Live Blog: Kirkwood City Council Hears Requests for New Businesses

Up-to-the-minute coverage of Thursday's Kirkwood City Council Meeting.

7:02pm: Meeting begins. More than forty residents are in attendance. Mayor Arthur McDonnell briefly addresses the crowd and congratulates Councilor Paul Ward on his first grandchild, who was born last week. Councilor Gina Jaksetic is absent.

7:05pm: Mayor McDonnell awarded a proclamation to Bob Becker, a teacher at Kirkwood High School for twenty years. Becker was named the Missouri State Teacher of the Year and traveled to the White House to be honored by President Obama. In thanks of his years of service in the community, the proclamation announced June 2, 2011, would be known as “Bob Becker Day” in the city of Kirkwood. “It is an honor and a pleasure to work in a place where people put students and teachers first,” Becker said.

7:14pm: Public hearing: A request by Daniel Head, owner and operator of Kirkwood Masonry, for a permit to consolidate two parking lots at the intersection of East Elliot and Leffingwell Avenues for the purposes of storing construction materials and equipment, is added to the "new business" section of the agenda and passes the first reading later in the meeting.

7:24pm: Public hearing: A legal representative for Steve Imo, owner of a multi-tenant mixed-use building at 640 Woodbine Ave., addresses the council regarding an application for a special use permit that would establish a convenience store in one of the empty properties in the building. The store, Majic Market, was an established store in the city of Kirkwood for at North Geyer Road and West Essex Avenue. The lease expired on the former property and was not renewed, prompting Jacob Portnoy, current owner of the market, to attempt .

“I’ve had many people from the community ask me when it will reopen again, because they like this business,” Portnoy said. The permit passed the first reading and will be up for a second reading at the next city council meeting, pending an updated layout plan for the property to be provided by the petitioner.

7:34pm: Public hearing: Georgia Ragland, assistant chief administrative officer for the City of Kirkwood, presents the plan for the Community Development Block Grant. The grant is part of an annual fund received by Kirkwood from St. Louis county. The funds are derived from federal grants for community development. Ragland presented a proposal that would allocate all of the funds (which amounted to $46,800 in 2011) to the home improvement program. Ragland said that grant could decrease up to 20 percent from last year due to federal budget cuts.

7:38pm: Council resumes the regular meeting, starting  with public comments. Valerie Star, a former member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, urges the council to approve the proposal of Giuseppe "Peppe" Profeta. Profeta is requesting removal of liquor license restrictions in his restaurant, , located at 800 S. Geyer Rd. Profeta wants to serve alcohol in the small outdoor seating area, as well as after 8 p.m. on weekend nights (both currently prohibited by his license).

Star said that the restaurant had abided by proper standards and Peppe “completely understood” the responsibility of serving alcohol in an outdoor area.

7:42pm: Residents from the area surrounding Peppe’s Apt. 2 speak to the council. One resident, Jim Henderson, spoke alongside his wife, explaining that the liquor license couldn’t possibly be enforced, especially outdoors.

“I’m concerned with noise; I’m worried about lights; I’m worried about property value; I’m worried about all kinds of things," Henderson said. "I think it’s irresponsible to grant this license."

7:53pm: Council approves consent agenda.

7:54pm: An ordinance passes establishing a $2 court charge for all local municipal violations to help pay for the new LiveScan fingerprint system for the .

8:01pm: An ordinance allocating $220,000 for the construction of a back-up generator for the public works complex passes its final reading by a 4-2 vote. The public works complex has no back-up power generator, which inhibits city employs from providing necessary services during inclement weather. Currently, the cannot operate if there is an outage.

8:04pm: Council approves the construction of a Smoothie King at 465 South Kirkwood Rd.

8:07pm: Council approves the first reading of a bill allocating $16,445 to the Kirkwood Police Department for the purchasing of new radar equipment. Radar guns in the city are fifteen years old, and the cost of repair has surpassed the cost of new equipment, according to the ordinance.

8:39pm: Councilor Timothy Griffin makes motion to amend Profeta’s liquor license on a short-term basis. After much deliberation, the council denies Profeta's request. Several council members voiced concern about granting a new license. Councilmember Gerry Bedenstein said he didn’t believe it was right to change the license. “The tenant knew upon being granted the property, what the restrictions are,” Bedenstein said. “If you live in a place with no pets, you don’t suddenly get to decide to have pets after a year.”

Meeting Adjouned: The next city council meeting is at 7 p.m., June 16.