|
|
A quick note at the top here that I'll be back in town the weekend of May 16th. I don't quite have the final details yet, but the plan is to hold some kind of event on the afternoon of the 16th so mark your calendars!
|
|
|
|
|
|
- In the biggest news of the week, the minutes from Council's April 3rd work session reveal the early parameters of the South Kirkwood Road project. Here's what we know:
- The primary item on last night's P&Z meeting agenda is an application for an outdoor bar from Napoli Kirkwood just in time for the Summer season
- Tonight's City Council meeting agenda is fairly loaded:
- First up, there's a public hearing on a zoning code text changing being brought to the Council by the City's Department of Zoning to narrow the applicability of architectural review by exempting some smaller alterations like signs and fences. This seems like a really smart way for the Council to cut some red tape and remove the tiniest bit of pressure on the tear-down market, so hopefully they take on city staff's recommendations
- The Council is also set to approve a $843k contract for design work for Phase 2 of the Grant's Trail Extension, so excited to see that project take another step forward
- The City is also set to spend another $52k to continue its speed study for another two years. If the city can roll out some pilots of some of its road design changes fast enough, this could be a great opportunity to assess the effectiveness of some of those interventions
- Last week's Webster-Kirkwood Times had some big Kirkwood stories:
- Beginning on pg. 1-A, there's a nice exploration of the 27% hike in water rates the Council approved as part of this year's budget to try and fund a compounding set of maintenance issues. My preference would be that we offset this cost to existing homeowners by allowing development on underutilized city-owned lots.
- On pg. 4-A, there's a great story about how Kirkwood High School was not awarded the Press Freedom Award for the first time since 2001 due to greater censorship of The Kirkwood Call and the school's yearbook from the administration. Decisions have consequences and whatever side you fall on, it's great to at least have awards that are rigorous enough in their evaluations to force people to consider whether or not the remedy is worse than the disease
- In the mailbag, good on Elaine Woodcock on speaking out against the fraud and lack of accountability on the city's part in the spending of the opioid settlement money on a new pick-up truck and snow plow
|
|
|
|
Another week of fish fries tomorrow and the Kirkwood Farmer's Market will begin its 49th season with a special celebration this Saturday from 10am-2pm; sounds like a blast if you can make it! Have a great weekend everyone!
|
|
|
|
|
