New Police Chief Sworn In, More Single-Family Homes for Cimarron

New took the oath of office Wednesday during the Board of Aldermen meeting. City Clerk Vitula Skillman administered the oath.

Harrison is believed to be the first female chief of police in St. Charles County. Previously, she was district commander for the police department in Boynton Beach, FL, north of Miami. She also served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a military police officer.

Former Chief Robert Noonan .

Cimarron goes single-family

During a public hearing, Chris DeGuentz, of Fischer and Frichtel Custom Homes, said the developer is changing its plan for Cimarron Village to include more single-family homes.

“The ability to build elaborate multifamily housing has been diminished,” DeGuentz said during the hearing. “The plan is to convert some of the multifamily units back to single-family units.”

The converted units will be those closest to existing single-family units, he said. DeGuentz said the buildings were meant to be four-unit townhomes.

Cimarron Village is southeast of Interstate Drive and Cimarron Valley Trail.

Ward 2 Alderman Chris Gard said residents at the planning and zoning meeting largely supported the change to more single-family dwellings.

Storm water utility defeated

The aldermen also voted 6-0 to defeat legislation that would have created a storm water utility for the city.

The bill had been tabled for a couple of years. It would have charged a $1.10 monthly fee per household to create a storm water utility, similar to the city’s water and wastewater utilities.

Ward 3 Alderman Rick Stokes said, “Back in 2004, there was this unfunded mandate (from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) regarding treating storm water runoff. The board back then decided that in order to comply, we would need a revenue stream to fund it.”

However, private entities filed a lawsuit against the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District, halting a similar fee it was charging its users. So the council put the bill on hold.

Ward 1 Alderman Cheryl Kross said: “I brought this forward because this bill has lingered out there too long. Based on the information we have, this could be outdated.”

Stokes said the issue can wait until the lawsuit is settled and Wentzville still needs to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) requirements. He said he’s opposed to creating new fees or taxes to fund the mandates.

“If it comes down to it, I think the city should fund it within its budget,” Stokes said.

Mayor Paul Lambi cautioned the board, and said board members criticized previous administrations for not setting aside enough money for street repairs.

“We know there’s a possibility that someday the EPA will require some very large capital expenditures,” Lambi said. “Killing it is fine, but this may need to be resurrected later.”

He said the EPA’s goal is to have cities treat storm water treats just as it now treats wastewater. That could be a costly proposition, Lambi said.

City Attorney Paul Rost said there are going to be lot of unfunded mandates from the federal government.

“This city can’t do everything the EPA expects of us, because we don’t have the money,” Rost said. “That’s not going to change, and it’s only going to get worse."