Southern Hills residents seek further sewer study

Residents of the Old Southern Hills area attended the Aug. 20 City Council meeting to speak against the city of Springfield's pushing a sewer project on them without more environmental study.

At the public hearing on an ordinance to allow construction of a gravity trunk sewer line north of Lake Springfield, several residents expressed dismay at the lack of notice for the hearing.

Sally Hamilton said she just happened to learn about the public hearing Aug. 17 when she pulled up the council agenda on her computer.

She asked why there was such a hurry since the plat for the proposed subdivision that needed the sewer line hadn't been finalized.

City staff explained, after a query from Councilwoman Teri Hacker, that no notice went out on the sewer line construction because no property rights were directly affected yet.

Hamilton told council, "I am concerned for the Nature Center it has a losing stream (one that disappears seasonally.) If they start blasting, it will be a lost stream."

Although the neighbors will be glad to lose the sewer lagoons, it's a project they and the Department of Natural Re-sources would have liked done many years before and a condition that some say has been illegal for a long time. Hamilton requested that council table the bill for further environmental study.

Area resident Bob Shackelford also spoke. "You're approving the sewer before Olde Ivy (the subdivision) is approved. There will be 106 residences on one street with a bad intersection."

He urged council to "step back and ta-ble the bill. See how it effects the neighborhood and the environment ... before developing" the neighborhood further.

Shackelford told the city that traffic routing needed to be considered and termed the single entry into the neighborhood "malfunction junction."

Traffic concerns

Morning traffic is already heavy because many people come to the area to jog at the Nature Center, he said. There will be even more traffic with the new subdivision, if approved.

Environmentally, the area is full of shale rock. Shackelford said that the blasting for the new sewer line will contaminate the wells that service some of the residents.

City Manager Tom Finnie said, "this is an agreement to extend some sewer lines. It won't be signed before the plat is approved ... it's to avoid a pumping station."

Finnie added that it is the city's mission to avoid pumping lift stations when possible. "It's better not to have force mains or a lift station ... we want a gravity line to go in."

"We try to be sensitive to the watershed," he said.

Councilman John Wylie said he had walked the area in contention and worried whether fissures might open with the blasting.

He looked at Marc Thornsberry, director of Public Works, and said, "It's my understanding that we are going to protect the stream."

Thornsberry said, "We want trunk lines instead of lift stations." He added that there was still much to be done.

There had been no talks with the Nature Center personnel, no final plat, and no determination of easements that must be acquired from property owners.

Councilman Denny Whayne asked why Shackelford hadn't approached council with his concerns when the subdivision was under consideration in July. The preliminary plat was approved July 23. Whayne added that he was glad the citizen was concerned, but curious as to why he waited so long.

Shackelford pleaded lack of knowledge of the previous council action, responding that he had been busy. He added that "I was reactive to the Nature Center. I am against over-development of this particular area."

He added, "we had the Nature Center shoved down our throats and the service road shoved down our throats."

However, the issue at hand was the sewer line, not approval of the final plat, Mayor Tom Carlson said.

Some speakers suggested the developer was getting special treatment.

"There are no special deals," Finnie said. "It's the same for everyone." He said no tax dollars will go to pay for the sewer line. The city would pay $175,670 and the developer $169,330.

The developer will have to put up the same money that he would have for the pump station, Finnie said. He can get reimbursement for the additional cost of the trunk line from the purchasers of the home lots.

Police protection

In other business, council gave first reading and heard public comment to a bill that would give Springfield police officers more money to live in the part of town designated as a community development block grant area.

The area is bounded by Kearney on the north, Glenstone on the east, Grand on the south and West Bypass on the west.

Officers would receive an extra $100 a month pay if they rent in the CDBG area and $150 extra if they purchase a home and live in the area.

Councilwoman Shelia Wright, who lives in the area, noted that she, two other council members and Mayor Carlson all live in that area which has been depicted as merely a "high crime" area. "CDBG doesn't translate into high crime,'" Wright said.

Jack Pugh, president of the West Central Neighborhood Alliance, told council that he was "excited about this ... to help the neighborhoods get back on their feet."

He told council that Pershing from Broadway to Grant "had been cleaned up ... with three evictions in one day." He thanked Councilman Ralph Manley for his encouragement and help and said one of the landlords had offered two months free rent to any police officer who wanted to move into one of his properties in the area.

Policewoman Les Fowler, who now lives in Brighton, said she was "looking to buy my first house," and with the extra $150 a month she could "buy more house."

She said she was "pleased to hear this was under consideration."

Fowler said there were other officers who lived outside of Springfield who might move back into the city with the incentive. "This is being talked about very positively" among officers, she added.

Park Central Square memorial

Rosemary Stewart-Stafford told council that an anonymous donor had contributed a substantial amount of money to help with a memorial to the three African-Americans who were lynched on the city's square during Easter weekend 1906.

She reminded council that Pierce City had recently placed a marker in its city to acknowledge a similar lynching in that town in 1901.

Jordan Valley

Council approved a purchase of land for the Jordan Valley Park project $421,451 to buy land from Virginia Bay at 1131 and 1135 1/2 E. St. Louis Street for the baseball facility and parking.

Parade of Homes

Council approved a bill offered by Councilwoman Mary Collette that by a zoning change will transform a heavy manufacturing district to a single-family residential district.

She invited the public to attend an Aug. 25 "Parade of Homes" in which residences were being moved into the newly zoned area at 1865 N. Jefferson to make way for expansion of Reed Middle School.