Kirkwood Happenings
City of Kirkwood, Missouri
December 3, 2015
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TONIGHT:  Photos with Santa at the Kirkwood Train Station, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Additional dates and times (also at the Station):

~ Next Thursday, December 10, 5:00-7:00 p.m. With Live Reindeer!

~ Friday, December 11, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

DON'T FORGET:  Winter Fireworks Festival, Saturday, December 26, over City Hall.  Festivities begin at 5:00 p.m., with fireworks at 6:30 p.m.
  
Toys for Tots Donations
Stuff the Ambulance!
 
This holiday season, the Kirkwood Fire Department will once again team up with the United States Marines for a "Toys for Tots" collection.   On Friday, December 11, 5:00 to 9:00 p.m., and on Saturday, December 12, 10:00 a.m., to 3:00 p.m., a Kirkwood Fire Department ambulance will be stationed on the parking lot of the Wal-Mart store at 1202 S. Kirkwood Road, where the public is invited to "Stuff the Ambulance" with new, unwrapped toys.

The Marines will be on hand, and we'll have coloring activities for children.  For anyone unable to make these two dates, toys can be dropped off at Kirkwood Fire House #2 now through December 11, during regular business hours.
 
Holiday Food Drive at City Hall
Donate Food at City Hall for KirkCare
 
The City is accepting donations of canned and packaged foods for KirkCare at City Hall, 139 S. Kirkwood Road, during normal business hours. The holiday food drive will continue through mid-December. City Hall is open Monday thru Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

 
Meacham Park Scholars Award
Scholarship Deadline Approaches
 
The Meacham Park Scholars Award (MPSA) is a merit-based scholarship created in order to reward African American students who pursue academic excellence, school leadership, and a commitment to community service. These high-achieving students deserve recognition and support as they advance through their academic career.

The 2016 MPSA recipients will be honored at the Martin Luther King Celebration on Monday, January 18, 2016, at Kirkwood High School, Keating Auditorium, 801 W. Essex Avenue. 

If you know a graduating African-American high school senior who plans to attend college in 2016, please encourage them to apply. Use the link below for more information on the program and the application process.

Santa Letters from KPL
Deadline Approaches: December 16
 
The Friends of the Kirkwood Public Library are still accepting orders for their annual "Letters from Santa" campaign. They will send a letter from Santa to all the kids, young and old, in your life.  Letters can be ordered and paid for online at: KirkwoodPublicLibrary.org/SantaLetter. Or forms are available at the Library.  The deadline for North Pole postmarks has passed.  All requests must be received by December 16. 
 
CFL Exchange Program Discontinued
CFLs Still Accepted for Recycling
 
The City will continue to accept CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) for recycling at the Finance window at City Hall and at the Community Center. However, new CFLs will not be handed out in exchange.  Instead, each customer who turns in used CFLs will receive one LED bulb (one per customer, per year, and you must live in Kirkwood). 

CFLs are not accepted for trash collection because they are a hazardous waste. Residents can recycle them with the City or take them to the County's Household Hazardous Waste facility in Lemay. For more information on the HHW facility, or to schedule a drop-off, visit their Website at www.hhwstl.com, or call 314-615-7378.
Gardening Tip
Holiday Decorating Doesn't Have to Damage Plants

If you are decorating your house and yard for the holiday season, here are some ideas.  Obviously take care when using a ladder and connecting any electrical decorations.  Make sure any extension cords are rated for outside use.  Place decorations on your lawn and in your gardens with care.  Inflatable decorations can kill the grass or plants below them.  An option is to raise the decoration by putting it on a small stool.  This will avoid smothering the grass or plants and creating a fungus.  Decorations on a stake could damage plants/bulbs below the surface.  Try and place these items away from perennials, bulbs, and root balls of shrubs.

Use items from your yard such as evergreen boughs, pine cones, and holly twigs to create a decoration in a window box or flower pot.  Ornaments hung on small defoliated trees look festive.  Avoid using glass ornaments that may shatter in cold weather.

Happy Holidays!

The Kirkwood Garden Club writes a Gardening Tip for most editions of Happenings.  For more information about the club, check out their Website at KirkwoodGardenClub.org. New members and guests, both men and women, are welcome to attend their meetings and events.  Meetings are typically held on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the Kirkwood Community Center.

TRIM Grant
City Receives TRIM Grant for Tree Inventory
 
The City of Kirkwood has been selected for a second year to receive a Tree Resource Improvement and Maintenance (TRIM) grant of up to $10,000 to be used towards continuing the City's work on an inventory of public trees. The grant program is through the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and has the following three goals: 
  1. To assist Missouri communities in initiating or significantly improving their efforts to care for the community forest.
  2. To encourage communities to have a sustainable and comprehensive community forestry program.
  3. To promote community forestry benefits through the proper management and care of trees in Missouri communities.
This is the second year the City has received a TRIM grant. In 2014 the City received a $10,000 grant and entered into a contract with Arbor Pro for professional tree inventory services. Arbor Pro will continue the tree inventory beginning December 1, 2015. To date, the inventory has compiled information on more than 2,660 public trees and includes such details as common and botanical name, diameter, height, condition, and location. The inventory appears as a GIS map and can be found on the City's Website at www.kirkwoodmo.org/CityMap. Arbor Pro will be
Parks' horticulturist Pete Laufersweiler treating a City Hall tree for EAB
inventorying the area north of Ballas at West Adams and west of Geyer Road to the City's northern edge.
 
A tree inventory is a useful management tool for the City's thousands of publicly owned trees but is especially useful in light of the Emerald Ash Borer as it moves into the area. The inventory will be used to identify the number and location of ash trees the City owns and their condition. The Emerald Ash Borer is a beetle accidentally introduced into North America more than a dozen years ago. The beetle has now been detected in St. Louis and St. Louis County.  Its larvae feed on and kill ash trees. Learn more about the Emerald Ash Borer at the MDC website at http://mdc.mo.gov
City Launches New Mobile App!
Stay in Touch:  City Launches New MOBILE Customer Service Application 
 
Kirkwood Konnect is the City's new FREE Mobile Application that allows residents, business owners, and visitors to report issues, request assistance, and get in touch with City departments and administration. For example, maybe after a month of snow, there's a pothole you keep hitting every morning on your way to work, but by the time you get to work, you've forgotten about it.  Now you can use the City's mobile application to report it before it slips your mind. (But please pull over and send your request safely from a side street or parking lot.)  

How Do You Get the App?
It's Easy!  It's FREE!
 
First, search for "Kirkwood Konnect" in your Google or Apple App Store from your phone.  It's FREE.  Then download it and install.  After installation, click on the icon, and the application will open up.  Click on "Create a Request," and then select "Create [with] with photo/video/audio" or without, and the map page pops up.  You can slide the map around with your finger, and zoom in or out to find your location, or you can type in the location at the top of the page and the app will find it for you. Then hit "next" and select a report type, enter a description, and hit submit.  You can use the app to track the progress of your report later on.  If you need a response, be sure to provide a name and contact information.

City Holiday Schedule
Christmas Holiday:
 
City Hall, the Community Center, and most City offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday, December 24 and 25, for the Christmas holiday.  The Community Center office will be open Saturday morning, December 26, 9:00 a.m. to noon.
  • Sanitation will be unaffected. All trash, recycling, and yard waste will be collected normally all week, including on Christmas Eve. Special pick-ups will be done on Thursday, instead of Friday, this week. Please schedule before noon on Wednesday, December 23.
  • The Ice Rink will be closed on December 25 but will have a skating session on December 24 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

New Year's Holiday:
City Hall, the Community Center, and most City offices will be closed on Friday, January 1, for the New Year's holiday.
  • Sanitation will be unaffected. However, special pick-ups will be done on Thursday this week, instead of Friday. Please schedule before noon on Wednesday, December 30.
  • The Community Center office will close at 4:30 p.m., on New Year's Eve and will be open on Saturday, January 2, from 9:00 a.m. to noon. 
 
Temporary Stop Signs on South Geyer
Signs Go Up Monday, December 7
 
The City will install temporary stop signs on December 7 on the stretch of South Geyer Road that runs from Big Bend. Blvd., south to Watson Road and to the entrances to I-44 and I-270.  The stop signs will be in place for a period of 90 days while the City tests them as a potential traffic and safety solution.

Motorists who regularly travel south from Big Bend, particularly those who commute to and from the St. Louis Community College at Meramec campus, are advised to look for a different route for accessing the two interstates.  Traffic will be slowed considerably with the addition of the stop signs.

Don't Stop On the Tracks:  Motorists are also advised not to stop on the railroad tracks that cross Big Bend at Geyer.  This is an extreme safety hazard, and Kirkwood Police may issue citations to motorists who are stopped on the tracks due to a traffic back-up.
Kirkwood City ordinances allow City staff to use temporary stop signs for a 90-day trial period.  At that time, Kirkwood City Council will vote on whether or not to make the stop signs permanent. 
Order of Plowing - Reminder
Cold Weather is Here! 
 
When snow falls, City plowing crews focus first on the main roads, such as Kirkwood Road, Geyer Road, Essex, Woodlawn, Woodbine, Couch, etc.   Cleaning these streets first allows emergency vehicles to get through when needed. During this first stage, street crews also work on hills and bridges. Crews do not begin to work on secondary streets until the snow stops. Secondary streets include Taylor, Fillmore, Dickson, Quan, Rose Hill, Clay, Lindeman, Harrison, Peeke, and Ann. When all those are done, crews move to subdivision streets and clear those. Pre-Treating:  When possible, crews pre-treat all City streets when a storm has been predicted. However, in some storms, when the temperatures are very low, pre-treating may not work very well. 
The Finish Line...
That Was Thanksgiving! 
A Story In Pictures...
 
Greetings!  Happy Holidays to all our readers. Thanksgiving is but a memory at this point, although it was an intense one in our family.  We started off the holiday week with major surgery for my brother. He's fine but it was a long one. Then bad weather in Chicago delayed my daughter's flight home from Seattle, stranding her in the windy city.  So we drove to get her, which sounds easier than it was. After fishtailing on ice just north of Normal, and doing a 360 (at the end of which we were somehow miraculously pointed in the correct direction, without
Snow outside Chicago
hitting anybody or ending up in a ditch), we spent the night in Joliet after picking her up and fighting with the airlines over luggage. The good news is we all survived, and we had that beautiful bird to accompany our holiday tales on Thursday.

How was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was less eventful than mine, full of great food and even better memories. 

But we're not done with this holiday season yet.  This Sunday is the start of Hannukah. Chag Sameach to all who celebrate it.



There are lots of festive events and programs going on throughout the month of December all over Kirkwood. I hope you get to check some of them out. My family is headed to the Symphony tomorrow night to see their performance of Handel's Messiah, which interestingly, started out as an Easter tradition. Here's a quick little article about that from local music writer Chuck Lavazzi.  Then on Saturday, we are taking a horse-drawn carriage ride through Winter Wonderland at Tilles Park. (I will of course take photos.)

There will be one more edition of the e-newsletter this month - on Wednesday (rather than Thursday), December 23.  Until then: Happy Calories!


Beth von Behren
PIO/Happenings Editor