City manager announced, church land rezoned and old public safety building sold

The road in front of the high school and nearby area will see $21 million in improvements after the city announced Monday night that it received a federal grant.

Mayor Tim Reazin said he was excited to hear the city received the RAISE grant, which will cover about one mile of road from 20th Street to 28th Street. The grant will convert the current two-lane road to a three-lane road with a center turn lane, add a new path along Church Street corridor and add other traffic management devices.  

“All these improvements will support safety, quality of life and connectivity in Eudora,” Reazin said. “The improvements to Church Street will be vital to the success of our city’s economic development south of K-10, especially with Panasonic plant and hopefully STAR bond.”

Reazin said he was grateful for the support from the school district, city stakeholders and government officials. 

“That’s a pretty big deal for the community,” Reazin said. “Additionally, this project would not have been possible without the support of the community. We had over 20 letters of support from the community, organizations, local businesses, nearby cities, congressional representatives, the lieutenant governor and more.”

This is the second time the city has applied for the grant after being denied in 2022. The city will not have to match any dollar amount for this grant. 

Reason said the timeline for the project is still undetermined at this time. 

The city also formally announced Monday night that Kevyn Gero, who has served as interim city manager since Barack Matite resigned, is the commission’s selection after interviewing four candidates for the role. 

Reazin said the selection process had several highly qualified candidates, but Gero fit the community’s needs best. 

“I think unanimously beyond a shadow of doubt, we appreciate what you have to offer for the community and our long vision is something that you’ve shown throughout your time here,” Reazin told Gero during Monday night’s meeting. “I just want to welcome you, thank you.”

Gero said she was excited to be chosen for the position.

“With the news of the RAISE grant, it just makes me feel like this is the right place for me,” she said. “The RAISE grant really shows Eudora what Eudora is.” 

Gero said everyone in the community was ready to give the city letters of support to help with the grant, and it came at a great time for the city. 

In other business, the commission voted unanimously to approve a permit for GW Weld to turn the old Methodist church at 703 Church St. into an event space. Now, Weld can officially move forward with next steps in hopes of having the venue open in 2024 or early 2025. 

In an interview after the commission meeting, Weld said he can now start the bidding process and determine how much this project is going to cost. 

“Next steps are to get construction documents drawn up and start putting the project out for bid to see how much it’s gonna cost to renovate it into what we envision it being,” Weld said. “We’ll get started with that this week.”

Chris Miller, a city planning consultant with IBTS, spoke with commissioners over Zoom about Weld’s plan. 

“As was mentioned in the staff report previously, there were several considerations that were added based upon not only on the planning staff but also your public works staff as well,” Miller said. “Some of them relate to traffic and traffic impact patterns around the potential use, noise disturbances or the potential noise disturbances, issues related to the site plan and then context and compatibility.” 

The space was approved with certain stipulations around parking and occupancy, which came from a recommendation by the Planning Commission at its June 7 meeting. The recommendation stated that for every 5 occupants there needs to be one parking spot, meaning Weld could host 200 people with the current parking allowance. Weld said at the June meeting he hoped to increase parking by acquiring more property eventually. 

Reazin has remained excited about the project since he first heard about it. 

“From the get-go, I think it’s a great idea,” Reazin said. “I think the community needs it, and as we start to grow I think it’s beneficial.”

In other business, the city approved rezoning the land owned by the Eudora United Methodist Church. 

After the land at 1310 W. 20th St. was annexed into city boundaries in February, it became mandatory that the city rezone the area into its current code. The land was previously considered county agricultural, but it had to be placed into the city’s zoning criteria. 

Based on this necessity, city staff decided the most similar classification was residential agricultural, Codes Administrator Curt Baumann said. This is also the least intense residential zoning district, he said. 

The Planning Commission recommended the property be moved to residential agricultural at the June 7 meeting. During the public hearing, many residents expressed concerns with more homes coming to the area and creating more traffic. 

Reazin asked Tom Schmidt, finance chair of the church, what the church’s intentions were with the property. 

“We have made no commitments to do anything at this point in time,” Schmidt said. 

Baumann said if anyone wanted to move forward with developing the property, the city would have to approve it.

The city also voted to authorize Reazin to sign a real estate contract with the 701 Group to purchase the old public safety building at 840 Main St. The group will pay $150,000 for the building. 

The building will house a media production facility for shooting, filming and recording, according to a letter from Paul and Kawehi Wight. Their goal is to attract national TV and film production to Eudora to bring projects and jobs to the area. The letter said they hope to increase Eudora’s revenue and tourism. 

Paul told the commission they plan to have an architect take a look at the building this week. 

Commissions had no questions or comments regarding the building and Reazin said the city had no concerns. Gero said city staff have been working to move or find new homes for the items stored in the building. 

In other business, the commission unanimously approved the final development plan for Scooter’s Coffee to be built within the Nottingham development. The half-acre property will have a 664 square-foot building with a drive-thru window and trash enclosure area. The coffee shop is the fourth project within the development. 

Reazin asked why the shop requires nine parking spots and whether that was based on square footage. Baumann said it was based on the occupancy and square-footage of the building. 

Reazin said the city had been intentional about that space in hopes that it could tie in with the future planning of trails in the area. He said originally he had inquired about a walk-up space and a place for people to sit outside, but the plan would only allow drive-thru services. 

Bringing benches into the area was a possibility, but Dan Finn with Phelps Engineering told Reazin that raised safety concerns since service is limited to drive-thru only. 

“They would absolutely be for adding a bench or two along Locust Street. The only concern in putting benches up closer to the parking or the building is introducing public walking to the facility, which would give the impression that there is walk-up service,” Finn said. 

The commission also awarded $256,000 to Alcove Development, LLC to improve a detention basin. The regional detention basin at 14th and Arrowwood Drive was created in 2002 and needs more storage volume for increased water flow. The basin helps release stormwater and reduce downstream flooding. Alcove provided the cheapest bid. 

During city staff updates, Parks and Rec Director Sally Pennington said the first session of swim lessons just finished with a full class. Pennington also said the dive-in movie was successful and brought about 100 families to the pool. 

Gero said the city has planned a ribbon cutting with a band for Village Green on Sept. 16. She also said the city has set a time for the lieutenant governor to discuss the STAR bond project. 

Police Chief West Lovett said the department implemented a new ticketing device that allows officers to make traffic stops much faster. Officers are now using DigiTICKET software to cut the time it takes for these kinds of stops. 

Fire Chief Mindy Andrasevits said the new firefighter academy is going full force, with six more Saturdays left in their recruitment. She said it is going well, and to expect to see new, fresh faces around town. 

Budget Analyst Michael Gentry said the commission will have a meeting on July 10 for the 2024 budget setting session. Staff will present the recommended budget at this meeting. 

Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected]