Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Sue Wilson. I live in North Kansas City. In the five years that I've been back here, traffic has increased tremendously on 32nd Avenue between Howell and Burlington and also on How. Um, the posted speed limit is 25 miles per hour on 32nd Avenue and 20 miles per hour on How. Rare is the driver that acknowledges that speed limit. Um, we're soon to have uh more traffic coming down from the new apartments on homes, the Ascend Apartments. There's like 330 plus units. Who knows how many people and vehicles that equates to. Their only access to those apartments is off of North Holmes. So, their choices to get into that apartment complex are if they're leaving to turn north on homes or south on homes. come down into North Kansas City, proceed on North Howell, or turn right and go west on 32nd Avenue. Um, you're going to know where I live by telling you all this, but anyway, um, I'm just wondering what our plans are to do something about this before those apartments open. Have there been been any studies done? I know recently the city of Kansas City put in speed bumps on Brier Cliff Parkway between North Oak and Highway

169 and I frequent that road quite a bit and I think it's helped a bit. So, I would just I would like to suggest we do that on 32nd Avenue and also Howell or some other plan. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. And uh as those are getting built, yes, it uh I would not have designed it with the only entrance coming off of homes. Uh at least spread it out to Cherry, but that's not what they decided to do, unfortunately. Um, but we are looking at that stop sign at least right now. The one at the corner of 32nd and and Howell where there's a three-way intersection, but only two stop signs. Looking at potend that may come up. I think it's coming up in the discussion in our so we have a safe streets for all study and a plan that we're going to look at tonight that'll address some of this. Um, and so stay tuned for that. Maybe stick around because you won't get the visual online unless we put it up later. Um, but it is something we're looking at because you're right, 30 seconds become a bit of a racetrack and it will only get more intense as those

Yes. Just one other go ahead. Um, I invited on Facebook over a year ago people to come sit on my front porch and watch. It is amazing what you will see people passing each other. you know, I mean, this is a a pedestrian route to the dog park, and people don't stop at that walk at the dog park, you know, but anyway, the passing of cars on 32nd Avenue just is mindboggling. So, anyway, coffee or beer depending on the time of day. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Further public comments.

Good evening.

David Johnson with Maxis Properties and Chicken and Pickle. Uh I just want to come with some good news. I don't do that enough for you guys to beat, but I had the opportunity to meet with Kim and JD about what you guys have done for the World Cup. And there's 13 chicken and pickles in the United States. and we're working with eight or nine cities. Nobody has done as good a job as you guys have done for what you're going to create. I was in Germany for the World Cup many years ago and I went to an outdoor plaza during it and it's a memory in my son's life for the rest of his life. The energy around the screen that you guys have bought and stuff. So the quarterfinal game you have here is going to make lifetime memories on it. I applaud what you have done on it. So that's the good news. Bad news is I'm working with Kim to see if we can do even more of them. We have a couple ideas around chicken and pickle to use the screen and so forth, but what you guys have done, bravo.

Thank you. Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council George Slutter. Uh, I had to go to the Kansas City, Missouri City Council two and a half weeks ago.

Sorry to hear that. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm here to tell you about. Uh I sat and listened for 28 minutes for discussion about whether they should allow parking over a storm drain or around a storm drain. They talked about this because of water flow. They talked about whether you could park over the drain or within 4t of the drain. Uh I talked about uh rainwater and whether if you parked on the drain when it wasn't raining whether it would be a violation or not. Uh then they got into the fire department and the water flowing from hydrant. Uh I couldn't believe it. 28 minutes. I want to commend you all in handling things much more efficiently and better than the Kansas City, Missouri City Council. Thank you. I appreciate I appreciate that. Some Sometimes it doesn't feel like that, but you're here as often as we are. So, thank you for that. Further public comments.

All right.

I think we have some slides to share, so I think those can be pulled up. There we go. Uh, good evening, council members. I am Corey Brown, and I have with me Mark Thomas. We're from Tenea Company. um here just to talk about our company tonight. The North Kenzie Business Council has been asking uh business owners and and business leaders to come introduce ourselves to you, the council members. I think it's a very efficient way uh for business folks to get to know council people. You don't have time to visit every business in town. Uh but we one at a time can come and introduce ourselves to you. So, thank you for your time tonight. Uh, Tenemic Company is about is a little over 100 years old and if you've never looked at the name of our company, it is the word cement in reverse and uh, the reason for that is cement provides actually quite good corrosion protection for steel and that's the business we're in. We provide protection for steel and concrete. Mark's going to tell you a little bit more about that. We are privately held company operating here in North Kansas City. Um, and our products are are built to perform well. So, we try to protect steel and concrete for as long as we possibly can. Um, there's a little bit more to Tenee Company. We've we've made some acquisitions over the years. So, these are some other brands. There's the Tex Coat brand and also the Epoxy Techch brand, which is the most recent to our to our lineup. Uh, Mark, you want to talk?

Yeah. So, just a little further background. Uh, as Corey mentioned, we're driven by innovation. We've got a extensive research and development lab here uh at our North Kansas City campus and we really pride ourselves on high quality performance-driven products. We've got a even though we're a local company, we've got a bit of a lo global footprint. We're primarily focused on sales in North America, but we also have partnerships in China or actually a subsidiary in China that's helping to support some of the uh the work that's being generated from North America. We've got partnerships in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and actually we need to include Australia and New Zealand. We just had a group there from there last week that's visiting us. Our main competitors are very large multi-billion dollar global companies, but we like to say that we we punch above our weight. They're Sheron Williams and PBG are the the two key ones that we see in most of the markets that we participate. And so, just to give you a little sense of where our products go, uh we like to say specialty architectural. We're not a residentialbased uh type of product, but very high-end, especially architectural. These are the Amazon spheres in downtown Seattle. We've done notable projects like Yankee Stadium. Uh anytime you see the the shuttlecocks on TV, those are supporting our codings as well. Uh we get into processing and manufacturing. That can be um pharmaceutical processing, breweries, wineries, beverage processing, uh just traditional manufacturing, any place that you need durable coatings. And then the industrial market. Uh this is an expanding market for us. A lot of work on the Gulf Coast in oil and gas refineries and prochemical facilities. We've just expanded into the marine market. We've really traditionally not had much of a footprint there, but we're starting to see some nice gains as well. And then we're big into the water infrastructure. That's one of the areas that we've really grown over the years. It's been a very good set of business segments for us. Water and waste

treatment. And then we estimate we probably do 70 to 80% of the water towers in the country. So anytime you see a water tower, if it looks good, it's our coding. If it doesn't, someone else's. Uh but we do the interior and exterior of those. And again, longevity is is what we tend to sell on people that are going to own and maintain those assets for a long time.

So, uh North Kansas City is our home. It has uh been our home for 75 years this year. We you may have seen some of the signs we posted on corners of our property celebrating 75 years of manufacturing here in North Kansas City. If you've never driven by uh or driven through our campus, it is it is a little bit large. We're separated by 23rd Avenue, but we've got um our factory there on the on the south side of 23rd Avenue and then on the north side of 23rd Avenue, we have a distribution center. Um north of the distribution center, we have a technical service center. That's where our um our field representatives stay there, the people who support our products in the field. It's also where we bring customers in for training and we bring hundreds of people uh into North Kansas City every year to to train them on on using our products. And then uh we lease some warehouse space there on the uh the west edge of that of the property line that I've got outlined there. And that's that's all for raw material storage. And we've got some office space in there as well. And then in uh 2022, we relocated our corporate headquarters back to North Kansas City. Uh in the 80s, the companies the company went through a growth spurt. We had become landlocked on that site and we had nowhere to build a corporate office. So unfortunately, we had to build a corporate office across the river in Kansas City and it was it was always too far away from Is that our time? Go ahead.

Okay. That was it was always too far away. So we were very very happy to relocate back to uh North Kansas City. Um, in 2022, um, we've got some really good employee initiatives. Um, we're excited this year to be to be granting our employees paid time off, free paid time off to volunteer for a group of of pre-approved organizations throughout the community. We donated over $70,000 last year. That was our best year ever, but we hope to even improve on that this year. Uh, Mark mentioned crafting longevity really is what our mission is. is you can go on our website and read a much longer mission statement, but really what we're about is protection. We protect steel, we protect concrete, we protect assets, uh taxpayer dollars, but we also protect people's careers. Um, and we have a large amount of investment planned as we continue to operate here in North Kansas City. Uh, we currently have uh this year alone a little over $7 million worth of capital investment uh that we plan to spend with the community. Over the next three years, that balloons up to about 17.5 million. And then we currently have a warehouse project under review uh by the city that we will spend about $14 million to build. And that is our presentation. Thanks for the extra time.

Thank you so much. Any questions for the team? If you haven't been over, and I don't know if this is public offer, but members of the council, if you haven't been over, go see this facility. It is phenomenal. It's really fascinating. Uh you'll learn the difference between a paint and a coating, which I did not know. And then if you you make the mistake, they'll let you know. Um it's all in the application and and the the durability. Um the other thing that was really impressive is not just the manufacturing prowess is that the people there really seem to love it there. They they've been there a long time. A lot of people been there 30 plus years and will very much tell you the tales of how great it is to work there. So thank you for being a pillar of the community for so long and thanks for your presentation.

Yes. Thank you, council members. Thank you. Further public comments. Last chance. Seeing none, we're going to move on to the consent agenda. Do we have a motion on the consent agenda? Move to approve. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. Any opposed? Motion passes. Excellent. Now, the regular items. Item 10, update on safe streets for all. Who's got this one?

Good evening. Good evening, mayor and city council. Uh, this item in front of you is actually a overyear effort and so we're trying to condense it as much as we possibly could. We'll give you a very quick run on the background of what is the safe streets for all and we have a focus on the future projects that we will be talking about. I have Wilson company here with us tonight and they will do the heavy lifting for the presentation. For any questions, feel free to stop them and raise your hand and ask. Thanks. All right, go ahead.

Hi, mayor, members of the city council. I'm Ashley Winell with Wilson and Company. I'm the project manager on the consultant side. I'm joined by Josh Bame who's with WSP and has been helping us with this project. Uh tonight we're going to talk about the project background and goals, what we've heard so far through public engagement, um where the network priorities and recommendations are and then what are the next steps. So uh just really quick team or Wilson and company were priming this project. Uh we're supported by WSP and BikeWalk KC. So SS4A, it's a federally funded program through the bipartisan infrastructure act. Um it provides funding for creating uh safety action plans. It also provides funding for implementation projects. Um it's focused on the safe systems approach which looks at different ways that our transportation network can uh prevent fatalities and serious injuries. It also is focused on vision zero um which looks at ways that we can uh further reduce uh fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways. So this whole plan is really based in data and just from a really high level um look at the data we look at five-year data and what we found is between 2020 and 2024 there were four people killed on roadways in um North Kansas City and 53 people were seriously injured. We also look at how many people were uh minor were experienced a minor injury or property damage only. So like a fender bender. But we're really focused on those fatalities and serious injuries um as those are most impactful on the community on individuals lives. Um and this this project really focuses on reducing that. So uh three goals we set up at the beginning of this plan. Preventing fatal and serious injury crashes in North Kansas City building off previous planning efforts. you all have done a lot of work around transportation through complete streets through bikeability um through your comprehensive planning efforts and so we wanted to make sure too that we're complementing those efforts versus

reinventing the wheel and then we wanted to identify policy strategy and infrastructure changes. So uh we're at the tail end of this project. We've done all the data collection the engagement so far we're working on drafting the final plan. There'll be a uh public open house in March um as well as some uh bike or walk audits that BikeWalk Casey will be holding. So, really quick on engagement, uh we went to pop-up events over the fall and summer. Uh we've had two task force meetings. We've done a public open house uh this fall. We also had an online engagement portal. Um we uh recently closed that. We had 103 survey responses total. Um 60% of folks agreed that streets are safe in North Kansas City. Um a lot of folks wanted to see uh uh more access. They've seen improvements to uh access of multimodal um but wanted to see more. Uh people are concerned with pedestrians intersections and bicyclists. And then um we heard similar to what we heard earlier today, reducing speed, making it safer to walk and bike. So, let's look at where the crashes are happening. One of the things we did do when we pulled together our data is we did pull out I29 and I35 because we knew there were going to be a lot of uh big concentration of crashes there and we really wanted to focus where the city itself could have more impact on um future projects. So, we looked at uh more of the local corridors that does include MDOT corridors such as um East Armor and Burlington, but we really wanted to focus our efforts on uh the spots where you all can have the most influence over future um projects and policies. So, within that area, there were three fatal uh crashes and 44 serious injury crashes. Um over 80% of those occurred on state operated roads. So for implementation of this plan, working with MDOT on reducing those crashes is really important. Finding um

ways that you all can work together to do safety improvements that uh result in safer roadways. We also uh identified 25 vulnerable road user crashes. So that's uh pedestrians and bicyclists. We focus on them because uh it's very difficult to come out of a crash with a vehicle when you're a pedestrian or cyclist without a major injury. Um and so there were 25 of those in the community. uh and that concentration of crashes happening on Burlington, East Armor, I29. Uh for fatal and serious injury crashes, these were the most common types that we found. Almost all of these are intersection crashes. So intersections are where we're going to find uh the most interaction between different modes, between cars turning, between different movements. Um and so that's why we see the most crashes at those intersections. And then we also have um loss control. So essentially someone drove off the road as another crash type. So, um, people running red lights, people not paying attention and rear ending someone. Um, someone turning at a left, making a left and someone, you know, they shouldn't have gone. Um, a pedestrian crossing, so someone's trying to cross the street and someone turns into them. A right turn on a major roadway, so someone's turning right, maybe they didn't stop and see a car coming. And then a head-on at a signalized intersection. So from all this data we developed a high injury network. This is a requirement of the SS4A plan. So essentially these are the corridors where there is the most current fatal and serious crash um uh occurrences uh with an additional focus on vulnerable road users. So if a pedestrian or cyclist uh experienced a crash in this area too, that's weighted into why some of these corridors show up. So what you'll see is a majority of these corridors and intersections again are those MDOT spots with a few uh locations in the neighborhoods where there are pedestrian crashes. We also look at the high-risk network.

So this is looking at a number of different factors of where crashes may be more likely to occur. So things that impact uh crashes severity, speed, um number of vehicles that use those roadways, presence of pedestrian uh facilities, uh those sorts of things. So, um, this helped us identify a more local network that North Kansas City could focus on to, um, reduce the risk of crashes in the community. So, you'll see, um, more local roads in there with those squares being the intersections within those areas. And then from that, we pulled together a priority safety network that looked at the high injury network and the high-risk network. So, we have North Burlington and South Burlington. We have uh West Armor and East Armor, so the MDOT and the North Kansas City portions of Armor. Uh we have the Avenues neighborhoods. We have um the area uh south of Armor um in more of the Iron District area and then the PO industrial district. Um so these areas all have a different recommendations um to improve safety there. Um and they're ranging from really minor things like improved intersections that you know maybe uh you're uh providing more high visibility crosswalks to major studies that you'd need a team with mod on to more catalytic um improvements.

Yes. So um looking at this one right now the the area that was brought up during public comments 32nd Avenue there at the top left corner of the map is flagged as low to moderate risk. Um green boxes on the intersections. Can was this done with the uh idea that the apartments are being built up the hill and it's going to massively increase traffic? So, so what we were looking at is existing traffic volumes um speed uh and that being posted speed, not necessarily the actual speed that people are going.

Um it would look at things like the uh existing number of crashes. And so it would factor into what's the risk there. So just because it has a lower risk doesn't mean there's not a risk. But I think if you're looking at it comparatively of what's happening on Burlington and what's happening on 32nd, you know, the more cars you have, the faster people are going, the more interactions you have between modes. Um, so it doesn't necessarily mean that there's not a risk there. So this is the potential for it, not the actual necessarily. Yes. Not as much crash data showing that there's ongoing uh issues or risk. Right. No, I would I would agree the potential if if people followed the posted speed on 30 second would be quite low, but it it has become a bit of a racetrack as Z mentioned. So,

and and in and when we get into some of the recommendations, specifically the counter measures, there's a lot of ways that you can kind of force people to slow down. I mean, similar I know, you know, maybe things that were done on West Armor aren't always popular, but they, you know, from what we found did reduce fatal and serious injury crashes. So sometimes uh physical changes force people to slow down, force people to drive safer. And so there's a lot of recommendations that are focused on, you know, not everyone is going to make the best decisions when they drive, but you can, you know, force them by uh narrowing lanes or adding chicanees to kind of uh pull in intersections or something like that,

road diet, so to speak, like we did on Howell. And and it's it tends to be in the messaging. Uh armor was not messaged as this is the feature, not the bug. Um so I appreciate that.

Great. So um the plan requires us to prioritize projects and corridors. And so what we did using the data we had is created three priority categories. The first priority is um those that have the highest impact on reducing fatal and serious injury crashes based on um the crash risk characteristics and the data. So what you'll find on this um in this prioritization uh with East Armor, Burlington, Shoto, Iron, and 16th Avenue being higher priority corridors in the community for reducing um risk, it doesn't necessarily mean that Yeah. Go ahead. Microphone.

Of the five, three are Moatt, correct? uh what kind of response are you getting from MODOT and the staffers to actually do something about this?

So, we did have an initial meeting with them to talk about potential countermeasures um that could be looked at. Some of them are really simple like retroreflective back plates on a on a light. So, essentially if you've been driving and you see the yellow line around the light, uh things like that they were receptive to. I think it's continued conversations with them because some of these things do require more commitment and more study from them and really working handinhand with them to improve safety and a lot of the recommendations of these plans and um approaches is always to look at what are some of those lowcost interventions and work your way up. So, one, what are the things we can do really quickly? So, like those retroreflective back plates or additional warning signs and then what are maybe some things that need to be done uh more longterm like changing the way an intersection completely functions or redesigning a roadway. So, I think there's opportunity to have continued conversations with MDOT. There may not always be agreement on what's going to be the right approach, but I think having those conversations and and coming to the table with them and them coming to the table is also an opportunity. Are they factoring any of this into their plans for widening the corridor, the I29

uh 35 corridor? We did not talk to them about I29 or I35. We only talked to them about Burlington and Armor, but they were talking about redesigning at that point. Okay. Intersections and Oh, like the interchange under Yeah, that was one thing we did bring up with them. It was a really initial conversation. So, um I think we can uh bring this also forward to them in our next meeting and just get it on their radar. Um you know, we haven't sent them a draft plan yet and so that's kind of the next step is sharing that draft plan with them and seeing what reactions they may have to it. Thank you.

Any comments on these priority one corridors? Does this seem about right when you're thinking about safety in the community? Uh it it does. I mean, Burlington clearly it's three lanes traffic each direction, extremely high traffic, especially with 169 out. Like Burlington feels like it's 1A plus. Uh it's it's the one that scares me most often when I drive on it. Um Shoto, I to be completely honest kind of forget that it's part of North Kansas City because it's so far out to the edge and it's only a small piece of Shoto. Um

yeah, it's I mean it is far out there on that uh that edge. Um it makes sense where how that's configured. Um East Armor surprises me a little bit. There's there's some a little bit of wonkiness with how the lanes merge and some of the intersections. Um iron from 21st to 12th. That one's not registering as as why it would be particularly risky. Uh and then 16th is major truck route. So yeah, that that adds up.

I think iron if I'd have to look back at the data exactly why it came up there. It may be more of a higher risk than a higher injury network one, but I think it also came up a lot in conversations we had during engagement. And so if we heard a lot from the community on it, we also pushed it up a little bit. So I think that might be why that one came up because we heard a lot about walking and biking in that area. It is like with the Iron District where it sits and the YMCA right off of it. Um it does involve more traffic that way.

All right, I'll uh move on to priority two corridors. So these uh show uh a risk for fatal and serious injury crashes, but it doesn't have as much crash history as those in priority one. Um so we're looking at 32nd, West Armor, Swift, and Howl. So there may just be more of a volume of crashes here, but they're not as many fatal or serious or um there may be characteristics that make them riskier, but not necessarily coming out in the data. So, uh, just interested in what you all think about these as, um, priority two corridors or if there's any concerns you have about about the way these are listed out.

The only one I've got is 32nd becoming a priority one as the the traffic substantially increases. Uh, like Sue is spot on. We're going to have 300 plus new friends living up the hill. uh and their only method to get out of that complex is either through northtown or taking the northern route, which is a little more complicated. Got that noted. And then um priority three. So these are all corridors that came up probably in the high-risk network or through conversations. Um they're not necessarily, you know, the biggest priority for improving safety. Uh they're probably also not the biggest projects minus uh one on tenth um for for uh in terms of how much it would cost. But uh you know we did want to make sure that these still made it in the plan. And the other thing about the prioritization, it's not necessarily like you have to do them in this order. It's more of just where the city could and should focus efforts to reduce risk um most significantly. So, um, you know, if opportunity arises to do something on on, uh, one of these priority three corridors, it doesn't necessarily mean that, uh, you you can't move forward with it.

Very good. These lists are super helpful for walk audits, too, so that they they can be focusing in and and knowing where the next things to look at. But when getting down to the street level is very helpful.

So, then, um, I'm going to move on to some example projects. Uh there's, you know, way more corridors on that list than we're going to show example projects for today. But um in working with Shu, these were the projects that we just wanted to go through with you all today. Um another member of our team was here uh not too long ago to talk about the uh 10th Avenue potential grade crossing separation. Um and so this is one that we've included in the plan really more to um provide more access to that area to increase safety. So if there are emergencies that there's more access for emergency vehicles um less uh less of there being a a blockage there. So um any questions about um a grade separation study in this area and like all plans recommendations don't necessarily mean you have to do the thing. It's more of just capturing it as an opportunity.

This is one we talked about at a previous meeting. uh the I just remember the numbers being very large to accomplish such a an above grade crossing over the tracks and then coordinating with both railroads. Um I don't remember where we landed but I don't think we wanted to move that forward at that time.

We at last time I remember Mr. um Thompson was here and presented that there could be potential interest from both railroad companies the Norfolk South uh Norfor Southern and then the um Burlington NSF. So, we do know there was a grant that covered by BNSF. The last time the chat was he will reach out to Northwork Southern see if they're interested as a partner. Um, and I do believe he did reach out to them and they did show potential interest and he also reached out to the county and that as far as I know that Klay County might also be a player in this potential partnership. uh we were waiting for him to u schedule maybe a have a cooperative opportunity for us to maybe have a meeting or something like that so we can further discuss about uh what's the cost look like and what's the share

go ahead. Yeah, as I remembered the estimates for the cost were north of $10 million. Yeah, it was it was in the it was it was very high. Yeah, it would be something that we'd be uh looking at how we can pull together a grant program that would help with that. um and and could potentially have benefits to that area. Yep.

Okay. Uh the other projects that are included on here uh in the what we were calling the avenues neighborhood. So looking at ways to move move cars um and people around the high school more. So that could include um some uh changes to pickup and drop off specifically on Howl. Um looking at potentially some peanut roundabouts down there to move vehicles. Um I know peanut roundabouts like my new favorite term. Um and then uh just looking at different ways that you're moving vehicles there to slow folks down and uh reduce risk especially for high school students.

So this one um I I had not seen the study and and Shu can verify. I've I've talked about this uh the middle picture, this plaza in front of the school that would close off Howell, still possibly allowing buses to enter that area with some ballards and then diverting traffic down Iron because it is a duplicated route. Kind of a a case where this is wonky because the city sits on two kind of offset grids. Um the the peanuts I I would have to really be sold on that. those the one up on Waccomus is already very hard to deal with.

It would definitely need more study to determine if it could be implemented further, but is more of just kind of an idea of some way you could move traffic. I I appreciate ideas. Uh that one's going tough to get get on board with, but like closing off and making a pedestrian plaza there, at least for like the school, we we floated it out to the school district and they seem to be interested as well. I don't want to put words in their mouth, but they weren't immediately opposed to it. um and giving those students some space to move around perhaps on tailgates and and football games, creating a space that's safe uh for them and for drop off and pickup. Any other comments or thoughts on this one?

Um East Armor Route 210. So, one of the things that came up in the data, and I'm sure you all remember, is that there's been a lot of crashes at Walker and um 210. And so, looking at some uh potential interventions to reduce those crashes, it's potentially been reduced since Cerner is no longer there, but thinking about if there's another business to go in there or something, you want to make sure that we've uh increased safety there. Um so, that's one of those places where you could do retroreflective back plates. So, a lot of the crashes that have happened here have to do with red light running. So, how can we make sure people are noticing those red lights slowing down um and uh stopping? Another thing could be an advanced warning system. So, like if when you're driving on 71 and you see the lights telling you that there's a red light coming up, that's uh one of those interventions that's fairly simple, but could let folks know that um hey, you need to be thinking about stopping, you need to be slowing down. Um and then finally, uh alternative intersection designs. There's a number of different potential ways. Um we we'll list some in the plan, but really it would need to be a study looking at what's the most appropriate design for this intersection. And then um the interchange so uh looking at ways that vehicles are coming on and off of that ramp. Uh that's something definitely would involve MDOT. Um but working with them on the potential for that study. And then bike ped accommodations. There was a pedestrian fatality in this area. there are not uh uh places to walk or bike safely. And so uh maybe using a shared use path as an opportunity to get folks um uh safely in that area when they're walking or biking. And then that could also connect to Shoto.

Yeah, we've looked extensively at getting bike pedestrian accommodations under these I 2935 and it's complicated. Yeah. by the ramps and so forth. And until we can sort of combine the I2935 interchange study with the bike and pet accommodations, we're sort of styied.

Yeah, I I think on the graphic too, we were maybe showing it connecting to Diamond Parkway if I remember correctly. I'll have to zoom in on it when I get back to the office. Um, but maybe looking at a way to avoid that interchange. That being said, when you're walking or biking, you're usually trying to take the shortest path. you're not trying to add extra energy to your um to your trip. So, um that's definitely something. It's a highly dangerous intersection for pedestrians or bicycles or even cars.

The Diamond Parkway option has been discussed quite often as well and there's a lot of MDOT right ofway along the edge and and with the potential for widening the the corridor, they've kind of balked at anything going on either side of the highway or underneath. So, it it's very challenging. Question to you. Um the the interchange of 29 is infinitely frustrating because in either direction you have to turn right to go the opposite direction. So like your on-ramp is a loop. And I see so many crazy maneuvers where people don't realize that they're about to miss the turn. Is this a safer configuration or is this just some crazy nonsense that somebody came up with once upon a time? I'm guessing that a lot of that I'm I'm looking at Josh because he might know more on this than I do, but I'm guessing it's a constraint of space of them trying to fit everything into one spot.

So, yeah, it's spatial constraints. You also have a lot of um southbound traffic getting on. Um so, that right hand, you know, having a left turn phase in a traditional diamond interchange makes that very difficult and operationally challenging. So, they're trying to save people time at that intersection. So, you're not stopping. So, you're not stopping. However, there are all there are two or three alternative intersection designs that we've done quick studies on that we've put together that might they'll obviously need future study coordination with MODOT and that sort of thing, but they handle the operations and that's what MODO will want to see and they would be much safer and much more predictable if you've heard of a the diverging diamond. Yeah.

Um or displaced left Liberty, Missouri on 152 is slightly different interchange option. Um both of those could work and they could accommodate a shared use path. Go ahead. since you've been talking to Moad about that interchange and at one point the widening was going forward and the project was moving forward but in the last year or two they've seemed to put it on the back burner. Have you heard anything else about a new timetable? We'd have to talk to MDOT about that directly. Um they'd be the best source of it. I know every DOT is dealing with an increase in costs and having to kind of reprogram uh their funding based on that and so that but I wouldn't want to speak for them. Um,

I just wonder if you if if you've had conversations about that that you might enlighten. I think in our follow-up with MDOT, we'd like to talk about this interchange in particular and their their future plans and what could be accommodated. Be very useful to know from MDOT because they're waiting on some general assembly appropriations too for even stuff further up the 29 corridor. It splits with 35. And I I have no idea where they're at on this, but we haven't heard much just to stop all things North Kansas City planning until they let us know. So it puts us in a pretty frustrating spot.

Um so uh I guess that was a preview earlier in the the comments, but one of the uh recommendations just minor the three-legged intersection with two stop signs is confusing and so making that um more predictable. adding a stop sign there is a very simple intervention um doesn't necessarily solve all the problems but is something that could be done to make sure that everyone is able to predict what the other person is doing. Um you know the recommendation of a shared use path along how could be something that is paired with a road diet. Um and then reconfiguring parking could be another way to narrow in uh that street.

So question on that. Um, the third stop sign I think is imperative and I I talked to Anthony and Shu about that this past week actually. Um, especially because we have a plan to add a uh a path a bike path through Mac and Park that will exit right about that stop sign. And so if people aren't stopping already, like it's just it's chaotic at that intersection. And if we're going to introduce bikes into that, um because there is now a trail being built north of the levy on the new apartment property, the ascent trail that will take you over to Cherry and then over to North Oak. Um if we're encouraging that, we need the stop sign. Like I don't know what it's going to take councilwise to move that ahead. Um but I I have not heard a single person against putting that in.

Yeah. Since the change is coming with traffic and it's changing the use that people have had at that intersection, a simple stop sign might not be enough. Maybe one with flashing lights, something else that I've seen in other parts of the metro area. Yep. Actually get their attention and get them to actually respond. Yeah.

Yeah. I think that's something that could be explored. So, are you also suggesting um so we did a road diet on Howell with bumpouts and mid uh block there's stop like stop for pedestrian signs. We squeezed it in as tight as we can but people still tend to drive as fast as they want even though that is one of the most pedestrianheavy areas with the park right there. Are you are you saying that we should do more uh for the road diet there at Howell? And if so, do you have specifics? I don't have specifics right now, but that's something we can look at in the plan and and provide. Council member Bailey,

what would it actually take for us to add the stop sign? Does that is that a council action? What do we actually need to do to execute that? I don't think that's a council action. I think we can actually do that. I think we would want to have a little bit of a design done to understand where the stop bar should be for intersection sight distance. Um, and then maybe some contemplation about the oncoming traffic, I think there's some signs that actually have to go away. Um, but I do I do actually think council member Saper was saying with flashing lights, there's different configured. So, um, I think we should go all out with it personally, but yeah, that's something we could probably implement. I'm looking at Kevin. He's looking at me.

Well, what's what's up? Okay. in the code, the public works director and the chief of police have a lot to do with the signage. So, like ours to be on the same page, but um signage is no problem. It's easy, but enforcability is where we come into play and making sure that there is an ordinance backing the enforcability of that stop sign. That's all. So, I don't I don't think we have an more of a question for councelor uh Mr. RZ obviously, but uh I think I know when we've changed configurations of roadways in the past, Oxville construction being one of them, when that went from single direction to two-way and back and forth while that construction was going on. We did that by ordinance. So if we made sure if someone was violating the roadway there, there would be an enforcability component to it and not just putting signage up or repainting or restriping or anything like that. So um yeah, not not as simple as just like let's study it and put a sign up. I seem to remember the ordinance being necessary because that was temporary because that was only going to be for a short period of time in front of the oxbow when we went one direction with it to add the to keep the parking or something like that. It

it could be um and and anony's right. There's there's stipulations in code that give the public works director the authority to place signages when needed. Yeah. But we just want to make sure that we're we have the enforcability side of it as well. Sure. I mean, is there something we would need to add to enforce a stop sign? Seems like that would just be you put the stop sign in and if somebody runs it, you give them a ticket. We'll verify. Okay. Like I think Kevin was right. We'll get with uh uh Mr. Barzy and just to verify that that everything's in place to

and the sighteline study is that's very fair. Um I just would like to see it fasttracked. I know that you got 200 300 things on your list, but I'd move this one up to priority one A or B. Council member Alvarez. Yeah. At that particular intersection, um, if you're going north on homes, I think the biggest problem that we had is if you're turning left, we're going west on 32nd Avenue from northbound homes, crossing over, like when I don't know if there's anything that can be added. Um, because I think that's the most traffic is they don't continue to go north on homes. They they turn. Yeah, that's where we'd add the stop sign. Yeah.

So, the the one on the right side of the picture would be the new ad. Okay. I think it I think it's still a little confusing like whose turn here, you know what I mean? I don't know. Maybe I don't know if there's more that could be I don't know. Maybe just a stop sign would be enough.

As it sits right now, there is no stop sign there. So, people coming north are just going through. They go through or they turn. and it seems, at least in my experience, people sitting at the levey waiting to go or ready to turn from uh like if they're trying to go north from 32nd, it's unclear to them that there's not a stop sign there. So, I've seen some almost misses there quite a few times and as we get new friends coming in, this is going to become more imperative. That's why I'd say like let's fast track it as much as we can. Go ahead.

Uh one last uh slide with projects. So um some of these are just implementing things that have already been identified in some studies. So a shared use cycle track on swift along swifts. So that could be an alternative to Burlington. Um you know depending on mod uh traffic calming in this general area. So um looking at curb extensions, high visibility crosswalks, leading pedestrian intervals, etc. uh in some specific areas looking at no parking on sidewalk signage to uh encourage people to not park on valuable pedestrian infrastructure and then um also looking at bike lanes on iron and howl. So with that um tonight uh we're we're presenting to you all we're continuing to uh develop the final comprehensive safety action plan. Uh there's a public openhouse and task force meeting that we've combined for the March 10th meeting that'll be in this location. Um and then we'll be uh bringing the um final plan to you all for consideration and adoption um at the uh at sometime in March. So um having a council support for the plan as part of the grant requirements. And so, um, we've been working with SHU on some ordinance or resolutions to, um, meet that requirement as well.

One, one further question for you. Um, I've talked with the chief of police a number of times along Armor where the bike infrastructure has been added. Um, basically from here down to Mon, I guess, or Ozark. Um, pedestrians cross wherever they want at the like we've got lots of crosswalks. We've added crosswalks. We put midblock crossings in. people still literally cross wherever they see fit. Is there a way to stop them from doing that or to help encourage like short of adding a crosswalk every 10 feet just walk across? I mean, I think that having having crosswalks, well marked crosswalks to encourage people to go to the right spot, but rapid rectangular flashing beacons. Uh I mean, it is it's frogger on armor quite often. You're just driving through the dark road and people

run out in front of you. Is I'm hoping for ways to stop that from happening, but it seems like that's just a person problem, not a a built. A lot of this is figuring out the psychology of why people make the decisions they do when it comes to transportation safety. And so, you know, I think making sure that there are well-marked crosswalks, that there are signage, that there's those sorts of things to really encourage people to do it. Um, but just like anything, like you could completely road diet a road and someone still might go 60 miles an hour down it. like you can't always fix uh bad behavior, but you can really fix a lot of it through design and through intervention. Um you could always

I say police probably don't want to go out there and like ticket people target enforcement. Yeah, because you know a lot of times Yeah, I would say no. Most people don't want to do that. Nothing like a good job. I don't know if it's really I don't think it's actually really that effective either. Um I think it just ruins people's days, but they're still going to be like, no one's coming. I'm going to run across the street, right? Yeah. Thank you. Any further thoughts, questions, comments from the city council? All right. Anything from Anthony or Shu? Anything you need from us on this one? We hope you will be there on March the 10th. March 10th. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Item 11. Community meal budget amount discussion.

All right, I'll take this one. Um, so this is something that I I've been kind of dreaming about for a while. When I ran for mayor, I talked about building community uh transparency and civic engagement. This kind of ties all three of those together. And the idea is to have a meal with the community that is an open invite. And it's not this isn't to be clear like this isn't a way to like it's not a food bank style thing. This is a bring people in and break bread together, building community, having conversation over a shared meal. Uh and so I've talked to the uh school district um their facilities team and Dr. Jones at the high school. They will make the cafeteria at the high school available to us. Um it's 400 people capacity. They've also been willing to make the kitchen available, which is a risky move on their part, but uh if if we want to cook there, um we've also talked or we've sent out an informal request to various restaurants and caterers around town to see what the pricing would look like for this. The school district also offered a catering option that starts around $16 a person. And so the idea here would be to set up the meal, put out an open invite. anyone who lives in North Kansas City or works in North Kansas City, right, or works for North Kansas City would be invited. Uh, and then use a pay what you can model. Uh, again, open to options on that so that there's not the barrier. If somebody can't afford to be there, I don't want them not to come. Uh, and so that's why I'm asking for a budget allocation of between5 and $6,000 to make this happen. Um, and that would be, to be clear, the max we would spend. I I anticipate with the pay what you can model, some will pay more, some will pay less. Um I'm happy to kick in some money as well personally. Um but I want to get the community together uh and start this building community uh have have a chance to make some remarks to get people a shared set of facts and have people just

meet folks that they didn't know. The number one thing I heard as I was knocking on doors is I don't know my neighbors. I haven't had an opportunity to meet them. I I don't know how to meet them. So, we've done block parties. I think this is another opportunity for something like that. Council member Saber,

I've thought about this since you first talked about it, and I think it's a great idea. However, doing it in an enclosed area like the school cafeteria seems less open and friendly to gather and smoo and talk to people than if we did it at, let's say, Macken Park. And with the warmer, it's going to take some time to plan this anyway. And in a couple of months, we can reliably count on some warm, decent weather. Sure. And that seems like possibly I don't know if it might be as expensive or even more expensive, but the setting seems more conducive to convivial interactions between people who may or may not know each other.

Sure. And I think it can be both. And um they're they're offering the facility. They're not we're not renting it from them. They're offering it. they're offering.

Um the other part is uh wild that you would call Missouri weather reliable in any sense. Um the real worry is you plan this out months in advance and then you catch a really rainy day uh and then it just falls apart. Um part of it is at least for a first go having some size constraints so that you know we know where we're capping capping it at 400. Um put out a an event bright. It's free tickets and so we know what the capacity is. It's also novelty. a lot of people haven't been inside the high school to see um that that you know you're coming into a new space, you're going to meet new people, you're primed for that sort of interaction. Uh and it also is conducive to like having the opportunity to speak to everybody at Mack and it's a little hard to harder to accomplish that. So, it's all about like it's the goals of the interaction and I've also workshopped at least with the school districts. It's like are we going to force people to sit with people they don't know? I asked Lindsay about this. She said no, absolutely not. I will not come if that's the case. Um Frank won't come. That's right. Sorry, Frank, if you're somewhere. Um, so it's figuring out how we make those interactions genuine, how we make them happen. And so I'm I'm working through some of that and and what other rules or options do we overlay? Council member Bailey mentioned, uh, do we put phone rules on it? You got to keep your phone in your pocket. If we see it out, we're going to call you out. That sort of thing. So that we're genuinely interacting with the people in front of us. I just think there's a lot of good that comes from breaking B. It's it's very hard to argue over a plate of spaghetti, right? So that's the genesis of this. And so I'm asking right now to put forth just some money aside so that we can start this planning process. Any thoughts or questions on that? Go ahead.

Um so I agree with Mayor Smith about how this would be a really beneficial thing for the community. I also was there when we were talking to the school board about it and they uh they were really excited to get people to kind of you know be in you know be be more of a a connected group of people and be and I I personally think having it in the high school is uh a really good way for people who live here to see one of the most foundational buildings in the in the city uh and really show it off and so that they can kind of feel more connected to it than they than they already do. Um, I'm uh absolutely fine with doing a budget aotment of $6,000. And I also would want us to see if we couldn't find uh so a local community uh organization to potentially donate the unused food to because that kind of event could end up with a lot of waste and we don't want to do that.

Absolutely. Um excellent points. Um also as part of this like I I would like this to become kind of a regular rhythm so it's not just a one-off. um we can we can reliably have it two times a year, four times a year, whatever we're able to sustain and to get it to the point where it sustains itself. So finding a way as that's part of the RFP for catering. Um can we get the cost down while maintaining health? Obviously we meet health codes. We got to sign agreements for the kitchen and make sure that we're doing all that right. Bringing in local businesses to sponsor, per se. Uh they could they could toss some money in to make sure that this is uh is doable. Um, so looking at the cost side, looking at the expense side, doing a pay as you go model, I think there's a way to make this a really sustainable model going forward and something that people could genuinely be excited about.

Go ahead. Yeah, I I support it completely. It's just the option of of a different location, but then again, we're not restricted to only a one-time event. Correct. Go ahead. Yeah, one other thing was that I know that um a lot of cities and states are as part of the America 250 program are participating in something called the Great American Potlook. And so that could be something that we might look at to do during the summer at Mac and Park. And I there's there's websites and um resources out there on the America 250 website that talk about how to set this up in a community.

Love it. Love it. I have not heard about the great American potluck, but that sounds exciting. Uh the other part uh and I would encourage as we're kind of leaning into something like this, there's a book called The Art of Gathering that is great about how to set these sorts of events up where they feel unique. You you set a a a goal for it. you have a purpose and and you start modeling the event around that. Like if our purpose is to get neighbors interacting with each other, meeting people they don't know, forming weak and strong ties to the community. Um this book is kind of a guide on how to do that. So the art of gathering, I'd highly The art of gathering, I'd highly recommend it. Um what other thoughts, questions?

Um I'm all for it. I think it sounds great. Similar to Tony's point, I think there is there's a great benefit of having it at the high school, but I think there's also benefit to having it outside too where people can just like roam by. Um, so depending on how this goes, which I sounds like it'll go great. Um, yeah, maybe try like the next event do something outside just so people who wander by or drive by can can stop too and um because people could drive by the high school, see something's going on and just assume they're not invited.

Sure. The tricky part will be we have to if we're having food provided, if we're catering food, we have to put a stop. Yeah. We have to have pre-registration. So the wanderby could be great for the potluck, right? Like if we're having a potluck meal. So different styles. And for the warmer months, absolutely. We big blowout Mac and Park picnic fest 2026, right? Um come sweat it out with your neighbors. Um good. All right. Uh, any opposition to allocating $6,000 for this one? Uh, do we need a motion? Just kind of a general thumbs up, thumbs down. Okay,

put thumbs up. Um, just let you know, quotes are due back uh tomorrow. Tomorrow by the end of the day tomorrow. So, after that, then we should have an idea of and we're going to go uh is it Thursday morning? Going to go walk the high school with uh Dr. Jones and correct

the other staff member helping out planning. So getting a feel for the logistics what they'll need from us. So if we go with the school district catering option at $16 ahead they do all the they bring the food they clean it up they make they flip the space. If we bring in our own cater we may save some money but then we would need volunteers to mobilize for that which I think there'd be volunteers for. Um otherwise the rest of us are sticking around to clean up. So uh find some volunteers. Okay. Uh so generally approved. Uh, any other thoughts or questions? Go ahead, Council Member Alvarez. Just one question. I guess you really won't know how many people show up. I mean, it's not like an invitation. They respond. It's Or is it? It is. It is. Okay.

So, it would be um pumped out in every different way we can communicate. And there would be a link to I'm picturing an event bright style registration where you can set the max capacity at 400. The ticket registration is $0 plus an option to pay what you can and then there'll be another at the door where if we don't hit capacity, people could come in and and until we hit that point. Um but the idea is that we we can give the caterer or whoever we end up choosing. That's how many people we're going to have, how many adults, how many kids, all that kind of stuff. So they will respond then you will have Sure. Hope so.

Okay. Okay. I've learned that it's hard to get people to do things sometimes and uh so this is going to be all hands on deck getting people um we we'll start with our you know boards and committees and ad hoc committees and getting those people who are already shown to be um in it. All right, you're all registered now. Go forth and tell your neighbors. Invite invite friends. Let's go. All right, go ahead. Is there a limit to um number of people per family? No. No, no. Fill I Let's fill it up. It's It's 400 max capacity. Okay. All right. Moving on to item 12.

Consideration of an ordinance amending Cact 2.50.140 term of office quorum bill number 7968, ordinance number 9765. All right, this is this should be an easy one. Um, when we moved from the EIC to the CAC, we miscopied one of the terms. Uh we had a quorum uh four for EIC. Seak was supposed to have the exact same rules and and everything and we accidentally made it five. So they have not been able to meet for the last couple of months. Go ahead. Only once because of four people. Okay. Because of this previous month they didn't have enough.

Yeah. So quorum uh we we set it at four. Uh this is just a an ordinance to tidy that up so that four people compose a quorum. With that said, we still have a lot of seats to fill. Uh, how many seats are there's five vacant. So, the four current members have shown up and not been able to hold an official meeting for business. They had an informal meeting. They sat around a table, got a lot done, um, but not not a formal meeting and no policy decisions being made. Um, and so we we need to get that buttoned up. So, this is just an ordinance to clean it up. Pro second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. Any opposed? Motion passes.

An ordinance amending section 2.50.140 term of office quorum of the code of the city of North Kansas City, Missouri by amending the required number of members to to constitute a quorum. Apologies, Cak. I move that bill number 7968 be placed on second and final reading and passes ordinance number 9765. Second. Call the role. Council member Clark. Yes. Council member Selenus. Yes. Council member Click. Yes. Council member Saber. Yes. Council member Bailey. Yes. Council member Mcgro. Yes. Council member Alvarez. Yes.

An ordinance amending section 2.50.140 term of office quorum of the code of the city of North Kansas City, Missouri by amending the required number of members to constitute a quorum. Item 13, consideration of an ordinance approving accounts due payable by the city through February 13, 2026. Bill number 7969, ordinance number 9766. First reading. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. Opposed? Motion passes. An ordinance authorizing payment for certain accounts due payable by the city through February 13, 2026.

I move that bill number 7969 to be placed on second and final reading and passes as ordinance number 9766. Second. Call the role. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Selenas, yes. Council member Click, yes. Council member Saper, yes. Council member Bailey, yes. Council member Mcron, yes. Council member Alvarez, yes. An ordinance authorizing payment for certain accounts due and payable by the city through February 13, 2026. Staff comments. What do we got?

All right, we've got department reports tonight. Um, also in there is the wise monthly uh the membership subsidy down just a little bit. A little bit but but down. We fell below 11,000. Uh, and then Kim has comment. We'll probably start with Kim and then go to Nick.

Evening mayor and councel. I thought I'd just give an update on two quick things. Um, for the Klay County 250 citizenship challenge, uh, we will be actually weaving in a lot of those requirements in the next two citizenmies. This way participants kind of get a little bit of a leg up, uh, and get our numbers up. So, um, just a quick note that that's one of the one of the things that we'll be doing. We'll also be doing some marketing for this particular event. Again, we're kind of hoping that North Kansas City can take home the soontobe design trophy um for percentage. I'm going to design and I'm going to 3D print that sucker. So, I'm not planning on that uh trophy going very far from us. Uh number two is FIFA. Uh just a quick note that uh JD and Megan from Go North KC, we are the featured speakers for the next Thursday's North Kansas City Business Council. And with that, we're going to be visiting businesses that are kind of in that street festival area this week. We're hoping to visit with them monthly to make sure that the businesses, especially in that area, really understand what is happening. So, we're doing both digital, but we're also doing more boots on the ground walking and doing leave behinds with those businesses so that they really kind of understand what uh the street festival is going to be and what they can and cannot do per FIFA. So, that's it for me.

Good evening, mayor, members of the council. Uh so, for finance, uh one of the big things that we are doing right now, we've mostly wrapped up with the audit. um we've presented everything to them, so they're going through preparing financial statements for us um and any additional questions that they might have. Um but when we adopted the uh financial policies last October, um one of the things that me and Mike have been working on is also an update to our PECARD program. Um one thing that will um affect you or you'll see in your inboxes tomorrow most likely is we are linking everyone's card to their individual email account. Um, and we hope by the summer that we will be able to have a mandatory uploading of receipts to those cards so we can move that process along quicker. Doesn't mean that you individually will have to do that. We will have department representatives that may do that for, you know, for council members or um, you know, for certain employees that don't really log in all that much. So, it's everyone's favorite kind of two-factor authentication um, in order to log in, which is the most secure, but it's also kind of a a hassle, too. So, for some people, nothing may change at all, but um if you want to do that process for yourself, um you will be able to do that um starting tomorrow. That's all.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The police department's report tonight is not much different than the last uh year that we've been doing this. Um as far as the chart goes, trespassings are still leading the charge of the types of calls for service that we're going on. Not necessarily that means that we're taking that many arrest or reports for trespassing because like we talked about when when the police show up generally most people realize that the business owner or resident meant it that they wanted them to leave. Um so if you look down the chart it's just interesting for me to note that looking at trespassing at 107 the next real criminal offense that's on there is lararseny and it's 27. You see the disparity in the number of l trespassing calls we get to the next highest criminal complaint that we get. disturbance could be in there. There could be some assaults involved in disturbances and stuff like that. But it's just interesting. It's a struggle that we're dealing with on a daily basis. Uh sometimes the same person multiple times a day. Sometimes they get out of jail and sometimes they go right back to where they were at and get arrested again. Happens very often. We do hope that the the ability to house people again at Klay County once the commission approves the agreement that you guys approved last meeting will help with that. We also hope that hope that the uh the the free ATA transportation issue gets solved and um helps mitigate that as well. The other thing in there, just a note, if you haven't read the report, I encourage you to do so under the animal control uh section, a nice feel-good story about one of the adopes from the shelter, Tyler, submitted by now owner, Randy. So, don't need to read it. Don't need to cry here in front of everybody. So, read it on your own time when you when you feel up to it. Thank you. Very good.

Sorry. Good evening, mayor and council. Um, a few comments tonight. So, the first one is uh posted on the city's website under the public works department is uh the update uh notice for our MS4, which is the municipal separate storm sewer systems permit through MDNR for operating our storm water system. Um, it's a 5-year permit. It was issued in 2021. 2026 is going to be the renewal period. So, the new permit is posted on the website, the draft permit from MDNR. It's up there for review and for comment. We encourage people to go to the website and uh leave a comment there so we can collect those for uh the period in September when we will actually be renewing the the permit. Um another thing, uh unfortunately, we did have a notice of violation for the water treatment plant. There was a late uh lab sample sent in. So that is something we do at the publicly notice. The sample came back fine. The water the test was fine. It's just that the sample was sent in late. So we have an ov. It's been posted out front. It's going to be posted to the website. Just kind of wanted to have give a heads up of what that is before it's out there. Um on a better note, we have um a couple people going through in our on our crew, Braden Beamer and Spencer Ship. They're going through a uh arborist training certification. So we will actually have internal arborist on our crews. Um so hoping to move a lot of that work in house um and for our review of our tree program. Um also advertised right now the due date is April 15th for tax day uh the streetscape beautifification grant. So businesses who are interested in applying for um uh money for their um rightaway out front of their business for beautifification for um maybe um we encourage storm water green infrastructure solutions but also plants and just any kind of beautifification is is part of the goal. So, uh, please go to our website and look for that. And then, uh, one other good note are, um, we did apply for the YMCA boiler spire rebate. Uh, Council

Member Amy Clark had encouraged us to do so and we did get approved for that. Not sure exactly how much money we're getting yet, but uh, they haven't sent us that, but we did get approved. So, all right. Free money. Go ahead. Question. In terms of trees, some of them didn't make it. Are we are they under any kind of warranty? Are they going to be replanted? They are under a warranty. We do look for those. Um if you see one, please send them to us cuz they can be missed. But the new ones, we planted 37 trees this fall planting session. Um and then yeah, they usually gosh, I can't remember if it's a one or two-year warranty. I think it's two years actually. Um so if you notice one, please let us know. But we also there are several I noticed along 21st.

On 21st. Okay. Yeah, we will check it out. Yeah. Sorry, illprepared today. But I will leave you with something. Um, some exciting news. We should be doing final inspections on our new ambulance in March. And it looks like probably going to be doing final inspections on new pumper truck. So, it won't be long. We'll be getting some new apparatuses. Nice. Very good. Everybody see how quick that went? That's how that's how that's how we do it right there. That's a lot of pressure. That's how That's how we do it.

Go ahead. I don't have anything else for you. I already took a lot of your time today. You know where to find me when you have questions. Oh, very good. Very good. You got anything to point at? Any highlights? We got uh Northtown 2040 starting out, right? You can't skip past that, right? I was waiting for you to ask that question. Go ahead. Go ahead.

No, we had um a nail down on the name for our master plan. It's going to be called Northtown 20 240. The logo has already been designed. The color scheme has been nailed down. It went through planning commission. There's a lot of engagement on just talking about the branding part of itself, which is always exciting and also very arbitrary. So, moving forward, we're going to have a kickoff video and from the mayor and to be released. And right now, we're working on an overall public engagement plan with the consulting firm. Uh, so stay tuned. We're going to have pop-up events here very soon when spring comes.

Very good. Any other staff comments? No. No. All right. Good. Uh, council member comments starting with council member Clark.

Okay. Typed it out so I won't run on. Uh, spire rebate. I hope it's fruitful. And way to go, Sarah Shekeles, who is handling that application, I believe. Um, wait, where is my Yes, happy Black History Month continued. And happy Marty Girl. Uh, Parksport Update weighing They're weighing out huddle cam considerations leading to a live stream of local school games. Um, there's also a call for art and artists in the coming weeks. Uh they are going to request designs bench designs uh for uh Macken Park, the pollinator area and river forest park um to include designs of Acadia I think times two and Everglades. So uh local community members throw in your designs. Um Tuesday, March 3rd will be my final council meeting. This is a bittersweet moment for me as I have felt such a great sense of community in my 10 years in North Kansas City. In the past year, circumstances have arisen that require our family to move to Casey Mo proper. George, thanks for setting that up tonight. Um, I'm proud of the work we've done during the time I've served on the council. I take particular pride in the dream of Riverforest Park coming to fruition. And Kim, of course, thank you for so much of that effort uh that you continue to put into that. I hope that my neighbors feel I have listened and served them well. I am honored to have been Wfor's voice for the past six years. To my current uh and previous fellow council members, I've enjoyed my time working with you and have grown as a result of our continual sharing of varied life experiences and insights. We are living in a time when speaking up against injustice in in humanity is deemed political. I have a deep respect for this council and greater community as I feel our collective voices speak to a desire for all of us to feel safe pursuing a meaningful life here in North Kansas City.

Council member Selenus. Wow. Um thank you Amy for everything you've done for, you know, for the city and for our neighborhood. You've just been amazing. we're going to miss you. Um, thank you for um, Kim. Congratulations. Um, and if you want to get involved in that citizens challenge, it's cllaycounty250.org. And, um, just enjoy the rest of your fat Tuesday. Council member Click.

Um, Amy, I didn't know that, so I'm sad to hear, but also exciting next step in life, but you will be missed greatly. Um, I didn't have a ton else to say besides that. I'm excited about the um the 250 just getting more involved. I'm always excited to hear opportunities and hopefully um more people will jump on and um I guess win the trophy. Yeah. Yeah. Let's win the trophy. That's all. Council member Saber.

Amy, I remember when you were appointed and I voted for you then to be on the your council seat. And I want to say I've never regretted that we've disagreed, but we've done it well.

Thank you, Council Member Bailey. Um, sincere thanks to um, Councilwoman uh, Clark. Thank you. Um, thought we had a lot of good topics today. It was cool to learn about one of our industrials. You know, every time I go and look at a water tower, I go, "Oh, hey, I know where that came from." Uh, it's a it's a mild joy of mine. Uh, also, this is a a venue where we talk about the problems that happen, big and small. So, getting to talk about our streets and what that looks like and, you know, bringing up, hey, yeah, 32nd is going to be an issue. So, other than that, thank you for members who speak out about those things and bring it to our attention. Your voice is uh valued and we take that into account. Thank you. Council member Mcgrron.

Um, so Amy, thank you so much for your service and commitment to our community. I I know I will miss you and I know everyone else here uh on council and and in our community will too. So good luck and don't don't be a stranger. Okay. Uh the other thing that I wanted to mention is um that today is the start of Ramadan and I always forget that uh it's a time when our Muslim friends fast and don't drink or eat from sun up to sundown. And so just be aware if you're planning events or celebrations um that you might have people in those events that uh can't participate. And so it's just I especially like if you've got students or or or kids in your classes or or friends of your your uh your children, just be thoughtful of them because it's a it's a time that is a little bit misunderstood for some people. Council member Alvarez is just want to repeat congratulations to Kim on the um citizen challenge for the Klay County 250. Um also I want to thank Sue Wilson that came out to talk about the traffic on 32nd Avenue. Um encourage everybody if you have something that you see in the neighborhood, you think it needs attention, um you need to come in and and talk to us about it. So, I appreciate her coming in and her concerns and concerns for the people um traveling on 32nd. Make sure everyone's safe, especially if you're going to and from the dog park. So, anyway, um also u George Slutter, thank you for a positive comment tonight. That's all I'm going to say about that. Uh also, uh thank you for the study. Uh, and to Amy, you will be missed. Um, although it maybe not everyone on the K council agrees on everything, I think you speak from your heart on any topic

that you do talk about and you want the best for people and that's where it comes from. So, I appreciate that and you will be missed. So,

all right, back around to me. Uh, a couple announcements. It's a town hall meeting one week from tonight at the parks and recck building the 24th at 6 p.m. Come with your questions, your thoughts, and your ideas. Um, community meal. We're going to be really leaning into the planning process. So, watch out for an invite. That will be a communitywide invite. I'm hoping that it'll go fast. So, jump in there and get those tickets when they come up. Um on the 27th we will be uh Mike and Kim and I will be meeting with leaders of our five sister or at the five cities the four sister cities in the northland. We get we're trying to get together on a regular basis to have lunch. So if you have thoughts or questions you're watching the meeting thoughts or questions from the leaders of Liberty, Gladstone, Parkville or Riverside, bring them your bring them my way and we'll be happy to convey those. Um new appointments. So very excited to have Lindseay May on the planning commission and Tim Lock on the TIFF commission. I understand there's some community questions about Tim being on the planning or on the tiff commission. He is a development attorney who very deeply understands these sorts of uh tiff related issues. But to quell any concerns, he will recuse himself from anything related to his firm. If his firm's involved at all, the bylaws at his firm and on the tiff commission, he will be recusing from any of those. So there's no conflict of interest happening there. But he is an absolute foremost expert on this kind of stuff and we're fortunate to have somebody like that volunteer their time. Um klayount250.org if you want to do the citizen challenge. I highly recommend it. Uh just going back and reading the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. It's a good reminder uh what we've been missing in uh in some of our rhetoric recently. Amy, uh goodness, it's been seven good years. It's been Six and change. Yeah. We we'll round up. Uh it's been fun and I really I appreciate all you've brought to the

table and thank you. As you said, Riverforce Park, we're going to have you back to cut that ribbon. You are holding the scissors. No matter where you live, you're you're going to cut it. Uh and we we will look forward to having you there. But thank you for all you've done. It's it's been excellent working with you. Um, this is also, uh, so Connor mentioned, council member Fisher mentioned at the last meeting that the third will also be his final meeting. So, we will have new candidates on that agenda to approve to backfill those seats. We'll also likely have some resolutions and maybe some cupcakes. Good. Uh, so if you're a member of the community wishing to have cupcakes, please join us. Um, but those candidates, I've I've already spoken with them. I'm trying not to have seats sit open for any length of time like we've had in the past. Um, so, uh, candidate for Ward three that will be up for council consideration is Dylan Kaine. Dylan is here with us tonight. has been at at most of our meetings, also chairs the bike and pedestrian advisory committee and is someone who I have really been impressed with how he engages uh how he stands up for what he believes in, does thorough research on any issue, uh down to the alignment of intersections and and really brings forth uh we had lunch together and and he brought an agenda for lunch. So like that was that's who that's who we're I'm putting forth. Uh and then for ward four, uh Cynthia Larson, who has raised her hand to run for that seat, uh in the April election, uh she's a member of the parks board. She's also on the parks foundation and the North Kansas City School District Foundation. Uh and also, I think somebody who will do an excellent job. So, those will be the candidates that you'll see on the next agenda for W three and four. That is all from me. Moving on to item 17.

Consideration of a request to hold in recess into an executive session is requested by the city administrator to be held on this date pursuant to Missouri revised statute section 610.0212 real estate matters. Real estate. Real estate. Do we have a motion? So move. Second. Call the role. Council member Clark. Yes. Council member Selenus. Yes. Council member Click. Yes. Council member Saper, yes. Council member Bailey, yes. Council member Mcgrron, yes. Council member Alvarez, yes.

All right. Uh, and that brings us to the live stream cutting off. Live streaming channel two are going to cut off. There will be no further votes or business this evening. Thank you for tuning in.