Trustee Networking Group Discussion at September 11 Meeting

Approximately 20 individuals participated in a lively subdivision networking meeting last week at the Weber Road Library in Affton. Most of those present were subdivision trustees but also included trash haulers, St. Louis County representative and trustees from south, west and north county.

Andrew Meyerkord with St. Louis County presented an overview of the features and benefits of the new website recently announced by St. Louis County for subdivision trustees. The demonstration was live using the wireless Internet services of the library. The web content was of keen interest since almost 100% of the audience indicated they were computer users.

Bill Rogers from Golden Gables Subdivision moderated the meeting along with Bob Meyer of Town South Subdivision.

Rogers reported a summary of a survey of trustees taken last winter asking for the most common problems facing their subdivision. He broke the problems reported into four categories of responsibility.

1. St. Louis County
2. St. Louis County and Subdivision Trustees (joint responsibility)
3. Police (St. Louis County or other municipalities)
4. Subdivision Trustees

Under the four general areas of responsibilities, the following were the most common problems cited.

> St. Louis County
Condition of streets
Traffic and speeders in subdivisions
Enforcement of regulations by St. Louis county such as parking cars and trailers on grass

> St. Louis County and Trustees
Trash removal and truck traffic
Homeowner property maintenance

> Police (St. L County of other)
Speeders
General crime, vandalism, teen gangs

> Trustees
Street lighting
Assessments – Amounts, collection
Neighbors, neighborhood involvement

More details of the survey results will be reported during the coming weeks.

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Do Subdivision Trustees Have Problems?

Yes . . . according to comments made in a recent survey . . . more than 5 pages worth. If you have not yet reviewed the survey results, click here to download a pdf file for a copy of a survey recently completed asking some hard questions:http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/wrogers/TrashSurveyResultsFinal11-04-07.pdf


Question 16 illustrates a good point. St. Louis County officials say "Yes" while Trustees say "No."


16. Do you feel St. Louis County communicates well with subdivision trustees?

Get the full report at: http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/wrogers/TrashSurveyResultsFinal11-04-07.pdf

Survey Says . . . .

Would your subdivision residents have a problem with this home in your subdivision? We've seen homes decorated with plastic trees, palm trees in sand, numerous torch lights, art work and more. While you may say you have no objection, how would you feel if you lived next door to this house?

We just concluded a "quickie" survey on this subject and 81% said "Yes", that their subdivision residents would have a problem with this house.

5% said residents would not have a problem and 14% felt it was OK citing "freedom of speech."

The bottom line here is "society" determines what is acceptable and that is done by making rules, regulations and laws. If someone wants something that is quite eratic, they should build their home in the "eratic" subdivision down the road. Let's face it, unusual, oddball and eratic houses reduce the value of surrounding homes.

What are your thoughts? Click on COMMENT below and share your thoughts.

Trash Survey Results Show Problems With County’s Trash Program and Other Growing Problems in Subdivisions

Readers can download the survey results of subdivision trustees and residents regarding the County's trash collection program. While the survey was answered by just 167 individuals, they represent thousands of residents in their respective subdivisions across St. Louis County. In addition, they are technology related individuals since they responded to the survey electronically. They also represent the leadership of concerned citizens in the county.

The 16 question survey results are provided without comment. The survey was designed to be straight forward with questions such as "Did you know," and "Are you aware." The survey was conducted during October 2007.

Some questions had surprising results as follows:

> 60.5% feel the trash program being implemented is NOT a workable program.

> 46.1% of the country population was not even aware this program was scheduled to start as of January 1, 2008.

> 66.5% of residents do not want the county to decide on their trash hauler.

> 78.4% were not aware that 6 members of the county council voted on this but will not be affected by the legislation.

> 79% was not aware that County Executive Dooley and Chief Operations Officer, Garry Earls, are also not affected by this legislation.

> 74.9% do not think the county is doing an adequate job in educating the public about the proposal. This question resulted in 5 1/2 pages of problems currently being incurred in county subdivisions. The answers are unedited and listed as received.

> 74.2% do not feel St. Louis County communicates well with subdivision trustees.

A copy of the entire 16 question survey can be downloaded at:

http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/wrogers/TrashSurveyResultsFinal11-04-07.pdf

SURVEY: Share Your Thoughts in Right Hand Column

Would your subdivision residents have a problem with this home in your subdivision? We've seen homes decoraged with plastic trees, palm trees in sand, numerous torch lights, art work and more. While you may say you have no objection, how would you feel if you lived next door to this house.

Please take just 15 seconds to check off your answer in the survey box on the right hand side of this page. Thanks.

Thanks for participating. You can also check the survey results to date.

Does St. Louis County Do a Good Job Helping Trustees?

We recently did a quickie, non-scientific survey asking the question, “Do you feel St. Louis County is doing a good job in helping trustees maintain the general appearance of their subdivisions?” We provided three answers of YES, NO and NO OPINION.

Nineteen trustees took time to respond. Ten (52%) said “Yes” while eight (42%) said “No.” One person said “No Opinion” (5%).

While the majority was supportive of the efforts of St. Louis County, 4 out of 10 trustees do not. Not a good record. Maybe St. Louis County officials are aware of this and that’s why they recently undertook a series of meetings to connect back with trustees. Or maybe they were just getting ready to do battle regarding the county wide trash pick-up proposal. County officials need to be much more proactive regarding subdivision needs rather than reactive.