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

The shuttle bus system set up to get Johnson Countians to the Chiefs parade was an “overwhelming success,” with around 20,000 people moved Wednesday, said Josh Powers, business liaison for the county. The system went off without a hitch, Powers told the county commission this morning, adding that there were no failures or incidents while it was in place at Oak Park Mall parking lot. The longest wait to get on a bus was 40 minutes at the peak busiest time, Powers said, but the average was closer to 20 minutes. The 70 buses in operation made around 300 round trips. [...]

Over the last few years, Lenexa City Center has become a Johnson County destination. Located near 87th Street Parkway and Renner Boulevard, west of Interstate 435, this vibrant neighborhood is the result of the vision and hard work of dedicated residents more than 20 years ago to create a dynamic space with public, retail, business, and residential opportunities for citizens and visitors. The Lenexa civic campus is the heart of Lenexa City Center. It’s where you can find Lenexa’s City Hall, Public Market, Rec Center and Farmers Market, as well as a Park University campus and Lenexa City Center Library. (Read more: Shawnee [...]

People who ride the bus and their allies gave the Johnson County Commission an hour’s worth of reasons they should think twice before cutting routes and reducing service as planned in a couple of months. Not only would the route cuts hurt people with disabilities and those whose budgets don’t include cars, but they would cost the county in expanded road and infrastructure repair as the county grows, according to several people who testified at the board’s Thursday meeting. Commissioners are considering elimination of two routes and reduction of others, while expanding a new mictrotransit van service. But although some commissioners [...]

Next week, the Prairie Village city council is expected to decide whether to repeal its pit bull ban. Prairie Village is one of a shrinking number of Shawnee Mission area cities that have such “breed specific language” on their books. As Prairie Village prepares to consider changes to the “breed specific language” currently on its books, here’s a look at what other Johnson County cities’ laws have to say about dangerous animals and specific breeds of dogs... (Read more: Shawnee Mission Post)

On a 6-1 vote following four hours of closed-door deliberations, the Shawnee Mission Board of Education approved a three-year unilateral contract for teachers, a move strongly opposed by their union ... Teachers and their supporters packed the board room at the Center of Academic Achievement ahead of the specially called meeting, which followed the district walking away from negotiations at the final possible session in the state-mandated process for teacher contracts on Tuesday. (Read more: Shawnee Mission Post)

The city of Shawnee has launched a new hotline phone number for people to call if they have a complaint about odor from the landfill. ... This makes a slight change to the Citizen Service Request system that the city has in place for addressing issues. Previously, the city had taken odor complaints linked to the landfill through an online system or through the city’s Shawnee Connect app. Julie Breithaupt, communications manager for Shawnee, said the reason behind the change is to allow landfill management to address odor concerns more quickly and efficiently. (Read more: Shawnee Mission Post – Community news [...]

The Merriam city council on Monday evening approved two items dealing with pool usage, both of which involve agreements with neighboring cities. For the first item, Merriam entered into an inter-local agreement with Overland Park as a contingency plan if the new community center is not up and running by Memorial Day, which falls on May 25. The agreement would allow the Merriam Dolphins Swim and Dive team to use Young’s Pool, 8421 W. 77th Street, for practice during the six-week season. Merriam will let Overland Park know the team needs to use the pool by May 1, and pay Overland [...]

The space that’s housed a department store at the Village Shops for decades will soon be vacant. Prairie Village Mayor Eric Mikkelson informed the city council at Monday’s meeting that Village Shops owner First Washington had told staff that the Macy’s department store which anchors the center would be shutting down. Macy’s then confirmed to the Shawnee Mission Post that the Prairie Village store would be closing soon. Macy’s spokesperson Carolyn Ng Cohen said that a clearance sale will begin this month and will last eight to 12 weeks. Management has informed employees at the store of the coming closure. (Read [...]

Plans for a commercial office/warehouse building are in the works for a vacant plot of land at 91st and Santa Fe Trail Drive in Lenexa. The Lenexa planning commission on Monday recommended approval of preliminary plans for Rick Ramsey Building, a commercial project at 12904 Santa Fe Trail Drive. The proposed project would allow for a speculative building for a mix of office/retail and warehouse uses, with a parking lot of 12 spaces to be built on the west side of the site. City planning staff member Karen Gable said the property previously included a building occupied by a landscape service, [...]

The Roeland Park city council on Monday evening heard the most recent update to the Roe 2020 project, which included a 9.7% increase — $666,000 in total — to the construction cost estimate and extending the construction into 2021. Roeland Park’s Roe 2020 project aims to improve the thoroughfare within city limits, and will be the largest infrastructure project in the city’s history clocking in at a little over $10 million after the recent increase. The city’s engineer, Dan Miller, said there has been significant progress behind the scenes to get the project started. (Read more: Shawnee Mission Post – Community [...]