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   By Tom Anselm

The Florissant City Council had just one public hearing on the agenda at Monday night’s meeting. However, the discussion that ensued dominated the evening’s discourse. Continued to this month’s agenda because the petitioner was not present at the June meeting, the request by Connie Bobo for a Special Use Permit to operate Taste Buds Catering, Inc., was met with questions from almost all councilpersons.

Councilman Tim Lee, within whose ward the proposed business would be located, led the inquiry. “I have a lot of questions for you, Ms. Bobo, so please, bear with me,” said Lee, as he proceeded to ask the petitioner about her proposal.

It appeared that the business would not only be a catering business, which the council had no problems with, but also would cater to a young population of school age children as an after-school place to gather and receive free meals.

Bobo, who would also be the main operator of the business, noted that meals were being cooked and provided to several schools, and they had extra space, space that she and her colleagues thought could be put to good use for the children in the area. That is how she came up with the idea of an after-school program.

The site, in addition to providing free meals, would have computers, free wi-fi, and tutoring available to the students, most of whom would be coming from the elementary and Middle School in the area, she said. In response to Lee’s questions, she said that the staffing would consist of two cooks and up to three more staff, including herself, most of whom had experience with working with children. Bobo noted that her experience included work at the nearby Marygrove Center.

Lee had concerns about the hours, which were proposed to be from 6 am to midnight, wondering why so early and then again so late. Bobo said the early hours were to cook, and most likely the late hours could be adjusted to about 9 pm.

Lee was still concerned with students being in the area at that hour, especially with the coming onset of the school year.

Also in question was how much of the business was devoted to catering as opposed to the youth element, which the petitioner said would be about 80% catering. Further concerns by Lee centered around what would be the primary age group served, supervision of the youth, how to determine if the youth were of the appropriate age, how would the owners enforce the rules, would there be extra security, and what would be the sites capacity.

Councilman Tim Jones wanted to know how many computers would be available and would there be filtering of the sites the youth could access. Bobo said there would be from 4 to 8, and yes, they would control the sites.

Councilman Jeff Caputa asked about “at-risk” students, and Ms. Bobo noted that most of the kids who they served would be kids who qualified for free or reduced lunch.

Councilwoman Jackie Pagan fears that there not be enough supervision available, how the drop-off and pick-up might be handled and what the other stores in the area felt about this proposal. Bobo said Dollar General was looking forward to this.

Councilman Gerard Henke wanted clarification on the ages kids would need parent accompaniment, and some assurance on how this would be enforced. Bobo said the age cut-off for supervision would be at 12.

Councilman Joe Eagan was concerned that a program that looked like it could become a teen club might bring about conditions that could be hard to handle and supervise, as well as the issue of keeping children off certain sites on the computers that would be available.

Early in the proceedings, even previous to all the council concerns, Lee proposed that the issue be removed from the next phase of the agenda, which called for a First Reading, and be put on next month’s agenda. He offered to meet with Bobo soon to discuss these and other concerns, indicating that he would like to get more clarifications .He mentioned a considerable amount of concerned correspondence from his ward’s residents.

   In other business, Special Use Permits were granted to: U&J Green Enterprises to operate a restaurant and lounge called Jay’s at 12667 New Halls Ferry Road, New Rising Star Children’s Daycare at 3645 Marietta, and $43,000 was appropriated from general revenue to cover costs of workers compensation and property and cyber liability insurance.

Requests were approved for Nicholas Bloom to house four chickens in his backyard coop, and Cold Stone Creamery to change ownership to Yummy Delights, Inc. at 14013 New Halls Ferry Road.

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