Politics & Government

City Council Approves Design Contracts for Road Improvements, Energy Strategic Plan

Council postponed bills that would amend existing ordinances regarding parking commercial vehicles, nuisances and ordinance style.

O’Fallon City Council approved design contracts to move forward with road improvement projects as well as a plan to make the city more energy efficient at Thursday night’s regular meeting.

At the March 24 meeting, City Council approved entering agreements to fund

Federal grants through the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission and locally through the East-West Gateway Council of Governments fund 80 percent, or $2.9 million, of the projects.

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The city is contributing 20 percent of the total cost with $156,000 budgeted for 2011 to complete the design and engineering and $404,000 to complete construction in 2012.

 Road projects include:

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  • Southside On-Street Bicycle Loop Connection Project
  • Bryan Road Turn Lane Improvements Project
  • Mexico Road Turn Lane Improvements
  • Feise Road Trail and Sidewalk Connections Project
  • Main Street Signal Improvements
  • Veterans Memorial Parkway at Woodlawn Avenue Intersection Improvements

During last night's meeting, council members approved:

  • An agreement with Howard R. Green Inc. for design services of the Mexico Road Turn Lane Improvements Project. This project includes improving  right turn lanes to improve traffic flow at the Belleau Creek Road and Sonderen Street intersection. It also includes pedestrian improvements, such as new crosswalks and sidewalks. 
  • An agreement with Howard R. Green Inc. for design services of the Bryan Road Turn Lane Improvements Project. This project consists of improving right turn lanes from Bryan Road to Mexico Road, Feise Road and Winghaven Boulevard. It will include new pavement, crosswalks, pedestrian countdown timers, curb ramps and detectable warning panels. 
  • An agreement with Bax Engineering Inc. for design of the Veterans Memorial Parkway and Woodlawn Avenue Intersection Turn Lane Improvement Project. This project involves the construction of separated left turn, right turn and through lanes at Woodlawn Avenue to improve traffic flow. 

On Thursday, city council also approved the Energy Strategic Plan. O’Fallon Public Relations Director Tom Drabelle said this is a project the Advisory Green Council has been working on for some time.

“The city paid a consultant with a grant from the Department of Energy, to take a global look at what could be done to make the city more green,” Drabelle said.

During citizen’s comments at the meeting, Advisory Green Council member Wendy Prakot thanked the Mayor and council.

“This strategic plan was developed to accomplish the city’s goal of educating citizens on ways to conserve energy and reduce consumption of electricity, natural gas and water by two percent,” she said. “With this resolution, we are off to a good start at finding ways to reduce our carbon imprint, save energy and conserve natural resources.”

Check out O’Fallon Patch next week for more on the Energy Strategic Plan.

Other action approved by the council:

  • Entering an agreement with Bobcat of St. Louis for excavators for the city.
  • Purchase of six vehicles for departments including, Environmental Services, Water and Sewer, a Ford F-150 for both Parks and Project Management departments and two Ford Explorers for the Police Department.
  • Purchase agreement with Dave Sinclair Ford, Inc for trucks for the city.  
  • Purchase and installation of new virtual system servers and data backup service from World Wide Technologies. 
  • Council suspended the rules to allow a second reading and approve a conditional use permit for M.A.C. Sales, LLC to allow the sale of motor vehicles on land owned by Partners Group, LLC at 605 Arrow Ln.
  • Council suspended the rules to allow a second reading and approve a conditional use permit for Carpenter Bus Sales to allow the sale of shuttle busses at Plaza Tire Service on Highway K.

During the meeting, council postponed first readings of bills 6084, 6085 and 6086, after several council members said they would like more time to read over  the items and review issues brought up during the workshop before the meeting.

  • Bill 6084,  would amend sections of the city code regarding the parking of commercial vehicles in residential and public parking lots.
  • Bill 6085 would amend sections of the city code to clarify the definition of nuisances. Ward 2 Councilman Jim Pepper said the original ordinance is “extremely vague” and minor tweaks would make the language more understandable to both members of the community and those enforcing the laws.
  • Bill 6086 would amend the style of ordinances. During Thursday’s workshop, Pepper said this would require all future ordinances to be in “plain language and easy to understand from everyone’s standpoint.”

 These bills will be added to the next workshops agenda.  The next City Council meeting is April 28 at City Hall at 7:30 p.m. The workshop begins at 5:30 p.m. 


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