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Present:
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Pam Talley, Diane Green, Sr.Leah Holzum, Ernestine Isaiah,Yvette Graham,Carla
Sprankle, Marti Latimore, George Jones, Irving Blue, Dan Scott, Ms. Biddle, Sarah Green,
Rick Russell, Rachel Smith, Harriet Patton, Sharon Thomas, Roy Bowden, Bob Babione, and
Joan Botwinick.
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Announcements:
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Adequate Housing for Missourians will have its monthly meeting on lead poisoning with
guest Rep. Lacy Clay and experts on lead poisoning on July 29th, Tuesday at 12 Noon in
the American Cancer Society Building on Lindell. All are welcome. Cookies and drinks
available.
Adams Community Center hopes to have its new director by the end of August. Trish Curtis
and Cate Dolan have resigned from the Board of Adams Community Center. Two others
should be elected in their place.
Carla Sprangle spoke of the plan to buy 4512 Manchester and to make it into
a fun center for mentally and physically challenged children. Their web site
is catchafallingstar.org. There will
be room for 50 children and there will be a staff of professionals and
volunteers from the community to help. It will be open many hours in the
day. They expect it to cost $1 million a year for operations. Carla's e-mail
is playzone@aol.com.
Some will be expected to pay and others will get scholarships.
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Police-Community relations committee:
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Rachel Smith from the circuit attorney's office is looking for a
committee from the FPSE, mostly residents, to talk about relations with
the police, about probation and parole, and about a diversion program
for juvenile offenders to try to divert them from further law breaking. This effort will
be in partnership with the Metropolitan Police department and the Neighborhood
Stabilization Office. There might be several planning meetings per month. Rachel can be
reached at 633-7916. Her e-mail is
Smithr@stlouiscao.org. There has been a
problem getting residents to work closely with the various agencies. Roy Bowden said he
would like to help. In answer to a question about the COPS program, Rachel said its
philosophies are part of police policy but that there are not enough police officers to
walk every block in the neighborhood every hour.
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Meacham Park experience
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Harriet Patton and Sharon Thomas were guests from Meacham Park in
Kirkwood. They described their experience with redevelopment and the
annexation of MP by Kirkwood in 1992. The positives are that churches
have been great stabilizers in their community
Houses have been built and rehabbed and a nice playground has been built.
Morale is high. Meetings with police succeeded in closing a drug house.
Negatives are that some landowners had to sell their land for 50 cents
per square foot when they went to eminent domain hearings. Out of l35
acres in the community, the developer DESCO wanted 72 acres and got them,
more than half of their community. Fifteen landowners lost their land
in condemnation. Afterwards, some who got new houses
had foreclosures because they could not afford the payments. Houses were
$l02,000 with 3 mortgages and a balloon note after 30 years. This was not
affordable for low income people. People from the community did not get
jobs in the new shopping center.
Their advice was that the residents must stick together to make sure
they get a part of the action and not let themselves get divided.
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Commercial Committee goalsetting
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Marti Latimore announced an August 23 meeting, 2 to 5 at Adams in the
Vista Room to do goal setting for the Development Corporation's
Commercial Program. The current historic district boundaries
that is North of Manchester may be expanded to include portions of
Manchester. Check with her to see
maps at the Development Corporation office at Taylor and Arco. In response
to a question, she said the historic district expansion plan had been
presented to the DC board.
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Development Corporation
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Irving Blue, Executive Director of the FPSE Housing Corporation
requested an opportunity to discuss some e-mail responses to
his remarks at the June Council meeting. He felt there was some
misinterpretation. George stated that the Board is very pleased with him.
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