"Town Hall" Meeting In Creve Coeur Touches Tour of Topics

Ward 3 City Council Members Charlotte D’Alfonso and Bob Hoffman discussed issues of importance to residents and talked of issues that will affect the city in the near future Tuesday night at a town hall meeting at the Creve Coeur Government Center. 

The issue of was raised by a number of attendees. Hoffman said “there was a lot of passion both ways” on the deer issue, as some residents want the deer removed or killed, some reject killing, and others don’t see them as an issue. Hoffman added that some blame the deer for causing car accidents and the destruction of landscaping while others have sighted hostile deer.

D’Alfonso said most of the deer sightings have been concentrated in the city’s third ward, with some overlap in wards 2 and 4 including a two-square mile radius. Hoffman said there have been seven recorded deer related accidents in the last few years. Some brought up the issue of relocating the deer to another area. Hoffman said he didn’t feel it was an option because relocation “failed miserably” when Town and Country tried it, as 80 to 90 percent of the deer died in its relocation program.    

One resident in attendance said people have spotted an increase in the tick population in the city and said the ticks were attracted to the deer. 

The Council will conduct a public forum on deer on 7 p.m. at Aug. 29 at the Creve Coeur Government Center, and will include experts from the Missouri Department of Conservation.

The council members took time to talk about their vote Monday night on in Creve Coeur. It passed 7-1, with Hoffman the lone dissenter.

While he disagreed with the majority, Hoffman did allow that the shelters would keep people from dropping cigarette butts in front of businesses.

D'Alfonso reminded residents that business owners would still have to seek approval from the city to build the shelters and pay for their building and maintenance, said D’Alfonso.

D'Alfonso also said residents had addressed her regarding the possibility of amending city codes

Hoffman announced to attendees a list of infrastructure improvements that would be starting soon: construction on a new playground at within a few weeks, repairs that will start on Conway Road in the spring, and a sidewalk that will be constructed by Conway Road in the fall. Ninety percent of the funding for the new playground will be covered by a state grant from the Missouri Regional Parks Commission and 80 percent of funding the Conway Road repair and sidewalk will be covered by a federal Department of Transportation grant, said City Administrator Mark Perkins.