St. George Disincorporation Completed

The city of St. George is no more.

With a few motions at a Tuesday night meeting of the St. Louis County Council, the town took part in its final official actions. The county voted to accept the deed for the building that formerly housed St. George City Hall and agreed to integrate  the St. George city park into the county park system.

The city’s books were also closed. The county council appointed resident Bob Burns to oversee the disincorporation and he turned in an audit completed by CPA firm Schowalter and Jabouri. With all its bills paid, Burns said St. George’s remaining financial assets amounted to approximately $369,000.

The meeting finishes a contentious drama with a frenzied surprise campaign by several write-in candidates led by Carmen Wilkerson, who unseated incumbent Mary Kaufmann for mayor. The group then successfully managed to put the measure up as a ballot initiative in the fall, where it passed with 73 percent of the vote.

to the fate of the property owned by the city, the maintenance of its roads and the potential tax rate. Burns himself also became a center of controversy when his appointment as trustee by some who had led the charge for disincorporation, including Wilkerson.

Burns said he was happy to see the county commit to its promises to turn the former city hall building into a police substation and take over maintenance of the small park. He added that the roads in St. George have been put on the county’s maintenance schedule and work should begin in 2013.

“This was for our community,” Burns said of the disincorporation. “There really is no reason for an extra layer of government because of the sophistication of the county government.”

A resident of the tiny municipality since 1969, Burns described seeing the completion of the disincorporation as “like it lifted an anvil off my chest.” He said he hopes leaving behind the often scandal-ridden municipality will mark a new beginning for the area’s residents.

“It felt wonderful,” he said. “We can get to be a community again with no more infighting. All this municipality has done is turn neighbor against neighbor.”