After Months of Protest To Pit Bull Ban,

Florissant Council Lifts the Ban

By Carol Arnett

The Florissant City Council voted Monday to repeal the city’s pit bull ban after several months of campaigning by opponents of the ban. After lifting the ban, the council passed a dangerous dog ordinance that several members said would do more to protect citizens that the pit bull ban.

Not all of the council voted to lift the ban. Four members voted against removing it. They did, however, vote for the dangerous dog ordinance.

“I would like to thank all the speakers over the last few months and all the people who emailed,” said Councilman   Keith Schildroth.

“In the past several weeks, I have met with the mayor to make several changes to the ordinance,” Schildroth said. These changes would include allowing pits to be adopted out of health department, paying for DNA tests for disputed dogs and providing staff with better training to identify pits. Schildroth said he would like the changes added to the ban.

“I supported original ban,” said Councilman Tim Lee. “People have asked what has changed since then. We have six new council members.” Lee said he still supported the ban. He cites statistics about deaths from pit bulls. “I know that any breed of dog can bite and attack, but is my belief that pit bulls kill more often,” he said.

Lee said that within two weeks of the introduction of the bill lifting the ban, the city had two attacks by pit bulls. One resulted in death of another dog.

“We have a high number of pit attacks, especially since pits are not allowed,” Lee said. “If we allow them, the number of attacks will rise.”

Lee acknowledged that the city had received hundreds of emails about the ban. However, he said, many were from people who are not residents of the city. “I have spoken to people who live in ward 1, and it is two to one in favor of keeping ordinance,” he said.

“I think we can agree that everyone is in favor of safety regardless of what side they are on,” said Councilman Tim Jones.

“In my eyes, this ordinance did not work,” Jones said. “Now we have thousands of pit bulls in our city with no accountability. If someone is bitten, we have no way of knowing if there is pit bull in the area. This bill will bring some dogs out of the closet. We show that we have none, except a very few that are grandfathered in.”

Councilman Tommy Siam echoed Lee when he said that he had asked residents from his ward about the ban. “From the feedback I’ve received, a considerable number of residents in my ward support the ban,” he said. “At a ward meeting, four to one said they supported ban.”

Councilman Gerald Henke also said that the majority of residents in his ward want to keep the ban. “I wanted to have a referendum.” he said. “Let voters decide.”

“No matter how we vote tonight, we’re going to make a bunch of people mad,” said Councilman Joe Eagan. “We have pit bulls in Florissant. That shouldn’t be a secret. If you go to fall festival, every other dog is a pit bull,” he said.

“We have dogs that people really believe are other breeds, and they are pit bulls. I think if we took ten random dogs and DNA tested them, would find that many had pit bull in them,” Eagan said.

“The resounding theme I heard when I was campaigning was keep out of our lives. Keep us safe without telling us what to do,” Eagan said. He added that his focus as a councilman has always been on public safety. “I think the best case scenario has been hammered out with these bills.”

Council President Jackie Pagano acknowledged that the issue was emotional. “No matter which way you vote,” she told the council, “I respect you. No hard feelings.”

To the audience, which included people both for and against the ban, she said, “No matter how this vote goes, you have been heard.”

3 Public Hearings Held

In addition to the vote on the pit bull ban, the council had three public hearings scheduled. The first hearing was for a rezoning for a Dunkin Donuts at 8115 N. Lindbergh.

“I believe the developer is as frustrated as we are,” said Councilman Joe Eagan. The property is located in his ward. He stated that after talking to the developer, he did not want to continue the hearing. “I think the project is dead,” he said.

At the second hearing, Aspire Healthcare requested a special use permit for a healthcare training center for property located at 3391 N. Highway 67. The center,

owned and run by Tamara Taylor and Jeanetta Stomer, two nurse practitioners with teaching experience, would train CRNs and phlebotomists.

Taylor and Stomer were asking for three readings on the bill allowing the school. They said that they had already pushed their start date back from March 7. The do not want to keep pushing their start date back because it may affect their state certification. They said that they did not know they needed a special use permit until they were well into the process of opening the school.

Although some members of the council said that they city may have been partially at fault for not telling them about the special use permit, they did not give the bill three readings.

New Event Center at Yacovelli’s Site

In the third hearing, Eric and Natalynn Galloway requested a special use permit to open The Jewel Event Center at the site of the former Yacovelli’s Restaurant on Dunn Rd.

The Galloways said they would have five banquet rooms designed to accommodate different types and sizes of events. They will also have a wedding chapel on site.

The site will also have a restaurant, with lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 3 p.m. to close. They would also like to have an all you can eat Sunday buffet.

Some members of the council said that they weren’t aware that there would be a restaurant as well as a banquet center.

The Galloways said that they had to do some work on the property to bring it up to code. “When we found out that kitchens wouldn’t pass code, we decided we were going to have a banquet center with outside catering until the kitchens are ready,” said Eric Galloway. The new kitchen items have been ordered, he said, and should arrive in a few weeks.

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