Tower Grove Heights Neighborhood Association Meeting

Feb. 24, 2010, 7:25 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

17 attendees

David Bruns, President

· Joe Keaveny, Missouri State Senator for the 4th District, is sponsoring two bills –

o Bill 643 would allow the City of St. Louis to control its police force without state intervention through the passage of an ordinance.

o Bill 822 would increase the penalty for seat belt violations from $10 to $50. Senator Keaveny will be at our May meeting to reports on the results of the current Senate session.

· Mark Abbott will discuss the history of Tower Grove Heights and his book on the topic at next month’s meeting.

Noelle Wyman, AmeriCorps volunteer with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE)

· Reviewed issues related to sewage overflow and storm water runoff. To help prevent this runoff, the Great Streets initiative on Grand has plans to decrease the impervious surfaces.

· One of these techniques is that the new “bulb-out” areas of are designed to include rain gardens (a total of 53 gardens). Rain gardens are shallow depressions planted with native species that capture runoff from impervious surfaces and allow it to soak into the ground.

· Since the completion of the Great Streets work will be done in phases due to funding availability, money for the rain gardens is not yet available.

· The East West Gateway Council has applied for a grant for use in this area and if awarded, will be received in 2012. Until the funding for natural planting of these rain gardens is received, turf or other alternative plantings will be used. Volunteer work will be requested for maintenance of the gardens until they become established.

Laura Johnson, Johnson Architectural Services

· Laura is a resident on Humphrey who has been working with Jennifer Florida, our 15th Ward Alderman, on methods for paving the remaining four unpaved alleys in our area (the Humphrey and McDonald sides of north and south Utah Place.)

· Samples of the pervious pavers and the current bricks were available for comparison. The pervious pavers can be created to match the color of the existing bricks and will allow excessive storm water to sink into the ground rather than to run off into the sewers or pool in the alleys.

· One of the four alleys is already funded by a Community Development block grant (3600-3700 block of Humphrey/Utah). The city has turned in a 319 grant (funding for projects to reduce pollution, including that which occurs though storm water runoff) with the Department of Natural Resources to try to get funding for the remaining 3 alleys. The work that is funded is scheduled to start at the end of the year. If funded, the rest of the work would be done in the next two years.

· The Missouri Sewer District (MSD) will inspect the sewer lines as part of this effort and will do any necessary repair work before the alley is repaved.

Debby Ervin, Membership Secretary

· Reminded attendees to renew their membership to the Association.

· New members will receive a free TGHNA t-shirt.

The next meeting will be March 23, 2010.

Claudia Seifert, Secretary