Board Meeting Minutes, August 20th, 2025 (Draft)

Sep 12

Written By Andrew Paniello

Soulard Restoration Group | Board Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 at 7PM
Soulard Station | 1911 South 12th Street

Minutes prepared by Andrew Paniello, Secretary

Agenda

Call to Order/Opening Remarks

President Amanda Ramcharan called the meeting to order at 7:03pm.

CID: RFP Plans

The board welcomed the Soulard CID (Community Improvement District). CID representatives, including the SRG’s Terry Hoffman, have been working to create a proposal with guidance for the City as it undergoes an extensive, comprehensive plan. Ideally, if the elements of this proposal are accepted, Soulard will become a “full service neighborhood”; currently, the Central West End is the only St. Louis neighborhood (of 79) with that status.

The plan will include all of the CID, as well as a few locations beyond the CID, including Kosciuzko. Areas of focus will include land use, zoning, sustainability, economic development, and community equity. The “Three Asks” for the SRG include: general support (possibly expressed in a letter of support), a point person from SRG, and funding (they are asking for $10,000). The process will take 12-18 months.

Development Committee: Scholarship Proposal

The board welcomed Chris Currington, of the Development Committee, who came to speak about a proposed scholarship fund. The scholarship will be given to one student in the neighborhood and will be usable for four-year college, community college, or trade school. There will be an application process–likely blind applications with other balances for fairness. The scholarship will be funded via a Trivia Night but the Committee would like the board to commit to covering any funding shortages. The board was generally supportive and will confirm compatibility with our bylaws. More details to come.

Communications

Brenton Henry, chair of the Communications Committee, was welcomed by the board. Brenton discussed the benefits of having an SRG card on file, specifically, a low limit card that can be passed from one board to the next. This will be useful for managing subscription accounts and other online payments that do not accept ACH numbers and require payment via credit. Treasurer Neil Putz asked a few clarifying questions, expressing some concerns but suggesting he wants to make this work if necessary. A decision will be made later.

Treasurer’s Report

Neil Putz, Treasurer, reported that the asset accounts had decreased from about $94,000 to about $85,000. This was expected and mostly attributed to the concert series and other events. Jason Green, CPA, has completed our taxes for the fiscal year and will soon conduct an audit. We also briefly discussed payments made for labor (compared to volunteering), as well as our spending on the Membership Party.

Secretary’s Report

Andrew Paniello, secretary, announced that the July minutes had been distributed. The board voted to approve. Andrew was also pleased to announce that he and his wife, Maggie, will soon be taking classes at UMSL’s Neighborhood Leadership Academy, with the support of SRG.

Committee Round-Up:

Beautification: There will be a patio crawl on 9/20 from 4-8. We have chosen an artist for the Pontiac Square Park sculpture: Betty Moore. The sculpture will likely be a dragonfly.
CI&E/Development: The cornhole tournament is cancelled and will be rescheduled at a later date. The concerts have been going well, though we would like more volunteers. The scholarship has some initial enthusiasm–we will vote at a later date.
Communications: we will make a decision soon on the credit card. There will also be some upcoming changes to the website.
History: The Soulard Ghost Tour will occur on 9/27, starting at 5pm at the Antagonist Cafe. There will be 100 tickets sold for $40 each. Progress is being made on the time capsule, which now has a dedicated subcommittee.
Membership: upcoming socials will take place at RKM (September) and Antagonist (October); November and December are TBD. We are looking at new membership management platforms.
Parlour: no updates.
PRT: no updates.
Station: we have been able to substantially decrease our utility bills–thank you, April! There are three upcoming bookings at the Station. Additionally, we are expecting payment from the Go! St. Louis Marathon costume contest.
Safety: we are still looking for a new safety committee chair.
MGI: Board member Wade Weistreich is learning the ropes at MGI.

Old Business

The membership voted to approve the bylwas, enabling us to potentially file suit against the property owner at 1222 Allen Avenue. Amanda went to the Landmark Association to get more direction regarding our next steps. We are hoping that someone will acquire the building and develop it in a way that will benefit the neighborhood, including adaptive reuse. The board then weighed the pros and cons of filing suit and discussed how will vote on it–our bylaws do not specify a method. We determined a voice vote was fine.

Amanda motioned to file suit, Adriano Martinez seconded. The motion then passed unanimously.

To conclude, we discussed some of the focus points of board member John Cline’s emails. These included the possible need for an ad hoc committee for the Boys and Girls’ Club property, the relationship between the board and our committees, and other operational/strategic details. We plan to visit these topics more at the next meeting.