In Hazelwood

Seventh graders at Kirby Junior High School in north county are getting a personal look at how city governments make decisions on important local issues. 

And, in their case, the kids also gathered information and gave advice on the project in the city of Hazelwood. 

The issue is whether the city should approve a plan to build a large “shoppertainment” mall on a Missouri River flood plain area. The mall site is an undeveloped area of northwest Hazelwood.

Another question was, if the mall is built, what sort of stores should be included?

That’s where the kids come in. 

Last December, thirteen seventh graders conducted 246 interviews with fellow students. They were asking other kids what sort of stores they’d like to see in the mall. 

Thirteen-year-old Tierra McCoy said, “We conducted the survey when we saw students in the hallways.” 

Then, after the surveys were counted, a representative of the Mills Corp. came to the school to hear the results. The Mills Corp. is the developer that’s proposing to build the new mall. It would have 200 stores, including 16 large anchor stores. 

The corporation specializes in malls that combine retail stores with all sorts of entertainment opportunities. That’s why they use the term “shoppertainment” to describe their malls. The company has projects in 14 other states.

According to survey results, Kirby kids wanted outlet branches of all the major department stores. That would include Famous-Barr, Dillards, Sears, J.C. Penney and Lord and Taylor. 

Forty per cent of the kids also mentioned restaurants, such as Red Lobster, Applebees and others. Twenty-five per cent wanted sports-oriented stores such as Athlete’s Foot and FootAction. 

About one in five students also mentioned hip-hop-oriented stores such as Stylin Brands, Vibe and The Source. 

Twelve-year-old Chassidy Bell said she got twenty different stores mentioned in surveys she took. She and thirteen-year-old Nicole Davis said they both had kids mention wanting a Dave and Buster’s restaurant.

Neither of the girls had ever been to a Dave and Buster’s, although there is one in Earth City. However, the restaurant fits the mall’s “shoppertainment” theme. It features both food and entertainment opportunities. 

The survey of store suggestions was just one part of the Kirby kids’ study of the Hazelwood city government. Late in February, all thirteen took an all-day field trip to see what’s involved in running a community like Hazelwood.

They got a personal briefing from Mayor T. R. Carr in the city council’s meeting room. While listening to the mayor, the kids sat in seats usually filled by the mayor, city council members and the city manager and city attorney. 

Tierra McCoy said, “I really liked to use the microphones at the city council desks.” 

But, 13-year-old Katie Lutas said she liked best the tour of the city jail and the city fire station. All of the kids were impressed by the chance to see the cells where prisoners were kept. 

All of them were glad they could leave when they wanted to. 

Other places on the tour included the city garage, the community center and the public works and finance departments. They also got a chance to question City Manager Ed Carlstrom on his role in the Mills Corp. mall project.

He said the mall negotiations have been going on for over 2 1/2 years.

One of the reasons it’s taken so long is that many people in Hazelwood didn’t want a mall built on the Missouri River bottomland. They wanted it left undeveloped and used for park land. 

Joel Smiley is an assistant to the Hazelwood city manager. He has been helping the kids understand all the different parts of the mall project. 

Barb Easley is the social studies coordinator in the Hazelwood School District. She’s been planning the city government lessons for the kids.

She said, “We’re going to spend time in class talking about these earlier conflicts.” 

Smiley said most of the court challenges to the mall project have been settled. The city expects to have a ground-breaking ceremony in the spring and the mall is to open in 2002. 

If the mall is built, the Kirby kids will have a better understanding of how that project came to be. They’ll even have had some part in which stores are included.