Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the February 9, 2026 Port of Auburn meeting. I now call this meeting to order. I would ask everyone to please rise and join in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I ask the city to call Alderman Freeman here. Alderman Gerber here. Alderman Harter here. Alderman Hughes here. Alderman Canella here. Alderman Murphy here. Alderman Sawyer here.

And Alderman Schwar here. Mary is presenting. We do have a forum.

Thank you. Before I get to the menace, couple quick things. I'm going to hope everybody enjoyed the weather today. I know I did. Um, one other point. Um, an organization of US veterans um is at Mason Point and they hold monthly meetings and invite guest speakers to share their military journey. On February 2nd, Lieutenant Dustin, a veteran of the United States Air Force, was invited to share his story to the group. Lieutenant Donson shared the story of his training to become a boom operator on the KC 135 Strat tanker and aerial refueler. Lieutenant Dustin also shared his experience being deployed to Al Yudide air base in Qatar where he flew missions over the skies of Iraq and Afghanistan and provided inflight refueling to various aircraft and supported troops on the ground. I was told the presentation was very wellreceived and Lieutenant Dellstead was honored to be invited to share his story. Honestly, as someone who, believe it or not, on an occasion got to be in the back of one of those Strato tankers and watch the refueling operation, um, that's designed for kids who are good at video games. That boom is moving in the wind and you've got a very small kid. And, um, so I I I impressed that I will tell you, I guarantee Lieutenant Dson has a steady hand. that's what it takes to do that job. I thought that was that was you know the people at at Mason Point were absolutely thrilled with this presentation which I thought was was great. Now I seek a motion a second to approve the minutes from the January 26th board of a meeting.

So move second. Any discussion or amendment? All in favor say I. Hi. Unanously. Thank you. M city clerk. Are there any citizens who has to speak? No, sir. Thank you. And I believe we have no public hearings and no appointments at this point. Then I would recognize the board's opportunity to provide reports. Waterman Hughes.

Thank you, mayor. The architecture review board met on Monday, February the 2nd, and approved the following. A new single family home at 12304 Wildlife Trail. Pardon me, that's in the new Dear Hollow subdivision. A new single family home at 13112 Court Hill. An addition at 1974 Carlin Drive. An addition at 555 South Mason Road. And 10,484 square ft addition at Marina Mill. and an amendment to the public notice requirements for the ARB application. With that said, the next meeting of the architecture review board is set for Monday, March the 2nd at 5:30 p.m. And as I always say, follow up. Thank you.

Thank you, Alderman. Thank you, Mayor. The planning and zoning commission will meet Wednesday, February 18th at 7 p.m. There will be two items for consideration that evening. A boundary adjustment plan for the adjustment of permanent open space at 13742 Bell Crest Court to allow for the creation of a Vincent easement. And the second item will be a boundary adjustment from plat one and two Bell Reeve Country Club grounds to adjust the location of a shared property line. And as Alderman Hughes mentioned, all are welcome to that.

Thank you. So all the uh PF commission u anyone looking for the citizens police academy it is full and actually the first meeting is next Wednesday from Wednesday actually can be here uh going over the west central dispatch. So uh there is a standby list so you still have a chance but it's swing. Secondly uh we are the B police department is participating in the Polar Plunge to support the Special Olympics at Creekore Lake February 28th. We are currently second in donations of sponsorships. We have six officers that are going to take that fun which is amazing. So we still have time. We're second to Maryland Heights right now. So, we need to step it up over the next two weeks.

I agree. Thank you. Sorry.

Thank you, Chairman. Um, on Monday, February 2nd, the parks and trails commission met to recap 2025 events and conducted a review of the trails plans originally included in the comprehensive plan for the city. Overall, our rentals, events, and activities not only help contribute to a very positive community, but based on our initial budget review also contributed to um uh positively to the budget as well. Uh that trails plan still is in review is still in progress and will be revisited at the next meeting on March 16th at 6:30 at Long View Farmhouse. again for uh the uh suggestion that alderman Hughes has already established. All are welcome to attend these events. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh the public works commission has canceled the meeting for the 17th and the next special meeting is March 16th. Thank you. I believe you have a report.

Yeah, thank you mayor. As mentioned at the last meeting, the uh facility study continues. We're in the design concept. Uh we have scheduled both navigate, our owner's rep, and our images to be here at your meeting March 23rd uh and give an update on the firehouse, the new public works facility, and the city hall police uh facility. They have determined in some independent estimates uh with Navigate and some of the contractors for this facility only right now it looks like we're going to be over the 5 million that we had initially budgeted which is the exact purpose of this design and then pricing it is to know what we're getting into. And the majority of that that they will go through in in detail on the 23rd is mechanical, electrical and plumbing. uh much of which currently exist in the building not only to enhance the facilities and carry us on and replace but just to bring us up to code. But again March 23rd they'll be going over all of that information in detail. And I just will comment on that is that I have been pleasantly surprised at homeowners meetings when spent a fair amount of time talking about the property tax and what we're doing with it that I tell you the overwhelming majority of our citizens think it's a reasonable thing to be spending money. I have assured them that we are it's just not open-ended. We are we are watching this closely. Yeah,

but the response to it I think has been pretty favorable. Yeah, now is the time to identify those issues before we get into construction obviously. So, did you want to talk about the grocery sales tax?

So, also as I notified the board uh in your Friday update, there are bills both in the House and the Senate to eliminate the local sales tax on grocery. The Missouri Department of Revenue estimates that would cost the city of town and country $2 million. All of you are very familiar with our budget. We don't have $2 million um to forego uh in our budget. So, we have uh sent opposition to both the House and Senate. Uh previous years, we've worked with some other cities to retain a lobbyist. We do have money in the budget to do that again if needed. So, I would obviously let the board know if if we decided we needed to to go that way, but just to give you a heads up. So,

because the last I thought I heard a little while ago initial then the department of revenue I received numbers today that they are estimating the cost to town of countries 2 million okay thank you

I will now recognize the board's opportunity to ask questions on the previous previously distributed payable report for January Moving on. Um there is no unfinished business. Um next under new business 6-04 sponsor that will be my war two. Without objection, would the city clerk read the bill for the first time? Bill number 2604 is an ordinance approving a boundary adjustment plat for 1285 and 1297 Dry Ridge Road in the city of Town of Country and authorizing the boundary adjustment plat of deeds of St. Louis County.

Thank you. This bill number 2604 is continued to the meeting Monday, February 23rd, 2026 for the second reading consideration. Um on the next bill I will be recusing myself on the next item to prevent any perceived conflict of interest and I will invite our board of auto president Murphy preid over the side. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. We'll pause as the mayor less the Davis. Um so for bill 2605 first off I want to seek sponsors for that bill. I would nominate uh Mr. Canela and Harter has representatives. All in favor? Uh without objection would the city clerk read the bill for the first time? Bill number 2605 is an ordinance approving an amended final site development plan for Marie Devela, City of Town and Country, Missouri with conditions to be complied with and authorizing certification of the amended final site development plan.

Bill number 2605 is continued to the meeting of Monday, February 23rd, 2026 for second reading and consideration. Next up, we have the architecture review. Uh I now Yeah. Is the clerk to meet the uh No. I now seek a motion to uh and second to continue this until February 23rd to associate it with the other item. Do I have a motion? Second. Second. Any discussion? Let's have a voice on that. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed. passes and I welcome the mayor back up to the uh the deas.

Thank you, Aud Murphy. Seem to run a little more smoother than usual. Appreciate no handling from the next is the approval of a purchase order to all traffic solutions for a radar trailer message board in the amount of $18,99944. I seek a motion and second to approve. Second. Any discussion or amendment? All in favor say I.

I. Passes unanimously. Next. Approval of a purchase order to Landmark Dodge for a Dodge Durango police vehicle in the amount of $43,286. Seek a motion and second to approve. Second. Any discussion? Alderman Murphy. Thank you. Um I know this question was asked offline as well. We've got two uh purchase orders for two Durango um vehicles. A bit of a difference in that one has uplifting, the other one does not. If the city could provide just an overview and on the differences and um yeah, just an explanation.

Thank you, sir. Mayor board. Uh basically what we've done in the past and I'll try to be as succinct as I can. Uh we use a multi- vendor system in that we purchase vehicles specifically built to receive our police equipment. Uh then we take those to a vendor for the build and the upfitting if you will and then finally we take them to yet another vendor for our graphics and badging. Uh this process has worked very well in the past and we're happy with our vendors. However, um it has become a painstakingly long process. We ordered our cars last year in January and we received our last one on New Year's Eve. So almost a year's time and during that time we have high mileage vehicles that we're forced to keep in the fleet uh for continuity of operations that that we have to put money into money associated with high mileage vehicles or if we can move that process along a little bit more efficiently, we can get those newer vehicles into the fleet and get rid of the old vehicles. We've found uh our support services staff has found an opportunity where you can purchase a vehicle, have it built, all the graphics done. It's a one-stop shop, if you will. Uh, and the most important part of this is they guarantee a six to eight week turnaround time, which is which is pretty streamlined. Uh, our our what we'd like to accomplish here is place one purchase with what we know works, but it takes some time against this new purchase to ensure that they can come through with what they've uh promised to deliver and of course the quality of the build itself and the service after the sale. Uh if that if that ends up being the way moving forward, then we would have multiple vehicles built through them, we just more comfortable doing all of that at once with an unknown. And there is a little bit of a price difference associated with that and that the one stop through a lake is a little bit higher, I believe, by about $2,500 overall. That's a bit deceiving uh because the time that we place in staffing hours alone to shuffle these

vehicles around. And as I mentioned earlier, uh the time that it takes to build a vehicle, we're putting money out in older vehicles that we need to roll out the fleet. So that's kind of where that offsets that money difference.

Thanks, Chief. I enjoy the explanation on that because I think it's valuable for anyone who's watching the video to hear that explanation. Um but there is also a difference between the base price at 08. It's about $2,61 cheaper to buy it through OA than it is to buy through Landmark. What represents that difference? Is that a difference in equipment or these police pursuit vehicles exactly the same? We're just getting a better deal from LA because they're willing to do this. Yes. Oh, that's a great question. It basically they are in essence the same vehicles. We get the better deal on the vehicle itself because we're purchasing the whole project through OA. Where we'd have purchased that vehicle outright from O like we are from Landmark, we wouldn't get that kind of a deal.

Okay. All right. So, the ultimate higher price from Oath is all because they're delivering in six to eight weeks, not because of the difference in equipment essentially. Yes. Thank you. Any other comments? All right. All in for number five for the first Durango for 43,286. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Next move on number six, approval of purchase order to Dodge for a Dodge Durango police vehicle and upfitting in the amount of $62,582. Take a motion and second to approve. So move second.

Any discussion or amendment? All in favor say I. I. Thank you. I do not have any other business, but I will allow any the alderman who has anything they would like to bring to our attention. Having seeing that is not the case, I seek a motion and second to adjurnn. So second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Thank you for your attention. Thank you very much. Know the T.