Leavenworth Road project moves ahead with compromise plan

by Mary Rupert

A compromise on putting utilities underground along Leavenworth Road was approved Thursday night by the Unified Government Commission.

A tie vote on the issue was broken by Mayor Mark Holland, who voted in favor of a scaled-back project.

After a compromise effort was made by UG Commissioner Brian McKiernan, boundaries of 38th to 63rd streets were set for the project, and the project was capped at $5 million instead of the proposed up to $7 million. According to officials, utilities will be placed underground on the south side of Leavenworth Road, between 38th and 63rd streets. McKiernan had proposed a compromise amount at $4 million, but Mayor Holland then agreed to $5 million.

In a rare joint meeting of the Unified Government Commission and the Board of Public Utilities Tuesday at City Hall, BPU officials laid out their opposition to the UG’s directive to put utilities underground on Leavenworth Road.

“The key piece for me,” Mayor Holland said, “is Leavenworth Road is a blighted road. The city’s infrastructure is blighted and the utility’s structures are blighted. And both entities have contributed to a blighted corridor.”

New developments in the community, including new residential neighborhoods, are required to have underground utilities, according to UG officials.

“We’re not going to touch Leavenworth Road again in my lifetime probably, and I’d like to see it done right,” Mayor Holland said.

As part of the compromise, a task force from the UG and BPU will be appointed to develop a policy for future road projects, according to UG officials.

The Leavenworth Road project was removed from a right-of-way ordinance, and remains in a memorandum of understanding that was approved by the UG Commission on Thursday night.

Commissioner Gayle Townsend asked UG Administrator Doug Bach if this issue would return again to the UG Commission. Bach said it would be up to the commission, and that UG officials would come back to show the project scope, working with the BPU to come up with the project scope, design and cost.

The time is relatively short on the project, since it is scheduled in 2017, according to UG officials. Bach said there wouldn’t be a lot of room for modification to the plans after they are made, because of the timeline. The UG needs to complete the project in order to receive federal funds for it, before they expire, according to UG officials.

According to UG officials at the meeting, taking the Leavenworth Road underground utilities provision out of the right-of-way ordinance does not mean the project was killed, but means that the UG administrator will have authority to negotiate it. It is not mandated by an ordinance.

One of the issues under discussion was who would pay for the Leavenworth Road underground utilities, the BPU or the UG. The compromise proposes half would be paid by each, according to UG officials.

Elections are coming up in 2017. Some BPU members expressed reservations about raising utility rates to pay for this project.

A $62 million BPU bond issue went through this month, but the Leavenworth Road underground utility project was not specifically mentioned in it, because it was not one of the BPU’s priorities, according to officials.

Commissioner Mike Kane had asked for the joint public meeting in order for the two groups to understand each other’s positions and to bring the topic to the public.

Voting no on the memorandum of understanding with the $5 million cap were Commissioners Johnson, Kane, Markley, McKiernan and Murguia. Voting yes were Commissioners Walters, Philbrook, Bynum, Walker, Townsend and Mayor Holland.

Three options presented

At the 4:30 p.m. joint meeting, three options were presented for the Leavenworth Road project.

The three options, Bach said, were complete underground power lines on north and south side except for high-voltage transmission lines, $20 million; underground power lines on the south side, which the UG staff was requesting, $7 million; and a third alternative, limited overhead on the south side of the road, $2 million.

A reconstruction project improves the overall character of the area, and has an economic development and safety value, Bach said. A project such as this is done only every 30 to 40 years.

Reinvestment projects have been successful in the community, he said. Reconstruction of the State Avenue corridor from 47th to 94th streets resulted in a 20 percent increase in value, he said.

Mike Tobin, of the UG’s Public Works Department, said the Leavenworth Road corridor has a mixed character to it, both residential and commercial in places.

“This is our northernmost east-west corridor, and the most neglected major street probably in the whole county,” Tobin said. It is one of the oldest streets in the city.

In the past, Leavenworth Road was a state highway maintained by the Kansas Department of Transportation, he said. Little sidewalk areas on the side of the road were actually shoulders constructed by KDOT years ago Tobin said. Utility poles are close to the street.

“In the past 40 years, nothing really major has been performed here, it has been a piecemeal maintenance only,” Tobin said. “In that same period of time, Parallel Parkway has been built and rebuilt, State Avenue was rebuilt by the state before they turned it over to us, and then we redid it again with the stimulus money that came out in the first part of the Obama administration.”

Tobin said the 55th and 72nd street intersections on Leavenworth Road already have been finished. The 59th Street intersection will have multi-lanes with a turn lane and traffic lights, he added.

As a “complete streets” project, Leavenworth Road will have sidewalks off the back of the curb with green space, and will be bike-friendly and pedestrian-friendly, he said. There will be 43 retaining walls constructed as part of the project. It will still be a two-lane road.

Bach said the UG started having committee discussions about it in 2014, and was awarded a grant from the Mid-America Regional Council in the fall of 2014. In 2015, the UG started discussions with BPU in quarterly meetings about Leavenworth Road, he said. Meetings continued in 2016.

The timeline is utility work to be done in 2017, road construction in 2018 to 2019, and project completion by 2020, Bach said.

He said estimated project costs with the project were $16.3 million, and BPU utility costs were $3 million, including burying crossover lines.

The underground utility options were estimated at an additional $7 million to $20 million, Bach said. A third alternative brought forward on Thursday was for $2 million, with fewer power lines buried.

Gray: ‘It’s just the cost’

“I’m not opposed to burying infrastructure,” said Don Gray, BPU manager, at the 4:30 p.m. meeting. “It’s just the cost.”

Burying the power distribution lines can cost four times or more of overhead lines, he said. Originally the BPU was going to fund the debt, and it would have caused a slight rate increase to cover the debt, Gray said. Then the UG brought up the idea that the UG could sell the bonds and the BPU would pay half of the principal and interest, he said.

“By doing that, we would not have to increase rates to cover that additional cash we would need for that purpose,” Gray said.

Then the question came up about the future, how should they approach these road project issues, Gray said. “If we get heavily into burying infrastructure along roadways, and the increase in cost to do that, it will start to put pressure on our rates, and it will make us less competitive,” he said.

In other cities, usually the city that wants underground lines pays the utility the difference between the cost of underground lines and the cost of overhead lines, Gray said.

Bill Johnson, BPU manager of electric operations, said there were conversations with the engineers on the project about the alternative and at this time, it was not determined how much would be above ground and underground. The BPU made a commitment in January to clean up overhead street crossings of power lines, he said.

Johnson said commercial areas may potentially be treated differently than residential, because of the requirements of residential customers.

Gray: ‘In a tough spot’

Gray said in the 7 p.m. meeting they weren’t clear on the direction the UG wanted them to take. “If you’re going to bury some infrastructure, $2 million is not going to do too much,” he said.

“The problem is I’m in a tough spot,” Gray told the commission. “I think we both are,” Commissioner Jane Philbrook responded.

“I’m talking about potential costs and how much to put underground, it’s something we still have to determine,” Gray said. “What would make sense would maybe to be actually bring it back to elected officials to show what we’re thinking about.”

“But I also have a board that doesn’t want to spend any more money on underground,” Gray said. “So I’m in a tough spot here. But if we’re instructed by the leadership of this commission and the mayor to continue to work on this alternative that we’re talking about tonight, and maybe there’s even one where we could move some poles and offset them from Leavenworth Road, so they’re not as observable. I don’t know, but we’ll do everything we can. We’ll be as fast as we can be.” He added he would ask the engineering firm the BPU is using to be expedient. “We’ll do whatever we’re asked to do.”

Mayor Holland, at the 7 p.m. meeting, said this project likely will be some hybrid between underground and some above-ground utility poles. Poles were being left up on the north side of Leavenworth Road under this proposed plan. The funding might determine whether some poles are left up on the south side.

Alvey: ‘A lot more needs around town’

BPU Board Member David Alvey at the 4:30 p.m. meeting said the real issue was there were a lot more serious human needs and capital needs around town.

“If we were to start burying infrastructure, it’s going to increase the cost of that infrastructure. It’s going to displace other projects,” Alvey said.

Alvey, who also serves on the UG’s Economic Development and Finance Committee, said he’s convinced there’s no pot of gold at the UG or the BPU.

“Any cost that we add to this is going to come from our residents,” Alvey said. “It seems to me that the only issue for the UG Commission is if this a high enough priority that you’re willing to push other important human and capital needs down the list.”

Then the only other question is how the residents will pay for it, he said. Will it be by increasing property taxes, the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes fee), the sales tax, other fees or to the BPU through passing it on to ratepayers, he asked.

“Even if we agreed to go with cost-sharing for the third option, that money comes from somewhere,” Alvey said.
“The real question for me is, if burying infrastructure has that much effect on economic development, I’d like to see the evidence,” he said. If it is still a priority, then decide how the residents will pay for it, he said.

“We are faced almost every month with residents who come to us with difficulty paying their utility bills as it is, and this would just be one more burden,” Alvey said.

Gray said if the BPU had added the $7 million project to its $62 million bond issue, it would have had to raise rates one-half of a percent for 2017. Sharing costs 50 percent with UG still would have caused a half-percent rate increase, he said.

Then it was proposed for the UG to sell $7 million in bonds with BPU paying half of the debt over a 20-year period, he said. That approach would save the BPU some costs in its debt coverage, and not cause rates to go up, he said.

The $2 million alternative proposed Thursday would be in addition to $3 million that will be spent on eliminating the lines crossing the street, according to officials. The options just concern the south side. Johnson said there are plans to move some transmission poles and distribution on the north side.

“There’s primarily one feeder on Leavenworth Road, because there hasn’t been that much development on Leavenworth Road,” Johnson said. “There’s a few houses that are scattered, there’s a handful of businesses that we’re serving with one feeder.”

Johnson said they could probably keep the cost of the alternative under discussion to $5 million or under, but the details were not yet completed.

Commissioner Gayle Townsend asked if these underground utility issues came up when the UG improved Parallel and State Avenue.

However, no one seemed to remember or was able to find this history. Gray said there is a mixture of underground and aboveground utilities on State and Parallel.

Mayor Holland said a policy was needed so that when future projects are done, it will make sense.

Kane: ‘Better places to spend the money’

“We have better places to spend the money, although this (latest alternative) would be more palatable,” Commissioner Kane said.

He pointed out that the UG sometimes gets mad when the state forces it to do something, and this is what the UG was doing to the BPU with the mandate on underground utilities.

He advocated delaying the underground utility project until a task force had met to consider a policy.

“They’re (BPU) the elected people to make the decisions for BPU, not us,” Kane said.

Milan: ‘First things first’

BPU Member Bob Milan Sr. asked what was the benefit and the cost of the project. He read a list of the projects on the BPU’s $62 bond issue recently.

“As the utility people that we are, and staff, we make the decision as to the priorities in this town based on quality of water, electric power and demand,” he said.

He said he didn’t see Leavenworth Road underground utilities as one of the top three priorities.

“Let’s do first things first,” Milan said. “Make sure the right things are done at the right time.”

McKiernan: Better communication needed

Commissioner McKiernan said State Avenue appears to be one side underground utilities, but he is concerned that no one seems to know how it was done and paid for.

“How did we not talk about power lines in the original discussion of this road,” he asked, noting that the project discussion started in 2014. In the future, there needs to be a better job of communicating with each other, he said.

He also pointed out the UG ordinance of 10 streets that required underground utilities did not appear to be a strategic list, and didn’t have Parallel Parkway, State Avenue, Rainbow Boulevard, 39th Street or Quindaro Boulevard on it. He opposed tacking Leavenworth Road onto it.

Bryant: Cost-benefit is negligible

BPU Board Vice President Jeff Bryant said the cost-benefit of undergrounding utilities is negligible. Early discussions from residents were about sidewalks and streets, not on underground utilities, he said.

“If this would triple the cost of the project, and make the cost of the utilities 50 percent the cost of the streets and sidewalks, that’s a high percentage, the way I look at it,” Bryant said.

He said it was possible residents might have to upgrade the systems in their homes, with additional costs to residents.

For new developments, developers absorb the costs of underground utilities, not the utility or city, he said.

There are two to three phases that may come later for Leavenworth Road construction, he added.

“By taking this 3.5 million away from the BPU’s funds, it’s going to alter the timeline of our projects,” he said. A lot have already been pushed back farther than he would like to see, he added.

The costs of this project would be passed along to the residents, he said. “The lower we keep it, the better it is for everybody,” he said.

Philbrook: ‘So disappointed’

Commissioner Jane Philbrook asked whether there was time to develop a strategic plan that will work for residents of Leavenworth Road, who had gone without road improvements for a long time and were very patient.

Mayor Holland said the commission would have to decide Thursday night about Leavenworth Road, authorizing an amount, because of the timeline of the project. “For whatever reason, this ball was dropped,” he said.

He said he didn’t like the last-minute process, with the bond issue that had to go, the engineers backed up, and the federal grant deadline. “That’s not how either of our organizations operate,” he said.

Philbrook said she had been one of the persons trying to get reconstruction for Leavenworth Road. She noted with the two-lane roads, there wasn’t as much sky to see because of the power lines crossing streets.

“The folks who have been waiting very patiently for us to take care of that road are not exactly pleased with our fighting among ourselves between these two entities,” Philbrook said. “Why the heck did this happen and what are we doing up here that we can’t even talk to each other in a manner that lets us work together. I am so disappointed in us, all of us here, around this table. This just should not have happened.”

She said she wanted to be on a task force or committee on it. She said she could support $4 million, not $2 million, in the push for a lower amount of money to be spent.

There are a lot of other streets worked on throughout the city, and then there was Leavenworth Road, ignored on the north end, she said.

“That is a main thoroughfare,” she said. “People use the heck out of it. And we want it to be developed.”

The rest of the city needs to understand that people want development on that street, she said.

“It’s their time now, and I’m speaking for them,” Philbrook said.

LRA: Same treatment as State and Parallel

Some members of the Leavenworth Road Association were in the audience at the 4:30 p.m. meeting, and have noted previously that there wasn’t any controversy when utility lines were buried on State Avenue and Parallel Parkway.

“At least put up some decent light poles,” Deniese Davis said.

“I say bury our utilities like it was buried on State and Parallel,” said Lou Braswell, executive director of the Leavenworth Road Association.

Scott: More underground utilities, more projects

BPU Board Secretary Norm Scott asked about Google and who would take care of that fiber if it had to run underground.

The BPU has a lot of work, and a lot of other projects that are being worked on currently, he said.

Bynum: Comments just ‘hurt my heart’

“I heard some comments tonight that, to put it bluntly, just hurt my heart,” said UG Commissioner Melissa Bynum. She said Leavenworth Road ran through every district in her 1st District at large.

“I heard there are people who don’t think this is a priority, I heard there are some houses scattered along Leavenworth Road, I heard there are better places to spend our money, I heard a question asked about whether there’s an economic benefit to burying utilities underground,” she said.

She said there must be some economic benefit to burying utilities because it is in a UG ordinance, required for new developments. She said that there are underground utilities along Parallel Parkway.

“It is a significant visual difference, when you do not have power lines,” Bynum, who is a former executive director of the Leavenworth Road Association, said.

“I think it is the right thing, at the right time,” Bynum said. “This is a $16 million project that we’re getting help paying for. There is not a better time to do this. I’m fully supportive of finding the compromise and I really appreciate that one has been brought before us tonight. But I do not want to turn away from this tonight.”

“This is a community that has waited, not just a couple of decades for these improvements to come to their neighborhood, this is a direct reaping of a benefit of something we’ve all been paying for, for quite some time,” Bynum said. “You could look at this as another benefit of the development successes that we’ve seen in this community. I would like to point out on Leavenworth Road, if you drive Leavenworth Road from 91st to 38th Street, you will count more than 80 businesses, you will count more than 10 churches, you will count two public schools, you will count one private school. This is not hillbilly country, but we seem to want to treat it that way. I can’t support that. I am in support of doing what we can, in a compromise measure.”

“The people that live and work on Leavenworth Road are super-excited about what is coming their way, finally, and I just hate to take that away from them,” Bynum said.

Gonzales: Taxpayers and ratepayers are the same

“Our taxpayers and our ratepayers are one and the same,” said BPU Board Member Mary Gonzales. “We want to do what’s best for our citizens, because our boards serve them all. “

Alvey: Not ‘us vs. them’

Alvey said it’s not “us vs. them,” it’s just that there are a ton of these projects across the county. There are still projects remaining to be done in his area from when it was annexed, he said.

“If we choose to bury electrical infrastructure, I still would like to see the evidence, the research that shows that burying infrastructure increases economic development,” Alvey said.

Also, this cost will be borne by residents and will displace other projects across the city, he said.

“The question is, is burying infrastructure the best way to spend additional money that has to come out of our residents’ pockets?” he said.

Walters: ‘Do it correctly’

Commissioner Jim Walters said at the 7 p.m. meeting he supports underground power lines, and he thinks the UG should do this section of Leavenworth Road correctly. “As the mayor says, we’re only going to do it once, and we won’t have an opportunity to redo it.”

“I think we’re confused when we talk about putting utilities power lines underground as a magnet for economic development,” Commissioner Walters said. “To me, it’s not about economic development, it’s about power outages during storms, and it’s about making our city more attractive.”

Commissioner Walters said Germany placed its power lines underground, and has an average of 21 minutes per year of power outage for the normal customer. “That’s the benefit to me of having underground power lines,” he said. The city of Anaheim, Calif., is replacing all overhead lines with underground lines, and put a 4 percent surcharge on the power bill to pay for it, in a 26-year program, he added.

If the UG is to place utility lines underground on Leavenworth Road, the first section should be done the same as the second and third sections, he said. “We don’t make evaluations based on the quality of the neighborhood, or the potential for economic development, we do it right, and we take the attitude that the streets and the curbs and the sidewalks and the parks and the public buildings, those are the things we own collectively as citizens, and they should be excellent,” he said. “They should be the best and they should inspire our residents to match that level of quality.”

Murguia: ‘What makes a project a priority?’

Commissioner Ann Murguia pointed out that the vote was just for underground utilities and would not affect the road improvements and sidewalk improvements that are planned.

She asked for clarification on the UG ordinance, which says that underground utilities were mandated in new developments, except when waived by the county engineer.

“These kinds of projects should never come to the sole discretion of one person,” Murguia said. A good policy would be very clear, to either put all utilities underground with new development, or not, she said.

She also asked, “What makes a project a priority?”

“I don’t want to get into these kinds of public discussions, where it’s Leavenworth Road against Strong Avenue, or the BPU against the mayor, or anybody against anybody,” Commissioner Murguia said. “I would just hope that people would recognize that we have only so much money, that all of us in leadership bring forth priority projects, and that we are supportive of each other in every area of our county.”

Commissioner Murguia recalled that the UG Commission recently did not support a development project she was in favor of in Argentine, to develop a fast-food place there. She said she didn’t want to give up federal dollars, and she had a $1.2 million federal grant for fast food that can’t make it onto the UG agenda to get voted on. She added that power outages could be an economic development problem, and referenced the Argentine Walmart Neighborhood Market, a successful store where they have had to evacuate the store 10 times in the last two years because of power outages.

“If people want my support as a commissioner of District 3, they need to be supportive of District 3,” she said.

Walker: ‘Very frustrated’

“I am frustrated with the inability, after over two years of this project being talked about, that none of ours and none of the BPU’s professional staff has any idea what this project is going to cost, not even a ballpark number. I don’t understand that,” Commissioner Hal Walker said at the 7 p.m. meeting, adding it was also very confusing. “I’m just very frustrated.”

At the 4:30 p.m. meeting, Walker noted there were visionary types of laws that look to the future, such as the environmental laws.

“We’re all kind of foolish to believe the next hundred years, we’re just going to have power lines running down roads and highways,” Walker said. “It’s not going to be that way, folks. … I honestly believe we have got to put a plan into effect to start putting infrastructure s underground. One day the federal government is going to tell you you have to, and they’re going to tell you it’s for security reasons.”

He said he would like the committee to not only look at the economic development, but also what is likely to be the future. He added he would like to get ahead of the wave for once, instead of getting hit by it and then having to swim frantically to shore.