City strife in Wildwood over a new City Hall!
Wildwood is the City that gets $900,000.00 in tax revenue from us because they have no "shopping Centers" and we are "more fortunate" don't you know!
Could it be they no longer require our help, or is this "City welfare" garbage going to continue? I for one think it's time to pair up with Fenton, and get this thing repealed before they build a joint larger than we were going to, thus "dissing" Crestwood with our own money!
Please click on the header to be directed to the story in the Post Dispatch.
Tom Ford
NO. 264
Could it be they no longer require our help, or is this "City welfare" garbage going to continue? I for one think it's time to pair up with Fenton, and get this thing repealed before they build a joint larger than we were going to, thus "dissing" Crestwood with our own money!
Please click on the header to be directed to the story in the Post Dispatch.
Tom Ford
NO. 264
posted by Crestwood Independent at 12:54
14 Comments:
Everyone wants to be like Des Peres but no one wants to buy triple in their Real Estate Taxes to support a new City Hall.
Wildwood needs more commercial business to justify expanding their City Hall or they will end up like Crestwood!
Has anyone noticed how the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County is not growing in new businesses?
Correct. Not only that, but very little in new industry. The city and the county, along with municipalities, are great at giving tax abatements.
I imagine Grewe had a nice holiday.
Not too many years ago I read a report that said the area between the City Limits of St louis and I270 were in the same state of change and condition that the City of St. louis was in 1975. Unless something changes that area will become like the City is now. The question I would like to ask the readers of this blog including our Mayor who I know reads this, is
"What can be done in Crestwood to stop the trend noted above from including Crestwood?" The issues of TIF,CDD,etc are nothing to the changes I see coming down I44 and Watson road and that they are not being brought here by Mr. Grewe or the use of tax abatements.What should we do? Should we cont. to keep our heads in the sand and blame the past for our future, when in fact, we control our future if we want to. My feeling is however, that most readers of this blog are more interested in trying to fix blame on the past, and by doing so will become victums of our own anger at the past in our collective future. What should Crestwood do on our eastern borders to prevent the changes you see if one travels east on Watson? HOw can we better improve our housing stock and property values to prevent more of our home from becoming rental property, what if anything does the mall or tax abatements have to do with that problem? Start thinking people or we will become the next city to fall to the western movement that is going on in this area of missouri.
S.W.Malter
Please be more specific with the "start thinking" part. While you speak of anger over thoughts of the past, you present a dismal picture with few specifics on how to deal with it. Overcoming the past is tough, but possible, of course. But when hold over officials keep reminding us of our less than illustrious past with their continuing behavior it all comes back. When aldermen encourage time and again fiscal responsibility only to be called grandstanders or snake in the grass, tell me, how do you forget this kind of representation and its consequences. I do see lots of new housing and efforts to enforce codes. I agree rentals should be totally regulated. And I see energy and enthusiasm from our residents. I also see few houses for sale here.
We are very fortunate to have missed the housing slow down that is so prevelent in some areas.
Being in the HVAC business I have watched construction bloom to the point that some contractors I know have over 30 spec homes just sitting!
There are areas that have over 200 homes (new and used) for sale, and not a bite purchase wise. My friends there are just so many buyers for any home, office, retail space, or shopping center.
That said, I fear we have succumbed to the mentality that TIF'S,TTD'S,CID'S are the only way to do business in todays real estate market.
The car dealers thought rebates were a wonderful idea until they tried to take them off and found out no one was buying unless they got a rebate. These tax deals are the same thing. The developer waits to see who will blink first (and darned if we don't) then moves in for the kill!
I think we must look in another direction, that being promote Crestwood as the rock solid community where business people will want to live and work.
We must stop trying to buy our way into business, and make it attractive to be here for all the other reasons that are so obvious to those of us who live here!
I hope before we rush out to find another E.D. specialist the mayor and the BOA will look into the collective expertise of the citizens and form a board for the purpose of expanding business in Crestwood.
It seems to me that a few volunteers moving in the same direction can bring in new business, and we will save a big chunk of change while we are at it!
Tom Ford
9:24 PM and 1:09 AM 12/30
I agree with your SW Malter and the blogger at 1:09 AM.
If we drive east instead of west, we can see what will happen to Crestwood sooner rather than later. Much of what is going on is urban sprawl.
Mr. Grewe chooses to use the CID's TIF's, etc. that the government makes available to developers for commercial enterprise.
The government has these things in place as "tools" and "incentives" to the developers to increase progress in our communities and to keep communities commercially solvent.
There are also younger people but as they get better jobs and make more money, they will move to the newer, bigger homes.
Seniors like Crestwood because of it's low tax rate and they choose to stay here.
We all know the problems of the past and the present. How we are going to fix our problems can only be resolved by people who understand community development and planning.
Up to this point, I haven't seen anybody in Crestwood who has the capabilities to come up with a comprehensive plan that people will listen to. If that is the case, then we are going to have to get the experts in who can assist us. We can't keep crying like "chicken little". Therefore, I don't know of any way out of this unless we get assistance from the outside.
Since you don't get anything "free" in this world, we may have to pay for help. But, of course, then we will hear the yelling and screaming that the administration is over spending.
Therefore, the nuts and bolts of it all is, if you know how to get us out of this mess, without costing us money, now is the time to speak up and be counted. We all have made it clear regarding how we got in this position so let's go from there.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sandy Grave
Poster 109 what hold over officals are you talking about?
Sandy - if it's true we need outside help would you agree we should get competitive bids on the consultant?
10:17 PM Blogger - From what I know about the issues that Crestwood has in front of them, I think we should go out for bids on a comprehensive plan from reliable firms. We then have a chance to compare and check backgrounds to see what they have accomplished and what their success rate has been. Personally, I have never been one who picks out the first company that is recommended to me. Every time I have done that, it has not worked out. Therefore, I like to do my own research and come up with something tangible that makes sense to me. I like a company that can answer my questions and one with a good reputation. But that's my opinion; maybe the administration does it differently for good reasons that I don't understand.
But as I have been told, Frank Myer has had similar issues that Crestwood has in other cities he has worked in. So, I am not an authority. Thank you for your consideration.
Sandy Grave
I agree, Sandy - and so do the city rules - these jobs must be competitively bid. Guess this c/a is above the rules. That's a good idea - don't you think? It's worked so well for us in the past to give our c/a's unquestioned power.
10:11 AM 1/3/07 Never, ever do I want a return to the days of the previous CA. And I don't really care how we got rid of him or if he left on his own or was thrown out. Bottom Line, he is gone and that's good enough for me. However, Frank Myer will only have total power, if 8 aldermen and 1 mayor allow it.
I don't know Frank Myer very well at all, but our mayor and board voted to hire him. So if they are doing their job, they will be watching him, asking the questions and making sure he is in communication with them. And if what he wants to do is not in the best interest of the City, they need to speak up about it. Otherwise, we will have more of the same foolishness. But in no way do I think he should be compared to the one before him.
I was imprssed with Mr. Myers at the open forum after he was hired. I liked the way he presented himself and spoke to the people and answered questions.
I can also tell you that the CA may control the day to day operations of the city, but the aldermen represent the people. If that is not the case, why elect anybody to office? We can just have one person control it all, and then we would have a dictatorship. Then in that case, Greer should have stayed here.
I think that we gave Greer too much power and lots of time to destroy things. If that happens again, heaven help us all but I really don't think that will be the case. By now, I would think those at the helm should be able to see it coming a mile away. People in Crestwood are intelligent and would never let that happen again!!!!
We have a selection process to hire people and as I understand it, that is what was done when hiring this CA. Unless something has changed, we would put out the ads for CA and send them to SLACMA, St. Louis Area City Managers Association and even place the ads in National magazines as well as in the newspapers.
We used to get hundreds of candidates wanting to come to the St. Louis area. But after the data was all processed, everyone on the board had to agree to hire the picked candidate as it was in Frank Myers case.
Remember, we are a city composed of one mayor, eight aldermen and one CA. The mayor and aldermen took an oath and have the responsibility to be our protectors. They need to keep watch that any CA does the job he was hired to do and if he messes up, they are in a place to do something about it.
Being an alderman alone requires sacrifice and is a lot of work and not for the faint hearted. It takes time and patience.
But I ask you to please don't give up on Crestwood yet. Just keep your eyes open and go to the meetings and don't let anyone "tell" you things; find out for yourself. So many times people just say things to act important or to be heard. Find out things for yourself and make up your own mind.
Thank you very much for your consideration and have a very happy and blessed new year.
Sandy Grave
Anyone know how many people Frank Myers had to beat to get his job in Crestwood? Bet it was under 10. The days of hundred candidates is over, we can not bring Crestwood back.
Seems like Mr. Myers has done whatever he wants. Maybe he has the current BOA snowed as you state Greer had done in previous years.
- Approved expenditure of Crestwood monies not in the budget and NOT BOA approved
- Moving funds from the Capital Improvement Fund to the General Fund with no idea when it will be put back (did the public vote for these taxes for this purpose? NO)
- New department heads seems to lead to additional spending
- Fulltime compliance officer, fulltime animal control officer (lets see, salary + benefits - not cheap)
- Still seem to have too many executive sessions for legal matters. I guess the CA position does not have all the ducks in a row?
Sure hope in the future IF revenues increase the maintenance the city needs should be taken care of instead of being applied towards the outstanding loan.
Sure, and we can keep extending our debt???
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