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Lights for Ball Fields at St. Ferdinand Park Approved by Council
By Jeremy Thomas
At Monday night’s Florissant City Council meeting council members heard speakers on subjects for both young and old, approved new lights for the St. Ferdinand Park ballfields and heard highlights of the mayor’s 2014-15 budget.
The city council wanted bring attention to National Assisted Living week, Sept. 7-13 with this year theme “The Magic of Music” highlighting the role that music plays in assisting living residents every day.
Rachel Griffin from The Bridge of Florissant which is a local assisting living facility, attended the meeting and spoke about her gratitude towards the Florissant community.
“My staff and I are extremely thankful for the support we have received from Mayor Thomas Scheider and the whole Florissant community. Over the past year our growth has improved by over 50%, we thank you all for the confidence you keep in us, and look forward to many more years of support,” Griffin said.
During the patron comment portion of the meeting, a big group of ladies presented an interesting inquiry to the board. A group of about 6-8 teenage ladies were led by adult Mary Moore, she mentioned how she would like any type of assistance for creating a teen center here in Florissant.
“I have a real passion to give teens an alternative choice to keep out of trouble, while also enjoying themselves. I have a big house were teens can watch movies, read books and magazine or just come to simply relax with other teens,” Moore said.
“The only issue I have now is the space and funding, since I have been putting out a lot of flyers about this, more and more teens and parents have responded positively to it, leading to more teens in the house. I just would like to ask the board if they could help bring a teen center to the Florissant community,” Moore said
Mayor Scheider talked about the budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year. Some highlighted numbers included the Revenue for the general fund which was up $338,000 in 2014. The sales tax revenue and capital improvement fund is up $100,000, and the park improvement fund is up $175,000. Medical care is also projected to increase by 7% in the next year.
One of the main bills on the agenda was the second reading for, the replacement of the ball field lights and light poles at St. Ferdinand Park. The board approved the authorization of transfer $325,000 from the park improvement fund to be use to fix and upgrade ball field lights #1 and #2 in the St. Ferdinand Park, along with several light poles around the park.
There was a first reading for additional funding for the St. Louis Police Department. Funds mentioned were transferring an additional $99,200 to the general revenue fund, $80,000 to police department salary account, and $19,000 to the department benefits account.
An ongoing resolution was brought up for approval by the board which, voted to support a grant application to replace the tennis courts at Tower Grove Park. There was also a motion that passed to allow the remodeling of the Burger King located at 8411 North Lindbergh.
Near the conclusion of the meeting, the board mention several upcoming events in the surrounding areas. Notably was the fall festival on October 12th which will take place on St. Francois street, it will feature a highly competitive chili cook-off, along with an excellent exhibit from the world bird sanctuary.
