Maplewood council discusses how to spend more than $1 million, bills passed

Every bill before the Maplewood City Council Tuesday night was passed.

• A bill to alter the agreement with the East Central Dispatch Center to include Brentwood.
• A bill to transfer $100,000 into a fund to pay for services for the development of the new Maplewood fire house.
• A bill to establish new parking restrictions on parts of Florent, Sutton and McCready.
• A bill to allow Maplewood public works and contractors to use all-terrain vehicles on Maplewood public streets. The city currently owns no ATVs.

The ordinance to allow Shur Auto Body to use a garage on St. Elmo was tabled. It will be on the next meeting agenda for a vote, which will be preceded by a public hearing. The planning and zoning commission opposed it unanimously.

The council discussed the $64,000 Community Development Block Grant. Thirty thousand of that is already allocated to the Home Improvement Grant Program. The remaining $34,000 could be used to irrigate Ryan Hummert Park, for sidewalk repair, for putting selected utilities underground, or other projects.

One to 1.2 million dollars will be available from Hanley Road Transportation Development (TDD) funds, and the council discussed where those funds could be used. A pedestrian/bicycle link from the Maplewood Metrolink station to downtown, and linking the Deer Creek bike path to central Maplewood were two ideas, according to Councilman Barry Greenberg, on Wednesday.

The TDD funds could also be used for improvements to the Maplewood MetroLink station, straightening and widening Laclede Station and Manchester  roads and installing bike lanes, green space and landscape improvements along Hanley and Manchester Roads, construction of a bus loop link along Manchester Road to Maplewood Commons Shopping Center and Hanley Road, and others, according to an article in STL Today.

The next scheduled meeting of the city council is June 10.