Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Some clips, some more.

Good evening and welcome to the September 14, 2026 board of order meeting order.

Thank you.

I would ask the city clerk to call the roll for attendance.

Alderman Gerber? Here. Alderman Harder?

Here.

Alderman Haynes? Here. Alderman Kinsella?

Here.

Alderman Murphy?

Here.

Alderman Sawyer?

Here.

And Alderman Schwerer?

Present.

I have Alderman Friedman as absent, Mary Miss presiding, and we do have a quorum.

Thank you. from the previous meeting which i was not able to attend and i've read over all the material from that meeting so i'm prepared to vote thank you for all that any other discussion i'm sorry i need a first and a second on that oh i'm sorry any other discussion all in favor of approving those minutes say aye

uh yeah i i have um a few comments for um the minutes i i everybody received a supplement that i prepared i want to be brief because there's a lot of people here and we have some other matters but um i'm so sorry and for the board um our microphone system is having some trouble so if everybody could just try your best to There's just some things that I wanted to clarify on the slide number four. I included the original that was sent to Public Works. And then the one that was presented to the board was all the missing information was filled in after the fact. And then I also wanted to state that nowhere in the minutes of the four parks and trails commission the public board director or the project manager was not available here. The city planner and the grant writer was not available for questions. The following plan that was approved was seen by Public Works and it was, we had recommended that a commission to revisit the comprehensive trail plan through prioritizing, but that recommendation was not brought towards the board for consideration. And then further on, there's another plan that was updated by staff and three more projects were removed. And I just want to say the distinction between the two is important parks and trails they can do what they want with theirs but only the Planning and Zoning Commission has control over the comp plan part of the parks and trails and that's important because under code it needs and requires listening sessions and surveys so it requires input from the community which there was no record of in any

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you Alderman Schwerer for bringing all the stuff to light as well. We are all so eager to get sidewalks and trails built for the city. We've got a lot of other projects going on right now, which I know Alderman Schwerer is aware of with the municipal center, the fire department house, as well as the salt mill. So those are big, big items. So there's a lot of focus. we've announced it actually up here in the early part of the year as well so we did have several meetings on it and they were talked about again here there was a february 2 meeting and i was involved in all of these meetings we initiated discussion on sidewalk trails plan march 30th there was further discussion and prioritization on the sidewalk trails plan April 20th, we actually canceled our meeting due to lack of the forum. And then May 18th, we ended up having a final review and vote. We have a few of the participants from the board as well, those discussions. The intent here to the public is that parks and trails do not on sidewalks there's a process here as you can imagine with anything else what happens is parks and trails takes a look at the plan and in that 20-year plan it does ask or include a recommendation that all commissions take a look at and kind of audit and assess those plans every five to six years and we did that And the idea there is that then we would come out with our updated view of the best trail plan for the city, but we don't have control over everything. Then we would hand it over to Public Works. We all said that up front. The Public Works Commission would take a look at it, assess it, cost it out, and figure out the best way moving forward. We did have a retreat. I thought the retreat was an excellent session where the city took a look at all these issues, including trails, and looked at funding options and all that kind of good stuff as well. So I just want to clarify for the audience at large, we do have a larger group here tonight, and the community at large that Parks and Trails did what they were supposed to do. over assessing the trails to see hey do we have to make on any modifications no final absolute um decisions it's a process you hand over to the public works group and ultimately the city to take a look at as exercise in assessing, hey, seven years ago, did we have trails that were still suitable for today? And the other part, honestly, too, is that in those last several years, we've been moving forward with producing trails and sidewalks. So we wanted to update those as well. So I appreciate all the work and support for the sidewalks and trails that Alderman Schwar has shown over the years. And I share that passion.

And I saw on the post dispatch today that there's a movement to try to have a state audit of the city of Kirkwood because they're sort of missing $3 million. And we have very good city managers, assistant city managers, CFO, and we know where all the money is. So we have a process where all these things come in order and we try to do all the things that the city needs to have done. Obviously, our number one is we want to be safe and we want to have good fire protection. And we spend a very large amount of resources on those two things, as we should. But there are other things that are important. Trails, sidewalks, parks. The city has done a marvelous job of writing for grants so that whether it's Longview Park or Grace Park, we have gotten a price for most of those cut in half because we've done a great job of opting for grants, which are not, obviously, I'm not based on these. We'd love to do everything. We'd love to have sidewalks everywhere and trails everywhere immediately. But it's a process that we're working on a week. And we are not going to go into a topping bowl. We've done that, but it's a process. But I would thank both the auditor for their comments. I would say any other discussion on the minutes? All in favor of approving the minutes, say aye. Aye. And that may be the As a general rule, here in Frank, Idaho, and it's a fair encouragement to do, each person gets around three minutes. We don't have 15 or 18, so if we go a little longer than three, I'm okay, but kind of keep that in mind. I'll start with Mr. Hastie. I thought I would wait. Now? Yeah, I thought I would just take all the public comments now, then we'll get into the rest of the agenda.

Well, this is about the conditional use permit file. speaking in opposition of this conditional use permit. I do think there was an error in judgment, foundational error on lumping in the nuns past use the nuns home and saying it's very similar to this group home that would be for the mentally physically disabled i think they're both very different um for example the nuns had one or two compact vehicles that did not require any special medical attention and they did not have very many visitors okay um this type of end use has our you know miss dixon's already said that you have two commercial vans, passenger vans. Definitely there's gonna be more traffic related to medical support, family visitors, things of that nature for eight people plus potentially two others living there. uh so it's definitely going to increase uh the traffic and uh parking situation there and access and i think that the city lumped all this together and then did not do a traffic or a parking study or anything such as that and i think that was a mistake like i said before many times the right turn on mason road if you're looking at this strictly on a survey you think you have the dimensions you do not you have to go look at it There's flower beds there, and there's a cold room to ditch there. You make a right turn, especially when church is in session or about to be in session and school time, it is very, very busy. And you have to make that turn. And I don't think a van can do that without getting into that ditch. Commercial vehicle parking, I know you all stated that it can be parking behind brush. Hey, I've taken these pictures from my drive. I don't see anywhere where commercial vehicle can be parked. You can look at these and blocked by a brush, okay, at this home. You cannot park in the backyard. As a matter of fact, the backyard is very unsafe. I guess Ms. Dixon's going to keep the disabled people from going even into the backyard because it's very unsafe, very steep, bad condition. We don't know what we have to pull back there. You know, I'm still trying to understand why we're considering this conditional use program Are we going to pass this on her promise that if she gets increased numbers that she's going to get these certificates? Who's going to monitor this? How do we know there's not merely just renters there? And, you know, doing research on this, I have to bring up that she owns a real estate company. On social media, she's promoted her company, saying that one of her businesses that she converts single family to boarding houses. Are we going to give her this license without any monitoring that that could happen? And I want to bring up that part of our target market, her words, not mine, people with bad credit and people with criminal history, okay? If I'm doing a home improvement and I've had to bring stuff in here before, I have to get approvals. I don't say, hey guys, I promise to make code. I have to show you and prove to you that I'm making code. You would think that this would be more rigorous when you're dealing with the mentally and physically disabled. And finally, Ms. Dixon sat here herself a few months ago and said this will have 24-7 supervision, mostly by her, okay? She owns numerous companies, real estate, contracting, adult daycare, transportation. She's also on television entertainment or Valley TV shows. and even stated that she has a desire to bring that to the St. Louis area. She's a very busy person. I respect entrepreneurship. I'm a business owner, okay? But I'm telling you, as a business owner, it would be impossible for me to spend 24-7 at home like that and operate all these businesses. And also, most of those businesses, from what my research shows, is in North County. Why isn't she doing this in North County instead of 30 minutes away? Bottom line, My mom is a special education teacher. My sister teaches special ed kids. Soft place on my hard work, okay? That's one of the reasons why I'm probably more opposed to this because this is not the right location for this. It's not the right location. It's not the right circumstances. I know that we can have socially and politically outside influences when we're making decisions, but at some point in time, common sense has to take over, make the common sense decision, and reject this. we are actually uh well we're privileged when we have any citizen come and speak but i feel especially

I'm here speaking for the Town and Country Historical Society and the Frank Lloyd Wright Pappas House Foundation. A group of us started about four years ago to try and save the Pappas House. The Pappas family were wanting to sell the home. The sisters had a deed to do that. So we formed this organization, Town and Country People, who you would know them, decided to try and raise the funds necessary to buy the house through the foundation. We were unsuccessful in doing that. We talked to a lot of people. We talked to a lot of organizations. We just could not come up with the money to do that. And then to my surprise, and thankfully, this gentleman here came along and said, I'll buy the house. And he did. And he's done some improvements to the house since then. And I think that house is a particular historic building in our city that needs to be saved. It's the Frank Lloyd Wright. If anybody knows architects, you know who he was. house and it is a prime example of the kind of home that he wanted built right after world war ii for soldiers coming back because it was easy to build matter of fact the fam the pampas family built physically brick by brick helped build that house did hire contractors but mr pappas himself was out there all the time so it has a very significant significant house here in town and country and it needs to be saved and i'm speaking in favor of the two bills that would help that happen and i urge you all to support saving that historic house thank you thank you next speaker is uh brian troop brian uh

He's a trauma surgeon. Worked with him at Mercy. I always thought Brian had the best hair at Mercy. But a very distinguished trauma surgeon.

Welcome. Thank you. Good to see you again, too. I didn't pay for that. I'm here because I'm running for office, the 89th district in the state of Missouri. I'm with Democrat challenging a Republican opponent, and I'm looking for your vote and help. That's basically it. I have lived in town and country for a few years, several years ago, but I now lived across the fence in Chesterfield. If you could jump over the fence, you'd almost be in town and country. I'm running primarily the help with the infrastructure. It's good to hear you all discussing infrastructure where it matters at the geographic level where people are living. But Missouri has other kinds of infrastructures that were underfunded for several years in a row now. The most worrisome for me is actually education. Missouri has been ranked in the middle middle of the pack, and even higher education among states in the United States. But right now, our teacher salaries are running about 48, 48 in the nation. We have had a good record overall. We've had luminaries such as Mark Twain, Walt Disney, George Washington Carver contributed a lot to the United States. I'm also very interested in infrastructure. I love the outdoors. I've been in the Acadian Trail almost once a week for a long time, and I hope to continue that tradition in Missouri, but we'll have to see where that goes. My involvement in politics is limited. This is my first campaign for anything. I did help with the state of Missouri For about six years, I was the chair of the Committee on Trauma for the state of Missouri, which I coordinate how we manage things around the state to see what we can improve. We made some improvements, but we still have things to do. So my presentation is short. I just wanted to thank you all for offering to listen to me. Good luck.

Thank you. Thank you. Next is Rebecca. Is it Fenelon? The next speaker is Rebecca Fenlon.

Oh, I didn't want to actually speak.

I'm just here. Welcome. Thank you for coming. Thank you. And me?

Manju.

Manju. Come on. Is that hi? How do you pronounce your last name? I'm sorry. I did not do well on that.

Welcome.

Hi.

Yeah, so I want to speak on behalf are the closest neighbors I think at the closest point we are maybe 10 meters away from the house but yet it's so beautifully nestled into the woods that oftentimes you don't see it most people come to our house don't know there's a historic house that close to us and over the years before the miners got it we've been here for about 11 years and they've been spontaneous gatherings of people somehow the word would get out and there'd be a line of cars along our driveway. And they were all coming to view the house. They'd bring all kinds of optical devices to take pictures and things like that. So actually, after they came in, that crowd subsided because now they knew there was an owner and there was a well-defined regular way to see the house. And all that, as far as I can make out, these two ordinances are, Kind of memorializing that organization because now they're planning to make it a historic house, which if you really want to see it, you can schedule it. You can spend a weekend there. It's not en masse where hundreds of people are going to come because I would object to that. This is going to be people who value and appreciate historic houses. And that's why I think it's very consistent with town and country's kind of way of living. In the town and country, we look at it compared to the other municipalities in the St. Louis County. It distinguishes itself by fairly large lots. I think there's a one-acre limit or something like that. And I think that's a distinguishing feature. And so people appreciate homes. And this is probably the... the most notable home in the county, frankly. Maybe, I mean, in the city, and maybe in the whole county, with one other exception, I believe, there's a second home in Kirkwood. So, memorizing it will make town and country a more valuable place to live, and it'll also unleash a lot of historical interest, art interest, educational interest, you know, from WashU, SLU, Webster, et cetera. And so I can't see anything you know, bad happening. And what are the usual downsides? Too much traffic. But they've been doing this in a very casual, understated way, probably for the last four years. And we are the immediate neighbors and believe me, if there was any issues, we would have noticed it first. And then I've also noticed that when I talk to people otherwise, they wouldn't have known about it now, but somehow they haven't done enough marketing in my opinion, and I think they should do more. But more people will hear about it. And I think treasures like this have to be maintained. And so that's another reason to support it. And I believe that increased traffic, I mean, I don't mean a huge absurd, but some nominal increase in traffic will also probably have businesses in the Clayton Mason area, you know, where Straub's is and where the music venue is and also to the town and country crossing and local businesses. So overall, I see no downside as the immediate closest neighbor and lots of possible upsides. And I believe that from a pure, you know, I used to be a professor at WashU and just from that point of view, I think it's good to maintain something historical and so unique within our city. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to come up.

Thank you, sir. Hello, council. I think I'm a new resident of a country. So, you know, you, you will either run or you will say, welcome. Skip manage has been avoiding me for decades. I pestered him daily to. the St. Louis Blues hockey franchise, the McKees, Scott Trade Center, and netted a billion dollars plus for seven or eight billionaires. Thank God, and thank Ed Golterman for Keele Opera House. I believe, I've been here before you twice, Mayor, I believe Town & Country issued a supportive citation 15 years ago I can do no more at 87. I can't get into any more battles, except I will help this group. You know, if they can show that the building or buildings are contemporarily productive, you know, We should be grieving at the Kennedy Center. We should be grieving this entire country, that the San Francisco Symphony is over, that they're tearing up Muni. We should be grieving, but it's a new day. But what is replacing all of this? Pretenders. I'm really here tonight secondarily, but thank you for this. I was injured on your walking trail on Friday. I was hit by a bicyclist. and three other bicyclists rode by immediately. And it was for the grace of God that five of us are not in the hospital. May I leave the hospital report to be put with the police officer's report, please? And I urge you, my other career was in safety training identifying hazards eliminating hazards before they rise up and bite you so i have a lot of experience in this i ask you to not allow bicycles on walking on that walking trail the trail itself is not in good shape it's not a straight trail it's an up and down trail it has uneven pavement you have all of these small you know cuts in so i just beg you to um do not let cycles on that trail.

I don't want to belabor the point, but where, on what trail?

Well, by the brick walls, you know, let's say a little bit east of Maria de Villa, up the hill, where it's brick wall, and then you got narrow, and then you got the street right there. And also, I made a police report on videotape to the officer on saturday morning and i asked for a report and i would like a i would like his report please he's off until wednesday but i i really would like his report mayor any questions or anything at all i'm available to you thank you very much thank you for taking the time and i'm glad you're not in the hospital i am too yeah thank you thank you

um moving along to public hearings first is a public hearing to consider zoning code amendments related to the regulation of historic house museums as a conditional use section 405.080 definitions and section the public hearing is open, I would ask the city clerk to enter exhibits.

Exhibit number one is Affidavit of Publication of Notice of Hearing, published in the St. Louis County on August 27, 2026. Exhibit number two is Typewritten Notice of Hearing, posted at the Municipal Center on the city's website and sent via Notify Me. And exhibit number three is Bill number 2641. Thank you very much.

I would invite our city planner, Ryan

Alderman Gerber. Yes, I see that it's, this is only, it refers to estate, suburban estate, conditional uses. Is that all the different kinds of zoning that we have? I mean, why are we just doing it to these two right here?

It's for historic house museums, so the single family residential structures, estates, urban estate are nearly 70% of our land area. It constitutes the vast, vast majority of our single family homes.

So if it came up...

to look at again. If a single family detached structure that met the definition, because it's a very limited definition, national register of historic places, you have to be listed. That was purposeful from the Plains Zoning Commission to add that language.

Second is a public hearing to consider a request from Carol and Michael Minor applicants for approval of a conditional use permit for a historic house museum to be located at 865 Mason Ridge Road for the property commonly known as the Frank Lloyd Wright Designed Campus House in the clerk to enter exhibits.

Exhibit number one is affidavit of publication of notice of hearing published in the St. Louis County on August 27th, 2026. Exhibit number two is typewritten notice of hearing posted at the municipal center on the city's website, sent via notify me posted on the subject property and mailed to property owners within 300 feet with a list of those owners attached. And exhibit number three is bill number 2642. Thank you.

I would invite Mr. or Mrs. or both minor owners to the podium to answer any questions that the board might have.

Alderman Murphy first. Good to see you again. Thank you. So for the public record, you did host an event for the board and the Planning and Zoning Commission a few weeks ago. So I did attend that. A few other people did as well. enlightening to look through the Usonian environment and kind of see the Frank Lloyd Wright house in action. The only question I have is really related to the parking and just to get kind of a better sense and clarification on the documents. I think we're looking at 30 spaces. Could you kind of go through how that would lay out roughly?

We're already self-contained. We have... what I call the upper 40, an open area that the Papas, I believe, cleared long ago. We just about a month and a half, two months ago, had a forest mulcher come in and eradicate a lot of the honeysuckle, which of course is ubiquitous around here. So we have created more open space. One of the issues, prior to that, we were able to probably accommodate more than 30 cars just the impact of parking on the area. And I've always maintained, we haven't impacted in the six years we've been running, including the night that we had our get together. So it's not an issue. If anything, we have more parking going to be available. Now, one of the things that was mentioned by Ryan, or I think it was Ryan, was that you guys, as such. And one, I just actually had literally this, I called my wife, she's in Florida. And I just told her today that the idea I had is in our courtyards, we have some red pea gravel, I guess it's called. And we thought that maybe that might be the best way to deal with the places that we want to park and actually designate them. So in other words, any place where there's pea gravel is it's okay to park. I guess eliminates the need to pave. I'm not sure exactly what the problem with paving is. I'm not sure if in fact having peed gravel would be an issue either. Hopefully it is a possible solution. But as I say, we've had no parking issues at all. And if anything, once we have kind of in motion an idea for what this newly cleared land is going to be, we probably will have a more formal designated parking area they will increase the parking probably from 30 to over 50. And I can't see any scenario of any kind of event or anything else that we would need more than 50 cars. So I guess the reason for wanting to know about that is again, traffic impact on the areas. And we've been there for six years and as our neighbors have mentioned, our immediate neighbor had mentioned, Mason Bend is the little cul-de-sac right next to us, is that in the six years, I don't think they've noticed anything different at all. And of course, the nightmare is the elementary school next door, so I mean. We try not to go there. We're smaller paid as compared to them.

All right.

i haven't been by in a few weeks one of the reasons nobody in the country knows it's there is that the driveway is this little gravel path that goes in between little mason bend and the school

you going to do anything to put a entrance way or anything in the front there to be honest with you when you have a franklin wright house the best thing in the world is for it not to be real blatant and open because it just encourages people to come and trespass and which is what happened before we bought the house and i can tell you just from my experience of having visited some of Quiet and didn't make it a, you know, advertise so on and so forth is kind of what we wanted. And even our clearing the honeysuckle has made it a little bit more visible. And so it's a debate. We can put a frankly right gate up front frankly, right? Designed gate. but people would look at that and again, it would attract attention and we kind of don't necessarily want that type of attention. Maybe that'll change, but I think not only for our neighbors, but for our own peace of mind of not having people inundate us, you know, that's kind of the way we want it. So possibly we'll change things, but right now don't have any specific.

Is there any language about background checks for these people?

You're talking about people who might stay overnight? I mentioned that we have extremely valuable artifacts and furniture in the house. And we're in the process of talking to other Frank Lloyd Wright buildings that do this. There's probably about 25 or 30 now who allow overnight rentals for, in our case, it would be a donation. It's a substantial night minimum, so right away you're not getting the people who are there for any other reason than they appreciate, frankly. Right. However, we do have a problem because I am very concerned. You cannot take a deposit large enough to cover the fact that if in the middle of the night they decide to back Vanna, steal our furniture. So I had mentioned that our initial approach is going to be we are going to require them to get a reference from another Frank Lloyd Wright building where they have stayed. This is not Airbnb. And again, don't even bring that up. It's been mentioned. It's like, no, nothing to do with that. Probably $750 a night will be the cost. And with a referral of some kind from another Frank Lloyd Wright building. And again, I'm in the process of dealing with how do they deal with the fact that they have a Frank Lloyd Wright house. I know maybe a lot of them don't have the Frank Lloyd Wright furniture in them, and they don't have to deal with that, but it's something that we have to ponder. So again, the things that the city is worried about, we're more worried about.

I have a son that goes to that school. My son goes to that school.

Did he come over and visit when we invited the class over home?

background checks a little extreme I don't check them to be sexual predators I mean that's to me it's like a little extreme isn't that a code a sexual sex offender can't be lived within a thousand feet of their home I imagine that might be our city attorney do you know that off the top

It's also not easy access. We have a tremendous amount of forest, less so now since we eliminated a lot of the honeysuckle, but I don't know. I just don't see it as a threat any more than someone driving by would be a threat. They have a headquarters for their nefarious activities. I mean, if you want to let your imagination roll, that's my opinion on it.

I do appreciate the fact that you're actually vetting them to make sure they stay there, frankly, right at home or something like that.

It seems like your vetting is pretty thorough. As I say, it's for selfish reasons. I hadn't thought of the angle of it being next to an elementary school, but yeah, I think it is a good idea.

Next, we have another public hearing to allow citizens to be heard on the annual property tax rates proposed to be set by the city of town and country of political subdivision. I now declare the public hearing open. I would ask the city clerk to enter exhibits.

Exhibit number one is affidavit of publication of notice of hearing published in the St. Louis County on September 2nd, 2026. Exhibit number two is typewritten notice of hearing. posted at the municipal center, Longview Farmhouse, the firehouse, the city's website, and sent out via notify me. Exhibit number three is bill number 2643, and exhibit number four is resolution number R06-2026.

Uh, Darren, just to clarify, I asked you about on the phone earlier today, just to make sure transparency that everyone's heard the same answer. In this case, the proposal is to keep all the. Tax rates for real estate, personal property and agriculture at the 23 cents. Preventing the Hancock amendment to move it by 2, what hundreds of a penny. and yet the commercial real estate will move upwards to 26 cents. So can you explain why the commercial would move up, whereas the other ones move down?

There's a couple of mechanics here, you know, of what's going on. So this public hearing, it was part of the fact that the four factors that go in and one of the things that is considered every year is this hand copy that you speak of. And it looks, you know, for new revenue can't exceed the 2.7%. And so if we look at those individual factors we talked about, residential, commercial, agricultural, and then the personal property tax. Personal property tax would remain at 23 no matter what process we went through this year as applied by the Hancock Amendment. Same with agricultural. The residential rate would, because of an increase in the, it's a non-assessment year, so it remains pretty flat, that allows the city to capture 2.7% more, which is CPI, of the Indian revenue. That would have lowered or kept essentially the same property tax rates that were passed last year. Okay, so the commercial side of this, I'll come back to the residential side of kind of the mechanics of what we're seeing tonight. The commercial side, the city did experience a roughly 7% decrease in the commercial assessed valuations from last year. a little bit odd from what you not expect in a non-assessment year. There's a couple reasons for that, but mostly it's because of state tax commission rulings on previous assessed years. As those are applied forward, we come into this. When you get a situation where your assessed values go down and you're still allowed to capture 2.7% increase in CPI in that revenue, so then you see those rates go back up. And so what you're seeing more than anything is the application of that hand pocket inverse relationship that we would expect of valuations going down and the tax rates then go up. So 23 cent kind of voluntary rollback, which is the other factor we're dealing with tonight, is not necessary.

Very good. I was also thinking about how we've incentivized businesses to renovate their properties. That has been a positive turn, has it not?

It has been, yep. And that's, as a factor, something that's reported on the Ways and Means Commission every time that we've met. Very good. Yeah. So the other mechanic of what we see tonight is a resolution that would reverse the voluntary rollback of what you were talking about before, where we would expect a 0.21 per 100 evaluation. through the process of the Ways and Means Commission, again, from the retreat, see those minutes that we passed earlier, and then Ways and Means Commission meeting, the recommendation is to reverse that voluntary rollback, which means instead of looking at the Hancock Amendment and applying the 21 to increase that rate for residential back up to the 23 cents per 100. and so that's why we see the resolution tonight that's one of the mechanics that goes to the state auditor which is one of the uh kind of moving pieces inside of setting tax rates uh and then the outside of that and then the normal kind of uh ordinance setting which will see the first reading tonight and then the second reading on the 28th certainly seems valuable in a year when we're thinking about capital And to recap that, why is it necessary? For the record here, what we see is as we look during the retreat on one of those slides, you'll see that that fund balance kind of dips to an uncomfortable level of 50% of expected expenditures. So it's not a dire situation. It's 50% of a year's worth of expenditures and that was kind of a litmus of how can we shore this up at the margin and so this achieves that within two to three or five percent of a five-year place. So that's why it worked its way through the process and why we're discussing it today.

Our city is not unlike most municipalities. We have empty business space. Seven figures of empty business space. So, I mean, the city is actually doing well financially and is able to undertake the renovation of the firehouse and this place and our new facilities, but it's, we play pretty before I became mayor. Honestly, I would say that our current financial position was the way it was when Town Square, Town Square probably wouldn't exist because that was an expensive thing. That was at a time when previous boards, previous mayor, the city was flush with money. real wonderful spot for our city. And I've seen some national articles about it talking about in a city like this to have something like that. But right now it's a different era. Things come and go.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Darren, for your explanation. I just would like to point out that Ways and Means Commission did meet this past week, did review the proposed resolution, and has recommended unanimously for approval. I think an important thing to note is, while it's not a significant increase in taxes to an individual homeowner, It will help us shore up our reserve balances that we're pretty consistently concerned about. And it's important that we take this step.

can add one more thing more or less of you know what is the kind of uh cost to a homeowner a million dollar house we don't uh they would uh the owners would look at about an additional 38 dollars a year uh for that this uh difference between the 21 per 100 to the 23. so uh it brings that total up for to about 450 dollars that goes to the city of town country that's four starbucks

Thank you. Thank you.

No one from the public wished to comment on that, didn't throw it out. On the outside, does anyone from the public want to comment on that? Next, I seek a motion and second to approve the appointment of Chief Danny Wilkie as the Emergency Management Coordinator. So moved. Second. Any discussion on that? Okay. I'm going to thank everyone. All in favor say aye.

Aye. That's a complete no-brainer.

All right. I refer to Alderman Murphy. I now recognize the Board's opportunity to select an acting President of the Board.

Alderman Murphy, do you have a nomination to offer?

And before he does that, I want to just say that he's done a great job as president of the board here. He's done a very good job and very thoughtful, looks at every question right and left, both ways, up and down, and has really done, you know, It's been a real asset to myself and to the board and to the city. So I do want to thank you for your service.

Thank you. It's been a wonderful representing an esteemed board that we have. So everyone's very professional and conducts themselves with great dignity and respects each other. And it's duly appreciated for each other and the community as a whole. I am now pleased to nominate Joe Kinsella to be president of the board of Alderman for this year. Alderman Kinsella was elected in 2023 and has served as chair of the Public Works Commission in the past and continues as Aldermanic liaison in the Planning and Zoning Commission today. Alderman Kinsella has demonstrated financial, operational, and civic credentials serving the Third Ward and the city as a whole. I ask for a second to this, I ask for a second to this nomination and a vote confirming Mr. Kinsella.

reports. All in order.

Okay, for the PFE Commission, the fraud accounting was successful with 20 participants. That was on September 9th. And actually, one participant took the contact information, so Detective Polish could do a presentation for their ladies group. National Night Out plans are underway. We only have four subdivisions registered so far. Last year, we had 12. So we're running a little bit shy on that. Please reach out to the subdivisions in your ward and see if they'd like to participate. It's a great night. You get the mayor, you get the chief, you get the fire people come out. It's a good time for all. Then the BMW Championship Week went well overall. The PGA and WGA were very complimentary of the community and region as a whole. Instead, they look forward to returning for a future event. I think that's in 2030. Not the next one. And then I also want to mention that the Guns N' Hoses shirts and hoodies are on sale now. I think we got to the 24th of September to get them sold. Is that something like that? Please contact Laurie or maybe Ashley. Maybe she'd be interested. No shirt. I think we're still in single digits. Last time I checked. So we got a ways to go. And then finally...

um you had some sales over schnooks for the special olympics i didn't get a readout how did that go chief oh we had we had a fair a fair year we've had we've had better years but any any uh donations toward towards that is you know steps in the right direction i think we had a little bit of uh jet lag from the pga championship but we can still donate part of that

national night out. Really the best reason to have that in your subdivision is you get to meet up close and personal our line officers and line firemen and honestly one of the best things about being a mayor is getting to know our police officers and our firemen and our first responders. They are an outstanding group and

ordinarily you don't get you don't you don't really want to meet them you don't want to find out you know and the police at your house so this gives you a chance to interact with them and uh they're really special people alderman i go this way i've been used thank you mayor the architecture review board met on tuesday september the 8th and approved the following a new house at 133 hawthorne estates right up the street from me The next meeting of the Architects Review Board will be Monday, October 5th at 5.30 p.m. The following items will be reviewed. A new house at 12318 Wildlife Trail. A new house at number two, Hawthorne Estate, which is across the street from me, excuse me, at the corner of Dallas. A new house at number seven, Bellevue Country Club Grounds. and a residential addition at 7 Glenmorrow Lane. And as I say every time, all are welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Planning and Zoning Commission met on Wednesday, August 19th, and recommended approval of the following. A zoning code amendment creating a new conditional use, historic house museum, which we recently discussed here, a conditional use permit for a historic house, the Pappas House at 865 Mason Ridge Road. And due to lack of business, the Planning and Zoning Commission will not meet in the month of September.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Ways and Means Committee met this past Wednesday, as previously reported, and voted unanimously to approve the tax rate proposal. In addition, after a bidding process provided to our city's finance department, they recommended a new audit contract be issued to Sickage CPA LLC, which is at a lower cost with all of the same benefits that we previously enjoyed with our previous vendor. That will come before the board in the form of a resolution. And finally, our next meeting will be October 21st at 8.30 a.m. And of course, the public is invited and encouraged to attend. It'll be here at City Hall.

The audit we do is the best money we spend a year, I think, just to keep a look, have it outside. It's one-fifth the cost of a state audit. So it really is something we need to do, and we do.

I'm pleased to report that year after year after year, we get a clean audit because our staff does such a great job of, I don't know, taking care of our books and accounting for every penny. We're not accounting for dollars over there. They're accounting for pennies. My God, it's amazing. They do a great job.

They do, absolutely. Alderman Murphy. Thank you, Chairman. Parks and Trails Commission is looking forward to seeing all the community at the last concert of the year at Town Square Park this Friday, September 18th from 6 o'clock till 8 p.m. The Blue Moon Blues trucks a whole lot more please visit the city's website for details the commission is also excited about fire and ice on october 3rd coming up real quick there'll be vendors food music from whiskey morning a plenty of that interactive activities for kids and adults did i hear there's going to be a pitching machine too i have a rumor i don't know if that's accurate uh yeah we're gonna be something uh the evening will close with the second annual drone show in the sky if you were there last year it was quite an impressive view and we all thank our sponsors marie deville um pmv and principia for covering the cost entirely on that so um excellent excellent work well again visit your please visit the city website for more details we also wanted to provide a little bit of an update on the construction going on at longview um the parking lot is currently being reconstructed in sections and we're anticipating a completion date of just a couple weeks september 25 that week uh the lot will be paid and striped uh later on targeting this week uh weather cooperates and all that and the park and half a lot will remain open throughout this final phase of the project the next parks and trails commission meeting is monday october 19th 6 30 over at longview thank you so much What's the forecast for Friday?

We have that one band, Up in the Heavy Arts.

Up in the Heavy Arts was our band for last week, and it was a heavy art.

We'll be back. We'll be back.

Thank you, Mayor. Just briefly, we continue to make good progress on the new maintenance annex and the renovations to the Salt Dome. City Hall, Police Department, we're finally going to be ready with the drawings are at 100%. They're going through an independent QAQC process right now. We anticipate being out to bid next Tuesday. with the proposals in by the end of october staff will be coming to the board with recommendation on contractor for city hall and police end of the year as we have previously stated uh and then with the fire station we expect that to be going out uh early 2027 again city hall fire we expect to be in the six and a half to seven million dollar range uh city hall and police fire about 1.3 so that's what we'll be bringing forward Thank you.

And this is the payable report. I recognize the Board's opportunity to ask questions on the August payable report.

Alderman Quintel. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just had a couple questions just to be sure that we're providing transparency to the public, and these are generally questions that you could help answer if you don't mind. Apparently, on page 3, there were some roof shingles that need to be repaired on the of that area with the... That's a good question.

It is not. There are no renovations happening to the restroom building itself.

It was perfectly natural then to replace elements of the roof. Something that we're going to keep. Okay. Also then on page four, there were 18 trees that were removed in Longview Farm Park. And I think you've mentioned to us before, but again, I'm just looking for clarity and just transparency. You're doing that as a preventative measure, right? To remove dead trees, pathways and so forth. And that was the effort, was it not?

Correct. They're assessed based on a target. So whether they have a human target or a property target. And so that's how we prioritize which trees, if they are dead, need to come down first.

I must admit that $5,500 to remove 18 trees with some kind of a

Thank you. Who is that harbor? Next, moving on to unfinished business. First is bill number 26-25. Initially, the board as a whole. I'm going to make one comment real quickly on this. The applicant is not here, and so we have two options. If someone on the board wishes to make a motion to put this off for a month. We can vote on that or not. If not hearing that, then we'll just move forward on it. So I think we'll just move forward on it. Without objection, will the city clerk read the bill for the second time?

Bill number 2625 is an ordinance approving a conditional use and authorizing a conditional use permit for a group home to be located at 541 South Mason Road in the city of town and country. Mayor, I also have two additional exhibits to enter into the record for this item. Okay. Both of these were distributed to the board in advance and will be attached to tonight's minutes. Okay. Number one is an email in support from Bill Coates, 591 South Mason, dated August 15th, 2026, consisting of two pages. Number two is an email in opposition from Jessica Stoffel. No address was provided. That was dated today, September 14th, 2026, consisting of four pages. This one was physically placed at each of your spots as well because it was sent today.

Thank you. I seek a motion to approve and a second. So moved. Second. Thank you.

Alderman Murphy? Yes. I move to accept Substitute Bill No. 26-25 for consideration. Could you explain that? Absolutely. The Substitute Red Line's language defines the group home's specific makeup and provides for various conditions concerning on-site vehicles, compliance, licensure, and reporting requirements. Thank you. I see you guys.

Second, Alderman. if you don't mind.

Alderman Kinsella, can I just clarify that you have something to talk about just on the substitute for consideration? Because once you all vote on that, that bill will be on the floor in front of you to debate further. So right now, you'll only be talking about if you want to substitute or not.

Then I'll hold off my comments.

Thank you so much.

All in favor of accepting the substitute for consideration, say aye.

And I'd like to offer an explanation for my vote in favor of the bill. This bill, as it was within the Planning and Zoning Commission deliberations, which I participated in, about whether that property at 541 South Mason Road conformed to Missouri state laws and town and country ordinances for use as a group home, I appreciate that many of my residents are emotional about its use as a group home, and I've read all of the letters from concerned citizens and I've heard everything that you've had to say this evening as well. But the reality is that it was operated as a group home for many years and it makes it a natural to continue to do so. I applaud Ms. Nixon's willingness to take on responsibility for the care of people who are less fortunate in a physical and or mental capacity. I trust that she will take that responsibility seriously and endeavor to do the best for her clients.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I represent Ward 4 where this is located. And quite frankly, I do not believe that the applicant has answered the questions that need to be answered. I think many more questions have come forward in the last two months. The applicant hasn't. then present at board meetings, has only made a short presentation at the first meeting. And I frankly don't think that the safety issues have been addressed properly and that the city's vetting of this has been adequate enough to warrant approval. urge and encourage payment mail vote.

All in order. Now, I've got four issues that I want to bring up. On Section 2, Paragraph B, where it says the group home shall at all times be operated and maintained in compliance with all state and federal statutory regulatory standards, applicable from time to time for a group home, as that term is defined by the state of Missouri. Now, as that is defined, it does require significant staffing, including an administrative officer, resident manager, direct care staff, depending on how many residents you've got. It requires from one to four residents. It would be three direct care staff every day. Five to eight, you go up to five direct care staff every day. They all have to have a 40-hour training, and they're trained in CPR, basic care training, things like that. And the reason I bring that up, two things, is number one, do we need the list? Oh, it also requires, federally requires, a qualified intellectual disability professional. That person is supposed to develop, implement, and monitor the ISPs for the residents there. And we're looking out for the residents, basically. So do we need to list those in the CUP, the positions that are required for that group home? Because in paragraph H, we're going to be verifying the licenses. But if we don't know what positions there are, how do we verify the licenses? It's a question for either Ryan or Kevin. I would probably ask Kevin to address that.

I would not recommend any additional language to the effect. The state of Missouri establishes standards for care. The state has delegated to the city a matter of regulatory control over the land use of property for a group home the city does not regulate the care provided by a group home that is a state regulatory authority not a municipal authority okay but it's still listed in this thing that we have to check the licenses that's the paragraph age check all the licenses that is by way of confirming that the activity being carried on is a group home as defined by state law. Okay, so that definition implies that there'll be all those people there. That whatever the state law says a group home is, this will be.

Okay, I just was curious that we need to list all those people because there's been no staffing mentioned at all. Now the state also recommends that the property be inspected by someone familiar with the needs and safety requirements for a group home for physical and mentally challenged handicapped people. Basically, are there any ADA upgrades that need to be done to assess what the patients are bringing in? Is there a locked cabinet or refrigerator to store medicines? uh, the pool, does it need an updated fence with a lot of gain on it? I mean, those are issues that would, you know, the state would have to approve that property as qualifying as a group home.

Again, that's a, those are state regulations adopted and enforced exclusively by the state.

Okay.

Uh, so we don't have to worry about that at all.

I would not recommend. Okay. And then lastly on paragraph C, It says there should be no exterior construction. Now, first of all, I'm kind of surprised that we're giving an additional use permit to a renter instead of the property owner. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So is the property owner then forfeiting his right to make improvements on that property. Could he put a garage in there? Because according to this, there should be no exterior construction. But what if he decides to sell the property in five months and he says, hey, putting a garage on here would enhance the value. But he can't do that because the renter has a conditional use permit.

I believe the property owner has endorsed the application.

Well, he has, but what if he changes his mind? Are we under this

operating a group home or are they vacated?

No, they're still operating a group home and the owner decides, well, I think I want to add a garage to it. Then he cannot do that. He cannot do it. So he's forfeiting his right to make changes on the property.

Yes. While a group home is in operation or the conditional use is in It's the exact same condition that was applied to the previous room that was put on it. That was the one on Conway? Correct.

Okay.

Yes.

And the renter applied for that one as well? In that case, I believe that was the owner. Okay. So...

usually a renter can't apply for conditional use permit property they don't know the applicant is applying just like with a commercial say you have a retail center that's owned by a company and they they lease it to different businesses that business is the one character okay okay just seems strange to me okay that's all my that's my four issues all right uh i just want to clarify ronnie can you answer this needs additional requirements according to the director of licensure with the state who have been in contact with numerous occasions she is only allowed to have three persons under her care in that house right now until until she needs the additional until as was alluded by um certain standards Because again, the city's regulating the land and our definition. The state is regulating everything that's going on inside of that house.

Under those conditions, then, is it technically a group home or is it just a host home?

We have a definition for a group home of up to eight unrelated people with mental and physical handicaps. They have less than eight staffs and staff is applying the group home designation. Otherwise, they could move in today. You know, our definition of family is three unrelated people. We're applying the group home, our conditional use permit standard, so. Ron Murphy.

Thank you. Just to expand a little bit on the red lines and all that. So these were developed in precedent. I think a key component here that we just kind of The conditional use authorized, which is a group-owned authorization, that conditional use authorized and referred to in Section 1 shall be valid only under the following conditions. So the activity must be met. All the state and legal and federal requirements must be met. request was, is activated. Up until that time, my understanding is that there is no free vote. They've got to connect. The whole document, there's reference to adhering to the state and federal regulations per our attorney. There are many players on these type of discussions. There's federal impact, federal law, there's state law, and there's obviously local law. And federal has very distinct and specific requirements on theirs. So again, throughout, what we're saying is that all licenses, all documents, all confirmations need to be completed and need to be submitted in a fair and appropriate way into the city before this conditional use permit actually gets activated and put into play. So, that was it.

I would ask the city clerk for a roll call vote.

Alderman Murphy?

Aye.

Alderman Tuer?

Aye.

Alderman Gerber? Aye. Alderman Kinsella? Aye. Alderman Hughes? Aye. Alderman Carter?

No.

And Alderman Sawyer?

No.

The bill fails 5-2 as substituted, and that is all. It needed a supermajority because of the protest petition.

Thank you. And I just want to thank all the... This is an issue, this is a tough issue. Matter of fact, it was a really tough issue. Every single one of them, or all of them, David, ignored them a lot of times. I mean, they're up, it's basically a service job. And they spent hours on this going back and forth. And obviously, oftentimes we have things that pass unanimously. This is not one of those things. But I just want to tell the board that you did a good deal. For some people, it's like any election. Somebody wins, somebody loses. I get that. This did not pass. But it wasn't because it was treated lightly. There was a hell of a lot of due diligence that went into this. So I do want to thank everybody in the board. Next, bill number 26-35, board as a whole, without objection, does the city clerk read the bill for the second time?

Bill number 26-35 is an ordinance amending title one, government code of the Town and Country Municipal Code, specifically by the amendment of section 110.190 pertaining to the appointment of board and commission members.

the city clerk a roll call vote?

Alderman Kinsella?

Yes.

Alderman Sawyer?

Aye.

Alderman Harder?

Aye.

Alderman Murphy?

Aye.

Alderman Tuer? Aye. Alderman Gerber? Aye. And Alderman Meese? Aye. The bill passes unanimously and becomes ordinance number 4766. Thank you.

Next bill, number 26-38. Without objection, will the city clerk please read the bill a second time?

Bill number 2638 is an ordinance accepting the bid of T-Hill Construction for the 2026 concrete slab replacement project and authorizing an agreement for sale.

Thank you. I seek a motion and a second to approve. So moved. Second. Any discussion on that now?

All in order. Okay. Since we've been talking about so much about finances tonight anyway. Okay. I noticed that the bid is actually 560-463, which is... 10 463 over the budget and then with the contingencies were actually 38 487 over budget my only question is do you have room in your current budget to absorb this overage yes because our other projects have come in under budget okay that's that was my i just didn't know if we needed if you had that or no yeah otherwise i would ask for extra money so yes that was my only question all right

Alderman Carter.

Aye.

Alderman Hughes. Aye. Alderman Murphy.

Aye.

Alderman Sawyer.

Aye.

Alderman Gerber.

Aye.

And Alderman Kinsella. Aye. The bill passes unanimously and becomes ordinance number 4767. Thank you.

Moving on to new business, bill number 26-41. Sponsored by the board as a whole. Without objection, will the city clerk read the bill for the first time?

Bill number 2641 is an ordinance amending Title IV, Chapter 405, the zoning regulations of the Town and Country Municipal Code, specifically by the amendment of Section 405.080 definitions and Section 405.370 conditional uses regarding the establishment of historic house museum regulations.

Thank you. This bill, number 2641, is continued in meeting on Monday. Next, bill number 26-42, also sponsored, I believe, by the board as a whole. Without objection, would the city board please read the bill for the first time?

Bill number 26-42 is an ordinance approving a conditional use and authorizing a conditional use permit for a historic house museum at the property commonly known as the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Pappas House, located at 865 Mason Ridge Road in the city of Town and Country.

Thank you. This bill number 26-42 is continued to the meeting of Next is resolution number R06-2026, a resolution to assure the residents of the city of Town and Country that critical public services will be maintained.

Mayor, may I restate that title as resolution number R06-2026, a resolution expressing the city of Town and Country's intent to maintain public services by adjusting certain property tax rates as allowed by law?

Aye.

Any discussion or amendment?

read the bill for the first time bill number 2643 is an ordinance establishing the annual rate of tax levy for the year 2026 on property located within the boundaries of the city of town and country st louis county missouri providing for the extension of said taxes on the books of the county collector by the county clerk and providing for the collection as provided by law thank you this bill number 26 dash

I do not have any other business. I will open it to see if any alderman has something they would like to bring to our attention. Okay, our menus.

Thank you mayor. I attended the fraud presentation

Hey, how you doing?