Friday, Feb. 05 2010 10:49AM
Council discusses 2010 bond projects
By Miranda Wycoff, the Journal Staff
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ReprintAlthough the Lee’s Summit City Council is not yet sure which election day the 2010 No Tax Increase Bond Issues will be on, they are already hard at work deciding how the $31.7 million dollars should be spent.
On Thursday, city staff proposed seven areas for improvement around the city where those funds should be spent, whether the election is in August or in November.
As of Thursday’s meeting, staff is proposing $10 million of those funds should go to public safety: $2 million to upgrade the city’s emergency services radio network and $8 million for upgrades to the Lee’s Summit Police Department facility.
The radio system updates come from an unfunded federal mandate requiring all emergency radio systems to reach a certain bandwidth, said Chief Joe Piccinini of the Lee’s Summit Police Department. Additionally, the city’s current emergency radio system is not public safety rated, he said, and is almost 25 years old.
“The shelf life for a radio system is 20 to 25 years,” Piccinini said. These updates do not include going to a digital format as Independence and Kansas City have, but would update the current system to fix the problems and make it comply with federal regulations.
However, Piccinini said that it is possible that the federal government could issue another mandate requiring all emergency services radio to go digital, but that is not anticipated until 2018 or later.
“There’s a possibility if that happens that we could get the funding for a digital system through a federal grant,” he said.
City staff is proposing $8 million for upgrades to the Lee’s Summit Police Department facility for the construction of a firing range.
Piccinini said the department currently utilizes the range at Sugar Creek, along with about 20 other agencies.
Piccinini said the industry standard for firearm training is four to five times a year, but because of the size of the LSPD — it is the sixth largest in Missouri with 143 officers — and the capacity at the Sugar Creek facility, the department only gets to train once a year.
“The more times we get to train our officers with their weapons, the safer we will all be,” he said.
Additionally, the police department would like to construct a training facility that could be used for defensive tactics training and a classroom setting and upgrade its detention facility.
Piccinini said the design of current detention facility is in violation of state law, in that the police have to escort female and juvenile offenders through the same area where the male offenders are.
To remedy this, the department constructed a separate hallway but, “It’s not a good long term solution,” said Piccinini.
Staff also proposed $2.5 million for phase two of the sidewalk rehabilitation program. Phase one was approved with the 2007 bond issue.
However, the council was leery to put phase two on the 2010 ballot because many of those projects have yet to be started.
“We need to be able to demonstrate that we have used wisely the funds we have been authorized,” said Mayor Karen Messerli.
Staff said they would come back with an analysis of how much of the phase one projects can be completed before the election.
Additionally, staff proposed $9.36 million on a curb replacement program. “There’s a rapid deterioration of the curbs in our city,” said Chuck Owsley, director of public works.
Owsley said this deterioration is having a negative impact on property values and if the city doesn’t do something now, then the costs could be higher in the future.
The $9.36 million would essentially go toward the first phase of the project, or the first two years in an estimated 10 year program.
Staff proposed the remaining funds of the 2010 bond issue go toward road improvements including approximately $3.8 for the widening and realignment of Strother Road, approximately $10.9 for the extension of Tudor Road from Douglas to Ward Road and $1 million for improvements to the View High Road and Interstate 470 interchange.
In each case, staff said if the road improvements were made, it would open up the potential for economic development.
Staff said they would come back to the council in March with an analysis of August versus November for election dates and answers to questions of the sidewalk rehabilitation program and the road improvement projects.
To reach Journal reporter Miranda Wycoff, call 816-282-7017 or e-mail mwycoff@lsjournal.com
