Mid Rivers Newsmagazine 5-1-24

8 I NEWS I
May 1, 2024
MID RIVERS NEWSMAGAZINE
@MIDRIVERS_NEWS
MIDRIVERSNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
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Where will Millie be this week? St. Charles County Police’s therapy dog,
Millie, travels during the school year with Officer Stephen Schue and
spends her summer months visiting area hospital patients. Don’t miss the
County Police’s Open House from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday, May 11.
NEWS
BRIEFS
O’FALLON
New McDonald’s authorized
for north Bryan Road area
Residents of O’Fallon and Dardenne Prairie
soon will be able to satisfy their McDonald’s
cravings without driving a mile or two
east to Hwy. K or west to Lake Saint Louis.
The O’Fallon City Council has approved
conditional use permits (CUPs) to enable
construction and operation in the North
Bryan commercial area of a Dutch Bros
Coffee shop with a drive-thru, a Dobbs Tire
& Auto store and a Heartland Dental building.
At its April 25 meeting, the City Council
voted 9-0 to approve a bill also authorizing
a CUP for a new McDonald’s restaurant
with a drive-thru on 1.93 acres at 962
Bryan Road, also within the commercial
area. Council member Dr. Jim Ottomeyer
(Ward 4) was absent/excused.
North Bryan Commercial is a development
along the east side of Bryan Road,
north of White Magnolia Drive, south of
Veterans Memorial Parkway, and directly
across Bryan Road from the O’Fallon Justice
Center.
The McDonald’s will have Heartland
Dental adjacent to the north, Dobbs to the
south, Columbia Meadows subdivision
common ground to the east and Bryan
Road to the west.
One of the decisions remaining for future
North Bryan Road Commercial plans is
what to do about its new entrance/exit from/
to Bryan Road, directly across from the
entrance/exit to the O’Fallon Justice Center.
Those traffic turn-points are only a
few hundred yards from the already busy
intersection of Bryan Road with Veterans
Memorial Parkway. The North Bryan
Commercial intersection might eventually
need a roundabout or a traffic signal.
Council tables votes on Post
Family subdivision bills
At its April 25 meeting, the O’Fallon City
Council originally planned to vote on voluntary
annexation, rezoning and an area plan
for a proposed and controversial Post Family
subdivision. Planning and Zoning (P&Z)
had unanimously recommended denial.
Instead, at the applicant’s request, the
council tabled the votes until its next meeting
on May 9. The developer said some
personnel are out of town, and given the
amendments made to the bill, they want
to be sure their full team is available to
address everything accurately.
Bill No. 7633 would approve a petition
for voluntary annexation of 103.73 acres
at 1065 E. Hwy. N. The land is currently in
unincorporated St. Charles County, zoned
agricultural and located across Hwy. N from
the, 896-unit Harvest at Hopewell subdivision
under construction in western O’Fallon.
Bill No. 7634.1 would approve rezoning
that property to R-1/Planned Unit Development
(PUD) and would have approved an
area plan for a 311-lot subdivision with various
lot widths, the smallest being 42 feet. The
original bill had 35 conditions listed, all of
which must be completed by the developer.
As agreed by the council at the prior meeting,
revised Bill No. 7634.1 now is being
considered. The revised bill adds two more
conditions, bringing the total to 37. Suggested
by council member Steve Koskela
(Ward 3), the two additional conditions are:
• Construction gates shall be required on
Spirit and Knowledge Drive for the duration
of the construction of Phase 1.
• Provide traffic calming measures (dips,
bottlenecks, medians) at Spirit and Knowledge
Drive to ensure safe driving.
In the prior council meeting, nearby
residents and several council members had
opposed the development because of concerns
about the traffic study, traffic on Hwy.
N, the impact on neighboring subdivisions,
such as Dove Meadows, the turn into the
Post development from Hwy. N and other
worries.
Even though the bills were being tabled,
five people still spoke in opposition to the
Post Family Subdivision during Citizen
Comments on April 25. They each asked
the council to vote “no” on the bills.
Additional water well to
be built for O’Fallon
The city of O’Fallon currently has five
wells supplying water to its water treatment
plant on Firma Road. An engineering
study completed in 2022 indicated another
well is needed.
At its April 11 meeting, the City Council
unanimously approved a resolution authorizing
a construction contract with Martin
General Contractors for $1,495,950 to
build Alluvial Well No. 6.
An alluvial well is a well that is supplied
or charged by surface water. It is drilled in
an alluvial aquifer or an alluvial floodplain
deposit, such as near a river. Most of these
are shallow with water levels that tend to
fluctuate with rainfall conditions.
The five existing wells were constructed in
the early 2000s, as was the city’s treatment
plant. The wells have experienced typical
degrading of capacity over time as the aquifer
screen system ages, limiting capacity.
The city’s water division has made
several improvements to the existing alluvial
wells to maintain capacity, including
“regular chemical treatments, variable frequency
drives, new submersible motors
and level transducers.”
To increase water supply, the city completed
a test well at the treatment plant in
2022 that proved successful. The city then
hired Black & Veatch to prepare bid documents
for a new alluvial well on the property
near the test well location.
Funds for this well were included in the
city’s 2024 budget.
ST. PETERS
Poetry Out Loud
winners recognized
Timberland High junior Aiden Storms
was honored at the Apr. 11 St. Peters Board
of Aldermen meeting for winning the
regional Poetry Out Loud championship. St.
Peters has hosted the regional competition
at the Cultural Arts Center in recent years,
drawing special interest from city officials.
Currently, Storms performs in drama
productions, loves reading and plans to
enter the Poetry Out Loud competition
again next year.
He aspires to attend the University of
Missouri and enter its journalism program,
with the goal of entering the political
broadcast journalism field.
Poetry Out Loud is a national high
school event that encourages students to
memorize famous poems and recite them
to increase their public speaking skills and
gain confidence. It has reached over 4 mil-