Board of Public Safety - Regular Meeting

set up. Uh, we have started recording YouTube broadcasting now. Okay. Good evening. We'll call to order the city of Wildwood Board of Public Safety meeting Thursday, October 16th. Uh the meeting is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in person at city hall in the community room and also a Zoom webinar platform is available is also being broadcast on the city of Wildwood's YouTube channel. First order of business roll call. Marshall Bader here. Board member Gleason here.

Board member Loyal here. Board member Wilson here. Second approval first meeting of June 19, 2025 which was sent back. First motion I will entertain is a motion to approve the minutes for the June 19th 2025 a correction to the minutes. You have a correction to them?

I do. Um it still shows that I attended by Zoom. I did not attend that at June 19b by Zoom. We can make that correction if you're okay with that. item if you want to do that. Make a motion. Motion to approve it with the intended correction. Is there a second? A second. Favor. Any opposed?

Um just a discussion question. Sure. There's one other correction. That board member was not at that meeting. So section two of the June 19. [Music] I don't know. I just need second. I just approve. I'm just asking the earlier one's correction there. He wasn't in the meeting. He wasn't on board anymore. I didn't say he made the motion. I We could look at the tape, I guess, and you could correct it. Yeah, the tape is

It probably had to be one of the four people on the top. for the April the April meeting. Yeah. Approval of the April 17 meeting. The June meeting approving the April 7. And the tape is really difficult to read. It's I see heads down and that's kind of talking, but it was we can certainly make both those changes if that's fine with the board. Any other noted additions to that? We have a motion to approve it with the stated corrections and a second. All in favor? I

un opposed. Motion carries. The minutes for the June 19th meeting have been approved. Second item is to approval of the m excuse me the minutes from the August 8th meeting. You should have a draft made have a draft made available to you. Any motion to approve the minutes from the August 8th meeting? I'm sorry. It's the August 7th meeting. So moved. Second. All All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. The August 7th minutes have been approved. Next order of business is public comment. We have one from Lauren Johnson. Jordan, excuse me. Welcome. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, thanks uh everyone. I just wanted to raise the issue of Turnberry and you get to uh state your name.

Thank you. Uh Lauren Jordan with W 2. So, I just wanted to bring up the issue of Turnberry Place Drive in Streker, which I know uh several members here are uh aware of, but I did want to just get some feedback about the uh entrance as it as it is normally called, but we consider it a uh emergency access point uh there. And uh it's been part of the neighborhood for uh over 20 I think closer to 30 years. Um I've given public comment before uh but not at this safety board meeting. And so what I wanted to do is get feedback about um what standards are necessary to consider a uh a uh emergency entrance uh point access point and whether or not it complicates anything for uh our emergency services as well as uh get feedback on whether or not uh anything about the current configuration needs to be changed in order to meet those standards. Um I don't know if that is something that you guys can offer feedback. You pe you you this group can offer feedback on uh directly right now but we did submit a um what is it called? Uh well it's not quite an appeal but a request for reassessment from uh Mr. Brown's office and uh I think he's in the process of responding to us. Um, but I I just wanted to uh touch base and better understand the position of this board so that we can uh best address any feedback from Mr. Brown. So, board members, this is not on your agenda. This is a time for public comment and since it's not on the agenda, I don't believe it would be

appropriate to discuss it in depth. It can be on a future agenda if that's the desire of the board. Um it is being acted on by department of public works currently under the policy that was passed by the city council. If you recall I think it was the April meeting. This was in front of you. I'll pass a motion actually two motions relative to that issue. The passage of both those issues essentially resulted in the council putting a me excuse me a policy together and we can forward that to you if you'd like to see it. uh which has been the um direction that's been taken on uh it's the on the direction of the city council the policy was enacted and the department has been following the policy that's been is in progress I will be responding shortly to the HOA one other issue uh Mr. Brown or Director Brown initially and I was wondering if I could get feedback on whether or not my email was perhaps sent to a different folder or blocked uh just so we can have open communication and remedy any issues in the future.

Um we can sort of talk about that offline if you like. Um yeah, I I don't know. Yes, the initial email for whatever reason I did not receive it. I'm not sure what happened there. Yeah, it's just a not an argument. Uh but like it's the second time that it happens. I do want to make sure that I'm able to communicate uh you know and make sure that we don't miss any deadlines or anything. Thank you. Thank you. First email sent uh when was it sent? Yeah, I'd have to look it up, but uh Bridget's email does state the date. Bridget Fischer that it was sent. I'm afraid that it's been put in the spam folder. I don't know how the Wildwood City government emails work, but

No, I I see an email from you. I didn't get the most recent one, but I I see one from you and I Bridget Dolan. Uh well, that's one that Bridget uh forwarded. I will have sent one maybe a week, even two weeks before that. Well, we can talk offline, but I want to make sure it's getting through as well. Appreciate that. Okay. Well, thanks for your time. Thank you. I I'll leave so unless All right. Thanks. Any more people signed up for public comment? No, sir. And we will close the public comment section and move on for I do have one attendee, sir.

Teresa, did you have a public comment? No, I'm dead. She's good. We will then close public comment section and move on to the information section. First item is the update on the MODOT uh city projects. I believe Mr. Brown, are you on?

Um I'll start off and if anybody wants to add, they certainly can. This was the update, the monthly update. I think I provided it now for a couple months to you as board members of projects that are have been underway this summer both mod and city projects. I think the short summary here is that um especially given the weather uh the progress has been very good this summer and the u projects have either been completed or will be completed shortly. Most of the uh 100 work that mod has been doing on the J turns is uh getting close to being completed. I understand the asphalt has pretty much been laid. Um the J turns have been constructed. They will be doing the final striping later this month and um any final restoration that needs to be done will occur as well. You might be aware of the signals at Clayton Road on 109 and Shepard Road in 109. Those have been replaced by MDOT and uh are operating although MOD has been struggling at least in my estimation to a degree getting them properly timed and coordinated. So there's been engineers on site uh evaluating the performance of the signals trying to optimize the traffic flow. It's been a bit challenging, I think, in the morning. Um, but I think it's getting better overall. So, uh, the city did pitch in about 125,000 on the MDOT signals at 109 and Clayton and 109 and Shepard if you're not aware of that. We paid a little extra money to uh, have them add the LED street name signs on those signals, which is consistent what we've done in Town Center. And then we paid a little extra to have them black finish instead of the standard galvanized finish or aluminum. Um so we've um just wanted to make you aware of that as well. So any particular questions from the board? I'll do my best to address them.

Turns at pond and 100. Is the straight through on pond being demolished? the left turn lane like to make it straight through the pond. Straight through. Will you be when they're finished, will you be able to go straight through pond across 100? No, there'll be a raised concrete island that's constructed shortly. The only movement that you'll be able to make at the exact that intersection is that westbound left turn to go south. Right turn.

No, you'll be able to make one left. So, if you're heading eastbound towards town center, you will not be able to make a left on after the median's installed. You will not be able to make a left on the pond. When you're heading westbound out to the rural portion of Wildwood, you will be a you will be able to make a left on the pond. But that other left hand motion was restricted. That was a request from our residents. So, you'll be able to make a left turn westbound from 100 to pond. You will not be able to go straight through. Yep. On pond, correct? That's great. I know you've got barrack or they've got barricades up now, but it was reported to me that there was a herd of cyclists who just blew right through pond. So the straight through pond went right through the barricades and

cyclist will be allowed to go through. That is that is one I guess that is the exception. We did design it. It is going to be allowable for the cyclist to go through. They'll still be able to go straight through on pond. Okay. Thank you. Would that be the same at at Highway T? The same where you can't go straight across. Um, that is correct. Although at highway T you can still make the mainline left turn. So the the westbound left and the eastbound lefts are allowable at T. Okay.

And then we've designed it with a small gap to allow the cyclist to cut straight through. Rick, you said that's the final stripings. All right. I happened to drive that the other night and I was like this first time leaving the dinner and I was like, where am I going? It's it's challenging right now. It I don't have an exact date for you, but I would expect the striping to occur within the next hopefully next week. Okay. It'll be a fair amount of work, but they should be out there shortly. Well, I will say the pavement's much smoother around 100.

Yes, it is. Any other questions for Mr. Brown? Next item of business is the update on the Lafayette and Green Pine School traffic circulation.

So, I'm going to let Captain take the lead on this one. We talked about this, I think, at the prior meeting, and he's got an update to share. So, yeah, I've had a lot of contact with the principles at both Lafayette and Green Pines. Um, Lafayette has become much smoother. There's still some issues in the morning and a lot of it has to do with or had to do with the electric signals. Uh, they were on a time cycle, I think, at those two intersections and now I believe they're they're cycling. So, that's something we'll still we'll still monitor, but for the most part, the newness of school year is over. Everybody's kind of in a routine. Um I've sat up there uh several times. It it looks it's pretty efficient. The morning time is everybody comes at one time uh at night or in the afternoon I should say. Uh people leave at different times. So there there's really no backups out to uh 109. a couple cars will end up, you know, held on Clayton Road to make the right turn in, but once it goes, it it goes pretty quick. So, um, it's just a volume, high volume, uh, you know, coming in there in the morning. Uh, Green Pines, as far as I could tell, there were no issues in the morning. And you, Michael,

seems to be working. And in the afternoon, our our last thing and and we'll lead it or lead into what Rick will address shortly. Uh the parents waiting on southbound West Glenn Farms, waiting to turn into the gate. Uh the gate gets opened at about 3:05 and that's due to uh their outside uh recess or class is about 3:00 when it ends and that's when they go inside. They got to get them inside and and lock down and then somebody has to get back out there within a couple minutes and open that gate for the parents to start coming in. Once they open the gate, anything on the street is gone. Uh we've posted or Rick has had signs posted for no parking. There was already a sign there, but it was kind of at the top of the hill by itself around the curve. Uh leading up to this, I had officers go by, talk to the parents, let them know this is coming. Uh it's just downhill curve. Uh it's a bad spot to have people parking on the one side, forcing traffic more or less into the oncoming lane that can't see uh traffic coming up and the people coming up the hill can't see people coming down. So the uh the parking on side streets eliminated. Um we'll keep an eye on that, but for the most part, like I said, once that gate's open, it it goes really fast. It's It's almost amazing how how fast they can get get traffic in there and get them out of there. So,

you you wait to talk about that, Rick, or do you want I have a just a question. Um well, the on the agenda tonight, we have an item to restrict the the parking in that location to the agenda. Okay. Uh that's all I got for for the two schools. Next item of business is the school zone signage review.

Um board members wanted to provide an update. This was um on the um on your last meeting agenda. Um I referenced it at that time. Um, we did complete our review and installation of signage primarily at the uh, Wildwood area um, public schools and the ones that are located on Wwood maintained roadway. So, um, if you're curious, I tried to break down the specific changes that we made per school in my memorandum um, to you. Um Dustin did all did the work, got the signs ordered and has had them installed for a while now and um so I think um we've been able to get that done in uh in good fashion. So I think all the schools should be in good shape relative to the required signage that we uh need to have in place per the manual and uniform traffic control devices. Um I would say and I made reference I think last meeting um we could do more if we have money to do it. uh which is an issue these days with our budget frankly, but uh I did list some possible enhancements and if we had monies available in the budget or maybe in a future year, we could look to adding um flashing beacons on a lot of our our um existing speed limit schools speed limit signs. And then the other potential enhancement would be at the old Fairway Elementary, we have um at least two midblock crosswalks that we could consider putting the rapid flashing beacons on them in the future if that was something that was desired. Um so right now I don't know that we have monies budgeted or planned to be budgeted to do that, but um certainly in the future that is a possibility. Um with that I'll close if there's any questions on

if I'm wrong. Most of this work is being done just become compliant with not client but complying with some industry standards. It was a review to make sure that we were compliant with the most recent edition of the manual on traffic control devices. Yes. Is that solely funded by the city? Does the school district participate in any way funding for school zone signage or enhancements?

Well, certainly if we wanted to explore enhancements enhancements, that could be something we bring up with the school district. Maybe after they get a property tax increase in place, they might be receptive to that. But so far, they they have not participated with our signage. I wouldn't expect them to, but um if we went and you know wanted to pursue additional enhancements like that, I don't feel that would be unreasonable to at least bring that up or ask.

Speaking to that a little bit, I mean the uh we got lucky in a sense that St. Louis County is going to help us out. They're by the end of 2026 they will be installing flashing beacons over at Dartmouth Crest and uh Clayton Road. So that's going to be that's been incorporated into their plans which is great. uh should be done before next winter. That said, maybe I mean at least when we had that discussion when funding for it was still up in the air, uh the school district was receptive to make helping in some way. It wasn't necessarily a complete shutdown. We could explore that further if it was something we wanted to look at for these other schools.

We weren't able to do anything with state highways obviously because they control signage on those highways. We did not review the state routes or the county route um at Lafayette directly because that's under their control, not the city's control. That's correct. And I think the question also came up about private schools. I don't believe we have any private schools on Wildwood streets. We only have a few and I believe they would be on either MDOT ones I was thinking about or MDOT or county but not not Wildwood Streets. Um so if I'm wrong, let me know that. All right. Um, looks like our next item of business is old business with no items listed. Following that, we have new business and we have a review of the 2026 police expense budget. Let me start. Um so our our staffing would stay the same. Uh the big change will be an increase of about 3% on the uh on the cost. Um our our budget isn't really a budget. Uh it's it's a cost sheet for for the staffing that we provide to the uh to the precinct. Um with that uh keeping in line with with the industry uh office received uh you know raise at the beginning of uh 25 which will obviously carry on into 26. Um so that uh cost request is being uh submitted to the city. That's that's our cost of an officer. what figures in to an officer's pay is is their actual pay uh their benefits

that go on top of that and then we add in uh no cost of using a car uh and things like that. So there there is no breakout of you pay for x number of cars. It's when you get an officer it's expected that he has had the car and this is on average what it costs for an officer to use a car. Um, so if you were to take that big number and divide it by 34, that would tell you the per officer cost. I don't recall what it is offhand. It's about 35,000, something like that. Uh, so it they're not getting that pay, but uh, you know, that's what what it's costing us. um the the um staff member that puts this together, he put an item down near item number seven that shows this is actually we're we're losing in in our our contracts.

Um so, you know, expect in the next year it it'll there'll be an increase again as we move along. So, and and one more thing, sorry, Vince. Uh, our per officer cost is based on the average of each rank. So, for average police officers, average sergeants, average lieutenants, average uh captain. So, it's not actual. So, if I'm on the the top end of the pay, you're going to pay what a what a median captain makes. It it makes the uh the billing much easier that this this is what it is. uh you know we transfer people or someone gets promoted and moves on we bring somebody else in they might be a senior officer or junior officer so it could be monthtomonth trying to adjust you know who's actually here uh it goes on average and the same thing with with uh overtime um we do an average rate for overtime uh for events uh each year the city gives us about 20 to 25 events that we will staff um and we do a very good job I think of of using our precinct staff to staff our events that we don't usually have to go outside and draw in other department staff members to help out. They do and it's usually officers that have worked here. Um our our biggest event is we just had Celebrate Wildwood. Um that is very labor intensive because it goes from early morning to to almost midnight by the time everybody gets out of here. So uh that's it in a nutshell. Um the other sheet I haven't distributed time unless you want me to.

Oh yeah, we can we can go ahead. I I would just make a note uh we were working on this capital sheet. The one thing we wanted to talk about just with our director of public works here too is the speed feedback flood warning equipment u that's planned on here. I know that he's looking based off a previous uh directive from this board. That's it. The only other note this was being configured. Um so one small change to the if you don't mind. One small change to the presented budget. Can you go all the way down to the uh the spreadsheet? Thank you. Uh right here. Uh one small change. We had a placeholder in here at 20,000 uh for capital equipment and that's under the prop P uh machinery and equipment. That would be reflective of what's approved tonight. So, just note that that change has been made and we can go through these one at a one at a time. That said, uh just more generally speaking, I'll speak a little bit to the the overall budget. We uh you know, 3% is consistent with previous raises that we've seen. So, it's pretty in line there. But that said, I did just want to call out that we as the rest of the council looks at this too, we'll just have to start planning. Um, just for your all's input, our revenue is pretty stagnant for fiscal year 2026. So, I just wanted to call that out. Um, as we go forward, it it'll most likely become more and more of a discussion topic.

Yeah. On that sheet that we got from the county, the uh what what is that debit number? I don't understand that negative number. That is the N from my understanding Kevin it's the uh they there is a provision in our contract that this this is part of the contract that it gets renewed each year and this is recorded as an addendum uh to the agreement. That said, what this is practically saying is that that that negative number is actually what they wish they could be charging for the actual services presented. But since we have a cap included in our contract, it's capped at that amount. So it's what I looked at it as it's an indication that we'll be looking at another increase for next year and we need to prepare for it.

Let me add something to that. So the the cap in the contract is actually 5%. Um after discussions with the chief, we are late in the year. Uh Tom's been working on his budget and for us to walk in in October and say, "Hey, by the way, it's a 5% increase." We tried to stay in line with with what we've done, which was more or less what was expected uh as opposed to you didn't expect this, now redo your budget. Um so I I hope that's a demonstration that you know that we're are partners in this and and we're working.

Yeah. And I can back that up. It was originally at five and it was it was reduced with the chief's uh blessing of course and um the city does appreciate that it that 3% was around the number we were planning for when we were starting to put projections together. So it's it's relatively consistent now that it's three. So basically if you look at the uh it's about what $84,000 increase is 156 if you do the math. I'm just looking at estimated 2025. Oh, the 82872 to the contract. It's 156, but then the budget's a little different because that includes our assistant prosecuting attorney. Yeah. Okay. So, what's what's the change in St. Louis County's proposal? That's 156.

156. Yeah. And back to what the captain said about, you know, estimating it. It all balances out, I'm sure, as far as positioning. Has there ever been occasion when it's been necessary for county to come back to you and say, "Hey, we've had a inordinately amount of overtime necessary. We need we need more money for this year." Uh we have not here. I mean, okay. Yeah, we budget regular uh county government stuff. Yes, they do that. Sure. Sure. Uh but we've we've always stayed within our overtime budget and working operations.

That is correct. And one other note too is just the overtime portion of it. Um, and we've been discussing this as well there and we'll get to this with deer management too, but a portion of what the police do al also offer is that we do the deer samplings each year u after uh we do the deer samplings each year after operations and the police conduct that for us. So it's a third party uh we obviously work with white buffalo for the actual work. So having the police collect the data uh with the guidance of that's outside of the contract. Yep. That's outside of the contract. So that actually goes under the deer management fund. Um, so just a heads up there too because I know some folks most are aware that they do assist us in that and they don't back charge us for fuel for their guys doing it, right? So it all works out.

It is what it is. Um, anymore good. Yeah, that's it. Thank you.

Okay, so the other sheet I uh this is our our capital items request. Um, and for the most part, these these are supporting equipment that we already have in place that are that are owned by the city. Uh, I'll I'll come back to the first item. Uh, security camera expansion. Um, in anticipation of the opening of the village green, uh, we built in there putting a camera, you know, to have an eye on on the village green. Um, and the way that would work, it can be on a light pole over there. You know, we we'll decide where to where to uh put it and then it would transmit a wireless signal back to the building here, which is where the the main data is stored here at the city hall building. We have the same system set up for the garage across the street. There's a set of cameras at the garage. Uh, it shoots across to the uh clock tower, I think. And then there's also one that shoots back here also. So, um, so that's the camera expansion. The, uh, batteries and chargers, uh, for our speed displays, I think we have five of those. Um, those are used pretty much year round. Um, and the batteries just get eaten up. Uh, they're generally out for for a week or two. Uh, we pull them back in, charge them. We have, you know, a set of batteries that we keep rotating those through and eventually the bad the batteries go bad on us. Uh, three LPR cameras. Uh, so the city pays for three leases on two flock cameras. Uh, one of them is on Highway 100, uh, out toward the county line. The other one is on Highway 109 on the

north end of the city, kind of near Wild Horse Creek. Uh the third one is on uh Manchester at Pieride. Uh we have two additional ones that the county has uh one of them was actually purchased by the city a couple years ago uh to add to the county's fleet basically. So the county provides that now that it's owned provides that camera that's up on Clayton Road. Uh, and then they they kind of threw in one since we're we're in the game. Uh, there is a camera in front of the Lafayette High Schools that monitors traffic there. Um, which has been very helpful when we were looking at signal timing. Uh, we can talk directly to the guy at County Highway. He can he can manipulate the camera and and watch and count cars without leaving his office.

What has been the success with that with the license freight readers? Um, very good. Uh, any issues we have, that's one of the first things we go to. Uh, the most recent event was the, uh, I don't know, was about a month or so ago. Yeah. But that that was great.

The guy that that was ripping down, uh, Manchester and took out the, uh, the crosswalk button or post and a bunch of trees and he left the scene. There were witnesses say, "Hey, it's a gray truck. That's it." So, uh, they called and told me, "Hey, this is going on." I said, "Well, call down to our our regional information center, which has run out of police headquarters. They have access to all these cameras, and within, you know, five minutes or so, here's the license plate of the of the truck that did it." So, uh, the guy did not at one time he lived in Wildwoods. They went to his house. He wasn't there. It was really good police work that this guy's around here and he's been seen on that camera,

you know, before. Uh so the officers just kind of started spreading out and checking subdivisions. He he didn't pop up on other cameras, so it kind of says he's in this area. It it took a lot of time, but they started running streets and they they found him uh parked in a driveway in Ellisville. I assume the one at the county line is for eastbound coming in. Right. Right. Incoming. And there's not a lot of traffic coming in. So if if something happens, um we got an idea of what we might be looking for, you know, that that gives us a start to start looking for lights. Does it pick up like I don't know stolen lights? I mean, okay. So it then it notifies somebody.

Yeah. So, we it the officers can set this up on their car computers that it will alert them that hey, one just went by there. Um, and you can set it to all kinds of stuff, you know, traffic warrants. Um, depending on where you're working, sure, this thing would be buzzing all the time. So, it's it's kind of what they they set it on. Uh, the the main center down in in Clayton,

that's what that's what they're looking for to be clued to them. So if if something triggers uh they they would call us. Now early on there was there was a vehicle wanted for a kidnapping. Now unfortunately you know it it signaled and they nothing goes through Wildwood. So hey wait a minute where what is this? And they look at it and they were gone out of Wildwood um because we were we were in this area and it never came back. So it it turned around or went the opposite way. That's what we figured. But um yeah, they work they work very well. So

I think it's important to point out one of the things that Captain Mandelle brought up in there is the regional information center the Rick which is down in Clayton because of our partnership the city's partnership with St. Louis County. We have access to resources that exceed extend far beyond what we have with the young men and women that occupy our precinct. We also have the resources of the regional information center and should we have need for special weapons and tactics that's available to us helicopter there's a lot of things that come with that contract that don't show up on paper and uh I think that's why honestly Wildwood and county have been such a great partnership over the years absolutely the other items toward the bottom there the signage bicycle parts tools and equipment that's just kind of miscellaneous minor expenses that come up uh annually And the drone thing I I put back on there to back up unless you want to talk about drones first.

I I think we should I mean I think I I support it being on there. U the department it has been talked with uh the police too on this and we want to incorporate some type of drone activity. The idea was to maybe start small and then expand outward. There's some really nice drones out there. So with what's budgeted here today, it seems very consist what we're talking about. we would maybe start with a, you know, a little bit of a cheaper drone, get comfortable with it, have an officer that's trained up on it, um, bring back to the board, um, potential samples of some video footage taken with it. The idea is not only to use this, uh, for police work, but also to leverage the officers that might, you know, have the certifications to be able to fly it, to film um, some footage of our events that we have to be able to, you know, post that and get communication out. but also more really most importantly uh having it available when we have the flooding occurrences that happen in Wild Horse Creek or if we have you know some serious water coming down Cox Creek we're able to get that over in front of it so we can see you know get some real-time footage you can't really get up there does public works have a drone not can there would this be owned by the city okay so can there be a partnership where if they need if they would need something yes

relative to flooding or anything else. That that that's the current idea is that, you know, obviously it'd be available for, you know, police and what whatever they need to do with it with potentially get into the nooks and crannies for chasing somebody or whatever it might be. Um, that said, if we were to need it, we could just reach out to them. And the good news is they would have, and I think you already have some officers on on staff with it that have the certifications necessary. It is something too that um I know the Department of Public Works and uh I have talked about quite a bit of potentially even having you know one of our staff members get the trainings to get certified and and drone. I know the fire district has one as well. Is it located?

We've we've got a growing number of staff that are getting certified to be able to fly it, but yeah, we use it in the parks and river and everywhere else. So,

it's a great tool in the tool box. I think it's, you know, and the idea too, and I know we'll talk about deer here in a moment, but one thing it it gets a little tricky because the way you have to do the sampling with it is very difficult, but if we could have multiple drones, in theory, we could actually run our own uh deer population surveys. The key there though is you need to have a thermal imagery component with the camera, which that is what typically knocks up the price quite a bit. Uh, so that said, just an idea though. I think, you know, the more we proceed, I think residents too, they they want to see drone footage on top of it. It's it's a tool in the toolbox that I think it's time we get it.

Yeah. So, so if it's uh turned over to the police department, it's basically added to the police department's already established uh licensing and program as opposed to if the city were to get it on their own, then they're they have to seek seek their own license and all that. So, it falls under the police purview which makes it much easier. So, question on the a couple years on the bud a couple years I think it was two years ago in the budget was a line item for drone which I think never we didn't purchase it.

We never did. Okay. So we had that discussion and then there was some back and forth just a little inside baseball. Yeah. So there was there was monies put aside on the budget. That said um the drone that was being favored at that time did come from a Chinese manufacturer. Quite frankly that's the only ones that make good drones. So kind of come to the conclusion that we want to get a drone. It's it's most like $1,000 enough money.

It it it should be able you can get a starter drone with that. Um, that said, I mean, quite frankly, it the idea is to get something to start us off and then test it out in the field and then have it really, I mean, that person that's going to be flying it, show their skills, and then once that's been established, go ahead and probably come back to you all with a request to get the drone that has the thermal and all the extra bells and whistles that I think could be useful, especially for traffic studies, too, for the Green Pines or any of these places that we're looking at for parking situations. If you just park that right above it, you can record two or three days and see quite a bit of change.

I know they have a we learned at the coffee with the mayor month for last they have a drone training program at the while at the community college last month.

Right. So back it up to the first item. It goes back to previous meeting where we talked about a system that would provide some kind of flood warning particularly along Wild Horse Creek. Um Rick had looked into that uh you know without quoting any any prices. $100,000 potentially um would have been the cost. Uh so one of the the contractors or vendors that we've dealt with uh that has speed equipment just happened to send some product and I look and open it up and I'm like, "Oh my god, this is exactly what we're looking for." So it it's basically a speed feedback sign. So you'd have two fixed posts uh all the time. Basically, it's going to give speed feedback. So it's it's solar powered. It's running, but it has an attachment to it. It's a cable with with sensors that if there's flooding, your speed sign turns to a warning sign to say that the road's flooded or road closed or what I think whatever we want it to say. Uh so more bang for your buck as opposed to buying a dedicated flood warning system that might get used one time in a year or maybe not at all where you know most of our our major traffic complaints. So, uh, you know, we have a tool that would be in use pretty much constantly for our our speed issues, but has that backup, uh, ability to to give warning that there's there's kind of flood issue. Um, a lot of things were discussed, you know, about having automatic gates and, you know, different systems and the the price tag just keeps going up. If you wanted to do all kinds of stuff, uh they make stuff that'll do that, but it's it's going to cost you a fortune to make it happen.

When that changes to say road closed or flooding, you have notification of that changing also. No, like a signal to us that that has happened. Generally, you know, in our past incidents, something triggers it. Either an officer on patrol is getting his wheels wet or uh you know, a resident calls in and wants to know. No, I I think it's great and that's a great way to do it. Just have it, you know, you've been told. Yeah. I just was curious if

And that was part of the discussion that if you have a gate, well, if the gate closes automatically, what if you're stuck in between? You know, how do you get in and out? U there's there's all kinds of issues with that. are, you know, is it is a signal to to our communications that we send an officer out there that physically closes the gate, but somebody has to to check the whatever it is two or three mile stretch to make sure nobody's, you know, stopped or stuck in in between. So, it it creates a lot of issues. And kind of the good thing is Wild Horse Creek is not a huge traffic volume road. Um, and the people that live there know and understand, you know, what what the hazards are, but like we said, we're telling you that it it's it's flooded up there.

The way other than being used for traffic or speed purposes, if if you thought there was flash floods warnings and some, you'd have to be deployed out there and somehow some sensor deployed that, right? You'd have to kind of have an inkling that there could be flash floods coming. You you would deploy it and then hopefully it's permanent. It's a permanent sign there permanently. Oh, you would put Okay, but but the whole trailer wouldn't be there. No, just the sensor. It's a fixed sign. There's a cable however long you want the cable to be to run it to where the sensor would be and that's what triggers the the sign to activate. Okay. So, that sign would always be there. Yes. Okay. So, it wouldn't be okay. Nobody would have nobody touches it basically. Yeah.

Okay. And that's the what if this can be done for this price is actually a good deal for it because there's been there's other quotes out there. The idea is that that permanent installation, it'll be serving as that nice speed feedback most of the time, but in the event that we need it, it's there for it. So, um, you know, looking into it, I think, uh, it looks good on on the front side. So, I mean, this could be done and installed for that price, man. It seems like a good deal. The other thing, too, though, u, just so I know you brought up communication of it, uh, that potentially being flooded and us being notified, we have spoken with u, the National Weather Service. I USGS has gotten us information, but uh the idea of maybe having them give us a heads up when the precipitation radar identifying what level causes the flooding, it's not going to be a perfect uh you know, perfect number, but if we have an idea of what that number is, then we would be able to get a a quick email or a phone call and we could get that out to our residents. So, I'm trying to kind of kill a couple birds with one stone here.

Yeah, just a couple things. Um, I know that the the one thing came back from that feedback that FEMA actually has. We know the state won't give us anything, but FEMA had a three-year plan for Cox Creek and for Wild Horse. I thought was pretty attractive pricing wise. Uh, I mean, it's not cheap, but they were willing to come back after they did all their homework and or maybe that would be a place where we could do some joint ver ventures with them because it's going to do what they were looking for and we'd have have our own side, too. So, I wouldn't rule that one. I thought it was more optimistic than anything we received from the state as far as looking down the road and it was laid out over two to threeyear plan. So, it wasn't like you have to do it all now. But I'm pretty sure that the money they're getting is not coming through the state. So,

and you're talking about that the US that meeting we held with USGS. Yeah. Then they said to follow up they came back with cost estimates which I thought were a lot lower than I thought they were going to do and I don't know. I mean there's a lot more work on but only idea is here is that maybe it would be an opportunity that within two or three different groups we could get to the same effect of uh giving it and Monarch is constantly watching that when the water starts up. So, you know, I think they're another one that keeps coming back checking on it. So,

we get some Rick, did we get some uh some details, not necessarily like a full on analysis, but some some better understanding of the flood plane there and what the depth the max depth is. Someone did some depth readings for us. We we did some h some hydraulic analysis um of of Horse Creek. So we have a pretty good understanding of the depth of flooding that occurs and and what what storm will create those conditions. So, um, but I think the bottom line is when you start looking at it in that in that manner, the whole that whole section of Wild Horse Creek Road from Austin Fort to Centaur is subject to flood. It's not all flood, but if it's bad enough, it literally almost will. So you almost have to look at a device and that this is what captain's looking at is a device near Austin Ford and a device closer to Centaur to try to keep people out of that entire area. So if this device is as cheap as it seems and it has the function the dual function that might be the way to go. Doesn't have the bells and whistles necessarily but uh if it's inexpensive as it seems it could be then be an easy way to implement it. And I think public works has some monies too that we could potentially match or pull from if we need to. But yeah,

so the the idea was this isn't the the biggest bestest thing you can get. It's it's something that can be done pretty quick and so that some effort is made, you know, after those meetings that we had that Well, I think the consensus at least from the council is we're going to have to do a lot of this ourselves. The state's not going to be there. So step by step, anything we could get support with and do long term, I think that's a good way to do it. And I think the fact it's automated, it's not relying on a person, contact anything else, it's well, and that was one of the big issues. Who's going to say do it? If it should go off inadvertently, so what? It's just cautioning people. There is no problem. So

it's a huge stretch. I had, you know, after our last flood event, the supervisor that was working was out there involved in everything going on. I said, "Give me an idea where what was flooding." So, he gives me this this map and it wasn't the entire road is flooded for two miles. It's it's a bunch of pockets. Yeah. So, it's having two signs, one on this end, one on this end, and it's a warning. Preventing people from that's that's a whole different ballgame. And Rick and I had talked about,

do you want to install a permanent gate and when it floods, an officer will go out there and close the gate and lock it, but then what happens when the water's down? I'm not flooded and I'm trying to get out now. This gates locked and I'm stuck and you know it's Yeah. all the off of there, right? Well, if there's any sort of rescue opportunity, too, we had really Yes. That would that would be tough for us. We're all each other's locks, right? Yeah. So, I just had a couple more questions. What was the 96,000 in the capital budget last year for the police budget that we're dropping to 20? What was that? What was in that budget for the 96?

It was the key card reader. We haven't bid it yet, but we're planning on getting that out this year. That's where the drops came from from this year to last. So, we didn't buy it. We haven't bought it. Okay. Yeah. I was just curious. No, we we plan to still go out to bid for that. U there's been some other items that have come up, but the plan is still to get a an RFP out there this year. That's what the big expenditure built this year. So, you still have it in your final budget forecast for this year.

Yeah, for this year. But if not, we'll have that that year end report. So my my next question, if I might, uh I know the council's getting this great report every month. So I just think as we get into a flat budget, we're going to have all kind of questions on what could we any areas of the what we're doing policing could be done differently or if we have to cut where where do we cut and we don't have property taxes, we don't have that. So, I do know that, you know, we we've got some I don't know if everybody's saying just the monthly numbers and the year-to- date numbers are being tracked just pass around if you want. So, the council gets that every month, right?

And and a lot of good comments about, wow, I didn't think that would, you know, that it's down that far. So, I would just say as we get further into the budget reviews, not tonight, but I think that's an area where we're going to have to have answers when they start to look at the calls and the selfinitiated calls versus the others. And that was a big city. You know, obviously it's it's what what the city wants out of out of this contract. Um, you know, I think we demonstrated, you know, last year that, hey, once we went to 12-hour shifts, that made us a little a little different, more efficient. You know, we eliminated, you know, two of those officer positions because they we we were fat. We were fat and happy, but we really didn't need them. So, uh, you know, that shows you that we we do look at this. Um, you know, how thin do you want to be? Uh, you know, I can say that pretty much every major incident that that's happened, we have been self-sufficient and and handled this inhouse without having to draw in other resources. We do have that option, but keep in mind, we're as a contract, we're we're fully staffed. uh our neighboring precincts are are not

and if something major happens, I I'll get some bodies. Uh but it might not be as many as I I want or need. Um in the big picture, something super major and I don't know what that would be. The tornado, we're kind of fortunate that Wildwood's not heavily populated and where our tornado went through was more property damage. Um, but something like that were to happen, then the department obviously, you know, sends us uh our division of special operations that has, you know, 50 officers.

And I totally agree. I'm just telling you that you got four or five new people on the council who've not been through any of this before and you start seeing them throwing stuff out. Let's eliminate this, let's eliminate that, right? We don't want to do that. So I think if as long as we have we do our homework and how we present it back is so key because I think you've done a great job and uh I know in my 28 years 29 years it's been

on the cost sheet it shows where where the bodies are at. So there's there's 34 officers there are seven on on each squad. There are two 12-hour shifts for days, two 12-hour shifts for nights. So when one group's working, the other group's off. uh that has has worked very well for us. Um and I think that's the what we should take credit for when you present the budget. That's all I'm saying is those are the type they don't have a clue. All they see is there's a whole bunch of cars, right? Um you know, there are two park officers. Uh there's something in underway right now where the city may potentially add another huge chunk of ground with with parks and trails.

Not been approved yet. Well, potentially I said so. intentions. When you're planning it, he has to plan as well. Yeah. Right. So, we don't have the two guys hoping that other things will happen. It's I get it. These two guys, they work opposite shifts, so they're not usually they may overlap each other. But a lot of positive feedback that they're out in the parks, they're out on trails. I think it's great. And I'm not saying that there's anything we need. I'm just telling you that it's going to be a very different process with very different people. Sure. So we just need I think we need to be able to step back from it and say hey here's why we do it this way right now.

But the one thing that a lot of people lose sight of the city of Wwood is six square miles bigger than the city of St. Louis and I understand population densities and roads and everything else but we have a relatively knock on wood quiet neighborhood. Uh, and it's always an ongoing battle of trying to decide if is Wildwood as good as it is because of the citizens and the elected officials and the city employees, including the police department, or are we just lucky? And I agree with your comments. We always want to have the information ahead of us so that when the questions are asked, we have the answer. And I think historically Captain Mandel I know has been very good at doing that as well as the previous commanders out here. So one of the reasons a big thick report like that get generated is so that when the questions are asked we have the answers. And you bring up some valid points Mr. Marshall and that's about being able to handle the questions when they come up at the time they come up versus saying we'll have to get back to you because when you tell somebody you have to get back to them tell you don't know. So, uh, I'm comfortable with the way the police structure is set up in the city. Um, and I know I'm a little biased, but when I compare it to when I compare it to other jurisdictions within St. Louis County, I think, uh, Wildwood itself, I I I say this and I've said it outside this meeting and I've said it for years, it comes down to the leadership of the organization to determine how stable it's going to be. and by the leadership of the organization. When you're talking about a city, you're talking about the elected officials and the individuals employed by that city. And that is the hench pin that holds that community together. When you get outside of that, when there starts to be fractures in that and people not being attuned to what's going on, then you start having problems. So, you bring up valid points. There's going to be questions that are asked by people who are not trying to be

mean. They're just trying to be informed. And it's our job to have that information available to them. Great. This is a just around and just looking into this a little further too. This is a somewhat decent comparison. I will say that you know Ballin for fiscal year 2025 we were able to do a little digging. I mean they they have 60 officers and they've got 31,000 residents. So they're not officers that's 60 total in the department. Um but they're also spending you know upwards of almost $9 million too. So it that said, we've been kind of looking at some population trends and it seems pretty consistent that we're we are getting the best bang for our buck for the number of officers we have.

That thanks for bringing that up. Uh the one item on there that looks vague. Uh support and indirect cost. That's that's our behind the scenes. That's uh dispatch support, uh record room support, um you know, our division of criminal investigation. So, there's there's an officer assigned here that's whose job is as our precinct detective. He handles pretty much the the minor in-house stuff that needs to be followed up on. Uh he's my right hand. So, when I get a complaint about something, go handle this. Uh whereas if we have a homicide, um that's our division of criminal investigation. We're going to get about 10 detectives, you know, that come out here. They're not sitting here waiting for the homicide to happen. They're busy in other places, but they're always at our disposal along with, as as Jeff said, the, you know, divisional special operations, air support, tactical unit. You know, when we have those situations, that's what we get. um our crisis intervention team, we have a lot of uh incidents involving mental health situations and we handle them at at the face of it, but the follow-ups and resources behind the scenes that help us get people into into hospitals uh get them down the right avenue of of uh treatments that that comes from our uh crisis intervention team out of out of headquarters. So

crisis intervention team, I'll throw out a bone to them. If you go back prior to crisis intervention team, whenever you had people who were under duress and law enforcement were called, it usually resulted into a barricade situation with streets closed and you know three dozen police officers surrounding a house. The crisis intervention team takes it 40 hours of training directly to those frontline officers who are then able to resolve a lot of those incidents without escalating it. And at the end, in the interest of full disclosure, I was opposed to it years ago. However, I I have become a believer. You were crazy then. Yeah. I was one of the uh Never mind.

And not to pass up that when we're involved in those situations, generally uh the fire district's right right with us.

And and I I just really appreciate what everybody said, but I'm telling you, you you had council members who don't have a clue what everybody does. And unfortunately, they're one of 16 votes that decide how the city's going to be run. So, I just think the more we can communicate as what's what is being included. I know that we went through that several years ago on each of the how many of the officers have that training so that it just one more thing that we're trying to provide, but you know, we just you have a lot of people who just have a different perspective. I don't see a lot of value in educating them of all the behind the scenes just you know countywide resources that provide support or are available that they don't

they don't there is no cost that that is there I think those soft so basically Tom so is the original contract written in such a way that unless we ask for something different it's capped at 5% increase is that that's correct so if we were so realistically if it goes up 5% % no one should be and that's if we don't change anything that's pretty much expect but they can still ask say we want to go we need and I think you made a good point granted these are the individual officers but all the support resources that are available that we may never use in a year but if we do they're there I mean there has there's a charge for that so

I I'd suggest that you know if you want do you want to do a a future meeting at our emergency operations center so that that the board could see the behind the scenes. Here's our EOC, this emergency management staff. And on the other half of the building is our communication center where that's where all of our our calls go to and and it it's a huge operation. They have a great uh building over there, but it's it's something to see. I mean, it's it's a huge room full of a lot of people doing a lot of lot of stuff at the same time. Emergency management's under the police department still, correct? Yes. Does the city have access to that as well or is that okay? That's that's a tremendous benefit right there.

We we're already talking about uh some some possible programs that emergency management uh could put on for the staff and and electives. Yeah, that's that's a big benefit. you said educating those other members and and on things like just as you say with those flight ops down there if they were to pay for a helicopter for six hours for searching for somebody there went a big chunk of the budget they were paying for I mean it's probably loaded $1,000 an hour there you know that you're not paying for

just a side note I I got a grant for a traffic enforcement project using we had an airplane at the time I think the airplane's gone now uh in helicopters and to fly the helicopter for an hour was several hundred dollars. To fly the plane was cheaper. So they're like used the plane. Uh but that was, you know, on the interstate. They just circled the interstate and and timed people and we wrote the tickets. So those are those supports that are there that they don't understand.

And and we did it after the tornado. Uh the lieutenant I said, "We need to see this from above. We don't have a drone, but we have a helicopter. So, the lieutenant went up in the helicopter and basically flew the path of the tornado from wherever it started down around 44 and and he's like, "This was awesome to look at this from the sky and see where that just the devastation that this thing did as it moved up and through." So, we took some video of that and passed that on for

we had we had that footage available. That that is a resource that that said, I know that tornado, that one was the one that really, you know, kicked Wildwood a little bit this year. And unfortunately, that one didn't get it got resident support. So, residents could reach out if they had damage from FEMA. They could get loans to, you know, help rebuild their homes or make improvements that they had to get back up and get in good shape. But for the city, they didn't actually award u funding. That said, that video footage was still submitted and would have most likely played a very crucial role in establishing um that said it just didn't Unfortunately, just a note on that storm, the um the soccer fields that got damaged that were going to trigger that uh that assistance actually ended up being covered by their insurance. So, that put us below the threshold. Um so, just an update on that, too. But, it's a very nice resource when you when you have a storm like that to be able to get that footage. something that other cities weren't able to provide to the the state organization, federal organization.

Any other questions, comments? Any other questions or discussions regarding the police contract? Next item of business is the deer management proposal for 2026. All right. Thank you, Mr. Do we need to approve the Oh, yes. Yeah, we didn't have anything on I'm sorry. Yes, please. We're going to back back up here. Uh we've had a lengthy discussion regarding the proposed uh police expense budget for 2026. Any further discussion? I'll entertain a motion to I just have a question. Are there do you want us to approve this also or is thisformational?

Um that will be right. So actually that's a good question. Thank you. uh if you don't mind providing a motion to approve the cost sheet but then also incorporating be the uh if everyone on the board here is okay with that u proceeding with that version and then the department will work that into its draft that it has uh that it's cooking right now we'll have that distributed so you're looking for two motions you're looking for two motions one to support the cost sheet that's been submitted and support the cost sheet yeah cost sheet and then the to uh incorporate the capital capital equipment document that's been distributed to it. All right.

I move that we recommend approval to the council of the budget and capital cost wish list. Second. Second. Any other discussion? All in favor? I I Any opposed? Motion carries. Board recommends uh approval. All right. Next item, uh, deer management proposal 2026.

Thank you, Marshall. Uh, wanted to give a quick update to the group here tonight. I know we've, uh, been discussing this for the last, this is going to be our third year. So, good news on that front. We've actually made some very, very good strides in this regard to be able to start curbing the overpopulation of deer and wildwood. Um, that said, uh, we do have a proposal from White Buffalo. This proposal will be slightly modified. This this item has been reviewed uh by the administration public works committee as well. Um and one of the major components of it and you could share a map here too that Dustin's going to put on the screen. But right now, uh the way that the Northeast one, which was year one's project area, a little bit of maintenance work specifically on two different HOAs that have some common ground that did not participate last year. We're getting some traction actually on both of them now. So, we're hoping to incorporate them as well, but really the focus is going to be on the SE1 region. And once we put this up, it's not necessarily following the most traditional boundaries, but it's going to be taking the SE1 region, which includes where we're at here up to 100 um all the way down to Old State Road going south. Uh that said, one second. We'll have it up here in a second to kind of show what we're thinking. But the idea is um the SE1 region to refer back to some of the population surveys that have already taken place. Uh we had a population survey done in 2020 and also in 2025 for the SE1 region and both of those studies showed approximately 40 deer per square mile in that area. So it was uh in 2020 we saw in the SE1 40.3 deer per square mile and then in 2025 we saw that number increase just a bit to 42.9. Um the goal of the the uh not the goal but the target level that MDC recommends is 20 deer per square mile. That said for the NE1 and NE2 region both of those areas were much more

densely populated. It just know it is what it is. But it was at 94 in the NE1 region and 60.7 I mean uh sorry about that 64.2 in the NE2 region. So those areas they just happen to have a lot more density. So the problem here is that in the proposal there's less deer that they're planning to call because our target is actually 40 not 20 deer per square mile. So that was something that was established by the council. So there's two changes that would be would impact what is being proposed tonight. Uh one we want to do maintenance in here and here it's going to be really trying to get up in the Banshee property. We're looking at how much it would cost to potentially get insurance to cover the spread, if you will. He wants $5 million in liability, which is is pretty large, but we're going to see if the city could maybe spread uh bridge the gap. And then also, we had some gaps in this area here. It's the Wild Horse subdivision, and then you had Garden Valley, uh Shepard Oaks. We actually have a council member in Shepherd Oaks who's going to be able to help us uh get some access to the common ground. But those were really the two areas that had a few really just not enough property access. So we're going to be returning there. Also, we are going to be returning to the area adjacent to 100 here. Uh but the idea is maintenance work really in the NE1 and NE2 region while coming down and focusing on the SE1 region in 26. The special calling zone that we're kind of calling it is we're gonna, you know, clearly here with the N1 and SE1, we're going to be sandwiching Highway 100 and that at least half of it anyways. And the majority of deer vehicle collisions are happening on 109 or 100. We also do see deer collisions on Old State Road, Shepard, Shreker, Allenton. Um, that's really where this is all happening. It's on the higher speed traffic roadways. And the idea is 0.25 miles uh to the east, I mean to the west. And obviously

for Old State Road about 0.25 miles south, we're almost going to hug this area because if you've looked at a property map of the SE1 region first and foremost, we want to make sure we're including the areas that have a little bit more density, which is the SE2 region. But also, there's not many acre properties along Manchester here. So, you actually start opening up a bit down here. We have uh property access for two individuals here, and we also have community park over here that could serve. And those deer are actually living in the same area. But the overall goal tonight is to incorporate what's proposed here while also expanding this special coing zone, if you will, along these streets and then also uh returning back to the anyone in any two region. That will slightly change the the estimate they have for the total number of deer that they plan to call. We do expect it to increase probably to around about maybe 275 to 300 depending on their calculations. Uh the only other component that was discussed by the administration and public works committee uh and should be a topic of discussion at this board as well is the target level the goal level for our city. So right now we're at we had set it to 40 deer per square mile as our uh is where we want the population to be. That does affect uh how many deer they're going to be able to call in a set period of time. We pay them for their time. It's and processing of the meat. It's not for uh you know an individual. Hey, it's per head or what? Anything like that. So, if we're able to, you know, utilize their time efficiently, we can actually remove more deer within the areas that they need to be removed from and pay the same cost. So, that's the idea tonight is to request feedback. Something the administration public works committee was willing to discuss and get numbers for was what is the impact if we change that number to 30 to 35 deer per square mile u for these areas. So, that's going to increase the the number of deer. wouldn't wouldn't really increase the cost except for the processing. Uh the

only other component I'd include there is that we would be planning to move forward and you know just going over the coing operations. We would be pushing for two open houses in November if approved by the council and we would also be having uh pre-sight visits in early December calling operations starting to take place in January after a two week twoe baiting period. Uh that said first two years of the program have been widely successful. uh 661 deer have been effectively removed and donated or tested through MDC. So overall it's uh it's been a pretty good program and we're we're excited to re-engage with White Buffalo. They've been they've been really good to work with. U said very able to answer any questions. We would plan to have an update at the next meeting too. Just keeping everyone informed about how it's going.

Do you have any land owners outside of these zones? Yes. Yes, we do.

Requested that you know you set up shop on their property. Yep. So, we the way it's set up on our website now, if you go to if anybody's listening, uh, city of wildwood.com management. The first thing on the homepage is just says provide feedback. Underneath it, it explains we want access to property is vital because you need an even distribution of sites. That said, we've gotten individuals that have reached out that live all over the city. We have over 275 folks that have submitted forms to participate in some way or fashion. That said, not all of them have, you know, read through the the materials and know that they're in this year's program. The way we try to get a hold of those folks to localize it is we actually do send letters out to people that have, you know, a little bit over 2.5 acres or more in these areas. Um, typically we that's we start generating quite a few responses for these southeast one area and along 109 and Old State Road, that 0.25 mile buffer. um that has generated over 30 uh forms just to date. So it it's a pretty s uh successful program when it comes to communication from residents.

So is there kind of a criteria for lack of a better y so like if you get 500 people that say come to my property I'm sure I'm assuming there's a consistent criteria that decides which properties if we would go to those would be the ones

100%. So the way they look at it, White Buffalo has, you know, an internal process themselves. One item to actually include that should have been brought up with the police, too, is that we're actually working to incorporate potentially one of our park rangers as one of our pre-sight visit individuals that goes out there and helps do do the pre-sight visit. We he only comes out, Ryan Roach, uh the project manager, only comes out in December for pre-sight visit. So it's we need to kind of know where we're at with uh if the site's good because we got to utilize his time. Um well, when he comes here, it's about a week that he's here. He visits sites every day, but you can only do so much in that time frame. So, the idea is you we're going to be prioritizing three acre or more obviously at the front end. We can work with properties that are a little bit smaller, but once you start getting to less than like two acres, it starts to get a little dicey unless you can get an adjacent property owner to participate. But what they're traditionally looking for is typically a relatively flat area, something with a back like they're not wanting to shoot out into the the open space. They it's great when they can have like a a nice deck or something like that would be able to serve as almost a stand a blind and then also have you know an area where it's kind of in a clearing where you know they can actually put the cornmeal that that baits them in. So it it's very specific what they're looking for. They also won't put sites right next to each other. So we've had that happen prior years. We've had, you know, five or six folks on a street reach out to us to to participate, which is great, but we only end up putting on one uh one baiting station out there because you don't want to you you're going to distribute the population more evenly. And if you only have one guy out there, you get three total um that are actually, you know, coing, if you will. Um you want them to all be concentrated and you pretty much knock out a family at a time. You know, you try to hit the mother and the two fawns that might be with her and you get them out there as soon as possible. But the idea is to get them all in one localized place.

Sure. I can actually show to a kind of a distribution from last year's site too. One second. In the meantime, I'm available to answer any other questions. Yes, sir. Mr. Wilson, do I understand correctly the meat gets processed and then the city donates it?

That's correct. So, the contract requires and it uh both years it's been the same and third year it's expected to be the same. uh when the deer gets cold, it gets removed that same night. It gets transported to a local de uh meat processor. That individual has two options practically. It either goes through the meat processor and then gets donated directly to local food pantries through share the harvest MDC uh program or it goes directly to the St. Louis Zoo. They get part of the permit the city acquires is a almost like a permission slip for the St. Louis zoo to get a certain number of these deer. And what they do with them, they actually move them over to the Eureka Red Wolf Sanctuary where those wolves, they are not able to eat processed meat. So, they actually just give them the carcass uh which serves as a as a great u substance for those individual wolves. That said, not a single deer goes to waste. The first year there were some that got uh that got tested like full out. Typically how they'll do it with processing is they will remove you know portion of the brain stem or the spine to be able to test for any type of chronic diseases u before obviously giving that meat away. But in general the first year we had about 20 or so deer that were you know they completely dissected them and took them apart to make sure they could get a better accurate reading of what our the really the issues that may be facing our population. Happy to report they didn't find anything out of the norm. no chronic wasting disease, anything like that. But you start to get that type of disease when you have this type of overpopulation. So luckily it seems to be getting curbed.

And the the funding for this contract comes from the general operation.

It does come from the general fund, but back in 2023, this has been a kind of a topic of discussion since it it first got kicked in. when the first year happened, it was always it's a large expenditure quite frankly and it's kind of in the middle of is this a more of a capital project or is this a uh just a normal operating expense. That said, the council was adamant about including this as a at least a five-year program to roll it out and see the the benefits of it. They actually in 2023 moved $1 million into its own dedicated deer management fund to help fund the program for at least the first five years. Most likely looking like it'll be about six years if we if we do it right.

Um I I know there's been a lot of development of wooded areas into recently. Has there been any thought given to requiring the developers to contribute to that fund because they are essentially eliminating the habitat for these deer causing them to move? I haven't seen uh I we could the department could do some research on that. I haven't seen anything in in any other city's laws about that. I don't know if we can actually tie it directly to it. I know right now we do a traffic generation assessment based off the number of parking spots practically that they're adding. Uh there would have to be some further research and I don't I don't know if legally we could do it but it's not a bad idea. Just a thought.

Just a question. You know I listened the other night admin and public works the extensive discussion you guys had. A great point I thought was made because I know there's been discussion from the bow hunters about their participation and somebody said well yeah we would hope that they would do their best do their part in it you know and a question I have regarding that is is there a way that in wildwood they could get a license or a per I'm not a hunter that a permit that says if you're hunting in wildwood instead of getting one deer you can get six deers and that would make them happy and the trusty issue.

I honestly that would be very nice. We do have so there's a couple couple items within that question. It's a good question. Uh one people can hunt in Wildwood. You know, it is something that in the share the harvest program is is active in Wildwood. You can get those types of tags. Reach out to MDC. Um so they could donate the food as well if they've already filled their freezer. Uh the other side of that though is the city could in we've tried to reach out to MDC on this. They haven't been too receptive about kind of giving the lease out, if you will. They work with White Buffalo quite a bit. But that said, we we've kind of pushed them on that to say, "Hey, could we somehow tie in that if you're in Wildwood, since we have this issue, maybe it issues more tags, they haven't been very receptive." Um the other side of it and just to note more on the bow hunting it it is something we want to support those hunters because if they are able to you know call the herd themselves and we we can yeah we could set it down and and trust me that I think the whole team here would would be happy for them but um there are firearm regulations. I did talk with a couple residents today that were asking if they they don't hunt themselves but they said they've got some reachouts. Those folks I just recommended that yes please I mean you're more than welcome to do it but just please read and I sent over the firearm regulations. Um, I would just mention it it is a little bit I almost call this a strategic calling operation each year that we do because I mean it last year it was 361 deer in like 25 days. I mean that's just something that quite frankly you would have to you'd have to really have some some skill with the bow.

Oh, and I I think you should keep this. I'm just saying enhance the other part and it'll help with the problem. I agree.

Yeah. So that said, um, folks want to reach out to us, we can, and we've tried, the other thing, too, and I'll speak on that a little bit. We have tried to reach out to some of the property owners that reach out to us that might not be in our area for that year's operation. We've asked them a couple times, hey, uh, this idea of almost creating a portal, not necessarily publishing information on a website or anything because you don't want people's private information getting out to the public, but something that, hey, we know this hunter likes to hunt this time of year. they they get their tags, they do everything right. Uh could we connect them with people that maybe aren't in the area for that year? And the residents that we've talked to thus far, it's always a question we had after we've convinced them to let us work with them. Uh but there are folks that they get a little uncomfortable with the idea unless they know the person. If they they always have that caveat, well, if it was a person I knew, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But do they always then ask, "Do you know these people?" And we not necessarily. we haven't vetted them and that's where you start having to get a program in there to vet them and the easiest solution would be for MDC to possibly increase their tax and that's something

does the Lasowl is the Lasal property in this year's target area did it go down that far I'm just wondering that seems like a big track of land that it's along there l it'll be that one it's close enough too where if we need to it can it could be I didn't know that I don't know who owns that now but they'd be interested big big chunk of land that is uh well they're definitely it they most likely have already gotten a letter

question Thomas I know posed a question last year about carcass processing so I was looking MDC sent out a thing today saying hey we need more hunters to do share the harvest so I I struggle and that's not paid for by the state there's that's independently paid for I mean I was looking at the whole group. It's paid for by Bass Pro and Gateway Area Chambers, all kinds of different groups. But it would seem like they're looking for more meat to be donated. They pay for processing. Here's this clean boom boom boom that there'd be some pitch to sell that to them. You know, hey, we'll do it. Here's how it's organized. It'll be over the days all brought it once. I don't know. It just seem that's 35,000 in there. But agree to get rid of that's a I I don't disagree with you. I think MDC kind of looks at it as we're they know we're going to do it and they're going to do the program and they're almost like we have to we couldn't do the program if they didn't give us the permit,

right? So, it's almost we haven't had success with them, you know, helping us pay for that portion of it. They have not been very receptive. So, that's something, you know, quite frankly, we could have someone that might be something we could do have MDC, you know, participate in a meeting or two. And it's actually it's administered by Conservation Federation of Missouri. That's the share of the harvest. Yeah. Yeah. They share the harvest. And then there's private funding underneath all that. That's where Bass Pro Shop, a lot of those are the ones who are providing the funds for that. And is that more recent than uh this year? Is that like that?

That's kind of what I looked at last year. And I just I just got the email today. It was today saying, "Hey, we need more hunters. You always step up. We need more hunters." I don't like you can we'll look back into that see if they have any updates for us.

And I don't know if even like you know they have two processors in St. Louis County is maybe the endound going to them also and saying hey we'd like can you help us sell this? Yeah. And I know that the processes are a little little tricky just because they have um the ones they go to, they're usually hunting really, you know, at night. You know, it's right around this time. They'll hunt till about 11, you know, 12:00 in some instances. Uh that said, they the deer processors, they they almost have like a special agreement set up with these folks because they need to get the the deer taken care of, right? And so that might have a role to play because typically they have normal standard business operating hours. This one they kind of allow these late night walk-ins if you will with all these deer. So I that's what at least has been explained to us, but we can go at and ask again.

All right. Any other discussion on the deer management proposal? Uh Marshall, if you don't mind, uh could we get if the board is uh supportive and we can have that as part of it too to look into the processing portion of it, but uh in a motion to recommend moving this to the city council, the agreement with the modifications which includes kind of expanding the zone and and also if anybody wanted to discuss the the 30 or 35 target goal versus 40, um that would be also up to discussion. But right now the count the committee that had reviewed it had been at review 30 to 35 to see what that does to the numbers and then come back with that to the council.

So in order for us to get down to 30 to 35 per square mile that's obviously going to impact the numbers that they have to take. Yep. That's correct.

And so I guess my question would be before we try to get down to 35 or 30 are we at 40 where we want to be? Right now we're we're at and there's a variance because it is just human collected data with the tri the transexs that get followed but in the SE1 region we're at about 42.8 is what was recorded this year. That's pretty close to where we're targeting. So it's that didn't really allow them too much wiggle room to be able to actually go in and really curve the herd if you will. They do account for a one point it's a conservative number 1.2% recruitment rate which is just the repopulation of the deer each year. So that is worked into it kind of shows that the population will keep growing. Uh but it would increase really what we would do is you would increase the price slightly with the deer proc the carcass processing but the overall days they spend here would not really change. You would actually end up seeing the cost per deer go down.

So and so increasing the number harvested to reduce the number per square mile. Yep. at the end will how will that impact the price of the contract?

So they are getting paid the so when you look at the agreement pop this back open when you look at the agreement you'll notice that it has you know the sharpshooting other supplies the mileage like really it's a nonprofit organization so they're covering their costs plus the the people that the employees that are paid to be out here. It's four people individually three sharpshooters and one guy that serves as the removal individual. Uh that said, the the one cost that really will change unless there's a massive change in the number of getting cold. Right now there's planned for 239. We do think that number will be adjusted upwards to 300 if we make this change. That said, they're going to still be here for 27 days. That's the plan currently. That the only change that would occur is that the processing fee would increase if we can't get MDC to help offset. Um it would increase and then they would still just be here 27 days. So if the target goes down, they would be able to be authorized to remove more deer in that.

So yeah, so that's my question. So other than the fact that if we take the base cost is going to rem remain the same. That's not going to change. What may change is if we elect to go down to 35 and they take additional deer, there might be a processing cost. Yes. Reflective of that. And then that's what you're looking for the board to look at.

Yeah. I wanted to kind of hear if the board had I know that as a community when we first kind of kicked off this program 40 was established and we had the recommendation from the MDC at 20 deer per square mile as the target level for you know healthy herd communities and then we decided to put that 40 on there. I think it was partially, you know, because we didn't want to, you know, go overboard, if you will, but also I think, you know, it was getting started and I think if you looked at it to get it down to 20, it would be a pretty mon monumentous tu. And this question, I don't mean to put you on the spot. So, let's assume that we say, "Yeah, let's try to take it to 35. Do we have enough money allocated to cover?" All right. So, that would be my question.

Yes, we would still get through the we we're on pace now to get through the first full five years. No problem. then we should be sailing right in. So, anybody anyone on the board have questions on what he's saying? Yeah. No, I'm just kind of curious. It's like if for the the 27 days they're sharpshooting, if we want them to take more, they will. But if we only want to take so many, isn't it possible to do it less than 27 days then?

Well, I'm just kind of It's like we can do more if you want that day, but do more on something. They're saying that this is how many they this is the number of days they need to be out here here, especially in the SC1 region where they're just going to stop pulling the trigger because they've already met met their quota for that area. So that's the whole conservation port. They're using an equation to be at 40 deer per square mile. And typically we we've done the density studies, you see a couple roads that are a little bit more dense than others. You just get more sightings. So they are going to target in on those and they'll probably be more there than over there. uh one area then over another. That said, it's really comes down to they're still having to visit all these sites. They still need the same number of sites. It's just how many times are they going to so and so poultry?

Mr. Wilson, so they get paid for their time. Is there any um tie in to their success rate? I mean, this I we can report that the first two years they did meet their quotas. the second year they went six over they got an amendment from MDC. So they it the the good news about this I mean at least for the sense that you know and folks want to question like hey you know the surveys and the actual density itself if they don't meet their quota that in and of itself says what your density is that means hey you're good to go if they don't meet their quota I think that would be a big sign that that area does not need to be city's only recourse is we're not going to use you next year.

Yeah. So that's correct and I'm just ballparking here. Do we know how many roughly how many square and here's what I'm getting at. Let's assume we say let's go for 30 means we're taking 10 additional per square mile and we know roughly what the cost is per deer. How many square miles are we talking about total? It's about it's a little less. I know it's more than I think it's like six square miles or so. It's not it's not all too large. So we're really only talking about taking on best case scenario another 60 gear.

Yes. But there is, and I'd have to get my spreadsheet out, but there is also the recruitment level they incorporate in there. So, it's not just simply taking the number of deer in a certain area and then just multiplying it out by per year level. It incorporates that conservative 1.2, which is on the low end, and then that's that's your total number for that year. So, and yes, Mr. Gleason. Um, just other quick I know we we have somebody oversee it from Wildwood, a retired I don't know if Brad's still doing that this year. He wants to bow out, but one of the park officers will. Okay. Is that paid for through this or is that

park? The park is Oh, yes. So, that is not paid for through this. Uh, Sergeant Wendling. It was not a very large contract. It was like a little bit over a thousand bucks or something like that for each year. It was not anything crazy. That said, his uh park ranger will be included as part of the services provided to the city. That is coded though under the deer management fund as a deer management expense. So it that'll save us a little bit of money, but in the grand scheme of things, the majority just curious where that I didn't see it in there where that hit.

Okay. This is this year I think will be a lot more controversial with our bow hunters. you know, they spent several half an hour or so Monday night, half an hour or so Tuesday night because they believe that we're totally eliminating all the deer in in W three and you know, they want to make sure that their grandkids can go hunting with them and all that. So, you know, and they're residents, so you just have to be really careful. Uh but they um they haven't been that way in the past and and so before we talked about trying to make sure nobody knew where we were doing the baiting and these guys are going to be all over it. So I just think that's another part that we have to be aware of a little bit different this year because they would just assume we don't allow that. They should be not allowed to use guns. They should be using bows.

So they don't want it to be challenging. They want to just want to make sure. and a lot of their stuff that I mean you just can't argue with them but there wasn't a whole lot of truth in the information they had to start with even in the numbers. So

and that and that does tie in you know more so from the property access standpoint. The thing that you know does concern at least from the recruitment side for trying to get folks to to join up is you know those folks obviously everything we do is public record so they they could potentially we knock on the door and then right after that they're knocking on the door to say I would rather I can do it. Don't don't listen to the city. So the hope is we're actually planning to meet with them uh that group to see if there are ways to incorporate them and figure out if that connection could be made. That said, you know, if a resident that we talked to that does have property doesn't want their information shared with the hunting community, we're not going to share it. U they can request it if it's a public record, but typically we don't have that unless they sign up. So I guess the question I would throw out to the board is do we want to authorize White Buffalo to go for a target of 35 or 30 understanding that they're not going to take all them from one zone that when they reach their target date number in one zone they move to another zone.

That's correct. So, how do we need to verbalize that to be we need to I think adjust down to third. I'm just trying to get exactly I think what Mr. Lee is looking for is a res or a motion from this board to support White Buffalo attempting to achieve a target reduction to 30 or 35. That that range is helpful because we're going to get numbers back for both. Do you want one or the other or just separate? Well, I mean quite frankly 30 would be

I would say let's let's authorize white buffalo to attempt a target range of reduc taking the necessary steps to reduce the herd to a population between 30 and 35 deer per square mile. So moved. Yeah. Second discussion. Yes sir. What did we do in the admin committee? I thought we sent you. We gave you a number. We did. So, are we going to get conflicts of different numbers then for public safety and ad get numbers for 30 to 35 and bring them both back to council? That was my Yeah, I just just as long as they're both the same number silly for us to give a number and admin has already done a number.

Yeah, that's why I was kind of pushing on that at the committee meeting just so everyone's clear there too and this is recorded as well. Um the discussion was go back get 30 to 35 see how that impacts the numbers and bring that to the city council once we have the the contract up for discussion. So we've had the motion we've had discussion. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Opposition? Motion carries. Right. Um, next item is proposed parking restrictions on West Glenn Farms Drive at Green Pines Elementary. I think before we get discussion on this, I think we touched on this earlier, the uh that we have traffic congestion on a narrow road, not traffic congestion, but lane restrictions when people show up early to access the parking lot to pick up students at Green Pine. So the question is is will the board support the addition of or the installation of additional parking restrictions as reflected up here? Mr.

I guess I would just ask the C I mean the people are still going to pick their kids up. So where are we pushing this line to? They just need to come on time as I Yeah, that would be great. Well, but what do you think's really going to happen with with the uh with that gate being closed that your little driveway there will accommodate two cars. So, the first two get there first and then the rest. They were coming early early. You know, school gets out at 3 3 out there. So, if we post it, will you guys write it? Oh, absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Because I know that they had 20 lined up there early on, but it's done much better now.

Those same 20 people are going to be somewhere. St. Parents, they're going to come back to drop them off tomorrow, too. I understand what Mr. Loy is saying. Those those same 20 people are going to be somewhere else, but they won't be on this downhill curb parking. They can park further up the street where it's okay or there's a side street bab. I just want to save this slide so that a year from now when the when the pink line goes up there, [Music] that's a bigger to your point. you've been in 15 minutes, problem solved. I mean, and it's a it is a shortterm issue and

you know, I already told traffic guys, I said, "Go park across the street from the gate so that they see that we're there and they need to make a make a lap. If they if they come a couple minutes early, they need to make a lap. So, but like we said, once the gates open, it's just traffic immediately turning in there and they're gone." Kevin, to confirm, I mean, did you you said that the people are able to line up in the front portion, too, right? They Yeah, they can go down to the to the main entrance in the front of the school and park there. They typically want those people to be like picking up early or special purpose type things. The buses go in the front entrance. Um, both of them. Yeah, both. Yeah, both buses. All two. There's only two.

And a taxi cab, right? I think that's about it. Uh so there are parents that if they get there late or whatever once the gates closed they got to go to the front you know to begin with. So I I you open this up for discussion I would say this I think that restricting parking there my for my opinion is a good idea because the minute we start allowing people to park along there eventually we're going to have parents telling their kids hey just run up the street. Now we got kids moving in between moving cars and parked cars on a street that goes downhill around a curve to parking on both loud on both sides. I think that this is something that's predictable and preventable and we put the parking signs up to at least say that we did our part.

That that's actually what happened on the other side of the school. The parents tell them you're a walker. So then the kid would would walk to the edge of the property and then be running across the street because their parents were waiting on the other side. So we've restricted that parking already, right?

I know we say no parking. Is that no parking or is it need to be like no parking? It just says no parking ever. So no parking. It's not like during school or on weekends. I just meant sometimes where they're like, "Well, I'm not parked. I'm Some of them I thought we had no parking standing or Yeah, we do, but not here. These will be no parking ever. No, because nobody lives on that side where it starts. What I do think might happen though is they will probably queue up in front of those homes above the no parking signs, which then puts the rear end of the cars out in that four-way stop sign in the intersection. So, it'll be another one of the issues, right? But so far

we got signs for that. Yeah. Bashed up for that. That will happen in the first couple of days when people get used to it. It's great now though. It's much better than it is. I think that this is the right move. Yep. For a lot of reasons. It's just in the red area. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's about 12 headed deer that live in that woods right there that we can't shoot. But there are 12 deer in there. I've never been down there or walked around that I couldn't at least find four of them in just behind the school and behind those houses on force leaf just

buffalo will be glad to go there because they come on up to my house after that. They're terrible. Can't have a gun within what? Yep. What do I do if I live within a thousand feet of the school? You can't shoot him there either. No. I think I I think like you're well I'd have to actually look at the code provision there if you like live within 1,000 feet and if you are at your home and you have it legally possessed I thought it was 300 feet from the house. I think that might Australia shepherd we never have to worry about pool I actually have six deer that live in my backyard.

All right. So, I think I think the purpose of the discussion was to decide if we want to uh make a motion to support the installation of new parking signs along the south side of West Clint Farms in the area indicated in red. Just one other does the principal know that that's okay. Okay. Yeah. And I I'll credit her with she's taking a lot of

She's doing a good job. She's trying really hard. She and and it was all in the interest of there was too much going on with with kids crossing between cars. She like this has got to stop. Something's going to happen. So So that she'd done a great job. Always easier to say why did you versus why didn't you do it? So you need a motion. I need a motion to support the installation of no parking signs on the south side of West Glenn Farms uh at the area indicated in red. I make that motion.

Second motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? Motion passes in support of installation of stop signs in the area indicated on red. Not stop. Sorry. No parking. Stop. Did you want to vote? All those in favor? I I All those opposed. And you're okay with it, right? Ed motion. It's already up. They look great. You guys are so fast. That was yesterday or the day before they went up. So,

all right. Uh, next item on the agenda is miscellaneous. I show no items. Mr. Brown, do we have any last minute items we need to address? Next meeting date is December the 11th. I believe it's the second Thursday of the month. Uh and at this point I'll entertain a motion for adjournment. So move second. We have a motion. We have a second for adjournment. All uh any discussion in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. just