November 7th 2023, General Assembly Meeting Minutes
BENTON PARK NEIGHBORHOOD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Tuesday November 7th.
The meeting was called to begin at 7:10.
Introductions.
Welcoming new members, and introducing new board member.
New members
Joe, Abi, Gayle, Wendy, Lori, Chris, Mark,
New board member: Executive board and membership chair. William Aungst (professor at SLU)
Guest Speaker: Jean Corbett (Brightside St. Louis)
https://stlcityrecycles.com/
St. Louis City recycles. Brightside hosts greening, and cleaning throughout the city. Clean up projects, and grants for planting in public spaces. The outreach arm of the city recycling department. The state of recycling right now in St. Louis is one of the topics. The city is recycling despite the rumors. Explains the process of the recycling in the city. The issue is the contamination of the dumpsters. Today’s purpose is to help us understand what exactly goes into the recycling dump. Literature has been passed out (see attachment). What goes into the bin are containers that hold their shape. Utensils do not go into bin. Plastic bags do not go into the bin. Do not crush anything unless it’s cardboard. They have a scanner that determines what it is by the shape.
Questions:
01. TV Dinners.
Do not go into recycling.
02. Dumpster dumpers: People outside of the neighborhood using our dumpsters the wrong way.
They are trying to reach as many people as possible to educate. They hope that we can spread the word about recycling with the neighbors.
Suggestion: A number that we can call if we see illegal dumping.
Answer: That number does exist, you can call Brightside or CSB.
03. Why not remove the recycling bins, if they aren’t being used?
Answer: Sometimes the frequency of recycling pick up changes from week to week.
Please come to the office to get a free recycling bin. If you have a recycling bin at home, you will be more incentivized to recycle. Contact Jean if you have questions, comments, or concerns.
New Business
Alderperson Report:
Cara Spencer will talk to us about new board bills and legislative issues going on right now. They passed the AIRBNB bill. It was signed yesterday by the mayor.
https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/city-laws/board-bills/boardbill.cfm?bbDetail=true&BBId=14253
They are trying to protect communities. They are working on a set of bills about homeless situation. On hold for the moment. It is impossible right now for a shelter to open, so there is a bit of a homeless crisis. They are trying to identify the number of people that are homeless.
MSD (sewer department) is a monopoly. They are looking to raise our rates 33%. They are trying to make the raise decreased. We have a higher cost for sewage compared to other cities.
Last, they are discussing the funds from 2021. They have spent 84 of the 500 million of the fund, and they are pushing to get those funds used effectively.
Second lastly, dispensaries. The BOA allowed dispensaries into the city. The planning staff at the time that dispensaries could would not qualify if there were a buffer. Because of density, would end up in North St. Louis. Two dispensaries are currently going across the street from a school. Cara is asking the city to reconsider that buffer.
Question:
01. Is the BOA working with the COC?
Answer: Cara works with the COC, and if she is not sure if the Mayor and the city is working with them.
02. Please elaborate on the lack of new homeless shelters.
There hasn’t been a homeless shelter in 20 years, because of petitions. Usually because neighbors have control, and no one has historically wanted a homeless shelter near their house.
Contact Cara Spencer directly, if you have any questions or comments.
Committee Reports:
Event committee:
Very successful series of summer concerts. Tunes on Tap had 8 houses and 150 people participate. Last event of the year is the holiday party December 1st. The party will be at Bluewood Brewing. We will be taking pictures of Santa before the parade, and then the parade through the neighborhood. We drive down every street in the neighborhood. Our holiday meeting is a way to meet neighbors and renew memberships with merch on sale. We may have a silent auction, and we are accepting donations. If anyone wants to donate contact the president or events committee. If anyone is interested in joining the events committee. Starts at 6pm. Parade starts at 7pm.
Tim Mulligan: Not here.
Safety Committee: No new developments
Garden/Cave: Bill Kranz
Garden was a successful year. Everything is currently frozen so that is shutting down for the year. Monthly report is out covering cave activities, anything underground, etc. About 100 members on this email list. On the BPNA website you can contact Bill to get on the list. They are recreating a book about caves in St. Louis written 20 years ago. 64 pages are available. Trying to also get a endoscopic color camera into a drilling hole, to get a better view of the caves. They are trying to get a robot to go down that hole as well. Lastly, they have a new light camera with radar. (LIDAR).
Parks: Barbara
Dog park is going great, dogs are having fun. However they are running out of money, so they are going to have a basket at the holiday party. They are planning a pub crawl with your dogs, which was a success last time.
Guest speaker: John Timmons
Lives between Cherokee rec center and the BP. He has a living fence, and wants to do a seed-o-rama. Seeds are going to waste, and he would like to change it. He has very rare plants. He is going through plants that have seeds.
How to save seeds.
01. Dry them (paper bag or envelope)
02. Refrigerate or freezer.
03. Heating pad (potting soil) Germination in 2 weeks.
He will have seeds available for neighbors to take, and they will have another seed-o-rama next year.
Meeting concluded at 7:54pm.