A pair of 100-year-old historic buildings would have to come down to make way for a new QuikTrip at the intersection of Butler Hill and Lemay Ferry roads if St. Louis County were to approve the plan, which has not yet reached the zoning stage. QuikTrip proposes a new store at 5040 Lemay Ferry Road..
Superintendent Tony Lake has spent three years at the helm of Lindbergh Schools and is set to lead the district for at least another three after the Board of Education extended his contract through 2024.
After getting voter approval for a $105 million no-tax-rate-increase bond issue to build a new Lindbergh High School, Lake said he is now looking ahead to what the district needs in the future financially and facilities-wise and how to fund both of those missions.
The board voted unanimously Jan. 12 to extend Lake’s contract by another year, so he is on contract with Lindbergh through June 30, 2024.
For the 2021-2022 school year, Lake will be paid $227,136 in base salary, plus mileage and district-funded health insurance. That’s up from $200,000 when he started three years ago. Lake’s raise each of the next two years could range from 2-10 percent, but he doesn’t get a raise if teachers don’t. The district is also paying into two pension funds for Lake.
The four-year legal battle to determine whether Crestwood has to continue paying the Affton Fire Protection District for fire service for annexed residents is over after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled for Affton.
The Supreme Court took a year and a half to issue a ruling in the case after hearing oral arguments in late 2019, but an April 20 ruling from the entire court written by Justice Patricia Breckenridge sided with Affton on every legal argument, just as a Cole County circuit judge originally did in the case.
Since Crestwood lost its bid in court, the city will continue to pay more than $500,000 a year to the AFPD, out of a roughly $13 million budget. And the payments will never stop: In the words spoken to the Supreme Court by Crestwood’s own attorney, former Missouri Chief Justice Ray Price of Armstrong Teasdale, the city will be “saddled for the rest of time” with those payments.
The new Crestwood mall redevelopment plan was taken by courier to the members of the Crestwood TIF Commission Friday, giving the public both a price tag and concrete financing from a bank.
Developer Dierbergs proposes a $67 million redevelopment of half the 46-acre site with $17 million in tax incentives, including $13.5 million in tax-increment financing and $3.5 million in a 1-percent Community Improvement District sales tax.
Past developers of the site have struggled with financing, but First Bank which is owned by the Dierberg family wrote a letter to the city included in the plan that guarantees financing if the TIF is granted. Three would-be developers have come and gone since 2013, when the mall closed.
With no historic preservation ordinance in St. Louis County and a wave of developers looking for sites to build, unincorporated South County is losing some historic structures as three separate structures are under threat of being torn down and one is already gone.
The oldest house in Oakville, a stone farmhouse off Fine and Telegraph roads known as the Fine-Eiler House, was torn down by its owner earlier this year a fact that was revealed when the property came up for zoning for a new McBride Homes subdivision. Two other historic buildings known as the Kassebaum Building or Sessions Building could follow, since QuikTrip proposes tearing them down to construct a gas station at 5040 Lemay Ferry Road. The Concord Farmers Club has been purchased by Lindbergh Schools, although there are currently no plans made for the historic building that stands on the property.