By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – 
The well-known booster group Metropolis has lived to see another day.
Members Wednesday night elected the organization's governing board. They were picking between a slate of candidates who want to shut down Metropolis and those who want to save it.
But neither side won outright. The new steering committee will include both people who do and do not want the group to continue.
The result confused a lot of people, including Fred Hessel. He ran to shut Metropolis down and lost.
"I think Metropolis continues to send a mixed message to its membership," Hessel said Wednesday night. "And I think the steering committee and the membership has a lot of work ahead of them."
Metropolis has long promoted the City of St. Louis to young people. And it had the ear of city leaders in earlier days who saw the organization as a voice for future leaders.
But recent turnover on its governing board and disorganized finances had some former leaders concerned. They were running as a slate with the goal of shutting Metropolis down if they won.
Matt O'Leary ran to shut it down but lost. He's still not sure the organization has much of a future.
"I think the conclusion has been reached in my brain that Metropolis is not going to be able to reenergize. That it's served its purpose; its life cycle is over," O'Leary said. "But there are others who want to give it another try and they're going to see what happens over the next six months."
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New Metropolis Steering Committee
President: Thomas Crone*
Secretary: Kimberly Henricks
Treasurer: Fred Blanton
Fundraising Comm. Chair: Dan Shaugnessy*
Marketing Comm. Chair: Jen Smith
Social Comm. Chair: Jen Andrews
Membership Comm. Chair: Jennifer Estes
Leadership Comm. Chair: Meredith McKinley*
Living Environment Comm. Chair: Kraig Schnitzmeyer*
Perception Comm. Chair: Matt Ghio
Policy Comm. Chair: Dave Whitman
* - denotes members of the 'slate' who ran with the intention of shutting down Metropolis.