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Funding for two future street projects in Bonner Springs won’t be coming out of the city’s pockets.

Beyond some design, utility and right-of-way expenses, funding for phase-two streetscape improvements along Kansas Highway 32 / Front Street and a resurfacing project on 138th street between Metropolitan and Kansas Avenues will be courtesy almost entirely of stimulus money through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. During Monday night’s City Council meeting, the council unanimously voted to approve both an agreement with the Kansas Department of Transportation for the latter item and going forward with payment to Wilson and Company, Inc. for final design of the former.

The phase-two streetscape project is a transportation enhancement project under the ARRA the city was approved for in May. The project will target K-32 / Front Street from the southbound Kansas Highway 7 off ramp to Elm Street. Marcia Ashford, community and economic development director, said at the council meeting the phase-two improvements would include such items as landscaping, decorative street lights and street name poles and signs on the north side of Front Street. Construction cost is estimated to be around $325,135, which will be entirely funded by the ARRA.

The city is responsible for the design cost of the project, however, so on Monday night the council moved to pay Wilson and Company, Inc. an amount not to exceed $21,000 to move forward with its final design of the streetscape work. Though Ashford wasn’t yet able to specify how much that amount would be, she said it was necessary to seek approval now because of the deadlines put in place by the government in regard to ARRA funding.

“Since this is stimulus money, the federal government has set some stringent deadlines so that the project can be constructed as soon as possible in an effort to create jobs and stimulate the economy,” Ashford said in an e-mail following the meeting. “We have to submit plans to KDOT by Aug. 1, 2009 that are at least 65 percent complete.”

In a memorandum to the council, Ashford explained that to even use the funds, meeting this deadline with 65 percent of the design completed was “crucial.” She said Wilson and Company, Inc. would be the best company to contract, as it had also been responsible for the phase-one design of the project, for which construction is set to begin at the end of the summer.

A formal contract with Wilson and Company, Inc. specifying an exact cost of the design will be presented at the next council meeting, Ashford said.

The resurfacing project on 138th street was approved to receive funding, in the amount of $440,000, through the ARRA by the Mid-America Regional Council in March. The agreement with KDOT approved by the council on Monday night included such clauses as that the city would be responsible for any construction costs going over the $440,000 award, and the city would be responsible, just as it will be in the K-32 streetscape project, for any costs relating to design, utility and rights of way.

The process of resurfacing the area will consist of a recycling-in-place method – one that has been used quite successfully in the city before, city manager John “Jack” Helin said.

“The project will renew 138th Street between Kansas Avenue and Metropolitan,” Helin said in an e-mail. “It is an old road in need of repairs that is heavily used. Check out Metropolitan from Nettleton to 134th Street. We used this same process on that section of road, and it turned out great.”

Helin didn’t know when the project would go to bid or an estimated date of when construction might begin, but said “it should be soon.” Ashford said work on the phase two streetscape project was expected to begin in the spring of next year.

Also on Monday, the council:

• Declared the month of July to be Parks and Recreation Month.

• Heard citizen concerns about items not on the agenda. Murrel Bland, executive director of Business West, asked the council to “hold the line on property taxes,” noting while cities were feeling the pressure of lowered property valuations, small businesses were feeling this same pressure. He said that Business West was planning on sponsoring a contest awarding prizes to those Wyandotte County businesses producing the highest sales receipts.

For more information, contact Bland at (913) 788-7642.

• Unanimously approved the minutes of the June 8 meeting.

• Unanimously approved supplement claims for city operations totaling $611,819.18 and regular claims totaling $521,384.97. The supplement claims include a payment for the new Pierce Pumper fire truck and the regular claims include payments for the new Fire / EMS building and the walking trail.

• Unanimously approved Public Housing Authority claims totaling $45,041.47.

• Unanimously approved appointments to boards and commissions. Ken Stewart was appointed to the Senior Center Advisory Committee in April, and Mary Ann Allen and Alice Zimmerman were both appointed to the committee in May. All three appointments will run through March 2010.

• Unanimously approved plans, specifications and the advertisement of bids for the Front Street improvement project, which will include work on new waterlines as well as sidewalk and curb replacements.

• Approved, 6-2, Countywide Infrastructure Funding Initiative funds totaling $92,400 to go to work on the walking trail and the Aquatic Park parking lot expansion, with council members Jerry Jarrett and George Cooper opposed. Helin said it would be best to use those funds now, with the economy as it stands, while they are still available.

He said the parking lot expansion was badly needed and would be even more necessary once the soccer season starts, as the parking lot services that area of North Park, as well. Jarrett said the money could be used for improvements to other parks in Bonner Springs.

• Unanimously approved an ordinance to amend Section 2 of Ordinance No. 1402 to amend the use of the one-half cent sales tax established in October of 1985. The section will now read that revenue generated from the additional one-half of one percent sales tax levied by the ordinance may go to finance other city needs in addition to capital improvement projects.

• Unanimously approved an agreement with the Kansas Department of Transportation regarding the Kansas Highway 7 and Interstate 70 project for the construction of an additional left-hand turn lane onto southbound K-7 and the installation of new traffic signal control equipment.

• Heard Mayor Clausie Smith dispel two rumors about closings in Bonner Springs during his mayor’s report. He said that neither the Senior Center nor Wal-Mart would be closing.

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