The Gardner City Council approved a resolution August 5 for the issuance of revenue bonds by the city of Olathe to finance facilities located within Gardner’s corporate limits. According to Mathew Wollf, finance director, Olathe Medical Center, the leading healthcare provider in Southwest Johnson County, has asked the neighboring city of Olathe to issue revenue bonds to finance healthcare facilities in the region. One of the facilities, a clinic, will be located on 189th Terrace in Gardner. State and federal law require that the city of Gardner approve issuance of the bonds since part of the project will be within its [...]

A water line dispute between neighbors in Wellsville, Kan., has degenerated into a civil suit filed in federal district court and involved the city and its mayor who are among the defendants named in the suit. Marc and Regina Smith, the plaintiffs, say in court filings that they paid for a water meter in 1999 to serve their newly purchased residence and that the house is served by a water service line that extends about 1000ft from the meter to the property. The couple claims that three of their neighbors tapped into the water line without a formal written agreement regarding [...]

When Gardner Police Department’s Animal Control Officer Alexis Rivera was called to pick up a wandering cat, she followed her normal process of taking the wandering animal to the city shelter for found dogs and cats. Rivera noticed how happy and healthy the cat appeared, and she decided to scan it for a microchip. The cat had previously had a microchip injected just under the skin. Rivera contacted the microchip company and learned the name of the owner that had purchased the microchip originally. She then began attempting to contact the owner. At the same time, the microchip company sent a text [...]

Special to The Gardner News With the new Gardner Justice Center set to open in the summer, the city is already putting into gear efforts to decommission the current police station on Main Street. During a council meeting June 3, Michael Kramer, public works director, recommended the city enter into an agreement with Treanor Architects, a KCMO based firm, to conduct a needs assessment for the decommissioning of the police station. Kramer said that per previous studies and council direction, the police station is intended to be demolished for future re-development in accordance with the downtown development plan with the garage [...]

the council approved revisions to the personnel manual to allow city employees to display political signs on their private property. The revisions also allow city employees to wear apparel displaying political badges, buttons or signs while off duty. (Read more: Gardner News)

Fire District #1 of Johnson County, Kansas is expanding its capabilities in the area of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) commonly referred to as Drones. For the last year and a half Fire District #1 has had sUAS capabilities to support fire department operations. The sUAS flow by fire district personnel provided an eye in the sky view for incident commanders with video and still images. Recently, Fire District #1 expands those capabilities to include a new aircraft with Infrared Capabilities (IR). “The capabilities of this new aircraft provide us images using heat signatures. This allows us to locate hot spots [...]

The Gardner City Council awarded an $120,000 contract to Topeka Sod Farm to perform fairway rehabilitation work at Gardner Golf Course during a meeting May 7. The approval was part of the city’s consent agenda. According to Jason Bruce, parks and recreation director, the city is contractually obligated to finance goods and materials for turf reseeding on the golf course greens, tee boxes and fescue seeding. The city is also responsible for the cost of enlarging, dredging and digging a wet well in the irrigation pond at the course. In a 2018 agreement between the city and GreatLIFE, the operators of [...]

The city of Gardner has dissolved the city’s airport committee and replaced it with an Airport Advisory Board. In a March 18 meeting, the council approved an ordinance change revoking the legal authority granted to the Airport Commission to form a non profit corporation to supervise the operations of the airport. According to Amy Nasta, city clerk, the advisory board will consist of five members tasked with advising the council on matters pertaining to the growth and improvement of the airport. The board will advise the council on acquisition of property, construction and reconstruction of airport facilities, the institution of programs [...]

Edgerton residents attended an open house on a proposed “Greenspace” Community Center. During the April 4 event at city hall, residents met with city officials and staff and discussed ideas on what they would like to see at the center. The city has set aside $4.1 million for the center which will be located on a vacant lot between the Edgerton Bank of Knowledge and the fire station. According to Beth Linn, city administrator, the proposed building will include at least two floors of approximately 1,500 sq. ft. each with the possibility of a basement. Construction could begin as early as [...]

A new stormwater management program that will see the county divided into six watersheds is being implemented by Johnson County. In a presentation to Edgerton City Council March 28, Lee Kellenberger, Johnson County water resource manager, said unlike in the past when county dollars for stormwater systems improvements would be distributed to individual cities and townships, the new program will be based on a plan that targets particular watersheds. The six watersheds are: Brush/Turkey Creek, Indian Creek, Upper Blue Valley, Marais Des Cygnes River, Captain/Kill creek and Cedar/ Mill creek. Edgerton, Gardner and Spring Hill will all be within the Marais [...]