City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone and welcome to the city of Alvette uh city council meeting for March 24th, 2026. Can we please have roll call? Mayor Clark here. Uh chairman prom is absent. Council member Solomonov here. Council member Pashan Helman here. Council member Lewis here. Okay. uh communications. I have no written communications. Thank you very much. Uh we'll go with our city manager report.

Good evening everyone. Um let me share my screen. Okay. Uh we have a couple of things uh this evening. So, first and foremost is the next coffee with the mayor is April 8th uh at Five Oaks at 8:30 and um Dina Dothage with the MU extension office will be the mayor's guest um this month and she is going to be talking about the engaged neighbor program which um is actually a really interesting program through the MU extension office. So, uh, we know that community and neighborhoods are important to the city of Alvette. So, we're hoping that, um, a number of folks come out and, um, listen to what Dena has to say. If you're interested in seeing, uh, what the program is about, you can certainly follow the QR code, uh, on the screen, uh, to learn more before her presentation. So, we'll see you next month. Uh, and then if you have kiddos and are looking for fun activities for them, uh, our 8week summer camp, uh, Camp Five Oaks is open for registration. Uh, there are a couple of, um, very popular weeks. Um, but there are spaces open for each of the eight weeks. So, it starts June 8th. It's for kids who are 5 to 12 years of age. Um, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Five Oaks. So, we would encourage everybody to register their their kids. Um, you can follow the QR code. It'll take you straight to registration. And then, um, the weather is getting warmer and so the park restrooms and the water fountains, those will be opened

and turned on on April 15th. Um, the splash pads will reopen Memorial Day weekend. So, uh, when the weather gets warmer than what it is now here, um, in April, so everybody will be excited about that. And then the last week, uh, second to last week of April, April 20th through April 24th is uh, the annual large bulk collection. So, as you're doing your your spring cleaning, um you can think of the things that are, you know, in your house or in your garage that you can set out to the curb that week um to be picked up by the city's um trash contractor. Again, these are typically things that are too large to go into your regular trash container. Um but they are not construction debris. So, if you are renovating, this is not the opportunity for you to put all of your construction debris out there. You can make separate arrangements for that. Um, and this also does not include appliances. So, uh, if you do have appliances that need to be, um, taken away, you can call the trash contractor separately um, and make arrangements for that. And then I just encourage everybody to sign up for this week in all of that which is our weekly newsletter that has all kinds of information about things that are going on in the city. Um and if lastly are the upcoming meeting dates. So EDC is meeting March 30th and then PCDC uh April 2nd. The city council work session is cancelled for April 7th. that is election day. Um and city hall and five oaks are both polling places. So we encourage everybody to um cast their vote and then the next city council meeting is April 14th. So with that I

can answer any questions the council might have. Go ahead. Okay. Council has no questions. Okay. Okay. So we'll go on to our monthly financial report. Do you want to do your staff reports?

Oh yes, please. Uh so staff report starting with fire department. So they did uh various trainings this past month has focused on uh fires in stairways and those that are below grade so in the basement. Um and this training uh provides experience for them handling that chimney effect uh when the smoke is in a confined space. Um these pictures here are actually here at um at city hall. there. The staircase is was designed when the city was built um to allow for various types of training including this kind of uh chimney chimney effect training. Parks and wreck has been very busy. Um so you can see uh starting over here are the weed warriors. So they have picked um well they're kind of finished for the season, but they've been doing a lot of work at Stacy Park clearing out all kinds of things. Um, February was the open mic night um at Five Oaks and so we had a number of folks that came including um this gentleman here who's playing the piano. And then uh baseball season is upon us and so we've been out uh filling in and grading the various ball fields um particularly those at uh Warson. planning planning has been doing surveys this month. Um the nominations for the annual business awards, those closed on Monday. So um at next week's economic development commission meeting, they will be reviewing all of the nominations and picking the winner of this year's uh business of the year, the restaurant of the year, and then the commission themselves have kind of their business choice award. Uh and then the awardees will be honored at the May 21st uh

Olivet and Krief Court chamber lunchon. And then the other thing the planning department has been doing this month is they have been doing business survey. So this is the four question survey that the council and the economic development commission uh put together. Uh all of our licensed businesses have received both an email and a postcard reminder about the survey and so far we've had 14 businesses uh respond and uh according to planning department staff their responses have been positive. So um that is a good thing. there will be kind of another reminder that goes out or um I think maybe EDC's also been tasked with taking some of the little postcards and and kind of as you visit businesses asking folks to take a minute and um take the survey when they have an opportunity. So, the police department, if you remember, last month, uh, Officer Octavia Herren had put together a team and, uh, their fundraising. Last month was only behind St. Peters. So, uh, I think that's pretty outstanding for uh, a department our size compared to the city of St. Peters. Um, so the Olivet Police Department raised uh over $1,000. So their goal was a thousand. They've reached their goal. Um, and as you can see here is Officer Haron. And then this is Officer uh Wcman. He's one of our newest officers uh as they participated uh on February 28th out at uh Creve Cors Park. And then the next event for Special Olympics will be the torch run which will be in May. Um, and occasionally the torch run comes down Olive. So, you might see them uh you might see one of our officers uh participating in the torch run. And then

the spring uh drug takeback day has been set for April 25th. um from 10:00 am to 2 pm. Uh anyone uh whether you're a resident or not a resident is welcome to come to Olive City Center and bring any of your med medication whether it's prescriptions or over-the-counter medication. You can even bring pet medication that um is unused or expired. And all the medication will be collected and will be disposed of properly. Uh if you can't make it uh on Saturday the 25th, just know that we do have um a drop off box here in City Center that is available to anyone during City Center regular um business hours. You're welcome to come in uh drop it off. Um and all of that's also collected and uh disposed of properly. And then public works. Um Amaran is going to be working on a uh underground electrical line pro project. Um they need to provide more capacity, electric capacity to the new Avenue uh development, residential development uh further down here on Delmare. And so part of that work is installing underground uh duct banks and manholes and and pulling wire. And all of that will be happening on Price Road um just a little north of Bon Hills to a little bit north of Little Lane uh which is south of Delmare. So Amron has not told us exactly when they are going to start. they are kind of finalizing and getting the last little bits of their um

information particularly where the St. Louis city water lines are as they come down uh come down this way uh because nobody wants them to hit the water lines. So as they are digging. So we definitely want them to uh and the water lines have been there for decades. So it's trying to make sure they figure out exactly where they are. Um, so we're not exactly sure when they're starting. It will be sometime this probably spring, uh, maybe early summer, but it will be about 15 weeks. And there will be some, um, traffic delays. Any of their underground work will be happening in this east, the east side of Price, the northbound lane. Um, and as we get more information, we'll be certainly pushing this out um to residents uh as we as we know more and as we get a uh firmer uh start date. And that is all I have unless you have any additional questions for me.

Any questions from the council? Can we see the business survey results once we close that out? Of course. Yeah. Okay. We'll we'll bring that back to you. Thank you. We'll probably leave it open a little bit longer. Sure. Um but yeah, we'll bring all that back. Great. We have any other questions? Okay. All right. So, we're going to go to our monthly financial report and we will have a presentation from our director of finance,

Mr. Mayor, mayor and council. Uh we have our uh annual report, I guess, up to the months of uh uh February. So, puts us at eight months into our 12-month year. And um not a lot to report. Uh good news even compared to where we were last year. sales taxes revenues overall are up above where we expected about 560,000 uh 335,000 is in that sales tax category and again use taxes and about 216 and then 130,000 of it in the sales tax itself. So very good news as we head into our budgeting uh property taxes uh we've finally gotten all caught up with some of our collections so it's reporting as as expected. We did get some of our uh we have not released uh received the release of our protested payments. Uh expect that in the next couple months. Uh once again, as we get the reporting kind of look at it, we're in the top 10 of of all cities that have uh property tax, which is a little unusual for our size, but um it's a whole another kind of story. It's uh normal for us, I should say. Uh utility tax collections. Uh again, propped up by those um the electric utility receipts. Um, lots of reasons for for kind of what that is, but as the rates go up, so do our collections and then it it follows the weather as well. Parks and wreck uh also reporting another really really strong month uh made up in a lot of our room rentals and memberships. So that's good news. Uh all you know as we we're making our expectations where we thought we were with our budget. Albe our budgets are a little lower than what we had expected a couple years ago, but it's at least um for the first time we're kind of expect we're where we expected to be. So that's good as we go into our budgeting season um if we're able to meet those numbers. Uh remaining uh all mixed all around. Again, I talked about some of the parks and rec stuff, but uh licenses are beginning to be collected and uh permits are issued there above on on some increased fees. uh expenditures uh right where we

thought they would be. If you look at them by functional expense or by department, we're right in line. I don't really have a whole lot. Uh we'll look at the our chart here after that. We have a meeting after this. So, um we're at the orange line and we get a preview into next month and you can see the orange line is a little bit uh one of our lower uh marches ever in the last seven years. Anyway, um and then uh I did get some good advice today that maybe we'll take some noise out of this chart, take out some of those older ones, um and start we'll leave the green line for 23 and then just do a four years. And if you were to just isolate those, it's kind of hard from back here, especially if you're looking in here, but it's the um the orange, the light blue, purple, and then that green. That's our new sales tax. The the other ones are are the older ones from when the sales taxs were elevated. they were very erratic because of the timing. Uh first off, this has a lot of happened during COVID and the pandemic. So the timing of retailers turning the stuff in process at the state was very erratic and so and the numbers were also real high. So the scale was much bigger. Uh we're into more of a normal sales tax. Uh the lines are pretty uh getting more boring, which is good for us for budgeting. Um but they're just not not as large as they were just three or four years ago. But that's all I have for the financial report and we'll talk more budget uh in uh in a little bit once we get done with our meeting here.

Any questions from the council? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Okay, so we're going to go to our city council reports and I'll start to my right. Mr. Solomon, do you have anything to report? Nothing to report at this time. Thank you very much. Council member Pashan Helman. I have nothing to report at this time. Council member Lewis, no. PCDC had a a break during spring break, so nothing to report.

All right. And uh Pro Tim Wild is out at this time and Mayor Clark, myself, I have nothing to report. So we're going to item number seven, hearing from citizens. I do have a few cards up here. And first to the podium is going to be Mr. Alan Robbins. My name is Alan Robbins. I live in Chvy Chase and over the last few years I've had an issue and I tried to address it with a couple of neighbors. Um the issue is around snow removal on sidewalks on the major thoroughares like Old Bonum or Price Road. When that's not done, it forces people to walk in the street, which puts us in a direct conflict with cars. And I don't think that should be the way it's handled. I think people I think we need to notify our our neighbor the neighbors need to be notified that they have responsibility to remove the snow from the sidewalk. And if that's done, there won't be a problem. But it has not. No one seems to be doing anything about that. And we've had some really bad snows. That's all I have. Thank you very much for your comments. Next to the podium will be Stephanie Todd. The mic starts up.

Not on. There you go. Is it on now? Yeah. But but I was really surprised when you said there was no written comments because was there no written comments at the beginning or for solar panels? Because I submitted a written comment where it says at on the agenda, submit comments at communications.alalvette.mmo at all mo and I know at least three people that also submitted comments at that website. So I guess they're not going through they're they're being ignored.

No, I wouldn't say they're being ignored. Um I can follow up with who our communications person, but I did not get them. I sent mine Monday afternoon and I know another person was sent theirs Monday afternoon. I sent this the thing to the to all every all the city council and the and to you and then I thought, "Oh, I did that wrong. I'm supposed to submit comments under the communications." So, I submitted comments. Okay. And like I said, I know at least three other people and they all submitted them prior to today.

So, again, I did not receive an email from you. I cannot speak to the communications email. You're at the podium now. if you would like to make your comments. No, I think we're going to do public comment is now and unless the mayor has Oh, we're not doing them after the No, this the public comment is um now we're not doing them in order when we No.

Okay. All right. So then, well, that's really disconcerning that that residents are told to submit comments to this to this email and then they're not they're they're not getting them. That's really concerning because I had friends that say, "Why should I go tonight?" Because I submitted comments on the per the email. So, I'm speaking for several people. So again, I was here, you know, last time and I made some comments about the color of about about um the ordinance saying consist of comparable color and um you know, I just said that we shouldn't be talking about that, but the last time I did not comment on glare. So the ordinance states limits the potential of any direct glare to an adjacent property. So my question is how is glare defined and measured and what and at what locations on adjacent properties are you looking are you going to measure glare and I would bet that if you ask this question to any solar panel installers they wouldn't have a clue how they're what they're supposed to do with that because the nature of solar panels is they're meant to absorb sunlight. like not reflect it and windows actually window pane glass windows glass have more reflect more glare than solar panels. So and what do we evaluate every house for glare? And um and even if there was some some glare, it's going to change every day with the the way the sun. So

it would probably only be a problem if it's if it even is a perceived problem for you know maybe a week out of the year and for a maybe five or 10 minutes. So so I don't know how this I don't know how you would even evaluate this whole meet this requirement. So my suggestion is to remove the glare requirement. And then you know I was here last time and I also advocated for um removing the color requirement or make the requirement that all panels have to be dark blue or or navy or dark blue or black because I looked it up. Theoretically you can buy colored solar panels online. They cost a lot more. They're smaller and they reduce the efficiency up to 50%. So if you in so if you make this requirement and somebody has a light colored roof that then what is PCDC going to demand that that you add pigment and make your solar panels less efficient so that you match the color of the roof because that's what this says. So that's my comment. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Todd.

Okay, we're going to go over to uh bill number We want to see if there's anyone else. Oh, yeah. Does anyone else in the audience like to make a comment? If you would uh step up and state your name.

Uh my name is Sim. Um I uh I'm here on behalf of these are my partners here. We have a project going on uh at Village Condos. It is the property across uh from Alabet Lanes. We have 37 condos um in that area that we are remodeling. Currently, all of them are um vacant. We are doing a uh floors, any type of walls, paint. Um we're we're trying to make it a better community, exterior, interior. Uh that being said, we purchased the property in early December of last year. Um we started renovations uh demo in mid December. Um we did it we started the project without building permits due to we have other projects that we since it's a light renovation, it was flooring and painting. Um we didn't that didn't require permits, we didn't submit them. Um in early February we got contacted by the planning development of uh Alvette uh requiring building permits. Immediately we had submitted uh and and complied with that. Since then we have made we have made many attempts to contact um a uh one of the uh planning and um inspectors with Dvette. Um I have been to the uh city hall a couple times and he has not been here which I understand he's definitely you know 80% of them are out during the day. Um but I also have made communication by email and uh phone calls and have not received uh and if I did it was a couple um any uh correspondence or communication. Um, that being said, we it is every day that

we are going uh without any work being done, it is costing us $1,500 in burn cost that we are not expecting. Uh we are trying to make the community better between us. We have almost 30 years of residency in Alvette. Um so it it is definitely a frustrating situation that we're going through. We're looking for help from council, Mr. mayor, any anybody that could guide us in the right direction in getting this done because it's been 5 weeks today that we submitted and nothing's been done. Uh we were asked to clarify some issues which we immediately did. Um there has been email chains uh back and forth. Uh but again, every day that goes by, it is quite literally costing us $1,500. And at this point we have been re-evaluating whether the project is even uh worth moving forward with because of the financial strength that it has taken. Um so we are uh we wanted to come tonight to express our issue uh see where we can uh get some help some guidance uh to move forward and in a positive direction. Um so far we have not been able to. So this is our way of trying to get that from uh the city.

Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Look into it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to speak?

Come forward and please state your name. Uh good good evening uh mayor and uh city manager Yakley and council members. My name is Errol Amone. Uh my I'm I live on Dumbartan which is on the south end of Alvette and I've lived there for 33 years. We bought a house there 1993 and I've raised a family and I have two of my young adult sons with me and we also have a business partner Sim who just spoke and uh my sons work in real estate and they've worked doing real estate since uh 2001 uh in the greater St. Lewis metropolitan area and they provided multiple housing and shelter for people in the metropolitan St. Louis area. My background myself, I I'm a a retired physician. I was practicing at St. Louis University and retired in 2020. I'm now professor ameritus and I also have a law degree. I went to night school and I was licensed as an attorney and counselor. I sat for the bar and I passed the bar exam also. So, I have a a background in medicine and law. And I'm now since I'm retired, I'm trying to put my uh investments and help my young adult children do uh real estate. And I could tell you that one of them that I started with, his name is Ruben. And Ruben's right there. Raise his hand. And um anyway, uh Ruben also went to St. Louis University and he has a a degree in

public health and a degree in emergency management from St. Louis University. And Reuben, I could tell you uh the the tenants where they've had rental property, they love Reuben. Ruben has given them their phone, his phone number, his cell phone. They contact him. He answers the phone. And if there's any issues with the rental properties, he fixes them. He's not a slum lord at all. He fixes them. And he's also been very compassionate to his tenants. And I've also met the tenants myself because I've walked the properties with them. and also he's very sensitive to local government and to the municipalities that the real estate is located in. Um, so without with that basically I want to ma get some assistance Mayor Clark and and uh manager Yakley if I'm saying that correctly and

city manager Yaki.

Oh, you're over there. Okay. And the rest of the council members. Um, so that's that. And uh I wanted to basically say that they want to basically get these apartments, they're onebedroom and two-bedroom apartments across from the Alabet Lanes that they want to get remodeled and fixed and rented out. And I could tell you with all of this development going east on Olive Street, um I'm sure there's going to be a lot of jobs for people. Then they're going to need places to live. And so to provide shelter for people in this area, I think uh we would like to get your support for uh re completing the remodels and beginning the rental property process for tenants and um also it should be supported by the uh community. And I I love the comment in the back there. It says in the center of it all. Yes. So I really believe is a great place to live. I've lived here for since 1993 and my family was raised here too. So I'm from Chicago. My mom my mom my my wife is from uh University. I met her here and we got married and we've been happily married for 38 years and I've been living here since 1993. So with that, um, thank you for your willingness to listen and hopefully we can all work together somehow. Thank you very much.

Well, thank you for your comments. Um, you know, the Brumfields then. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Mr. Brunfield. Yeah. He's a great guy. Yeah. His uh daughter and I, we went to high school together. Oh, the daughter. What's her name? Kenya. Kenya Brunfield. That's right. Kenya. Yeah. Her husband did some work on my house. He was working at Slooh also. Yeah. Yeah. This is May. This is small town. I like Mr. Brunfields. He was a great guy. Yes. He really was nice man. Wonderful man. Thank you for your comment, sir. General. Yes, sir. Yeah. Thank you.

All right. Is there anyone else in the audience who'd like to speak? Do Do we have anybody online? All right. So, we're going to go on to item number eight. Bill number 3059. We could have the title read. Bill 3059, an ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance of the city of Alvette being part of chapter 400 zoning regulations and chapter 425 community design. Both chapter being chapters being part of title 4 land use of the municipal code for proposed standards governing residential rooftop solar panels. Second reading. Right. Sir,

good evening. Members of the council, my name is Carlos Trejo. I'm the director of planning and community development for the city of Alvette. Uh I'm here to request a second reading of bill 30 uh 59 which is addresses the uh uh authorizes administrative approval for certain rooftop solar panels. Uh this is the second reading. Be glad to answer any specific questions or go over any aspects of the order.

Do we have any questions from the council? I guess I I do have a question with regard to the language um specifically around color. Um and we kind we went over this at the public hearing two weeks ago. Um and after hearing some of the comments from residents concerned with the well with a few things in this ordinance, but color came up uh specifically. Um, I'm wondering if there's a a better way that we could word that section specifically because it seems like the word that folks are getting tripped up on is the comparable color. Um, and I noticed in I did a little bit of research and looked at uh Clayton's renewable energy code and they use the word compatible. Um, but they also uh there's also some inclusion of the potential language of standard black or dark blue um solar panels. I guess my question is, is the intent behind the language to make sure that only solar panels that are kind of the standard colors of black and navy that those are the only ones used is the intent to um h have the standard colors be acceptable. Um, and that any of the more unusual colors like a green or a pink or a purple, um, that those would would not be considered um, acceptable colors for administrative approval, meaning that they would then need to be approved by the planning commission.

I think that's the the key term, the administrative approval uh, component. Uh, first comparable uh, it's used 15 times in our municipal code. six specific times in our title four land use code. It is a very common term that we use to provide something comparable and compatible. They're kind of used intertwined. Uh whichever the council would prefer would not significantly change the intent that was drafted within this ordinance. Again, uh comparable is used six times uh in our land use code. I think four in the zoning ordinance and two in chapter 428 or I may have them reversed. Um the the intent here is to provide a safety net for my staff and that uh those of comparable colors they're authorized to approve those. In no way is the intent to prohibit a resident from choosing any color that they would want. The process would be that it would go through the commission who serves as the community design review board uh for the the city of Olivet. There are seven residents all appointed by this council and it's a consensus of those seven uh um to to make that type of decision uh in that process. I do also think that it's worth kind of stating outside um of for especially for those who are here who maybe weren't um at the first discussion to to just um really reinforce that the intent of this is to make it easier for people to install solar panels um to get solar panels on their roof. um that it's that it's changing the process by adding in solar panels as an acceptable material finish.

Correct. Which and those which fall within the parameter of the code. I mean it should be a 10 to 15 day reduction in the permitting time.

And I and I think to sorry to to add to that I think it's having served on PCDC I would agree that the goal would be to expedite because generally they've always been approved with rare exception. Um, but I think we need the safety nets, but it allows staff to move at a more rapid pace because obviously the council as part of our goals fully supports the use of, you know, alternative energies. So, I think um I agree it's a good call out, but I think the language is important because it gives flexibility for the design standards when needed and staff brings those forward when someone brought like a hot pin solar panel, you know, randomly to on a tan roof, then it could be reviewed and discussed at that point. So,

I hope none of that happens. I doubt it'll happen. I mean, I think maybe we need just a little bit more time to review their incommunications that have come in to make sure we know we and we can address some of the concerns that people have brought forth. Um, so I I personally am not ready to make a decision on this yet because we may need to do some more fine tuning on the language. So then we're We're going to do we're going to table this for now if unless you guys

I I personally part of having been part of PCDC I'm not concerned but I do agree with you. I think it's important that if any communications come in we didn't get them. Um like I had not received an email on it but like so maybe something was missed but I'd rather make sure we hear because I don't think it's urgent that it's now versus two weeks from now. So I'd rather make sure we hear everything but I you know I think to council member uh Sean Helman's point is I think it's important to understand the intent behind all this is important too. So, do I need a motion? You do. Um, I'd like to make a motion to table this item um and bring it back for further discussion at our next meeting. Okay. Can we pull the council? Yeah. Second.

Uh, council member Lewis. Yes. Council member Pashan Helman. Yes. Council member Solomonov. Yes. Mayor Clark. Yes. Motion is passed. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. All right. So, now we're going on to item number nine. Bill number 3060. You have floor. So, good evening. Again, council. You want me to read the title? Yes.

Okay. Uh, bill 3060, an ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance of the city of Alvette being part of chapter 400 zoning regulations of title 4 land use of the municipal code for proposed standards to govern data centers. Second reading. Mayor, again, my name is Carlos Tjo. I'm the director of planning and community development for the city of Alvette. And this ordinance would provide uh uh standards for uh data centers in our light industrial district. The key things would it would require special permit and it establishes certain conditions for the evaluation of that permit. Uh and um it goes through a two-step process. The plan commission reviews it uh and forwards a recommendation. The council has ultimate approval uh and that's it. very uh multiple communities in the metropolitan area uh have uh provided them as special permits and established similar standards uh in their place. At this time we have no pending applications. Uh this is being proactive to get this in place uh in there. Be glad to answer any specific questions or go through any of the ordinance details. Do we have any questions online? We got one hand. It's up. Are you going to allow them to speak during this?

Yes. I mean, they have a question, I guess. But it's this is public hearing has been was closed at the last meeting. So, you would need to um I mean specifically allow for public comments out of public comments. Okay. So, we'll just go ahead and then pull the council. I guess that's what you're asking or saying. In order to allow public comments, you would have to actually take action if you want to allow public comments at this time. Or are we making a motion directly to, you know, approve it and not take public comments? Correct.

So, let's just go ahead and take a motion to approve the bill. That's my motion. That's what I would like to do. So, can I have a motion to approve this bill? like to make a motion to approve bill 3060, an ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance of the city of Alvette being chapter 400 zoning regulations of title uh 4, land use of the Alvet municipal code for proposed standards to govern data centers. Can I have a second? Second. Okay. Can we please pull the council? Council member Lewis. Yes. Council member Pashan Helman. Yes. Council member Solomonov. Yes. Mayor Clark. Yes. Uh the motion has passed. Bill 3060 becomes ordinance 2829.

Okay. Could I ask um I'm wondering since I I see a number of people online who did not raise their hand and there are others in the audience that did not raise their hand. I'm wondering if um potentially city manager Yakley if you could give kind of an overview of typically how public comments work and why at this point we usually do not take public comments on an item just so that the public is aware.

Uh sure. I'm going to hand that over actually to the city attorney. So, all zoning code amendments um do carry with it a public hearing and we did have a lengthy public hearing at the last um city council meeting. Um and at that point in time um anybody could have offered comments on the ordinances. Um we also have opened up a public forum at the beginning of the meeting um for public comment and then um somewhat unusually you um you also have um a public forum for public comment at the end of the meeting as well. So, there were several chances for public comment and um and it's important to keep um time, place, and manner restrictions on public comment in order just for you to conduct your um business in an orderly and effective manner. you've complied with the public hearing requirements and um you have allowed for public comments at the beginning of the meeting and there were some comments there but usually during the um middle of the meeting that is for the council to to conduct its own business and that's why normally comments are not taken at that time.

Thank you very much for the explanation. Okay, so we'll go to item number 10. Bill number 3061. Bill 3061, an ordinance amending section 125.090, commission membership of article 3, economic development commission, being part of chapter 125 commissions, committees, and boards of title one, government code of the alabet municipal code. Second reading, we have the floor, sir.

Good evening, mayor, members of the council. Again, my name is Carlos Trejo. I'm the director of planning and community development uh for the city of Alvette. And tonight I'm requesting a second reading to uh bill 361 uh which would amend um section 125 090 which is regarding the membership for the economic development commission which is uh one of the three commissions and boards uh that's established through ordinance uh in our municipal code. Um in this case it would remove the requirement about having five members present uh for any action or recommendation forward to the council. And in essence, what we did is we just removed uh that requirement because it already states they're following Robert's rules of order uh in that process. Therefore, a simple majority would be necessary to conduct a meeting, a quorum. Be glad to answer any specific questions or go any over any detail.

Are there any questions from the council? Okay. Well, I'll entertain a motion. I'd like to make a motion to approve bill number 3061, an ordinance amending section 125.09. 090 commission membership of article 3 economic development commission being part of chapter 125 commissions committees and boards of title one government code of the ette municipal code. Can I have a second? Second. All right. Can we please pull the council? Council member Lewis. Yes. Council member Pashan Helman. Yes. Council member Solomonov? Yes. Mayor Clark? Yes. Motion is passed. Bill 3061 becomes ordinance 2830. Thank you.

Thank you, Mario Council.

Okay, we're going on to item number 11, Stacy Park fence installation. Good evening, mayor and council members. Beverly Tucker Knight, parks and recreation director. This evening we have before you a request to complete the Stacy Park fence replacement project. We conducted an RFP in order to install a split rail cedar western cedar fence along the portions of Olive between the security fencing for the city of St. Louis water reservoir and the Amaran substation. And then on the western edge of the park along Warson from that same other side of the Amaran substation down to the crosswalk and then the entrance to Stacy Park. So this project is part of our Stacy Park master fence replacement plan that was begun a couple years ago. This is removing the chain link fence with the barb wire that was a remnant of uh World War II safety precautions when the site was part of the city of St. Louis reservoir. Um and we now, as you know, we've leased the site for for many decades and we are allowed to remove the fence and make the park more inviting. So the uh the city of St. Louis still maintains their security fence around the primary area of the reservoir. Sadly, it's also chain link with barb wire, so not quite as inviting. But for the areas where we've clean we've cleared, it looks remarkably better. So, this split rail fencing will go in to help show the limitations or the the boundaries of the park, but also allow pedestrians to come in. There'll

be gaps in there and it'll help us control where the pedestrians come into the park to protect the habitat restoration we've done as we've removed all the honeysuckle and invasive vines and things in that area. So, I don't know if you've had a chance to go by there, but it it looks remarkably better now. It's very exciting. So, to complete the the fence rail, we followed the city's finance protocols. We released an RFP. We had uh several responses. Of those responses, three were qualified. And of the three that submitted their qualifications, the fence factory was selected as the best respondent uh due to their excellent references and their bid amount. So this evening I am asking for your approval to enter an agreement with the fence factory to complete the split rail fence. And I'm happy to answer any questions you have about the project, the fence or um that area that we're working on. Do we have any questions from the council?

I assume this was already included in the DF or the budget for everything. It is. Yes. I apologize. I should have motioned um should have mentioned this is actually funded through the capital improvement plan. Okay. And it the $17,770 that we're requesting is within the budget. Yes. So, what is this fence going to look like? Is it like uh some sort of synthetic? So, yes, it's western cedar split rail. So, what that means is I'm sorry. Do you have a picture in one of these two? Uh, there is a picture. Yes, there's a picture in the addendum to the um RFP in the attachment number two.

Okay. No, that's three. I'm sorry. Sorry. Attachment attachment two. Yeah, that there you go. And if you scroll to the very end, can you explain? I'll find the picture. Yeah, it's the very last page of the saw the pictures. Oh, yeah. We just

there you go. That's it. So, in some sections it will be three bars and in some sections it will be two bars. So, that'll be three from the substation and then step down to two. And then the final part of this that's um that we don't need special funding for is we will be removing that big gate that uh blocks cars going into Stacy Park. when when you participate in Turkey Trout, if you drive to Turkey Trout, when you exit the park, you go out that that driveway onto Olive, we're replacing that old gate and putting in traffic ballards. So, that will allow pedestrians to walk in very easily. Um, and you know, there's a lot of activity at that bus stop, so we'll also have a little gap there with some steps to go down into the park as well.

Do we have any other questions, the council? Go ahead, sir. If we can go back to the diagram just for a sec on the looking at the one on the right uh south of the sidewalk there or the entrance to the park. Uh so it's the bottom left of this image. Yeah. This this section here along. Yes. Would that be a fence too or

No, that is um so that area is a tree protection zone. So, the park crew um the blue areas that are highlighted, those are identified as potential staging areas because the company will have to come in and put all their wood down and put their machinery down. And we are very careful about where that will be so it doesn't negatively impact. So, that those areas are designated as a tree protection zone. They will not be allowed to have any equipment even drive through there. Um we anticipate they'll be using maybe a small Bobcat type thing to drill the the fence holes. So, ahead of time, we have a pre-construction meeting. We'll go over those sites and then our park crew will be putting in snow fencing in some of those areas just as a reminder because in the heat of the moment when you're working fast, you got a big crew out there. We don't want them to accidentally drive over. We have a lot of young plants that were just planted in there. So, we really want to protect everything.

Will the split split rail fence go Will we ever push it south of the sidewalk there? It will not go south of there. We've already planted trees in there. There's quite a enough of a

Yeah, there's quite a big drop off, but not a not a drop off, but there's a swale through there and um it's been open for over a year now. We haven't had any uh negative issues. Eventually, south of that where you can see the treeine start, there's a very uh steep hill that goes into the park. So of the last phase of this will be clearing that honeysuckle, taking down that fence and putting split rail up there, but that will require probably some engineering and probably some cooperation with the city of CREC Corps because they own part of that. So to reinforce that hillside. So we're leaving all that honeysuckle there. That'll be the very last thing we do because we really don't want to have um erosion uh when we remove that honeysuckle. So that'll that's um we're going to have to really think about that and and come up with a good solution before we tackle that.

Okay. Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Thank you. You too. Um not a question, but just a comment. I really appreciate the split rail fencing and the use of cedar as opposed to any kind of vinyl, aluminum. you know, it's it works well with our uh goals as a city to be more sustainable and to use renewable uh materials that are a little lighter on the earth. And I also really appreciate how it creates a boundary while also creating a a natural and welcoming environment as well. Yes, absolutely. I know the parks commission has been working on this for a while. So, I appreciate all of the time, effort, and uh work that has gone into getting it to this point.

Thank you. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that a lot of the work that has gone into this was done by community volunteers. Um in our update we had that this final area is now 100% honeysuckle free and that is due to the time and talent that our residents have put in in assisting us to remove the honeysuckle. As you all know because most of you have actually been out at these work days. It is a painstaking process and we could not be this successful without our residents volunteering their time. So, we're so appreciative and as you say, this has been a long time coming. We're very excited and it it just it when I drive by there, I just get so happy looking at it because we all remember what it used to look like.

Yeah. Okay. Um, see, no other questions. If I could uh get a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to authorize an agreement with the fence factory to install Stacy Park split railing fencing for $17,770. Can I get a second, please? I'll second. Okay. Can we please pull the council? Council member Lewis. Yes. Council member Pashan Helman. Yes. Council member Solomonov. Yes. Mayor Clark. Yes. The motion is passed. All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Now we're going to item 12, hearing from citizens part two. Are there any citizens or anyone in the audience who would like to speak? How about online? I don't see any hands raised. So, we'll go on to item number 13, review and acceptance of minutes. Are there any corrections to the minutes that anyone saw? Can I get a motion to approve the minutes? Like to make a motion to approve the minutes, the council minutes from March 10th, 2026. Second. Okay. Can we please pull the council? Council member Lewis, yes. Council member Pashan Helman, yes. Council member Solomonov, yes. Mayor Clark, yes.

Motion is passed. Item number 14, city attorney's report. No report this evening. Okay, so we're going to go on to number 15. I will accept a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Okay, so it be it. We are having a work session though, so please don't go anywhere. Um, for those of you who are online, we're going to stop the stop the recording, but we will continue to broadcast uh via Zoom. So, you are welcome to stay with us.