Aldermen On Board With Wentzville Heights Community Center Plans

Plans to build a community resource center in the Wentzville Heights neighborhood received unanimous support and even some kudos from the Wentzville Board of Aldermen on Wednesday.

Hope for the Heights, a nonprofit started by members of the Peine Ridge Church, has already gathered community support for the endeavor, with $80,000 pledged for construction.

READ MORE: Nonprofit Looking to Build Community Center for Wentzville Heights

The community center would offer a computer lab, life skills classes, after-school activities and space for events like birthday parties and showers. The group also hopes the center can be a substation for the Wentzville Police Department.

Some questions were brought up about parking, but the program's director, Mike Sadich, assured the board that most of the center's patrons would be walk-ins from the neighborhood.

Several members of the board thanked Sadich for his group's work.

"This is what makes Wentzville such a great place to live," Alderman Sonya Shryock said.

Still, some Wentzville Facebook page readers had reservations about the center:

• Michael Duncan said: "I believe that The Hope For the Heights did the Community Resource Center without input from the residents for the Wentzville Heights subdivision."
• April Meury Reichardt: "Considering the area, hope they get a good security system to protect the property. I know someone who's been trying to rehab a house over there and they keep breaking into the house stealing anything that isn't nailed down."
• Michael J. Twillman: "Not sure how I'd feel if I lived on that street... Won't there be alot of cars and people coming and going from that one little spot? There are TONS of empty (and cheap) retail spots open all over Wentzville."