Kirkwood Water: Selling the Farm

• This coming Tuesday, April 6th, is the Kirkwood City Council and School Board election! Polls are open 6am to 7pm. Local elections are where your vote has the most power to shape the world. Make a plan to vote and tell your friends to do the same! If you want to send them some light reading along with the invitation, send them this. The stakes have never been higher!
• Tonight's City Council Work Session agenda is a wealth of information:
  • On pg. 3, the recommendations of the Water Sub-Committee chaired by Council Member Mark McLean are presented. As someone who kinda thought this sub-committee was just a front to create the pretense to sell the utility, I'm very impressed by their findings and recommendations. The sub-committee:
    • Did "not pursue consideration" the sale of Kirkwood Water to Missouri American Water Company (MAWC)
    • Found that even with significant rate hikes, in the long run (outside the ten year window), Kirkwood Water rates would be lower than those of MAWC
    • Offered a new estimate of the value of Kirkwood Water at $25 million
    • Revealed that Kirkwood has been awarded $800k in grants from the state for lead service line replacement.
  • On pg. 7 of the pdf, theres a list of recommendations for which projects should be funded by the Transportation Development District that voters improved last year, and again I'm impressed! Included in the list:
    • The local match portion of the South Clay, South Kirkwood Road, and Grant's Trail federal grant funding the city received
    • An improvement of the greenway connecting the Farmer's Market to the train station
    • New trash can, lighting, benches, and wayfinding signs for Downtown Kirkwood
    • A whole bunch of street repaves (you can view the full list of concrete streets at the bottom of pg. 8 of the pdf, and asphalt streets on pg. 9)

• I mentioned last week that Kirkwood Glass was for sale and that it's probably the single most likely location for a boutique hotel. Well two more commercial real estate updates for you his week:
  • 4.9 acres of land flanking either side of North Kirkwood Rd just South of Manchester are on offer. These are the big former used-car and golf cart dealership lots. Huge opportunity for Kirkwood. The only problem? It's almost all zoned B-3 Highway business, Kirkwood's shittiest zoning district. Everything in B-3 requires a 50-ft setback from the road, meaning it basically has to be fronted by a big ole parking lot. No one in Kirkwood desires that kind of land use here and the Council should do something to try and fix it (namely, get rid of B-3).
  • In better zoning news, the office building at 123 West Clinton Place (directly behind Taco Bell, to the right of Citizen Kane Market Place) is for sale for $750k. The building is very dated and the lot is situated slightly outside the cultural heart of Downtown, but still, that's not half bad for a piece of property zoned B-2, Kirkwood's highest density district. You could do a 3-story, 11-unit single-stair (once the state legalizes it) condo project here and make off pretty good here!
• A few highlights from last week's Webster-Kirkwood Times:
  • On pg. 6, Council candidate Al Rheinnecker responds to Ellen Wentz's criticism that he voted to approve $7 million in electric spending he later criticized. His defense has a veneer of truth but is actually pretty misleading. Rheinnecker says the expenses he approved 'were to pay vendors for materials and commitments that had already been approved prior to August 28th, 2025 — that was the day the Council was first made aware of the electric fund's $16 million deficit.' But Rheinnecker was elected in the spring of 2024, meaning he himself had approved many of those expenses —and an entire budget!— by that point. No one made him aware? It's literally his job to make others aware!
  • On pg. 21, there's a very exciting and unexpected notice for a public hearing on the conversion of 126 E Jefferson (the brick building three doors down from the library) into multifamily residential. There shouldn't be a rule stipulating that a given space must be used for homes or for offices (especially when the building was probably multifamily residential to begin with), but so long as there is, I support the Council approving a variance for it. More residents in DTK means more customers, healthier businesses, and a healthier tax base.