Tower Grove Heights Neighborhood Association Meeting

June 23, 2009 7:20 p.m. 21 attendees

President Mark Froese chaired the meeting. He reported that the next Block Captains’ meeting will be held on June 29^that 3900 Connecticut. It willactually be a block party with ice cream. The theme of the meeting will be how to organize a block party or a neighborhood night out. The meeting will start at 6 p.m. and everyone is invited to attend.

Gigi Sukin was at the meeting on behalf of Senator Jeff Smith. She discussed the 4^th annual 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament and Community Fair sponsored by Jeff Smith. This is a non-profit event that includes health screening, free school supplies, food and drinks and information about various useful services such as chiropractic evaluations. The fair will be held on July 25, 2009 at Fairground Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The registration form can be accessed at the following link: http://www.jeffsmith3on3.com/

Judy Lane, the 15^th Ward Neighborhood Stabilization Officer, reported that her office has moved to 1520 Market St. The new phone number is 657-1365. The National Night Out Against Crime and Drugs will be held on August 4^th. Blocks must register to be granted permission to close the street. Registrations are due by July 24^th and can be done online at http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/nst/nnomain.htm

Judy reminded us that people can call 211 to get a list of cooling centers now that hot weather is here. Issues such as graffiti, derelict cars, uncut grass and other non-emergency neighborhood nuisances can be reported to the Citizens’ Service Bureau during normal business hours at 314-622-4800 or online at http://stlouis.missouri.org/government/csb.html. Outside of business hours, these issues can be reported to 231-1212.

Judy can also provide The Club, an anti-theft device to secure parked cars ($11), to our meetings if we let her know in advance.

John Karel, Director of Tower Grove Park since 1987, gave an informative talk on the Park. Unlike the other City parks, TGP is not run by the City Parks Dept. It is a public park, donated by Henry Shaw in 1868 and governed by a Board of Commissioners, the members of which are appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court. The Park is a National Historic Landmark. Only four other urban parks in the country have been designated as Landmarks. The eleven pavilions are the most to be found in any park and all are original (dating from the Victorian era) and serve the same purpose for which they were built. Designed by Shaw, based on his travels, the park has a European feel to it, with statues of Christopher Columbus and Verdi. It is long and narrow since Shaw purchased the land from French farmers who were farming “long lots” in the 1830s.

John reviewed the 2009 calendar inserted into the TGP brochure he distributed and answered several questions:

Wading pool hours cut—the hours were cut as a result of budget cutbacks related to the expense of lifeguards needed for the pool. The fountains are still on with extended hours since they do not require lifeguards.

Tree damage—two major storms in 2006 caused a loss of over 600 trees--10% of the Park’s trees. With help from FEMA, the winter storm cleanup only took about 2 months. The Park has more varieties of trees than any park in the country and luckily, the damaged trees were mostly older ones that needed to be replaced. Unfortunately, there is a disease that is killing the 400 Austrian pines and these will also be replaced by a similar evergreen.

Planters on Grand Ave—partly due to concern over funding, the Park didn’t immediately take ownership of the maintenance of these planters which have been maintained by a volunteer group.

Overgrown trees on Arsenal covering up stop signs—although the trees on Arsenal along the Park boundaries do not belong to the Park, the Park workers do try to maintain them.

Self-guided tour—there used to be self-guided tour but it wasn’t kept up-to-date. The library has books and guides to local parks and these can be used for information about the Park.