Council heard from a PV resident, Eileen Marshall, a city council meeting observer for the League of Women Voters of JoCo who attends our meetings in PV regularly, but who was speaking for herself not LWV. Ms. Marshall spoke in favor of the recent Ad Hoc Housing Committee recommendations, and she denounced the hostile comments and attitudes of residents and the inobservance of speaking rules from at least one resident at the last meeting. Eileen observed that she doesn’t believe that the R1 zoning is in danger of full rezoning to mess with our neighborhoods, and she also noted that these residents seemed riled up by misinformation on social media and they should work harder to inform themselves regularly not just by listening to snippets of info on social media that are designed to rile them up. 👏👏👏

There was an additional speaker, but the audio didn’t come through online. The gentleman was speaking about a resident who will be celebrating an upcoming milestone birthday and asked the City to do a recognition. But again, I didn’t get all the details, and I’m sure we’ll see something about this in an upcoming agenda. City staff are always very supportive of recognizing, usually, long-time PV residents who have milestone celebrations. They’re always fun to hear about and acknowledge in a public forum. 🎉

Committee Reports

None

Mayor’s report

Mayor reported on some events that have already passed this week including a reminder to vote!
Upcoming events:
- Back to School with a Firefighter today (Friday)
- Sunflowers for Ukraine Art Auction, co-sponsored by PVAC, held at Meadowbrook Park tonight (Friday) at 5:30
- August 12th – Corinth KU Kickoff Party

Staff reports

Public Works

Melissa Prenger, Sr. Project Manager, reported on the PW facility’s “Path to Platinum“.

On July 20, 2022 the building was certified Platinum receiving ALL 83 points that they applied for!!

Some reasons for our Platinum certification:

Location, location, location – walkable, bike-able, compact dense development
Reduction of light pollution, heat island reduction, and reduced parking footprint
Water efficiency with indoor and outdoor uses and metering (no irrigation used on site, and only native plantings!) The building also harvests rainwater and uses that water to flush the low-flow toilets!
Energy efficient design for load reduction and renewable energy sources (solar panels!)
Materials and Resources and minimizing the impact on the environment through the manufacturing and disposal/recycling of those materials
Indoor air quality and the comfort of users (access to daylight, personal control over hvac settings and lighting)
Innovation and Regional Priorities – we received 10 out of 10 points in this category! This category again awarded PV for location, Electrical Vehicle resources, rainwater harvesting, as well as for our website to educate residents.

Watch for a rescheduled Open House to tour the facility sometime in September!

Big kudos from Mayor, Environmental Committee Chair Piper Reimer (and all of us on Council) to Melissa and the whole Public Works team for the extra work, self-education, and dedication that went into achieving this rare designation. The extra investment to achieve this will pay itself off in the years to come and then some for our commitment to the environment!

Thank you, too, to the sitting Council at the time of the decision in 2019 to shoot for achievement which included, at the time, current councilmembers: Chad Herring, Ron Nelson, Courtney McFadden, Terrence Gallagher; and former councilmembers: Tucker Poling, Andrew Wang, Sheila Myers, Ted O’dell, Brook Moorehead, Serena Schermoly, Dan Runion, and Jori Nelson. Big props to those 2019 councilmembers who voted to approve being a leader in this endeavor! Prairie Village is definitely better for it. 🤗

Other

Dave Robinson asked for an update on the Citizen Survey for the Civic Center. Wes Jordan relayed that the survey is on hold for the moment while staff pursues additional partners.

Inga Selders asked Keith Bredehoeft about some lighting issues at Porter Park. Keith is going to look into that.

Consider contracts for upcoming projects

Melissa Prenger presented again; this time for several project bid awards, all of which were approved unanimously:

contract with Superior Bowen for the 2022 UBAS (Ultra-thin Bonded Asphalt Surface) program
contract with Superior Bowen for the 2022 CARS (County Assistance Road System) program
inspection contract with TREKK Design Group
agreement for reconstruction of pedestrian bridges
agreement with BBN Architects for new and coordinated parks branding 👏👏🎉👏👏🎉

Consider approval of debris management agreement with AshBritt*

Tim Schwartzkopf, Assistant City Administrator, presented this agreement due to its “emergency management” designation, and council approved it unanimously to move to the full City Council for review at the next scheduled meeting.

*AshBritt works nationwide to assist public works departments after major events when they can’t expedite on their own the removal of tree debris. etc. in the (hopefully never!) event of a massive tornado to get the City back up and running.

Consider Memorandum of Understanding Extension with Bird Rides, Inc.

A representative from Bird was on hand to review user data from the last year. There were no slides provided live; she just referenced the pages in the agenda packet.

They averaged around 35 Birds on the ground since September 2021. Riders have ridden over 2,000 miles in 1,300 rides. There have been only 15 complaints from residents, and there have been zero traffic complaints.

Councilmembers asked questions about where the Birds are left, and how help tickets are resolved (which go through our Public Works) and the timeliness of resolutions. Also, those numbers average about 4 rides per day, and is that really good usership? How are they responding to underage users or lack of helmet-wearing? What about blockage of sidewalks inhibiting passage of strollers and elderly, etc..

Bird responded that they would be open to proactively relocating centers of supply for Birds if they’re not being used in certain areas, and creating a direct line to them for complaints and faster resolution. They also confirmed that there is zero monetary cost to the City to have the scooters deployed in Prairie Village.

Ultimately, a motion to approve the renewal of an agreement with Bird was rejected by a vote of 7-3.

Councilmembers Selders, Herring, D. Robinson, C. Robinson, Nelson, Wolf, and Gallagher voted against the motion.
Councilmembers McFadden, Graves, and Reimer voted to approve the motion.
(Councilmember Shelton and I were absent.)

The current MOU will continue through the end of August, and the lack of an MOU with Bird does not mean that we won’t still see Bird or other scooters throughout the City. Kansas law does not prohibit scooters, and Kansas statute does allow cities to enact ordinances that could further restrict or prohibit the use of scooters within city limits, but at that point it becomes the job of the police department to enforce those ordinances (if we were to create them).

Agenda Packet for your reference

Closing

So that’s it for this week.

I feel like I haven’t been up to much with vacation and COVID, but things are picking back up!

I just want to say: Thank you, Prairie Village, JoCo, and Kansas voters, for VOTING NO on the August 2nd primary vote for a constitutional amendment! Kansans voted to protect ourselves from overreach of government and protect our bodily autonomy! Don’t think this fight is over though. Please keep yourself updated, and if you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me in my personal role as a concerned Kansas voter. 🙏

Let me know if you have any questions. Be well and have a great week!

🙂