I say uh seven fifteen hours.

So special business.

So for seven fifty nine.

Good evening.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Olatha City Council for Tuesday, February third, twenty twenty-six.

The first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance.

Would you please stand with me for the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

Move to approve.

Second.

We have a motion and a second with the city clerk, please call a roll.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Scoonover?

Yes.

Dr.

Felter?

Yes.

Mr.

Vacus.

Yes.

Mr.

Craighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Danal?

Yes.

Motion passes six zero.

The Citizens Police Advisory Council acts as a liaison between the community and our police department, giving a voice to the residents we serve.

So tonight we are appointing two new members here to introduce them as Council Chair Nile or Kyle Neil.

So Kyle, would you please come forward?

I'm Ashley Reese.

I've been a lifelong Olatha resident.

I came through the Olatha Public School System and went away for school and law school, but came on back, and now I'm an attorney in Olatha living and working here.

So I appreciate this opportunity to be able to serve my community.

Thank you to our council members and to you, Mayor, for allowing me to be on this council.

Additionally, we would like to also recognize and appoint Pauly Rolofson to the CPAC this evening.

Thank you so much for having me here this evening as part of the deaf community.

My family is deaf.

We have four generations that have graduated from the Kansas School of the Deaf.

And I'm so happy to partner with the police department as a representative of the Deaf Community.

Thank you so much.

So thanks again to our CPAC members for all the work they do and for taking the time to be here tonight and for their willingness to serve on our boards and committees.

We appreciate that.

We'll now move to item B.

Item B is a presentation on the Olatha Mayor's Children's Fund 2025 campaign.

Tonight we got to begin the evening by handing out some checks.

It's always fun to our 2025 Olatha Mayor Children's Fund Charity Partners.

They'll be using money from the 2025 campaign to meet the basic needs of kids right here in Olatha.

Here to present on the success of the 2025 campaign is board chair Kathy Hutchinson and board vice chair Bev Flores.

So thanks for being here, ladies.

You have the floor.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

I am Kathy Hutchinson, and I am the chair of the Olatha Mayor's Children's Fund board this year.

I am deeply passionate about helping people, especially children.

It's been an honor to serve as the chair of the board this year.

Every dollar we raise stays right here in Olatha.

These donations support our local charities working to meet the basic needs of Olatha kids.

We define basic needs as food, clothing, shelter, and health and education.

Our charities offer free meals, weekend snack bags, free shoes, rent and utility assistance, even hygiene bags.

2025 was an exceptional year.

That is by far the most money the campaign has ever raised in 19 years.

We saw regular donors step up in big ways.

We had a great showing at all of our fundraisers, and we saw many new donors as well.

And I'll introduce you to Beth.

Good evening.

I'm Beverly Flores, Vice Chair of the Olatha Mayor's Children's Fund.

We made more than $21,000 at Extravaganza, which is one of our core annual events.

We sold out both seatings, and we saw new and old sponsors come out to support Olatha kids.

Thank you especially to First Watch for donating the space, the weight staff, and much of the amazing food.

This event truly wouldn't happen without First Watch.

Thanks as well to Fox Forest Oloria for once again MCing the event.

And now to our second annual pickleball tournament, which made more than $6,000 this year.

Thank you to the Olatha Parks and Rec and the Pickleball community for helping with this event.

Thank you also to our top donors.

First, we have Shane and Hope Ring of My Travel Stickers.

The Olatha Community Prayer Breakfast, which continues to increase every year in their support.

Next, we have Kirby's Lawn and Garden, Karen Cecil, and the Olatha Chamber of Commerce.

We would not be able to do the things we are without the support of these top donors.

Once again, the Olatha Public Schools families and staff were our biggest donor.

The Pennies for Shoes campaign raised $36,156.14 cents.

This was outstanding.

The schools that raise the most money are Manchester Park Elementary, Chisholm Trail Middle School, and Olatha East High School.

Thank you to the United Office Products, Enterprise Bank, and the Olatha Mayor's Children's Fund Team Committee for your partnership on this fundraiser.

This is an incredible amount of money that the schools raise each year.

Yet each year, Center of Grace has to supplement those funds to fulfill each request that they receive.

This is how high the demand is for a pair of shoes.

Last year, through this program, Center of Grace handed out 1,252 certificates for shoes.

Thank you to our school community for your hard work on this campaign.

Center of Grace Children's Shoe Fund, $36,154.

Center of Grace Clothing Project, $6,510.

Boys and Girls Club, $15,000.

Olatha Public Schools Foundation, $16,000.

Catholic Charities, $19,000.

YMCA, $8,396.

Salvation Army, $7,137.

And we're not done yet.

$20,737.

Johnson County Christmas Bureau, $14,454.

El Centro, $9,636.

KVC, $14,334.

Starfish Project, $10,000.

Life Journey Foundation, $2,938.

Muffin, $6,337.

And finally, Kids TLC, $6,360.

With this year's campaign total, we've raised more than $2.4 million for Olatha kids in 19 years.

2026 is our 20th campaign.

How many children we have helped, thanks to your support.

Thank you also to Mayor Bacon for your leadership.

And also, she did not put this in the notes here.

To Liz Roebuck with the mayor's office, who is truly the glue for our board.

She is always there, and she is always a voice for the needs within the community.

Thank you especially to my fellow board members.

This year we welcome nine new board members.

And as you saw the great work they did this year, we are also saying goodbye tonight to one of our founding board members, Ruth Nelson.

Ruth started this board 20 years ago alongside Mayor Copeland and Karen Hooven.

None of us would be here without her, and I can personally attest to the inspiration and the force of good that she is in the Olatha community.

Thank you, Ruth.

I have the privilege of being the chair for the 2026 campaign.

We look forward to building an incredible momentum off of 2025 to make next year and the 20th year even better.

Thank you.

Onwards and upwards.

So thank you both for your hard work and the entire board for all they do for our community and their commitment to Olatha Kids.

If you're interested in learning more about the fund, you can go to OlathaCares.org and I would like to echo uh Bev's comments about thanking Liz Rubek, my assistant.

She works hard on keeping everything moving right.

And I I suppose the board's going to start raising money right away for the 2026 campaign.

So they spend the entire year trying to find creative ways to separate you from your money.

So that's what they do.

And they do a great job.

And we appreciate all that.

So thank you so much.

We'll now move to item C in our special business presentation of the K-State Olatha Annual Report since 2011.

K-State Olatha has been solidifying its role in our community to help people advance their education, to help local industries get a skilled workforce, and to make OLATH a hub of research, innovation, and collaboration.

The growth we've seen recently at the campus has been terrific and really exciting.

Here to update us on the K-State Olathe is Dean Ben Wolf.

So Dr.

Wolf, thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, everybody.

Good evening, Mayor, good evening, City Council members, and good evening, the community here.

It's always my pleasure to come once a year and be able to provide updates about the exciting things that are happening over at the K-State Olatha campus.

I always like to start when I um look at the K-State Olatha campus.

I've I've been in this role now about four years and was tasked with reinvigorating and kind of thinking about differently what we could do with this campus and help it to grow to really be K-State in Kansas City.

And part of that was to create a new strategic plan in alignment with the university's overall strategic plan called the next generation land grant university.

And so thinking about what does a land grant university like Kansas State look like in the year 2026.

And part of that process was setting out kind of some guideposts or some goals that we wanted to achieve by 2030.

And those are shown up here.

There are four kind of basic um guideposts for us that we're aiming for.

And the first is to grow enrollment, uh target of about 500 students.

We currently have a little over 225 students on the campus, which is a growth from what it was four years ago when I came in, um, as well as about 2,500 what we call learners or non-credit um individuals that are looking for upskilling, maybe not a full degree or credential, but more of an upskilling just in time training.

And so we think that this is a good target and an appropriate one for the campus of our size.

In addition, we have a dual mandate, in addition to just doing the education pieces for the public, it's also research.

The research on our campus is a little bit different than our Manhattan or Celina campus, which is more the traditional uh discovery research that you're thinking about.

The K-State Olathe campus really focuses on applied and translated uh translational research.

So we work closely with industries uh to identify real world problems, issues that they're having, questions they're wanting to answer, and then we work closely with them to um apply research, uh testing evaluation services for them.

We want to grow that to about a $3 million a year average.

I'm very proud to say that this last year in 2025, we achieved that $3 million average, uh, and we're on track to again reach that $3 million revenue generating target for the campus this year.

Obviously, our campus exists because of the foresight of Johnson County in 2008 voting for uh the Johnson County Education Research Triangle.

That's what allowed K-State to come in to Johnson County, also bolstered KU Edwards campus as well as the KU Medical Center's clinical trial operations.

As part of that, we do recognize that we want to diversify our revenue streams to not rely solely on the JCERT tax revenue, but also bring in these other revenue.

For example, the $3 million average of testing evaluation services.

And I'm glad to say that we are making great strides in identifying new revenue streams with professional continuous education as well as our applied research applied research, excuse me.

And then the last is what a land grant does.

We're in all 105 counties of the state of Kansas.

We are the university for Kansas, and so part of that is community engagement, strengthening our partnerships with industry and strengthening our partnerships with the community.

So what's happening at the campus right now?

Well, I'm excited to say we're growing.

Lots of growth, lots of activity that has happened.

Um we're seeing that um, as I mentioned, uh a little over 225 students.

We're on track to uh continue that growth.

One of our fastest growing programs, I'm proud to say, is our personal financial planning.

That was started about 24 months ago, uh, and it already is upwards of 40 students in just two years.

So that was a phenomenal example of how we can bring undergraduate degree completion programs to the campus and meet the transfer student needs at Johnson County Community College, Kansas City, Kansas Community College, as well as Metropolitan Community College.

I'm also excited to say we're adding several more bachelor degree completion programs this fall.

The first is um our BS in applied and interdisciplinary studies.

Uh this was approved by K-Bore in their January board meeting, and it is essentially a uh a bachelor of general studies type of degree.

It's a great pathway for individuals that have some college but no degree, and they have enough credits to graduate, they just need to compile it together and then focus on an emphasis and then finish out.

They just need to compile it together and then focus on an emphasis and then finish out.

So we think this is a huge opportunity to reach the large population of some college, no degree.

In addition, we're making great strides with our engineering technology program.

We have a number of certificates that are coming along in robotics automation, as well as advanced manufacturing.

And I'm really excited in partnering with the College of Health and Human Sciences and launching the bachelor's degree completion program in nutrition and health, which will start this fall, which we think is a great program, provides another avenue for allied health workers in the Kansas City area, and is a really nice degree to complement what Johnson County Community College is doing with their associates programs.

As I mentioned, advanced manufacturing is a major focus area for the academics.

It's also a major focus area with our revenue.

Many of you were able to attend our ribbon cutting ceremony just a few weeks ago, about a month ago, where we opened the bulk solids uh technology center, and we're now on track to uh finish out the um require the remaining learning um uh equipment that we need to be able to offer the lab courses for the engineering tech program.

I'm very proud that in addition to the five million dollar investment that we uh put forward to finish out the remaining space on the um Olatha campus.

We also secured about 1.3 million dollars in in-kind donations from industry partners, many who are here in Olatha, Horizon, Coparion, and many of these other manufacturers that are very excited to have this facility located here in the city of Olatha.

This is great space.

We're excited about the teaching and learning capabilities that are um available to uh future students in this space.

Most importantly, and what I'm very excited to announce tonight is that on January 23rd, we were um able to uh successfully secure a five million dollar federal appropriation signed by the president that was put forward by Representative Sharice David's office as well as Senator Moran's office in a bipartisan effort to bring um this these dollars here to K-State Olathas to be able to allow us to finish out and provide the equipment necessary for the advanced manufacturing center.

So very excited about that opportunity, and we're excited to bring state of the art equipment to provide training for our students.

Another major focus area for our campus, I mentioned nutrition health as a bachelor's degree completion program, is our growth area in food for health or food as medicine as oftentimes you might hear it called.

This is an initiative I first brought to the campus uh several years ago.

We've been working with um our partners in Manhattan as well as our partners at KU, UMKC, and Kansas City University, the DO Medical School over on the Missouri side, to identify opportunities and gaps that exist in our research and education for food as medicine in the area.

In addition, we have fully relocated the um K-State Sensory and Consumer Research Center from Manhattan to the Olatha campus.

Many of you maybe have been out to our campus to do taste testings.

Uh we've done bacon and ice cream and all sorts of great stuff.

If you haven't been able to sign up for that, let me know.

We'd love to get you into our database and you can participate in some of our consumer research studies on the campus there.

Uh we are excited now to start moving forward and identifying opportunities for um faculty hires to help us grow out our research in this area, particularly in food science as well as culinary medicine.

And we're also excited about kind of investing in rebolstering our food innovation accelerator.

Many of you are probably familiar with our kitchens on our campus.

We have spun out a number of local businesses here in Olatha that have started as entrepreneurs and used our space as startup and accelerator opportunities, and we're very excited to be able to take that to the next level.

The new area that we're focusing on on our campus that aligns closely with manufacturing, it's kind of looking at manufacturing as the entire life cycle of manufacturing.

So we have bulk solids, which is the raw material inputs.

We now have engineering technology, which is the training of the automated systems that actually put the products together.

But then how do you get it to market?

And so it's a natural extension for us then to look at transportation and logistics supply chain on our campus.

It makes sense with what we already have happening in Manhattan.

It's a it's a very strong area of expertise for uh Kansas State University.

And we have brought uh Dr.

Eric Fitzsimmons, who is a in um the civil engineering program in Manhattan.

He now is located at the K-State Olatha campus, very successful researcher.

He just secured um previously a three million dollar grant.

He just announced a $2.2 million grant with the motor carrier uh vehicle safety part of the Department of Transportation federal office there.

And we're very excited to be able to provide some research in these areas.

In addition, we've been working with the Kansas Department of Transportation, and I'm very excited that we're going to be able to locate a portion of their staff on our campus here in Olatha probably late spring of this of this year.

So what does that mean looking ahead?

As I mentioned, we are growing.

And uh it's very exciting time to be at K-State Olatha.

And we're growing in a very strategic way to meet what the needs are for Kansas.

We are being very intentional to focus on what is the emerging industry, what are the workforce needs, what are the training needs, and what are the research needs.

And we're seeing that advanced manufacturing is a major component of that.

We're seeing human health as it deals with food science and food safety and food security as a major growth area.

Transportation supply chain is a major growth area.

So I'm very pleased with the momentum we have in those areas.

Our key action items is that we're you're going to use this federal appropriation now to fully outfit the advanced manufacturing hub and be able to launch these programs fully this fall.

As well as I said, meant um focus on growing the food innovation accelerator, integrating sensory and consumer sciences.

We are looking at opportunities for growth in pilot scale food production as well as beverage production as well.

And then continue to focus on how do we grow out our transportation grant and research um focus areas for the campus.

And with that, I'm happy to take questions.

Thank you, Dr.

Wolf.

Questions of uh Dr.

Wolf.

By anybody?

We appreciate the information and always the good report.

Um I would like I didn't know about K DOT coming on your campus.

I hope they have to commute on K-10 because we're looking for some money from this.

That's right.

That's right.

For some improvements.

So that'll be awesome.

Absolutely.

They get to experience that every day.

Absolutely.

Thanks for being here.

We look forward to your report every year.

Absolutely.

Exciting things happening.

And you know, I was out there when uh doing a tour, and uh one of your tenants makes pies, and we got to taste the pies.

Absolutely.

To volunteer to come back and do that any time.

So that was very happy to have you come try us by.

So thank you for being here.

You bet.

Appreciate it.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

We'll now move to the consent agenda.

The items listed below are considered be routine by the city council, may be approved in one motion.

These may include items that have been reviewed by the city council in a prior planning session.

There will be no separate discussion unless a council member requests that an item be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately.

Council, are there any such items this evening?

Seeing that a motion to approve the consent agenda would be in order.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move to uh approve the consent agenda as stated with items A through H.

Second.

We have a motion and a second with the City Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr.

Skinover.

Yes.

Dr.

Felter?

Yes.

Mr.

Vaucus.

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Denult?

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Motion passes.

60.

We'll now move to new business.

New business is consideration of ordinance number 26-09 authorizing issuance of industrial revenue bonds on behalf of Cedar Creek Development 8 LLC in an amount not to exceed 15 million 355,272 exemption only.

The City Council passed a resolution expressing intent to issue these bonds back in 2014.

The bonds finance the expansion of the Atmos Energy Regional Headquarters.

Is there a need for a presentation on this item or questions of staff seeing that a motion be in order?

I move to improve to approve ordinance 26-09.

Second.

We have a motion and a second with the city clerk, please call it roll.

Dr.

Felter.

Yes.

Mr.

Bachis.

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton?

Yes.

Mr.

Denult.

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Skinnover.

Yes.

Motion passes 6-0.

Next is general issues and concerns of citizens.

We have three individuals that have signed up to speak tonight.

So would the city clerk please read the guidelines and then call the individuals up to speak to us.

The council has extended this privilege to allow people who live and work in Olathe to address concerns to the City Council.

Speakers must only address the council and council members are not required to respond.

Please treat others with kindness and respect.

Welcome.

Hi.

Sorry, there aren't more people here to hear this.

I just want to say thank you so much.

Kate Gimbalow, 11236 South Race Street.

So something personal.

Six months ago, my dear friend Jeannie asked me if I would speak at her celebration of life.

She knew she was moving through the end of her physical existence, and she wanted to know if I would share some thoughts with those who loved her when that time came.

And that night, as I sat there with that weight on me, I thought, you know, so often we wait to say the things that we admire and love about others until it's too late.

And so I sat there and I wrote down everything that I thought I would say, and I sent it to her.

And it mattered to her, and it mattered to me.

Earlier this evening I was at uh Red Crow Brewing Company, a local news channel, had a listening session for citizens of Olatha.

And I assumed that the conversations would center on who was upset, upset about the school bond, about the star bond, for the chiefs, about the growth and the change of the city.

And I know those conversations matter.

Civic accountability matters.

I know all of you are aware of the times that I have stood here at the podium to hold the city and the council to account.

But tonight I realized I have the same opportunity with all of you that I had with my genie.

You know, an opportunity to say the good things out loud.

My family chose this city 18 and a half years ago when our son was born.

We chose it intentionally because of what this city represents then and what it continues to represent now.

We chose it for the schools, which remain one of the greatest points of pride in this community.

The 21st century program is extraordinary.

I try to tell friends outside of Kansas how amazing it is, and they are bowled over by it.

Our teachers, our administrators, our staff are heart forward and deeply, deeply invested in our children.

We chose Olatha for the safety and the infrastructure, our police department, our fire department, all of our first responders.

They embody service at the highest level every day.

And we chose Olatha for the vision.

From the revitalization of downtown to the Chiefs Headquarters Project to new developments like Halo Ridge and Michael's Wonder World.

These investments signal a belief in the future of this city.

I know that growth is not simple.

I know the decisions are made with not everyone agreeing.

And I know that there are always going to be more things to do.

Too often, though, residents only come to this microphone, including me, when they are dissatisfied or they disagree.

So tonight, I want to do the opposite.

Tonight I want to say thank you.

I want to thank you for the long hours for the visioning for the debate, for the responsibility that you carry in shaping this community.

I live in deep gratitude for Olatha for what it has given my family for the work each of you continues to do.

I will hold you accountable when needed, but tonight I want you to hear this clearly that I am grateful, that I am hopeful, and I thank each of you for your service.

Our next speaker is Charlotte O'Hara.

Please go to the podium, state your name and address for the record.

Good evening, Charlotte O'Hara, 15712 Windsor.

I own uh industrial property out on Keeler Street, and we also have a small manufacturing company here in Olatha.

I've had connections with Olatha my entire adult life.

And um I think that Mayor Bacon was thrilled when he opened my email today, and it wasn't about the star bonds.

But uh I do want to give you a little bit of a report.

I was out in Wamigo on Sunday, and uh there is a lot of concern and disconsent or I discontent about the finance package on the star bonds.

And you need to to realize that this is boiling up across the state of Kansas to the point that the financing for the Central Bridge in Wyandotte County that was part of that deal that was promised by the governor has been taken out of the budget.

So you need to need to be aware of that.

And I just it's it's just incumbent upon you to understand the angst of people that were shut out of the process.

I hope that in the future that when we have this type of uh development, that the public will be welcome from the very beginning, because that has been a very, very sore point for a lot of people, including myself.

Um we are looking at legislation to approve the sports authority, and that is a necessary part for the chiefs to have uh tax exempt bonds.

Um this is going to require, as I've been uh told, legislative approval.

We have to realize that it may have a little bit of a tough, tough road to hoe.

And I hope that the process in Topeka will be open and that there will be debate.

I know the typical way that things happen in Topeka, I've been there, is that it slipped in at the last minute and a rush vote and lack of transparency and debate, and I hope that we can have a little a absolute vibrant conversation about this before we go forward.

Appreciate your time.

And Mayor Bacon, I hope that you enjoyed my poem today.

Thank you.

Our last speaker is Andrea Smith.

Please go to the podium, state your name and address for the record.

Hello.

My name is Andrea Smith.

I'm at 1430 East Orleans Drive.

I have copies if you guys are interested in my speech.

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

I'm here on behalf of a group of concerned neighbors, many of whom are present tonight.

We are requesting that the city review the construction and intended use of property 1424 East.

Could you step a little closer to the mic?

Sure.

Is that better?

Yep.

Okay, perfect.

We sorry, I'll go back.

We are requesting that the city review the construction and intended use of the property at 1424 East Meadow Lane to ensure its compliance with zoning, occupancy limits, and permitting requirements.

First permitting and zoning.

Construction appears to have begun before the proper permits were issued based on the scale of remodeling, including what we believe to the addition of multiple rooms.

The intended use may exceed what is allowed by right under R1-designated noted in code 18.20.500.

In the structure is being prepared for higher density senior housing, it would require a special use permit or rezoning to R4, both requiring public notification and comment period.

The installation of two-inch fire line typically associated with NFPA 13R requirements for structure housing, 9 to 16 occupants suggested occupancy level beyond R1 limit to 8.

This raises concern that the building is being prepared for use that has not been disclosed or approved.

Also leading to the SUP or rezoning concerns.

The facility operating at a distant excuse me, denestic with R1 zoning, could affect our property values and future tax assessments.

If our homes are compared to a structure no longer functioning as a single family resident, we have attempted to see clarification through the appropriate channels, but construction continues and occupancy appears in a minute, leaving us without answers.

We respectfully request that city review this project, provide transfer regarding us intended use and pause occupancy and compliance is verified.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Okay.

We want to thank all our speakers tonight.

We'll now move to our planning session.

We have two reports.

Report one is a quarterly procurement report.

Any questions on that?

Second report is a report regarding proposed amendments to Title 10 of the Olatha Municipal Code, and this is on our lathe traffic ordinance scooters.

Is there a question or need for a presentation?

We want to talk about that a little bit as a council tonight.

Councilmember Creighton has some questions, or would you like staff to present a little bit?

Yeah, how they arrived at with just a little bit better.

I think that would be good.

I'll like I've got some questions too.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, Bob Galllimore, Assistant City Attorney.

So as you're aware, uh the council has already enacted some ordinances over the past few years to proactively address some of the issues that have been developing with e-bikes and these scooters.

And staff has continued to monitor what other uh neighboring cities are doing as well as what's occurring with these devices in Olatha.

Uh we heard some concerns raised by members of the council last fall.

Um we also um been kind of looking at what best practices might be and having conversations with the traffic unit of our police department to see what could help them uh with enforcement.

And so after considering all those things, um we did report to you last fall that we thought that the primary uh effort that would be needed would be educational efforts uh as people uh are buying these devices and using these devices, they uh frequently may not be aware of what the uh existing law is on them.

Uh but we also uh especially in talking with the traffic unit determined uh several changes that we thought might be helpful to make before we start those educational efforts.

And so those changes uh are reflected in this proposed ordinance.

And I might just hit a couple of uh uh give you a broad view of kind of what we're doing.

Uh we're making some adjustments to some of the definitions uh to help folks that are reading the ordinances hopefully better understand uh what devices fall into which categories.

Um we also are making a uh proposed change that we're seeing with some of our neighboring cities, which is to require helmets for any users of scooters, e-scooters uh that are under the age of 18.

Um you may have heard recently uh several other cities in Johnson County have done this.

I think uh warrants and and Topeka also uh require scooters for for certain minors uh for e-scooters.

We uh in talking with our traffic unit, one of the challenges um that we discovered in enforcement is with all the different classes and types of vehicles, and it seems like we get new ones every day as the manufacturers kind of come up with with new spins on existing vehicles.

Uh they they told us it would be helpful if we could combine some of these devices into a couple of classes so that when they're out there enforcing uh they know what they're looking at and they know you know what rules apply without having to dig deep into all the different statutes and all the different ordinances.

And so their suggestion uh was that we combine our scoot our e-scooter ordnance in with a class called micromobility devices.

Derby has done this and uh they thought it was very uh a good idea for us.

And so that's what we've done.

Um then we also have bicycles and e-bikes that are kind of uh treated as a class as well.

So they're treated like bicycles, and then the electric assisted scooters will be treated in this class with uh called micromobility devices, which will include motorized skateboards and uh devices similar to that.

So that's kind of a broad overview.

If you have questions about any of the particulars, I'm happy to address those uh or any any other questions as well.

Okay, so you're ready for questions at this point.

Okay, I'm gonna start with uh Councilmember Creighton.

Thank you.

I um actually didn't have any questions.

I had read your report.

The thing that I wanted to make sure that we got on the record because I didn't know how detailed this was going to be, and I did talk to our police chief uh within the last couple of days about the educational component of it, and I think that's really important, especially in our schools.

Um kids just don't understand sometimes the position they put themselves in, and with there have been some uh uh deaths and injuries in the area.

And so uh I'm glad that there is going to be an educational uh component of this.

And actually on the way here tonight I observed uh some young person who is probably middle school age run through a stoplight in front of a vehicle.

And so it was your timing to speak to us tonight was uh very important and it just was a reminder when I saw that act activity that fortunately nothing happened, but thank you for the educational portion of it.

Councilmember Denall.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for putting all this together, my dad.

I've got a kid who uh loves to go riding bikes and things with their uh kids, uh their friends and things like that.

I have a couple of questions.

Is it too early to ask kind of what some of the education would be and also what kind of how would it be enforced after it's implemented?

So on the educational part, we're I think we haven't gotten into too many specifics, but the the general plan would be to utilize as many city communication channels as possible uh to push education out there.

Uh obviously the ordinance change would be uh a reason to do that, and then we could also um kind of more broadly hit highlights of the applicable law, whether or not um it's a change that's specifically being made in this one.

Yes.

And then on enforcement have you gotten into that yet to kind of look at what that looks like well so the um there are specific penalties provided in the code.

I'm not responsible for the enforcement so I can't really speak to that.

I don't know if one of the representatives of the police department would like to chief would.

Mike Utah dear police chief yeah we're going to do a very extensive campaign on education.

We're gonna we're gonna base that first we're gonna work with the school district and our school resource officers are going to work with city communication on messaging the fire department on their bike rodeos and just a wholesale educational campaign before we do anything.

So when the time is right um and things are published uh we'll probably start enforcement at the appropriate time uh and you know it might start off on as a complaint basis uh trying to solve problems and also educating kids you know for the first time that we contact them sounds good I know you guys have already started the education piece my kid uh was uh wearing a helmet and got a coupon for I think Andy's or something like that.

Yeah that's excellent ice cream yeah so thank you.

Any other questions?

Council member Schoonover Thank you.

I I see in the ordinance we we don't require insurance for for these micro mobility devices right I do we know I guess my question is do we know are there insurance products available that would cover these items and if there are should we require insurance for them.

I understand the logic of not requiring insurance if nobody will actually insure them, but if insurance is available is it something we should require we will look into that and see whether there are insurance products available.

I can tell you generally in the the traffic ordinance we we generally follow state law with regard to that.

The only exception I can think of two exceptions I can think of are um golf carts and work no microutility trucks um where uh the way state law is structured on those is it's permissive for cities to um affirmatively allow them to be operated on their roads and so we made the decision to allow that and as part of that we have um required insurance for those and also uh a driver's license to operate them so we we generally follow state law on the types of devices we're we're talking about here tonight as to insurance but we can look into uh whether uh insurance products are available and whether any other cities have kind of gone down that road to to require insurance for those devices.

Thank you.

I think that would make sense.

Bob so can you give me an example of a tr of a location in Olatha that would be a pedestrian use only trail?

Because it it specifically says that they're prohibited if it's for pedestrian use only.

So there's been some confusion in the past about signage and our old ordinance uh gave electric scooters a definition similar to a bicycle so when it said no motorized vehicles it didn't exempt scooters, electric scooters.

So but now we're talking about trails for pedestrian use only.

So what trails in Olatha will be pedestrian use only and what does that exactly mean?

Here's another thing that might be helpful.

And we were talking about information pieces to get out to folks.

So if we could boil this down to a to uh information sheet that maybe a 10-year-old could could see what the changes are going to be in a latha that might be helpful.

And the soon we're not talking about adopting this tonight, but the sooner we could get that out there maybe we'll get some feedback.

I'm sure we thought of a lot of things but maybe we haven't thought of everything in regards to this because this affects a lot of people and kind of the trend in some of our uh ways to get around so I don't know uh first of all talk about pedestrian only trails.

If you if you have or can you get that to us if you don't know today so I don't know that there are any trails marked uh as pedestrian use today um I will check with parks and see if we have any that are marked that way.

Um I will check with parks and see if we have any that are marked that way.

Um the intent in drafting that um to allow affirmative signage as either pedestrian use or restricting the use of these devices.

Uh we did hear concerns from council members last fall uh of some constituents who had encountered devices on certain trails.

And so we wanted to have a tool uh as we were making these changes where if there were specific trails identified where usage of these devices was a problem, we would not have to come back into the code to make a uh another change to the code itself.

We would be able to go ahead and post signage on those trails to address the issue uh on a specific trail if if there was one.

Um with that being said, I will check with parks and see whether we have any trails that are currently uh posted at uh already as pedestrian use only.

Well, so when we um opened up our new downtown uh Kansas Avenue, you know, the nice and it's got a dedicated bicycle trail.

One of the things that's fairly short, I don't know, it's four or five blocks long.

It's not very long.

And part of the problem was if I want to ride my motorized vehicle there, how do I get there?

And so we uh loosened the restrictions on motorized vehicles on some of our trails, so at least it has some connectivity, and I think that was the goal.

Instead of just having five blocks isolated in one little piece, and I guess you got to get in your car to get here and then enjoy it for two minutes or whatever long it takes and then take it back home.

That's really not the point.

Hopefully not.

So I I hope that there's not too many trails in Aletha where we're going to have pedestrian use only.

We have education in people on how we share the trail.

And so that people we we utilize our trails to the fullest extent.

That's my intent on this.

Um I don't know, uh the soonest we can get that information out, I think would be uh good for me.

Um, and mayor.

Um if I can just respond to that.

I think that was the intent of staff as well.

Um and that was why we only incorporated a possible signage in case there was a problem area that we needed to address.

Um I I think there uh there was a desire for uh folks to be able to use these devices um on trails uh so long as we weren't encountering a specific issue on on a trail, and then we would have that tool that we could use to address that.

I don't know if any been into Venice Beach in California, but they have specific so they try to accommodate both.

They all have specific trails for for e bikes and and bicycles and then pedestrians, you'll get yelled at if you use their trail.

I I've been there, so I know that.

So I don't know, maybe we need to look at something like that.

If there are areas with where there's wheelchairs or people that aren't can't move out of the way you know easily, maybe we try to find a way to accommodate both in that area or something like that.

I don't know.

We can talk about it.

I don't know what other communities do, but I know that's how it's done at Bennsby.

Um e-scooters, there we have some that are licensed, right?

And so our our ordinance is not going to address scooters that are licensed, because you might have a scooter that's licensed, it's got a 16-year-old, doesn't have a helmet on.

What's the what's the city's position?

The state says you don't have to have a helmet.

Right.

So if it was uh so if it was an e-scooter where they had to be licensed, um it would not uh fall under the technical definition of an e-scooter under either state law or uh our code.

And so whatever the applicable provision for the categor categorization of that device was under state law where our code would apply as to whether or not a helmet needed to be worn.

And I believe excuse me, under our code at least, um, which I think mirrors state law on this, um the only other uh helmet provision um would be well currently there's a helmet provision for under 18 for the um hoverboards, one-wheel devices that are that we're kind of building into this um one grouping.

Uh the other requirement, I think is if you drive a motorcycle or a motor-driven cycle and you're under 18, you also have to wear a helmet.

For state law.

I didn't know that one.

I believe so.

Okay.

Yep.

All right.

Okay.

Um any other questions on this.

So um so when do you think you could get the information piece to kind of boil this down to plain language so people will know what we're proposing to change here?

Sure.

Well, uh, we will work to get that uh to you as soon as possible.

You know, we want you to be able to move forward uh with uh any proposed changes uh as soon as you can because the weather's warming up uh and we would like to get the information out about whatever changes are made.

Um is you know we do expect device usage to uh increase as as the weather continues to get nicer.

So okay.

Thank you.

Good information.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right.

Now we'll move to discussion items.

Uh we have one, and it's a discussion of the 2026 Olatha Outdoor Sculpture Series.

Uh Renee Rush is the city liaison.

It's for the Olatha Public Art Committee.

She joins us with a presentation.

Welcome, Renee.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, Council.

Renee Rush, Evans and Reynolds Manager, Quality of Life.

Um, and tonight we are here to share the committee's recommendations for the 2026 Olatha Outdoor Sculpture Series.

Um just want to acknowledge we have a couple of our committee members in the audience here, Greg and Frank, so thanks for joining us.

And um, Chelsea Walker, she's our our amazing art committee chair.

She's gonna do the presentation tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, Renee.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members, Chelsea Walker, chair of the Olatha Public Art Committee.

Um, just to give you a little bit of background, um this downtown outdoor sculpture uh exhibit has been going even longer than the committee has back in 2004 is when it began and then it was rebranded as the Olatha Outdoor Sculpture series in 2025 so that we could expand to more than just the downtown area.

Um we usually choose between six to eight sculptures a year.

This is because we allocate about $15,000 from the general fund to pay for the stipend to lease these sculptures for a year.

And so that's why the numbers sometimes fluctuates if we feel like there's a sculpture that's really compelling that's over that number, we will pull from um from the art uh committee budget.

So this year was a record year.

We had over 70 or 70 artists submitted a total of 125 sculptures for six for consideration, so we were very busy reviewing all these um submissions.

And um they are reviewed and scored by members of the Olatha Public Art Committee.

And we selected seven sculptures this year.

And so um, and one of them is actually sponsored by the Azura Credit Union, which is great.

I think that's so fun that we're getting some of our business members in the community to take notice of the art.

So I'm gonna go through and introduce each of the sculptures.

Um of them I will read the descriptions that the artists have submitted.

Some of them I will just kind of explain what draw drew us to it because some of their uh descriptions you can tell why they chose art instead of writing.

Because you know, making things is better, a better way for them to communicate.

So I'm an artist, so I can say that without being too mean.

I feel them.

So this first one um is called blues, and we just thought that it was a really fun way um to dress up, possibly um skate stagecoach park because there's a pad there.

It's where we do our concert programming, and the pad's right by the stage, so it would be a fun addition to that area.

And um the artist just really wanted to educate us on the blues, which I think is kind of interesting.

He wrote a long paragraph.

I'll just summarize it.

Um but he says it uh the blues are originating in the south after the U.S.

Civil War.

It comes from the oral tradition of African American work songs and spirituals and blues songs centered around the pain of loss and injustice, but also express victory in surviving these painful experiences.

So I thought that was a really great addition to what we're going through right now as a nation, you know, that dichotomy of the good and the bad, the push and the pull, and then also just a great way to dress up stagecoach programming there.

This one is the stars on parade, and um it's kind of an exciting one for this year being the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.

So it's this kind of stretching out of a five-pointed star.

So um as you rotate or move around the sculpture, the stars will look different from different angles, which is kind of exciting.

And we thought that it would be a great photo op for people visiting from all over the world during the FIFA World Cup.

Um this piece is called Tween.

And the artist just wrote a young girl stands on a rock holding a rabbit.

Um but we thought that it was kind of fun because it's a representational piece.

A lot of the works that we choose are abstract, and so we try to balance out our selection and engage, you know, just a wider audience.

And I thought it was interesting that the artist's last name is Hare and she's holding a rabbit.

I thought that was kind of cute.

This one is called Misery Gestorium.

The artist wrote a very long explanation of this one.

But I will just summarize their thoughts.

It's a combination of figurative and or non-objective sculpture, depending on the viewer's point of view.

So it could be viewed as a figure striding with purpose into unknown territory.

It can also be viewed as a non-objector sculpture where the viewer sees a combination of shapes, unlike anything in the three-dimensional world, combined with attributes of tension, torque, and movement.

There's surprise built into the sculpture from every angle, and we thought that it would be very visually interesting along Northgate to activate that space because it is so tall.

It's 16 feet tall, which is really great.

Just a wonderful pop of color there.

It was assigned to a different city that the artist had applied to first.

So we're excited to be able to get it this year.

The reader actually, it started as just a sketch back in 2007.

And the artist's father, as his last request said, please make it into a sculpture.

So the artist made this sculpture in 2023, and there's an inscription on the book, and it reads, Books fall open, you fall in, delighted where you've never been, hear voices not once heard before, reach world on world through door on door, find unexpected keys to things locked up beyond imaginings.

And this we thought could go at either of our wonderful libraries.

And we love the activation of being able to interact with the piece that you can sit on it, it's a bench and just be a fun addition to our library outdoor spaces.

This piece, um, prairie wind tussox is um one that has kind of a uh polarizing color.

We had people in the committee really not like the color, but I showed up in color because color activates dopamine, and it is it does initiate a response and it helps us feel happy.

And so when we're looking for sculptures on the committee, we are looking for bright pops of color to help contrast, you know, especially in the winter, a lathe that can be very brown or downtown.

We have a lot of older buildings, and so finding pieces that have color, and then this piece, especially, it's kinetic, and so the piece represents you know, prairie grass floating in the wind, and so it spins along that joint, which we thought was really exciting, and then just the ode to our prairie grasses that are native to here.

Um this is the piece that is going to be sponsored by Azura Credit Union, so that means they pay for the stipend the artist's stipend for it.

And um, there's a great backstory to why the artist, uh Jeff Moore created it.

Um he says the piece explores the emotions and desires I've experienced as a father raising three boys.

And I thought it was great that he he's using butterflies to represent his boys.

Um I use one of the most beautiful creatures as my inspiration, the butterfly.

The piece has three large butterflies, each one getting larger as it flies upward in the sky.

The natural change process the creature goes through is similar to the human experience, even though a butterfly's lifespan is drastically shorter.

As a parent, one can see connection to raising children, trying to provide and protect them before they start their journey into adulthood.

In this sculpture, I attempt to express the hope I desire as a father for my butterflies when they begin flying away to start their own adult lives.

And my son graduated from Olatha Northwest this past year, so I it's I definitely feel that sentiment of just wanting your children to find their wings as they fly away and try not to cry too much or eat too much chocolate.

That's been my goal.

Um we also these are our seven sculptures, but we also choose alternates because hopefully not, but almost every year some something happens where an artist has to decline our invitation to bring their sculpture to our city.

So these are the alternates, they're also really fun.

Ums Poppin's favorite is this kind of creative umbrella.

We have grass withers and flowers fall.

I think that with such a cheery sculpture, the title is a little depressing, but if you just were to see it, it's pretty fun.

This one, Betelgeuse is a really fun piece.

Um it wasn't chosen as one of our selection just because it is a little small for activating the spaces at only five feet, but really great color and kind of an inside-outside poll.

And then this last one, the pollinator.

Um an actual kayak as the base of this piece.

So really creative there.

Um so these are potential locations.

Um of course we have to refer to our parks and recs and um wonderful construction people.

I don't what's their official name?

The infrastructure.

Infrastructure.

Thank you.

Um they always help us when the sculptures arrive, they look at the bases and different things that we may not be able to see on the slides to help us decide where they might go.

But these are some pop possible locations.

Um Azura Credit Union and Northgate, of course, are the ones that are pretty assured there.

And I think that's the last slide.

Yeah.

So I'd just like to open this up for any questions.

Very good, Chelsea.

Once again, awesome pieces.

Great selection.

Uh questions of city uh councilmember Creighton.

Two thus two things.

First of all, thank you to our staff, but also to our uh citizens who are a part of this committee.

Uh great that we've got members of the community that are taking it part in the uh uh selection process.

Thank you to Renee for visiting with me this morning.

One question that was raised to me by a citizen was um, and this is something we spoke about, Renee, so it's I'm not gonna surprise you here.

Do we um prioritize local artists and uniquely local themes?

So if you've got just a moment you can comment on that, I'd appreciate it for the citizen.

Yeah, most absolutely.

We really want to feature local artists.

We always look for that, and we mentioned that in our call.

Umfortunately, being I'm I'm a sculptor, uh we it's there's few and far between.

We're we're a rare weird breed of people, and so um we can't program all of Olatha's art with just local artists.

There just aren't aren't enough submissions, and then we also have to prioritize prioritize um outdoor wear and the longevity of the piece, the safety of the piece.

Um we will get several submissions from local artists that just aren't suitable to be put in the public sphere, unfortunately.

So but we do really try and feature local artists.

Okay, thank you.

That's what I needed.

Any other questions?

Uh are we planning any permanent are we buying anything that we're currently uh displaying temporarily?

Have we selected any to keep here forever?

We have not this year.

Um we sometimes will chat about that as a committee if there's a piece that's really compelling.

In general, the um Public Art Master Plan kind of recommended that we cease buying sculptures from this sculpture exhibit um so that we can kind of reserve that funding for pieces um commissioned specifically for Olatha to kind of help tell Alatha stories and just be very like site-specific.

But we do uh occasionally there'll be a piece that's just really amazing, and and so we'll reach out to the artists in those cases and see if we can negotiate a good price to get it permanently.

So if there's a business in Olatha that says, you know, I really like that piece, I want to buy it and put it on our property.

Do they contact you, Renee, or who do they fall?

Yep, they can reach out to me.

And we've had that um trilogy cultural arts actually.

Um Bridget Taylor, she's on our art committee, but they actually have purchased um a couple pieces out of the sculpture exhibit.

So um the dancer, like pose dancers that you saw at Civic Center Park, those are on display at Trilogy right now.

Um so yeah, they're almost all for sale.

Um, and so anybody can reach out and um get more information.

Good.

We love a community for the code.

I also mentioned too um at the sculpture sites, their signage with the sculpture name and a QR code.

If they scan that QR code, it takes you to an online map.

Um it's like a public tour, so you can find all of the sculptures in our collection permanent and the temporary sculptures at each sculpture sign.

You probably send them money right there.

Right.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Great job.

We're looking forward to seeing these pieces.

I mean, every year it seems like they outdo the the year before.

So very good.

We'll now move to additional items.

I'll start on my right tonight.

Councilmember Denull.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um don't have a lot tonight.

I just wanted to say thank you to staff for putting together uh the work to make the trails and sidewalks and streets safer with the scooters.

Um another thing I wanted to mention just was I know I've gotten a handful of emails of people being uh concerned of various happenings in Olatha and it it concerns me as well.

Uh I know we're looking to understand what's going on and be sure you know we're we stay good, a good community that takes care of ourselves.

Um so I think it's uh this week is uh kindness is it yeah so that would be my my purview is uh take a moment to look at your neighbors and do something kind for them and show them uh the world's a good place in this neighborhood, this this uh community is a good place and just remind people of that.

Thanks.

Councilmember Bacchus.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just mentioned we are a well-grounded community and we'll come through this stronger.

Thank you, Councilmember Phillip.

Thank you.

I gave Ron Shaver, our attorney, a heads up that I was gonna ask about this.

Do you guys remember in November we authorized imminent domain for the school district that needed an easement over on the Lakeshore Meadows, and I asked for an update on that.

How's the negotiations going?

They're going.

Um we uh have had regular discussions with the owner of the land.

Um there's different uh options for the design of it uh as it would pertain to the lots that would be platted on the lots of the property.

So what that may mean is we if we cannot come to an agreement, we may need to come to you to amend the legal description in the ordinance and proceed forward with condemnation.

Uh we have a meeting later this week involving um there's several departments in the city working on the issue.

So uh members of the economy team and the infrastructure team have been engaged with us on the issue.

So later this week we'll have that meeting with a developer and their uh engineers uh try to come to some degree of resolution on the matter.

Uh we're trying to do it without actually filing the lawsuit.

But uh, we may get to it in fast and need to proceed.

So appreciate your question.

Well, I appreciate the update.

I would say you are long-suffering and very patient, much more than I am.

And just an update for our two new council members.

This is a over two-year-long.

Um the school district needs uh 931 linear foot 12-inch wide public sanitary sewer line easement, and then also uh uh construction easement for a future potential elementary school on a future potential development.

And a landown landowner has basically not been willing to negotiate on this.

Tell me if I'm phrasing this wrong wrong, Ronald.

Well, we aren't primitive to whatever that is happening on the district property and the ultimate development of it.

We just have an agreement with the district to proceed with acquiring an easement for them.

Um we're doing our best to proceed with it, and we're spending time regularly working on the thing to try to get done.

Uh I wish it were a simple, hey, here's here's our offer.

It's simple.

Let's go.

Um unfortunately it's not, but you know, we're again if we need to come back to you, we'll we'll be doing that in pretty short order if we have to, but we're trying not to.

I would say from my pers perspective, the school district is they're not asking for it for free.

They're offering money.

Um they've asked for help.

It's gone on a long time.

We approved in November to go through the imminent domain process and instructed Ron to negotiate.

And now we're almost, well, three months into that.

How long are we going to allow this to go on?

And I I would ask the council to provide Ron with an end date that he can give to the the owner to the party.

I I think our school district is bringing value to the area.

I will say as a 12-year-plus Board of Education public servant.

I never ran into anything like this before.

And it's very abnormal.

There have been all kinds of core requests and lots of distrust in in this entire transaction from what I've heard.

And I appreciate you working through this, but I personally am at the end of my long I have a long fuse.

I'm at the end of it.

I would like to see this done.

And I would welcome feedback or comment from anyone, but I would say 30 days.

I'd say I'd like to see this council take action.

I don't know if it's appropriate to make comments now, but that's my comments to you, Ron.

And I will move on to say something else.

February 22nd through 28th is National Engineers Week.

And while do we have some amazing engineers?

I just want to note how grateful we are for all of you and the amazing things that you do for all of our infrastructure and the communication within our city about what you're doing with the infrastructure.

I think that levels our entire community up quite a bit.

It differentiates us.

And then finally, congratulations to all of Olatha on being named the one number one of the best best places to live in Kansas.

And then like the top 80 in the nation.

And that's by U.S.

Uh News and World Report.

And that reflects a lot of work on this team's behalf.

So congratulations.

And Kate, thank you for your wonderful comments.

It's very rare that you see the full circle loop.

You usually hear the complaints that you don't hear the thank you.

So I want to reiterate we're grateful for that.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Scoonover.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, Kate, if you want to take another three minutes, I'd be that'd be great.

I'll wait until the room as well.

I'll come back.

All right, I appreciate that.

I appreciate that.

No, uh I I wanted to echo some of the sentiment that was raised um earlier.

You know, I I I know it's been a difficult kind of last few days for some of the members in our uh or or for some of our neighbors in our community.

Um we've we've heard um and seen reports that that ice has been out uh rather publicly in the community.

Um I uh you know personally have feelings uh about that.

Obviously, I think everybody here in Olatha deserves to feel at home and and respected.

And I certainly appreciate uh Chief your assurance that our police department was not involved in any of those activities, and I think our residents appreciate that confirmation as well.

To uh everybody, I would just say that there are resources available out there for you to know your rights in case you are stopped or or anything comes up.

I would certainly check out um the ACLU's website.

They have a great um page on knowing your rights if that does happen.

So with that, that's all I have.

Councilmember Craig.

I just want to give a shout out to our fire department and our firefighters.

Um Western Kansas is in an extreme weather condition right now.

There are wildfires occurring.

The City of Liberal uh maybe at this point being evacuated and part of our uh fire department was on standby, and now they are on the ground and helping fight that fire in the liberal area.

So uh Chief De Grafton Reed, thank you to your entire team.

Please let them know that we appreciate what they're doing.

We acknowledge them, and it's just a great example of Kansas stepping up to help other Kansas in a time of need.

And so thank you.

City Manager Mike Susan Sherman.

Man, that is 27 years of the case.

Give you a little grace, okay, Susan.

Sorry.

I will just quickly say that Olatha Civic Academy begins next Thursday.

So we have one of the largest classes ever, and really happy that our residents want to invest in learning more about their local government.

So that starts next Thursday.

So I have a couple of things here.

Um you may or may not be aware of our property tax uh rebate program here in Olatha.

This is an income qualified uh so qualified um recipients.

Um it's based on income, veterans or current members in the military, so you can get a hundred percent rebate of the city portion of your property tax bill up to a maximum of $750.

So if you'd like to participate, um you can visit uh our website at Olatha KS.gov forward slash tax rebate to learn more about how you can apply.

Or if you're not computer savvy, you can go to the second floor here at City Hall and they'll help you through the process.

Um applications will open on March the 2nd.

Um we are once again uh partnering with Overland Park for the third annual neighborhood leadership summit.

This event will help residents to develop leadership skills to support their neighborhood.

They can network with other neighborhood leaders and learn tools for efficient neighborhood engagement.

This event will be here in Olatha this year.

It will be on March 28th from 8 30 in the morning till noon at the Olatha Community Center.

And you can register at OPKansas.org.

So yes.

All right.

And then the third thing I wanted to mention is congratulations to the Olatha Teen Council on a very successful student government day earlier this month.

We had more than 50 middle and high schoolers participate to learn more about the city government and the careers in public service.

If you're a high schooler that lives in Olatha, you're eligible to apply.

Applications are opened for next year's teen council.

You can find the application at Olatha KS.gov forward slash teen council.

So it's a fun group and we love visiting with them about projects that they're working on to better our community.

We're adjourned.