City v.s. County Services

Manchester vs. County Services

A cornerstone of Manchester’s public service philosophy is to offer effective, responsive, and accessible service. At the heart of the services provided by the City of Manchester is the focus on public safety, maintenance of the public’s infrastructure, and cost effective and accessible City programs.

Public Safety/Policing

The Manchester’s Police Department has at least five officers on-duty at any given time (four patrolmen and a supervisor) covering five-square miles. Conversely, St. Louis County may have as few as five officers patrolling an area up to four times larger than Manchester.

Manchester Police has a response time of four minutes or less for emergency calls. This higher level of police coverage allows Manchester’s Police Department to function as a community-oriented police department. A smaller, more-focused police department, as Manchester offers, is more suitable for the area you reside in. Officers from larger departments (St. Louis County) are assigned to large areas and are often called to higher crime areas.

Public Works/Infrastructure

Manchester’s Public Works Department is responsive to residents’ street or sidewalk inquiries, usually arriving within four hours of the phone call. Voted “Best Public Works Department” in all of St. Louis County several years ago, Public Works staff are quickly responsive to concerns about streets, sidewalks, streetlights, and stormwater matters.

In winter, Public Works snowplows and staff are quickly on the job clearing City streets and applying chemicals through the duration of the winter event. Manchester City streets are regularly cleared before St. Louis County can get crews to the unincorporated subdivision streets.

Pavement Maintenance Program

The program allows Manchester staff to replace isolated and unforeseen concrete street pavement slabs and resurfaces asphalt paved streets. Compared to the street network St. Louis County maintains, Manchester’s Pavement Maintenance Program is designed for a much smaller network resulting in more frequent, quality maintenance on your street.

Sidewalk Improvement Program: Work performed in this program includes deteriorated slab replacement, slab leveling to reduce tripping hazards and ponding water, new sidewalk construction, and the replacement or new construction of curb ramps at street intersections. All sidewalk work is done to upgrade the city’s sidewalks to be in compliance with current accessibility standards.

Curbside Removal of Household and Yard Waste and Bulk Items

Residential solid waste services include once weekly curbside collection of household garbage, commingled recycling, yard waste and bulky junk all on the same day. The City’s residents pay $6/month for their trash service costs.

Sewer Lateral Program

The City’s response is quicker for non-emergency repairs than St. Louis County. It has been reported that it can take up to three months for a contractor to fix a non-emergency sewer lateral issue in your area. At the City of Manchester, it only takes a day or two to complete a sewer lateral repair after it is diagnosed.

Street Lighting

Manchester provides street lighting service on public rights-of-way and annually budgets for the construction of additional streetlights when the need arises.

Parks Programming

Manchester Parks, Recreation, & Arts Department’s goal is to offer the best recreation experience in our community by providing quality programs, classes, and events for all ages. Our programming includes a variety of interests, including aquatics, arts, sports, fitness, wellness, camps, Veterans events, and sustainability events. Our Parks Department is also committed to community well-being and outreach. These initiatives include supporting ManchesterCares events such as hosting American Red Cross blood drives, supporting food drives, funding scholarships, and providing senior wellness support. City residents receive significant fee reductions for fitness, recreational activities, and instructional programs.

The services mentioned are only a fraction of what the City of Manchester offers to its current residents. We urge you to connect with current Manchester residents or City officials to learn more about our efforts to better serve you.

Financial Impact and Benefit of Services

The City of Manchester is in strong financial position and projects this stability into the future.

Manchester's finances are driven by 3 factors:

Staff and Board oversight
Business outreach/retention
Resident care and inclusion

Our current financial position, accompanied revenue sources from the annexation area, will enable us to provide significantly improved services to your community while maintaining current services to existing residents.

Manchester doesn't believe in over-taxing our residents. Our Alderman and staff work to ensure every dollar is necessary and well-spent in the very community which pays taxes.