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...

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...

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...



Water Main Repair

About two weeks before the first frost and one of Kansas City's most powerful winters in recent history, I called the City to fix a broken water line. This problem had happened to my block before and instead of fixing it, we had to live with a dangerous half block ice sheet throughout an entire winter. When the City came to fix the problem and chipped away the ice thus damaging our curbs and gutters, not to many of us were very happy.

Charging ahead with a quick fix, the Water Department's emergency crew came out and fixed the problem within days of calling 311 and Councilwoman Jan Marcason's office. Sure, they didn't actually finish replacing the concrete curbs and asphalt street until the Spring, but at least they prevented the infamous 66th Street ice shelf.

While my neighbors and I had to live through a winter with a bumpy road, in the end, we were all happy. The previous summer a huge sewer line break that runs along our back yards left a path of destruction as our driveways became the crews access points. Leaving a broken driveway apron behind, this little water main break actually fixed both. Who said you can't kill two birds with one stone at the City?