Photo courtesy City Commission agenda
Pavement improvements are coming to several streets after the City Commission voted to approve the project at Monday’s meeting.
Last month, city staff recommended moving forward with pavement improvements after discussing budget updates and seeing fund balances coming in higher than previously expected.
The city received nine bids for work on West 27th Street, Montrose Circle, Seymour Court and Shadow Ridge Court. When the lowest bid came in at $418,000 from Byrne and Jones Construction, Public Works recommended adding more improvements at the intersection of Fir Street and 28th Street. They will also replace the asphalt sidewalks along the west side of South Fir.
“The intersection of 28th Street and South Fir is just getting hammered with truck traffic, and it’s been a continual nightmare for us to repair and patch and doesn’t seem to last very long,” Public Works Director Branden Boyd said.
The new intersection will cost about $135,000, which will still be under the original budgeted estimate.
In other business, Jessica Mortinger with the Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization shared an update on the regional pedestrian plan originally developed in 2016.
Mortinger said the work done in these studies helps to support future applications for grants from the state or Safe Route to Schools programs. The study went through existing conditions within the city as far as missing and existing sidewalks to get an inventory of connectivity, she said.
She also recognized the limited resources that exist and sometimes the desire for repair and maintenance is greater than resources have allowed.
“As a result of that, we’ve worked to kind of create some priorities within this space to prioritize the use of resources and grant seeking to fund what we call a primary pedestrian network, and that’s based on the coordination we’ve done with our Safe Routes to School planning,” she said.
In the map below, the yellow represents what Mortinger feels should be a priority to help better the network. Green shows existing sidewalks and dashed red shows missing sidewalks.
They also conducted a survey and asked Eudora residents what they thought of the priority network and 89% supported the concept.
The commission passed a resolution to support the findings of this plan.
Commissioners also adopted a civil rights and fair housing policy – a requirement as the city receives Community Development Block Grant funding for 701 Main St.
City Clerk Kelly Delay said this isn’t anything the city isn’t already doing, but it is just not written down.
During staff updates, Commissioner Roberta Lehmann recognized Parks and Rec Director Sally Pennington. When Lehmann noticed a group of about 12 young adults trying to play tennis at the courts but lights would not turn on, she texted Pennington and she came over to find the fuse had blown and got the lights working at 9 p.m.
“I just want to point that out because I don’t know too many other communities that have a Parks and Rec director who would come out at 9 o’clock at night because there’s about 12 kids, young adults on the tennis court wanting to play,” Lehmann said.
Mayor Tim Reazin asked for an update on the potential for a farmers market at Village Green and city correspondence with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to make sure everything is up to regulations.
Assistant City Manager Zack Daniel said the city can prepare an update on not only the market but the programming for Village Green as well. Daniel said he had done some work with Parks and Rec to see what needs to be filed at the state to be aboveboard.
In other business, Fire Chief Mindy Andrasevits said they just received 27 firefighter applications and will start doing interviews next week. Recruit academy will start in July with onboarding in August.
Pennington said things are going well at the pool, with swim lessons maxed out at 75 kids. The pool is also able to do its own lifeguard instructional training after certifying two of their own employees to do so last year. This year is the first time all lifeguards have been instructed in-house, and drew people from all over Kansas and Missouri to get certified, she said.
Parks and Rec will host a movie in the park on June 21 at the West Sports Complex. They will show “The Sandlot.” There will also be bounce houses, face painting, games and concessions.
In other business, Boyd said the city was averaging 500 rereads on water meters each month for awhile. By replacing parts and fixing issues, they have got that total down to 80 a month. This saves time for his staff as well as the city’s billing staff, Delay said.
During public comment, several community members voiced concerns.
Karter Gonzales and Arthur Thompson both live on 25th Street in the newer part of Shadow Ridge and have had ongoing issues with water pressure at their residences.
Gonzales said the city has been out to check the pressure of surrounding homes, and said the average pressure is 10 to 15 gallons a minute, but his is only three gallons per minute. Thompson’s water runs five gallons a minute.
Gonzales noted they have separate buildings so the issue does not seem to be with a builder, rather something going on with the city.
“When I did chat with someone from the water division, he specifically told me that they know what’s wrong, they’re just not at liberty to say which I thought was a big red flag in my opinion,” Gonzales said.
During staff updates, Boyd said he would have his team check these houses for pressure and send results to the homeowners.
Dan Dearmore voiced concerns about the large number of kids on his street riding bikes and the need for speed signs to slow drivers down around Seventh Street from Church to Main.
Dearmore said they had previously had signs saying children at play but were told to take them down by the city. He is wanting further information on how to have these signs up and have city agreement.
Sue Howig also spoke about the same issue, saying there are sometimes drivers going 50 miles an hour when there are children all over the area.
Ryan Wilson asked for clarification on chicken coop guidelines since he had recently built a coop and was told by the city it had to be taken down. He asked for access to the coop regulations online.
Mayor Tim Reazin said the city would get back to each speaker with answers to their questions.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected]
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