ShawneeDispatch.com

At the beginning of the new year, the city of Shawnee is facing a long checklist of items on its "to do" list for 2007.

From several street projects to a long-anticipated new municipal building, Shawnee will see several changes within its borders if everything goes according to plan. Members of the Shawnee City Council also may decide on some much-debated civic issues from 2006 and work through another difficult budgeting year.

First and foremost for Carol Gonzales, city manager, is an item for which the city has been planning for nearly a decade.

"My hope is we'd break ground on the Justice Center," Gonzales said.

The city has released its request for proposals, and Ron Freyermuth, public works director, said the city staff is currently preparing to review plans submitted from the top three design-build teams selected for the Justice Center complex, which will include space for the municipal court, police department and Fire Station No. 2.

Because of the city's tight budget and mounting debt this year, the Shawnee City Council decided to keep Justice Center construction costs at $22 million, the amount city officials estimated will be raised by a sales tax that voters approved to pay for the center in 2004. Because of inflation and other factors, building the center as originally conceived would have cost $28 million or more.

Gonzales said the Council could be facing some more tough decisions this year, even after raising property taxes for the first time in 13 years last year.

"I anticipate another challenging budget year as we work on the 2008 budget," Gonzales said.

To help bring in more money for the city, Gonzales said she hopes for some new retail and commercial business announcements in 2007. With work beginning on the Grey Oaks commercial development, along Kansas Highway 7 south of Johnson Drive, it is one spot that could support a big anchor store as well as other retail and offices.

The Council also is likely to take up several issues that caused a lot of debate last year. Gonzales said there were two issues that she thought would come before the Council in the next 12 months.

"I'm sure we will address the smoking issue in 2007, and I hope we can at least make progress on the (railroad) quiet zone issue," she said.

Gonzales said the city also would continue working to purchase property for a western aquatic aquatice center, though it looked like that might not be accomplished until 2008. The Council recently approved entering into negotiations to purchase 27 acres at 61st and Woodland Drive for parkland, though it was not specifically expressed as land for a pool.

In other parks and recreation projects, the new east pool, Splash Cove at the Jim Allen Aquatic Center, will open this spring, and Pioneer Crossing Park will be completed and dedicated. Construction also will begin on the Clear Creek Recreational Trail, extending from the trail in Gamblin Park under Kansas Highway 7.

Then there are, of course, the several items listed in the city's Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP. One new item, which Council members on the Finance & Administration Committee were to discuss Tuesday, is Clear Creek Parkway, west of K-7 to Clare Road.

The city recommended adding the road to the list of 2007 projects, funded through a 100 percent benefit district with developers and other property owners adjacent to the proposed street. The street will come in handy, since the capital improvement plan also shows that a signal at Clear Creek Parkway and K-7 could be funded in 2007.

Another item scheduled for discussion Tuesday was Monticello Road. One of the biggest construction projects beginning this year, both in size and cost, will be widening and realigning of the road from Midland Drive to the 7900 block.

City staff recommended changing the project on the CIP, listing it again as a 2008 project up for funding through the County Assisted Roads System program. Staff also recommended moving the widening of Monticello Road north of Shawnee Mission Parkway to 2009, as the city had no project to submit for CARS funding that year.

Also scheduled for 2007 in the city's CIP:

• Improvements at existing parks, Gum Springs and West Flanders, as well as improvements to Quivira Glen Park, off 51st Street. The city also may begin work on Water Tower Park.
• A signal at 71st Street and Pflumm Road.
• Improvements to the intersection of Johnson Drive and Renner Road.
• Drainage projects in Brianwood and Monticello Meadows and along Flint from Johnson Drive to 59th Street.
• Extending Silverheel from Clear Creek Parkway to 66th Street and from the 6900 block to 71st Street, both funded through benefit districts with developers.
• Purchasing an aerial ladder truck for the Fire Department.
• A project funded by a Community Development Block Grant.