Ballwin Days Decision on Hold as Committee Looks to Set 2021 Date
Who would have thought exactly one year ago that anything would affect the annual Ballwin Days celebration or the plans to introduce a new Ballwin police station? But then Covid-19 raised its ugly head and threw the health and financial concerns of individuals and municipalities into a level of hysteria.
Now, a year later, City Administrator Eric Sterman approached both those subjects with a degree of cautious optimism at the Jan. 25 Ballwin Board of Aldermen meeting.
“(Parks and Recreation Director) Chris (Conway) and I met with the committee for Ballwin Days … the citizens’ committee that handles that effort,” Sterman said. “As you can imagine, we’re having a debate right now about dates for the event, and what the world’s going to look like in June when it is regularly scheduled.
“At this time, the carnival operators have been able to hold two dates for us. It’s the traditional early June date as well as a date in August. They’ve given us until the end of February to make a decision on dates. So, the city’s going to look at what the pandemic situation looks like at that time, and make a decision then.”
Sterman said that at this time the Ballwin Days Committee is still planning to hold the event but the date may have to shift.
Not surprisingly, the 2020 Ballwin Days event was canceled.
On Jan. 25, the board also turned its attention to news of the new police station building planned for a vacant lot right behind the Regions Bank at 14915 Manchester Road.
News of the site confirmation hit West Newsmagazine on March 16, 2020, which was about the same time that much of society began shutting down from the pandemic.
“I know it’s been a little while,” Sterman told the aldermen. “This was a project that was started and a site identified; then, it got placed on hold due to COVID-19. The design work was budgeted in the 2021 budget, as you all know.”
Sterman said the city put out a request for qualifications for an owner’s rep for the project and interviewed firms in the past
“We have identified a firm and are currently discussing a proposal with them,” Sterman confirmed. “We plan to bring that forward to the board; hopefully, by the next meeting, or if not, shortly thereafter.
“We did not rebid the design work. We had some pretty good proposals or qualifications from the first time it was sent out last year. We used those same firms and identified three finalists for the design work. We will be interviewing them later this week, and then hope to have a contract to bring to the board sometime in February for the design work. From that point forward, we should begin the design phase in earnest.”
