Dangerous Sidewalks, Revisiting The City Logo

Plowing a Park's Walking Path:

The St. Louis County Parks Department does something I wish the City of Town and Country would consider, if not for my sake, at least for other people who like to go for a walk. Each time there is a snowfall, the county parks department plows a section of the wide sidewalks at Queeny Park so residents can safely go for a walk or give their dogs some exercise.

I have asked Town and Country City attorney Steve Garrett why the city can’t plow the sidewalk at , the stretch along the front of the pasture on Clayton Road that goes around the barn to the parking lot. The city doesn't remove the snow, yet many people still trudge around the path on icy, snow-packed walks.

I have been told by Garrett that the city assumes no liability if it does nothing after an “act of God,” such as a snow. Under that theory, if the city tries to remove the danger and fails, or if the snow melts and ices over, the city could then be held responsible.

Eric Johnson, Queeny Park complex manager, said for Queeny's trails the goal is accessibility.

“It is a well thought out process with the county. We want the parks accessible to people, so we plow the paved trails,” said Johnson. “We have 570 acres at Queeny Park that we want accessible year round.”

I’m not asking the city to clear snow from all paved trails, just clear a section so that walkers can safely have an area to exercise. I find it somewhat ironic that Town and Country is trying to protect itself from being sued by not protecting its residents from being injured. 

Town and Country encourages people to use the park and has developed a loyal following of residents who walk Longview Park every day. Then, at the first snow, they don’t want people to use the park until the temperature hits 50 and melts the snow.

I understand that Queeny Park is maintained by St. Louis County and Longview Park is maintained by the City of Town and Country, but I think the county has the right idea.

Changing Town and Country's City Logo:

I was at a recent Town and Country Arts Commission meeting where the agenda included discussion of changing the city’s logo. The current logo is green, blue and white with an outline of the firehouse, a rolling field and a grove of trees.

Alderwomen Lynn Wright told art commission members that in 2007 the aldermen thought the logo might be “outdated.”

“We thought the logo was OK, but could use an update. We need the direction of another commission on this,” Wright said.

In 2007, Alderman Jon Benigas wanted local graphic designer Jim Ward to design a new logo.  He pushed through an appropriation for $3,000 without bids. Ward submitted five different designs, shown in attachments below, that none of the aldermen liked.

I believed the $3,000 for the new design as getting off cheap. However, once a city decides to change logos, there are additional costs of changing signs, decals on city trucks, cars, stationery, forms and buildings like the west wall of the aldermanic chambers.

Then there is the question of destroying the brand you have spent 20 years developing, Creve Coeur is a good example. For 20 years, the Creve Coeur logo was a heart with a broken line down the middle with the words City of Creve Coeur inside the top of the heart. The city changed the logo and put a much smaller broken heart inside a circle and threw in some fleur de lis. It went from a simple logo that was easy to quickly identify to something that was busy and difficult to read.

The arts commission wants a talented member of the commission to create a new logo at no cost to the city. Again, the cost is not in creating a new logo, but in replacing an old logo.

Last October, the arts commission had its first event, an En Plein Air painting competition held in connection with the Fall Festival. It was a big success, but there was room for improvement. I would suggest increasing the participation of college and high school art students. I also think it would be good to get another two or three events under their belts before taking on new projects.

Instead, commission members are discussing setting up foundations and raising large amounts of money to engage a well known sculptor to create a large piece of artwork for Longview Park, along with designing a new logo.              

During a recession, when the city is collecting an all time low in sales tax revenue, with a deficit budget and laying off police officers, it might not be the time to raise large sums of money to commission a sculptor or replace the logo.