Today is Thursday, September 18th, 2025, and it is 3:02 p.m.

And we will proceed according to the agenda.

And the first thing on the agenda is the roll call of soldiers memorial commissioners.

Okay, so first we have Freddie Dunlap.

Here.

Okay.

Jason Fletcher.

Here.

Janika Hayden.

Present.

Thank you.

Judith Hansis.

Judith here.

No Judith.

Okay, I'm here.

Nick Mall.

No, no.

Okay.

Gilberto Pinella.

Gilberto Pinella.

Here.

Yep.

And Lavon Smart.

Here.

And Steve Wall.

Here.

Okay.

I think we've got a quorum.

We do indeed.

That's perfect.

Perfect.

Okay.

So the next thing on the agenda then would be the Pledge of Allegiance.

And Steve, would you lead us in the pledge?

Whoop.

Let me get the sorry, let me get it up here first.

There we go.

And screen sharing.

So let me get this share.

And there we go.

There you go.

Yeah.

So whenever you're whenever you're ready.

Sure.

I pledge allegiance.

And to the Republican.

One nation.

Yeah.

Okay.

And the visible with liberty and justice or okay.

Then the next thing on the agenda is the approval of the July 2017 meeting minutes.

And maybe if you guys want to take a few minutes to look over those.

I think I got everything on there.

And then we can call for a vote.

So move.

Second.

Okay.

Okay.

Everyone, the commissioners in favor of approving the July 17th, 2025 meeting minutes.

Please say aye.

Aye.

Okay.

Any opposed?

No.

Any abstentions?

Abstain.

Okay.

Thank you.

Freddie abstains.

All right.

Okay.

And let me just go back then here to the.

Okay, Mark, it's your show now.

Okay.

All right.

Well, good afternoon, everybody.

Uh not muted or anything like that.

All right.

All right.

Good to go.

All right.

Um.

So operations.

I think the first thing I lead off with is uh really pleased with uh working with uh Gilberto, Jonathan Strong, um uh Justin Strutman from the uh city library and uh Laura Shaughnessy, one of our board members.

Uh we had a great meeting uh a few weeks ago to discuss what uh I would call an open-air drug market, which was to the north of us.

Um and uh talked about some steps to take.

Uh and then really the the city ran with that.

And uh it's it's the best environment in these seven blocks that I've seen uh in the seven years that I've been here.

Um it's uh I'm not sure what the city did, and I don't know that it's any of my business.

Uh I just know that it that it worked.

Um, and that uh that market was shut down.

It was an awful location between soldiers and the library right next to the confluence academy.

Um, right on the path for many slew law students walking to the university.

Um it really couldn't have been in a worse place.

So it's um I know that those problems are multifaceted way beyond my training knowledge experience, whatnot.

I could see the problem and I could identify it, but I certainly um had no uh solution.

So working with uh Gilberto, Jonathan, Laura, and and Justin.

Um having that discussion and then seeing the action uh and the the effectiveness.

Uh I was extremely concerned that uh the city was gonna fence that park, uh, which has happened in the past, which then moves they simply move to you know, there's I think there's five or six parks in our immediate area, so very easy for them to move.

Um, so I was very apprehensive that that was gonna happen again, uh, but it did not.

And so I'm very kind of uh pleased that the fence didn't go up just to move the population to another area.

Um, so I'm sure that it's an ongoing uh uh challenge.

Uh I'm I know it's not over, that's for sure.

Um, but uh certainly the best that this area has been, and that's you know, we've really been working with that um that situation in a number of ways.

I mean, it's been a um a major focus for our resource protection officers.

It's been, you know, we've developed programs like the uh the shuttles from the county libraries in response to you know, people not feeling safe or secure and and coming downtown, and then of course, if they did and they looked across the street and saw that, uh it just uh it really shoots uh the the city in the foot, right?

And it's it's really hard to establish that.

So we had done a lot here kind of working around that or finding ways to adjust our own operations, but uh hopefully this sticks uh for for a while.

Um I'm always a little apprehensive, but I really hope it sticks for a while.

Um so thank you to all who are involved, which I'm sure is probably just about uh every different apartment in the city because I think it's a such a multifaceted problem.

Um other uh report.

Yep.

Mark, I just want to say that this is we are being proactive in the approach.

So I know that it seems it could be temporary, and I don't want to get ahead of uh you know everything that's happening, but just know that um we are being proactive uh in making sure that this is a permanent resolution, not uh um something that is temporary.

Yeah, thank you, Gilbert.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh however, attendance is doing great.

Uh we are uh through the end of August.

Uh these are the numbers.

Uh 2024 last year we were at 13, uh 638.

Uh, this year we are at 17,241.

So it's a a 26% increase over last year, which is uh which is fantastic.

Um still not near our our uh our banner year of of 2019.

We had uh 27,000 people through the end of August that year.

Of course, it was the that was the reopening year, and so it's it's hard to it'll be hard to reach those numbers again without uh something really quite dramatic happening here.

Um, but maybe we'll get there.

I'm not saying we won't, uh, but it's gonna be a challenge.

But certainly very pleased with the 26% uh increase.

Uh exhibits like the Ghost Army, uh, the current Tuskegee Airmen exhibit, uh, the upcoming two minutes to midnight uh exhibit our major contributors to that.

Um and then some of the the programming as well that that's really kind of sticking and uh and working well with the public.

So we'll keep uh keep going with that.

Um events and programs.

Uh recently, uh since we last met uh anyway, we did the matinees at the memorial.

Uh these are always two Sundays in August.

Uh we showed a Tuskegee Airmen documentary on August 10th, and then on August 24th, we showed the six triple eight, uh, which is the Hollywood film that came out uh last year.

Uh both of those events had full registrations.

We uh capped it at 100 registrations and they they both uh filled up.

Uh so those those are working really well as as well.

Um and then up there's a lot upcoming.

There's a lot going on in the next uh couple of months.

Uh stand down is next weekend.

Uh Molly really has been um in charge of that.

Uh I she's just got out of a meeting this morning this morning with uh many different veteran service groups.

Uh so that is that'll be ready.

She uh she Mel Molly tells me that uh there's gonna be a donkey here, not in the building trust, but uh here on the on the grounds uh as a uh as a support animal, right, Molly.

And then we don't have emotional support, donkeys and dogs on site first and down.

Yeah, I never imagined a donkey as an emotional support animal, but I also don't know donkeys, maybe they're great.

Maybe they're great.

I I really don't know much about them.

Uh but anyway, and I don't know where I would put one in my apartment.

But uh anyway.

Uh I can do a dog though, and there'll be a few dogs here.

All these will be out outdoors, uh, but a new element.

Uh, I think uh Molly says the doing hair cuttings, right, Molly.

Um we'll have haircuts, chiropractors, um, housing, food, um, medical, legal care, um, everything aimed over over 50 vendors um and resources for veterans facing homelessness or those at risk.

Yeah, so a great program.

Always uh honor to be uh host site for that um really special moment for soldiers memorial each year to host that event.

Uh and then of course Molly's pretty deeply involved with a lot of the planning and coordinating.

Um so that's coming up, and then on October 4th, uh Gilberto has pulled together a Hispanic Heritage Month uh panel discussion that'll be 10 a.m.

August uh August October 4th.

Uh so please come to that if you can, and if you can't, please uh share the word of that event.

Um rolling into uh November, uh Saturday, November 8th is the parade, Veterans Day Parade and celebration.

Uh right on the heels of that, November 11th, actual Veterans Day.

Uh the uh French uh Society will be here to do the annual reflaying.

Um and then a special event that kind of developed not too long ago um on Sunday, November 23rd uh at 2 p.m.

Uh Chamber Project STL will be here uh to do a free concert uh in the uh assembly hall.

So that should be pretty cool.

So they do the chamber music, and they have selected pieces that that kind of play to um the four Hancock statues and those the the courage, vision, loyalty, and service.

Um they have you know using their artistic and musical brains, which which I lack, uh they they looked at those statues and selected pieces that really kind of played to them.

Uh so that'll be kind of a cool event.

That'll be Sunday, November 23rd.

Um uh December, I think it's 12th, uh long after that is the uh window pruitt celebration of African American service, uh, which echoes back to the city's uh window pruit day in 1944.

Um so that'll be uh an event in a nutshell, it's an author and in book signing event uh with uh with lunch offered uh beforehand.

Uh so that'll be a good event.

Yeah, that's a high-level speaker.

It's a um you know the PhD type from uh from the East Coast, uh written many books um on service.

This book uh looks at uh WEB de Boy Boys and uh his uh role in World War One.

Uh African Americans were really forced with uh the difficult question of um should they serve the this country that uh you know certainly at that point it was getting into the into the peak of the Jim Crow and a lot of other nastiness that was going on.

They had hard questions to ask themselves about about service.

And so he uh uh WEDB Du Bois uh took a stance on that.

Um, and this uh this author has uh written a book on that perspective.

So it should be a very interesting uh afternoon.

And then that that should pretty much close up the year, I think.

But there's quite a few things between here and there.

Um exhibits, uh Tuskegee Airmen, America's Freedom Flyers that we opened that on Juneteenth, June 19th.

Uh it closes November 2nd.

That's hard to believe, but it's that's only six full weeks from now.

Um and so if you haven't seen it or uh if you have friends who haven't seen it, uh the the clock is ticking.

Uh so it'll be gone before we know it.

And then right after that, uh, we'll open uh two minutes to midnight and the architecture of Armageddon on November 11th, actually on Veterans Day.

Uh that's a uh photographic, uh, what they call it, like a photographic essay.

Uh it's basically an art exhibition of installations, both uh defensive and offensive, uh both civilian and military uh during the cold war.

So think of like uh underground missile bunkers and uh cold war fallout shelters and things like that.

It's kind of an artistic and photographic look at those uh those spaces.

Um so we'll see uh how that goes.

It's a pretty short run exhibit that'll only be here November and December at leaves uh January 6th.

So that'll close out the year with uh exhibits.

Uh the Mac Banner show uh has is completed but not yet fabricated.

Uh Gilberto uh in the Hispanic uh Veterans Group of uh St.

Louis uh helped tremendously on that, pulling the information together, pulling getting some photographs together.

Um we uh send it off to um to our editors and graphic designers.

So that we haven't seen it yet, but it's getting close, and that should be installed.

Hopefully uh October 1st, but we think it might be a little bit late.

Uh, but uh we did get it together.

And I'm really proud that we did a uh a bilingual uh version of that.

So it's uh both got the English uh and the Spanish on that.

It's uh eight banners, basically key key stories of Hispanic service, uh highlighting a few individuals, uh, particularly most who have some sort of connection either to uh St.

Louis or to Missouri or to Jefferson Barracks.

Uh so really proud to get that one done.

Uh we'll get that installed at the Athletic Club is as soon as we get it, which hopefully will be October 1st.

It'll be there for a couple months.

And then the sky's the limit.

We can find other places to share that places that we think are important that they uh that they have access to that information.

Um so that's the exhibits uh collections.

Uh so this is a a big one uh this time around.

So we uh a lot of you uh may not be aware of this, but when the transition between the city and the historical society happened, um there was a number of collections pieces that were uh they had some mold on them, and uh those pieces uh were not brought into the rest of the collection storage area.

They were basically segregated out and put into an off-site, a different off-site storage area.

And uh so now we finally uh have launched the the project to um uh get a uh the inventory done, get the cataloging done, but then systematically also get uh get those artifacts conserved uh and basically saved, uh do the mold remediation um and things of that nature.

It's gonna be a massive project.

Um it'll be big, it'll be multi-year, I'm sure.

Uh, there's four uh 1400 artifacts, uh, so it's not a small number.

Um, but uh it's it's time to get those things out of storage, get the mold taken care of, and uh and get them back into the rest of the collection.

So we uh our collection staff and facility staff uh met with uh Gary uh is it Wills, I think Linnea or yeah, Gary Wills with the uh with the city out at the uh the location where they're stored uh last week, put our eyes on the storage containers, everything was in great shape.

Uh we went into it with a lot of trepidation, uh not really knowing what to expect, uh, but the containers were in a very large storage facility.

They're not, you know, we had fears that they would be, you know, a lot of other stuff piled around them.

They'd be very hard to access and all that, but that none of that was the case.

They're all very easy to access.

They're right next to a storage ramp.

Gary Wilson, thank you, Rich.

Yeah, uh, right adjacent to a ramp.

Uh so they'll be very easy to move and to get in and out.

Um we so we put eyes on them last Friday, then we opened those containers uh on uh Wednesday yesterday.

And uh we were with uh Midwest Mold Remediation.

They did air samples.

Uh one of the they were both in the green, so they were both within regular health levels.

Of course, this is and everything's packed pretty well in there.

It's all boxed and a lot of plastic wrap and stuff like that.

So um that wasn't too unexpected, uh, but the air quality uh was both uh within acceptable levels.

Uh one of the cases uh was actually lower than uh the the outdoor environment.

Uh so that was a probably the biggest surprise.

And then they did swabbing of uh of the mold uh and that's being sent off to a lab.

Uh that'll tell us uh what species uh of mold that is, what variety or type have you?

Um and that'll that'll inform the type of uh uh PPE personal protective equipment uh and you know cautions that we need to take as we start opening up those boxes and getting into those into those artifacts.

Um but uh it's it's a great moment uh uh for soldiers memorial and for the collection that this is that this is starting.

Um it's it's really a great thing to get this uh started.

Like I said, it will be it'll be a long process, it'll be costly, uh, but we'll we'll get there and we'll we'll get it done and uh we'll kill the mold.

But uh yeah, so that's uh that's collections uh report.

Um uh Kate Scott, our collections manager, who I know some of you have have met.

Uh she'll be the lead on that.

She's the project project manager, it's in outstanding hands.

Uh Kate is is excellent uh organizer, uh it's a very methodical uh person.

So I know it's in great hands, and she'll be leading that effort.

Um so it'll succeed.

I'm I'm extremely confident.

But uh I think that's all I have.

Um more than happy to take questions or or have some conversation.

Any questions from anybody.

I have um I don't know if you would entertain me for a second on uh a soldier that's worth mentioning for the Hispanic um uh his history of the uh Hispanic um contributions to our military.

Is that something I can mention?

Yeah, yeah, go for it, Jason.

Okay, my my wife is Hispanic, and uh her she's Nicaragua, she's a Nicaraguan American, uh born here, but apparently from Nicaragua.

Her um cousin, Harold Troc.

I mean, like all of you is is an absolute hero.

He was um active duty for 17 years.

Um I think he served three or four years down range.

I mean, his left or right sleeve, whatever that is, that has the hash marks for all the downrange.

He was a master sergeant, just just well, very decorated.

Um, and he lost his life seven.

He was in 17 years and he lost his life.

I think he was in Afghanistan.

Um, he's buried at uh Jefferson Barracks.

So um, yeah, it was just a huge.

I mean, it's been quite a few years for us now, but it was a huge um loss for our family, and uh yeah, so he passed away a hero now.

You just celebrate you know his contributions as well.

Yeah, I I think that would be fantastic, Jason.

And the the way that the banner show, you know, it's very easy to add to, right?

Because they're they're individual pull-up banners.

So and I was I was gonna talk to Gilberto and the others about that.

You know, we've done, but we certainly can you know we've done 10, 12, 12 banner shows in the past.

Uh there's certainly room to to grow that.

It probably can't, it won't happen by October 1st, mind you, but uh it's not a uh next year.

Yeah, it's a project that will always be around.

And so after it goes to the Mac, then we try to shop it around to libraries and different places.

So I think uh yeah, if we can uh I don't know if you want to well, I can get you his information.

He was infantry, and in fact, Goberto, I've never mentioned this, but my wife's family knows you.

This is completely offline, but they owned a Mexican restaurant on Grand and Wyoming for like 15 years and used to be CIP Americans, but anyway.

Um I digress I will get that information over to you.

He it just an amazing story.

Um just an amazing, yeah, just an amazing story.

So Jason send me send me an email with the info and uh uh uh connect with the group because we um first of all the Hispanic veterans.

Um we're working that group, it's working to put all this banners on the more we know of um uh service members that especially a hero that lost their his life.

Um we want to go ahead and highlight them not only for the purpose of soldiers memorial, but also for the community because sometimes uh we don't understand you know, our community so far is from lacking of confidence when it comes to showcasing you know, heroes in our midst.

So please send them send me an email.

I'll send you some of his service shots, you know, some of his in uniform and all that, and then my wife was surely she has um write-ups from um when he was laid to rest in uh Jefferson Barracks.

So we yeah, okay, all that over.

That's awesome.

Thank you so much, and thank you for his service and for your wife's service.

And I gotta go back to the Mexican restaurant sometime soon.

Yeah, and that's unfortunately they've retired.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, but she, yeah, she always she's mentioned you year here and there over the years when she sees you on channel nine and this and that.

And she'd say, Oh, he used to always come in the restaurant.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, thanks for indulging me.

That's oh that's excellent, Jason.

Thanks so much.

We'll yeah, we'll work on that.

Yeah, yeah, I'll send that over here in the next week or so.

I'll get my wife, I'll ask my wife to pull some stuff out.

Very cool.

Yeah, good, good.

That's exciting.

Any other questions or question points for Mark?

All these good things.

Always good to hear.

I guess then we can move on to uh questions, new business and announcements.

Does anyone have anything for that?

Because I actually do, and I'm going to let Nick Morrow talk for a moment here from the city councillor's office about um a directive from the board of aldermen about um putting in place rules for governance of soldiers memorial commission.

And Nick, do you want to talk now?

Yeah, thanks, Linnea.

Um for those of you who don't know me.

I'm an attorney in the city councilor's office.

Uh I'm with our contracts and special projects unit.

Um wanted to talk about ordinance 7194.

Uh, some of you might be familiar with this.

It requires all city boards and commissions to develop and adopt rules.

And so those rules could be things like meeting time and location, public notice requirements, the addition of items to the agenda, etc.

Things like that.

Um, the idea being that while each board operates differently under different rules, those rules aren't always known to the public or perhaps even um members of a particular board.

So um, so in short, uh procedural rules need to be adopted by the commission and then posted online.

So um within the next few days, Linnea will distribute a draft of proposed rules for the commission.

And uh there's a special meeting scheduled for October 2nd to facilitate discussion of the draft of the rules um for discussion of any proposed changes to those, and then the opportunity for the commission to vote and approve those rules.

Um if during your review of the rules you have any questions, you're you're welcome to reach out to me, and I'll put my contact information in the chat.

Um, and then the last thing to mention here is that the ordinance also requires the city councillor's office to provide annual training opportunities for board members on the sunshine law and Robert's rules of order.

And so I don't have any details on that right now, but I'm sure that there will be details to follow.

Any questions for Nick.

Nick, did I touch the only question that I have for Nick is I thought that we already had rules and protocols in place that we needed to follow.

So thank you for bringing this up because I I was working on the assumption that we already met those commitments.

Yes.

So you're um you're not incorrect in the sense that we're governed by the sunshine law.

Um the commission does have ordinances that um is applicable or are applicable to the commission.

So um, you're correct that there were um rules in place in a sense, but um there were no, at least to my knowledge, um by laws or procedural rules in place.

And so this will this is just a good opportunity to help clarify that and get it all down on paper in one place.

And Nick and I met um, I guess it was yesterday, and there's no big surprises.

the commission so um you're correct that there were um rules in place in a sense but um there were no at least to my knowledge um bylaws or procedural rules in place and so this will this is just a good opportunity to help clarify that and and get it all down on paper in one place and nick and i met um i guess it was yesterday and there's no big surprises i don't think in this sort of thing it's basically just the way we operate on paper um procedures and rules as it's um for how meetings run and for the members of the board and who who they are and who appoints them and that sort of thing so basically it's collecting all the things that we're already hopefully practicing and putting them in one place and on on paper although I'm glad to hear about the sunshine law training and also the the Roberts Rule of Order training too that that's that's good to hear as well and again we have to set up a special meeting for this so I think you might have gotten invitations already from the city of St.

Louis Communications about meeting as a webinar on Thursday no um October 2nd at 3 p.m which will hopefully give everyone enough time to look through the um rules that we put together that Nick has put together and get with Nick if you have some questions about that and also then we can hopefully review them and discuss them on the second and and if everything's in order we can put them in place and vote on them and put them in place anything else for anybody from anybody I really thank Nick a lot for taking the lead on this yeah it's very helpful to say the least okay um no more questions or new business or announcements then I guess I can call for an adjournment of the September 18th 2025 soldiers memorial commission meeting so moved back in second okay all those in favor aye any opposed no okay abstentions okay um okay uh meeting of the September 18th 2025 soldiers memorial commission is adjourned and it is three 334 p.m.

thank you very much everyone thank you see you soon thank you bye bye