Okay, I'll try this again.

It's six forty five now, so I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Electoral City Council to order.

The first item on our agenda is an executive session.

Do I hear a motion?

Yes.

Second.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Schoonover.

Yes.

Dr.

Felter.

Yes.

Mr.

Vacus.

Yes.

Miss Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Crayton.

Yes.

Mr.

Dunall, yes.

Motion passes.

Seven zero.

Sorry.

We'll wait till Robin gets back.

I think we'll go ahead and get started.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Olatha City Council for Tuesday, April twenty first, twenty twenty six.

The council just uh reconvened from an executive session.

Do I hear a motion?

Uh yes, thank you, Mayor.

I move to authorize staff to proceed with the strategies discussed and uh directed by the governing body.

Second.

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

Mr.

Sconover.

Yes.

Dr.

Felter.

Yes.

Mr.

Vacus.

Yes.

Miss Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Dennis?

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Seven zero.

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

So would you please stand with me for the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands.

So I'll start with item A, which is a proclamation recognizing April nineteenth through the twenty-fifth of twenty twenty-six as Arbor Week.

Trees are a very important part of Aletha's beauty and high quality of life, which is why we take this time each year to celebrate Arbor Week.

So would Mike come forward, please.

And whereas Olatha is proud to celebrate its 43rd year of recognition as a Tree City USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation, and it's 33rd year of receiving the Growth Award for Continued Excellence in Community Forestry.

Now, therefore I, John Bacon, mayor of the City of Olatha do hereby proclaim April 19th through the 25th, 2026 is Arbor Week.

In Olatha urging all residents to celebrate by planting trees, caring for existing trees and supporting efforts to preserve and expand our urban forest for the benefit of present and future generations.

I'd like to thank the mayor and the city council for recognizing uh Arbor Week.

Uh and more importantly, what it represents for our community.

Uh Olatha is ranked among the top 100 places to live in the country, and is considered the number one place to live in Kansas.

That doesn't happen by accident.

It's a result of a long-term investment in our community.

And Arbor Week reflects that uh ongoing commitment to maintaining and improving the quality of life that makes Olatha such a great place to live.

Uh trees enhance our parks and trails.

They make our streets more attractive, they help to increase property values.

Uh they also reduce urban heat, and they help to slow uh stormwater runoff.

Simply put, a healthy tree canopy delivers real measurable benefits for our community.

Uh this year for our Arbor Week planting event, uh, we're calling it Trees and Tees.

Uh it will be held at Lakeside Hills Disc Golf Course at Lake Olatha.

Uh we'll be working with 59 students from Olatha West High School's Green Tech Academy.

Uh we will be planting 30 trees along the course.

These trees will help to define the course layout, improve wildlife habitat, and increase erosion control.

After our planting event, the Olatha recreation staff, uh led by Cody Brantford, will host a disc golf clinic uh where the students will uh receive a custom disc golf driver and be given a chance to learn about the game and uh and participate uh and show highlight their skills that they just learned.

So events like this uh highlight what Arbor Week is really about.

It's about investing in our community, uh engaging the next generation, and creating a more diverse urban forest.

Thank you.

Good job.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mike, for being here to accept that proclamation.

You know, one of the highest-rated visuals we had in a citizen survey was tree line streets.

So people really enjoy trees.

It makes our city a lot more beautiful.

All right, so uh the second item we want to recognize our Olatha Teen Council seniors.

Tonight our teen council is wrapping up its 2025 to 2026 uh session.

That means that we're saying goodbye to our seniors tonight.

So here to introduce them as assistant to the mayor, my assistant, Liz Rubak.

Liz Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

I'm Liz Reback, assistant to the mayor.

I also get to support Olatha Teen Council.

Each year, the teens impressed me in new and different ways.

And this year's council was no exception.

They took on a project that when many of us adults heard about it, we said, that might be a little bit much.

These teens not only executed it, but they knocked it out of the park.

They prioritized inclusivity, each member's voice was heard, and every member had a role in the project, except for me.

They didn't need me at all.

Start to finish the teens work together to manage every part of their project themselves and did it very well.

But that's only part of what the teens accomplished this year.

They also supported Olatha through community service, met with staff from every focus area to learn about the city, and provided youth perspective to see PAC's team forum process and to the city council's consideration of e-bike rules.

Congratulations to the teen council on a great year, and thank you to the city council for your support of the program.

At this time, we're going to recognize our outgoing seniors.

When I call your name, please come to the middle of the room to get your certificate.

You can share a few words if you want and get a picture with the mayor.

So we will start with Hope Kelly.

Hope Kelly from Olatha East did three years with Teen Council.

She was one of our co-chairs and interns this year.

So I've been on Teen Council for three years, like Liz said, and it's been a really amazing opportunity for me.

It's been absolutely insane to lead it this year.

And alongside Riley, I feel like we had a really successful council.

I think over the years it's really helped me grown as a person, as a speaker and as a civic leader in my community.

So I just want to say thank you to Liz for being able to lead this opportunity for us.

And yeah, sad to see it go, but I'm sure the next leaders will be amazing.

As help mentioned, Riley Forcey is our other co-chair, but she unfortunately couldn't be here tonight.

But I did want to give her a shout out because she has been an awesome co-chair along with Hope.

Ana's been with us for four years from Olatha North.

I've been on the council for the past four years, as Liz said, and it's been an absolute honor.

I really enjoyed seeing everything or being a part of everything Team Council has done, and I think I've grown a lot with it.

So thank you, Liz.

And our final graduating senior is Ethan Smith from Olatha North.

My name is Ethan Smith.

I've been with Team Council for two years now.

I've had a blast.

I have developed lots of social skills, learning to speak to strangers properly.

Thank you very much, Team Council.

Congratulations, seniors, and thank you for everything you've done for Team Council.

Thank you.

So congratulations to our seniors again tonight and all uh we met with uh teen council for dinner tonight and uh heard about their projects they've been working on, done some outstanding work, so we appreciate all their the work they do for our community.

We'll now move to item C.

So I'll head back to the ties.

Okay.

So item C is the consideration of ordinance number 26-14 adopting the revised City of Olatha Comprehensive Plan.

Hello Elevate Olatha, which is CPA 24-0001.

Planning Commission recommended approval 9-0.

So uh I would entertain a motion.

Oh, thank you, Mayor.

So I'd move that we adopt ordinance 26-14, our new Olatha Comprehensive Development Plan.

Umatha.

CPA 24-3001.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Um I don't know.

Do we want to hear the presentation first before we vote?

So let me let me just introduce the item here a little bit more.

I'm sorry, getting ahead of myself a little bit.

You can adopt it.

Yeah.

And then made it, we don't want to still Kim's show, but um our updated comprehensive plan is a community-driven vision for growth and development for the next 15 years.

Our old plan, Plan Olathe, served us well since 2010 as we navigated significant growth and new development, changes in industries and population shifts.

We now are looking to the future.

This is an important milestone for our city.

As we present the Elevate Olatha Comprehensive Plan this evening, it represents thoughtful growth, a community, a commitment to preserve what makes our city unique and to embracing new com opportunities ahead.

We wouldn't be here without the dedication of the Elevate Olatha Steering Committee.

Thank you too for your guidance and leadership over the past two years.

Thank you as well to our residents, business owners, and community partners who helped shape this plan.

Your voices, ideas, and dedication to the Olatha community are reflected in the plan or in your shared vision for our future.

I'm grateful for the countless hours of collaboration, public input, and civic pride that brought us to this moment.

This is what community looks like.

People coming together with purpose and pride.

I also want to thank our staff.

Our staff spent a lot of time and expertise putting into this plan as well.

Your passion and dedication will have an impact on our city for years to come.

So I look forward to building on this excellence together over the next 15 years of growth.

And so at this time, Kim Hollingsworth joins us for a presentation, Kim.

And then we'll hold off.

We have a motion and a second, but we'll hold off on the boat.

So great.

Kim Hollingsworth, Planning and Development Manager, thank you for that introduction, and I'm going to echo a lot of the same sentiments this evening.

I have the honor and privilege tonight of presenting the Elevato Latha comprehensive plan to you this evening.

It's been a tremendous effort over the last two years.

I'm going to start with some thank yous.

First to our community, thank you so much for all your feedback and ideas.

They really shaped the vision of this plan.

Also to the steering committee, really appreciate your steady guidance throughout your insights and your energy around the plan update.

To our consultant team, House of Levine providing that national expertise and guidance throughout.

And to our city staff, you led a lot of engagement events, weathered a lot of different community events.

So thank you for planning all those events, leading that expert or sharing your expertise into the document as well.

To our planning commissioners and council members, thank you so much for championing this effort and also carrying that torch forward over the next 15 years of this plan.

So I'm going to start with just a high-level overview of the plan update.

I'm just going to hit on some of these important elements, starting with celebrating Plan Olathe.

Part of this is celebrating all that we have implemented since 2010 of the Plan Olatha Comprehensive Plan, many new city facilities, master plan documents, a comprehensive update of our UDO, major capital improvement projects, and many new programs and projects that came from that vision of Plan Olatha.

So the first step that we really took was to look at all of our master plans, corridor plans, and really the guiding light throughout has been the Olatha 2040 future ready strategic plan to provide that synergy with the new comprehensive plan.

And you look at the project timeline.

We did kick off in summer of 2024.

We really started that public engagement.

Engagement happened throughout the plan, but there was a lot of initial, you know, learning about the community, hearing from people at community events, workshops.

Then you do some existing conditions analysis, setting the vision for the community happened around winter of 2024, building those strategies that were vetted through our steering committee, then looking at sub-area.

We spent some time about halfway through the process, really honing in on particular areas of the city, and then producing the draft comprehensive plan and many reviews of that, and we're here tonight for the final step, which is adoption.

So I want to acknowledge the steering committee again and thank you so much for providing the guidance throughout.

There were 14 members of this committee that were really essential to this update.

Your diverse backgrounds, your expertise were really instrumental in guiding the plan update.

Some of the key moments, there were many steps throughout, these are just a few that the steering committee was really in their guiding or the project branding, the existing conditions, uh, the sub areas, many reviews of the draft plan.

So I really appreciate your commitment throughout and your devotion to this plan.

So at the heart of the plan is really the public engagement, and we had a tremendous amount over the last two years, and we received this through many different ways.

Um over 4,000 participants.

These are in-person events, online opportunities, and I really appreciate the staff engagers and about 65 staff from across the city that spent their time out there meeting people where they are.

That was really critical to the plan update to make sure that we're engaging all the different stakeholders, all facets of our community, making sure we're getting different perspectives, visions from all of our community.

So this is just a high-level sampling.

There's there's many more.

And a key thing that we did also was really making a concerted effort to provide accommodations, translating materials, uh making sure that we're really accessible to the community throughout the last two years.

You can see we had many different events, meeting people where they are.

You're already at a community event where we're gonna be there, um, inviting you to a particular event where you can share feedback, whether it's looking at maps, um, lots of post-it notes everywhere.

So we really provided a lot of different opportunities throughout.

So we asked the community, we said a call to dream bank.

What are your dreams for a latha?

What are your visions?

And this really helped us build the plan, and you started to see themes that emerge.

There were some themes and unique ideas as well that really helped shape this vision.

So this is the vision statement for the Elevate Olatha Comprehensive Plan built around all that community feedback, and really it's a vision over the 15 years that a lathe is a dynamic, welcoming and resilient community, celebrating our rich history, also providing diverse housing within our neighborhoods, a downtown that pulses with energy, promoting strategic growth, and also multimodal transportation, and defining our exceptional quality of life.

With a commitment to setting the standard for excellence and public service, Olatha remains a future ready leader in the metro and a place where people and businesses thrive.

So this is a tremendous statement that we aspire to over the next 15 years, all built from our community feedback.

So I want to briefly share a few plan highlights, and I'm going to walk through these different sections at a very high level.

I'm going to start with on the left side is a snapshot, just a snapshot of what we heard, the feedback from community, and then I'll give you some plan highlights.

So first would be a desire for a greater variety of businesses, especially restaurants and retail, an active downtown, mixed use development and third places where you can meet people.

So some plan highlights, some strategies that achieve these are repurposing underutilized vacant space, focusing on infill, also looking at mixed use development strategies, balancing residential and commercial development, and also strategies for annexation.

So the future land use map is a key component of the plan, and there are 13 different land use categories.

There's some residential categories, some that provide a mix of uses, commercial, business park and industrial, then you get public spaces and open space.

And so this is the map that was built over the last two years and will help guide us in land use and development decisions.

And layered with that is this development matrix.

This is new for our community, and it provides just one more layer of clarity for our development community.

We've already been using this in a trial mode in some of our pre-application meetings, talking through here are preferred uses in the land use category paired with some complementary uses.

One thing that I'll highlight since our joint meeting that we held between the city council and the planning commission, we did add some complementary uses into industrial, so commercial could coexist industrial under the right circumstances.

So sub-areas.

We spent some time working on sub-areas, providing several open house events to look through these.

These are areas that got more detail, whether it's transportation, place making, a land use layer as well, and looking at those in more detail.

These are areas that we expect to experience new growth or redevelopment opportunities.

So moving on to housing and neighborhoods, a few things that we heard.

We're looking at really, I'm going to start with this was the number one priority that came from almost every group that we spoke to.

Housing seemed to come out on top every time, and that's nationally true as well that you're hearing a lot about housing.

So things we heard were talking about the cost of housing, a desire for greater variety of housing types for both the first time and the last time buyer as well, and then an attention to safe walkable neighborhoods.

So a couple strategies to highlight are encouraging infill development.

A term that was coined by the steering committee is amenity abundant neighborhoods.

So in your neighborhood, you can easily get to different services, open space as well.

Reinvesting in existing housing stock, also housing and stability, working on that through partnerships, and paths for a greater variety of housing types.

Looking at economic development, we heard a lot about interests and destination, entertainment and attractions.

There were some moonshot ideas thrown out there, one that might be coming true soon, and enhanced character and placemaking, and then a greater mix of businesses, including in downtown.

So some key highlights are establishing downtown as a destination, unique businesses and events.

Support for startup businesses.

Also, another steering committee coin term is memory makers, so places that you would go year to year with your, let's say your family or friends that are going to be a special memory for you.

Revitalizing existing commercial and encouraging small scale neighborhood commercial, given the right context.

So in transportation, we heard a lot of interest about improvements for all modes of transportation.

Also about bicycle and pedestrian enhancements too.

So a couple highlights are improving road crossings and staying ahead of emerging transportation trends, as well as filling gaps in our sidewalk and bicycle network and exploring public transit opportunities.

Looking at our community facilities, parks, and infrastructure, we received a tremendous amount of feedback about the services we provide, which our city council members are familiar with through our direction finder community survey of great correlation of qualitative feedback that we received with those direction finder results.

So we heard about expanding community facilities as we grow and then exploring new recreational opportunities and also furthering our national identity, local and national identity with what we provide and offer.

So key strategies are city providing city facilities as we grow and expand, continued investment in public safety, also identity, identifying opportunities for new parks and recreation, that balance between growth and providing sewer services, and then evaluating city-owned properties for redevelopment.

On the natural environment, we heard feedback about preserving open space and natural areas, as well as improving walkability and access to recreation and open space.

So some key themes would be preserving and protecting environmentally sensitive areas, sustainable development practices, expanding the tree canopy, and also implementing strategies that balance growth with conservation.

The last piece of the plan that is new since we met with you at that joint meeting with the planning commission is the implementation matrix.

So this really provides the roadmap of achieving all those strategies through actionable items.

So some of them, maybe a single department or entity of the city would be focused on, such as updating zoning classifications to be consistent with that new future land use map.

Some might be through partnerships or multiple partners working together, such as the school district and the chamber of commerce.

And then others might be an ongoing action item that we would always want to provide for our community.

So that action matrix really lines that out.

This is something that we do visit throughout the plan update, and so you can go in and change the trajectory of an item as needed throughout the life of this plan.

So I'm going to end on what's next.

So we are going to have live very soon a web page interactive future land use map, because as the plan is adopted, then that future land use is what we're using for development.

Also revising area plans and overlay districts, as we discussed at our joint meeting, looking at that capital improvement alignment.

So as we come to you this year, we'll be using Elevate Olatha as that benchmark, and also a unified development ordinance update, which is very typical that a community would undertake after a comprehensive plan update.

So we will have ongoing review of the plan.

It's a living breathing document, so we can look at it as much as an annual basis to make sure it's still reflecting the community's priorities, vision, especially if there's any market changes, social changes in our community that we are adapting to that with this plan.

So I will end on my recommendation.

So we do recommend that you adopt the comprehensive plan this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kim.

So questions of staff or comments from any council member, Councilmember Felter.

Thank you.

I'd like to start with thanking Kim for your great leadership through this whole journey.

It's been very interesting, and I've learned a lot and the team that worked alongside Kim and an honor to serve with you, all sorts of different perspectives, and everybody brought their A game.

Some really great document editors out there.

I'm looking at you, Ann.

She's a great editor.

Just for clarity, so this is this a regulatory document.

So the Elevate Othe Comprehensive Plan will provide policy guidance, right?

So we use it to guide development decisions, recommendations that we provide to the planning commission, ultimately the city council, but it's not the same as the unified development ordinance of the municipal code that is a regulatory document.

Great.

And so it it's not going to squelch innovation and creativity on development if something different comes up, different idea.

It's just from here, our limited myopic perspective, not knowing the future, what we're kind of prescribing for land use going forward.

And you know, we are a bedroom community right now, and we do need commercial base.

So we intentionally kind of pump that up in this document, um, elevate Olatha after serving on the school board and seeing the consequences of being a bedroom community.

I'm grateful.

Thank you to the steering committee for seeing that as well.

It's important.

And so I just did want to uh confirm that you have received uh you had a a subcommittee of developers also right give you input on this.

And so while it's not a regulatory document, it it's kind of the vision and the rationale behind is to make all the puzzle pieces fit together, correct?

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Creighton.

Thank you.

Um of the things I always appreciated about the last uh comprehensive plan, and I was on that committee, is when we do something in a later, we just don't put it up on the shelf.

We keep it fresh, we keep going back to it, and it is our guiding principles that we follow.

Um so we just want to continue that with the this current plan.

And specifically, I really like that the way we want to keep it fresh is that we have several areas um in the community that we want to uh continue to update, and there's three that are really key to me.

And so uh please keep us up to date on some of the uh things that we're looking at on improvements to the Santa Fe corridor, Parker Street, where we've got a lot of opportunities here, and then near and dear to me because of infrastructure, the 175th Street uh area.

So would ask that you all keep us up to date on that and to the committee.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

Councilmember Vacus.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

I'd offer too, just a few comments.

You know, our outgoing comprehensive development plan.

Plan Olatha really was a high quality document in all regards.

Uh very worthwhile over the past 15 years.

Uh Elevate Olatha takes us up several levels.

And it's exceptional in every regard.

I too am appreciative of all the work of staff and the steering committee.

Um, how this has come together, the information I've received periodically as this has been developed, having had a chance to really sit down and review the entire document in its entirety.

It's a wonderful piece of work, you know.

Fantastic.

Congratulations.

This is going to serve us well.

Provide us thought leadership.

That's what we need as we move forward over the next decade.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks again, Kim.

Um couple of questions.

So as far as the um if somebody wanted to do something different that doesn't really fit in with the land use map, how would what was how would staff guide them?

And how often then would we review the plan?

Is it annually or biannually, or is as things come up, or what would be your suggestion?

Yeah, so I'll start with how we review development.

So that process doesn't change from what we've been doing over the last decades.

We use the comprehensive plan as the starting point, the guide.

We start that conversation.

If there's a sub-area in the mix, we'd be talking about that as well.

And that provides that early conversation and guidance.

Um, if let's say it's a rezoning, right, where we're going through the full development process, we would follow all of our UDO process of looking at the criteria within our code as well.

Um does it meet all of those criteria that we go through on each development case.

So we always start with the comprehensive plan, do the full review and criteria, provide a recommendation, and ultimately it's the city council that makes that development decision.

Um when we're talking about updates to the plan, we do review it annually.

Um that is something unique to the state of Kansas.

Um and then there's always gonna be a checkpoint, I'd say like five years in is the natural one where you might do a more holistic update or touch more sections of the document.

Um but we're looking to have a cadence there where we're looking at it annually, we're aware of any adaptability and changes that we would want to provide to the city council, and then doing a bigger regular update as needed.

Great.

Um the last question I want to ask you, Kim, is what are you gonna do with all your extra time, your spare time?

Well, we are gonna start a UDO update soon.

So there we go.

Yeah, we've we will enjoy that very on the near horizon.

Also the corridor and area plans are coming your way too.

Yeah, we have plenty of plenty of things.

So we do have a motion and second.

Would the city clerk please call the roll?

Dr.

Felcher.

Yes.

Mr.

Vacus.

Yes.

Miss Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Denult.

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Schoonover.

Yes.

Motion passes.

7-0.

Good.

So now the next thing we'd like to do is to recognize the steering committee.

As I mentioned, one of the things that makes this plan great is the extensive public input that helped shape it.

Most critical was the guidance of the steering committee.

They are here tonight, and we would like to give them a proper thank you.

So this committee is comprised of elected officials, planning commissioners, and community stakeholders, including our Olatha Chamber of Commerce, CEO, and Olatha Public School Superintendent.

To all of you, thank you for your dedicated for dedicating your time for listening carefully to the community, working through complex challenges and building consensus around a shared future.

And that is no small task.

And it speaks volumes about your dedication to the city of Olatha.

So Kim will introduce the members, and we'd like to give you a small token of our appreciation.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I'm going to start announcing our steering committee members.

And as I announce your name, you can go ahead and come to the center of the room, receive your recognition from the mayor, and then stay up here because we're just going to do one collective group photo.

All right.

So I'm going to start with Ann Rongish.

If you can come to the front.

And next will be John Tompkins.

Karen Brownlee.

Kevin Gilmore.

Dr.

Leetta Felter.

Marge vote.

Merlin James.

Taylor Breen.

Tim McKee.

Chad Carroll.

Okay.

We did have a couple other members who are unable to attend this evening, unless they pop out of the audience and I'm not noticing them.

Wayne Janner.

Also Carissa McMullen and Dr.

Brent Yeager.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you.

So once again, we want to thank all the steering committee members for being here tonight.

And I know there was a few of them that kind of have a sigh of relief that this is finally over after two years.

So we appreciate all your many hours of service for the city.

We'll now move to item E.

One of the keys to growing a city as exceptional as Olatha is our partnerships.

And we're grateful to have a county government that shares our vision of a community where everyone can enjoy high quality of life and where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

So joining us tonight from the Johnson County Board of Commissioners is Fifth District Commissioner Michael Ashcraft and Sixth District Commissioner Shirley Allenbrand.

Thank you both for being here.

And welcome.

Do you want to talk first?

Well, um, fellow mayor and council um members, thank you so much for allowing us to be here.

And gosh, what a night to be here.

That that whole plan.

Um what a great, what a great thing for our city.

And of course I live in Olatha, so I also appreciate it.

And I uh appreciate you uh celebrating Arbor Day.

So tomorrow you see one of the World Cup buses going through town.

I have 30 people on a bus with some fellow council or commissioners, um uh K-State Extension, and we're going to be visiting Farmview.

I'm visiting the Ag Tourism in Johnson County.

So it'll be a fun day.

So I've got with me Michael Ashcraft, and we're gonna split.

We're gonna split this presentation.

Um I have broken it up into four.

Let me see if I do this right.

Okay, we've broken it up into four um different categories: county facilities, health services, infrastructure partnerships, housing incentives, and World Cup readiness, preparedness.

So, first of all.

The health uh constructions continues to be underway for the new health services building in Olatha.

We are anticipating to open in 2027.

Co-locating in this building will be mental health, aging, public health, and the project will steamlined expand the county's capability to deliver essential public health services to residents.

And um, Councilwoman Um Velter, I want to thank you for your education, promoting education and help and mental health services.

That's greatly appreciated.

The next thing is improving um emergency response.

Our Medat station um 1156 is now open in Olatha.

The station delivers improved emergency response times for across the service area, a critical upgrade for community services.

I don't know if you've been to this building.

We also have a um we uh solar on the top panels, and it's actually um on good days providing 70 percent of the electricity for the building.

So I think that is a great improvement.

And now we are going to go to infrastructure investments, and I'm gonna turn it over to Commissioner Ashcraft.

Good evening.

Thank you for this invitation, as always.

Um we're all familiar with uh the CARS program.

What that program basically does is uh supplements uh works with uh county funds and city funds to uh improve certain particular road projects around the county.

Uh we've got several in uh in uh Olatha, uh this one on Quiver, but also on Black Bob and uh the work from uh 151st South, and particularly right now, there's a lot of work going on 159th to 167th.

That work is progressing, and I will tell you that the residents in that area are exited, although um they're excited to the point of anxious.

They just want it opened up and I can understand it, and it's going to be nice, and we very much appreciate that work.

Uh and I'm gonna go a little bit off script because as many of you know, I do a lot of interactions with residents, particularly uh in my district.

And uh I've been getting a lot of feedback from residents recently about the quality of life in Olatha.

And you know, when you say quality of life, uh you often hear about schools or parks or the libraries or the medical services or the jobs, you know, that's quality of life in a lot of people's minds.

But down south, and the reason I say down south because of the road improvements, is I've been talking to people, a lot of new residents, single family residents, people moving in.

And one thing that keeps coming up, which has really amazed me, and I want to make sure that Mary Yeager hears this and Zach Harding, because many of these people have moved to Alatha from some of those other communities in Johnson County, you know, those those up north and those east that just don't have quite the quality of service.

But the one thing that they over and over indicate is uh a substantial enhancement to their quality of life, believe it or not, is trash.

The fact that they don't have to worry about all the trucks going up and down the streets, or the fact that the truck that's supposed to stop at their house just goes right on by.

Or when it does stop at their house, that it leaves half of it in the street, or getting bulk pickups that are impossible.

So Mary Yeager, Zach Hardy, make sure you take that back to your folks because they do common things uncommonly well.

So good for you and good for them.

So I'll stop with that.

The next thing I want to talk about is the partnership.

Oops, let me turn.

The partnerships or service delivery in the downtown parking lot.

I want to thank you for the partnership with the I keep one that call it the courthouse lawn.

What are you guys calling it?

I need to learn the term.

County square.

The county square and just the excitement that I see looking out my window and seeing all the people from the apartments.

You know, we're talking all age groups and dogs and just the events going on.

So it was a 22.5 million dollar project.

Um the county commitment was 11, and this is on the parking garage.

This is going to help with our parking downtown.

Um I know there was a lot of work that went into that parking garage, and you're probably thinking, how could you put a lot of work into 379 units?

But there is a lot of work that goes in.

We needed more handicapped spaces, and I know that there was a lot of work that went into that, and I really appreciate it.

And I can't begin to tell you how grateful people are for the restaurants and having that downtown coming alive again.

Some of the major calls that I used to receive when I first got elected was what happened to the downtown square, the ice cream social.

And I don't know how many calls I got on the uh Cacibo, and now just hearing the feedback.

So what a great um compliment to our city.

So the next thing, oh, I'm gonna turn this over to Mike.

Obviously, we have not practiced the handoff real well, but um Carnap.

Uh and no, this is not a Johnny Carson uh reimagination.

Carnap is the planning process that the county goes through uh periodically to look at the road and the road network and how it supports transportation, particularly as it impacts the cities.

Um I think we went the wrong way, Shirley.

Oh, did I go over too many?

Yeah.

Oh, there we go.

There we go.

There's CarNAP.

We also didn't practice hitting the clicker, so uh bear with me.

Carnap uh is something that's done periodically to help maintain and improve the uh road network as the county grows and the cities grow uh into the county.

Uh most of the routes uh on the current plan that uh have been formulated and reworked to the south are pretty much what they have been over the years.

Uh but there have been a lot of changes, as you may know with DeSoto and the development out there, and a lot of work is being done to help with the North-South Corridor.

Uh Edgerton Road is identified particularly as an area for expansion and improvement.

This has significance to Olatha, though.

And I wanted to uh uh remind the mayor and the the city manager, because as I look around the room, there aren't too many faces that were here 25 years ago when one of the biggest problems that Olatha was always dinged for were the east-west connections.

And the city took that original strategic plan back in 2000 and began working on it.

The the overpass um of 127th Street and I-35, as well as the elevation of the rails on the east side of downtown.

But the other improvements that you see, 119th Street extension.

Well, this is an extend uh an extension of that because as the North-south corridor through DeSoto improves, east-west connections are also going to have a lot of pressure.

And this plan looks at how to best improve that connectivity on uh 1111th, 119th, and 135th.

Now that will not solve all the problems, but as DeSotal in particular grows, Panasonic and all that development, this will help move traffic uh back and forth east and west.

So that that's a big uh a big improvement, I think.

And I look forward to the the next uh strategic plan and the uh future ready plan um when it's updated again in 20 years, Mr.

Mayor.

Well, first of all, I want to thank your staff for being involved as we were working on these plans.

As you know, DeSoto and Edgerton, those are all in my district and Gardner, and things are growing so rapidly.

So I really appreciate the help.

I want to talk about K-10.

We had a study on K-10 with several Olathe was involved in it.

So there was an improvement to safety access and long-term capacity, widening to six lanes, a new lone elm road, tight diamond interchange, payment and bridge reconstructions.

So what's next?

We need to complete the final design.

We need to continue in pursuing the state and federal construction fund because we're going to have to work whoever the next governor is, we've got to work on getting that done.

They anticipated that that would start in 2030, but I'm hoping before because if you travel down those roads, it's a nightmare, and it's only going to get worse with all the construction going on.

And it's not just Olatha, it's also DeSoto, it's also Gardner, it's all the other traffic as well and Lawrence.

So we need to continue communication with residents and corridor businesses.

There's a 94,000 annual aircraft operations.

That was in 2024.

There's 226 million total labor income, 1.1 billion total in business revenue.

In uh Senator Moran was so helpful with us to get the new air traffic control tower, which is supposed to be completed in 2027.

Our old tower was three-sided.

It didn't even have no updated air control, you know, traffic control, and you didn't have an elevator.

It was all winding stairs that went up.

Um that was 15 million.

We have a new runway, 1836 that's under construction now and is to be completed in 2027.

30 million and 90% of it was federal funding.

That's something to say about, and I cannot thank Senator Moran and Congresswoman Davis, they have been very helpful in getting those funds.

One thing that I'm really proud of is the K-State now.

We have two flight schools out there, pilot programs.

Um they just opened up and their first class had 15 pilots in it.

So two of the things that I um oversee um as a liaison on is is New Century Airport and also the executive airport.

The executive airport is there's really no more expansion out there, but I wanted to know what's going to happen with our vision with the airport in the future.

Is it going to be self-sustaining?

Um, you know, what is it going to look like, and how's our future going to look like?

And I don't want not in the next five years.

I want to know what my grandchildren, my great grandchildren, you know, what is it going to be?

So we put together, I worked with Chairman Kelly, and we called it Vision 2.0.

And I brought several business leaders together, um, including um Mikey's World, Halo, several business leader velocity jets, and so there was 21 business leaders around the table.

And they weren't all from here, they were from other areas.

And it was the most exhilarating discussion going around the table of what that airport could be and how it can generate revenue to be self-sustaining.

Um we're gonna continue.

We received a grant to um put a plan together, and so we're gonna continue to work on that.

Um so we want to expand the hangar um to meet growing demand, modernized the airfield infrastructure, support the facilities, enhance aviations, um, logistic connectivity to K-10 and surrounding industrial areas.

Um the airport for future aerospace technology and advanced manufacturing development, pursue ongoing federal and state aviation grant funding.

So we're gonna continue to work with this Vision 2.0 round table discussion and the airport commission out there to look at what our future plans are gonna be.

And we have hired a consultant that's working with us.

So I'm really excited about that.

I wanted to say a little bit about the housing.

Chairman Kelly put together a ad hoc housing group.

They are le uh they are trying to look at housing of incentives, reviewing housing, um, continuum of work, gaps and opportunities to focus on developing new units.

So he's working on that.

And I'm going to let do you want to pass out your stuff first?

No.

Excuse me.

So this is the last slide, uh, and we'll make it quick.

And then this is kind of a fun slide.

If I may.

Sure.

Very good.

Uh and this is about uh FIFA or FIFA or FOFA or FUMFOF or what what whatever whatever you want to call it.

Um two quick parts of it.

One is an attempt to have uh an enhanced transit network during the the FIFA games in Johnson County.

And that it's hard to read that little map there, but there will be free bus service from the airport uh and pickup and drop off at both Linuxa City Center and Overland Park Convention Center.

So people, if you live in a Latha, you don't have to be part of FIFA, FIFA to use this service while it's in play.

And it's uh going to be a free service where you drop off and uh um uh transportation back and forth between the the city and uh the airport and it's going to be an aggressive schedule.

I think they have 25 minute head times, but don't quote me on that.

It's going to but it's going to be aggressive.

And there are also going to be circulator routes, including Olatha, several stops in Olifa, uh, which you will have to pay for, but the the head times are going to be very aggressive, and we we're hoping that it demonstrates a value and a need for transit services.

The other thing is when FIFA comes to town, what is that going to look like?

Well, world football is a little bit different than American football.

We we call it soccer, of course.

And uh some of the original projections were that there would be as many as 650,000 people coming in about that six-week period.

Now, that's Johnson County coming to the region for that six weeks period.

I I I've honestly I've never been able to find the source of that projection, but that's what's been talked about.

If that happens, that will have a significant impact on uh hotel rooms, uh restaurants, transportation.

There are some concerns that we're not quite meeting the original projections in terms of hotel rentals at this time.

Hopefully that will improve, but the clock is ticking on that.

And before I sign off, I wanted to tell you that there are going to be a number of communities teams coming to the region.

Um Argentina, which has been ranked number two, the Netherlands, which is ranked number five, and if you've ever seen 500 people that look like they're dressed up like uh traffic cones in orange, well, that will be the Netherland fan base.

So if you see them coming down the road, go the other direction.

And Shirley and I do have uh a little something for the city council, maybe.

Trying to figure out how this works.

What's very popular in other parts of the world, particularly in uh Europe are what call are called football sashes.

So we have you want to handle it.

I'll let you pass them out.

I just want to finish up it.

So we we have sashes for all the city council members and the city manager.

Well, thank you for allowing us to be here.

There are two router maps, um, and I think I've sent them to everybody, but if you didn't get them, the playbook from uh the World Cup, let me know, and I'll send you the whole package.

Uh I know everybody's been working really hard on getting this done.

They're projecting over a thousand nations coming to um Johnson County, so there's gonna it's gonna be busy.

So um I really appreciate your support and your partnership.

Thank you for letting us be here tonight.

Thank you both.

Um great information.

We do have a few questions, so uh Councilmember Felter.

Thank you, Mayor Bacon.

Thank you, Commissioner Allenbrand and Ashcraft for this great information and primarily for the great partnership that we have together.

Thank you, Shirley, for making this a tr a tradition of showing up and giving us the report.

Um lots of really, really great information.

Um I read an article just before coming in here about um uh the governor uh announcing funding for airports, and our two airports were in that.

Um it says Johnson County Executive Airport has 37,325 for runway 36 run-up area.

It was that in that slide.

Is that or is it uh I I think it is, you know, we um have we are a national airport out at New Century Um, right along with um KCI.

Um we have one of the longest runways, and we already um have one re one of the runways are gonna have all the planes.

We already have planes that have already scheduled to land um for the World Cup at our airport.

So um I it I you know I'm I'm excited.

Uh we've been working so long on this that it seems like it's never gonna get here.

Um I yeah, so the airport, you're gonna see a lot of changes out there.

I bet.

Well, it says for New Century uh they have a million two hundred and seventy-six thousand for run runway eighteen thirty-six construction lighting signage and taxiway ceiling.

So I uh dream big for that airport because you know, as we are the economic engine of our state, I could see us having a hub there.

I that's my next moonshot for us is to have a hub there for let's say Southwest Airlines.

I'm with you.

I I think there the possibilities are endless, and that's why I brought all these great mines around the table.

I wanted to ask their permission.

I hadn't gotten hold of all of them to let you know who was all part of that, but I will be sharing that.

Um, you know, listening to them and their ideas are things that I never thought of.

So thank you for that.

Thank you for being innovative.

And then Commissioner Ashcraft, thank you for recognizing our trash service.

You are spot on.

My parents moved here from Seattle and um, you know, gave up mountains and I mean they're both big high hikers.

I mean, primarily I would say because of our trash service, they just love it that you know they're not charged for every bag and that bulk pickup.

I mean, it's a big draw.

So, yay, Mary Yeager and team, and thank you for pointing that out very much.

Thanks for the presentation.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Bacchus.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks very much.

Um Commissioners, thanks.

Thanks for the presentation.

I wanted to uh build on two of your comments.

One, uh thank you all so very much, and thanks to Chair Kelly for for taking a leadership role in trying to address uh the housing shortage of affordable housing and in some cases low-income housing.

Surely I'd ask that our staffs work very closely together.

Yes.

In any housing in county land, but in our program growth area, it would be extremely important that we we both agree to what we're trying to do in that area.

And within the city limits of Olatha, any potential repurposing of county buildings, again, so important that our city planning staff be working hand in hand with uh county planners, that would be great.

But anything we can do to make progress on this, hallelujah.

Thank you for your leadership efforts.

And I know where there was kind of a little hoop on one of the one of the last, and I apologize for that.

And uh they had been working with the staff on that.

And I explained to uh Mr.

Norse that you have to contact the chamber, you have to contact the city manager's office.

So you don't just go through staff.

We need to work together to make sure it goes up the pipeline because it's nobody's fault, but it's ours for that's just the way it's always been done.

So some things you have to continue so the messaging gets out there.

So we will be better.

Well, we I mean, yeah, and it's a great project and we have great staff, so it's all good news ultimately.

But well, um one of the ideas was um you know that in some other cities they have housing over fire stations.

Um I would not want to live over the fire station, maybe the library, but not the fire station.

So I the other thing I want to talk about is uh tr transit a bit.

Uh and certainly it's very important.

We talk about transportation and uh our ability to move throughout Olatha and throughout the county.

We talk about a lot of roadway improvements.

I was uh at the Mid-America Regional Council this morning at a total transportation policy committee meeting, and we had an update on the regional smart moves transit plan.

Okay.

And when we say transit, it covers all forms of transit and transportation.

One area that we've had some conversation here in Olatha about is the idea of fixed rail, light rail, commuter rail.

Obviously, we're never going to be a part of a Kansas City um streetcar system because street cars don't move fast enough, not down here to get up to central Kansas City.

But we believe, well, we may be wrong, but we believe that the B BNSF main line that runs down to Edgerton, runs by Garmin campus, runs through downtown Olatha, runs up north through uh Johnson County all the way down to central Kansas City.

We believe there's enough right-of-way to accommodate a light rail line.

So it's not an issue finding the place to put the light rail, but we just need some of the county to have some some vision, envision what transit could look like 20, 30, even 40 years from now, connecting Southwest Johnson County through the northern part of the count county on into uh Kansas City.

And someone who can champion that is a is a thought initiative.

The idea that we have commuter rail in Johnson County connecting up in the Central Casey Metro, I think that'd be a wonderful thing.

And the idea that we talk about what happens at New Century Airport, not just how we evolve the airport, but how we connect it with transit that really serves all of Johnson County into the metro, I think that would be great.

I know that we've got um the director of Johnson County Transit, I think is focused on bus operations.

And so whatever we need to do, again, great staff, but add to the staff the idea of train operations in the context of what it could look like for Johnson County.

I think that'd be pretty neat.

Uh Mayor Bacon brought that up to me, and I brought it up to the chair, and I'm gonna propose it to the next 2.0 meeting at the airport.

Um we increased rail by 27 percent out there with Florida Foods.

And I love riding the train when you travel in other countries, you do a lot of that.

I think it's a great idea, and it's already there.

Um, but there's gonna have to be some partnerships and and to look into it.

So um I I uh haven't brought it up to my fellow commissioners yet, but I did mention it to uh the chair, and I thought I'd bring it up to the um Vision 2.0 committee and see what they think.

That'd be great.

Thanks so much.

Yeah, thank you.

I think it would be a good idea.

Oh, and I don't know what I'm gonna think when I'm trying to get home off of Santa Fe.

Well, you know, obviously, you know, four years from now, a little bit further down the trail.

Yeah, yeah.

The idea that we have new federal programs to support these kind of initiatives, we would be very competitive for something like this.

I think we need to think ahead.

We can't look at tomorrow or ten years.

We need to look ahead.

I agree.

Thank you both very much.

Thank you.

Thanks for Council Member Essex.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here, Commissioners.

I always love hearing from you all.

So much going on, so many good things.

Um wanted to also just add to the transportation conversation just the short-term piece for the World Cup.

Um there were some other council members I've heard say in the past, there's only one or two stops in Olatha.

Do you know?

Is it just two?

And is that set?

Is that something we just felt like there were not as many stops as we would we had hoped for with the bus service.

I did we put this on here where the stops.

Um I know that I I was part of I've been working on this, but um haven't been as connected into the routing systems, and I know that we had partnerships uh financial because the county couldn't pay for it all.

And I if I memory right, I might have to ask Mike here.

I I think there's two.

There's one over at Strang Line and then one at Offa Ridge View.

The hotel stops.

Okay.

So we did work with staff and we have um worked with that.

There's one in the next, you know, I need to have bifocals to see.

Um in this, it shows you where the stops are.

Yeah.

And it's and you know, that's where a cluster of people's at.

And they park and then they catch a ride there, trying to also coordinate traffic.

Okay, and so that's pretty much set.

Oh yes, I think so.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, if you want another one, you got you know, your city manager could contact.

But this has been pretty much out of here.

I think it'd be uh difficult to make changes now.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, appreciate that.

I I do have one more question.

Sure.

Um Commissioner Ashcraft and myself have been hearing a lot about the um shared 175th and ridge view safety concerns about the roadways over there.

Many emails coming from our southern portion of Olatha.

And I don't know if it's um shared funding to put a light there.

I just want to put it on your radar, um, maybe through the cars program.

I don't know how that would work.

I know Nate Baldwin has reached out to try to figure out some solutions for that area.

175th and Ridge.

We need to do something.

There's a lot of people feeling pretty scared pulling on to 175th from a stop.

Yes, absolutely.

Uh I've been part of those uh email strings, and it is an ongoing concern.

Um and I talk to county staff, and I know county staff has been in communication with city staff in terms of what the best approach is.

Uh city staff, I think has uh uh the traffic engineering uh capacity to come up with the best solution.

A traffic signal is one.

Uh personally, I like roundabouts.

They're safer, they're faster, and long term, they're less expensive.

Um, but that's that's just my my opinion.

Um but trying to find the solution, particularly as the area south of 175th develops.

And I believe that's Spring Hill, is it not?

So it's not just the City of Olatha and the County, it's also Spring Hill in terms of how it's going to be reworked or or I should say developed and who's gonna uh manage it.

But uh I have every faith that that the city will come up with the the best solution and I'm sure the county will be supportive of it.

Uh it I I'm not gonna say how quickly that will be, but it won't be quick enough for some of us.

Thank you.

And and that's um Julie Brewer's district, Spring Hill.

I have a little bit of Spring Hill, but that's in her district, and I'll be sure to say something to her.

She's been on the email streams.

Okay.

But that there's been several areas, you know, of concern, um, just traffic.

I know I live out in Cedar Creek and you know, I'm starting to get calls even though it's city.

Um between the Linux side, you know, just having traffic and all the homes going in, and people are just gonna have to be patient.

So you're welcome.

Councilmember Denol.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um fortunately, my fellow council members have said many of the things I might have commented on, so I'll keep quite brief.

Uh when we look at the the extra transit you're going to do for the World Cup.

Um I just was going to say or encourage um everybody with the county.

Um, is there any data acquisition you can do during that that can be parlayed into future planning on adding public transportation in the next uh five, ten, fifteen years.

I just encourage staff to to see if there's anything easy to do to collect that data to help with the Yes.

Um they are that is one thing that they're working on is what kind of data that can be, you know, transportation is very expensive.

Um and it doesn't pay for itself.

Um and it's not um it's it's it's it's just a difficult um topic with a lot of people.

I you know, on transit right now, the transportation, like in my district, I don't get a lot of transit down there because most of it's over by the college and other areas, but we are taking care of people that's in need and people that need to have it.

But yeah, I'm yeah, they're working on data for this because if there's other events, which we hope do come that we can do this again.

So um I don't know if you've been on the buses yet.

They're awesome.

They have internet, nice coach seating.

Um they have they will have an app, uh which I should have put the app on here that you can be able to go on and get your tickets.

Um it's they've really put a lot of thought and planning.

There's a lot of people a part of that, but that was not one of the committees I was on.

Excellent.

The other um thing that I wanted to mention, I know this won't be a new idea to many people in this room and and outside uh we've got a lot of aviation, of course.

Uh it's great to see K-State has a school here.

I'm from Salina.

There's a there's a K-State uh school for for people to learn how to work on airplanes and become pilots.

I that wasn't very far from Widget on air member partnerships between the big uh aviation.

Let's move to Johnson County.

That would be amazing, wouldn't it?

Um but no, I think that there is a huge opportunity.

Uh we've all we all know about Garmin.

I know there are supporting um companies in Johnson County helping uh do things in the aviation industry.

I think we've got a huge opportunity to attract more.

And I would just say uh between all the different municipalities in the county, we could probably do a lot to collaborate together on attracting more.

Uh if we do choose uh that is an area we want to heavily move.

And I like I said, I know some people have had this idea, and I just want to say it tonight.

Thank you and encourage encourage you guys to to take that back and hopefully we can do some more there just.

And you know, Garmin already is working with our schools, um, our colleges.

Um Panasonic actually you can go out to Johnson County Community College, you can go to K-St.

You can get a certification to help build batteries, you can go for maintenance for housekeeping.

Um Honeywell, they were part of this round table discussion.

You know, they have the aerospace and they're now um working on having programs in Spring Hill and DeSoto.

So there's a lot of that going on.

But thanks for that information.

I'll try to keep you guys updated about some of that stuff that's going on.

Because I think it's really um is important for businesses to get back, and it's really good to see that they're providing that.

So thanks again for being here.

I appreciate that.

Well, enjoy your scarf.

Mike brought those, so I thought that was nice of him.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Councilmember Scootover.

Oh, sorry.

Oh, uh yeah.

Uh I was going to say you can go, but no.

Um I wanted to uh thank uh uh Councilwoman Essex for her uh questions about the the map on there, because I I was one that was concerned about the number of stops that Olatha had versus some of our our sister communities.

Um is it correct?

Did I did I hear one of you say that for for the route Olatha is on, that's a paid route, while the others are going to be free.

Is that the free route is from the airport uh transporting people from the airport to Linuxa City Center and uh the Orlando Park Convention Center.

And that is available to uh residents as well as the FIFA traffic.

The circular routes uh and there are three of them, if you notice A, B, and C yellow, blue, and gold, and I I I know it's difficult to read are the paid routes.

And I will don't quote me on this, but I think it's two dollars.

I don't know that they've said it yet, but there's tickets for everything.

You have to get a ticket so they can know how many people are getting on and off the buses at one time.

So I will send the information over to you.

Um we just got that.

I I appreciate that.

My concern, you know, as as somebody who likes it when people spend tax dollars in Olatha is is that if people are having to pay to use the bus to come down to Olatha from stops that are otherwise free, you know, taking them to Lanexa City Center or to Oak Park Mall or other places where they can spend money and invest their sales tax dollars versus paying to come down to Olatha, it feels a little bit like we're getting the short end of that stick.

Um and so certainly if there's anything the county can do between now and I don't know, the next month to take a look at that.

I think you know, speaking at least for me, I I would certainly appreciate that because it does seem like it's a disincentive for people to actually use it to come to Olatha.

But to clarify, all the circulator route, all three of them, not just the Olatha one, are paid.

Sure.

Okay.

It's it's only the airport route.

It's free.

Yep.

Okay.

Understand.

And and the pass is for all the stops.

So um but I'll I'll get that information sent over to you.

Okay.

It'll probably be Thursday or Friday.

Because I'm on the bus all day tomorrow.

So one of the other things, and I I I certainly, you know, I echo uh the sentiment.

I I really appreciate uh you know your support and and the cooperation between the county and the city.

I do think that there are areas that we can probably improve that cooperation, and one of them is I would say in the area of of economic incentives, where uh certainly the our our council recently has had to amend our policy to be competitive with what the county is offering.

Um and later today we're gonna hear a report from somebody who wants to take advantage of that uh policy on something that's not gonna give us nearly uh any type of of reciprocal um investment.

So I think from from the city standpoint, if there's more that we can do to work together on a common economic policy or incentive package, not to speak for Susan and Tim McKee, but I'm sure they would love to sit down with your counterparts inside the county so that we can stop bidding against ourselves.

So the only incentive program that we have is at our airport, which is 50-year lease property.

Which is common.

So that's the only incentive program that we have in the county.

Right.

So is that it?

That's it.

Thanks again for coming tonight.

A couple of quick things.

So will we know on these uh the free rides from KCI to Lancaster City Center or to the convention center in Oval Park?

Will we know who what's FIFA traffic and what's local?

If it's me going to the airport versus somebody from Argentina, will you know who's writing it?

Will you know who's writing it?

Because a lot of people have talked about things that will continue on after the soccer folks are gone.

So the short answer of that is yes and no.

Okay.

Okay.

Good.

I mean, yeah.

Can't council member Denult.

I think it will be popular.

That's why I think may know this better than I do.

But these little things keep track of us.

Okay.

Okay.

And there will be a number of efforts to track the movement of traffic and the volume of traffic on an ongoing basis.

And I I'm not sophisticated enough.

That's why I'm kind of deferring to Kevin.

He he may know this better than I do in terms of how you can disaggregate that.

But the desire is to improve uh service, but also to draw in more uh regular ridership and hoping that the the FIFA FIFA whatever is the um conduit to bringing people in uh during that period.

Uh the uh the airport service, I believe, is to continue through December 31st or until money runs out.

Okay.

Uh and uh we hope uh that it is able to demonstrate the uh utility of that service going forward.

And um I suspect that as that service picks up, and this is just Michael Ashcraft speaking, that uh it may not always be free, but uh if we can establish a demand and a habit, then who knows?

I would just uh tell the county thank you so much for helping us out on the parking garage and being a partner of the park.

During the construction time, it's gonna be difficult for both of us, the city and the county.

So we're gonna be looking for spaces, so hopefully your north lot will be available for for in the meantime during construction time.

So just something to keep in mind.

And uh when it's all built, it will be wonderful.

But during the construction time it's gonna be a little tough.

Last thing I was gonna say, that scarf looks really good, whatever it's called, but looks good on your mic until you model it very well.

It's a sash, yes, okay.

So Mayor Bacon, you are exactly right.

Um they are using the app, which I'll send that over to you what that app looks like, and it will track people.

Okay.

Um you're right.

There's going to be people, so New England is staying over at Meadowbrook, and they've taken over that entire hotel.

So there's going to be all kinds of people and I think our hotels are full.

I mean, I don't know if Kim Matee is still Tim McKee is still here, but from my understanding, those hotels are all full.

So there's going to be all kinds of people coming in and out.

So Councilmember Felter.

Since you gave us Sashes, I actually have a pinwheel pin to give to you.

I'd like to draw attention to the fact that April is child, it's child abuse and neglect prevention month.

And um I'd love it if you'd give a shout out about that um in your meeting on Thursday.

I'm going to run these over.

I have one for every commissioner in the show.

Great, I'll get them passed out.

And if you can send me a little bleep on it, I will be sure to say something.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for letting us be here.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

We'll now move to uh the consent agenda.

Thank you.

The items listed below are considered to 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 I move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Items A through N, 14 items.

Second.

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

Mr.

Craighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Denult.

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Sconover?

Yes.

Dr.

Felter.

Yes.

Mr.

Vacus.

Yes.

Ms.

Essex.

Yes.

Motion passes.

7-0.

We'll now move to new business.

Item A is consideration of ordinance number 26-15, amending Olaith Municipal Code Section 10.10.010 and 10.10.020 pertaining to main traffic ways and main traffic way connections and repealing the existing sections.

State law allows the city to designate streets as main traffic way or main traffic way connections, which allows us to use certain funding mechanisms to improve them.

This item was on uh on our April 7th agenda as a report.

Is there any need for a presentation or questions about this?

Seeing none, a motion to be in order.

Move to approve uh the passage of ordinance number 26-15.

Second.

We have a motion and the second one, the city court, please call the roll.

Miss Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Craighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Denult.

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Sconover.

Yes.

Dr.

Felter.

Yes.

Mr.

Bachis.

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

Item B is consideration of ordinance number 26-16, amending Title 10 of the Olathe Municipal Code.

These amendments are in response to City Council request to review our ordinance on e-bikes and e-scooters for opportunities to make them safer, especially for our young riders.

This item has been before us a couple of times in a report fashion is there need for any more information from staff on this item.

I'm going to one thing we're going to work on is good communication.

So and in informing the public before we come with the hammer, we're going to give some warnings first.

So a motion be an order on item B.

Move to approve ordinance 26-16.

Second.

We have a motion and a second one.

Mr.

Denult.

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Scanover.

Yes.

Dr.

Felter.

Yes.

Mr.

Vaucus.

Yes.

Miss Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Craighton.

Yes.

Motion passes.

70.

We'll now move to general issues and concerns of citizens.

No one has signed up a server.

So we will then move to item 10, which is a planning session.

We have two reports or three reports.

Does anyone have questions on report one?

How about report two?

How about report three?

No, sir.

Unmanned aircraft systems.

Councilmember Creighton.

Report three?

Yes.

Okay.

Have a question or presentation necessary?

No, just uh wanted to see if I could just get a one clarification and get it on the public record.

Uh spoke to Deputy Chief Schrader yesterday and had a couple of concerns.

And first of all, thank you for your time and getting back to Chief DeGraft and Reed on a couple of things.

And one of the uh, and I understand what we're trying to do, we're getting ahead of the curve and some different things going on.

But we were just talking a little bit ago when the county was up here about the future and e-commerce and deliveries by drone are becoming more common.

Can you just real quickly address how that this ordinance could or could not impact that and how somebody like an Amazon could potentially be able to deliver.

Sure.

Sure.

Mayor, Councilmembers, uh Dave Schrader, Deputy Police Chief.

Um we had discussed it earlier.

Currently, uh we do not have an Amazon facility that is being deployed in our area.

Uh the way this um ordinance is set up, it's we do not control the airspace.

We just can control the land.

So it'd be for landing and takeoff.

And we also currently do not have a location that is doing that here in our city limits.

It would be something to get this ordinance in place, and as technology changes and progresses, we would probably have to re review that part of it.

Thank you.

I just I know it's coming at some point and just don't want to shut it down before it gets here.

Thank you.

Councilmember Felter.

Thank you, Mayor Bacon.

This is uh uh topic near and dear to my heart.

And 2016, we were being stalked by a neighbor with not just one drone, but two and harassed like crazy.

And it was perfectly legal because uh uh technology had outpaced our rules of the road, our laws of the land.

And so rather than as my husband was trying to solve it by shooting it out of the sky.

And he was quite promptly told by police that is illegal.

Um I'm like okay.

Everybody calm down.

I'm gonna go to the legislature and tell them about the problem.

And within two weeks, we had a bill signed by Governor Brownback.

It wasn't my proposed um resolution, but it took care of the problem.

They updated the stocking laws and made it illegal to stock with a drone.

However, the FAA has refused to kind of govern this airspace.

Uh uh, they kind of do like 500 feet and above and like everything below is kind of free market.

And um uh it's still based on, you know, that's a decade ago.

It still seems that Kansas only has maybe three rules, like law enforcement use.

Except for certain exceptions, which I'm assuming that our provisions meet those.

And then privacy protections, thanks to me.

Using a drone to spy, harass or invade privacy is now illegal, 2016.

And then wildlife protections, you can't hunt with a drone.

And that's kind of it.

So we happen to have a legislate legislator here.

Robin, a patchwork quilt, a municipal laws will be a nightmare.

So a Kansas state law dealing with this would be good.

I am usually all about local control.

But uh airspace, especially innovation with Amazon or any e-commerce like uh Commissioner Creighton had brought up.

If you have municipal rules, like right next door to me, two houses over is Overland Park.

Well, I it's like two blocks over.

But you know, it gets really, really um complicated.

I fully support what we have in this report report because in lieu of this, there is nothing.

There's no rules.

So it's kind of like the wild west.

And I think that the legislature, I fully expect it a decade ago for them to look clo more closely.

To me, it's kind of like layers of icing on a cake that we could have certain bands within certain altitudes that are designated for certain uses.

And I think we have to protect citizens' privacy and property rights.

That's where I land.

And so just putting that all out there, there seem to be not a lot of regulations out there.

Is that am I accurate in that?

Well, you are right.

In uh 2016, uh that stalking piece was added.

And there are things that a drone can be used for that we could enforce.

If a drone's used for property damage, uh battery, those kind of things, but controlling them simply flying in the air in an area does get to be very difficult.

Like it there, they're they could be very loud.

Like I have the video, it it made for profound testimony when I'm like uh we have a problem.

And it there were two drones, very loud.

They sound just like a bunch of bees right overhead.

And um I don't know what was wrong with our neighborhood.

They've since moved and I mean we were friendly.

I I just think they kind of were not super um smart on uh social norms that you don't do that, you know.

And when my husband strongly asked them to stop, they refused.

And they weren't wrong.

Uh it wasn't against the law.

But you know, we had dogs, we had kids, and so it it kind of feels icky.

I I wish there were more rules because you hate to wait for something bad to happen.

I mean, at the at the time it was fully legal to be a peeping tom with a drone.

And so I'm glad that the legislators saw the problem and took care of it at the time.

I sure wish they had would have paid attention to my plan that had the airspace rules and stuff for uh if the FAA isn't gonna do it, Kansas sure can.

And it would at least be a whole state instead of a patchwork quilt approach by municipalities.

But that said, thank you for doing something in this space, and I fully support what you're doing in lieu of anybody else taking action.

Councilmember Denult.

Thank you.

Um do you by chance have just kind of a quick rundown on what is acceptable drone use?

Uh I know there are a lot of toy drones you can buy them at the mall and things like that.

What is allowed?

My kid has one.

I don't let my kids take them outside really.

Uh so it's always inside, you know.

But what is there any room and just kind of a good reminder that we're going to do that?

Well, there's yes, there is difference.

Like uh for commercial use, there's a part 107, so there's it's a very strict guideline and testing that needs to go through for uh folks to utilize those.

That's what the police department, that's what the fire department utilizes.

Um then beyond that you have uh the kids and and folks, and they have to be within a visual line of sight.

They have to be able to see, see where their drone is.

Um the capability of those uh is not the same as some of ours that uh you know we have a maximum height of 400 feet.

Those are flying at a much lower altitude.

Um but there are they are supposed to be taking tests on those two to be flying those.

Um you say tests, you mean like getting permit?

Online test for folks that are over 16.

Um there are a couple things that are currently in place for that.

Um as far as what we were covering tonight, yeah, had to end up doing with uh really looking we are looking specifically at the events, uh special events and then the b the uh infrastructure around Olatha with the fire departments, police departments, and that's what we are looking at in this particular ordinance.

Understood.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Scudover.

Thank you, Mayor and and thank you, Deputy Chief Schrader.

I am going to ask a drone-related question, but it's not really on this, so forgive me.

But I've had a few comments from or questions from parents following the rollout of the drones as first responders program.

Um understanding that I think I think we're using school buildings maybe to to house some of the drone landing pads or or whatever.

Can you just speak to the drones of first responder program and what some of the limits of the drone usage uh drone usage is to kind of the swage some of these parents so that they know we're not using drones to like surveil their kids during recess?

Sure.

Uh yes, currently there are um three schools that are being utilized as a nest.

In other words, that's a takeoff and landing spot and charging station for the drones.

And then we also have a city building as our fourth location.

Uh that helps us cover about 80 percent of the city.

Um those drones initially take off, it they're focused on their takeoff spot.

It's not like they go immediately in the air, and you mentioned something about being at the playground the way the cameras are set up, they're take they're taking off, there's spotlighted on their takeoff location.

They go up, the camera goes up, and they they go to the location that they're dispatched.

Upon return, it's the same thing.

They're at a high altitude, they come in, it sees where home is, and it comes straight down.

They're not hovering over the playground seeing what the kids are doing.

Uh we control the cameras on those, so there's no zooming in on the kids that are out of recess.

Uh what we have found to this point, it's uh been very successful.

Now there have been times just due to the weather that we haven't been able to get them up there.

Uh but sim well, I I would say some simple things, such as uh a truck uh lost uh somebody was moving their bed, lost their mattress in the middle of the roadway.

That's that's a traffic hazard, and actually a very serious one.

And uh we got the drone up, got it there uh, you know, in like a minute, and we were able to see that they're loading that mattress in the truck and now they're driving off.

Our officer was still, you know, probably three minutes away from that location, and we were able to clear that call that didn't need to get us there, and now left an officer ready to respond somewhere else.

Uh we also have had a three-year-old that wandered away from home and uh we were able to locate that child uh walking down the street and direct our officers into where that child was.

So I mean that's just two.

We there's a whole slew of uh uh very successful stories that we could talk to, talk about with just this you know, up being up and running just for the few weeks that we have.

So you know, to the point that there should be no concerns for the parents at these schools and and the drones, um, you know, taking off and landing from there.

Um, like I said, if they're concerned about you know their children being on that video uh that's we're controlling that and uh the drone is and and we're not zooming in.

So you'll see a crowd of kids out on the playground if if it happens to catch it at a particular angle, but that's all you're gonna see.

Thank you.

Um I've a couple of things.

Um as far as insurance inspections and real estate agents and folks like that, this isn't going to hamper their ability to continue their work or do they have to have special permits?

Um.

Yeah.

This ordinance is addressing those special events, whether it's uh permitted one or not a permitted one that exceeds a hundred people in attendance.

So it's the focus really is on the safety of the community and those large scale events.

Um so yeah, I I've noticed that.

Somebody came in my neighborhood and uh, you know, within a few minutes they were able to have it up and they checked the neighbor's roof for hail damage.

And so this wouldn't impact that.

So how will you uh the thousand feet from these specific locations?

How are you going to monitor that?

Whether if you see a drone within the thousand feet, obviously you're gonna wonder, well, did they take off or land inside this circle?

Um especially if it's a real estate agent taking a picture of a house or so I always thought that you had restricted areas on flying drones that the software wouldn't even allow you to go up to have your m your drone work.

I mean, it was just sitting on it wouldn't even take off, yeah.

You had clearance.

So do we have that ability to ground these on certain times of the day around within a mile of these events?

Because we don't even want them flying within an event, do we?

Um there's still a lot of wiggle room for somebody to get one up there, but it gives us an opportunity to locate that person, who's flying it, and have an engage them in a conversation to see what's going on, what the intent is.

Uh let them understand what the ordinance is.

Um so it provides us that opportunity.

It's a good starting point.

Okay.

I I've seen them.

They're popular at like fireworks displays and things.

You see them up at night.

Um I think this is a first uh good first step.

Um we'll see.

I don't know.

I I think we're ready to see this before us to vote.

So thank you.

Okay, council.

We now have a need for another executive session.

Do we have a motion?

Good to hear a motion.

I think so.

Okay.

Good.

So I'd like to move that a late city council recess into an executive session to discuss personal matters related to the evaluation of the city auditor pursuant to the non-elected personnel exception provided in KSA seventy-five dash four thirty-one nineteen B one for twenty minutes.

The open meeting will resume in city council chambers at nine PM.

Do you hear a second?

Sorry.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Sconover.

Yes.

Dr.

Felter.

Yes.

Mr.

Bacchus.

Yes.

Miss Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Craighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Denult.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Seven zero.

We are reconvening from an executive session.

A motion to recess back into executive session for four minutes would be in order.

Perfect.

We'd like to invite Leslie in.

So I move that we recess back into executive session uh for four minutes.

We'll reconvene at nine oh six.

Second.

We have a motion, second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye opposed.

Okay.

Thank you for catching that.

Yeah.

You're a minute early.

Rob Robin wouldn't let us vape.

We'll wait.

It was all Robin's fault.

I should have said, did I say four minutes or five minutes?

Uh four.

It was four.

Yeah.

We just made it.

No, I think they're banana.

It's from Teen Council.

Yeah.

No chocolate.

The chocolate's gone, huh?

No, no, no, no, no.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We are reconvening from an executive session a motion to be in order.

I move to authorize staff to proceed with the strategy strategies as discussed and directed by the governing body.

Second.

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

Mr.

Craighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Dinault.

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Scoonover.

Yes.

Dr.

Felter.

Yes.

Mr.

Vacus.

Yes.

Miss Essex.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Seven zero.

I would just like to say that uh we uh had a review of Caitlin Clark, and we're all pleased with her performance and excited that she's staying on for another year.

So thanks, Caitlin.

Um that we'll move to additional items.

I'll start on my left tonight.

Councilmember Crayton.

Just two items real quick, and thank you uh to Councilmember Bacchus for bringing up all the members of the county commission who were here about the importance of uh strengthening our communication.

We had a little something happen that kind of caught all the of us off guard.

And so uh thank you for bringing that up, and I am confident that we will work through that.

The other thing, and this time I'm going to end on a positive note uh after last time.

And just once again want to talk about and thank the people that were a part of the comprehensive plan update.

I was on the last one.

I know what the time and commitment was.

And so uh even though they're not here, thank you to the entire committee as well as the citizens.

Councilmember Sconover.

I'm gonna echo that and say uh to Kim Hollingsworth and her her team of everybody inside the city, um, everybody who participated it, all of our volunteers.

Thank you so much for lending your time and your expertise and and your passion to this project.

I think uh we're certainly going to be the better for it over the next um uh decade or two.

So thank you so much.

Also, shout out to the team council.

It's always one of my favorite nights that we get to hang out with the team council and hear all the cool stuff that they are doing.

Um they are such an impressive group of of kids just hearing everything that they have going on in school and out of school.

Uh holy moly.

So uh we should all be very proud um uh of them, and I I know we all are.

Uh another shout out, thank you so much to the Olatha Fire Department, uh Chief DeGraffin Reed and your team.

Uh turns out they respond pretty quick when you know folks need them.

Uh my dad had a medical emergency this past week, and so certainly appreciate you guys um showing up and and answering the call.

So thank you all so much.

He's doing much better now.

Uh couple of other things um on there.

I know we uh talked tonight a little bit, or we we we voted on the new ordinances for for scooters and and e-bikes.

And I I I want to you know reiterate just how important the parental education component of of those rules are.

I mean, we can pass any type of ordinance uh and and restrict usage and all of that type of stuff.

But if kids aren't aren't getting it at home, if if they're not taking the responsibility and their parents aren't taking the responsibility for it, then none of it's gonna be successful.

And I know that we all are very concerned when we see kids riding around on on these things without helmets, without following proper safety procedures.

So I would just stress again the importance of parents to take an active role to know what the rules are and to follow them before they buy one of these devices for their kids or let their kids um ride them.

Uh the final thing that I will will mention is um vape shops.

We have a lot of vape shops.

And a lot of vape shops in areas that are around schools and around neighborhoods.

I I would like for us to start thinking about whether it makes sense to restrict vape shops.

Um, you know, tonight at the teen council meeting, hearing the kids talk about problems with addiction and and substance abuse and mental health that they're dealing with.

And and to know, you know, to hear them say that vapes are certainly one of the number one things that the kids use doesn't just have to be THC.

Oftentimes it's it's it's just nicotine.

Um but if there's anything we can do to make it harder for kids to get them.

Um I think I'd be in favor of having that discussion.

So I'd throw it out there for the rest of us.

I'm not sure I don't have any specific proposals or anything.

Maybe if city staff can take a look at something.

Um, but I that might be worthwhile.

So Councilmember Felter.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for mentioning that.

Um Councilman Skunover.

Um vaping is a huge issue.

Uh back when I was on the school board, just managing vaping in the classroom.

It's surprisingly occurring.

You know, there's you can wear a hoodie and just blow it into that and vape right in the classroom.

And so we had to buy vaping sensors.

We had to staff up to handle the extra detentions.

And it became so just onerous to our daily routines that I I beseeched our attorney general to sue the vaping companies.

And it never happened.

And so I convinced our superintendent of schools to sue Jewel and vaping companies.

And we were the first large school district in Kansas to do so.

And guess who won?

We did.

And so, you know, I think there's a lot of leverage out there.

Tutti fruity, cherry bomb, strawberry, those are flavors.

They are targeting our children.

And it is big tobacco.

And it's a workaround around the Master Tobacco Settlement Fund, which funds the children's cabinet, birth through age five.

And so it's near and dear to my heart.

And so anything that we can do.

I was all over Tobacco 21, which I appreciate the city council at the time passing here locally.

So one thing we could do right away is regulate the way they have signs in the windows with neon all the way around, which I know violates our code.

It has to, or at least the spirit of our code.

So I would ask SCAT staff to first look at that.

Right example, right across from Chisholm Trail.

You've got one in ever throughout every window is neon flashing and that's attracting to our children.

And so I agree.

And they're selling other highly addictive legal products, which actually one just became illegal this this legislative session.

So I was I was very glad to hear that.

But I I would wholeheartedly support that.

Okay.

And then back to what I was gonna say.

Liz Rubak, thank you for your help with the team council.

It's so inspiring to see how you kind of let them dr be the captains of their own ship and you just gently nudge and redirect them because the ship on the water pretty well can stay on course just with a gentle little nudge.

And uh Liz is so good at that, just um they don't even know they're getting a little nudge in the right direction, and that is amazing leadership.

And and you can't really put a value on it.

I see you, and I'm so grateful for you, and they see you too.

You could just tell the relationship is there, and it's just super valuable for us.

And what the teens did with their top five issues, and they talked through the through it with the council today.

Amazing.

I'm super impressed with it.

And they gave us their you know wish list, they're asked very clearly.

Thank you for teaching them how to ask, and I'm on it.

I'm gonna try to work on this this week.

You know, in my network, what I can do to help move the needle a little bit.

Umetha, Kim Hollingsworth did a great job.

Thank you, Mayor, for appointing me to that task force or that committee.

It was an honor to serve, learned a lot and feel like it was a great product.

And um to everybody who served, thank you.

Um, and to the commissioners, um, Ashcraft and Alan Brand for coming today.

That's uh I mean, they put in such long days and for them to come here and share with us.

It's a big deal to me.

And I I still want to encourage them again to dream big with our airport here because I think there's great opportunity there to have a hub here in Olathe.

Thank you.

Councilmember Vacus.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

So I'd take a moment to go on record.

I want to uh acknowledge and compliment our planning staff.

Uh of course they've all left for the evening, but their boss is here.

But uh, and it's not just in relation to uh Elevate Aletha, but it's the day in and day out of planning and community development.

You know, we're fortunate to have Chet Belcher and Kim Hollingsworth and the entire staff as a part of our team.

Uh last week we met with uh a neighborhood, uh half dozen folks from a neighborhood adjacent to some new development, they had some concerns.

We met for an hour, and I was just um continued to be gratified, not just by the technical competence, but by the interpersonal skills of the planning staff to to be kind, to be diplomatic, to be uh very much full disclosure, to just to be able to talk to people as people.

That uh ability to make positive one-on-one contact is extremely important.

You know, uh a career in uh municipal government is tough.

You gotta be technically accurate wherever it might be, but your interpersonal skills are so important also, and I think we just have the best of the best in the planning department, and I just thank them from the uh bottom of my heart.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Essex.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I also want to say thank you to our team council and our outgoing seniors.

What a phenomenal group of people.

And our steering committee on Elevate Olatha, what a great job they did.

Um just was I'm so excited the direction that we're headed.

And you know, something we don't often hear about um is our fleet services.

I have to I have to mention this.

The city's fleet staff was recognized as the NAFA conference as the twelfth best fleet operation in North America.

Um the highest ranking in the city's history and an approving order of 57th place last year.

That's that's pretty awesome.

And our budget team, they get to present it, Government Finance Officers Association.

What an honor that is to be able to do that.

We have a phenomenal budget team.

And um, I saw on social media we were ranked one of the healthiest cities.

So man, we're doing a lot of things right.

So good job, team.

Councilmember Tanult.

I don't know how to go after all of you.

You basically said what I want.

No, I really I think um Elevate Olatha is before I read it.

Uh you know, I put down all of my thoughts on what I wanted to see in my neighborhoods and in my city.

And then I read the comprehensive plan of Elevate Olatha, and it was in lockstep, all the things that I dream about.

So I feel like this comprehensive plan is our dream of what we want Olathe to continue forward becoming.

So I'm really excited.

I'm really, really thankful for everyone's hard work that went into it because it took time.

It took a lot of listening.

It took a lot of wording it just right to represent our dream.

And still leave room for for molding, you know, every specific area of Olatha to do what's right for the people that live in that specific area.

So uh well done.

Keep it the hard work.

Thank you.

City Manager Susan Sherman.

Wow, what could we just go around again?

That was just fantastic.

Um thank you so much.

Our staff really appreciates.

We will make sure that everyone who isn't here uh hears the accolades.

We are also going to celebrate public service recognition week the first week in May.

So uh we'll have some things to share at that time too.

So thank you.

And Kevin, you'll get to go first next time.

So you know, I look forward to that.

A couple of things.

Uh I did want to give a shout out to Chief DeGrafen Reed.

He called me the other night and said, you know, his night was just starting.

He was at 255th and old Kansas City Road responded to the uh tornado down in Hillsdale.

So I know you guys had a long night, so I appreciate the firefighters that were participating in that uh relief effort or search and rescue.

I'm not sure at that point it was probably search and rescue.

But uh the other thing I wanted to ask is uh, and I had a question from Citizen about how do we get school zones and the potential of possibly a school zone around Heritage Christian Academy on 159th and potentially Black Bob when it gets finished, or how because there are a lot of students there and uh speeds are 40, 45 mile an hour.

So just the process of how we might get that started.

I believe don't we have one at St.

Thomas Aquinas?

A school zone there.

I'm not sure.

We might uh I think Prince of Peace.

Prince of Peace.

Okay, but not the same.

Oh, that's over in the park.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, it would be Overland Park across the street.

But some of that is Olatha.

It's Olatha on the west side.

Uh it's Overland Park on the east.

So how do we divide that up?

I'm just curious.

So uh we're okay.

And then um it's hard to believe that there's just one month left of school as we start to make as everyone watching and here as you start to make your summer plans.

We invite you to join us for a summer kickoff at Lake Olatha on Friday, May 29th.

We'll have lawn games, an obstacle course, space painting, dueling pianos, and plenty to eat and drink.

So what better way to kick off the summer than a night at Lake Olatha?

So you can find out more detailed information on our calendar at the city's website at WW.olatacast.gov.

So an exciting times and kind of a formal kickoff or Lake Olatha that you know kind of happened in the middle of COVID.

So we're uh we're gonna do it right this time.

So thank you all for being here for joining us tonight.

Um we are adjourned.

Good night.