Maplewood Mayor Barry Greenberg said at the council meeting Tuesday that there’s still hope for the proposed Great Rivers Greenway (GRG) trail through the city.
He said he and City Manager Marty Corcoran have a meeting with GRG on March 6 to discuss the biking and hiking trail through Maplewood, to run along Greenwood Boulevard.
Greenberg said probably everyone knows that GRG had declined the federal funding (of $1.6 million) and the project is canceled for the time, and that there could be a solution at a future date.
See also: Great Rivers Greenway rejects Maplewood proposal, Great Rivers Greenway giving Maplewood a 2nd chance
“There’s no hope of resurrecting the current project in its current form, however GRG has expressed desire to move forward with (the Maplewood) portion of the network. We’ll explore the possibility with them, letting them know there are certain stipulations to be acceptable to the city,” he said.
Also, the council approved:
- The low bid of M&H concrete for $988,728 (with a contingency of an additional $69,211) for concrete street reconstruction on: Hiawatha Avenue, Laclede Station Road from Burgess to Flora, Lohmeyer from Sutton to Oakview Terrace, Oakview Terrace from the Citizens Band drive-thru exit north to Lyndover Terrace, and Roseland Terrace from Lyndover Place to Zephyr Place.
- A full liquor license by the drink, to be served on premises only, for Toasty Subs, at 3001 S. Beg Bend Boulevard.
- A conditional use permit for a short term rental at 7553 Woodland Avenue. The owner, Ellis Athanas, plans to operate an Airbnb. In the hearing before the vote a neighbor three or four houses away from this one said her daughter was interested in also operating an Airbnb there, and asked if it would be allowed. City Manager Marty Corcoran said there is nothing in the ordinance that would prevent it as long as the conditions are met.
Also, the cities of Maplewood and Richmond Heights are accepting bids to manage the lifeguard and management staff at the Maplewood Family Aquatic Center. Previously the city of Richmond Heights managed the staff at the pool. Last summer some of the lifeguard staff at the Maplewood pool was fired over their use of a texting app.
So Laclede Station Rd from Burgess to Flora FINALLY will be reconstructed. Hurray!! When the partial project was done between Manchester and only Burgess (to benefit ECC) the rest of the street only had some asphalt patching done because the rating system used by the city had Laclede-Flora #3 (only #1-2 streets were eligible for reconstruction). I assume work will be done in stages to avoid totally closing the street to allow for school bus traffic, UPS/FedEx & trash pick-up. Now if those huge car haulers (from the Volvo dealer) could be prevented from using Laclede-to-Flora-to Big Bend.. Fire & Rescue is one thing, but wish the car haulers could be banned — they’ll prematurely damage the new pavement.
How about enforcing the laws !!! I watch cyclist go through stop signs even though there is a car(me) stopped.
Is this the way the GRG and City of Maplewood is trying to get around the safety and traffic issues not to mention the parking issues that were submitted in the stipulations to the GRG. We were told that if these safety issues weren’t resolved the trail would be dead it looks like so much for safety
Yes it is, they want a crappy job just like on McCausland and Wabash.
So in there is a possibility that it will move forward now that the federal funding is off the table, how would this be paid for? If I was a citizen of Maplewood and was asked to pay for this I’d be pretty ticked off. It will be interesting to see how they plan on funding this possible project.