Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Robinwood West Celebrates 50 Years 19602010 Volume 48 Number 5 www.rwcid.org May 2010 Maria ORourke, Editor
Attend the Candidate Forum May 17th at 7:00 p.m. at the Robinwood West Community Center Warren Hayden Barbara Monroney
Deby and I moved into the neighborhood in 1988. We both were Social Workers at General Protestant Childrens Home (on Olive Blvd) which has given us experience in the general area since 1981. We have committed our careers to helping children in need. I also have a background in working in public housing with senior citizens and the disabled. I have worked in several geographic areas of St. Louis City and County. I currently work for BJC Behavioral Health and am placed in an educational setting. My previous position at BJC involved helping children in state custody transition out of long term placements from facilities and hospitals. My employment history also includes 15 years working at two residential facilities for children.
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I have lived in Robinwood since 1983. Having lived in many places in my lifetime, MO is my home and more importantly, Robinwood is my community. I love our one-level living homes, the access to major highways, good schools and in my opinion, the best group of neighbors of all the places I have lived. We have a wonderful community in many ways, but like many other small special purpose taxing Districts, we also have some issues to be resolved. Over the years, I have been active in the Garden Club, volunteered on the District Communications Committee and served as the Districts records custodian, also in a volunteer capacity. Volunteers are very important to the District however
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Steve ORourke
My wife Maria and I moved to Robinwood West in July, 1993. When we were looking for a home, we focused our search primarily on this ZIP code because it was a convenient location with good schools, and offered modest homes with mature landscapes. We also appreciated the community assets in the park, clubhouse and pool. We have since formed wonderful bonds with many of our neighbors, a number of whom have come or gone in the past 17 years. We have two daughters attending Parkway schools: Abby is a sophomore at North High and Katie is in fourth grade at Ross Elementary. They have grown up here, and have found it a safe place to live and play. You may have also seen our golden
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Thanks to Bobbie Tolpen, Barbara Monroney, Steve ORourke, and Warren Hayden for stepping forward to run for the two director positions in our upcoming June election. The candidates background information and responses to several questions are in this current issue. Please mark your calendar to attend the candidate forum scheduled for May 20, 2010 at 7 p.m. to question the candidates on the issues important to you and hear their responses and views regarding our neighborhood. For more election news, visit page 7. I hope to see you all at our May work day as we get ready for the upcoming pool season and work together to keep our neighborhood assets in prime condition.
DATE DEC 07 JAN 08 FEB 08 MAR 08 APR 08 MAY 08 JUN 08 JUL 08 AUG 08 SEP 08 OCT 08 NOV 08 DEC 08 JAN 09 FEB 09 MAR 09 APR 09 MAY 09 JUN 09 JUL 09 AUG 09 SEP 09 OCT 09 NOV 09 DEC 09 JAN 10 FEB 10 MAR 10
LOAN BALANCE $366,095.68 $364,825.19 $363,549.78 $362,178.70 $360,893.03 $359,557.27 $358,261.44 $356,915.81 $355,609.75 $354,298.79 $352,938.30 $351,617.12 $350,290.44 $348,958.24 $301,778.48 $300,225.04 $298,684.23 $297,136.99 $295,583.53 $294,023.38 $292,456.72 $290,883.54 $289,303.81 $287,717.49 $284,665.26 $283,063.88 $241,042.87 $239.328.43
ROBINWOOD West
Community Improvement District www.rwcid.org Editor Advertising Maria ORourke.editor.rwcid@att.net Maria ORourke.editor.rwcid@att.net Board Of Directors President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Director Office Assistant John Motley...............469-6213 pres.rwcid@att.net Jerry Polt........576-5008 vice.pres.rwcid@att.net Virginia Messersmith....439-5772 treasurer.rwcid@att.net Tom Sothers.......363-3028 secretary.rwcid@att.net Holly Pavey-Day............434-1865 director.rwcid@att.net Michelle Doering........434-8622 office.rwcid@att.net
The Robinwood West Community Improvement District is an organization dedicated to bettering the Robinwood West community. Robinwood West is a friendly, inclusive community where residents live, play and work together to achieve our shared hopes and meet our shared challenges. We invite you to come and share your ideas at the monthly meetings held on the first Monday of each month, at 7:00 pm at the Robinwood West Community Center. Check the community center calendar for changes due to holidays and additional meetings. To contribute an article, neighborhood news or ad, please e-mail material for publication to the editor. Newsletter contributions must be received by the 20th of each month to be published in the following edition.
Sunday
1 Garden Club Plant Sale 4 Neighborhood Crime Watch Meeting 6:30 p.m. 11 Trustees Meeting 8:00 p.m. 12 Grounds Committee 7:00 p.m. 13 14 5 6 7 8
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21 22 25 31 26 27 28 29 POOL OPENS! Private Rental
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Celebrate your next party at the Robinwood West Community Center! Community Center rental includes up to four hours for your event, plus an additional hour for set-up and half-hour for clean-up. Features include a full kitchen for banquets, service bar, large capacity ice machine, and room for up to 99 people. RW Residents receive a discounted rate of just $120, plus a security deposit, and an additional charge for extended rental hours. Shop around-you wont find a better deal! Call Tom Sothers at 314-363-3028 to reserve your date, or email him at tsothers@desmet.org. Please support our neighborhood, and let your friends know this beautiful facility is available for rental.
ROBINWOOD West
50th Anniversary Celebration Saturday, June 12, 2010 4:00 10:00 p.m. Robinwood West Community Center
Dinner will be served from 5-7 p.m
Please RSVP by calling 314-434-8622 or send an email to office.rwcid@att.net with your name and number of people in your party
Come and see a variety of better homes and gardens right here in Robinwood West!
Additional details available at www.rwcid.org and in the June Round Robin newsletter.
Please note: There will be no Memorial Day potluck so our Special Events Team can focus on this party!
June Smith
DO YOU HAVE A BEAUTIFUL YARD ?? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHOW OFF YOUR GARDEN ?? The Garden Club is sponsoring a Garden Walk on June 12th from 10 to 2, in conjunction with our 50th Anniversary celebration. We would love to include your yard!! If you would be interested, please call our president, Carol Kinder at 576-1654. Thanks a bunch!!
Grounds Committee
June Smith
Thank you for sprucing up your mailboxes !!! Many of you read the article in the Round Robin asking you to repair or replace your old mailboxes...and TOOK ACTION!!! Just drive around our neighborhood and admire all of the nice looking mailboxes, which have been straightened up, painted, repaired or replaced completely. Thanks for your co-operation in making Robinwood look great.... Also, a BIG thanks to the Garden Club for all of their work on the Entrance Islands...trimming, pruning, raking leaves, mulching, etc. It looks wonderful! The garden in front of the Community Center has been readied for spring and it, also, looks beautiful. Thank you, Garden Club members, inspired by president, Carol Kinder.
The subject of the proposed new flag and flag pole in front of the community center was mentioned. Our next meeting will be on Monday, May 10th at 7 p.m. at the community center. Be there to learn more about the big June 50th Anniversary celebration.
Dave Felt
Pariss monumental Eiffel Tower. Aloft throughout the garden, find dozens of over-sized model butterflies covered with botanical surface treatments. On April 30th were off to lunch at the Schlafly Bottleworks followed by a tour of the operation. Full report next month. Should be an interesting trip and I hope to have pictures. Our May 26th outing will be to Hartford IL to view and some of us will climb the Lewis and Clark Confluence Tower with it view of both the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Lunch will be nearby with the final selection up to our tour organizers. Well meet at the Community Center at 10:00. The tower has just been opened so well be among the first to take in this view. Of course our regular meeting 10 a.m. on May 10 will have a large selection of friendly dialog as well as an equally large selection of those special Silver Robin Treats. Come check it out and give your opinion on the latest in the neighborhood and suggest an interesting outing. See you at an upcoming meeting or outing Till then, Ill see you around the neighborhood Your Silver Robins reporter, Dave Felt
busy in their gardens and have taken extra steps to beautify our neighborhood. Your effort is sincerely appreciated as it adds to the charm of Robinwood West! If you have not paid your annual $6.00 assessment, please do so as we would like to finalize the books for the new Trustees. Questions concerning Trust Assessment rebilling may be directed to Jim Cain at 878-3551. Be sure to join us at the May 11 Robinwood West Trustee Meeting at 8:00 p.m. to be held at the community center.
Warren Hayden
We have three children. Our oldest son, Mark, is a sophomore at University of South Dakota studying social work. Jesse, a senior at Parkway North High School, will leave for Marine Basic Training in July. Lauren, our daughter is currently a sophomore at Parkway North High School. My reasons Robinwood is a great place to live are wonderful neighbors; a positive, safe environment; and the educational opportunities Parkway School District provides for our children. I believe the 3 issues the Board should continue to address are the safety of the neighborhood, the upkeep of our Community Center and pool, and the continued support of programs to provide positive summer activities for our children and senior citizens.
Steve ORourke
retriever Shannon occasionally fetching a ball or talking a walk in the neighborhood. He loves it here too. My wife and I are both independently employed and work from home. She is a freelance writer, author and speaker, and I do marketing and IT consulting, primarily in the renewable energy field. I am also a columnist for several local publications. Soon after we moved in, we were welcomed by Rein Poppitz and invited to join the Robinwood West Improvement Association, which preceded the RWCID as a membership-based organization designed to help make Robinwood a better place to live. I volunteered to get involved in the subdivision as the landscaping director that first year, and then served as the treasurer of the RWIA from 1994 to 1999, and served as trustee from 1997-2000. I was one of the original appointees to the RWCID Board, and served from 1999 to 2003, with two years as director of finance, and two years as director of communications. In addition to these positions, Maria and I have taken turns publishing or contributing to the Round Robin newsletter over the years. I was editor in 1995-1996, and Maria published the newsletter from 2002-2004, and again since 2007. I have also maintained the subdivisions database of residents, and have published the neighborhood directories since 1996. As treasurer and trustee in the 90s, I saw firsthand the challenges we faced as a subdivision. My predecessor trustees and RWIA officers explored a number of ways to finance necessary or desired improvements with more than an annual $6 assessment and $10 voluntary membership fee. Our trust agreement made it virtually impossible to raise the fixed assessment, and at one point neighborhood leaders considered incorporation as a means to properly maintain our community of 478 homes. In 1998, the Missouri legislature expanded the Neighborhood Improvement District statute to create Community Improvement Districts, and this offered the best potential for us to consolidate the community leadership and renovate our deteriorating community assets. The majority of residents have supported this difficult path weve chosen, and it has been the hard work of many volunteers that enabled us to take our crumbling common grounds and restore them to a condition with which we can all be proud.
At our initial Round Robin deadline in April, we were under the impression that the June 1st date had been accepted by the Election Board. Several days later the Election Board stated the election would need to be held on June 15th secondary to not meeting the deadline for the June 1st date. The election will be held on June 15, 2010. Besides voting for two new directors, a proposition to renovate the restroom facilities at the community center to meet ADA standards will also be decided. The sample proposition for approval of the ADA restroom is located on page 4. The proposition must be approved by a majority of votes cast by RWCID members (consisting of property lot owners and registered voters residing within the boundaries of the RWCID). A new calendar of events is posted on the web site (www.rwcid.org) and at the community center. For purposes of both the director election and for approval of the capital expenditure proposition, a person may only cast one ballot, even if they qualify as both a registered voter and a property owner. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed the week of May 31st. The mail-in ballots must be returned to the office of the St. Louis County Board of Elections located at 12 Sunnen Drive, St. Louis, by mail or in person on or before 7:00 p.m. on June 15, 2010. If you do not receive a ballot in the mail or lost the ballot received in the mail, you may pick up a mail-in ballot at the office of the St. Louis County Board of Elections at the address listed above during normal business hours between May 31, 2010 and June 4, 2010.
A Community Work Day is scheduled for Saturday, May 15, beginning at 8:30 a.m., with a back up rain date of May 22. All are welcome to come work and help improve the appearance of our Community Center!
Robinwood West has been the envy of many neighboring subdivisions, and our accomplishments have been recognized by the greater community both publicly and in the media. A small minority of vocal residents have opposed this progress, filing lawsuits and disrupting meetings to the point where many residents no longer want to be involved. I hope to change that. I plan to work with the existing board to further firm up our financial condition, and ensure that the board follows all of the requirements of the statute and bylaws. My goal is to bring about renewed prosperity and goodwill to Robinwood West.
Barbara Monroney
there is a distinct difference between a volunteer and an Elected Official. Once a person is Elected, the persons commitment and action(s) is to abide by the laws regardless of their personal, individual desire. As many of you know, we have several lawsuits pending. One lawsuit involved the number of times any one person could cast a ballot and I was a Plaintiff on that lawsuit----fortunately my country education held-up and the law of One Person, One Vote still applies. That always seemed like common sense to me, but for some reason, some had a different interpretation. In fact, the other pending lawsuits have to do with legal interpretation. Like most of you, I am not an attorney but I do consider myself a good citizen, so we all will just have to let the judicial system work its powers, render their decisions and comply with those decisions when made. The last lawsuit is a personal injury lawsuit, and of all of the lawsuits, I find this one, the most disturbing to my perception of Robinwood. Prior to the formation of the District, I always thought Robinwood to be a law abiding peaceful community. It is both difficult and disheartening for me to see what I perceive to be, sad changes over the last several years within our Community. My goal is to restore Robinwood, to the type of neighborhood in which we are all proud to live. That means we stop name calling of people with differing opinions in the tax payer newsletter. It means we embrace the ideals we have in common and respect the differences. We acknowledge we are human and we may make mistakes. It means we listen to all opinions and we make the decision that is best for the Community as a wholenot just a few or a select group. When elected, we act in the best interest of the Community first and ourselves second, if at all. And along the way, we all learn and grow, together as a Community. Without a doubt we have challenges ahead, just as we have challenges in our individual homes. There always seems to be more work that needs to be done than helping hands and paychecks. So we prioritize our needs and desires, we make do with what we have and we compromise where we need to in order to be the best and make the best, of any situation. And that is applicable to the Robinwood Community Improvement District. As a retired person, I have many hours available to devote to you and our Community. This election is not about me, it is about you and your decision on which two candidates would best represent your future desires, in a legal and appropriate manner. With your help and with your vote, I believe we can make all things possible in Robinwood.
Neighborhood Watch Meeting Rescheduled Susan Florek, Robinwood West CrimeWatch Captain
The Robinwood West Block Captains Appreciation and Neighborhood Watch Meeting is rescheduled for Tuesday May 4, 6:30 to 8 p.m. It will be held at the Community Center. Please come and bring a neighbor. St. Louis County Neighborhood Policing Officers will be our guest speakers. Hope to see you there!
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