Florissant To Put 1/4-Cent Sales Tax on Nov. 3^rd Ballot

By Carol Arnett

The Florissant City Council passed a measure Monday that will put a one-fourth of one percent General Purpose Sales Tax on the Nov. 3^rd ballot.

Councilman Keith Schildroth explained the process to arrive at the proposal. “Several months ago, the mayor entrusted Councilmen Jeff Caputa, Tim Lee and myself to look into a possible funding mechanism to increase our budget so we could fix our streets and improve them. The committee met, we looked at several different ways of doing this,” he said.

Schildroth said they asked the administration several questions about the streets and their maintenance. After studying the issue, he said, the committee “agreed that the one quarter sales tax increase would be the right way to go.”

Forty-one other municipalities in the county have this tax, he said.

The estimate for the amount that would raised is approximately $1.3 million, he said. “We should be spending between $3.3 and $3.7 million on our streets and we have been averaging around $2.5 million,” he said.

“I was quite surprised to find out that we have 167 miles of streets with the average age of 56 years old,” he said. “The cost to replace a mile of street is $179,000 and a million dollars.” An audit recently showed over 40 miles that need major work in the next few years, he added.

Schildroth said that the mayor and council would be speaking to residents about the tax between now and the election. They will work, he said, to educate the public on the importance of the tax.

Mayor Tom Schneider said after the meeting that public meetings will he held with a Town Hall type meeting in September to answer resident’s questions. Mayor Schneider thanked Councilmen Schildroth, Lee and Caputa “for their work on the council committee that studied the funding challenges for the maintenance of over 27 miles of city streets,” They had met with Public Works Director Lou Jearls, city engineer Tim Barrett, street superintendent Gary Meyer and finance director Randy McDaniel over several weeks.

The mayor said he appreciates unanimous support of the council for this 1/4-cent sales tax and stated that “ the administration is 100 percent in support of the initiative that guarantees adequate funding for street, bridge and sidewalk maintenance for years to come

     Postpones Public Hearing for Catering Co.

The council had one public hearing scheduled, but voted to postpone it. The hearing was an extension of a public hearing started at the last meeting regarding a proposal for Taste Bud Catering to operate a business at 1A Mullanphy Gardens Shopping Center.

Councilman Tim Lee said that he would like to postpone the meeting. “Two weeks ago, at the public hearing, I offered on numerous occasions to meet with the petitioner and told her to please contact me if she’d like to discuss the issues I have and that residents have. I have not heard anything from anyone so I think it’s fair to continue it,” he said. “Again, she did not appear at the first public hearing. She did appear two weeks ago and we’ll continue it again because I still have questions and I think other council members have also,” Lee said.

   In other action, the council passed took action on other bills.

• The council passed a bill that will re-adopt a procedure to disclose potential conflict of interest and substantial interest for certain officials.
• The council also passed a bill that authorizes the appropriation of $30,000 from the General Revenue Fund to cover the cost of a telephone audit.
• The council held a first reading on a bill that would approve the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the 2015 fiscal year.

The council opened the meeting with a moment of silence for Ferguson. Council Joe Eagan asked those in attendance to remember “the residents, the peacekeepers and the businesses are safe and violence-free.”

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