Arts Council update Landscape Contest! st Place: Front Yard

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2 Arts Council update Art Detour is a joint effort by the Lee s Summit Arts Council and Downtown Lee s Summit Main Street, Inc. to bring three (3) public art exhibits to the downtown area during the reconstruction period. Recently, an esteemed panel of community leaders met to review sixteen (16) artist proposals that had been submitted for Art Detour. Artists within a 120 mile radius were solicited to provide their credentials for the panel s review. The candidate list was narrowed to five (5) artists and interviews will be held later this month to select the final three (3) artists who will be responsible for developing and installing a public art exhibit in the downtown area. For more information on Art Detour, go to or call (816) Landscape Contest! The Lee s Summit Beautification Commission is sponsoring the 5th Annual Landscape Contest to encourage and recognize beautification in Lee s Summit. All Lee s Summit residents, within the city limits, from beginning gardener to expert are encouraged to enter! More than $500 in prizes will be awarded to the winners! Entries must be received or postmarked by June 30, 2006 and may be picked up at the following locations: Lee s Summit City Hall, 207 SW Market Street Lee s Summit Parks and Recreation, 307 SW Market Lee s Summit Community Center at Legacy Park, 901 NE Bluestem Drive Lee s Summit Recreation Center at Harris Park, 110 SW Blue Parkway Lee s Summit Chamber of Commerce, 220 SE Main Street st Place: Front Yard 2 Entry forms are also available on the City s website at:

3 Lee s Summit Rain Gardens Lee s Summit is taking part in the regional initiative, 10,000 Rain Gardens. Rain gardens are a way for homeowners, as well as businesses, to prevent water pollution and flooding, simply by planting a garden with native plants. Lee s Summit Parks and Recreation will be incorporating a Rain Garden into the new Children s Memorial Butterfly Garden in Lowenstein Park. The City is also working with students from Lee s Summit West High School to create a Rain Garden on their campus. The native plants in rain gardens have deep roots that allow water to infiltrate into the soil. Every drop of rain that stays on your property is one less drop that can carry pollutants to rivers and streams, one less drop that can contribute to flooding, one more drop you can save and reuse for your lawn and garden. Check out for more info! Spring Cleaning: Child Health And Safety Spring cleaning doesn t have to be such a chore, especially when you get motivated by knowing that a few simple tips can help keep your family safe. Medicine Cabinet: Your medicine cabinet is not meant to be a storage area for all the medicines that your child has ever been prescribed. If you have left-over or half used prescriptions in your medicine cabinet, now is a good time to get rid of them and any expired over-the-counter medicines that you may have. Smoke and CO Detectors: If you didn t replace the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors at daylight saving time, now is a good time to do it. It is also a good time to test your smoke alarms and CO detectors, although you should be doing that each and every month. It is also a good time to review and rehearse your family s fire escape plan. Broken Toys: Spring is a great time to check your kids toys and get rid of those that are broken and unsafe. Be especially watchful for splinters or sharp edges on wooden toys, weak or loose parts that could become a choking hazard, broken pieces, loose screws and bolts, loose or exposed wires in electrical toys, and leaking batteries. Child proofing: Even if your home is well child proofed with latches on cabinets, gates on stairs, and covers on door knobs, you do have to regularly inspect them to make sure they are still working properly. Watch for wear and tear on latches, which may allow your child to access unsafe items. Courtesy of the Lee s Summit Health Education Advisory Board 3

4 Planning A Garage Or Yard Sale? The City s Unified Development Ordinance includes important regulations such as: Event regulations for garage and yard sales: Allowed up to 4 times per year. Limited to 5 days per event. Shall not exceed 20 days per year. Sign regulations for garage and yard sales: Temporary signs may only be posted within agricultural and residential zoning districts Maximum allowed sign area is 6 square feet Sign permit or building permit is not required One sign allowed per lot May be placed one day prior to the event Shall be removed the day after the event concludes Shall be placed a distance of at least 10 feet from any edge of street pavement May be placed on others private property with property owner s consent Are not allowed to be posted on telephone poles, street signs, traffic signal poles, etc. Any signs that are illegally placed within the public right-of-way are subject to removal by the City without notice and may be discarded. For more information please call Neighborhood Services at (816) Senior Center The architectural firm Williams, Spurgeon, Kuhl, & Freshnock (WSKF) was hired by Parks and Recreation in March to design the new senior center which will be located at the intersection of 2nd and Independence Avenue. This project is made possible by the passage of ¼ cent Parks sales tax that was approved by voters last spring. Parks staff and members of the Senior Center Board of Directors met with the design team to kick-off the process in March. A needs assessment and review of the facility programming is currently under way. Once the needs assessment has been completed, the design team will begin the design phase of the project. The Senior Center is scheduled for completion in early The project is being made possible by the efforts of the Parks and Recreation Board who is funding and providing oversight for the construction and operation of the Senior Center, the Senior Center Board who worked tirelessly to make a new Senior Center a reality, and the City of Lee s Summit who donated City owned property at 2nd and Independence and provided gap financing to accelerate the development of the Senior Center.

5 Thoroughfare Master Plan Update City staff, in conjunction with an appointed citizen task force, has been working on an update of the City s Thoroughfare Master Plan. The previous Thoroughfare Master Plan was last adopted in 1995, and a number of changes in Lee s Summit and the surrounding area has changed the future outlook of the City s infrastructure. Notably, some of the significant changes have included the Pryor Road interchange currently under design at I-470 and the new Longview Boulevard constructed in the western part of the City. The new Thoroughfare Master Plan identifies the long-range transportation improvements over the next 25 years in Lee s Summit. The improvements included in the plan will be based on current roadway deficiencies, projected growth in the City, improvements to help encourage economic development, and public input. The plan goes beyond just the number of lanes that need to be built, concentrating also on roadway improvements needed to make our roads safer or to encourage new high-quality commercial development. The Plan is also evaluating other users of the City s right-ofway, including pedestrians and bicyclists, to ensure that the facilities being constructed will safely and efficiently serve all users. The final draft of the Thoroughfare Master Plan is scheduled to be heard by the City Council in May and adopted by the Planning Commission later in that month. The Thoroughfare Master Plan will serve as the base document as the City begins to look toward the next round of roadway improvements. A copy of the Thoroughfare Master Plan will be available on the City s web page. Closure of Chipman Road and Douglas Street June 1 to August 23, 2006 The construction of the Chipman Road Improvement project from Olive to M-291 will require the closure of the intersection of Chipman Road and Douglas Street between June 1 and approximately August 23, The closure is required in order to lower the roadway approximately three feet through the intersection. The closure period has been established to coincide with the summer vacation of Lee s Summit North High School so that it will not be necessary for school traffic, including buses and many young drivers, to use the detour routes. There are two detour routes for Chipman Road traffic during this time. The northerly route requires traffic to use Commerce Drive from Chipman to Main Street; Main to Victoria Drive; Victoria to Douglas Street; Douglas to Tudor Road; and then Tudor to M291. The other option is the southerly route, which requires traffic to use Blue Parkway between Chipman and 2nd Street; 2nd Street to Langsford and then on to M-291. Re-opening the intersection at the earliest possible date is considered a high priority. Completion is anticipated in May,

6 Downtown Streetscape Lee s Summit Downtown Improvements Tentative Construction Phasing as of March 22, Thanks to a ballot issue approved by voters in April of 2002, construction is underway on the most significant development project in the history of downtown Lee s Summit. The Downtown Streetscape project includes new street pavement, storm sewers, sanitary sewers, water lines, sidewalks, brick pavers, trees, and ornamental street and pedestrian lighting on the following streets: Douglas and east Main, 2nd to 4th West Main Market and Green, 2nd to 4th 3rd Street, Green to Jefferson 4th Street, Green to Jefferson (overlay and curb replacement only). In March, the City Council awarded a construction contract for the Downtown Street and Streetscape Project for $9.5 million to Weidenmann and Godfrey, based out of Belton, Missouri. Work is already underway and is expected to be substantially complete, with the exception of 4th Street, in November Work on 4th Street will most likely occur in spring 2008 after the other improvements are complete. The first phase of construction will be on north-south streets, leaving 3rd Street open to traffic. After the northsouth streets are complete and opened to traffic, 3rd Street will be closed. The City is working to minimize inconveniences to our downtown merchants and patrons; temporary directional signage will be provided for access to all downtown businesses and facilities during the construction period.

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8 City of Lee s Summit 207 SW Market Lee s Summit, MO PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 79 Lee s Summit, MO ECRWSS (816) Important Community Phone Numbers LS City Hall...(816) LS Chamber of Commerce...(816) LS Downtown Main St., Inc...(816) LS Economic Dev. Council...(816) LS Senior Center...(816) LS Social Services...(816) Harris Park Design work has begun on the renovation and improvements for Harris Park, the first of the capital park projects funded by the extension of the sales tax approved by the voters in April The Harris Park project will include construction of a family outdoor aquatics center to replace the aging outdoor pool, renovation of the recreation center, additional parking and park landscaping improvements. The consulting team headed by Ellerbe Becket of Kansas City, Missouri began work in October and is currently finalizing site planning and programming for review by the Park Board. In the coming months, the consultants will be submitting plans to the City for the development review process. Bidding of the project is expected in the late summer with construction beginning in the fall. Some of the improvements may be completed for use by mid Important Phone Numbers General Information Airport Animal Control City Hall Mayor City Council City Administrator Codes Administration Inspect. & Plans Review Neighborhood Services Fire Department Business Office Emergency Calls Municipal Court Parks & Recreation Planning & Development Police Department Business Office Emergency Calls Public Works Department Recycling Treasury Dept.(tax info.) Water Utilities Operations Customer Service (billing)