Yes, that means lighted ball fields.

The decision to light fields has not been made and will be considered carefully and with regard for the surrounding community. If fields were lighted it would be those that had the least impact on residential properties. New lighting techniques eliminate all lighting spill over. Not like the old days. This project is
important for the city's youth and our adults. Everyone benefits and it is OUR park. It brings in revenue and that's the best thing.

Prop S is equally as important. The current facility has no sprinkler system to douse a fire in the building, it is may not stand up in a seismic event. The heating system does not provide enough heat in winter necessitating employees to bring in space heaters. The lockers for Police Officers are too small for them to properly store all of their vital equipment including their vests. The fire department is out of space. So much so that they had to remove the two "slide poles" in order to get large equipment into the bays. The firemen used to slide down those poles at night when answering emergency calls. Now 6 men have to run down the stairs. A dangerous situation for them and a slower response time at night for residents. It's time for residents to invest in our community. If we want the city to enjoy another 80 years as an independent community, we need to make this investment for the next generation. Our first responders have always been there for us, now we need to be there for them.

What about meeting room space? Have reciprocity arrangements been made with surrounding community center's now that Olivette will not have a community center to meet?

Meeting room space is planned in the renovated Public Safety/City Hall building on Olive. Residents can rent those spaces as they could in the Community Center. They will be modern, clean spaces. So you will still be able to meet right here in Olivette.

I don't want to give a false answer so I'll just say that I would expect wifi to be part of the new facility. As far as a/v support, I'm in unknown territory, but I will pass along your comment and when I get an answer back I will post it here.

Ruth, When will the decision to light the ball fields be made? (as you stated in your comment above) >"The decision to light fields has not been made and will be considered carefully and with regard for the surrounding community"<
NOwhere on the website or in any of the material does it mention "Lighted Ball Fields" OR that it is being considered.
Is this something that will come out AFTER the vote leaving the surrounding neighborhood uninformed to make a decision. But it seems you already know that the lights will have the least impact. That is not the only thing to consider. Adults playing ball are LOUD. Will there be beer at the concession stand? What time will the lights go off? What will be the sound barrier between it and the neighborhoods surrounding?

Where are the lights in Stacy Park?

Let's address Stacy Park first. Does Olivette own Stacy Park? If you answered yes, sorry, but you are incorrect. Stacy Park is owned by the City of St. Louis as part of the reservoir area adjacent to the park. The City of Olivette leases the park from the City of St. Louis on a five year basis. The City of St. Louis was approached to sell the park to Olivette and they said no, they want it for possible expansion of the reservoir. In addition, the lease on the property prohibits (Olivette) from making any permanent additions to the park. Lights might be considered permanent and therefore might be prohibited. That's one of the reasons that lights are not part of that park. With regards to Warson Park, I asked the Olivette City Manager if lights are budgeted for the park and he said they were NOT budgeted for Warson Park. To the comment made about alcohol, here's the story. Alcohol is not prohibited in Stacy Park. Anyone can bring it it now for adult softball games and they do... in coolers. The only prohibition is no glass bottles. As for the sale of alcohol at parks, it must be done through a picnic license which allows for the sale of alcohol at that particular event. If that were to change, it would need to be done through a council action to allow for sale of beer at concession stands on an ongoing basis.

My last thought to everyone with questions, which I'm very happy to answer, is this:

The City is conducting forums regarding both Propositions. They mailed postcards to every resident with the schedule of dates and times. As Mayor I said this many times and it still holds true, Get informed and stay informed. Tonight the city will present a forum at City Hall at 7:00PM. A tour of the police and fire departments will follow. I urge everyone to attend and take the tour. If a picture is worth a 1000 words, this tour is an entire book. You will not have ever imagined the issues that exist at this facility. If you can't make it tonight, go to the city's website and see the other upcoming forums. GET INFORMED AND STAY INFORMED!!! I'll be happy to answer questions any time. Please vote yes! Invest in our community.

What’s wrong with Prop P: dozens of mature trees will be destroyed, deforesting our community, destroying the natural beauty of Olivette, wildlife habitat and wildlife. Why does the Olivette emblem feature trees? Not every one cares about ball fields, but everyone will be very much affected by this development. Regardless of whatever rules of use are promised and implemented now they can all be changed later. If the city doesn’t start out allowing concerts, banks of high powered lights, and karaoke and DJ-oriented family reunions such as you see in McDonnell Park now, they can always add them later. The city’s Q&A literature says the facilities will “generate revenue.” How? If the Cardinals Ballpark Village isn’t going to economically benefit downtown St. Louis (and it’s not), how is Warson Park going to enrich Olivette? And if it is, then why will we be paying so much for it? I live in Warson View and from my home I can already hear the concerts in Stacy Park—and that’s quite a distance—as well as the sports events at the community center. I can only imagine what multiple lighted fields, multitudes of loud sports events and family reunions featuring alcohol consumption, heavy traffic day and night, and the loss of an enormous number of beautiful trees will be like. Finally, if this ill advised park project is completed, all parking for it should be off of Warson Road, where Saints used to be. Let Grandview be reserved strictly for residential traffic.

Olivette residents who care about quality of life in our city should vote NO on Proposition P. The plan will mean a significant negative impact on the residents of Warson View, the neighborhood that houses Warson Park. More ball fields will mean more noise, more traffic and more trash. Already there is too much traffic on Grandview because of the ball fields and Community Center that are in the Park now, and the traffic creates a significant safety hazard for neighborhood families with children and pets. Also there has been talk of lights being added to the Park, which would mean the Park could be open late -- another significant negative impact on the neighborhood. Besides, Olivette parks are only supposed to be open from dawn to dusk -- night lighting would be a violation of that city ordinance. The plan for Warson Park requires the removal of many mature trees and forested areas that provide habitat to birds and wildlife -- we don't want to lose those trees! And Proposition P will mean tax money spent by Olivette residents to provide recreational facilities that are used more by citizens of other cities than by Olivette residents. Does that make sense? Please vote NO on Proposition P -- our neighborhood needs your support to help us vote down this proposition!

Proposition S will mean that the City will be taking over a piece of prime Olive Blvd. real estate to house the police and administration offices. If the city owns it, then Olivette will not be receiving any property taxes from this location, as it would if a "real" business owned it. In a time when the City is hurting for revenue, doesn't this seem like a poor decision?

I've been interested to hear all of the comments left on this blog. Most are written to put fear into conversation. FIRST, THERE WILL BE NO LIGHTS. Heavy traffic? Really? Heavy traffic is Hwy 40 at rush hour. And the new entrance to Warson Park will be from Warson Road. Concerts? The city hasn't had summer concerts in the Stacy Park for 3 years. Trees? FEAR FEAR FEAR. Parks add value to people's homes. It is why people buy into a community. So let's stop with the fear mongering. If you want honest dialogue then make honest statements. So let me set the record straight. I never said there WOULD BE lights. I believed the decision had not been made. So I asked the city manager in a forum about the lights. The city manager said specifically that there would be no lighted ballfields. I got informed. NO LIGHTS ON BALL FIELDS. I urge you all to come to the forums and get informed. Don't let others make you fearful. Don't let others spread rumors. Honest communication can accomplish more than sniping from the underbrush.

The fears raised here are legitimate concerns of residents and should be addressed as such, rather than attacked and ridiculed as "fear mongering." Thank you, Leif, for your civil discourse and thoughtful, useful information.

Mrs. Springer is not serving on the City Council. She is just volunteering her time to help pass Propositions S and P. From my past experience, if the sun comes up, some people would be opposed to that.

David, there are some people in Warson Park have stubbornly stood against any type of progress in the neighborhood. The city added stop signs, did what they could to slow traffic on Grandview. Soon, the community center will be out of existence. Progress means some development, for the good of all of us. The fact is, if Prop P passes, then there will be some new ball parks in Warson Park. People can bay at the moon or try and join it. Their choice.

David, the fact is we have nice places to walk in our community. But our children and adults have no where to play ball. Olivette is a leasor of Stacy Park and the city of St. Louis could end that any time they want. Everyone deserves the opportunity to have a little recreation space too.

Mr. Kohlhagen, planning for improvements to Warson Park have been ongoing for years. In fact, when you and I met at Warson Park recently - along with other residents - you acknowledged that you had been either following or participating in those proceedings, but had disengaged at some point in recent years. Proposition P is the culmination of many years of work by various Olivette residents. As part of the final stretch, preparing for the ballot measure, the City Council Facilities Subcommittee, composed of five residents, conducted three public forums in the spring of 2011. They were advertised publicly and conducted at the Community Center. Attendance was sparse, but we received thoughtful feedback. We moved forward toward synthesizing a plan that borrowed from the years of previous work, incorported resident input, and provided a vision for how to make Warson Park usable for a wide segment of Olivette's residents and families. Clearly, the park plan does not mesh with your preferences. I can't dispute that. I think City Council has been forthcoming in providing clear and substantial information as to the intent and specific features included in the park plan. We have worked with a design professional to develop a schematic plan and a cost estimator to provide a line item cost estimate upon which the value of the bond is based. With that information publicly available, I'm still not sure how you can say that we have asked for carte blanche.

Olivette needs an independent fire service, about as much as it needs its own international airport! This is a chance for Olivette to join with other municipalities, save a TON of money on SALARIES/BENEFITS/PENSIONS in the future. That's where the real expenses are. You can be d-d sure that once the Firehouse is built, the issue is over-and-done for decades. I say pass the park improvements. NO on the fire station/police/ etc... THINK REGIONALLY!

For the record not every WARSON VIEW RESIDENT is against Prop P. Many of us welcome the project. Not only getting rid of the embarrassing Community Center that is a sad representation of Olivette, but adding a tennis court! Fantastic! What a plus for the city. I welcome a concert or two. Our children would be able to enjoy walking to an event that only the residents near Stacy Park get to enjoy.
Ball fields will keep our kids who play sports in Olivette longer rather than going to Chesterfield and Kirkwood, so what if residents from other counties use it.
Trees can be planted! Trees will grow! A nicer plan for landscaping can only help our real estate values…look at Bierne Park in Creve Couer. It would be a park like that!!!
VOTE “YES” PROP P

I guess you won't know if I am a city staff or council member, but don't forget that the council member's are residents too (I'm not sure about city staff) but they are free to be positive on this Prop p just as much as you are free to be bah hum bug negative about it. Why should this article only be riddled with your pessimistic view on the improvement. It looks to me like there are only two of you who don't want this but you act as if you are speaking for ALL of the residents. Bierne Park is enjoyed by all the residents of Creve Couer and including those that live adjacent to the park plus other communities including myself an Olivette resident. OMG do you think those residents are upset because I'm using it and they paid for it not me? Not all the parks are going to be in pristine shape, but this new development will be for years to come.

TELL THE TRUTH, CITY HALL (and Hank Davenport): PROP S and P will cost you and me SIXTEEN AND A HALF MILLION DOLLARS! It is critical to point out that both THE OFFICIAL OLIVETTE WEBSITE and HANK DAVENPORT'S enormous, expensive FLIER ARE BEING DISHONEST WITH US ALL about how much these Props will cost us. The list price of the general obligation bonds for Prop S and P are $9,365,000 and $3,020,000 respectively, but it is downright DECEITFUL not to give equal ink to the fact that by the time we pay off these debts, with interest, we will have paid $12,460,000 and $4,067,550 for Prop S and P, respectively: WE WILL BE PAYING $16,527,550 FOR PROPS S AND P. Anyone who's ever borrowed money knows that you pay interest, but they're not saying that. If you can't attend one of the public meetings, where Olivette admits to the true numbers, you would believe the deceitful press about it. VOTE NO to MORE THAN $16.5 MILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT!

In addition to presenting the principle amount of the two bonds and their associated interest to be repaid over the course of 20 years at the public forums, the City website also has the same amortization schedules for both Propositions. From the home page, click on the link at the bottom for more information on both Propositions. Once you are on their respective pages, look at the links under "Financial Bonds and Debt Projections for Proposition S", or "P" as the case may be. The information is there.

Mr. Kohlhagen,

I appreciate the concerns you’ve listed in prior posts in regards to Proposition P. I, too, share your passion for mature trees and passive green spaces. The preservation and responsible husbandry of our city’s natural spaces is one of the primary reasons I joined the City of Olivette’s Parks and Recreation Commission (formerly known as the Parks and Beautification Committee.) I also acknowledge the need for community gathering and recreational sites. Determining the acceptable balance between these two competing needs is a constant challenge.

It is my belief Proposition P will bring greater balance to Warson Park. Better playing fields, smarter vehicular and pedestrian access, first-rate amenities, and lots of trees and landscaping. As a resident of Indian Meadows subdivision and an owner of a house that backed up to Indian Meadows Park for thirteen years, I can fully relate to your fears of what increased public access might do to your quality of life. Six years ago the city used a combination of grant money and general revenue fund money to upgrade Indian Meadows Park with a new playground, restroom facilities, and a pavilion. These upgrades, long sought after by the Trustees, was met with some resistance from the homeowners living across from the park. Similar fears to the ones you’ve expressed (noise, “karaoke and DJ-oriented family reunions”) plus some you did not mention, such as increased crime and after-dark loitering, held sway at countless city council and subdivision meetings.

Well, I’m happy to report, almost five years later, that none of these fears ever materialized. In fact, our subdivision trustees recently held Olivette’s largest National Night Out event at the park this past June, bringing over 150 Indian Meadows residents together for a night of neighborly goodwill. And, yes, several of the strongest opposition voices were in attendance, enjoying food and fun under the pavilion they once so feared.

True, Proposition P will bring great changes to Warson Park. Some trees and green space may need to be removed (not all) and more trees will need to be planted. When all the improvements are completed and the park settles into a new rhythm, I’m confident your greatest fears will go unrealized and your neighborhood’s quality of life will improve. In fact, I’m betting, after a time, your neighborhood may be able to host a National Night Out party to rival ours!

Regardless of how the vote turns out, I hope you will consider applying to be a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission (two seats available!) Your obvious passion for responsible stewardship of the parks would be welcome.

VOTE “YES” ON PROPOSITIONS S & P TOMORROW!