You can see the full agenda and board packet HERE.

Council members present: Herring, J. Nelson, Schermoly, R. Nelson, Poling, Wang, Myers, Morehead, Runion, McFadden, Odell, and Gallagher.

The City Council took the following actions at the March 18, 2019 regular meeting:

• Approved the regular City Council meeting minutes – March 4, 2019
• Approved expenditure ordinance #2976
• Approved Unite Private Networks franchise agreement
• Approved a professional services agreement with Clark Enersen Partners for the Public Works Building Assessment Project in the amount of $18,000.00.
• Approved an agreement with Conference Technologies, Inc. to upgrade City Council Chamber audio
• Approved the 2020-2024 County Assistance Road System (CARS) program
• Approved a cereal malt beverage (CMB) ordinance update to comply with revise state law.
• Approved the KCP&L Renewables Direct Agreement. See below for more information.

Here are some highlights from this meeting:

Mayor Updates

Mayor Mikkelson and City staff had a meeting with First Washington, owners of Prairie Village Shops and Corinth Square, to push for local businesses and shops, maintenance, EV (electric vehicle) stations, and more.

First Washington will also be coming before Council in coming weeks to present their revised plans for Corinth Square South. Remember their 2017 proposal with the 3-story parking structure? Well, PV residents made it clear to their Council members, and Council made it clear to First Washington that PV isn’t interested in a 3-story parking structure, so they’ve gone back to the drawing board. Of course, First Washington does own the properties, so ultimately, they can do whatever they want, but they do want Council buy-in and a public partnership for funding so the mixed use development will probably just have surface parking. Keep your eyes and ears open for the next iteration and be sure to make your voice heard one way or the other.

Mayor Mikkelson and City staff were also finally able to meet with KCP&L. KCP&L will be coming to Council in a few months to discuss outages and concerns. We didn’t hear much detail, but City Administrator, Wes Jordan, told us, “We have their attention”. I’ll keep you posted if I hear more.

Community Center

Exciting talks are continuing for a possible new community center in Prairie Village! YMCA is still a valuable and motivated partner. Johnson County is interested in a conversation, and JCPRD (Johnson County Parks & Recreation) may be interested in running the facility. What will probably happen is that those interested in partnering will come together to fund a new joint study to assess the feasibility of such a facility in our community considering population, similar facilities nearby, and of course, very rough, very high-level cost. While this would be an investment in Prairie Village, Council still has to make sure it’s the right investment, and that we see a return in a reasonable amount of years, and that we don’t step on our neighboring municipalities’ toes. More to come.

Public Works

If you know of or come across potholes, please let Public Works know. They really do rely on citizens to keep them posted on these types of things, so don’t hesitate to call or fill out their online form.

Construction on Roe between 67th to 75th streets will be ramping back up this Spring to finish ASAP.

Renewables Direct Program

Prairie Village Council voted to be the first municipality in Kansas to sign on with Evergy (KCP&L and Westar) for a wind farm in Kansas. It will be a newly built farm on newly purchased land allowing smaller cities like Prairie Village to pool their buying power for wind energy that we might not be able to purchase on our own. The City of Mission signed on a day after PV did. If not enough cities sign on, the agreement will be moot. But if they do, we can expect to have the wind farm online by 2021 and start seeing a minimal cost savings for the city usage (not residential yet), but we will also be part of the transition from coal to a more sustainable source of energy.

I think many more discussions need to happen with KCP&L/Evergy about additional and more impactful opportunities to harness our renewable options to best serve our environment. We have amazingly informed and educated residents in our city to help us make these decisions, so I look forward to learning more from them. This program is a good start. Having it include our street lights, our EV charging stations, and eventually our residences, as well, need to all be on the table to grow the impact. But I’m proud of Prairie Village for taking this step.

Upcoming Events

• March R.G. Endres Gallery Featured Artists: Layla McDill, Crystal Nederman, Paula Acheson
• April in the R.G. Endres Gallery: The Art of Photography
• April 1 City Council Meeting
• April 12 Artist Reception in the R.G. Endres Gallery

Take care and reach out if you have any questions or concerns,

#ShowUp
#Breathe
#DoYourBest
#BeKind