This past week the Armour Hills Homes Association's tree pruning contractor, VanBooven Tree Service, was out and about pruning 150 juvenile trees in the neighborhood. Now that they are finished, the City will follow and prune the remainder of the trees in the public Right-of-Way. As you may recall, we received a $90,000 Public Improvement Advisory Committee (PIAC) grant from Councilman Sharp and Taylor (thank you to our new 6th District Councilmen!) to plant and prune trees in our neighborhood. Since that time, yours truly has leveraged our relatively nominal monetary contribution as well as some good old fashion politicking to convince the City Forester to match us dollar for dollar on the tree pruning portion of the project. That makes for a $135,000 project!

Since it was determined that not all trees could be planted in available spots and/or all trees pruned in the neighborhood, the Armour Hills HOA Board decided that we would prune from Gregory heading north and plant this Spring from 65th Street heading south. If you missed any part of this project, fear not. We will follow-up with another PIAC proposal this summer to finish the job. Until then, thank you all for your patience. Hopefully you will benefit from at least a new tree or a pruned tree on your block...

Unofficial Traffic Circle

This past holiday season brought little snow, except for a lovely white Christmas, but Armour Hills residents were their usual festive selves. To mark the occasion, as well as the City's break, a few neighbors decorated the cones alerting drivers on Edgevale Road and 68th Terrace of an unfinished man hole restoration project.

Just in case the City did forget, I have been calling regularly to ensure this squeaky wheel gets some grease. I hope the crew that comes to complete the job feels the holiday spirit. Let's just hope they make it before the Epiphany! Until then, let us all enjoy or lovely impromptu traffic circle...

 

School Board Election

I know it has been a long while since I have submitted a post or even called 311. Last Fall, my family and I decided to run for the Kansas City Public Schools Board. It took a lot of work, and it took my attention of my daily grind with the City's 311 call center. It did not, however, distract me from my duties as your City Liaison with the Armour Hills Homes Association. 2012 was our neighborhoods best year, and I look forward to our progress in the coming year.

If you want to follow my other blog about the school board election, please visit www.GunnarHand.com. I did win a contested race, and I thank my opponent and everyone who provided there support along the way. Add improving our public education system to the list of to dos for this City Planner!

 

Armour Hills Tree Planting & Pruning Project

Building partnerships with City Hall finally paid off. Last year City Hall may have directed $30,000 to Armour Hills for crosswalk restripping around Arbor Villa Park and along our portion of the Trolley Trail from Gregory to 65th Street, but this year we topped that.

After some hard negotiations after the redistricting went into affect last January, I convinced both Councilman Sharp and Taylor of our new 6th Council District to throw us a bone. And what a very large bone it is. Out of their FY 2012-2013 Public Improvement Advisory Committee (PIAC) contingency budget, the 6th Council District allocated $90,000 to Armour Hills for a tree planting and pruning project.

Every street tree will be pruned and a massive planting project will occur this Fall. By this time next year every street tree spot will be filled, and our old growth urban canopy will be properly maintained for future growth and prosperity. For our end of the deal, the Armour Hills Board agreed to prune all the trees that we planted using another PIAC grant in 2004 (approximately 150 trees), and we negotiated with the Parks Department to reduce the overall cost by pruning the boulevards in our neighborhood (Gregory Boulevard and Rockhill Road).

When the trees are planted, it will be up to us to properly maintain them. The first couple years of a trees life are the most important. If you have a new street tree in your yard, please water it in the summer. Thank you to Councilman John Sharp and Councilman Scott Taylor for making our neighborhood and the City a more livable, sustainable place!

69th Street Speed Bumps

A neighbor of mind asked if I could help request speed bumps on 69th Street between Rockhill and Grand. For those of you not familiar with the area, that is the pick-up and drop off street for Academie Lafayette. Needless to say there is a lot of traffic on the side streets during school days, and safety is a critical part to any walk to school program.

After working with the City's Public Works Department, they conducted a study and determined that the amount of traffic on the street did not warrant any speed bumps. At least, they did not approve any government funded speed bumps. We are now working on the signatures required by neighbors so that the Homes Association can fund the project. Since this project straddles two HOAs, Armour Hills and Oak Meyer Gardens, it would be a shared cost.

While we will continue with this important pedestrian safety issue, the City at least took the time to install 25 mph speed limit signs. Every little bit helps...

Arbor Villa Crosswalk Signage

It appears that someone had a hard time with driving over the speed bumps on Main Street at Arbor Villa Park. Watch out pedestrians. Even the new signage, crosswalk stripping, and speed bumps are not enough to encourage good driving behavior in perhaps the most "pedestrian friendly" part of our neighborhood, Arbor Villa Park.

A quick call into 311 did the trick. I encourage you all to call in as well. As I have stated many times on this blog, the more people who call 311, the faster the issue is resolved.

Trolley Trail Bridge Bollards

When I began working with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) as the Armour Hills Homes Association liaison, there was a laundry list of projects that we came up with along our portion of the Trolley Trail between 65th Street and Gregory Boulevard. One of those projects was the replacement of the light bollards for the underpass of the Trolley Trail bridge located at the end of Edgevale Road at Brookside Road.

After a lot of negotiation and cost estimating, it was determined that it would be cheaper and faster to simply remove all the lights, which had a long history of deferred maintenance and vandalism, and replace them with bollards. We all decided that the light under the bridge was sufficient.

The KCATA took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather this month and replaced the standing lights with regular bollards. With all the landscaping recently completed along the trail (another one of our requests), the bridge is looking on the up and up. In the long-run, however, the bridge will need to be repaired. You can see its deterioration in the photos.

Crosswalk Stripping

Since I became the City Liaison for the Armour Hills Homes Association, I have had the opportunity to work closely with the City's 4th District Councilmembers, in particular Councilwoman Jan Marcason and her staff. This exposure has brought great insights into the City, local politics, and for the purpose of this blog, the delivery of goods and services.

When I was working with the 4th District on their 2010 Public Improvements Advisory Committee (PIAC) grants, they mentioned a pot of money for crosswalk stripping. I had several ideas. At the 2010 Armour Hills Homes Association annual meeting, many of our members expressed safety concerns on Brookside Road. All of our members must cross Brookside Road to access the Trolley Trail.

I wrote a list of all the crossings in our district (from 65th Street to Gregory on Brooskide Road) as well as the speed bumps on Main Street and the crossing for Arbor Villa Park on 66th Terrace at Main Street, and they are now on the list. The crews came out last week to paint the speed bumps on Main Street and Edgevale Road yesterday, and they are back today to finish all of our requested crosswalks.

Fall Water Leak

For the past summer there has been a small water leak down the street from where I live. I have called it in several times to 311, but alas, nothing has been done. When I called it in again today the 311 operator told me that there is a work order out on this leak, but that it is a "cold" case. A "Cold" case is one of least importance.

The unusually hot summer has lead to some serious upheaval all over the City, and the old and worn pipes under our great City have been bursting all over. Just this morning a larger main break occurred on Main Street at Arbor Villa Park. Fearful that this would surely create a disaster for the Armour Hills Ice Cream Social tonight, I called that one in and they crew is already here working on it.

Priorities are a tricky matter in a bureaucracy.

66th Street Light Malfunction

In a time when every cent counts for all levels of government, I hate to see waste. Especially when that waste also contributes to energy consumption, the unnecessary burning of fossil fuels, and taxpayer dollars flushed down the drain. So when I noticed that the street light on 66th Street between Main Street and Edgevale Road, I called 311.

I noticed the same problem with a street light a few weeks ago just off Brookside Road. Let's see how long this one takes to fix. The clock is ticking and the dollars are spending...

Busted Sign

While I have been pushing for months now to repaint several crosswalks and the speed bumps along Main Street, today I noticed that one of the signs had fallen into disrepair. It looks as if the top screw has rusted out completely. I find it hard to believe someone would want a 15 miles per hour sign when there are so many better ones to vandalize.

After a quick phone call to 311, and all the recent emphasis on Main Street, the City quickly responded to my requests, and finished this job while wrapping up the crosswalk and speed bump stripping work. However, a second crew came out not a day after they finished painting the speed bumps, shaved the edges down, and re-asphalted the sides. This, of course, ruined the newly painted stripes and the thousands of dollars of work that went into them. Can someone please coordinate these efforts!

Wornall Road Plates

The other day the Water Department closed down Wornall Road just outside of Southwest High School to perform maintenance on a major water main line. They had to close down one of the south bound lanes after they placed three steel plates over the unfinished work site.

About a week after the road closure the plates began to shift with the heavy traffic on Wornall. Once I noticed that people had to veer into oncoming traffic to avoid the hole in the street I called 311. A day later a crew came out to remove the dangerous situation. They finished the job right before school started on Monday, August 15, 2011. I think they needed the extra lanes in order to allow school buses to line up outside...

Arbor Villa Park Speed Bumps

Last week I received a call from my neighbor who lives directly adjacent to the lead Main Street speed bump that slows traffic around Arbor Villa Park. Like many neighbors, there have been numerous complaints about cars catapulting across these bumps in the middle of the night. After all these years, there seems to be absolutely no learning curve for local drivers. I'll admit, even I sometimes have to break a little harder than my wife would prefer prior to a speed bump.

Luckily, this complaint came in right as I was wrapping up work on another project as City Liaison for the Armour Hills Homes Association to restripe local crosswalks (See Crosswalks Stripping Blog post) and speed bumps. With the line of communication already open to the Public Works Department, I asked them to asses these bumps. They came out and realized that additional signage was warranted, and that all three speed bumps on Main Street were about 2 feet higher then their guidelines permit.

So, they came out to ground them down, and about a week later they showed up to redo some signage, clear some brush and resurface the speed bumps. Finally, toady a seperate contractor showed up to redo all the stripping on the speed bumps. Now we wait for all the crosswalks in the neighborhood and around the park to be restripped...

Main Street Plates

For the past two months the City's Water Department has left to large steel plates on Main Street at 68th Terrace. I have seen people swerve to miss them driving in both directions and almost  not make the swerve back into the lane. It is almost like we have a new speed bump for Arbor Villa Park.

While the water main that is under those plates is now fixed, we are still waiting for the second crew that is responsbile to come by and finish the job. While it might be too hot to lay asphalt now, it certainly was not two, three, four, five and/or six weeks ago.

Finally, after three months of wrangling with 311, Councilwoman Marcason's office, and the Water Department, the plates were removed yesterday, the road resurfaced, and our primary corridor returned to normal, for now...

69th Terrace Spring

Yet another water main broke on 69th Terrace just east of Brookside Road. A steady stream of water was flowing into the stormwater drain. Around the source of the water it appeared as though someone from the KCMO Water Department had been there and marked the street already.

I called in the break, and within a week a crew had come to fix the problem. As occassionally happens there was a delay between the first crew that fixes the leak, and the second crew that finishes the job. The gravel pit that remained blocked a private driveway, and I called 311 again to file a complaint.

It took another week or so, but shortly thereafter the final crew cam out to wrap it up.

Street Light Malfunction

In a time when every cent counts for all levels of government, I hate to see waste. Especially when that waste also contributes to energy consumption, the unnecessary burningof fossil fuels, and taxpayer dollars flushed down the drain. So when I noticed that the street light on Brookside Road and 67th Street was on during the day, I called 311.

After only a few weeks wait, and a couple of calls to 311, the light has been fixed and all is well.

Bus Stop Bench

Unbeknownst to many who live along the Trolley Trail, the entire 150 feet right-of-way is owned by the Kansas City Transit Authority (KCATA). While there are some parking lots, signage, and other uses on the trail, all of these uses must register and pay a fee to KCATA.

So when the new Metro Area Express (MAX) bus began service to downtown Kansas City, I would walk my wife to the nearest stop at 65th Street and Wornall Road. What I noticed was that while there was a trash can and a blank pad, there was not a place to sit. Other stops along the Trolley Trail in our neighborhood had benches, but this stop directly across from the now operating and commuter heavy Southwest High School had virtually no amenities.

After a quick call to the KCATA, they had a team out to survey the site, and the bench was installed within a week. Now if they could only change the rate of service that quickly...

AT&T U-Verse Utility Boxes

After nearly two months of working with the previous Mayor Mark Funkhouser, Councilwoman Jan Marcason, State Representative Jason Kander, City Planning, Code Enforcement, Armour Hills Homes Association, and yes, AT&T, we finally came to an agreement. Thanks to one of the more amicable property owners adjacent to the initial site, and the determination of all of us, we managed to remove a blight and replace it with a fairly well hidden one. We were even able to make AT&T go back to a utility box on 68th and Main Streets and do some required landscaping:

The morale of the story is that with adequate opposition and community awareness, AT&T will pay to make these things go away.

Now that the temporary problem is resolved, we must work to create a permanent solution for the City. Not one mile away in Kansas, all utility boxes are required to be underground. While this sounds simple enough, the Utilities are a powerful lobby, and ultimately the Missouri Public Utilities Commission has the final word. In the end, this right of way is still public land, and the utility easement is sold to AT&T and others (including Water, Sewer, Power, and other basic services) with our permission.

Without oversight, the free market gives us this (not a very nice gateway):

Tree Removal

After a long winter, the neighborhood is a buzz with homeowners working on their lawns and gardens. To join in the festivities, my wife and I decided to bring out an arborist for an estimate for some overdue maintenance on our property. Of everything that needed to be done, the arborist said our number one priority should be the removal of the Elm Tree on the Main Street right-of-way because it was surely rotting from the inside.

As one of the few surviving trees from the Dutch Elm disease over two decades ago, I was sad to see it go. But instead of paying a private company to do the job, I called 311 and kindly explained how this street tree was a liability to the City as it could fall over at anytime. They had a crew come out to chop it down within two weeks.

Sure it took the City over 120 days to send out a stump removal crew (the stump removal is done by a different crew then the tree removal), but there is a lesson here. Calling 311 works, and everyone needs to participate in making their communities better. I am working with the City Forester right now to select a tree replacement...

Thanks for the free mulch Kansas City, Missouri!

Spring Water Leaks



When the cold earth finally begins to thaw in Kansas City, it expands, and for the City's old water pipes, that mean leaks. Lots of them. It is the same story every Fall when the warm soil begins to contract and the ground shifts ever so slightly.

Moving from Los Angeles where water is a precious resource and nearly 60% of it is brought in from outside the region via aqueducts (thank you Colorado River, Owens River Valley, and Northern California), I have a real problem seeing water being waster. Not only is it a waste of money and energy, but a waste of our most precious resource.

As I walked to my part-time volunteer job down Main Street to the Children's Place, I spotted a few water leaks. One of them close to the early childhood charity has already been repaired, the other has been marked by the Water Department, but nothing has been done yet...