Ellendale Meeting Notes for November 9, 2015
A PDF of the meeting notes can be downloaded by clicking here.
MEETING NOTES
Location: Abbott EMS, 2500 Abbott Place, St. Louis, Missouri
Matt Sisul, President, welcomed the Assembly and thanked everyone for being at the meeting. He then handed the floor over to Tracy Swabi from Abbott EMS.
Tracy Swabi, Business Development Managers at Abbott, and Kelsey Cochran, and a Abbott crew member, Nick, joined Lloyd Henry in recognizing one of Ellendale’s own, Randy Munton, owner of the 7-11 at the corner of Southwest and McCauland Avenues, for the generous support he has provided Abbott EMS and its crew members over the years.
Tracy and the others presented Randy with a framed certificate and a cake.
Tracy thanked the Assembly for allowing her the opportunity to present this recognition to Randy and turned the floor back to Matt.
Call to Order 7:04 p.m.
Matt Sisul, President, called the meeting to order and immediately introduced the first special speaker for the evening, Alderman Scott Ogilvie.
Ald. Ogilvie recapped recent 24th Ward issues:
The Joe-K Used Cars location (6741 Manchester Ave), which has been for sale, has been purchased by The Gathering church (2105 McCausland Ave) and they plan to build a new church that can possibly hold up to 500-600 people. There current location on McCausland holds approximately 250. Construction may not begin fro a year.
Ald. Ogilvie said he has recently spoken with MSD (Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District) regarding the Southwest closure and was told they are within two months of completion. This means, hopefully, they will be complete by the end of the year.
Ald. Ogilvie spoke about a bill he helped pass in City Hall on Friday (November 6) that will make it easier for people who work from their homes to get licenses to do so.
Ald. Ogilvie told the Assembly the stadium issue will occupy his time over the next few months.
The Alderman opened the floor up to questions.
Question: Will there be restrictions on home-based businesses?
Ald. Ogilvie explained the restrictions will be about the same. In the old process home-based business would have attend a conditional use hearing and most were approved with conditions, but they would have to wait between six to eight weeks to get the conditions. In the new process by moving the conditions part of the process to the beginning, the process is sped up. This also reduces the number of trips the home-based business owner needs to make to City Hall.
Question: Does the 24th Ward have leaf pickup?
Ald. Ogilvie said that more of the City has leaf pick up than does not and the City tends to cater leaf pick more to areas with larger trees and larger amounts of leafs, but leaf pick up is not everywhere.
Concern: A resident voiced her concerns about street parking near her home for herself and her elderly neighbors impaired by customers of Southwest Diner. On the weekends it is difficult to go shopping and park near their homes during the diner’s operating hours. Sometimes she and her neighbors have to parks over a block and a half away and carry their groceries and other purchases a great distance. She herself is disabled and her neighbors are elderly and disabled. She would like to know what the City can do to avoid this situation?
Ald. Ogilvie explained that the streets are public parking. Anywhere you have a place of business that is doing well there will be parking issues along the streets.
A discussion followed where the resident expressed her disappointment in the situations spoke adamantly about the issue. Several suggestions were made during the discussion.
Matt interjected to keep the meeting on track as this was our first time hearing about this issue. He asked the resident if he could speak with her separately so the meeting could continue.
Concern: A resident on Odell brought up his concerns for the repetitive flooding that occurs on his property and what MSD is doing to address the issue. A discussion and short history about the flooding issues followed.
Ald. Ogilvie, aware of the situation, said he will revisit the issues with Lance Lacomb to figure out what has happened, what has been accomplished, and what still needs to be done for this particular property.
Further discussion continued, however, Matt interjected to keep the meeting moving and reconfirmed that Ald. Ogilvie will follow up on this matter with MSD.
With no other questions for Ald. Ogilvie, he returned the floor to Matt.
7:29
Matt introduced Officer Don Veile, our St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) District 2 Liaison.
Officer Veile handed out two documents. The first was a memo put out to the police about tire thefts in the District. He explained that spare tires are being stolen from certain vehicles. The handout showed a map of theft locations and Officer Veile asked that if anyone sees people taking tires from cars in the middle of the night to call 9-1-1.
The other handout was a table of data reporting crime stats for the District and Officer Veile pointed out Ellendale’s stats. The largest numbers were for larceny.
Officer Veile concluded by asking if anyone has an issue they would like address at a meeting to contact the ENA Board prior to the meeting and they will contact him so that he can prepare the appropriate information. Officer Veile also provided his phone number (314-444-0168) as well as the phone for Captain Deeba (314-444-0120) who is the Commander of the Second District.
Officer Veile then opened the floor for questions.
Concern: A resident spoke up about the increase in graffiti he has been seeing.
Officer Veile explained that “tagging” is one of the issues that has been increasing lately and it is becoming a competitive thing. Officer Veile speculated that the taggers are mostly white males, County residents, competing with each other and posting their work on social media. .
Questions: One resident asked several home security questions.
Officer Veile along with Matt provided some explanations of rights that citizens have to protect themselves, including referencing what is commonly referred to as the Castle Doctrine.
Seeing no other questions, Officer Veile returned the floor to Matt.
7:38
Matt introduced Andrew Hernandez, our Neighborhood Improvement Specialist (NIS).
Mr. Hernandez express how glad he was to be at the meeting and glad to see so many new faces as compared to the last Ellendale meeting he attended (prior to the re-organization).
Mr. Hernandez explained his job is to help residents live a better life in the City and that his job deals mainly with nuisance properties. He asked if every knew about the Citizen’s Service Bureau? (A few people said no.) Mr. Hernandez explained the Citizen’s Service Bureau (CSB) is who residents call to report all sorts of things including nuisance issues. Mr. Hernandez handed out an informative flyer describing various issue types. He also handed out a sample reporting card and explained that when you call the CSB the information you provide is reported on these cards which are then entered into the system. He continued by providing a couple of reporting scenarios.
Mr. Hernandez also provided some Lock It flyers, which explain about not leaving anything in your cars if you park outside.
Mr. Hernandez then opened the floor to questions.
Question: A resident who lives along Canterbury asked about the status of Wilkinson School and what to do about the weeds that overgrow there in the Summertime.
Ald. Ogilvie said the school is up for sale, but admitted that the City is slow in maintaining all the various properties it has.
Mr. Hernandez added that until there is a new property owner it will be tricky, but the City is subject to the same regulations. He explained the process of reporting tall grass and how the Forestry Department will cite them for a violation, and eventually, if they can not comply, Forestry will come in and cut the grass (and charge them), but this process could take up to 30 days.
Question: A resident explained the field off of Magnolia seems to have an issue with coyotes or wolves and they are harassing my dogs — coming up under our privacy fence. How much force can we take to protect ourselves against them?
A short discussion followed, but Matt interjected and due to time and requested the resident speak with him afterward regarding the property in question.
Question: A resident asked what determines what and when Forestry actually comes out to do something? The resident gave a particular example of a fallen tree branch on Ellendale.
Mr. Hernandez discussed the process and mentioned even your should always call in a couple of days it nothing has happened yet, especially when the things in question is obstructing a street or right of way.
Concern: A resident who lives near Canterbury and Tennyson is concerned with people speeding on Canterbury and driving along it as if it were a four-lane street. Without the stop sign at the crosswalk by the (Wilkinson) school, there is nothing to slow them down anymore.
Mr. Hernandez asked Officer Veile if he could see about having SLMPD take a look at speeding in that area.
With no other questions, Mr. Hernandez returned the floor to Matt.
7:50
Matt thanked all of the guest speakers. He continued by explaining, for those who may be unaware, that this Association has been inactive for quite a while and during the process to re-establish it, the Organization Committee and the residents who attended the first meetings recommended (based on past attendance and interest) and chose to limit the frequency of meetings to every other month. We don’t expect to have as many speaking guests as we had tonight, but we felt since they have not had an opportunity to address the residents in such a long time that having them speak tonight was appropriate. However, if we see an interest and need to increase the frequency of our meetings we will address that at future meetings.
Matt continued by introducing the Officers who were elected at September’s meeting.
Matt Sisul, President, introduced himself.
Jacqui Kamp, Vice President, introduced herself.
Joe Nea, Treasurer, introduced himself.
Angela Sebben, Communication Officer, introduced herself.
Matt reiterated that the Association has just re-organized. We updated and approved a draft of our By-Laws in July, which allowed us to move forward and elect Officers at our September meeting. And now, as Officers, we would like the Assembly to formally approve the By-Laws.
Matt paused a moment to briefly explain that everyone present at the meeting is a current member in good standing. Dues will not be collected until January. For those residents who have kindly already paid dues, those dues will be put towards your 2016 dues.
Returning to the By-Laws, Matt motioned to formally approve the draft By-Laws that were approved in July.
Irene Jones seconded the motion.
Matt asked by a yea or nay vote to formally approving the draft By-Laws. All in favor. No opposed. Motion passes.
Matt continued and explained that in order for the new Association to function and accept dues we need to re-establish a bank account and in order to do that we need certain official documents in place, one being the By-Laws which were just approved, and another being formal meeting minutes recognizing the election of the Officers. The meeting notes that Angela took at the September meeting include the information needed.
Matt motioned to formally approve the September Meeting Notes as the official Meeting Minutes.
Barry Marquart seconded the motion.
Matt asked by a yea or nay vote to formally approving the September Meeting Notes as Minutes. All in favor. No opposed. Motion passes.
Next, Matt explained that in our By-Laws are five Officer positions and we still have one vacant position: Secretary.
Matt opened the floor for nominations for Secretary.
Barry Marquart nominated himself for the position.
Matt Sisul seconded Barry’s nomination.
Seeing no other nominations, Matt asked by a yea or nay vote to elect Barry as Secretary. All in favor. No opposed. Motion passes.
Barry joined the Officers at the head table.
Resident interjected: She wanted to thank the Board for stepping forward do doing all they have done to get the organization back on its feet again.
8:01
Next, Matt passed the floor to Angela to explain the Association’s various communication routes.
Angela pointed out the small, quarter-page, flyers on the tables throughout the room. She explained there are three communication routes that we have been focusing on.
Website: www.ellendalena.wix.com/ellendale
We built an online presence that does not require any sort of membership — it is available to anyone with internet access. It includes a blog on the home page where announcements, meeting recaps, and other notable feature will be posted and can be shared. There is also a Resources tab with link to other information. There is also a Contact page from which you can submit comments, question, concerns, and anything else and it will get to the Officers.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/ellendalena.stl/
Nextdoor.com
The ENA is also encouraging residents to sign up on Nextdoor.com. This is a location-based community that has been adopted by the City of St. Louis as one of its own communication routes. On Nextdoor.com you will find items we post, but you will also find information from neighboring communities and from the City of St. Louis agencies.
Question from a resident: Have the dues changed?
Matt confirmed that the dues have not changes from the previous Association. They are $6 per person per year ($3 for 65 or older), and $24 per business per year.
Matt returned to reiterate that the speakers tonight have their contact information online, but if you need to get in touch with them you can also contact Matt with issues.
Matt Sisul, (314) 606-3427
Matt continued the meeting by touching on the formation of sub-committees. He asked the residents to consider helping to focus efforts on various Neighborhood issues. Suggested sub-committees could include:
Property Improvement / Housing Development
Streets and Planning (for example there have been discussions regarding the traffic light at Arsenal and McCausland and a sub-committee could focus on related issues and report their findings at meetings)
Parks and Recreation (to focus on fun things as well)
Matt did not ask for volunteers at the meeting, but asked for people to think about ideas for sub-committees and hopes to also have volunteers to be part of them.
8:06
Matt opened the floor up to new business.
Lloyd Henry, of Abbott EMS, addresses the Assembly to explain the Socks for Seniors program for which Abbott is a donation location and asked if residents could donate sock of all types. They will be collecting socks through December 11.
Seeing no other new business, Matt said he would entertain a motion for adjournment.
Christine Sisul motioned to adjourn the meeting.
Charlie White seconded the motion.
Matt adjourned the meeting at 8:10 p.m.
Mingling continued to about 8:30 p.m.
The next Ellendale Neighborhood Association meeting
will be held on Monday, January 11, 2016, at 7:00p.m.
at Abbott EMS, 2500 Abbot Place, St. Louis.