West Newsmagazine 10-11-17

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Wildwood welcome mat: City Council
approves potential bridge enhancements
By MARY SHAPIRO
Wildwood’s City Council, during a work
session on Sept. 25, voted 11-4 to give the
green light to an agreement with the Missouri
Department of Transportation for
aesthetic enhancements on the state’s Hwy.
109 bridge over Hwy. 100. The city would
fund some of those enhancements.
Councilmembers Jerry Porter [Ward 6],
Tammy Shea [Ward 3], Glen DeHart [Ward
1] and Debra Smith McCutchen [Ward 5]
were opposed. Jeff Levitt [Ward 7] was
absent.
City Administrator Ryan Thomas said
the vote provided a direction to proceed;
however, an ordinance for the MoDOT
agreement is expected at the Oct. 9 council
meeting. He said the city still would have
the ability to decide not to do the enhancements
if construction bids come in too high.
Rick Brown, the city’s director of public
works/city engineer, told the council that
MoDOT is planning to widen, redeck and
rehabilitate the existing Hwy. 109 bridge
over Hwy. 100 during 2018. He said the
city, as part of that work, can request that
MoDOT include aesthetic enhancements
with the project.
MoDOT’s policy allows aesthetic
enhancements; however, the city is responsible
for the additional design, construction
and maintenance costs, Brown said. He
said a council subcommittee had evaluated
five options for enhancements. All include
a stained, stone finish on the outside of
the bridge barrier wall; a stained smooth
finish on the inside [traffic] face of the
bridge barrier wall; steel girders supporting
the deck painted in a complementary
color; and bridge piers stained to match the
bridge barrier wall.
The committee also recommended an
option that added lighting and incorporated
the Wildwood logo in the center and on both
ends of the bridge. However, the city’s Architectural
Review Board later recommended
an enhancement option that eliminated the
bridge lights. Under that plan, city logos only
would be on both ends of the bridge. The
estimated construction cost to the city for
those enhancements is $119,000. To incorporate
the aesthetic features also will result in
a design cost to the city’s engineering firm,
HNTB, of less than $10,000, Brown said.
Councilmember Ray Manton [Ward 2]
said incorporation of the city logo “would
be great advertising” for Wildwood. But
DeHart questioned “whether the public
wants us to spend nearly $140,000 [the
design fee originally was projected at
$20,000] to dress this bridge up.”
“This is a lot of frills, and there are
other places we could spend this money,”
DeHart said.
Porter said he would rather see the full
Wildwood name on the east and west sides
of the bridge. “I don’t think this [the logos]
will sell Wildwood,” he said.
Councilmember Tammy Shea [Ward 3]
said the enhancements “would be a good
opportunity to make an aesthetic statement.”
“This bridge is the entry to our city if
you’re heading west,” Shea said.
Ellisville passes resolution supporting
reduced property taxes
BY JESSICA MESZAROS
After a few amendments, the Ellisville
City Council unanimously approved a
resolution supporting a reduction in the
annual tax levy on residential real estate
for fiscal year 2018.
Councilmembers Ken Newhouse [District
2] and Cindy Pool [District 3] spearheaded
the tax reduction as a means to
rebut new tax increases requested by the
county each election cycle.
The resolution was amended after a
suggestion was made by Councilmember
Vince McGrath [District 1] to omit the
resolution’s claim stating that the Ellisville
city council would urge St. Louis County
and other municipalities to stop asking
residents for tax increases every election
cycle.
“I don’t feel like we should be making
proclamations to the rest of the county and
the rest of the municipalities on what they
should do with their taxes,” McGrath said.
“I think that’s a big overreach.”
The amendment was unanimously
approved by the council.
Other councilmembers were concerned
about overstating the benefits for citizens
versus the citywide revenue loss of about
$10,000 per year resulting from the cut.
The current residential rate is 15 cents
See ELLISVILLE, page 14
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WEST NEWSMAGAZINE I NEWS I 13
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