Frontenac Grants Provisional Use Permit to Al Manara Academy at B'Nai El Congregation

On Tuesday night, the Board of Aldermen for the City of Frontenac approved a conditional use permit to allow the fledgling Al Manara Academy to be located at B’Nai El Jewish Congregation at 11411 North 40 Drive.

Al Manara’s mission is to uphold the Islamic concept of ilm that integrates the pursuit of knowledge with the values and promotes an outlook of balance and genuine synthesis. This will be a new school for children for students grades 8 and below and will have a maximum enrollment of 100.

The school supports early exploration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

At the regular monthly meeting, the city honored retiring board member Susan Durbin who served on the board since 2005. She stepped down from her role recently, and was replaced by John O’Connell, Ward 1, a recently-retired executive of the Centric Corp.

In other business, City Administrator Bob Shelton announced that the bridge at Geyer Road will officially shut down on August 20 for reconstruction, and the contractors have 60 days to complete the project.

Detours have been established, signage will be in place; all households in Frontenac will receive a mailer and fire and police have already made provisions for mutual aid from neighboring communities if necessary.

Also, the board of aldermen approved the purchase of two replacement vehicles for the police department to cost the city not more than $49,000. “The Impalas are out, and Ford Taurus’ are in,” said Shelton. The existing vehicles each had in excess of 100,000 miles.

The board approved the city’s participation in St. Louis County’s Saves Program. This is a $10.3 million dollar stimulus program from the county to assists residents with upgrading energy saving-devices such as HVAC systems, hot water heaters and energy efficient windows at a low interest rate (3.5 percent). “This is a no cost program for the city and other neighboring cities are participating,” said Shelton.

Tom Hizar, Ward 3 Alderman objected strongly to the program. Shaking his head, Hizar said “When is enough enough. When do we say no to these kinds of things.”

The resolution passed 5-1 with Hizar voting no.