West Newsmagazine 2-21-18

8 I NEWS I
February 21, 2018
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
@WESTNEWSMAG
WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
WEST COUNTY
Kids 4 Kids [K4K] presents Friends of Kids with Cancer [FOKWC] with a $10,000 donation resulting from 3v3 soccer tournaments
held in August 2017 and January 2018. Since 2012, K4K has raised nearly $35,000 for FOKWC through its soccer tournaments and
other events. Pictured are [from left] Tim Mickelson, FOKWC executive director; Brandy Bimslager, FOKWC program director; Ron
Gardiner, K4K treasurer; Tom Lynch, FOKWC president; Perry Jackson, K4K retiring president; and Dave Pashia, K4K president.
news
briefs
BALLWIN
City maintains zero
property tax rate
The Ballwin Board of Aldermen has
approved an ordinance that will maintain a
zero property tax levy for the coming year.
Ballwin is authorized under state law to
collect a tax rate of up to 27 cents per $100
assessed valuation on real estate in the city.
However, the city has not levied any tax
on real estate for the past 30 years, relying
instead on income from taxes on retail
sales, public utility licenses, community
program revenues, licenses and permits
and other sources.
The measure won approval at the Feb. 12
board meeting with no dissenting votes.
New logo gets wider audience
Ballwin’s new logo will get considerably
more exposure when it begins appearing on
apparel ordered for staff and participants
in various races, camps and other activities
the city conducts.
The logo will appear, as appropriate, on
shirts for counselors, concession workers,
lifeguards, park and custodial crews and
for participants in the various events.
The cost of participant apparel is covered
by the fee charged to those involved in the
events.
The lowest of five bidders on the purchase
of the new apparel was BFM Group
Inc., of Lake Saint Louis, who received a
contract in the amount of $15,887.
EUREKA
2018 home improvement
program launched
Applications are currently being
accepted for the St. Louis County Community
Development Block Grant money
awarded to the city of Eureka to provide
financial assistance to low or moderate
income homeowners with home repairs,
code violations or safety hazards.
Nationally administered by the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
[HUD], the Community Development
Block Grant [CDBG] program allows
for blocks of grant funding to be disbursed
to communities, primarily for residents
with low to moderate income. While some
CDBG programs are administered through
state governments, due to St. Louis County’s
designation as an urban county with
over 200,000 in population, it’s possible to
receive CDBG funds directly from HUD
as an entitlement community.
For project inquiries or a list of qualifications,
contact (314) 615-4025.
MANCHESTER
Upcoming seminar to
address opioid addiction
The city of Manchester is collaborating
with local entities on a free event to teach
teens and families the signs and symptoms
of opioid addiction and how to respond
to signs of possible addiction. Representatives
from the National Council on
Alcoholism & Drug Abuse [NCADA]
and Manchester Police Department also
will be on hand to answer questions, and
Detective Casey Lambert of the Multi-
Jurisdictional Drug Task Force will also
attend the event as the featured speaker.
The seminar will also discuss addiction
trends with pain relievers, heroin and synthetic
opioids like fentanyl.
The seminar is at 6:30 p.m. on March 5 at
Manchester United Methodist Church, 129
Woods Mill Road.
WILDWOOD
Ameren commits $400,000 to
examine local outages, upgrades
After a series of frequent and sometimes
extended power outages near Wildwood
wards 7 and 8 over the past 18 months,
Ameren is committing $400,000 for
upgrades and projects in search of solutions.
According to Councilmember Joe Garritano
[Ward 8], some of the power outages
have lasted up to seven hours for
some ward residents. Ameren approached
the city about the outages, and discussion
regarding the issue lasted about a year
before funding was officially proposed the
week of Feb. 12.
According to Garritano, many of the outages
have been concentrated in the Cherry
Hills subdivision. Notifications of upcoming
repair efforts will be sent to over 3,000
residents.
The project will involve multiple
upgrades to cables as well as a comprehensive
overview of the entire system, aided
by aerial inspections of possible problem
spots. Although no official timeline has
been set, Ameren has begun inspections
and the overall project is estimated to take
a few months to complete.
According to Garritano, residents might
notice an increase in trucks, equipment and
crews from Ameren Missouri and other
contractors in city neighborhoods.
“We’re really getting the needed attention
on this,” Garritano said.
Ballwin tops state’s
safest cities list
The National Council for Home Safety
has once again released its annual Safest
Cities in Missouri list for cities with populations
in excess of 10,000 people. Several
local communities have claimed top spots.
Cities were judged based on the number
of reported violent crimes like rape, murder,
aggravated assault and robbery, and property
crimes like larceny-theft, arson, burglary
and motor vehicle theft, per every
1,000 people. Certain variables also were
weighted, with violent crimes accounting
for 1.5 of the total due to increased severity.
The city of Ballwin rose to first place in
2018 after receiving a third-place ranking
in 2017. With a population of about 30,609,
the average rate for violent crimes in the
city is 0.36 per 1,000, and about 7.71 of
1,000 for property crimes.
The second safest community in Missouri
is Town & Country. With about
11,158 residents, Town & Country boasts a
low average violent crime rate of 0.36 incidents
per 1,000 and an average property
crime rate of about 12.19 per 1,000.
The Missouri state average is about 7.8
per 1,000 for violent crime and 39.81 out
of 1,000 for property crime.
Other cities in the top 10 included, in
order, O’Fallon, Webster Groves, Wentzville,
Maryville, Grain Valley, Nixa, Creve
Coeur and Eureka. Chesterfield, Manchester,
Maryland Heights and Clayton placed
in the top 20.
Buckle up, phone down
A group of Missouri mayors came
together on Feb. 14 to voice support for
an initiative aimed at getting Missouri
residents to buckle their seat belts and put
down their phones while driving.
The effort, led by Jefferson City Mayor
Carrie Tergin, kicked off this month to promote
the Buckle Up/Phone Down [modot.
org/BuckleUpPhoneDown] campaign.
Buckle Up/Phone Down is an outreach
program the Missouri Department of
Transportation [MoDOT] launched last
year to combat distracted driving. Tergin
was joined by 25 other mayors in support
of the campaign.
According to MoDOT, of the 688 people
killed on Missouri highways in 2016, about
62 percent were not wearing seat belts. The
Missouri Highway Patrol reports that cellphones
contributed to about 2,470 crashes
in Missouri in 2016, and statistics from
AAA show the act of texting while driving
increases the risk of car crashes by about 50
percent. Missouri is one of 16 states with no
primary seat belt law and one of three states
without an all-driver texting ban.