July 2018 – Page 60 – Welcome to Wyandotte Daily!

High heat returns to forecast today

Wyandotte County will be under a heat advisory from 1 p.m. Tuesday, July 10, through 8 p.m. Friday, July 13, according to the National Weather Service.

There also is an orange ozone air quality alert today, according to the Mid-America Regional Council.

Highs in the 90s to around 100 are expected through this week, along with increasing humidity, the weather service said.

The heat index will climb into the triple digit range today, with readings reaching near to 105 Wednesday, and higher heat index readings on Thursday and Friday, according to the weather service.

Little to no precipitation is expected through the end of the work week, the weather service said.

The weather service said the combination of heat and humidity today could create a situation where heat illnesses are possible. Residents are advised to reschedule strenuous activities to the early morning or evening.

Residents should drink plenty of water, stay in an air-conditioned room as much as possible, check on the elderly and young children, and know the signs and symptoms of heat illnesses.

During the air quality alert today, residents should avoid refueling vehicles or topping off when refueling, and avoid using gasoline-powered lawn equipment, according to MARC.

MARC encouraged car pooling, biking to work, delaying or combining errands and using water-based paints and cleaners. Those who have respiratory illnesses should be especially careful. Bus rides are half-price, at 75 cents, today during the orange ozone alert, according to Ride KC.

Today, the forecast is sunny and hot, with a high near 98, the weather service said. The heat index will be as high as 103. A calm wind will become east around 5 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight, it will be mostly clear with a low of 75, according to the weather service, and an east wind of 5 to 7 mph that becomes calm in the evening.

Wednesday, expect sunny and hot weather, with a high near 97, the weather service said. The heat index will be as high as 103. There will be a south southeast wind of 3 to 8 mph.

Wednesday night, it will be mostly clear with a low of 76, according to the weather service. A southeast wind will be 5 to 8 mph.

Thursday, it will be sunny and hot, with a high near 97, the weather service said, and a south wind of 5 to 10 mph.

Thursday night, it will be mostly clear with a low of 77, according to the weather service.

Friday, it will be mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 97, the weather service said.

Friday night, it will be partly cloudy with a low of 77, according to the weather service.

Saturday, expect mostly sunny and hot weather, with a high near 97, the weather service said.

Saturday night, the low will be around 78 with partly cloudy skies, according to the weather service.

Sunday, it will be mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 98, the weather service said.

Sunday night, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of 76, according to the weather service.

Monday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 95, the weather service said.

Get to a cooler place and drink water if there are signs of heat exhaustion. For heat stroke, call 911. (National Weather Service graphic)

Volunteers clean up Welborn Lake

Youth volunteers from the Catholic Heart Group helped with the cleanup of Welborn Lake on Monday. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)

It was cleanup day Monday morning at Welborn Lake, with about 10 homeowners, volunteers and a youth group helping.

Volunteers trimmed trees, pulled weeds and removed brush around the lake, working during the morning hours.

Helen Ann Caples, a resident of the area near 48th Terrace and Leavenworth Road, said residents had formed a new group, the Welborn Lake Group.

The group has received a $3,000 grant from Livable Neighborhoods, she said, to help clean up the lake.

Danny Wortman helped clean up brush and tree limbs on Monday at Welborn Lake. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)

Welborn Lake, a private lake, is owned by the neighbors around it. About 30 homes circle the area. The residents have been discussing cleaning up the lake during the past year.

Residents hope to work on cleaning up the water in the lake next, according to Caples. The grant is not expected to cover the total amount needed for water cleanup, a fountain and aeration equipment, she said.

Caples said the group plans to have quarterly meetings.

Community meetings were held in November and February by the Unified Government about the future of Welborn Lake.

Marie Watson said she would like to see Welborn Lake cleaned up and restored, not turned into a park. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)

Marie Watson, a retired teacher who lives at Welborn Lake, said she didn’t want Welborn Lake to be turned into a park. She would prefer that it be cleaned up and continue to be a lake.

She said she thinks climate change may have had an effect on Welborn Lake. She can recall years ago that the lake was frozen solid in the winter, allowing the children to run across it to catch their bus on the other side. But in recent years, it hasn’t been cold enough to support walking on the ice, she noted.

When she taught school, she asked the students to test the water in the lake, and they discovered it was not dangerous, she said. “It’s just duckweed,” she said about the flowering plants on the lake.

The lake has a link to local history. In the early 1900s, it was a vacation stop on the interurban, a place where tourists went fishing and swimming.

Mary Conrad, who was volunteering Monday at Welborn Lake, said she has seen 33 species of birds at Welborn Lake since February. The area is loaded with wildlife, she added. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)

Also at the cleanup Monday was Mary Conrad, a retired librarian from Sumner Academy, who said she frequently drives around the lake.

“Thirty-three species of birds have been seen here since the last week of February,” Conrad said.

Conrad said that although it may look like the lake is not doing well, “when it comes to nature, it is loaded with wildlife.”

Cynthia Jacob is the adviser for the Catholic Heart Group, which was doing volunteer service work at the lake.

She said youth volunteers are currently in the area, doing yardwork, painting, day care, cleanup and minor home maintenance tasks. They are also working at residents’ homes throughout the area.

Lou Braswell, executive director of the Leavenworth Road Association, said the LRA sent some volunteers to the cleanup.

She said there are currently hundreds of youth volunteers in the metro area who are helping residents with cleanup and maintenance tasks. They were also working with the Leavenworth Road Association to visit residents and paint or fix up homes, she said.

The volunteers are from throughout the nation, Illinois, Virginia, Iowa, Washington, Arkansas, Colorado and other states, she added.

“They didn’t know each other until they got here, and they all work together like they’ve known each other forever,” Braswell said.

David Wilson helped cut weeds at the Welborn Lake cleanup Monday. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)

Donna Bennett helped with the cleanup of Welborn Lake on Monday. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)

Preliminary management plan developed for new downtown KCK grocery store

A preliminary management agreement is in progress for a new downtown Kansas City, Kansas, grocery store, according to Unified Government Administrator Doug Bach.

Bach said Monday that the UG has a signed letter of intent with the Merc Co-op for management of the downtown grocery store. He said the management agreement terms are fundamentally completed.

The UG has been working for years on developing a grocery store in the downtown “food desert” area of Kansas City, Kansas.

The plan is for a 12,000 to 14,000-square-foot full-service grocery store to be built at 5th and Minnesota Avenue, in the northeast corner of the Reardon Center parking lot, Bach said. He gave a report on the project at the Unified Government Economic Development and Finance Committee meeting Monday night.

Across from it on 5th Street is the old EPA building, which will be used for a University of Kansas Health Services site, and across from it on Minnesota Avenue is the Reardon Convention Center.

The Merc Co-op of Lawrence, Kansas, is the proposed operator of the new downtown grocery, Bach said.

Bach said the Merc has been working with the UG for some time on this project. People can come into the store, eat, gather and shop, and the Merc will target the store toward the clientele in the community, according to Bach.

He said there is a different clientele in each area, so the store’s operator would focus on what the community’s needs are. The store operator will be responsive and will be committed to having what the community wants in the store, he said. The Merc buys local food and has local partners, he said. They also do a lot of food education in their stores, he added.

Current plans are for the UG to be the owner of the store, with the Merc as the operator under a management agreement, he said.

The project size is a $6 million development, he said. The project would be funded through direct UG use of the Hotel Revenue Fund, Bach said. Money the UG received from the sale of the Hilton Garden Inn in the same block a few years ago will be reinvested in this downtown project, he said.

The project also will be funded by sales tax and property tax-increment financing, he said.

Although the UG will be the owner of the store under the current plan, the project will be able to be sold to a private entity in the future, according to Bach. If a private entity were to come in and buy it, the UG would be able to sell it to them, he said.

Just like the Hilton Garden Inn, which the UG formerly owned, and the theaters at The Legends, also formerly under UG ownership, the UG could sell the grocery store to a private developer, and that is the long-term goal, according to Bach.

If the budget allows, the UG could add additional square footage to the store to do additional things, he said.

According to Bach, the UG has assembled the cost projections and it has architects and engineers ready to begin work.

The UG will proceed with design and construction of the grocery store, while also continuing to work with master developers for other portions of the project area, according to Bach. The project could also include more retail and residential development in future phases, he said. Bach said the UG is working with neighborhood stakeholders to determine other services that are needed in the area. Specifically, a farmers market and a pharmacy were suggested as other retail options. Additional development would be through a private developer.

Bach said he feels the development agreement would come back to the August committee meeting for review, then it would go on to the UG Commission level. The UG could then begin the design and engineering phase, he said.

If it is approved by the commissioners, the design and construction bid process could begin in September, while continuing discussions with development partners about additional retail, according to Bach.

Then, in October, the final cost estimate and design program could be presented, and the groundbreaking date and construction timeline could be determined, according to Bach.

In a comparison to visualize the size of the grocery store, the proposed store downtown would have 12,000 to 14,000 square feet, compared to the Price Chopper at 77th and State Avenue, which has 68,000 square feet.

An audience member, Shirley Ikerd, a Kansas City, Kansas, resident, commented that she thought this should have been sent out to more people in the community to have the residents give more feedback on it. She did not think the whole community was involved in this, she said. She was also concerned about the money going to the project, and where it is coming from. She said there was another grocery store that also wanted to come here.

Bach said the Merc is a good operator, and would fit well in the community. It has been interested in this project a long time, he said, and the Merc has done a lot of work on it already.

Commissioner Tom Burroughs said he would try to get her some answers.

“I’m just excited we have a partner who wants to be in our community,” Commissioner Burroughs said. “I’m hoping they will be received well and treated with the respect that they will have already proven that they deserve in Lawrence.”