West Newsmagazine 7-11-18

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July 11, 2018
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
I NEWS I 11
St. Louis County announces dueling initiatives to fight opioid abuse
By ELLEN LAMPE
Two separate initiatives, released within
days of each other, are attempting to
combat the same issue, each one seemingly
without the organizer’s knowledge of
the other; one proposed by the members of
the St. Louis County Council and one by
St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger.
On Monday, June 25, a press statement
from Councilmember Mark Harder’s office,
released on behalf of all seven members of
the county council, announced immediate
plans to combat the region’s opioid crisis
by establishing a bi-partisan task force and
requesting $1 million in emergency funding.
The task force is uncertain, at this time,
from where the funding will come.
Harder indicated that the dollar amount
requested was less a concrete number and
more a way to indicate that the task force is
going to do “whatever it takes.” Once ideas
have been submitted and an action formulated,
funding will be sought.
The following day, Tuesday, June 26, a
resolution, introduced at the weekly council
meeting to establish the task force, was
unanimously approved. After the meeting,
Harder held a press conference on the new
initiative.
“I have been preaching about this
for a long time in my community and
the West County area. We’ve held
many town hall meetings in the Parkway
School District, and I think this
is something we can’t push under the
rug anymore,” Harder said. “We hope
this task force will give us some good
answers and good ideas that will help
the whole community.”
The task force is to be comprised
of one appointee from each council
member and four appointees from the
county executive, forming an 11-person
task force. Recommendations for those
appointees were due by Tuesday, July
3, and will meet over the course of
July and August, ultimately forming an
action plan due by Friday, Aug. 31. The
scope of the task force includes, but is
not limited to, expanding education and
prevention programs, implementing drug
take-back programs, improving regional
treatment services, expanding medicationassisted
therapies, Narcan/Naloxone training,
cracking down on the over-prescription
of opioids and investigating entities suspected
of over-prescribing opioids.
Harder noted that this initiative will
remain county-wide for now, but is open
Stenger signs his opioid initiative at a June 28
press conference.
to collaboration with the city or any other
surrounding counties.
Just one day later, on Wednesday, June
27, a press release came from Stenger’s
office announcing a press conference to be
held Thursday, June 28 for a “major opioid
initiative.”
“We must recognize that opioid addiction
is a disease rather than a crime or a choice,”
Stenger said at the press conference. “As
such, we will adjust our policies, martial
our resources and direct our concerted
energy toward education, prevention, treatment
and recovery.”
The scope of the county executive’s
region-wide initiative includes a 30-page
action plan formed with the Department
of Public Health and collaboration from
representatives of 25 community partners,
including BJC HealthCare, Mercy Health
System, SSM Health, St. Louis University’s
College for Public Health, United Way,
St. Louis Regional Health Commission
and the National Council on Alcoholism
and Drug Abuse.
Stenger was joined by members of those
organizations as well as St. Louis County’s
Public Health Director Dr. Faisal Khan
and the Missouri Institute of Health’s Dr.
Rachel Winograd at the press conference.
“This is the first step, years in the making,
in formulating a collaborative and comprehensive
regional response to an issue that
confronts our entire community,” Khan
said. “I want to recognize and thank the
many partners – and that list is very long.”
Winograd added, “We have tools that
See ST. LOUIS COUNTY, page 34
Intersection of Route 100, Taylor Road sees lane reconfiguration in Wildwood
By JESSICA MESZAROS
The center lane of Taylor Road in Wildwood will no longer
allow left turns onto westbound Route 100, as indicated by
the arrows
[Graphic by City of Wildwood]
Locals and visitors to the city of
Wildwood will have a new road
regulation to make note of when
exiting the Town Center area onto
State Route 100.
The Missouri Department of
Transportation [MoDOT] recently
changed the structure of the
permitted turning movements
from northbound Taylor Road
onto Route 100. The change was
spurred, in part, by an increase in
traffic on southbound Taylor Road.
Drivers can no longer turn left
onto westbound State Route 100 from the
center lane of Taylor Road, which moves
directly through the middle of the Town
Center’s downtown area. [The road serves
as the primary access to the location from
intersections at both Route 100 and Manchester
Road.] Instead, the center lane now
will be used only for vehicles wishing to
remain on Taylor Road by driving straight
through the Route 100 intersection.
Other lanes on Taylor will remain
unchanged. The left-turn lane will continue
to allow drivers to enter westbound Route
100 and the right-turn lane will allow drivers
to enter eastbound Route 100. The
current north leg of the intersection continues
to be part of an ongoing improvement
process to serve the new Villages at
Brightleaf neighborhood, which is located
to the north of Route 100, between Route
109 and Taylor Road.
“People are getting used to it already,
which is good,” Rick Brown, the city’s
director of public works, said. “That center
lane is now going to be devoted to Brightleaf
traffic, which continues to grow as it
develops.”
The official Wildwood Traffic Engineering
Study released in February 2018 from
consulting firm HRGreen noted that
previous traffic engineering studies
completed for the Main Street
Crossing and Villages at Brightleaf
subdivisions had suggested rising
average annual growth rates of .5
percent to 1 percent along the Route
100 and Route 109 corridors. The
rise is attributed to the increase in
residential neighborhoods and retail
in the area. However, new residences
and business in Wildwood aren’t the
only causes of a rise in local traffic.
According to the 2018 traffic study,
newer communities in surrounding
areas, such as Eureka and Ellisville,
also have contributed to increased traffic
along Hwy, 109, Route 100 and other
popular streets in the Wildwood area.
The traffic study indicated that future
build-out for the area at Route 100 and
Taylor Road is expected. The city also will
need to address significant increases in traffic
volume to serve ongoing Town Center
development, including heavy westbound
left-turn movement, which is expected to
continue operating at full capacity into the
future.
The study predicts that the area’s afternoon
peak traffic period likely will experience
average vehicle delays at about 300
percent greater volumes than those currently
experienced.
The traffic study also recommends the
installation of dual northbound left-turn
lanes, a dedicated northbound thru-lane
and the removal of the split-phase signal
operation.
However, according to Brown, there are
no plans so far by the city to widen Taylor
Road in the near future.
“We believe the current size of the road
is sufficient enough for the level of traffic,”
Brown said.
In addition to the lane renovations,
MoDOT also has agreed to increase the
length of the green-light cycle for northbound
traffic from Taylor Road and will
continue to monitor the operations of the
intersection for an upcoming two- to threeweek
period.
An electronic message board has been
placed onsite warning drivers of the change.
The city still is working with MoDOT to
have additional signage installed to give
drivers more warning before approaching
the intersection.
According to Brown, additional signage
also is planned for the Villages of Brightleaf
neighborhood and the Taylor Road median.