Shawnee Mission Post – Community news and events for northeast Johnson County

As part of its continuing efforts to provide the safest and most secure learning environments possible, the Shawnee Mission School District’s police department is mounting an effort to promote gun safety within the homes of students. Giving an update on the department’s current strategy and tactics to the board of education this week, Director of Safety and Security John Douglass said that staff will be working with schools to promote a “culture of safety” that extends beyond the school building. Part of that push will be encouraging parents to lock gun cabinets in their homes and otherwise secure weapons. The district [...]

Amidst fears that the first big development in the College and Metcalf corridor might wither without its help, the Overland Park City Council voted Monday to increase the sales tax on retail that eventually locates in the Galleria 115 project near 115th Street and Nall Avenue. In doing so, they will increase the amount of tax revenue available to developers by about $13.5 million to turn the well-located but rocky piece of undeveloped land into a mixed-use multifamily housing, office and retail project. The sales tax added for the area’s community improvement district will become 1.5 percent. That’s higher than the [...]

A total of five community projects in Shawnee are projected to receive $285,302 in community development block grant funding for next year. The Shawnee council in its Monday meeting conducted the first of two public hearings on the city’s 2019 community development block grant plan. The second public hearing will take place in September. The total amount of $285,302 is based on a Department of Housing and Urban Development formula that considers Shawnee’s population and socioeconomic status. The community development block grant (CDBG) program is designed to assist low- and moderate-income residents. Shawnee received the same amount in 2018 in CDBG [...]

Twenty days after company officials told Johnson County residents technicians were “working around the clock” to identify the issue, Election Systems & Software said this morning that it had rewritten a portion of the software code that led to a massive delay in reporting primary election results earlier this month. But it’s not a guarantee that the updated software will be approved for use in November’s elections. “The slow reporting of results was unacceptable, and we apologize,” said Tom Burt, president and CEO, ES&S. “We know the Election Office and other Johnson County Government leaders put their faith in us and [...]

On August 22, 1988, Wes Jordan donned the uniform of a Prairie Village police officer for the first time. The position was a good fit. And the longer he worked for the department, the more invested in the community he got. He was promoted through the police department’s ranks, starting as corporal and moving on to become a sergeant, lieutenant and captain before being named chief of police in 2007. Eight years later, he retired from the police department to accept a job as assistant city administrator. And in 2017, after two years in the assistant role, he took over in [...]

An official media policy was adopted this week by Roeland Park with a vote of 5-4, after Mayor Mike Kelly cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the guidelines. The policy routes media requests for an official city statement to the city administrator and the mayor, while still allowing councilmembers to speak to the media about their personal opinion on an issue. The policy states that “City employees and councilmembers (other than the Mayor) shall not make statements on behalf of the City, provide information for distribution, or provide background information unless specifically asked to do so by the City Administrator [...]

Under state law, Johnson County leaders have no say over who gets hired — or fired — as the county election commissioner, despite the fact that the office is financed entirely by funds from Johnson County taxpayers. “That statute was that they have complete authority and we have no authority,” County Chair Ed Eilert said. It was concerns about the possible politicization of the election offices of Kansas’s most populous counties that led the state legislature to pass a law giving the secretary of state full authority over Johnson County’s election office — including naming the election commissioner — some decades [...]

As teardowns and new home development continues throughout northeast Johnson County so does the influx of large trucks delivering construction materials and equipment. While some city officials have concerns with how the trucks could impact city roads, others are less concerned by the frequent trips into the area by heavy vehicles. Fairway’s Public Works Director Bill Stogsdill said he “absolutely” had concerns with how heavy trucks could impact roads but said “it would not be reasonable to require the demolition of a home to be removed a pick-up load of debris at a time.” Fairway City Administrator Nathan Nogelmeier also said [...]

Nearly every city in northeast Johnson County experienced some kind of lifeguard shortage this summer — part of a growing national trend since the recession in 2009. In fact, several cities estimated the pool of applicants for lifeguarding is nearly half of what it was 10 years ago. A growing economy and a cultural shift away from summer work gives teenagers more time to focus on extracurricular activities, family vacations and career-driven paths such as internships and advanced coursework. That means fewer lifeguards. Lauren Ozburn, an area aquatics specialist with Waters Edge, said lifeguarding used to be highly competitive. Now, she’s [...]

Structural changes to strengthen the new facades from Regency Park shopping center will mean substantial cost increases for both private and public financing. The developer of the center, at 93rd Street and Metcalf Avenue has asked the city for a $510,000 increase in the amount it will get from a special sales tax, bringing the reimbursement from $7.3 million to almost $7.9 million. A public hearing on the amended community improvement district is scheduled for Sept. 17. In addition, the city may make also increase the amount of assistance in the form of economic development revenue bonds designed to exempt some [...]