Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome everybody to the uh January 8th, 2026 public works committee meeting. Uh could we have a roll call? Here. Alderwoman Go here. Chairman Lock Miller here. Sullivan Urgger is not present. That's everyone. Have a quum. We have a quorum. All right. Move on to approval of the agenda. Uh any anybody mind if we do it by acclamation? Okay. So shall be done. Move on to citizen comment. Anybody in the audience or online?

No one online.

Okay. and we will go ahead and close citizen comment and move into reports of committee chair and alderman. I have just uh something real quick here. Um I think if you both remember at the last board of alderman meeting, we had [clears throat] some residents uh come up and talk about the Lustron homes that we have along Litzinger, excuse me. [clears throat] And uh I'd kind of like to entertain looking into this idea of somehow at least acknowledging the existence of those homes in Brentwood right there. And so I've got a couple of uh uh pictures in your packet there that has the location and then some possible monuments. But what I'd like to do is maybe kind of take this on as far as uh meeting with the individuals that were at that meeting and kind of getting their a little bit more input from them. Um and I mean I've got some ideas on my own that maybe we can uh put some type of a monument as you see that one monument that's pictured there. uh something with a QR code on it that then would reference. Uh things that on the city website have its own page and can list all the history that uh Peter who spoke that night um has a vast trove of information on it. So I guess I'm all I'm trying to do here is um just get some type of feedback from you two on possibly just sitting down with the three that came in and discussing what the possibilities are. So I think that's a great idea. Um I don't know if we want to include anyone from the uh historical society to be involved. Uh and I I noticed in the paper sometime maybe in the last week that Clayton is doing some u plaques that are sort of shared with the

historical society and the um and the city. U so I don't know if that's something that they would even be interested in. I know that they were instrumental in putting the uh plaque uh down um at yeah at Evans Howard. So yeah, so that would be my only suggestion, but if you're looking for help, I'd love to join or if you just want to take it on, then that's great, too. So,

well, I've definitely come back and report to everybody on how they're progressing. I think this is going to be pretty much citizen driven. Um the cost can be minimal and it sounds like they're open to covering that cost and uh the only time staff would get involved it would be probably working with maybe uh Jeff uh Alderman go as far as uh the communications committee and doing some work there as far as getting the website uh a web page on the website and the link to the QR code and maybe writeaways and placements of the whatever monument they would like to see done. But otherwise, I think this would be a low lowcost mission and something the citizens can kind of spearhead. So,

love the idea of celebrating who we are. So, let's celebrate cool things about Bretwood. There you go. All right. Well, thank you. We'll move on to Alderwoman Ty. No report. Older woman go. No report. All right. Moving on to a presentation. We have a representative from uh uh Greenway uh Gateway Greenway or Great Rivers. Great. Rivers Greenway and I believe you have a presentation for us.

Oh, thank you um for allowing us to come and speak today. Um my name is Mara Perry and I am a senior project manager for planning at Great Rivers Greenway. Um we are currently working on a project and this project is including um working with the communities of Webster Groves, Brentwood, Rock Hill and Leoo. Um and so what we wanted to do is do a very quick presentation about um us and an overview of the planning process that we're starting. Um so this is a couple images of our project team. Um Mara McDonald and myself with Great Rivers Greenway. Um we have hired as our consultant team SWT Design working also with her and Shiffron who do engineering and then Creative Entourage which is our community engagement firm. Um I always like to start with just a little bit about Grey Rivers Greenway. Um after 25 years, which is our 25th anniversary, um we have built 140 miles of greenway in the region. We get approximately 3 million visits a year and we do have um a um counters that help keep track of those visits. Um we have over 250 uh partners which includes um everything from other cities um communities, the county um mod um and other utility companies. Um we always talk a little bit about what is a greenway. A greenway is a shared use trail, but it can also include amenities. It can include conservation projects and it can also include other connections to important things within the community like schools um like city hall um and libraries. Um, so it's very important to us to re reflect what's important to your community as we start looking and thinking about making that planning uh happen. I know you know some of these images very very well. Um, obviously we've been using the examples of um, Brentwood Park and the collaboration that we did with

Brentwood Park as we're talking with each of these communities and using these examples to show um, some of the things that have been accomplished and what we're trying to connect to. Um and then we're also working um Webster Groves their part in this entire project and process it's a little bit lesser because we aren't really trying to build anything. We're just trying to connect some of their existing um parks like Lorraine Davis Park. Um [snorts] and they have another project that they're currently working on further in uh Webster Groves that will make a connection into this. Um, so as we continue to work on this, we're looking at different ways that we can accomplish creating some sort of greenway system that would make connections. Um, and I'm going to talk a little bit more about where we're trying to connect. But most importantly, we're talking a little bit about where we are in the planning process because we're very, very early in the planning process. We're at the point of what we consider our schematic design, which means that our consultant team is analyzing, getting background data, getting flood plane data, trying to understand information about projects and things that are going on in each of the communities in order for them to prepare themselves to talk with the community. Um, in this schematic design phase, we'll have some analysis. We'll do some planning. They'll start looking at potential alignments and alternates, multiple alternates in each of these communities. Um, with a few key destinations that we want to get to with the idea that we would end in a design. Um, that design would then need to move forward in all these other phases like getting site control, permitting, and going through all these other parts of the process. So in this early part of the process, what we've been trying to do, we've held a number of informational meetings um with various residents in some of the communities. We will be holding focus group meetings um in and we're doing these processes separately. Brentwood has its own, Leoo has its own and Rock Hill is going to have its own. So we're

going to have separate focus groups for each of them. We're also going to have separate open houses. We've already started scheduling all of those and started making contact with the various people that we want to meet with. We're going to go back in March after we've had an open house and kind of get back with various stakeholders, start talking through what we have learned and try to have another openhouse in May as we get a little bit closer to having ideas about what these alternates can mean and whether these alignments are feasible. um it will end in some sort of a report and each of the communities will have to decide whether they want us to keep moving forward. Um in some communities it might be that we don't have an an alignment that's going to work and we might have to wait a little while. There might be residents that you know don't want something going through a particular area and so we always say to people this isn't decided. This is the early planning. Um, the greenway study area is a wide study area that's supposed to connect to Lorraine Davis Park in Brentwood Park and make its way and hit a few key things before it eventually gets all the way to Leoo Wharton Leoo Horton Watkins High School. Um, so we kind of have been looking at this here. You can see um all in red are the existing greenways that we've already built um and the various parks that they connect. The blue line is the creek itself. Early on in Great Rivers Greenways ideas 25 years ago, a lot of it was about staying really close to those waterways. Um, we've started learning that in many cases it doesn't necessarily make the most sense to be right next to those waterways with flooding and other things that are happening, but we still want to think about that importance and places where we can interact with the water. Um, in this case, we're trying to hit at some point getting to Tillis Park as part of St. Louis County's plan for how they want us connecting with their park system as well as getting to Deer Creek Preserve in Leoo. Um and then off to the

high school. Um so these are things that we are trying to do and move forward with as we get through this process. Um where we are now in terms of next steps. Um we're convening the focus groups at the end of January. We have a few key dates for those. A couple of them are probably going to be on February 2nd. We're holding our first open house here in Brentwood on February 17th. Um we will get additional information out very very soon. We just finalized the dates as we were trying to get all the open houses on different nights in each of the communities and try not to overlap them. We will have additional meetings with stakeholders in March um in particular like if there are very um specific property owners that we need to talk with or people that we need to to um interact with. We hope to hold the other open house in May of 2026 and have a planning report in June. So, I'm available for any questions. Um, it has Mara's contact information at the end. Um, she was sad to have missed being able to come by tonight. She's homesick. Um, but both Mara and myself are available for any questions or to connect anyone. If you know of anyone who wants to um become a part be a part of whether it's a focus group or something else, I know that we've already gotten some great names and information both from some early meetings as well as um meeting with the city.

Sounds good. I'm excited to see what comes next. Great. Do you have I mean how set are you in that connection? Uh I got to go back to the right. I guess the uh Deer Creek Greenway that study how is that pretty well set or for that connection up to the high school in Leoo.

Yeah. So what we did is we um when we fund a project which this was a fun a project that we funded in with our 2025 budget. When we fund a project we fund it for the full planning process. Then if we are able to move forward, we then reallocate funds in any new budget year for any other steps moving forward. So we do have the entire planning process completely funded with GRG funds. And then I you know I noticed there along 170 the into Clayton that pathway stops right there. Anything in the future for that?

Yeah, so we have a number of different things that we're working on right now. Um uh we just started a planning process in University City um that's going to be making some connections on the northern end. So if you've got the park in Clayton Shaw Park and it goes up north, we've got a planning process that we're working on up in that area through there. Um we're doing a number of things along Centennial Greenway, which is the one that goes through U City. It actually starts in Forest Park and will eventually get to St. Charles County going through Crecore Park. Um we're working on a few of those first. We don't have anything specific that's making the connection going back down into Brentwood, but I know we've h we've heard as we've talked to people about wanting to make another connection. What we've really found is I mean we've done 140 miles. We have um like a background uh overall strategic map of where we think we want to go in the future. And many times we have projects where we're we're finding now the harder projects, the ones that are more difficult, those are the ones that we're working on right now. Um so we did um in the 2025 budget year we took on 10 new projects because they took on a number of new staff. I was one of the new staff that they hired. Um and um we with those 10 new projects that really got us going with a lot of new things that we're working on and those are all continuing through you know the next three or four years. But we did um for the 2026 budget year add three more new projects. So as each one goes, we kind of look at um metrics regarding um how it could help with health metrics, how it helps economically, where we connecting with larger groups um of of development um and what the impacts are going to be. We use all of that and some of those um uh numbers to help us determine where to go next. Um, so hopefully there might be another one where we can make that connection to go further north, but for now we're trying to get a little bit into and reach out to some of the

communities that we haven't been able to reach yet. Well, I know, you know, I I know you're familiar with the infrastructure we've got to the, you know, from our park onward. And I think you've got a pretty receptive group here that be interested in anything that and willing to work with GRG on expanding towards that direction. So yeah, keep us in mind. Yeah. And when you see the open house, you'll see that there's a number of of thoughts of where this connection can go potentially north in order to get west. Um so you'll see all of those as they as they as they bring them at the public meeting. Okay, great. Any other questions?

No, I just want to say this is as a biker, this is so exciting to have it come closer and closer to home because I'm too chicken to bike on on streets and I love the greenway. So, uh, it's really exciting. So, thank you. Yeah, we're very excited, too. Thanks for coming in, Mara. Yes, thank you. And enjoy the rest of your meeting tonight. Okay, we'll move into item number six, which are Department of Commission reports. I'll start with parks and recreation. Eric?

Yeah. So, I just have a couple things. Uh the first is that we were notified on Monday that the Heights uh had implemented a membership rate increase. And so obviously we're a little concerned about what that meant to our budget. Uh and then I kind of put the uh table on the back that shows what the 2025 rates were compared with the 2026 and what the increase would be to Brentwood. And what you'll what we found was that um as you remember we pay twothirds the difference between a resident and a non-resident. So the monthly rates changed incrementally the same for residents and non-residents. It went up $2 a month for each. So that did not change our uh our uh did not increase our responsibility for those. The only ones that did were our annual uh memberships and they only went up incrementally a little bit. So um about $3, $2 and $2 for each of the membership types. So not not incredibly too much. And when you look at we're really about 70% uh annual uh 70% monthly passes. So those are the ones that won't increase. So we feel like this won't be an issue at all. So we feel like we'll be able to contain it within our budget. The second is uh Dan and I are looking uh trying to start the the new year with our projects. And one of the things in the 2026 budget was uh the RFQ for the design uh for the new public works park maintenance garage. And so we have budgeted $250,000 125 both in fund 40 and 125 in fund 50. And we just want to make sure that it's okay that we go out for the RFQ and once we get those results we'll bring it back to the public works committee.

Uh sounds like you need a motion to do so. Yeah. So I'll make a motion to recommend staff go um uh advertise for an RFQ to solicit professional design services for the new public works and part maintenance facility. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I.................... Anyone opposed? All right. Eric. Great. Anything else under parks? No. Move on to sustainability commission.

So the sustainability commission, we just kind of put in a little blurb about the green business challenge. And so in December, a number of the sustainability commission members attended the St. Louis green business challenge award lunchon. Uh really the lunchon is there to recognize everyone who participates in the challenge. And so uh obviously the city was recognized for what we did for the year and uh the summary of what we had put into the green or into that pamphlet is was attached as a PDF. Okay. And then could you for the newbies on the including me on the committee the uh what the the green business challenge is?

Yeah. The Green Biz Challenge is uh it was a it's a program started by Missouri Botanical Garden and uh the idea is to kind of get businesses. It started with businesses and get businesses to be more green and more sustainable and see what they could do to make St. Louis greener uh and more sustainable and as they started that they then included municipalities. So we're about one of 20 municipalities that uh participate this uh place like Clayton, Richmond Heights uh all kind of participate and the idea is just to kind of uh work to being more sustainable and and so you know you basically work with the challenge or they do a lot of events throughout the year which Michelle and I will attend when we can. Uh and then the big thing is really making sure we touch base with them about what we did. So we talked to them about the fact that we h we purchased our EV police vehicle. Uh we hosted the national bike to work day. Those type of things. Uh sustainable September. Uh you know those type of things that we kind of indicated some of our accomplishments. And uh they they also include a quote so the mayor put a nice quote in there for us.

I'll I'll just if if I could add something. I went to the luncheon and it was actually pretty inspiring to hear they they do a little presentation on every municipality and every business. So, you're there a little bit, but it was actually really inspiring hearing what's going on all over the community and how our little things like sustainable September and our buying a an EV for the police department really adds with what everyone else lots of other people are doing in our community and and it's it just made I don't know made me feel good that u our little bit helps. I just had one question. How's the Ripple glass collector doing? You know, I need to reach out to Ripple Glass because it's emptied. So, they emptied it. Oh, yeah. Uh, it was almost full right before Christmas. So, yeah.

So, yeah, they got emptied and I haven't gotten the report of how many how much poundage it was. So, I need to reach out to my contact because I noticed it. Uh, the other Monday, Tuesday, we're out. Dan and I were out there and I took a peek in. I was like, "Oh, it's empty." So, uh, I'm I'm excited. We'll have that in the next sustainable uh we'll have an update next month for you guys.

All right. Sounds good. All right, moving on to another department. We've got the planning and development department. Whitney got an update or report for us. Um, so for the December monthly building reports, there were 119 new projects and 785 inspections. For the year of 2025, there were 2,191 permits and 10,417 inspections. Code enforcement for December had 14 new cases and 50 inspections. For the entire year, there were 369 cases, which include some that were carried over from 2024 um and 481 inspections. For just 2025, there were 281 new cases um for that for code enforcement. We are in the process of business license renewal that started December 15th for exempt and exception and flat fee businesses. Gross receipts had to wait till at least January 1st to capture all of 2025. Um as of Monday, um there were 10 new business license applications. 67 were re are reviewed and awaiting approved payment and 195 business license have were issued. Uh next week is planning and zoning commission. We have um the continuation of the commercial design guidelines discussion. Um a new site plan review for a new building at 350 Hanley Industrial Court. a text amendment to um require that buildings within the flood plane are two feet above base flood elevation. Currently, our code requires one foot, but FEMA and SEMA asked said

the majority uh communities are going to two feet and so they've recommending that we do so too. Um we also just do it based upon the current value of the property for any project. it's if it's more than 50% you have to take measures to bring it out of the floodway. They've asked that we do that cumulatively for a period of 10 years. So that gets away from of someone going well I'll do say if you have a $500,000 project that's 50% well I'll do 240 now and wait next year and do another 20 and so I can avoid doing the flood plane. Um they've asked most cities do cumulative so we are looking to do cumulative as well. Um we're also looking at a text amendment to um since we have adopted the residential design guidelines that staff would have the authority to approve those as long as it's not visible from the public rightway and it's small in the back and it's consistent with the design guidelines. So if it's sun room or you know changing out windows or or things are like that then staff can approve that is what we're looking for. The normally scheduled January 15th architectural review board has been postponed or rescheduled for January 27th due to a lack of quorum. And then we have two projects for the board of adjustment on January 22nd. Thank you for your um updates from your team. I know that. So,

thank you. Thanks, Whitney.

All right, Dan. Move on to public works department. Have a various department updates for different projects. So jumping in with Mcnite Road, we did get an update from Tapco. So the last of the components would be the push buttons on the post uh for both our side and Leoo side. Those won't arrive until February 12th. Um they gave me an option of doing a different brand, but I'd rather just stick with what we've used uh like over at Memorial Park. So we'll just wait. [clears throat] Excuse me. Uh 288 Haley Industrial Court. The fire suppression system work uh that was done on the sprinkler system. It's all done. Everything checks out. So, we shouldn't have to do anything else with that. Uh the roofer might be out next week if the weather cooperates to do that little bit of roof work over the office and loading dock. And then we'll be done with that um part of that project. 28 uh 32 and 2828 Manderly. One of the access agreements I know was signed um by the resident. We're waiting on the other one. I was supposed to have a meeting today with the contractor. he had to postpone until next week since he was sick. Uh but the goal was to uh get a block color and texture picked out so that both residents uh agreed that that's what we're going to do before we bring a big pallet of those out there. Uh which kind of uh segus into another retaining wall. It's not on here, but 8829 Russell. Uh that's at Russell and Kier. We were going to put a concrete wall in last year. We did not. The resident wants block. So, I'm going to have the same contractor quote block. If it's the same cost or less, then obviously I would go with block instead of the concrete. Worst case, we'll just go with concrete, but I'm going to try to accommodate them and do the block. Thank you.

Um Manchester Road, there's several lights out that are on the north side. That's basically between Dorothy and St. Mary Magdalene's parking lot. Uh those six, they're required to have a new electrical control cabinet. So, the cabinet that you see with the tape around it on the north side, that's going to get replaced. And then there's different components that get filled in there that'll energize those lights again. Uh, unbeknownst to us, there's actually two lights on the south side that are out now, too. I don't know why they are, but one's at the tunnel. It's not down in the tunnel. It's one of those decorative lights that's just like the ones on the north side, and then there's one next to the temporary parking lot. So, whenever he's out there doing the cabinet work, we're going to have him figure out why those aren't working either. Um, and then lastly, I know there's four lights close to what used to be the Circle K. That one, he said that he's toned it and there's a break in the line. So, the easiest thing is just to rebore a new line that'll feed those four lights and then we'll get those fixed. Uh, the goal would be to get everything done sometime in January. You know, there's different parts that are coming in, but hopefully we get everything done in the next few weeks.

Can I ask a a question about the lights? So, these lights seem to have a lot of problems over the Is that Do you do you have any idea if like once we kind of get over this first few year hump that they'll be better or do do we anticipate that these lights are just going to have a lot of problems because of how they were designed?

Yeah, the problems so far, like most of the problems have been people hitting them. The cabinet was hit by a vehicle. The one over by the self storage was hit by a vehicle. There's another one that's not even on this list that's an insurance claim now. It's over in Rock Hill or not Rock Hill but closer to Rock Hill. Uh it's really close to Breton where somebody struck that one. So if people can stay on the road instead [laughter] of hitting the street lights. The one at Circle K I don't know how if somebody did a bore or just did digging without calling locates that one he said they nipped through the conduit. But all the other ones it's kind of like that Strawner BM. It's like if people can just stay on the road. I know that the one with the cabinet happened during the winter of last year. Um I don't know if someone slid off the road or what happened, but no one stayed around to let us know because it is costing us, you know, thousands of dollars. If it were Amaran, I know they would fix it, but they charge more per month than these run. Hopefully, we can take care of these.

Thank you.

Sure. uh the uh public works mutual aid agreement. I just put that on there just to let everyone know which you already do know. You know that was at the uh board meeting on the 5th. So last step is just to take the executed agreement and send it to Chesterfield which we'll do uh long before the uh February 6th deadline. Uh Litinger Road bridge, there's a decorative fence panel that's on that south side of the bridge. um a motorcyclist left the road, went through that fence. So that's why you see it uh in its state now. Uh but the panels were ordered in December and the contractor notified us. He said he's going to get the work done by the 16th of January, which is next week Friday. So once that's done, hopefully no more issues there and we will turn in the bills to the insurance company. So we'll at least get reimbursed on that. Uh sidewalk cutting, that's been going well. precision concrete cutting has completed the uh North Swan Circle Swallow area. Uh they're over on Renwood, I believe that's done. There's probably just a little bit left and then they'll notify us when they're done. Um so that went well. And then once that's done, it's a three-year warranty, so we shouldn't have to worry about that. If we do, then we notify them and they'll fix it. And then lastly, Hampton Creek uh sanitary relief. I put that on there because it's it's a largecale project in the sense that it takes about two years to complete. It's kind of in an isolated area. So, it's north of Manchester west of Hanley. It's right next to Flooring Galaxy. So, what MSD will have uh done there is two large junction chambers on either side of Black Creek. And then there's three 48inch pipes that go underneath the creek. So, they'll have to dam it somehow, pump around it, excavate, put their pipes through there. Uh, one of the, uh, nice things about this project is it will remove those two former railroad peers that are in the creek. If you recall years ago, we looked at having Castle or someone remove those and it was expensive. So,

I'm glad we didn't do it because now someone else is on top of it. So, they'll remove that as part of the project. Uh, they'll go out for bids in February. We'll figure out who their contractor is probably shortly thereafter. But I'll work with communications manager and we'll figure out like how that impacts residents. It I don't think it will affect residents much except in way of maybe noise, you know, since they have to remove those peers and do some concrete work.

Two questions starting with the Deer Creek question. So, is there any concern about flooding over Rosalie when they're doing the damning work? I don't believe so because they're going to be bypass piping it as well. So basically whatever the flow is, they'll just like pump over an area that they're working. Okay. And it's going to like every two years there's a storm that hits and it the creek overruns the banks and it usually gets right up to people's the sidewalk but not in their homes. Um so

I just want to make sure those neighbors don't have a nice little flood surprise for Yeah, we want to meet with the contractor and figure out I know I asked the designer and he said they don't dictate the means and methods. They just design it and then let the contractor decide how to build it, but that doesn't really tell me what they're going to do other than right because they could, you know, average I my my concern would be that it's a two-year project, so they're they design for an average flow. This is on the higher end, but we right it seems to flood about every two to three years over the creek beds. So if they designed for average flow, all of a sudden large rain could cause a much bigger problem for some of the homes and businesses right there. Right. Um

the only thing I thought maybe they would do is like what we did when we did the slope repair by the bridge was build that muscle wall. You know, it's basically a portable dam and then that stayed in place, but that was only for a few weeks, not years. And this probably won't be years either. It's just enough to get the pipe up and over the other side. Okay. Um, so I would think they'll just basically move the dam rather and try to choke the whole thing and flow over the top. Okay. I think they had the what they were using in those buried in those drawings somewhere that that movable dam that you're talking about. They can divert the water away but still keep it flowing. Yes. It's not really damned up back there.

Yeah. The whole thing won't be damned. Yeah. It's just it's just a construction area. They're able to keep the water out. Okay. And they'll run pumps, but I don't know if they'll need pumps all the time or just while they're working. And they'll remove the pumps. That's it. All right. Any other questions for Dan? All right, Dan. Thank you. We'll see you later on, I think. Um, got a new department here, communications. Jelle, what do you got for us? I'm here. I just wanted to give a couple of updates. [laughter]

Oh, why not? What's on your mind? Um, one of the things that has been discussed at, um, I believe it was a past board meeting was just the information regarding city trees um, versus privatelyowned trees. Um, the responsibility of removing those or who has the ability to remove those according to our city ordinances. So, I've been working with parks and um planning and development to kind of um work on a campaign camp uh communications campaign to kind of inform not only residents but also contractors and anyone who may, you know, work in the tree space um within the city. So, we're kind of working towards um rolling out that that marketing campaign um educational campaign, if you will, about the trees within the city. Um, we have an existing really interactive and great tool on our website. It's a tree inventory um, tool and it's on the parks website and that is a really robust database that makes it really easy for anybody to find, locate a tree and determine who owns it. Is it city-owned? Is it private? Um, so we're definitely going to be promoting that tool. um as well as just offering other education pieces regarding um trees within the city responsibilities regarding those trees and things like that. So that's just anformational piece. Look for that information to be rolling out here soon. Um and then the other topic that I just wanted to touch on was the sanitation schedule changes and kind of our communication practices regarding those changes. Um, we received feedback from residents um and elected officials based on the communication surrounding the sanitation schedule change for New Year's Day. Um, and we're taking that

feedback and putting um some changes into place as we move forward for the um rest of the 2026 calendar year. We've got another holiday coming up with Martin Luther King, so the schedule will be adjusted. And so I'm working really closely with planning um with public works Dan and I to kind of figure out how we can best and most effectively communicate those changes um in terms of timing of that notification method of notification. Um, so we're going to be trying a couple of different things, whether that be videos, whether that be utilizing code red for um, informing residents via text in case they're not on social media or they're not um, necessarily getting the weekly newsletter via email. So, we're looking at all of our additional options that there could be to make sure that this information is disseminated effectively. So, with the upcoming holiday, look for um, communications regarding those changes starting. Well, they started they went out in the last e newswsletter. Um Dan will be making his video debut tomorrow. I will be filming a video of him um talking about that. So, well, yeah, we're looking at other opportunities to kind of ramp up our communications regarding those changes.

Questions for Michelle? I I'll add something I already told you, but I'll just say it publicly. the um I do think it would be useful to put this in the quarterly newsletter even though we've already had a couple of trash situations, but if if it's in that and it's explained why it's happening, you can probably go into a little bit more depth there. And I do think that I mean we know that that reaches every household as opposed to other communication methods. Um, but I I I sense that people really read that and even like my I will leave that for my grown children and they they'll stand there and like it's sitting out and they read that because it's very absolutely so um uh just as a good a suggestion of reaching people definitely on the list. [laughter]

Good. Thank you, Michelle. Move on to the consent agenda. Once again is uh can we just prove that by acclamation? It's just the minutes. Oh, one comment on the minutes.

All right. Go ahead. So, the minutes are accurate as the meeting happened. So, and I had to rewatch a portion of it because there was some back and forth with the neighbors concerned. There is a neighbor who will object on page five, paragraph 2 to the um actually no, page five, paragraph 1, sentence one, they will not like the word decline. Although that decline was how it was presented, so it is accurate, but there's a neighbor that might try to um dispute that impression of um what they would like to do. Well, are you wanting to make it but it's accurate? I I just wanted to add that. But it's accurate as the minutes accurately capture everything that was presented. Okay. So,

so the minutes are fine. The minutes are fine. Just there's um the meeting how it was expressed in the meeting was Yes. And the neighbor has sent me a couple of emails objecting to um the word well not the word declined but the idea of declined. Okay. So but the the meeting minutes accurately accurately reflect what happened in the meeting. So do approve them. Yes. Or would you like to do a roll call? I let's Yeah, let's go ahead and do a roll call. Uh somebody want to make a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll do it. Go ahead. Oh, go ahead.

Could I make a motion to approve the consent agenda, but add a reference in the meeting minutes for this meeting that you brought up discussion of this particular point in last month's uh minutes and that there would you think there might be concern from the neighbor about the wording? Yes. Perfect. That that sounds fantastic. I'll second that. That's wonderful. When you're ready, could we have a roll call? Alderwoman Ty. Yes. Alerwoman Goat. Yes. Chairman Lock Miller. Yes. Motion is passed.

Great. Move on to old business. We've got one item and it's the temporary parking lots. Dan, I think you're hand on this. Uh this item was brought up at one of our past board meetings since we've got the two temporary parking lots on either side of Manchester Road. Um closer to the tunnel at the uh meeting we did a 90-day extension. Uh that particular permit will expire on January 26. Um so I'll be bringing this to the next board meeting with if you all approve of what we're considering. Um, so some of the things we looked at, I went out there with the project manager. We shot elevations uh, between the two inlets. So on the east side of the property, there's an inlet at the north end. There's an inlet at the south end. So best we can tell from shooting elevations is that the pipe at the north end is at a higher elevation. It takes everything towards Manchester Road. Uh, based on the topography, we believe that you can do some grading there. uh meaning public works and we could create some sort of V-shaped ditch. Whenever we did the uh calculations, I'm looking at a ditch that would probably be in the neighborhood of either 3 to 8 ft uh or no 6 to 8 ft cuz it's 3 to 4 feet from the center line of the ditch on either side. So basically you have either a 3:1 or 4 one slope it's fairly flat. Uh the ditch itself would be about 12 in deep. And then I was going to go with grass lining it, you know, so just have clean dirt, grass seed, so that any runoff that comes off the lot should go into that V. So that's the picture that's in your packet. Um, and then we're going to have to shift the parking stalls in those blocks further. What

would it be? West. So that it'll move the stalls over, but we won't really lose but maybe one stall. And we'll still keep an aisle between the stalls at 23 feet, which meets the code. So, we would want to do that, you know, ideally here first time the weather breaks. You know, right now it's it's weird since it feels like it's spring, but I don't want to get too far over my skis because I could get in trouble if I start digging and then it gets snow or something. Um, the other thing we looked at was dust suppression or dust mitigation measures. So, there's two different products. I put those on the back of the memo. One's a granle. You can use like a broadcast spreader like you would fertilizer. And then after you spread it, then you wet it. The other one is a gallon jug that you dilute five to one and then you just spray it and then you don't need to activate it because once it mixes with water it's activated. Uh we're going to try some areas on our rock lot on public works and see how well it works and if you need to reapply it every so many weeks, months, whatever that is. Um so I thought well once we gain some insight on that, we can use that during the summer months whenever the dust is blowing around on that north lot. That should keep it suppressed. Both products bind with any of the fine particles. So, I think that should work well. And again, the ditch, I think that should work. We did, or I should say, I did the engineering calculations, and it looks like it'll handle like 1.8 cubic feet per second, which doesn't mean a whole lot unless you're an engineer, but to me, it it means that I can handle the flow that goes through there without eroding the grass. Once you get, you know, flow rates that are say five or six cubic feet per second, then I would put rock down. If I do observe that there's areas that erode, then of course I would get with parks and see if they're okay. We would put a liner in there and rock. So that's pretty much it.

And on the uh the chemical or the glue you're talking about using for dust control, is that biodegradable? Is

Yeah, both of them said that they're safe for pets, safe for the environment. They've got of course proprietary information they won't like share but the safety data sheets you know the only thing is like you know you're not supposed to get it in your eyes which that makes sense u since it works with moisture and we have water in our eyeballs. Um so yeah other than that it said that it's like harmless to plants fish like if it runs off and it goes into sewers it won't harm anything. So again, I'll try it over at the lot because I didn't want it to discolor anything or, you know, get on vehicles or whatever. I just wanted to try it in an area that we don't typically drive on and see what it does. And on the grading, would we lose any parking spots?

I think just one. What I would want to do is take some more accurate measurements. I just think once we move over, you're going to have one of those stalls that lines up along Manchester Road that it would be too tight, you know, and if we lost one, I don't think that would be the end of the world. Most people use the other side, but during parks events, I know that they will see both lots full. Question. And we are monitoring. We're going to, if I remember correctly, previously, we discussed monitoring this lot very closely to see if it really if it if we're going to need it longer term or if uh the initial demand has faded away. Right. And that's why we're not doing more permanent um solutions.

Yeah. as we talked I think it was November uh we're averaging or we saw 1400 cars in that north lot last year um I think I think it was like November of 24 through October of 25 there's 1400 cars that parked in that north lot we'll continue to monitor that um we can then kind of see trend year-over-year see if it's increasing decreasing and we'll be able to kind of give you guys updates as we move through the season and then we can kind of assess if if it's a permanent lot then we need to treat we we move away from gravel and we go for concrete or um asphalts. The uh the hope is that we will have a permanent lot in the redevelopment at one day.

Yeah. And then this would be freed up as green space or development or whatever. Um, well, I entertain a recommendation uh that the north side parking lot at 8615 Manchester Road have uh staff install the drainage ditch as well as apply uh dust control product. Make the motion. Second. Okay. Uh let's just do voice. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Dan. And then Eric, this is coming up soon for a renewal on these temporary lots.

Yes. So, we'll be bringing that to the next board meeting. Um, we'd like to at that time just do um another six months just so we can kind of see how the season goes and keep them both in line, the north and south lot together, so it's a little bit easier not not doing two different lots at two different times. Thank you. Moving on to I think that was it on new business, old business. I'm sorry, old business and moving on to new business. I think uh Dan, you're back up with some traffic and transportation engineering.

Yes, it's been quite a number of years. In fact, I've been here nine and we've never done an RFQ for, you know, transportation and traffic engineering. Um, so we wanted to see what the qualifications were of folks in the area. Uh, we posted that it was in the county and and then of course we sent it to consultants that we've done work with. We did receive four submitts uh from these four that are listed here. Staff evaluated those u and the evaluation results are in your packet. So looking at the results, CBB was the highest as far as overall points. HR Green was behind them and then TWWM and Horner and Shiffron were pretty much tied. Um so they would be, you know, third and fourth. So when you look at some of the highlights like CBB's focus and and their strong suit would be uh preparation of the traffic impact studies. So they've done quite a few. I've listed u or actually I just rolled it up. It's like they've done work in the city of Brentwood for 18 years. Uh they've done over 80 task orders. If you recall they've done all sorts of work either for the prominade and different areas in Brentwood as well as other cities. HR Green has done some limited traffic impact studies. They did one with Wildwood to a lesser extent uh city of Ofallen, Missouri and city of St. Louis. Horner and Shiffron and TWWM didn't show much in way of the traffic impact studies, but they've done a lot of different uh transportation related projects. If you recall, Horner and Shiffron was the one that designed the Litzinger road improvements uh you know from Mcnite going east. They also did the uh STP on Rosalie. We've submitted applications with them for high school. That one didn't get approved, but uh TWWM of course did the work on Manchester Road. They've also done uh the rubber trail for us between Bridgeport and White. They've done some

surveying work for the parks department as well as for public works. So, in a nutshell, what we were looking at is if you're uh wanting to do just traffic impact studies, I would recommend it. We keep with CBVB. And then if you're wanting to do other transportation related projects, you would use one of those other three. We could prepare an on call agreement. And then if you were trying to prepare an STP application or something, you could pick one of those three. If it's another, you know, coffee shop or fast food restaurant, you would have the traffic impact study that would go through planning and and you would use CBB. That's my recommendation. Um, Whitney, you want to chime in on any of this? I mean, what's your feeling on recommendation? You you work pretty closely with these.

So, Dan and I have have discussed this. Um, CBB is the the area special most people use for traffic impact studies. um the other applicants did not have the experience or did not outlay that in their response very as well. Um so I we do recommend going with CBB. I don't want me to say [laughter] you know I don't know if in your past experience you've worked with some of these other companies if um

um so it was set up differently when I was with Creve Core in that largely the applicants would hire typically CBB to do the traffic study. The city of creeps then had HR green who just reviewed it um and provided said that you know yes they met with standard the standards for the traffic study or not. Um here we do that differently in that we hire CVB to do the traffic study on behalf of the city. Um so the HR Green's review of traffic impact was much more limited um in the uh for the city that I have experience with them on. So I I couldn't really say if they could do these traffic impact studies or parking studies that have been outlined by CBB. And then as far as the when new business or whatever comes in and they're required to do, they're the ones that actually pay for the traffic study with a deposit.

They we enter into a memorandum of when they submit us a conditional use permit application. We provide the information to CBB. They give us a cost estimate. We submit anou memorandum of understanding to the applicant to pay for that cost estimate. And then we pay CBB out of that escrow. If costs go higher then we ask we have the applicant is to cover that cost too. So I have a question um regarding the um second suggestion that you make Dan in the memo. Um so or or I guess with either one. So, if we had CBB and HR Green to do traffic studies, does the staff just decide like, okay, this time we're going to use CBB and this time we're going to use HR Green. How does that work? And then if we're G and then we were really I thought we were looking for traffic studies, but it seems like maybe I mean maybe it makes sense to also have um um an on call agreement for infrastructure design services. So maybe it makes sense to have that, but that wasn't really wasn't what we asked for. So it was the the responses weren't necessarily addressing their expertise there. So are we now locking ourselves up with three companies when we didn't really we were asking for traffic. So

yeah, we did, you know, right now I I know we wanted to have more than one just because if a company gets absorbed by someone else or they have turnover within, you may not want to stick with one. But as far as CBB, they have that niche where that's what they do, right? That's why I was saying for traffic impact studies, I would leave it with them. You know, we already have an agreement. Unless we need to refresh the terms, I would probably just leave it. But the second part was that these other three all have good things that they bring to the table. We could use them for if you're widening a street, adding a sidewalk, you know, if you wanted to do consideration of, you know, changes to an intersection or something like that or adding ADA trails.

So then how would it be one contract, but you would have multiple people you could pick from. So it would just it would we wouldn't do an like if we were going to do like the Rosali project again, we would just decide we would pick one of these companies and we wouldn't do an RFQ or I guess that would be an RFP at that point. Is that Yeah, you would give them the scope. They would give you a cost proposal. But would then would we send it to all three of these on call people or would we just decide, oh yeah, this time we're going to use her and chiffon. And

I wouldn't send it to all three. has the capability because they may not all have the ability at that point in time either. They could be tied up on a larger project. Now, most of them will say, "Well, yeah, I can do it, but can it?"

Well, I guess I'm just thinking about the taxpayer dollar and how we're going to make sure that we are um adequately picking like if we have three on call companies. How is this I mean, they're on call. like if we pick one on call then we're that seems like what we do but I have I don't remember another time when we have multiple companies and maybe that's what we should be doing but I just want to understand how that makes sense and why we shouldn't do an RFP every time we do a project the what I can tell you is that there's been multiple times throughout the city where we have multiple on calls for different things is one of them okay

uh it is her shifer we use a lot and others that right now I can't even remember um when We did our last on call for landscape design or landscape review. We had PDS and we also had um Oh, I'm blanking. Uh the company that did our pavilion um and they not Schaefer no Andy the Andy was there, right?

Yeah. So, whoever it was that did the pavilion, they actually had a landscape arm too who was part of the their on call. Well, that landscape arm was just evolved, so they don't have that anymore. And so what it what allows staff is basically an ability to talk to people quickly and get work done quicker. Um, and a lot of times it is you you basically reach out to the companies like, hey, I have this coming up. Is this something you able to do in a time frame? Because a lot of times it's something that needs to get done quickly. And and you have that ability to talk to one, two, or all three. I mean, we could say, "Hey, we reached out to all three. They're all on call. Hey, what do you guys have? What's your scope? What's your timing?" And then we can bring that back and say, "Hey, based on what we heard from all three, we're going to choose A because they can do it for this cost and they can do it at this time frame." And so those are the things that we have a little bit more flexibility on and ability to move a little bit faster. Okay.

But we would always be approving the cost here. Yeah. Anytime there's a task order, that will come back here for approval. Wait, did you I I did um Thank you. Um so for CBB, I believe if I'm recalling correctly, there was a concern from another um older person who was concerned about some performance issues or um accuracy of projections are even and after reviewing the RFQ, they're still the best qualified um to do.

Yes. I mean, yes, after re after reading reviewing all of the submitts, that's why we put CBB at the top was they submitted the most qualified answer to the traffic impact. Now you know he did review the recording of the the meeting whether the questions were arised and so we have discussed that um and and maybe the the option is if we wanted to do two we can have CB do it and if there's additional questions we can have HR review I it depends on what those situations may arise. Um, you know, for the most part, what he what we what was not done for the coffee shop or the drive-thru, um, was a full analysis of the intersection at South Brentwood in Manchester. Um, simply because most coffee shops capture the existing traffic. Um so therefore when we've talked about futures you know like we could say well we need to start capturing the exist the traffic the the biggest issue is is we have to review projects when they are submitted. Um so capt if if there's a question of when well school's not in session and um or something like that that becomes difficult if a project's been submitted in June. uh we have 90 days to have PNZ review it and make a recommendation. So um the issue can be timing uh so we can try to work as best we can through that. Yeah.

What I would add to and and Dan and and Whitney can kind of chime in too is when we looked at the four um as far as the traffic impact study, CBB had the most experience of anyone. Um in fact I we you know Horn and Shiff and TWWN really don't a whole lot of experience in that sector of that the RF RFP. Um HR Green has done some they're just they haven't seemed to do the the the examples they gave us were more broader range of hey here's a highway what if we redevelop? It wasn't here's a big business right on a major intersection. he didn't see that sort of same uh experience. Now, if we want to have that flexibility, we we could have those two both of them and then we can kind of work back and forth with both of them and you know, if it really turns out that CBB is the strongest and HR green is maybe not as strong, then we can work with HR Green and become stronger or we continue to work with CBB a little bit more. If you want to have the flexibility, you could always add that second one in there. So you're ask your your recommendation is either one or two

what you're asking for mine was originally if you did the traffic impact study would solely be CBB and then anything else was the other three. Okay. I'm I'm looking at unless you guys have something you've got CBB and the first you've got number one you've got select CBB and HR green to provide traffic impact studies. Yeah, I was trying to separate them, but I think that somehow the I guess what's in your packet is different. But I basically the way Eric described it, if you wanted to, you could pull two of them together and then another two to still do the traffic.

I got I'm completely confused. I don't know about you two. I don't know what it is. The traffic impact study is always going to be CBB. And to Eric's point, you can either keep it as one or you could try to use HR Green, but HR Green does not have the level of experience that CBB does. Yeah. So, are you trying to say in the first one that CBB would do the traffic and HR Green would do the transportation and engineering services? Is that what you were trying to do with number one? Because that's not

I don't know what theirs is versus mine. It's like I've got your mic. Sorry, Dan. The memo that's attached in board docs does say CBB and HR Green to provide and that's different than mine because I haven't written select CBB to provide all traffic impact studies on an as needed basis through task orders. Then select HR green, horn shiff and TWWM for transportation engineering and infrastructure design. the recommendation in diligent is is the is Dan's recommendation. What's in the memo unfortunately is incorrect. Yeah.

Yeah. To get out of the memo and look at the the part on the right. Questions. If we go with CBB only, do we get a discount for an exclusive contract? Because if there's no benefit for an exclusive contract, I'd lean more to having a second option, especially as we think about if anything's going to happen on Manchester or any major projects. it might be good to have options, but if we get a nice discount for having a preferred vendor, then

unfortunately because these are because this was an RFQ, we're basically asking for qualifications. And once we decide who we want to work with, then we'll work with them on the actual contract portion of it. And unfortunately that's not something that's discussed um at this time and and not something I don't think is something we can discuss with them.

Well, and this the applicants are the ones who pay for traffic studies. So yeah. So now I see it here. You've just got CBB and number one and then the others would be a selection. one in the

ready for a motion. You have a thought on I mean I can make a motion but I guess either we wait to see if it gets seconded. [laughter] Um, I I mean I'm I'm glad we're going out instead of just, you know, sometimes we you get stuck into using the same vendors and everything and going on. Everybody becomes friends and it's good to shake things up a little bit every once in a while. But personally, I've never had a problem with what I've seen from CBB. Um, I Whitney's pretty much on board with CBB. I'm just wondering if we just need and that number one I almost want to go back to the error and have HR green as possibly a backup or a if if for some reason there's a problem with what we're seeing from CBB and we want a second opinion then you got somebody to fall back to

also like that idea also like CBB has a lot of turnover or we start projects I wouldn't mind having a second contract in place just to EBB is our primary. Use CBB as the primary but have a backup on call option in case they get too busy on other projects or um have turnover and we no longer like their expertise level. I mean this is a three possibly fiveyear contract. So a lot can change in five years.

Well, I'm thinking also if things get real busy down on Manchester Road, um I mean I think you would want a consistent traffic. um somebody you're using consistently that knows the whole span of the project, but you know, if we have questions, you know, you always got somebody else to bounce things off of. So, I guess I'd entertain a motion. Well, let me ask you this. Are we then is this then going to the full board from here?

Um, yes. If if this gets approved tonight, what we would do is we'd go back and we'd actually work out the contracts with each of the companies and then that would be part of what we bring to the full board. I'm of the essence that we can't see that at the next meeting if we give you some direction here and come back with the contracts first. Yeah, we could do that. I don't I don't believe there's a time issue. I mean, we do have CBB under contract already.

And they gave us sample contracts. They're not in your packet, but they did send them to us with the submitt. So, it may take a while, but we can bring this to one of the board meetings. I just know that if we're doing a contract with CBB, which we already have one, we probably don't really need a new one.

You would do one with HR Green that would be for the uh traffic impact studies. That would be something new. And then the other two would be an on call for transportation related projects. fine to me. I mean, I I guess I I what I heard tonight was CBB does the lion share of the traffic and they HR Green doesn't do as much of the actual count coming in and out and the fact that we have gone and done this uh RFP um or is this a Q RFQ um after we've had CBB for so long and we came back and we're like, "Oh yeah, we were using the right people like that." That makes me feel a lot more comfortable. So, I'm really glad that we've gone through that exercise. So, if we want to have two, that's fine. But if CBB is the one who's really able to do what we need, then um

I mean, I guess it's good to have HR Green as the second, but if CBB is the one who who is going to do it, then um Well, then yeah, go ahead. Sorry, just to make sure I understand. Is it an exclusive contract with CBB if we do it this way or it's still an open contract? We have them under contract. They're our default provider. But if Manchester really takes off and we needed more studies, we're not locked in exclusive at that point. We could go out, say something came up on Eager Road or North Brentwood Boulevard.

Correct. I mean, the idea of having them on calls, the fact that we wouldn't have to go out for an RFP or RFQ process, which would take months be time you advertise to get it in and do this. Um, but it doesn't preclude the city from saying, "Hey, for this project, I want us to go look at someone else as well. It it is easier to have them on call just because it just streamlines the process a little bit. Um, but doesn't mean that if for whatever you say, hey, CBB is is the um the company that does all these studies, which it it does appear. doesn't mean that in the future if we get something like another situation what just happened with the drive-through say hey why don't we reach out to another company have them give us a task order for them to look at it what that would do would just for Whitney would delay that process a couple months

and I've I will retract what I I'm glad I asked the question and it seems like having two makes sense all right so together this recommend How about if we just give direction? Well,

I mean, it sounded like Alderman Lock, I'll try this for you. Is that you'd like staff giving staff direction to talk to the companies to get their contracts and bring back the full everything next month with the recommendation and the proposed contract so we can look at all of it together? Yeah, because I would I mean I I see the brochures and whatever this information is here and um I mean I I'm no expert when it comes to transportation, but I'd kind of like to see if we're going to forward this onto the full board. I'd just I'd like to have that material in front of me um instead of the night, you know, somebody comes up with a question and we're just now seeing the contracts and that type of thing. So, I would I would say we we're all in favor of this just giving staff direction. Um, let me bring that back. I can go back to the wrong thing. Um based on the recommendation where uh number one CBB is the goto and H&R green would be a backup and then number two would be what Dan has laid out there. Are you are you suggesting that we have both traffic and transportation engineering and infrastructure like two different sort of on call?

Yeah, because I'm I'm thinking tasks I'm thinking number one is more of a Whitney in her department. Number two seems to be whenever we have any infrastructure needs is is Dan and and TWWM and Horner and Shiffron. That's when they seem to come into play. So, I guess that's how I'm trying to get my mind wrapped around um having these people all on call is they've got different specialties and they've we've got different needs for different companies at different times. So, that answer your question because I've just lost

Yeah, that makes sense. No, I I Yeah, so basically we're we're suggesting that we go with option two. Um but then we also have HR Green as an on call for traffic. Exactly. And I, you know, we're, you know, even this RFQ, you know, usually look at an RFQ and pick one. We're going for a selection and giving certain ones priorities. But I think we're looking hopefully not speaking out of turn here on this, but I think we're thinking there's going to be a lot of projects that will impact traffic in the next three to five years. And so

we are hopeful that [laughter] there are a lot of projects in the next three to five years. So we anticipate needing a large amount of services which would justify having multiple players in the game instead of just standard minimum development. So I guess I'm asking staff are you clear on where we're trying to go with this for our next meeting? I believe so for the traffic impact studies you want CBB as your prime HR green is a secondary a backup. So you can choose one of those two for traffic impact studies for all other things. Say you're building a roundabout or you're doing traffic signals or whatever sidewalks, then it would be TWWM Horner and Shiffron and then I believe you said HR Green for that one as well.

No, just for it doesn't sound like I I didn't think HR Green really had the expertise for that type of thing. Yeah, they've done some, but I thought, well, did you want to just include two that we can select from either TWWM or Horner Shiff? done work you know on our different projects you know whether it's an STP or not HR green though not HR green I have never used them but yeah that's okay then yeah it would be Horner and Shiffron and TWWM okay we know what we're doing all right great

move on to citizen comment anybody online nobody's Okay, there's no any other other business, we'll adjourn. Thanks, guys. Thank you.