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October Agenda
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Its been 4 years since the tent meeting. To get an update for
residents, President Sonda Thompson has invited Marti Hamilton
(Mainstreet director) and Chuck Tyler (Adams Park Community Center
executive director) to provide progress reports. Other
participants may be Sharonica Hardin (Adams principal)
and Kellie Shelton (Housing Corporation staff).
Sonda requested those invited to include objectives they
have for the next 3-5 years and to submit suggestions on how
residents can help.
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Potter's Workshop free classes
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Art classes that are free to FPSE residents are available at
the Potter's Workshop, an effort of Lighthouse Community
Outreach Center. Classes are for people from pre-schoolers
thorough senior citizens. Niki Schrader, the director, can be
reached at 531.0955. Right now classes are from 4 to 5:30
and 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Workshop would welcome the assistance
of neighborhood artists interested in sharing their
experience with a class once a month or once a week.
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Housing Corporation actions
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Kellie Shelton of the housing corporation staff reported
that work on the rental part of the Park East project has
progressed to installation of the new dry wall and
finishing touches. The first unit should be ready for occupancy
by mid-November, Shelton said.
Shelton has marketed the home repair fund administered
by Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS). A grant of $35,000 came
from the Missouri Housing Trust Fund for the project.
Mainstreet program director Marti Hamilton met with the
city treasurer about the parking lot west of the Arco-Manchester
wedge. The budget for improvements is $23,000.
The housing corporation's annual holiday event will be
Wednesday, December 12. The event will mark the housing
corporation's 25th anniversary and be at the new
restaurant to be opened on the northwest corner of Tower Grove
and Manchester (formerly Blitt's, Knuckleball, and Sugar Ray's)
The Neighborhood Showcase on September 14 went well with
about 200 people in attendance, Shelton reported.
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Baron requests HC board seat
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Richard Baron requested a seat on the housing corporation's
board at its October 7 meeting. Baron said he wanted a closer
relationship with the community in what the Washington University
Medical Center was doing. "It would make good sense," Baron
said, to work along side the board and share ideas from
month to month. Baron felt that presently he was "too distant"
from what was going on and he did not want confusion.
Baron said that success of the Manchester Mainstreet project
required infrastructure improvements (street and alley paving
and lighting, for example), possibly a tax increment financing
(TIF) district. He was concerned that in the past there was a
deus ex machina feeling about the relationship and he
would prefer to be on the scene. He added that he was interested
in the issues articulated in the master plan, including
protecting low-income residents and diversity.
In response to George Jones's comment that the "line down
Manchester was not going away," Baron said there was a need
for discussion of the master plan with folks and
development of the next phase of planning. Baron added that,
for the lowest income people in the neighborhood, the housing
program had dealt with the idea of infill housing where that
was possible. He went on to say that there was a need to figure
out how to package market rate and lower-income housing. There
is a "terrific opportunity" here, but low-income housing cannot
be done without doing the other.
Josh Heilman from the Lighthouse Community Outreach Center
asked what was meant by "affordable." Baron said that the
housing corporation was already involved in that and
that he saw his role as gathering resources to implement
the housing corporation's goals, adding that he was not
interested in gentrification but in the goals "everybody
established."
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Faith community issues
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Church members from all around the city and county,
joined as Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU), will present
their proposals for economic development, health care, and
education to legislators, alderpersons, and other public officials
at a public meeting Sunday, October 27, 4 p.m., at the Chase.
Call Katie Jansen, 533.0552, for information and to join in
the action.
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