KCK police receive award for traffic safety

The AAA Community Traffic Safety Gold Award was presented to the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department at tonight’s Unified Government Commission meeting.

A Kansas Department of Transportation law enforcement liaison presented the award, remarking that the points for the award were recalculated and the award was upgraded to gold from a previously announced silver.

The KDOT liaison noted that Kansas City, Kansas, has made progress in reducing the number of teens that were not wearing seat belts, and adult seat belt use also was on the rise.

In other action, the UG Commission approved authorization for three grant applications. One is for lead-based paint hazard control, another for the Cambridge Connector Study, and a third for a Fisher Park and West 39th Street planning study.

Also approved were five appointments to boards, without discussion.

UG Administrator Doug Bach explained the reason for canceling the 5 p.m. UG meeting was that the situation has changed since the Mid-America Regional Council did a study of the I-70 and I-670 loop alternative. There was discussion on the Missouri side of the state line about the Broadway Bridge, and MARC was seeing if there were other alternatives. However, the Missouri Department of Transportation recently had some changes to the Broadway bridge project recently, which has caused MARC to go back and determine what it will do.

The meeting, under 15 minutes, was chaired by Mayor Pro Tem Hal Walker. Mayor Mark Holland and Commissioner Mike Kane were not present at the meeting.