Tower Grove Heights Neighborhood Association Meeting

August 25, 2009 7:20 p.m. 30 attendees

President Mark Froese chaired the meeting.

Cindy Riordan, Customer Service Manager of the Citizens’ Service Bureau, discussed the goals of this City department and how it functions. She distributed the Citizens' Service Bureau handout and the City of St. Louis Good Neighbor Guide. The Citizens’ Service Bureau functions as a centralized call center for questions about and requests for city government services. In addition, they prioritize the requests so that calls about problems like a dumpster blocking an alley can be processed more quickly. They are available by phone (314-622-4800) M-F, 8-5, or through the Web site stlouis.missouri.org. When requests come in, the Bureau will route them to the appropriate department. A Service Request number is assigned and a target completion date is given to the caller. The outcome of these Service Requests is also available. Note that the name and phone number of the person placing the request are not part of the public record. They get approximately 120,000 calls a year, with Monday morning being their busiest time.

Mike Colona, State Representative for our District 67, discussed his work at the legislative session that ended in May. He is on the Crime Prevention and Insurance Policy committees which worked on laws preventing false insurance cards. He is also on the Elections and the Local Government Committees. He worked to protect the historic tax credit which has been vital in the restoration of areas such as TGH. The compromise reached on this was that the funding would be capped at $150 million, not counting projects that were less than $1 million. As far as the fiscal status of the state, Missouri took some of the Federal stimulus money. Some of this money was used on projects to put people to work while some was set aside to help cover potential budget shortfalls. Mike noted that unlike several states, Missouri has a good credit rating.

Mark reminded the group that Autumn Fest will be held October 10th. The Gazette will have an article on the Autumn Fest and will include a tear-out ticket order form. To encourage more families to participate, the intersection of Spring and Utah will be blocked and free children’s events will be held there from 5 p.m. – 6 p.m. Carriage rides will be available again and the event will run from 6-9 p.m. The first house at 3877 Utah Place will have wine and hors d'œuvres, the second house at 3734 Utah Place will have desserts and 3810 Utah Place will have wine and music. The cost is $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

The Block Captains’ meeting will be on Monday, August 31st. The name of the meeting is being changed to the Tower Grove South Neighborhood meeting, since all residents are encouraged to attend. Tom Reitenbach noted that there are openings for Block Captains, so please let Mark or Tom know if you’re interested in helping. Information about the Block Captains as well as additional neighborhood information is available on the TGH Website http://www.towergroveheights.com/ . The TGH Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TowerGroveHeights/ also has notices and additional neighborhood information so residents are encouraged to join.

The Great Streets Initiative held several meetings attended by approximately 100 people relating to the Grand Ave. improvements. These meetings described the proposed plans and voting on these proposals took place at the final meeting as well as online. Three follow-up meetings will be held September 10^th. A letter from the South Grand Community Improvement District (CID) was available at the meeting for residents to sign showing their support of the project.

Mark mentioned that elections for the TGHNA Board will be held at the November meeting. There are openings for President Elect and Treasurer so let Mark or any of the Board members know if you’re interested in running for any of the Board positions.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

Claudia Seifert, Secretary