Saint Louis Blog

In a recent attempt to recover some administration costs, the City of Manchester has approved ordinance #08-1860, allowing for the increase of the rates. The board has approved the charge of $150.00 for single family inspections and $125.00 for apartments.

St. Louis County does the inspections for Manchester, but the administration of the inspections is Manchester’s responsibility. St. Louis County receives $75.00 of the $125.00 for single family. At the April 7, 2008 meeting there was a discussion of the recent changes. Manchester is actually only recouping 50-60% of the cost to administer, per Franz Krantz, Director of Planning, Zoning and Economic Development. He said other townships have their own inspectors and apparently that allows them to administer their fees more economically. Hmmm, makes me think that some dollars could be saved by just letting Manchester residents deal directly with St. Louis County. What do you think? 

You still have time to pick up and file your St. Louis County property tax assessment appeal form. Don’t delay though, as the deadline to file is Monday, June 16, 2008.

You can pick up the form at 41 S. Central Avenue in Clayton; by phone at 314-615-7194; online at the St. Louis County Web site or at the Chesterfield satellite office located at 74 Clarkson Wilson Centre. 

This past week, here in the St. Louis area (and in Illinois, where the epicenter was) a lot of us were awakened to the fact that "the big one" could happen. Yes, I knew about the New Madrid fault, but this other one (Wabash Valley) was new to me, in Illinois, I’d never even heard of it! So, when I awoke in the early morning, to find the windows softly rattling and then continuing to get noisier as the bed began to shake, I tried to think what I was supposed to do next. Meanwhile the hubby was lying peacefully next to me, still sound asleep!

My learned response was to either get under the doorway or get outside to the driveway. Turn off the gas if it’s a large earthquake.

OK, so what would YOU do? Or maybe I should ask, what SHOULD you do? For answers to these questions, take the test that’s in this short video. Be prepared the next time; yes, there will be a next time. When or where, who knows? Check out the earthquake hazard maps.

One thing I know for sure, I only had 50% of the questions correct! Obviously, they have changed their thinking on some previous views. I’ve had to re-think what I’d been taught. Good Luck on the test! Let me know if you find it helpful.

There’s a new bridge in the works for the St. Louis area! Of course MODOT was working on this project for some time, but we now can take a peek at what it will look like and the path it will take.

It’ll be built just to the North of the Martin Luther King bridge. It’s sorely needed as traffic increases and existing bridges age. Construction is predicted to begin in 2010 and will take about 4-6 years to complete. The New Mississippi Bridge has a contemporary look about it. Check it out!