not thinking in the best interest of the citizens of Kirkwood. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Tom. No, we do not clap. No, please. Rick Davis.

Good evening. The council is familiar with me in a group of like-minded Kirkwood citizens based on three years of emails, discussions, and shared videos and decibel readings concerning loud music at Billy G's and Four Hands. I hear music playing tonight. It's from across the street at the plaza. I'm glad it's playing because this is kind of similar to what the presidents deal with on a regular basis. You can hear it for yourselves. It can be even louder. Solving this problem should not be a difficult issue. I'm going to give you some facts. First, decibel readings at four hands in Billie G's property lines have ranged from the high 80s to well over 100. And according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, a government agency, sounds at or below 70 decibels are unlikely to cause hearing loss. However, longer repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 decibels can be harmful. the louder the sound and the shorter the amount of time it takes for hearing loss to occur. So this issue goes beyond disruption to residents, but also to the safety of customers and also employees. no correlation exists between decibel levels and patronage at these businesses. Whether recorded live or absent of any music whatsoever, these establishments are never short of customers. Fact, nearby municipalities like Town & Country, Frontenac and Webster Groves have explicit sound ordinances with exact decibel limits measured at the offending party's property line with time restrictions. This information has been shared with the council. Fact, repeated requests to villages and forehands management by residents, police, and city leaders, including the mayor, the chief administrative officer toward lowering the volume have resulted in no consistent cooperation. In fact, these businesses operate under a special use permit or on city property, meaning city leaders have options to immediately address the problem. After three years as council, I'm told is initiating work on a sound ordinance. That's great. Speaking for the many residents who signed a petition asking for music to be played at reasonable levels, we hope this work is undertaken in a thoughtful and productive manner, using information that's already been provided. Worse than the current situation would be an outcome that falls short of solving the problem. Please do the right thing for everyone involved. Thank you.

Thank you, Rick. Dr. Kathleen and Mick Eskew.

Mayor, council members, I'm here once again, part of the older couple, with the mosquito problem. Nothing's been done, not because of Kirkwood, but because of the railroad. That water is still standing there. I've been looking around. Chicago's got problems. They got one death with the Nile virus. Down in Florida, there's 111 cases of another virus that's spread by mosquitoes, and they keep saying, get rid of standing water, get rid of standing water. Now, I know that that's a railroad right of way, and you can't do anything about it. You can't fill it up, you can't throw something on there to get rid of the mosquitoes, but we can get ahold of that railroad and make them perform. That's what I'm asking Kirkwood to do. But also I'm going to be asking Webster Groves and Glendale and anybody else along that track to get on.

The train.

Yeah, never mind. To get on that railroad, we called a couple of times. Oh, we're going to take care of that. Never heard anything back. I'd like to have a response back on what's happening with this. Are we going to just wait till frost takes care of it? What about next year? The mosquitoes are just all over. We can't sit in our backyard without having some sort of a spray going on. We can't spray the bushes because my bride has COPD. No, no, no, that won't work. I know the mayor got back with me after the last time we were here. She stopped by my office, which, by the way, is the third booth over at Spencer's Grill. And she had contacted the railroad, but still they haven't done anything. I would like to see and hear somebody from that railroad doing something. When something happens here, and I don't want anybody to get a West Nile virus or anything, but when it happens, the news media isn't going to say the railroad. They're going to say Kirkwood. And if Kirkwood doesn't have or Webster doesn't have their ducks in a row saying we got the whole of them 25 times, what else can I say? Thanks, Mick. I've got a couple minutes to go.

In eight seconds.

Enid Staton.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for your time. I'm kind of new to this whole process. So I think you removed the thing that I was coming about the Offenburg and the zoning and but that was what my comment was about. I don't know if I go ahead and give my comment anyway. But we came to Kirkwood because it was a small town and it had a small town feel and that was a big appeal for us. Our neighborhoods quiet, it's really walkable. There's not a lot of traffic or cars. And I think I keep reading in the paper, there's lots of people that seem to feel there's condos and condos. And I just think, I think you can't, I'm not saying no development. I guess I'm just saying density matters. And I think taking away single family home options that are currently zoned matters. And I think you kind of don't know what you got till it's gone. Thank you.

Thank you. Emily Schwartz Post.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Emily Schwartz-Post, and I'm here tonight representing the residential construction industry. I work for the Home Builders Association here in St. Louis, and I'm here tonight to talk about stormwater. I actually sent a letter to everyone yesterday that I hope you had an opportunity to look at. The construction industry knows that you guys have been talking about stormwater for a long time here in this city. and that the current conversations have been going on for about a year. And we appreciate all the time that you as elected officials and your staff have put into this very important topic. The bill that's on the agenda for tonight, 11148, we'll make a change regarding basement depths for the city and we'll set the standard at eight feet. And we have what we think is a very simple common sense request. But when the H.R. Green report was shared with you all a year ago and when the bill was initially drafted, It would allow homeowners, builders, folks doing new projects in the city to use geotechnical engineering to determine where the seasonal high groundwater table was and would allow basements to be at depths that are two feet above that groundwater table. So what we are asking is before you pass the bill, if you would, we respectfully like you to amend it to keep basements at a minimum of eight feet deep. But if a resident, a homeowner comes to you and wants to undergo the necessary geotechnical engineering to determine where that groundwater table is, And if that would allow them to maybe get a nine foot basement or a little bit of a deeper basement, we'd like them to have that option. So again, it was in the HR green report, that recommendation, it was initially drafted that way by staff. And so we're just asking that you consider that before passing the ordinance. And thank you very much for your consideration.

Thank you, Emily. Brian Meyer.

A most pleasant good evening to each of you assembled here, you dearly beloved folks. I wish to address a concern that I'm sure a lot of people here in Kirkwood and surrounding areas are concerned about, and that is street safety. I am out on Westview Avenue of Pallets Road, There's a lack of stop signs, and I propose there should be a 20-mile-an-hour speed limit on each street out there in my neighborhood, which is Highland Terrace, off of Ballast Road to the west, north of the Union Pacific tracks, south of Sugar Creek, east of 270. For one, the 20-mile-an-hour speed limit and a stop sign in every direction. There are children there. There are pets there. Something terrible could happen. Heaven forbid they go too fast. And I wish to have something done about this sooner than later. And also they have to, they gotta be booming that, you know, in their vehicles. And that is a disturbance. I am an older person. I'm 66. I inherited that home. It was my childhood home from my mother and father. I'm still on 9 tenths of one acre. I have no intention of leaving anytime soon. And I wish to relay the safety features to each of you that must be addressed sooner than later. I hereby yield the floor. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And we do have his contact information. Thank you. Melissa Gurley Banks.

Hi there. I'm here to talk about the sale of the Offenburg properties. What if you take the sale of those properties as an opportunity for good press, which I know we all know Kirkwood could use right now. We are new residents having just moved here this past year from Glendale, where our kids enjoy top-notch Kirkwood schools. And after 31 years of investing in our Glendale home, we were driven out by the Essex sidewalk project, which gave Glendale beautiful sidewalks, but which took all of our street parking. Even the mayor who came to our house declared we were in a pickle. Our only choice being to give up our tiny front yard for a parking pad. So we came to Taylor Avenue. where my uncle raised his family decades ago. We were so excited as Kirkwood cared about its residents enough to put in beautiful sidewalks along Longview, even with speed bumps to slow traffic and without taking people's yards, unlike Glendale, where three of the nine of us on Essex had to move. These Kirkwood dedicated taxpayers, teachers, nurses, scientists, engineers, public servants, contractors have welcomed us. These beautiful neighbors have been loyal to Kirkwood many for decades. What if the city shows them loyalty as well? What if as you replace the current eyesores, the broken down dealerships, you also carve out just a little bit of one of these three properties locally? for a city's purchase of a modest park, like Walker Park near YMCA or Fillmore Park near the Public Works. These small parks have transformed and enhanced the areas around them, such a gift in an increasingly urban environment. And while I'm dreaming, what if you carved out even one residential lot and bought that land to allow for the construction or rehabbing of just one moderate-sized home? Webster Groves recently purchased this home in need of repair, fixed it, held on to the land itself in a trust, and sold the home at a reasonable price to a young family whose relatives had lived in Webster for decades, but who could not have afforded it without the city's help. Don't give Webster all the good press. You have the chance to give back to the families who invested so much of their finances and themselves in this neighborhood. You can alleviate the problem new homebuyers are facing one house at a time. You can bring back even a smidgen of green space to this area and still sell the remainder to limited density condos or a respectful, quiet business who pay their taxes. Families bring in tax dollars. Parks bring in families. Just think, wouldn't it be great to get some good press? Thank you.

Thank you, Melissa. Elena Hinkle?

Probably need to move this up a little bit. Good evening. My name is Elena Hinkle. I've lived in Kirkwood my whole life. I grew up here. I went to Robinson Elementary School and KMS and KGS. I worked in local restaurants for years, Duffy's, 119. I was a teacher for six years. And for the last three years, I've been involved in my daughter's PTO, serving as vice president. I help with school fundraisers, partner with local restaurants, organize community events like Trunk or Treat at Aberdeen Heights. because I genuinely care about this community. I'm also a single mom, but for years I lived with my parents so I could save enough money to buy a home. I eventually left teaching and had to change careers because my goal was to buy a home in Kirkwood, and I couldn't get a home loan in Kirkwood on a teaching salary. And when I was finally able to buy a home, I found the perfect one right behind the elementary school I went to. Finally, the schools I wanted for her, the community I wanted for her, I wanted my daughter to grow up the same sense of belonging that I had growing up here. That's why the conversation about affordable housing and transparency of the 14.8% utility increase is so important to me. We cannot say we want Kirkwood to remain affordable for families while $700,000, $800,000 million homes and condos increasingly become the norm. And affordability is not just the purchase price of a house. My electric bill this month was over $400 for a one-story, 1,500-square-foot home. A 14.8% increase is not just a percentage on a spreadsheet. For families like myself, it's groceries. It's a childhood activity. It's money that would have gone into savings. And what concerns me most is residents are being asked to absorb that increase while we're also learning about financial problems, inadequate oversight, and lack of transparency within a department that we're supposed to trust. I'm willing to pay my fair share for reliable utilities and infrastructures, but residents deserve to know how much of what we're paying for actually reflects the cost of providing electricity and how much is being used to correct financial mistakes we had no role in creating. I spent years saving money for Kirkwood because I believe it's worth investing in. I changed careers so I could afford to stay here, I volunteer here because I want Kirkwood to continue to be a place worth raising a family. I'm here to stay. But the first time I find myself questioning whether the Kirkwood I worked so hard to afford is becoming a community where families like myself can't realistically continue to live. Affordable housing cannot just mean rezoning and constructing a few affordable units. It has to mean that teachers, single parents, young families, longtime residents in this building can actually afford to live here, keep the lights on, support local businesses, and participate in the community. Transparency cannot just mean explaining what happened after residents like myself are already paying the price. It has to mean giving community clear information about major financial decisions that are being made, showing us where our money is going, acknowledging when oversight fails and being accountable to the people who trusted you to manage it responsibly. I love Kirkwood. That's why I expect better from it. Thank you.

Thank you. Stacy Relaford.

Good evening. And before I get started, I'd just like to point out that Elena used to babysit my daughter. Okay. Thank you. I've been a Kirkwood resident for 17 years. Both our children currently attend Kirkwood schools. And over the years, I've been proud, like Elena, to call this city my home. But lately, blunders, misjudgments, it's been disappointing. And the tax abatement on tonight's agenda is more of the same. More questions than answers. Rushing something that certainly deserves more scrutiny. And typically developers receive abatements in exchange for creating jobs, improving infrastructure, revitalizing an underserved area. This proposal is none of those things. A massive giveaway of much needed revenue is not the solution for our city. It is literally robbing Peter to pay Paul. We must do better. While there are many difficult decisions ahead for this council, this is not one of them. This is simple.

No.

I strongly urge you to oppose the tax abatement. Thank you.

Thank you. Teresa Hinkle.

Well, my spiel is not going to be nearly as eloquent as my daughter's. But my name is Teresa Hinkle. I live on Caroline. My husband and I have lived here for 31 years. We've raised two daughters. And I want to go on record saying I'm not OK with being made to pay for the mismanagement of our city's government, specifically referring to our utilities, electric, water, This didn't happen overnight, and my understanding, it was at least two years in the making, so I'm wondering where were the checks and balances that should have been in place. At a time when the prices of food, gas, everything are through the roof, you're making people like my husband and me, seniors on a fixed income, our daughter, a single parent working two jobs, and all the others like us pay for what was, was it incompetence, ignorance, dishonesty? We don't know. Was there no other option, or was this just the easiest way out? I understand there is to be an audit, and I would hope so, and I would hope it happens soon because we deserve to know the truth about what happened and why, and maybe in so doing can come up with another solution.

Thank you. Linda Vonderbrugge.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Linda Vonderbrugge. Several meetings ago, I asked a question regarding how any real estate developer is vetted for our municipality. I received a timely answer from John Rakel. His answer was that a privately owned piece of property, like the Commerce Bank property, can be sold and may choose the developer privately. It could then be submitted to the city council. I didn't know that, and I appreciated, John, your call. Because there seems to be real concern about the development of the property just east of us here on Taylor, I began doing some research all by myself. I want you to know that. I barely can use the phone. To do some research on double eagle development, and if the internet is correct, and maybe I'm not using the correct language, as a subsidiary or it was birthed or something from the largest real estate firm in St. Louis, Balky Brown Transwestern. I'd never heard of it. The president is Andrew Juris, what it said online, and he runs the day-to-day operations from Chicago. I want to assume that the council is fully aware of that as it vetted Double Eagle. If so, why isn't the public aware? If it is, what are the implications of that connection? Were other bids made and why was Double Eagle Development selected? Did the community have any input as to who received the bid? Also, it seems that a land contract with this huge dollar amount should be made public before it is signed. Transparency seems essential at this point. Thank you very much. Thank you, Linda.

Susan Smith.

Hi, my name is Susan Smith and I live on West Sarah and I have lived on West Sarah my entire life. So I remember when the businesses at the top of my street were fully operational. And I say it like that because I feel like there's a lot of people who may have forgotten what it was like. Either that or maybe they didn't have the opportunity to see. But we all know that they're an eyesore right now. But the fact of the matter is they were never nice. It was never a nice thing to have at the top of your street. They looked better, but it was never nice. I can tell you with certainty that any concerns you might have about the condos bringing in excess traffic pale in comparison to the amount of traffic that three new B3 businesses would have. They are, by definition, businesses that rely on heavy traffic. Believe it or not, in that sense, we've actually been kind of spoiled these last 15 or 20 years. We haven't had to deal with all that traffic, not to mention the lights at all hours of the night, the constant noise, the extra litter, and in general, just people who don't care because they don't live there. So that being said, I'm having a really hard time trying to wrap my head around the objections to rezoning these lots because it seems like people's worst fear is that they're going to put up another James. And all that tells me is that I haven't really considered the alternatives. I confirmed with one of the board members that they have other bids for those properties, and the people who are interested in those lots are all auto-related. The rumor, at least going around my neighborhood, is that those are for AutoZone, another car lot, and a quick trip. The least defense of any of these would be the AutoZone, and I can't fathom how that would be better than a condo, even if it did look like the James. I don't have any problem with it, James. I don't. But some people don't, I don't know, don't seem to like it. But anyway, both a nuisance level and an aesthetic level. I can't see how it would be any worse. But the reality is that it won't because it can't. As the architect said several times, they chose R5 specifically because of the limitations that are imposed on it. The height of the buildings, the green space required, the population density, they'd all be limited and regulated. So even if the rezoning does get approved and this developer backs out, or if they pull the bait and switch people were talking about, whatever goes in there will be subject to all those same limitations. I had and have you know, worries about putting condos in there. And I think that we can all agree that no matter what goes in there, we do have to consider the effect that they'll have on our neighborhood and things like the water runoff. And I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that removing several acres of 100% impervious surface and putting in, I don't know, 30 or 40% green space is only going to help our water runoff problem. so i hope that everybody can see beyond their personal taste in architecture and take our neighborhood and our quality of life into consideration and just let the arb worry about the design of the building thank you susan francine davis thank you

Kirkwood has been a community of single family homes serving as the foundation of the community. I moved to Kirkwood 41 years ago. I started out as a business owner and changed my career to teaching so I could give back to the community. But I was able to find a home then. I find myself thinking whether it is possible for new teachers to live in the community they teach. Can new employees of our city buy homes in the community they work in? When I think about the condo project, I don't see it as a neighborhood building that fosters children and families. As the city council representing the citizens of Kirkwood, it is your elected duty to protect the integrity of the neighborhoods of the citizens. Changing the zoning regulations to accommodate condos, over 60 condos, because we don't like vacant buildings, The owner still pays taxes on the property. In my opinion, to further erode the neighborhood is a mistake and that mistake is exasperated by a zoning ordinance change that will impact the city for long into the future. There seems to be too many unknowns. This council does not need another mistake. Thank you.

Wallace Ward.

Good evening. I didn't expect to get that far up on the list. I thought by the time you were hearing me, I'd sound like Charlie Brown's mother with a trumpet just blowing. You'd forget about me. Anyway, you've heard enough about abatement tonight. I know there are times when abatement is appropriate. This just isn't one of those times. The other thing I'd like to discuss just a little bit here is the idea of the council concept, I guess is what I really get at. There are seven of you here, not because it's just a nice odd number. There are seven of you here because it's supposed to give the nearly 12,000 residents in this community an opportunity for at least one of you to have walked in their shoes. And so you represent those what 13,000 households. I'd like for you to just take a pause. I know there are a lot of issues that seem to be hair on fire issues for the city, but take a moment, take a breath, figure out how you can work better as a group of seven rather than small spiteful groups. Um, And I would like to leave, and I'll be back, because I want to come back and talk about the Water Department, because that's important. The word on the street was that some rogue council members went and spoke with the executives from Missouri American Water. If that is true, and I hope that it's not true, because that's a real break-in in your duty to the council and to the residents of this community, Please share what the content of that conversation was if you had one and when you had it. I think you owe that to the community. Thanks.

Thank you, Wallace. Paul Ward.

Good evening, everyone.

I followed the smart guy. I'll probably start off with My father was the first African American to run for office in Kirkwood. He always raised us to pay attention. He says you can either be a participant or you can be a player. I started out serving on planning and zoning 40 years ago with no intention of ever being an elected official. I went on. I was chosen by Mayor Marge Schramm to be the first and only TIF chairman. And that was before I got elected. So I guess I must have done something right because people still elected me. One of the things I wanted to point out is I've been watching you all. I've been concerned like everybody else, but I understand the rhetoric. I understand the discontent of people. But one of the things that concerns me is there needs to be more cohesiveness. Having sat there for 12 years, nothing gets done without a good staff and trust in that staff. and what they do and the information that they give you all to make good decisions. The problem you all are dealing with right now, I'm against the abatement. And as I said, I did the TIF that was $70 million worth of development. And I had the challenges of dealing with the school district and a lot of residents that didn't want it. So I get all that I had to take the heat and I was okay with that because I volunteered to do it. Um, What I'm troubled by and I'd like to get an answer for is what councilmen felt that that wording had to be in a contract for a development. We put forth development for the maintenance facility in 2010. We already mapped out. Now, of course, former Lewis and Rice attorney John Hessel always reminded us future councils aren't bound by that decision. But at the time, citizens were comfortable with that. We put in place 26 years ago all of the areas that you all are now challenged with allowing development of multifamily. 26 years ago. Change is inevitable in this community. And if you think we can stand still and not change, you're in the wrong city. We've been changing since the day the city was created. The young lady that spoke talking about affordability, interest rates were 19% when my brothers and sisters were buying houses.

Thank you, Paul. Patrick Jones.

Mayor and council, good evening.

Good evening.

I'm just here to beat Alina's restaurant work. I started Two Nice Guys Restaurant, 1979, washing dishes. I lied about my age, so I didn't. So at 14, I could get a worker's permit. I don't know where the child labor laws were then, but I still worked 40 hours a week. So I'll make this quick because Emily with the HBA so eloquently put it, speaking about the foundations and the depths and the things that we don't want to lose here in Kirkwood to citizens that may choose to build in another neighboring city who's going to allow them to build nine foot basements. This is the H.R. Green study that we were all handed out that the citizens of Kirkwood paid for. And within this survey, they stated some recommendations, and two of them would be safe to both the citizens and to the builders. And that would be, there would be some recommendations where you could either bring the foundation out of the ground two more feet, or an engineer could drill down and find out where that water table was And if it was 12 feet or two feet below where you wanted to build, you could put in a nine-foot pour. So that language was in the original ordinance that was handed out. And so we're just asking that that would be put back in. We want to compromise. We know we've been going through this for a year. And it's a struggle for everybody. And that's why I hate politics. I just do. Because no matter what you say to one side... they're not going to change their mind. And if it's the reverse is said to the other side, they're not going to change their mind. And where there's an agenda, common sense goes out the window. So we have to look at this survey and say, is this really about water or is this about, I don't know, anti-growth or something against single family residents? Because if I can go down to downtown Kirkwood and put in a plans to build a commercial building, multi-family apartments. And I can say, well, there's no water problem here. I can get 83% impervious area, 85%. But two blocks away on Clay, I can't build because we got a water problem there and you got 25%. So what I'm saying is everybody can get a win here. And I know in politics, sometimes we just need a win. And I think this is a win for both the city the council members and for the citizens and the builders to just put this original language back into the ordinance, which would state that if the builder or resident wants to pay the fee, to pay for an engineer to drill down to find the water table, which is what they said in here, because they said that every lot in the city of Kirkwood is not the same. So you can't make a blanket statement and say, here's the water table. So we either care about the water, because if somebody could build a nine foot pour, we should all be applauding, thinking, my gosh, we got good building and we don't have a water problem there. So I appreciate your time and hopefully you'll vote accordingly.

Thank you. Brian Hill.

Council members, good evening. I'm going to be in really big trouble if I didn't mention my wife, Susan. Really wanted to be here tonight, so I'm going to be speaking on behalf of both of us. A couple months ago, right, you guys saw me up here speaking for the rezoning and to residential. So I want to hit things up just a little bit differently tonight. So I live at 120 East Sarah Avenue. It's still two doors down from the Dollar Thrifty and right across the street from Offenburg. You know, we hear things about height. These condos are going to be too tall, 35 feet. My house is 30 feet. Deb's more than five feet tall. So have my house and a Deb there. Right. 35 feet might seem super high, but it's not that much different than any two story on a block here in Kirkwood. We have heard about traffic. Yes, there's going to be some increased traffic. If you put any commercial or anything there, there's going to be increased traffic, plain and simple. We've heard about the integrity of the neighborhood. And this is where I really want to hit home here. So imagine you're looking out your bedroom window. You're looking out your kid's bedroom window. It's 10 p.m. at night and your lights, your windows are just flooded with gas station lights. Is that the integrity of the neighborhood that we want here in Kirkwood? As someone who's directly affected by this, I would vote no, that's not what we want. We'd like to have that a little bit more residential. Keep that integrity there. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Denise Greiner.

Hello, my name is Denise Greiner and I've lived on 126 East Sarah for 26 years this month. My husband and I raised our $3 on that street. And we were there when we moved in when Chris Offenberg and Thrifty were very active. We are a nurse and a teacher, so we were less picky about where we could move because we wanted to raise our kids in Kirkwood in great schools in a safe neighborhood. While my three little girls were growing up on that street riding their bikes and scooters, we dealt and listened to cars racing up and down those streets after the mechanics would test the cars they had fixed. Called Lots of times about that. We're constantly worried about their safety. And so when I hear stories of a possible auto zone, a possible car dealership, a gas station, freaks me out a little bit. So the idea of actually having neighbors, people who own property, just... two three doors down from me across the street that is what i want i want people invested in my street who also care about where they live and what it looks like i don't want to see the the light shining in my bedroom window like they used to with offenberg so um i appreciate you all tabling it um going the developer the sellers and you all getting more information regarding traffic and parking um and i appreciate your consideration thank you

Thank you, Denise. Jesse Groh.

Hello, good evening. So my name is Jesse Groh. I live on Manlin Drive. I'm a lot... Behind the folks on Sarah and I just want to also express support for condo development slash rezoning at the often bird property. We moved to the streets right at the tail end of often bird being a thing and I just take a what other people have said the alternative is not beautiful single families in a park and, like a pony garden it's going to be commercial or. Some degree of residential and I totally agree i'd rather have neighbors there and not three businesses with a lot of traffic and people again who don't care about the street and the neighborhood thanks.

Thank you. Sydney rash.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. You guys have your hands full, that's for sure. My name is Sydney Rash. I am a Kirkwood resident. I live at 972 Simmons Avenue. And while many of you know me through my work in the residential construction industry, tonight I'm speaking as someone who lives here, invests here, and cares deeply about the future of our community. I'll try and make this short because you've already heard enough about it. Sometimes those of us in the building industry are viewed as builders, but tonight I'd like to be viewed through the lens of a resident. First, I want to thank you guys for the amount of the tremendous work that you have put into all of this, but especially this stormwater ordinance. I wanted to speak briefly about why I believe our final and very reasonable request regarding the basement depths that Emily had spoke on earlier. The entire purpose of this ordinance, I believe from what I've heard, is to reduce stormwater runoff and address flooding concerns. Allowing a homeowner to build a basement deeper than 8 feet only when a geotechnical report demonstrates that the basement finished floor will remain at least 2 feet above the seasonal high groundwater table does not undermine that goal in any way. This approach maintains the city's proposed eight-foot limitation as a standard requirement while allowing additional depth only when site-specific conditions support it. It preserves a measurable groundwater protection standard, yet recognizes that conditions vary from property to property, and it places the responsibility and the cost of that eligibility on the homeowner or the builder. Most importantly, it does not increase your stormwater runoff, which, like I said, I believe is the whole goal of this conversation. It does not weaken the purpose of this ordinance, and it has no negative impact on this objective. So we have worked hard throughout this process to find common ground, and we see this as a great addition to the ordinance. So I just hope that you guys will vote accordingly with that request.

Thank you. Thank you, Sydney. William Keller.

William Keller 632 East Jefferson Avenue here in Kirkwood. You've heard a lot this evening already about the tax abatement and I could mirror many of those comments and come up with a lot of reasons why this is really a bad idea. It did strike me, though, when I was reading the East-West Gateway Council of Governments review of tax abatements in the metro area. And they, from time to time, have studied the results of those and how effective they've been. And literally each time they've done the study, they've seen that tax relief, tax programs like that, anything in the area are not effective. They do not help an area. And they are typically used a lot for areas that are in great need and then in great financial difficulty. I really don't want to see Kirkwood moving in that same direction There's already been enough bad press and it's back to again hearing the words a lot about transparency and There has to be trust so I would urge you all to vote no to Taking money away from Kirkwood in this manner I hope it ends up being 7-0. No That would be the right way to go. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Jesse

There are no further comments.

Oh, gosh. Okay. Then we will now move to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda? Motion. Second. Very good. Are there any questions or comments?

I would like to take off D and E from the consent agenda and ask our administrator for a very brief summary of what was included in the bargaining agreement with our police.

That will go at the end of this meeting. Okay. Okay. The other consent agendas. Is there any other additional comments? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. The consent agenda passes as amended. Now we'll move into unfinished business. Substitute Bill 111343. Oh, hold on one second. Do I have a motion and a second to bring Substitute Bill 11143 to the floor for consideration?

So moved. Second.

Thank you. So Substitute Bill.

Vote on that?

Oh. Roll call. All in favor of bringing the substitute bill forward, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The substitute bill passes.

The motion passes. Now the substitute bill. Mr. Lamb.

Mayor and Council, Bill 1143, fixing and establishing the rate of taxation to be levied upon all real estate and certain tangible personal property in the City of Kirkwood, County of St. Louis, State of Missouri for the year 2026 for the maintenance of the Kirkwood Public Parks, for the Police and Firemen's Pension Fund, for General Government Services, and for businesses in the Special Business District.

Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? And I'll just bring, this was a substitute bill because we just got the information today from the state of Missouri. So we had to change the bill from that information.

And Mayor, when you say we just got information, they wiggled the rates slightly from what we had had that we had discussed previously. Yeah, thank you.

Any other comments or questions? Roll call, please.

Mayor Gibbons? Yes. Councilmember Arnold? Yes. Councilmember Burkett? Yes. Councilmember Jack Sedeck? Yes. Councilmember Lavender? Yes. Councilmember McLean? Yes. Councilmember Schaefer?

Yes.

Bill 11143 passes. Bill 11144.

Mayor and Council, Bill 11144, fixing and establishing the rate of taxation to be levied upon all real estate and certain tangible personal property in the City of Kirkwood, County of St. Louis, State of Missouri for the year 2026 for the operation and maintenance of the Municipal Library District of Kirkwood.

Thank you. Are there any questions or comments on Bill 11144?

Just noting that they did not have changes in their established rate. Thank you.

Roll call, please.

Mayor Gibbons. Yes. Council Member Arnold. Yes. Council Member Burkett. Yes. Council Member Jack Sedeck. Yes. Council Member Lavender.

Yes.

Council Member McLean. Yes. Council Member Schaefer. Yes.

The bill has passed final reading. Bill 11145.

Mayor and Council, Bill 11145, amending the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget for the Parks and Recreation Department.

Thank you. Are there any questions or comments on Bill 11145? Roll call, please.

Mayor Gibbons? Yes. Councilmember Arnold?

Yes. Councilmember Burkett?

Yes. Councilmember Jack Sedeck? Yes. Councilmember Lavender? Yes. Councilmember McLean? Yes. Councilmember Schaefer?

Yes.

Bill has passed final reading. Now we're going to move into new business. Bill 11146.

Caught me.

Mayor and Council, Bill 11146, authorizing and directing the mayor to enter into a Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission Transportation Alternatives Program Agreement for the Awarded Transportation Alternatives Program Project, TAP 5502618, Argonne Drive Improvements.

Thank you. Are there any questions? Do I have a motion and a second on this bill, please?

Motion.

Second. Very good. Are there any... We'll move into comments or questions, and I've got something to direct to Chris on this, because I see that in the bill it said that there were going to be a lot of... Oh... bumps into the road, curbs and green space, walking. I just ask that nothing get as close as that intersection at Essex and Clay. I think was that 23 feet?

Yes, so yeah, Essex and Clay is 23 feet wide.

People, I mean, people have such a hard time on there, especially when there's the box trucks and people that are older. I mean, it really is. And like you said, right across the street, the north side of Essex and Clay. So I just want to make sure in this project, we won't have anything as close as that.

Okay. So this majority looks at Argonne Drive and organizes traffic. So we've got a lot of curb cuts between the islands and it looks at the circulation of traffic on the 100 blocks of Argonne. So with this grant, we'll be... Filling in some of those. We're also looking at diverting or directing traffic in certain ways so that there's not conflicting movements. And so there are some safety benefits that were being implemented with the project.

But they'll take in consideration those box trucks, Amazon trucks and everything that are delivering all over the place that are going to have to make those turns and curves.

That's correct. We can take that in consideration. Okay, great. Thank you.

What other questions? Council Member Schaffer.

Thank you. So, oh, Gina.

No, go ahead.

I guess my concern is about bike lanes that we're going to have going down in front of St. Peter's. And if they're, we already just ran into this at SGM. that if there's bicycle lanes there, they won't be able to be parking for church services and so forth there. So are we going to resolve that by moving them into the street here or how are we doing that?

So the bike lane starts at Harrison. It does not go in front of St. Peter's with the project. And so of course it'll be a shared bike facility with, with the travel lane to Harrison and, but between Harrison and Guyer, there will be a dedicated bike lane on the north side. Okay, thank you.

Appreciate that. Thank you, Mayor.

Council Member Jackson. Can you walk through the financing and the numbers you have in here? So it looks like it's going to be almost a $1.8 million project altogether.

So altogether, it's actually a $2.6 million project. It's bringing $1.7 million million, almost 1.8 million of federal funds for the project. So the city is responsible for 31% of the total project and with the federal match paying 69%.

So it's a not to exceed from the federal match, the 1.8. Yeah. And then, but we do have to pay that all up front and we get reimbursed, correct?

That's correct.

So, so what's our funding source for this going to be the, The TDD, what account are we going to pay this $2.6 million out of?

So either TDD or general capital funds. That's vetted out through the budget. And so the project is scheduled for construction in 2030. Uh, we have preliminary engineering, uh, starting, uh, next fiscal year, um, which would be at FY28 and then, uh, right away funds in 29 and then construction in 2030. So if we, um, depending on you know looking at the capital and if we want to fund it through the tdd funds um we can do so or we can use general capital so are you talking fiscal year 30 or the actual 2030 in terms of when everything really starts uh so that would be actual calendar year

So in the meantime, can we get a timeline projection of what the costs might be each year? Because obviously with budget, and we took the 1.8 million out for streets, and whether or not we're gonna do this totally taking money out of the TDD budget, even incrementally, what that impacts could be, or if there's gonna be money in your capital beyond the TDD. So having an idea what you anticipate,

meeting each year until you get to the big project happening would be helpful uh yeah so for we will be putting a five-year budget plan together which uh council be receiving that i believe around uh sometime in a few months and so that five-year plan will have that i'll spell that for you

And is it possible, because the costs may escalate at any point, is there a possibility if costs go up that we could get awarded some additional dollars out of this?

It's certainly possible. East-West Gateway has done that in the past. They did it about two years ago, and we got over a million dollars in inflationary costs on different projects. But there was an escalation factor when the estimate was put together, when the grant was submitted back in February, to account for that.

Will I-7 be done by then, so it raises a question?

I can't answer that. I'm not MoDOT.

Thank you.

I just have a question about the bike shelter. Is that going at the farmer's market?

Yes. I have a question about the bikes then also. I've got an email a couple of months ago that the bike racks we have currently in are not appropriate for how people hang or store their bikes. Can we also before we put bike racks in explore that a little bit and see what's the appropriate bike rack to put in these days? Someone who is a bike rider said the bike racks we have really don't accommodate the bikes the way a different rack does.

OK.

Thank you. I'll make note of that.

I think it was the one at the KPAC. Is that the one? It might have been. In particular. Yeah. Jerry DeWolf.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That guy. OK. Thank you.

Any other questions?

OK. Is that a roll call there?

All in favor of Bill 11146, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The bill passes. Bill 11147.

Mayor and Council, Bill 11147, appropriating $29,646 from the equitable sharing fund balance to the Police Department Professional Services Other Account, accepting the single source quote of Axon Enterprise, Inc., in the amount of $29,646 for the Axon 911 cloud service subscription for the Police Department, and authorizing and directing the Director of Procurement to enter into an agreement with Axon Enterprise, Inc.,

Thank you. Do I have a motion and a second? Second. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments?

I have one, please. Chief Administrator, I think this is probably for you. I appreciate this is coming from the funds for forfeiture. Monies that we inherit, I think, would be perhaps a way to say that. That's for the first year. Can we know this is a five-year contract?

It is a five-year contract. I don't know if they have that. I'm going to refer to Sean if he's looked at budgeting for the final four years of it.

And I don't know if you'd be able to tell us that today, but do you anticipate it would always come from the forfeiture account?

We can't. We don't know that right this second. The intention was to evaluate now that we're entering budgets, whether we budget for that amount next year into our budget or we supplement that with asset forfeiture, but we could do either one of those things.

Is that a rolling account for you? Do you have money in there all of the time?

I mean, as long as forfeitures come in, but yeah.

Is that an up and down type of profit?

Yeah, so some of the funds, so we have Treasury funds in there, and then we have Department of Justice funds, so it really depends on who seizes the money, whether it be like the EA or, so Treasury funds have to be used within three years, so we have a time limit on those, so usually when you go to those first DOJ funds don't have to have a time limit. Okay. A lot of times in the past with our other Axon contract for body cameras and things, if it goes up a lot, we do try to supplement that with asset forfeiture.

Right. So you will most likely put this into your budget, your normal budget, and then year by year, depending on what you might have in this forfeit account, be able to supplement some of that cost or maybe handle all of it.

But you only know year by year. Because our body camera for Exxon, all that's coming up as well. So we're also exploring supplementing that with that.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Any more questions? Don't sit down.

I don't think Darren's going to want to answer that question. Can you talk about what this is for? Why you're doing this? Is this new or is it something that you have used before?

Yeah, so technically this program is new. We do have a similar program that was 100% grant funded that we've had for a year. Once we got that grant funded program, we were already committed to it. And then this program came through in a presentation. Our dispatch staff, our communication staff, really, really liked this program because it was real-time quality control versus after the call's done, then it gives us quality control. And then this one also does a lot of things like somebody calls in and they speak a different language. it automatically recognizes that language and then translate that to the dispatch words. The other program did not. The other program that was grant funded, we've counted in the past year about a total of eight weeks where we could not use the program whatsoever because the company wasn't functional or something. So whenever we were trying to evaluate whether we were going to look at this a second year, the other program, our dispatch staff preferred to go this route. So then we started looking at what we needed to do to get there.

I just wanted to highlight that this was a really cool way to handle 20 different languages. And that's pretty amazing for the price.

Thank you. Any more questions?

Good. Thank you. I think we're good.

Okay. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Bill 11147 passes first reading approval. Bill 11148 passes.

Mayor and Council, Bill 11148, amending the Kirkwood Code of Ordinances, Chapter 5, Article 7, and Article 8 for purpose of amending the city's infill development stormwater management ordinances.

Motion. Thank you.

Second.

Thank you. I think we're going to have an amendment here, but before we do that, I just want to again reiterate, this is a good neighbor policy that we're working on here. This is trying to make sure that all of our citizens in Kirkwood are not being flooded. We saw it time and time again. by new builds being next door. So it's just all do is make sure that we're good neighbors, not only to the ones that are moving in, but for those of us that have been here for years and years. So with that, open the floor.

In anticipation of the comments we heard tonight, I prepared an amendment. It's a little different than what I sent out earlier. it's pretty much the same okay all right it's pertaining to paragraph 9a or i'm sorry paragraph 9. i'm sorry amend section 3 subsection 9 to delete the language in its entirety and insert the new language as follows and I'll read it out loud. 9A, except as permitted in 9B, new residential basement and basement extension shall be limited to eight feet as measured from the basement finished floor to the top of foundation. B, new basement and basement extension shall be allowed to go a maximum of nine feet in the event the owner applicant submits a geotechnical report or by reference to the depth to water table map set forth in Appendix L of the final Kirkwood Citywide Stormwater Master Plan. That evidence is the finished floor elevation is not lower than two feet above the seasonal high water ground table.

So we need a motion. I get that. Okay. All right. Discussion on the motion?

Yes, if I may. Thank you. I feel we've already compromised on this language. We had gone from no deeper pour than what it was to introduce the eight-foot pour. I am concerned with the stormwater. We've had challenges with stormwater across our city for decades. at least a decade, if not more. I think the limits on basements could keep more homes affordable instead of teardowns and rebuilds. And I feel that equity across all neighborhoods is appropriate instead of allowing this house or that house that has the opportunity to do the geotechnical report to allow them something different than other homes in the community would have access to. So I will not be in favor of this amendment. Thank you, Mayor. Other comments?

The reason I like it is it doesn't penalize the individuals that have property that doesn't have the groundwater underneath it. And you can't have equitable houses or equitable property throughout Kirkwood. You have different size lots, corner lots, big lots, slope lots. And so we just can't have equitable for everybody. We're not a social club for that.

And hydrostatic changes, no matter whether you're on a hillside or whether you're down in a valley. So if they're going through the geotechnical, that will decide.

And it was what was in the original HR Green, was that their name? Recommendations to the city. Okay.

Call for a vote.

Just a question. Yeah. Because you submit the geotechnical report and then, or by reference to the depth to water table set, is that potential to change over the next, how many ever, you know, every 10 years? Will that change and require us to update it? Or do we put a period after the geotechnical report?

We'll ask Jennifer to come up.

Yes, please. So...

Hello, Mayor, Council.

Yeah, it could change. I can't say for sure if it will or not, but rainfall intensities are increasing. So depending on if it dries out or if it gets wetter, all that could have an effect on that.

So the tables could change is what you're saying?

Yeah. So do we just leave it as the report? I'm fine. I wrote this in a hurry.

You'd like to amend your motion. If Gina would like to amend it, I'll let Gina amend it.

You know, I think we did... a stormwater assessment, I believe back when ordinances were first put in place. And so we did this one and I see this as an ongoing thing that we do every five, seven years or whatever to keep up with the changes that are currently in place.

So you do it pretty regularly for other reasons as well?

It's been that way, and I see its benefit in continuing to reevaluate the situation.

So your recommendation is to come back every three or five years?

I would say the five to seven years you'd want to do another report. That kind of falls in line with MSDs.

So as long as it's updated. I just didn't want it to stay the 1980s report, and we're still making decisions on that. So OK. Yes. Never mind.

OK. Anything else for the amendment? OK. All in favor of the amendment as proposed, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Nay. The amendment carries, now.

Clarify it, Mayor, I couldn't quite make out how you voted.

I voted in favor.

In favor, okay, thank you.

Okay, now back to the bill as amended. Any more conversations, discussion? OK, all in favor of the bill as amended, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. OK, the bill passes the reading. Bill 11149.

Mayor and Council, Bill 11149, amending the Kirkwood Code of Ordinances, Chapter 14, Article 8, Section 14-394 to establish a 15-minute parking limit at 159 West Argonne Drive on the east side of Clay Avenue.

Do I have a motion and a second?

Second.

Thank you. Is there any discussion?

I'd like to hear from the applicant. Okay.

I think he's here tonight.

I think he's here too. We can waive Robert's rule of order.

We need a motion second to waive Robert's rules of order, please.

I don't want to waste his time being here. I'd like to hear from him.

Okay. All in favor of the waive Robert's rule of order, please say aye. Opposed, nay.

Did I hear a nay?

Kevin, would you like to address us?

Just like to hear how you're doing.

I'm not doing well. I wore these shorts tonight. I'm freezing.

We'll get you out of here.

So if I sound nervous, it's just I'm shaking. Yeah, no, I appreciate the opportunity to get a 15-minute parking there for deliveries and people are picking up food, et cetera. So I think it'll be a good thing there. And if other businesses across the street, forehands, they need a delivery, there'll be a 15-minute parking there, anybody in the general area. The win for business.

Very good. Okay.

Yep. Good.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mark. I appreciate the opportunity.

All right. Any more comments or questions? Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The bill carries. Bill 11150.

Mayor and Council, Bill 11150 is amending the Kirkwood Code of Ordinances, Chapter 14, Article 8, Section 14-393, to remove certain no parking restrictions on South Kirkwood Road and amending Section 14-394, Subsection E by adding the newly designated parking spaces.

Do I have a motion and a second to accept Bill 11150? Motion.

Second.

Thank you. I think this is a great thing to add more parking to our downtown. And my understanding is it can be done right away, even though we've got some streets going to be redone eventually. But giving more, especially in front of City Hall, I mean, that's a great thing. Anybody else?

I just want to thank, you know, the council member Lavender for really pushing for this. She fought hard to make sure that this was considered. And I know that a lot of people have had issues with parking. And I think this was a great way to just go out and say, what's a cheap, easy way to address this without having to do much, but do some striping, a few signs. So thank you. I really appreciate the efforts.

Thank you. This will add 23 spaces on two blocks in downtown. Great. Yep. Okay.

All in favor of first reading approval, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The bill has passed first reading approval. Bill 11151.

Mayor and Council, Bill 11151 is amending the Kirkwood Code of Ordinances, Chapter 14, Article 8, Section 14-394 to change certain two-hour parking limitations to three-hour parking limitations.

May I have a motion and a second to accept Bill 11151? Motion. Second. Good. Is there any comments or questions? I think, you know, just an explanation that businesses and residents were coming to us because they were getting parking tickets for only two hours, and so we're adjusting to make more three-hour parking.

And it gives uniformity across the city. We had some three hours. We had some two hours. I think we've all heard people comment, if you want me to come to Kirkwood and shop and eat, I need a little bit more than two hours. And so this helps maybe accommodate a little bit more of that as well.

This also came from SBD. Carrie really was asking for this as well. So I'm all in favor of it.

I just want to verify that because a couple months ago we had this conversation and Carrie asked us not to change, you know, some of that because they needed that in and out on those roads. I just want to make sure SPD agreed. We changed the parking lots to three, but we left the street at two. So they are fine with that, I'm assuming. SPD is okay with this? That's what I was told. Okay. All right. I just want to make sure she was... No, she's in Ireland.

Are you the SPD liaison?

Did they talk about that? They didn't talk about that. That concerns me. Because we had this conversation and we agreed at the time to do two hours in front of the businesses and three hours on that parking lot to start converting over. So I'm a little concerned that if SPD hasn't been involved in this,

Darren, do you know if they have been?

I don't know. Talking to Chris, I think this was a few months back. This has been in the works for about three or four months.

And the police were involved?

It went through your skit?

It went through skit. And was Carrie involved with skit?

What needs to be involved in doing the striping and then putting the signs up?

Changing signs.

Changing signs?

Pretty much changing signs.

What if we do the striping and then continue the sign change until later?

There's no striping required. All it is is a two to a three on a sign.

Okay.

I mean, we have two choices. I mean, it's got two readings, but we can either continue it or we can... approve it with a little asterisk and when's Gary back from Ireland when is we've got till the 1st of October I mean I think we'll continue till she gets back if she's not back we'll continue again I think it has to go to the SPD board when's the SPD next board meeting

Sometime in October.

Excellent. Wednesday. Let's just continue it and give them time to just weigh in. It would be nice if they had a chance to weigh in.

Or do the first reading.

You know, I agree because I remember that conversation with Carrie. But that did not come up in the last SBD meeting. We were talking about fun things like the Fall Fest and Witch's Walk and candy stuff and closing down streets. Right, Chris? Closing down streets for like the Witch's Walk? Yeah. We saw the emails, though. Okay.

I would recommend it's not an emergency thing to go.

Are you making a motion?

I make a motion that we continue this until I would go ahead and push it to the second. meeting in october october 15th that would probably be the one i was talking about um and maybe we can hit spd at least carrie has time to get back and take a look at it and engage the spd group do i have a second second okay any more discussion on the motion to continue

All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Okay, we will continue Bill 11151. Okay, Resolution 91-2026.

Mayor and Council, Resolution 91-2026 is accepting the bid of JW Bomarito Construction in the amount of $1,412,660, which includes a 10% construction contingency in the amount of $141,266 for a total amount not to exceed $1,553,926 for the replacement of the water main on Monroe Avenue between Harrison Avenue and Fillmore and authorizing and directing the mayor to enter into a contract.

Do I have a motion and a second to accept Bill Resolution 91-2026?

Motion.

Thank you. Discussion?

I'd like Chris to come up and explain why we're going from a 4- and a 6-inch to a 12-inch. And I already kind of where we're going. So go ahead.

So yeah, currently we have both a four inch and a six inch. So effectively we have a 10 inch out there. So we are replacing it with a 12 inch PVC. A 10 inch line is not a standard pipe size line. It's not a standard coupler size. So that's why we went with 12-inch PVC for the water main. We did receive a total of nine bids for the project. So we've got a really great bid participation in the project. And so I just want to make sure that everybody is aware that This comes directly from our infrastructure renewal fees that everybody pays for on their bills. And so, and then as far as the scope, like Darren said, it's 2,424 feet of 12 inch. With the project, we've got eight lead service lines that we're replacing and three new fire hydrants.

And do you I'm sure you coordinate with the fire department when you're shutting down and fire hydrant and do they all get shut down kind of at different times and that kind of thing.

Yeah, so the existing main will remain in service until the new one's put into place. And so all those old fire hydrants will remain in service until the new main is in service. Then we take the old main out of service, and those old hydrants get taken out of service at that point.

Oh, the old ones do? Yep. Gina would love to have three more at her house. Absolutely.

Paint them red, white, and blue.

Questions? Yes, Council Member McClain.

What percentage of overall water mains is this? And going back to, you want to replace a certain percentage every year, right? Is that part of this percentage?

Yeah, so this is about 0.4% of our system.

Which my understanding is that that's what Missouri American is doing now, 0.4%.

Okay, so this is half or less than half than what you want to do this year.

So, yeah, I'll be coming to you guys for another water main that will be going out to bed very shortly. It's going to more than double this.

All right, so are you still in line then to accomplish what you want to accomplish this year as far as water replacement mains?

Yes. So yeah, we anticipate to replace 0.89%.

You still think you'll be within budget for that? Based upon these numbers here?

So the bids haven't come in yet, but expecting that we'll get... the same number of bidders. Um, and, uh, this project is located in downtown, a lot of traffic. Um, the other project is on Doherty ferry, uh, between Lindeman and Rochdale. Um, but that road has much less traffic than Kirkwood road, which is, which this project goes through. And so anticipating to get a little bit better bids for that project.

Good. All right. Okay.

I have some questions. Will this actually be completed by March 31st, 2027?

It will not be completed, the entire project. However, we plan to start this early winter once the ARIA is complete with their work. Other portions of it would start first, but we anticipate it going into early summer.

So this and the next project are both going to be next fiscal year completions, correct?

Completions, yes, but we'll start doing this fiscal year.

And you'll pay them incrementally, so not all of this will be paid this year. You'll have to encumber it as we're trying to do that more for your next fiscal year.

Yeah, so I would reappropriate what is not spent this year into next fiscal year's budget.

Do you have any projects completed this year?

We have two projects that were complete, one on Woodgate, the other one on Lockett Road. Both of those water mains are complete.

Because you're going into the season... that it may actually get below 90 degrees and you may not be able to work, correct? You have a couple of months that realistically there's not going to be work being done of any great amount.

Correct, but yeah, they can still work a few days before it gets a nice 40 degrees. Okay, great.

Thank you. More questions? No, I'm sorry.

Where am I? This is a roll call, right?

All right, roll call, please.

Mayor Gibbons. Yes. Council Member Arnold. Yes. Council Member Burkett. Yes. Council Member Jack Sadek. Yes. Council Member Lavender. Yes. Council Member McLean. Yes. Council Member Schaefer.

Yes.

The resolution passes. Resolution 92-2026.

Mayor and Council, Resolution 92-2026, transferring funds in the amount of $60,000 from the wages full-time civilian account number 509-40-350-351-000-5100005 to the professional services other account. number 509-40-350-351-000-520075, accepting the bid of PS employment at the rates provided in the memo for temporary labor services for the sanitation department for an initial term of one year with the option to renew for up to four additional one-year terms contingent upon budgetary approval and authorizing and directing the mayor to enter into a contract.

Thank you. Do I have a motion and a second to accept resolution 92-2026 as read?

So moved.

Second. Thank you. Discussion? down there.

I need a flag to put on the back of your bicycles. Just some questions about, is this a new contract, one that we've had in the past? Because it references, we use temporary labor at times. So I don't know historically what's happened and what you've done and how you've used this company before in sanitation, and we're currently using them.

to supplement our full-time workers. Most of the time it's to collect leaf collection or yard waste, sometimes during bulk pickup. Currently we're not using them for this season of bulk pickup, but typically for leaf or yard waste pickup, that's very labor intensive. And so our full-time guys like to drive trucks and not throw bags every day. So we get the temporary workers, and this is what that's for.

So are they currently contracting this as a renewal?

Yes.

And so you've budgeted $60,000 for this current year, but you're needing another $60,000? Sue, I think, if I'm reading the budget correctly. Yeah, that's what we talked about last year. Well, actuals have been, what, 60 to 80 or something. So you're adding another 60. I mean, is there other things that come out of this, professional services, other?

Yeah, there's a few other items that come in there. But the majority of it, 90% of it, is temporary employment.

So you anticipate needing more than what you originally did?

Yes. So looking at what was budgeted wasn't enough for this account. And so that's why I'm asking for the budget transfer between the accounts. I do have that money available in the wages account. and there's no issues with sanitation, but through some attrition, I've got some extra funds that I can use to transfer to make this account.

I appreciate your mid-year, budget year review of this and moving it around. I appreciate you doing that, so thank you.

Any other comments or questions? Roll call, please. Mayor Gibbons.

Yes. Council Member Arnold. Yes. Council Member Burkett. Yes. Council Member Jack Sattic. Yes. Council Member Lavender. Yes. Council Member McLean.

Yes.

Council Member Schaefer.

Yes.

The bill, the resolution passes. Resolution 93-2026.

Mayor and Council, Resolution 93-2026, official intent of the City of Kirkwood, Missouri, toward the issuance of industrial revenue bonds to finance an industrial development project, approving a preliminary funding agreement for the project and authorizing certain actions relating thereto.

May I have a motion and a second? Motion. Second. Thank you. Discussion. I want to start this out with making it very clear that the applicant, the developer, did not ask for this. The city has a building over on Leffingwell that we need to retrofit. And when the RFPs came in for this development, prices that they were offering was not enough for the city. So the city council decided that the best way to fund, get some more funding for the land was to ask them to reapply and consider incentives. So I just really want to make it clear that Double Eagle isn't the one that came to us. We said to all the RFP folks that had applied to put in incentives. So in lieu of that, we've all, I think, realized that that's not the way we should be handling the funds for the Morazic property for the retrofit. And we are now reconsidering our options. So anybody else have something they'd like to say?

I will start. I have a little take. The city actually put out that to consider incentives. We didn't tell them what to consider. They actually did ask us when they put it in the bid. I have struggled with this and have been not, you know, all along have let my thoughts known on this. And it wasn't really a good option from the get-go. I do believe that we should, when we consider these, we should care about the community as a whole. And there are a lot of parts of this community that rely on property taxes. And whether or not the city itself thought that the property tax was a big deal, it is a big deal for so many other entities in this city. And so often you look at, you probably all have heard, well the revenue right now, nobody's getting anything. Well, yes, but the problem is right now nobody from the public works site is sending a child to the school. So if you only look at the revenue side and forget that there's an added cost side, we miss a big part of the picture. So whether, so we go, okay, the revenue, the cost, The property tax revenue, okay, you didn't get it, but you didn't also have one student, 15 students, 20 students, and at $15,000 a year, you start adding it up times 14 years. What's the school district added cost going to be? Five times 15, 20 times 15, whatever that number of students, and then multiply it by 14 years. And also in there, we've taken Amerasic off the property tax rolls. So a lot of things to consider. You know, when I looked at 10 kids added to the school district and it costed them, even at today's dollars, over $2 million with no additional revenue. I mean, that takes a significant, that puts a significant challenge besides all the other challenges. I had to kind of laugh, smile at the woman, at Stacey, who talked about robin peter to pay paul there's a great quote out there when robin peter to pay paul you'll always have paul's support and so you know i do we have to think through um as a community what's in the best interest of every every big piece and little piece and and those matter and so i am um I've been a no, I'll be a no, and I hope we can move on from this. Comments?

Since I came on to Council in April, there's a number of decisions that new Councils face that previous Councils made and that the new Council has to deal with. This is the one that troubled me more than any. And I was incredibly frustrated at the idea of not just committing the City of Kirkwood's future revenue, but to use the revenue that our school district would get in those 14 years, that our library district would get in a number of other taxing jurisdictions. Chapter 100 is flawed, and that's not necessarily Kirkwood's problem or Double Eagle's problem. Chapter 100 allows the city to go under contract and promise things without informing the school district of what they just promised. That's wrong for a government entity to be able to promise revenue that another taxing entity would otherwise get. I hope that situations like this cause folks that go to Jeff City to reconsider how that program is made and allow those taxing jurisdictions to weigh in at an earlier phase. Because I firmly believe this contract was signed in October of last year. Had the public been made aware prior to last Friday, we wouldn't be here on the day of the vote all of a sudden reconsidering it. And so I want to give credit to the public for paying attention to this deal for contacting members of the Council and for weighing in on the kind of giveaway that this would be to a private developer, you know. To me, this decision in a lot of the things that I feel like we've dealt with lately are. bad decisions being chased by more bad decisions. And at some point we have to stop and reconsider what we're doing. We have to go back to the basics, take a breath, and start working on what we do well as a city. And we need to reconsider how we make contracts on real estate properties. And this is just one example. You know, my son would start kindergarten in 2030 and graduate in 2043. The class immediately ahead of him that starts kindergarten the year prior in 2029 would be under this tax abatement for their entire Kirkwood School District career. I can't tell you how bad that bothers me as a parent. and the idea that this would be a good deal, and we've talked a lot about being good neighbors, that kind of a deal is not being a good neighbor. And so I am so hopeful that when we get to a vote tonight, that the council will take a stand and say no, that we will reconsider what we're doing with this development, and that the next time we consider this kind of a deal, we will put the full community into perspective and not just try to chase more of our bad decisions.

May I, Mayor? Thank you. So to emphasize a couple of things already said here tonight, when I first decided to run for council, I didn't realize there would be so many difficult decisions afforded to us. We are confronted at most meetings with difficult contentious issues. We have not escaped any of those. Kirkwood has, as we've mentioned, a contract with Double Eagle that was signed in October of 25 that put in these tax abatements. The session we had about a month ago talking about Chapter 100, I think, brought this totally to the forefront. And we've all looked at this as if it was brand new, that this council had come up with. It was introduced to the builder in February of 2025, and as the mayor alluded to or spoke to, it was offered as an incentive to get a higher price for the sale of the property, and the contract was signed in October of 25. Good Monday morning quarterbacking skills, which are usually 20-20. Looks like Kirkwood was concerned with all the financial pieces falling into place, and a deal was made to get a higher price, and we traded those tax abatements for that. There's no surprise that after we talked about this last month, another builder came and said, well, how come I wasn't offered incentives? So there's great concern about what this does to our community. In front of us today is a no-win business decision. I'm concerned with Kirkwood's reputation on two fronts. We have a signed contract with a good builder who has financing in place based on these tax incentives that were approved to them almost a year ago. If we refuse tonight, which we are likely to do to offer these tax incentives, we negate a contract that both parties made with good faith. But now, if we pass this, every other builder coming to Kirkwood for the next decade is going to ask for the same thing. And you hear a lot of us tonight say we're not in favor of this. I worry about the integrity of our city. I worry about our reputation as a city. I don't want us to be a merry-go-round of trying to rethink decisions we made in the past to see if we can't make a better decision today on something that happened two years ago. Most important, bottom line tonight, I haven't heard one citizen think this is a good idea. Not one. Not in all of the time that this has been rumored, talked about, put out in our packet last week. So I haven't heard one person, citizen of our city, think that this is good. One of the challenges that I'm running into is our closed door sessions. A lot of these conversations are in closed-door, and I'm working to see how we nuance legal issues, contract issues, with being able to share with the public what's happening, what's behind these decisions. There wasn't a minute in Jeff City that I spoke that wasn't on video, usually with a camera, that the debate was available for you instead of just the final votes. And that's what I'm struggling with. That's missing for me is you all knowing the debate. What's happened? What are the conversations? What are the business aspects of this? What are the finances of our city? How are we going to pay all of the debt that we've taken out. And that's what you don't have opportunity to hear, and that's a missing. So what do we do and how do we do that that we inform you better? And so I thank everybody also for your participation in being involved in what's happening. And we need to do better as a council to keep you informed. Thank you, Mayor.

Come here. I'm not going to. go on very long, but I wanna appreciate everyone who's been willing to reach out, talk to us about this. I was able to talk to many of my friends about the impact it was gonna have to them on their commissions, their roles. And we had a lot of things we had to understand in order to make a good decision. And many of you assumed how I was gonna vote. And I'm very disappointed to know that people in this community are willing to jump to conclusions on my decisions while I'm weighing all the information. So I hope you will give me the benefit of the doubt before jumping on me.

Any other roll call, please?

Mayor Gibbons? No. Council Member Arnold? No. Council Member Burkett? No. Council Member Jack Seddick? No. Council Member Lavender?

No.

Council Member McLean? No. Council Member Schaffer?

No.

The bill fails. Okay, now we need to go to consent agenda items.

Resolution 89-2026.

Resolution 89-2026. Mayor, if I may just ask.

Hold on. He has read the title. Pardon me?

Mayor and Council, Resolution 89-2026, authorizing the Chief Administrative Officer to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with the Eastern Missouri Coalition of Police, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 15 for police officers through March 31st, 2029.

May I have a motion and a second?

Second.

Discussion?

Mayor, I would just like for our chief administrator to give us a one to two minute summary of what this collective bargaining did and what is different for our police department now that we have this in place.

Two main things that I can cover. One of them had to do with under Article 8, which is wages. The city, it's my understanding, we've retained an independent third-party consultant. I think Gallagher is the one that we've used in the past for salary studies. to review pay ranges applicable to our bargaining unit employees. They do that every two years. They wanted some language in there that indicated basically that that third party review would still be in place. They asked the request that they could provide the city a list of three comparable police departments to be considered when they do those reviews. and that city staff would make recommendations to city council based on any findings to be retained by third-party consultants that there'd be a change to the pay changes applicable to the bargaining unit employees, including a recommendation at the 65th percentile among comparable police departments. That was one large... item that they wanted to go ahead and include. The second item was a little bit less. I think I'm not going to go through every single change, but the two, there was some scheduling changes that the police chief wanted to include. This was for both the police union as well as the sergeants, which is the next.

So you just gave me the summary of the next one as well. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Anybody else? Roll call, please.

Mayor Gibbons? Yes. Councilmember Arnold? Yes. Councilmember Burkett? Yes. Councilmember Jack Sedeck? Yes. Councilmember Lavender? Yes. Councilmember McLean? Yes. Councilmember Schaefer?

Yes.

Resolution 90-2026.

Mayor and Council Resolution 90-2026 authorizing the Chief Administrative Officer to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with the Eastern Missouri Coalition of Police Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 15 for Police Sergeants through March 31st, 2029.

Motion. Thank you. Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Mayor Gibbons? Yes. Council Member Arnold? Yes. Council Member Burkett? Yes. Council Member Jack Sedeck? Yes. Council Member Lavender? Yes. Council Member McLean? Yes. Council Member Schaefer?

Yes.

The bill passes. Okay, now we move into city council reports. I just want to let everybody know we had a great ribbon cutting at the train station on Tuesday. Despite the 95 degree weather and 95% humidity, there was a huge crowd out there and it was... really well received and everybody got to go through just kind of from the front door through to the back door to see the new terrazzo floor, experience the HVAC air conditioning, which was lovely. We had Amtrak folks there, Ollie the Otter for And for those of you that don't know, the Missouri River Runner is the only Amtrak line in the country that has its own mascot, and it's Ollie the Otter. And he makes appearances all over. We also heard from an Amtrak executive that our Amtrak station, the way it's run with the station manager and the 46 volunteers is the absolute model for the entire country out of 500 and something stations that they have. They talk about Kirkwood all the time. So one of the things I mentioned is that we really have to be proud of our forefathers back in 2003 when the station was going to be closed, that the people that were sitting on this dais at that time said, we have got to buy the station and we have got to keep it open. And we are now the second busiest station along the Missouri River line. runner line. We've surpassed St. Louis and the only one in front of us as far as number of passengers is Kansas City. So it's getting, the ridership is up again this year. It was 213,000 folks rode the Missouri River Runner and it just keeps growing. And I'm sure it has a lot to do with Ollie the Otter. I do like to always at our meetings cover Corrections in the media that we've been seeing a lot of on Kirkwood lately. Accurate information is essential for our public trust, and I just want to Local journalism plays an important role in helping residents understand what's going on in our community. At the same time, when information on the city is incorrect, we want to make sure that people know that. One example involved the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article regarding the public works redevelopment. The article stated that the city would not discuss details. And you've heard us talking a lot about this this evening and Council Member Lavender mentioning that the fact that the city's written response was actually explained that the requested details were contained in records that were closed under Missouri Sunshine Law. So it's not that we don't want to discuss, we cannot discuss. I'd like to ask that articles be passed through by our communications director. That's what's happened in the past, just so that we are sure accurate information is getting out there. We did request a correction on that, but we did not get it. Another recent article declined to say whether the projected tax impact of the proposed Chapter 100 abatement had been independently verified. In fact, the city's written response explained that the comparison of tax revenue with or without the abatement was conducted by a third party engaged by the city. The same article also reported the city had spent an additional 27 million on renovations to the Leffingwell Avenue public works facility. That figure is incorrect. According to our public works director, the correct figure is 10.1 million. That includes construction, architectural fees, project representative fees. So we just want to make sure that information is being produced, getting out to the public is correct. And when it's not, we do want to make sure that you know what the correct things are.

Okay. Council Member McLean. Thank you, Mayor. I was presented this week with a petition asking the state to audit the city's finances. At the same time, this council I know is interviewing firms with the goal of conducting a forensic audit of its own. Let me be clear, I support a full forensic audit of the city's finances. I want an independent, thorough review that tells us what happened, how it happened, and what we need to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. I also believe that we need to be responsible with the taxpayers' money. I've been told the state can conduct this audit for approximately $250,000 to $300,000. If that's the case, if that's accurate, let's get it done. I don't care who performs the audit. I do care that it's independent, comprehensive, and starts as soon as possible. I'd like for it to have started yesterday, and I'd like to see it finished in my lifetime. I encourage residents to sign this petition if they believe a state audit is the right way to get this thing done. And if, in the meantime, this council selects an outside firm, we should then have a clear discussion about what the state audit would cover, what our own audit would cover, and what each would cost. But one thing I think we can all agree on is we don't need two auditors doing the same job. Let's move this forward, get the answers we need, fix what needs to be fixed, and put this behind us. Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you. Council Member Burkett?

Yeah. So the Human Rights Commission, we had the meeting last week, and they are prepared for Green Tree. And if you get a chance, stop by their booth. They put a lot of effort in helping citizens understand their civic duty. So as we saw here tonight... This is what it's all about, so I hope you'll stop by and say hi to them. Also, I just want to thank our police department. They are recognizing Suicide Prevention Month. And I just want to say thank you. for doing that and if anyone is in need call 988 and it's good neighbor week next week i hope you'll consider uh nominating a neighbor or a business so just some happy things sorry i needed some happiness

Thank you, Council Member. Yeah, so as school board liaison, just want to give a couple of things. The school board will meet Tuesday evening at 630 for its tax rate hearing and regular business meeting. And then I just want to call out they're doing, they've done this before, but they do these community connections roundtables where they'll have two of them this fall, one of them in January. The first one is September 30th from 6 to 8 at Robinson Elementary. And they're hosting a roundtable discussion about the intentional use of technology, which I think is a really relevant and important thing. And so I just wanted to call out that meeting since we won't have another meeting before that. You can register online at the Kirkwood Schools website.

Great. Thank you. Laura Schaffer.

Thank you, Mayor. So I have two. One is for Board of Adjustment. We had three yeses and one no. The no was for a gentleman that wanted to have a turnaround driveway in his front yard and he didn't meet the setbacks. Then he also asked whether he could get some signs out in front. I pointed him in the direction of skit to apply, as well as getting some of the neighbors involved so that they signed a petition. So he's en route doing that. The one that was sent back was one for a community college because they just didn't have their act together when they came so they have to bring back a bunch of things to the board of adjustment before they'll move forward so that's one and then my second one is i'm a liaison to green tree and just in case anybody hasn't heard green trees this weekend starts tomorrow thank you and we'd love to see everybody there this is one of our gold standards um so And I think that's good. And then one last one, if I can, my daughter showed up. So she wanted to see how this operation all went. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. I wasn't privy to all that. So anyway, I just wanted to mention that she drove from Illinois all the way over here to see what's going on. So thank you.

Mayor, the Arts Council met. They have gotten a mural from the artists that they shared with us here. They have, I'm pretty sure, a final design and cost anticipated going into the train station in February of this next year. They've had all of the cost donated and covered by various people across our community. So the cost of that will be covered. So that's fabulous. The next art installation opening is on November 18th at KPAC. And what I finally put together at the art opening, they have a concert that evening as well. So November 18th for the art installation and go to the concert. And then being a liaison for the library, Krista shared with us yesterday a chart. Kirkwood has more patrons than other individual or independent libraries in our area. And we have by far almost twice as many items checked out of our library as other libraries have. And that's U City and Webster. And I think there's one other larger one, too. But by almost twice as much, we have that many more items taken out of our library. So we have an extraordinary library. I hope they're all returned. No fees anymore. So you can keep on. They just keep renewing my books when I happen to go past the time period. I get a nice reminder. Hey, we just renewed that for you. I say, thank you.

Okay. Chief Administrative Officer report.

We do just have a few items. We will be conducting the final round of interviews for the Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, hopefully by tomorrow, and then hopefully make an announcement in the near future. To also add on to Councilman McLean's, the selection committee for the forensic audit will be conducting interviews September 25th, later this month. There's about four top firms that they'll be looking at. And then finally, we hope to have the request for proposals for the KAA ball fields to be out soon for anybody that's interested in those. I know we've had two or three entities that have expressed some interest in that. So that's all I have.

And I would just like to take a minute to thank Darren for joining this city. I can't imagine what it would be like to walk into what he has walked in and already has gotten a lot done. I know we all appreciate you and what you're doing, and thank you for being here.

Yeah.

Love it. Thank you for doing that. Joe's been holding off back there. He's ready.

City attorney report? No report. Thank you. City clerk report?

Yes, I have a report of scheduled upcoming public hearings October 1st. You guys are going to have two before you. A request for a special use permit for outdoor use for a drone delivery facility at 1202 South Kirkwood Road. That's Walmart. And then a request for a major site plan for a multifamily dilemma at 345 South Fillmore Avenue.

Thank you. The next regular meeting of the Kirkwood City Council will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 1st. This meeting is adjourned.

Okay, everybody. Remember, you got to go downstairs. Don't leave. I was the one down there. Some time ago.

I remember you. You're my neighbor. You're my neighbor. I live on Ballas. A lot of articles out, so we just want to make sure.

It's not just you, anybody. I know, I do.

There was one Janet Thorpe. So we'll look at a lot of those.