Kelly coffee: Chick-fil-A, speeding on Rosalie, running for re-election (?)

About 20 residents came to Brentwood Mayor Pat Kelly’s monthly coffee Friday morning for his update on the city and doughnuts from Rays.

• Brentwood head librarian, Vicki Woods, broke a knee last week, so staffer, Lindsay, talked to the group about filling out suggestion cards for the Brentwood library of the future. Complete one by Oct. 15 to be in a drawing for a Kindle Fire. Also, turn in an over-due book any Friday and skip out on paying the fine.
• Drury Inn sold out Sept. 16, the night before its ribbon-cutting—possibly because the  Milwaukee Brewers were in town.
• Bone Fish Grill is on schedule to open late October.
• The Macaroni Grill on Eager Road will be replaced with a Chick-fil-A. It should move through planning and zoning quickly.
• The Recreation Center roof is leaking badly, so things are progressing quickly on that, as well as the rest of the project. Some aldermen still want a workout facility, which Kelly said would make no economic sense.
• The Friday morning before Maddenfest, Kelly got a call from a representative of the railroad that runs along the park saying the steps built on the railroad’s property must be removed, and that people can’t cross the tracks to go to the fair. Kelly said it’s not going to happen. Kelly said he had a meeting scheduled with a lawyer from the railroad Friday (Sept. 26) to talk about it.
• It was a first, at Maddenfest, that Alderman Patrick Toohey announced his candidacy for mayor in April 2015 with a banner behind a plane. After the meeting, Kelly said he hasn’t decided if he will run for re-election.
• Fifteen to 20 new houses are under construction. Most were pre-sold.
• The house at the corner of Madge and Bremerton is under contract (mentioned after the meeting).
• MSD might be running lines through the former Executive Walk Apartments site where Kelly had said he wanted to build a dog park, which could delay the park by a year of two.
• More than 20 cars were broken into in the first week of September. All were unlocked. One of the cars had more than a thousand in cash stolen. Kelly said “kids in the community” are usually responsible.
• After a robbery at the Maplewood Walmart cars drove 70 miles per hour down Rosalie to escape. “Those kinds of things are going to happen,” he said. (Residents estimated the speed at 60.)
• The city is working on developing the parcels north and south of Manchester west of Hanley Road. He said it’s a problem that both sides are in a flood plain.The October mayor’s coffee will be the 24th, not the 31st. Kelly said he’ll be out of town.