February 2024 Overland Business Association Meeting
Last week's Overland Business Association (OBA) meeting was hosted by Archwell Health in Overland Plaza.
Ken Crowder started the meeting by pointing to the revitalized Overland Plaza and its zero vacancy rate as an example of positive change in Overland. Ken also let us know that May 18th, 2024 is the tentative date for this year's Overland Community Parade.
City of Overland Mayor Marty Little followed by telling us that Donna Dill was named Overland's 2023 Citizen of the Year and Alberici Constructors was named Overland's 2023 Business of the Year at the City Council meeting the night before. Additionally, Detective John O'Neill was named Overland PD's Officer of the Year a week or two before that. Congratulations to them all!
KPot - Korean BBQ and Hot Pot Restaurant coming to Overland!
The Mayor also discussed Overland Plaza, particularly the KPot restaurant that’s nearly complete. They're fully approved by the City of Overland and are currently working to secure final approval from the Community Fire Protection District's Fire Marshall.
From their website:“KPOT is leading a cultural dining revolution! Born from four friends from different backgrounds who blended their cuisines over a shared table, KPOT is a unique, hands-on, all-you-can-eat experience that merges traditional Asian hot pot with Korean BBQ flavors.”
Click here to check out their menu!
Ritenour Superintendent Dr. Kilbride was up next. He let us know the district is expecting at least 500 new kindergarten students for the class of 2037. He also spoke about the success of the District's tuition-free Ritenour Early Childhood Program. Learn more about it here:
Ritenour School District Bus Fleet
Dr. Kilbride let us know about Ritenour School District's upcoming move to an all-electric bus fleet thanks in part to federal grant funding.
From their article:
”Ritenour is ringing in 2024 with the great news that it is one of two Missouri school districts selected to receive a grant for a fleet of electric school buses through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean School Bus Program.”
Read the whole article here:
Ritenour to Receive 24 Electric Buses thanks to Federal Grant
The big news was when he let us know about an exciting new project that seeks to make Ritenour a "wired community" by providing WiFi access to every student, if not every household, in the Ritenour School District! This project is currently in early planning and development stages, but the Superintendent was confident they would be able to accomplish it.
Learn more about what Community WiFi is from CableLabs
Next, Angela Gabel the President of the Ritenour Co-Care Food Pantry Board. She let us know the pantry is currently serving over 200 families each day they're open and they're keeping up with the demand thanks to their hard-working volunteers, generous donors, and the strong community support they enjoy. That said, they can always use more help. While financial donations are always needed and welcomed, they could really use additional volunteers to help meet their increasing demand. Specifically, they could use help with sorting incoming donations, stocking the pantry shelves, and they also need drivers to pick up donations using the Pantry's trucks. Additionally, they're looking to fill several upcoming vacancies on their board of directors. Click here to learn more about volunteering at the pantry.
Learn more about the pantry from this video:
Learn more about Ritenour Co-Care from Missouri Healthy Schools.
Next up, new attendee Grace Sandow told us about her new Yoga business Grace and Fluidity which currently holds classes at the Avalon Yoga Centre at 8815 St. Charles Rock Road in St. John. Her offerings include Agatha, Flow and Restorative, as well as Y12SR, and Recovery classes.
Brian Monday of Monday Homes followed with an update on the 5 local homes he is currently working on (with 5/more behind them), including breaking ground at a future duplex on Spencer, as well as pouring the foundation for some future townhomes in our area. You can click here learn more about Brian Monday from us .
The last speaker was Tim Schmidt of the Community News Newspaper. Mr. Schmidt purchased the paper in October 2023 and told us about the many changes happening there. Most notably the website being modernized. The Community News is a free weekly newspaper that was first published in 1921 and has an approximate circulation of 10,000. It's available at local grocery stores and other locations.
Mr. Schmidt's team plan to continue and expand the paper's local news focus. They're all about community journalism and sharing positive local stories in our communities. The first step they took was a full redesign of their website to allow them to share stories there, beyond the previous "flip book" version of the site. They're also expanding local school sports coverage due to the reduction of it at other outlets. In response to the loss of the Localite they're proposing the creation of monthly, ad-supported local community sections to help share news, information and events in our communities. Additionally, they invited local governments, organizations, and businesses to submit press releases that will run based on space availability.
They're on the lookout for more distribution locations. If you'd like to host a rack at your business or organization let them know!
You can click here to find your closest location to pick up a copy of the Community News paper.
You can also click here to find out how to contact them.
Scooter’s Coffee on Page
Once again Scooters provided their amazing coffee for the meeting. If you haven't tried them yet... why not? They’re awesome!
You can find more information about their coffees, teas, pastries, breakfast sandwiches, and more by clicking here to see their online menu.
Great people who make great coffee!
This was another great, informative OBA meeting and an awesome opportunity to meet and visit with neighbors, local business owners, and community leaders. The OBA's next meeting will be on March 12th, 2024 at 7 AM. I hope to see you all there!
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