An informational meeting will be sponsored by the newly formed Oakville Mehlville Athletics & Activities Club at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, at Royale Orleans, 2801 Telegraph Road.

The group will explain its mission and vision for the Oakville/Mehlville community during the meeting. Spokesman for the new organization is former St. Louis Cardinal Scott Terry.

The new group is an independent, non-profit organization staffed entirely by community and business volunteers. Its mission is to recommend solutions directly to the Mehlville Board of Education that are designed to improve utility, safety and access to all district students, public and private, according to a news release.

Recommended upgrades will not require any additional tax revenue nor take away from current school budgets, the release stated.

For its first endorsement, the OMAAC supports a community action team of more than 50 people who have assimilated facts showing that funds that currently are spent on maintaining grass fields could be redirected to pay for synthetic turf fields at Oakville and Mehlville high schools, according to the release.

Carl Arizpe, a member of the Long Range Planning Committee’s Facilities Action Team and an OMAAC board chairman, presented to the Board of Education in December the team’s recommendation to re-place the grass athletic fields with synthetic turf, citing improved safety for students, reduced maintenance costs and better utilization of space, among other reasons.

The Board of Education has yet to take formal action on the proposal.