A stretch of Richardson Road near a steep hill in Arnold should soon be a little safer.
Arnold City Council members voted 7-0 Nov. 20 to pay D&S Fencing Co. of Fenton $16,500 to install a 200-foot guardrail near the Richardson Glen subdivision on Richardson Road to prevent vehicles from going down a steep hill across from Lamp Post Court.
Also at that meeting, the council approved a $15,087.50 payment to TJ’s Landscaping for picking up brush from outside residents’ homes as part of the city’s the fall brush pickup held Oct. 27-29.
The council also agreed to pay Target Specialty Products of Norcross, Ga., $10,488.80 to vector control chemicals, which will be used to control the mosquito population in the city.
Ward 4 Councilman Gary Plunk was absent from the meeting.
Guardrail
Arnold interim Public Works director James Pogorzelski said people have requested the guardrail on Richardson Road recently as more vehicles seem to be traveling off the road and driving down the hill.
Two houses are located along Long Glen Lane in the Richardson Glen subdivision at the bottom of the hill, he said.
“It is a pretty extreme downhill,” Pogorzelski said. “There have been three cars that I know of that have ended up halfway down the hill, almost at the houses near the bottom of the hill, in extreme weather.”
Pogorzelski said a date has not been set for D&S to install the guardrail. He said it typically takes just a day or two for guardrails to be installed, adding that the eastbound lane of Richardson Road will be partially closed while it is installed.
“They put them up pretty quickly,” he said.
Pogorzelski said the road does not curve much where vehicles go off Richardson Road, but the hill is steep where vehicles are leaving the roadway.
“We want to protect cars from going down that hill,” he said. “It seems like right across from Lamp Post, cars end up going down that hill behind two houses. I don’t know why. It seems like that’s the area they always go off. There is not much of a bend, but it is a steep hill. Once they go off there, they just go down and down further. It is a unique, severe downgrade.”
Brush pickup
Arnold has contracted with TJ’s to handle residential brush pickup since 2024. Previously, city employees picked up brush outside homes in April and asked residents to drop off brush at Arnold City Park in October or after major storms.
Since first hiring TJ’s to take care of the brush, the company has picked up brush outside of homes in both April and October, and the company handled brush pickup following the tornado that went through the city in March.
Parks and Recreation Department director Dave Crutchley said TJ’s picked up all the brush for the fall collection in about two and a half days.
“The partnership has been great,” he said. “It has relieved the burden from the parks and street department. We used to do the brush pickup, and it took us around two to three weeks to complete it.
“It works out great for us and the residents, so they don’t have brush sitting on their lawn or driveway. It has been a great partnership. We are very happy with it, and it seems like the residents are happy with it, too.”
Vector control chemicals
Arnold will order Aqua Reslin, Altosid 30D, Altosid XR and a flushing solution from Target Specialty Products for the Animal and Vector Control Division to use when the city sprays for mosquitos next year.
Sarah Turner, interim Community Development director, told the council the city has used the Aqua Reslin spray for many years. The Altosid are tablets that go into still bodies of water.
Ward 1 Councilman EJ Fleischmann asked if the city changes the chemicals it uses since mosquitos could develop a resistance to a chemical that is used often.
“On one hand, there is a benefit of changing products every 10 years or so,” Turner said. “On the other hand, Aqua Reslin is one of the easiest chemicals to live with. A lot of the other chemicals are more harsh, and we don’t want residents to be uncomfortable that we are spraying.
“We’ve talked with both representatives from the company that supplies the solutions and state agencies that provide the certification to our employees to use the chemicals. We will keep an eye on the West Nile situation as it evolves.”