Halloween Parade & Party

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It is that time of year again! The Annual Halloween Parade is coming soon! We will have the parade this year on Sunday, October 28th at 4PM. Please dress up your child, bring them out and meet us on the corner of Basket Oak Dr. and Canyon Oak Ct. Once we are gathered the children will parade through the neighborhood to show the rest of us their wonderful costumes!

Please plan to come out and watch the kids go by! Of course if you want to treat a little early that is up to you. As an added attraction for the rest of us also, let’s have a dessert cook off! Please bring your fav dessert- can be Halloween inspired! We all will be judges! We will allso have some hot dogs and chili ready for when we get back from the parade. We can have chii, chili dogs and dessert! You will need to provide your own drinks- the version that best suits you!

This will be an end of year gathering before we all basically hibernate for the winter.

Please RSVP to Kirsten if you plan to attend both the parade and/or the chili & dessert event.

Neighborhood News – August 2012

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Our annual meeting will be coming up next early spring, likely being the first week or so of April. Kirsten Harrison has done a wonderful job on the board for a number of years, and we really appreciate her hard work.  It has come time for her to step down, though.  We will need at least one resident to step up be on the board.  Please think this over, talk to a current board member about what is involved and decide if you are ready to be on the ballot. 
 
Calling all Bunco Fans! We do have a neighborhood bunco group that meets September through May on the third Monday of the month. If you wish to join this group, please let Kirsten know! You do not need to know how to play this game. This is a time for the women of the neighborhood to gather, bring yummy treats to share and gab! The game is really easy to learn, so do not let that stop you!

OK, last thing, for now. We have had instances of teenagers/ young 20 somethings using the island sign for a bench in the middle of the night. It is also become apparent that they are not just passerby people, but our own residents. The board is researching and will be taking steps to adjust the island and sign so that it cannot be used for a bench. In the meantime, if you have young adults living with you, would you please ask them to not use this as a site to congregate? The sign and island is an entrance way, not a park with a picnic bench. Where we do spend association fees for the upkeep, we do not want to spend it on repairs because of this use. Please understand this is an entrance, and not meant as a place to congregate.

Water Conservation Suggestion Lifted

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The City Public Works Director lifted the voluntary water conservation order on August 16.  The rain and cooler temperatures have reduced demand on the system.  Public Works is teaming up with Parks & Recreation to recycle water from the swimming pools and use it in street sweeprs, vac trucks and portable landscape watering tanks.  If this sytem works well, they will continue the practice in the future, with or without drought conditions.

Fall Picnic and Water Usage

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First of all, mark your calendars for September 15th from 3-7pm.  Our annual picnic will be held at Vogt Brothers Park.  More details will be available soon.

Secondly – Steve posted this to our facebook group about water conservation:

Follow up water conservation memo from…

Debra K. Aylsworth, P.E.
Director of Public Works

The biggest water conservation impact resulted from the media push on July 5th where we did see positive results from the request for voluntary water conservation. Since that date water consumption has continued to rise. I believe another external push to request continued voluntary water conservation would be beneficial. If we do not see a significant reduction with this follow up, I will be requesting voluntary conservation be made mandatory.

St. Charles is fortunate to have water system redundancy (Elm Point Water Treatment Plant and Heritage Pump Station) that allows the City to provide a consistent supply of water by either increasing production at Elm Point or increasing pumping from Heritage. However, even that redundancy can be tested during periods of high temperatures and abnormally dry conditions.

If the water system were to incur a failure from being ‘overworked’ (i.e. mechanical pump failure or power outage at Heritage Pump Station or any of the City’s wells; excessive drawdown of groundwater levels impacting well production) the potential exists for large areas of the City to be impacted to the extent there would be little to no water. NO ONE wants that and it would be very hard and take a long period of time for the system to recover from such.

The facts are with this heat and no rain, more people are watering and they are watering more than normal. The lack of rain also increases the time required for groundwater levels to recharge or recover to normal depths after extended periods of pumping form the City’s wells. For those irrigating — individuals and homeowner’s associations — if they reduced the time and amount they irrigate by at least 30%, we estimate the water system would experience something much closer to the City’s normal peak usage of 12 – 13MGD vs. the peak 14.5 – 15 MGD we are presently seeing. A reduction in irrigation or watering to 50% would provide added protection to the City’s water system by:

· Reducing stress on pumps and mechanical components in the water system.
· Allow more time for groundwater level to recharge to normal depths.
· Increase available time to pump and fill the City’s elevated and ground storage tanks.

Water Division staff are closely monitoring the City’s well operations vs. groundwater levels. As the situation dictates he has been adjusting pumping rates to minimize groundwater drawdown effects on well performance.

Additional data that is compelling – in June 2012 we averaged 11.5 MGD. In June 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 we averaged 8.8, 9.2, 8.7, 8.6 MGD, respectively. So we pumped an average of 2.7 MGD more in June of 2012 than the previous 4 years……that is massive. July 2012 to date has averaged 13.4 MGD with 214.4 million gallons pumped in the first 16 days. The average for July 2011 was 10.5 MGD.

I’ll certainly keep you posted moving forward, as Wednesday and Thursday are looking like scorching hot days.

Fireworks & Heat Wave

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St. Charles Gears Up for the July 4th Holiday by Reviewing Related Safety Measures

Staff monitoring plans for fireworks, water conservation and area cooling centers.

WHO:   Mayor Faith and the St. Charles leadership team are reviewing plans to ensure the safety and security of residents before, during and after the July 4th holiday.  Currently on tap are issues related to fireworks, water conservation and cooling centers.

WHAT:   The city’s current position on all three areas of emphasis are as follows:

  • FIREWORKS – the city intends to retain its fireworks schedule for Riverfest (Wed., July 4 @ 9:20p) given the professional show is initiated from a barge on the Missouri River.  Fire Chief Ernie Rhodes will continue to monitor the weather forecast going into next week, to determine whether any type of fireworks ban needs to be implemented in neighborhoods citywide.  Given we are in an “abnormally dry” condition and not under a Red Flag warning, at this time city residents may shoot off fireworks on Tuesday, July 3 and Wednesday July 4.  Updates will be provided if there’s any change to this plan.

    NOTE:  According to City Ordinance (Section 215.1090) the city of St. Charles currently allows fireworks to be discharged within the municipal limits only on July 3 and 4 and only from 12:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

  • WATER CONSERVATION – Public Works staff continue to monitor and anticipate water usage issues that can arise from excessive heat and abnormally dry conditions.  The City’s water system is functioning properly and water storage tanks levels are acceptable at this time.

    There are situations that could occur which alters the ability to provide adequate water supply for fire protection.  A major water main break, significant fire, or power outage, or a combination of the prior in addition to higher than normal consumption could potentially result in the need to issue a request for voluntary water conservation.  If positive results would not be achieved from voluntary conservation, a mandatory conservation request would be issued.

    Steps the City has taken, include:
    1)      restricting usage from contractors working for the City on improvement projects
    2)      restricting issuance of fire hydrant permits for new construction
    3)      restricting fire hydrant flow testing
    4)      restricting use of water hauling unit at 3 p.m. this afternoon
    5)      requesting city-operated facilities to limit water usage

    In the case of a power outage, the City’s water facilities, with exception of one, have emergency generators in place.  The fuel reservoirs for the generators are being topped off today and the vendor is on standby for fueling if necessary.  We have arrangements in place for a temporary emergency generator, if the need arises for the one facility.

  • COOLING CENTERS – there are currently two cooling sites available for area residents in St. Charles, including:

    Mid East Area Agency on Aging – St. Charles Senior Center, 1455 Fairgrounds (63301) – 636-949-0658

    Salvation Army – St. Charles Emergency Social Services, 2140 North 4th St. (63301) – 636-946-7966

    Here’s a link to a more complete listing of cooling sites in the area for your easy reference.

WHERE & WHEN:     St. Charles, MO – staff will monitor heat-related needs and conditions on an ongoing basis. Tracking will continue thru the weekend and the July 4th holiday as necessary.

ALSO:   For more information, contact Michael Spurgeon at 314-808-0917, Ernie Rhodes at 636-949-3250 or Carol Felzien at 636-578-6933.

 

Blanchette Bridge Update

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The westbound I-70 bridge over the Missouri River was built in the middle of the last century and is in need of major repairs.  Spans such as these are designed to last 100 years with a major re-fitting required at 50 years.      

Things are moving along as planned.  The westbound lanes will close and shift to the eastbound span no sooner than November 1st.  Weather may have an effect on the actual closure date, as will the availability of steel as it is manufactured for the new truss and approach spans.

The rehabilitation of the Westbound I-70 Bridge will include:

  • Removal and replacement of the existing truss spans with new trusses.
  • Replacement of the complete driving surface, edge barrier walls and  all expansion joints
  • Elimination of the three spans nearest to the St. Louis County end and their conversion to roadway on embankment
  • Repair all remaining concrete substructure units including replacement of some parts
  • Complete replacement of the structural steel in the first nine spans of the bridge on the St. Charles County side
  • Repair of the structural steel components of the long girder spans and the truss spans
  • Repainting of all existing structural steel

More detailed information can be found here.

The Latest News

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Fall Picnic- yes, the SummerFest that has been the first weekend of June has been moved to the fall this year! We have now booked the Vogt Bros Park Pavilion for Saturday, September 15! We are still working out all the details of this fun event, so stay tuned….just mark your calendars so you can attend!
 
Siding Questions- Well, since a lot of us got hit with golf ball and larger hail recently a question was raised about the siding having to match if only one or 2 sides of a home were to be replaced instead of the whole home. We do not have in the covenants a specific statement about this, other then general upkeep of the home being of a good standard. So we went to the Code office at the city. There again is not a specific code that siding needs to match (we are talking possible shades of gray or brown- not purple and pink!). However, the property maintenance code does state that all work needs to be done in a workmanship like manner. If your insurance adjuster needs to discuss this, please have them contact the Code Enforcement office for the City.
 
Clean Up Day- the Board, City Code Office and the St Charles Preservation Group are teaming up to schedule a neighborhood clean up day for us! We are still working out a date, so stay tuned, but start getting ready! There will be more details, but this is where we can dump old electronics, equipment, couches…etc right from the front door! We will also work at trying to do this with Southern Oaks also. This is one where we will need volunteers to help with a variety of functions for one morning only! There will be more details once we set a date and what can be dumped! Stay tuned!