The City of Parkville is pleased to announce that the Riss Lake Community Association recently adopted a 1.165 mile section of Highway 45 through the Missouri Adopt-A-Highway program. They join the more than 5,200 groups and 50,000 volunteers who focus on making Missouri’s roadways cleaner and more attractive.

Parkville Police Chief Kevin Chrisman started the process following the association’s annual meeting. He communicated with the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) to set up initial conversations with the Riss Lake Community Association. An application was submitted to and approved by MoDOT for the association to adopt the section of Highway 45 from Klamm Road on the east to Route 9 on the west. The team’s lead for the volunteers is Cem Yildirim. The developer of Riss Lake is Don Julian.

The Missouri Adopt-A-Highway program began in 1987. More than 385,000 acres of right-of-way along 33,700 state highway miles are maintained by MoDOT. Adopters can pick up litter, mow, beautify the roadside through landscaping or grow native wildflowers and grasses along the roadside. The Riss Lake Community Association plans to pick up litter in their adopted section. As required in the agreement, one of the cleanups will be during the No MOre Trash! Bash in April.

Signs will be posted with the association’s name at each end of the adopted section. MoDOT will provide trash bags and will pick up and dispose of the bags of collected litter.

Volunteer cleanup work began on Saturday, May 5^th with a small group of Riss Lake residents who helped start the cleanup process. Residents included Judy and Randy Timmerman; Amy and Kent Barr; Frances Duffy; and NevAda, Banu and Cem Yildirim. The group will continue to meet and help keep the section of Highway 45 clean throughout the year.

Mayor Johnston said “Thank you to the Timmerman’s, Barr’s, Frances Duffy and the Yildirim’s. Their hard work helps make Parkville a more beautiful place to live, work and play. Volunteers are what make a good community great!”

The City of Parkville will host the 2^nd Annual Northland Law Enforcement Appreciation Day event on Saturday, May 19, 2018, in English Landing Park in downtown Parkville. The event is free and open to everyone!

Over 30 law enforcement agencies from the northland will participate in the event that will start at 11:00 a.m. with an honor guard flag parade, including police ATV’s, bicycles and bagpipes. The parade will begin on Main and McAfee streets and end at the stage in English Landing Park.

The event will also include the Fallen Officer Memorial, police car row, demonstrations, special operations and tactical vehicles and personnel from both land and water, and many kid-friendly events. Children can participate in a road course in a Parkville power car and driving-aged teenagers and adults can participate in a “Drunk Buster” course simulating impaired driving.

For more information about the event, contact the Parkville Police Department at (816) 741-4454.

The City of Parkville will provide residents several opportunities this spring and summer to get rid of unwanted materials, yard waste, household hazardous waste and other recyclable materials through events hosted by the City and in partnership with other entities.

On Saturday, April 21 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. the City will hold a spring cleanup event at the Damon Pursell lot at 6105 NW River Park Drive. Items collected include small limbs, leaves and grass (no plastic bags), used batteries, scrap metal, water heaters, auto parts, metal products, air conditioners without compressor, washers and dryers without motor, tires, furniture and household debris. Items not collected include paint, air conditioner compressors, washer/dryer motors and household hazardous waste (HHW) items, but residents have the opportunity to dispose of HHW items through the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) HHW program. Proof of residency is required.

On Saturday, June 23, 2017, from 8 a.m. until noon, the first Household Hazardous Waste Collection mobile event near Parkville will be held at Happy Rock Park in Gladstone. Visit http://www.recyclespot.org/ for more information. Parkville and Platte County are members of the MARC Solid Waste Management District HHW program for disposal of items such as paint, automotive products, antifreeze, batteries, CFL light bulbs, fertilizers, hazardous cleaners, household cleaners, pool chemicals, used oil and thinners. The HHW program conducts mobile collection events at various locations through the metro area.

Parkville residents can also deliver HHW accepted items on Thursdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout the year to the Household Hazardous Waste Center at 4707 Deramus Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. Proof of residency is required.

From Monday, April 23 through Friday, May 11, Parkville residents can drop off yard waste at no charge at 6105 NW River Park Drive any time Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Yard waste does not have to be bagged. Proof of residency is required.

Additional yard waste disposal is available to Parkville residents throughout the year at the Regional Brush/Yard Waste Recycle Facility in the Gladstone Public Works building located at 4000 NE 76th Street. The program is available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to residential customers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Yard waste must be bagged and there is a charge per bag, truck and/or trailer. Proof of residency is required. The City of Parkville participates with Gladstone, Pleasant Valley, Liberty and Lake Waukomis to give residents the opportunity to drop off yard waste and brush year-round.

Throughout the spring and summer, the City partners with the Midwest Recycling Center to collect essentially anything with a cord or battery (working or not) during electronics recycling events in the parking lot at City Hall. The electronic recycling events are open to anyone, not just Parkville residents – anyone can get rid of freezers, cell phones, or other electronic items for free but there is a charge to recycle some items. The events are held on the second Tuesday of even months from February to October from 2:30 p.m. through 5:30 p.m. or until the truck is full. A list of fees is available online at http://mrcrecycling.net/recycling-fees.

In conjunction with the electronics recycling events, the City partners with Midwest Shredding Service to provide secure on-site document shredding services from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. This service is available to Parkville residents only and proof of residency is required.

Residents are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to reduce, reuse and recycle waste whenever possible. The average person in the Kansas City metro still throws out about seven pounds of waste per day. To learn more, visit RecycleSpot.org: greater Kansas City’s one-stop shop for recycling information. The website features a tool to allow visitors to search for instructions to recycle popular items based on zip code.

Visit http://parkvillemo.gov/residents/waste-disposal-opportunities/ for more information about all the waste disposal events available to Parkville residents.

On Saturday, April 21, 2018, the Parkville Nature Sanctuary will celebrate Earth Day by hosting two events sponsored by Friends of Parkville Nature Sanctuary. Adults and teens can participate in the first annual BioBlitz and individuals, groups and families with small children can take part in the annual Garlic Mustard Pull Extravaganza. Both events will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

BioBlitz is a science-based event that records as many living organisms in an area in a given time period. The event will be led by plant and wildlife experts who will assist with the inventory. For those planning to participate in the BioBlitz, please download the iNaturalist app to a smart phone and play with it before the event. This fascinating tool will help with identifications and data compilations.

The Garlic Mustard Pull Extravaganza is an annual event held at the sanctuary. Individuals, groups and families with young children can pull and bag Garlic Mustard which is one of the most destructive and invasive species in Missouri today.

Groups across the country are celebrating Earth Day. Parkville Nature Sanctuary Director Joe Ryan said, “Earth Day is a wonderful opportunity to help educate people on the great benefits of the environment. The Parkville Nature Sanctuary celebrates Earth Day by bringing people and nature together.”

To register for these events, contact Parkville Nature Sanctuary Director Joe Ryan at (816) 741-7676.

In January 2018, the City of Parkville named the trail system at the Parkville Nature Sanctuary “The Jim Reed Trail System” in honor of former director Jim Reed who helped establish the original trails. The Parkville Nature Sanctuary honored Reed at a meeting on March 27^th with a framed picture of the resolution issued by the City alongside the new map of the trail system.

The main function of the Parkville Nature Sanctuary is to provide safe, well-maintained hiking trails for visitors to enjoy and to protect the flora and fauna. During Jim’s tenure, the initial trails were established and later expanded with the acquisition of the White Alloe Creek conservation area by lease agreement with the Missouri Department of Conservation. Jim’s leadership provided the blueprint to utilize volunteers and to establish the trails as year-round hiking paths. The model of using a core group of adult volunteers, securing help from local youth groups and providing opportunities for Eagle Scouts to complete special projects are still followed by the current director Joe Ryan.

The Friends of Parkville Nature Sanctuary, a non-profit organization created to supplement existing government support for the sanctuary, looks for opportunities to recognize and honor significant contributions to the nature sanctuary. To show their appreciation to Jim, who charted the course of the Parkville Nature Sanctuary, they felt that naming the most important feature of the sanctuary “The Jim Reed Trail System” acknowledged his contributions to the sanctuary.

Mayor Johnston said “The City was proud to honor the first director of the Parkville Nature Sanctuary for all his hard work by naming the trail system after him. The sanctuary is a great place for visitors to enjoy nature year-round and Jim played a large role in helping the nature sanctuary become what it is today.”

For more information about the Parkville Nature Sanctuary, contact Director Joe Ryan at (816) 741-7676.

On March 13, 2018, Mayor Nan Johnston met with six fourth grade scouts from Webelos II Den 5 at the St. Therese School to share her experience as mayor and help them earn the “Building a Better World” badge.

To earn the badge, the scouts need to complete five adventures and one of the requirements is for scouts to meet with a local government leader to learn about his/her role in the community and discuss important issues facing our community.

Mayor Johnston talked about what prepared her for the position of mayor, why she wanted to become a government leader and how citizens help her help the community. The Mayor said, “I enjoyed sharing my experience as mayor and teaching them about my role in local government. As an example of citizens helping our community, I spoke about the Eagle Scout project completed in 2015 that replaced the walking bridge in the Parkville Nature Sanctuary. I look forward to seeing what these scouts accomplish today and in the future.”

Webelos II Den 5 Leader Joe Janasz Jr. said, “We would like to thank Mayor Johnston for her visit to our den. Her discussions with the scouts not only gave them some knowledge of her duties as mayor, but they also learned about some of the issues facing the community and how everyone can help in addressing these issues. She inspired this group of scouts to start thinking of projects they could do to help the community be a better place.”

For more information about the visit, contact Mayor Johnston at (816) 741-7676.

Left to right: Adam Whitbeck, Andrew Ampon, Justin Janasz, Mayor Johnston,
Landon Birks and Connor Crosby

This spring, the City of Parkville will place recycle bins in six areas throughout English Landing and Platte Landing parks to collect plastic bottles, paper and aluminum cans from park users. The City was awarded a grant by the Mid-America Regional Council’s (MARC) Solid Waste Management District to collect recycled materials and help keep trash out of the landfill.

The MARC Solid Waste Management District awarded the City a $1,980 grant in October 2017 for six recycle bins to be placed in several areas of the parks. Five bins will be placed in English Landing Park and one bin will be placed in Platte Landing Park. Each bin will hold 33 gallons of aluminum cans, paper and plastic products. Standardized labels from “Recycle Across America” will be attached to each bin to show park users which recycled products are accepted. The City will be responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the bins.

The MARC Solid Waste Management District offers grants to city and county governments, businesses, schools, non-profit organizations and other interested parties within the district for various programs including education, waste reduction, re-use, recycling, composting, collection and processing, research and development and market development for products made with diverted materials. The District represents Cass, Clay, Jackson, Platte and Ray counties in Missouri.

Mayor Nan Johnston said, “We are pleased to offer recycling services in our parks. Visitors will have the option to recycle in the park, just like they do at home. Recycling helps reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, prevents pollution and helps preserve natural resources. The City is excited to expand this service to our park visitors.”

For more information about the recycle bins contact Public Works Director Alysen Abel at (816) 741-7676.

The City of Parkville is pleased to announce that the 2017 Annual Report is now available on the City’s website. The 2017 Annual Report is intended to record the important events, projects, accomplishments and statistics of Parkville over the last year. It also helps illustrate how staff time and taxpayer resources were spent over the calendar year. The full report can be found at https://parkvillemo.gov/download/2017AnnualReport.pdf.

Some of 2017’s major accomplishments include completion of an expanded street, curb and sidewalk maintenance project; the engineering design and grant approval for the first two phases of the Route 9 street improvements from Route 45 to Lakeview Drive; completion of the multi-year Route 45 Widening Project; and continued improvements in English Landing Park and Platte Landing Park, including improved restroom facilities and development of a new shelter.

In 2017, the City also saw successful creation of the 2018 budget and 2018-2013 Capital Improvement Program and continued commercial and residential development in the community.

City Administrator Joe Parente said “I encourage you to review the 2017 Annual Report to see what Parkville accomplished over the past year. As I complete my first year as Parkville City Administrator, I am thankful of the support and hard work of our staff, volunteers and elected officials. Parkville is a small community with big ambitions. It is incredible to realize how much was accomplished this past year and the desire to continue this effort into the future. Special thanks to Assistant to the City Administrator Anna Mitchell for leading the compilation of this report. I look forward to what Parkville will accomplish in 2018.”

For more information about the report, contact Assistant to the City Administrator Anna Mitchell at (816) 741-7676.

The City of Parkville has published its expanded 2018 Budget document. In December, the Parkville Board of Aldermen adopted the fiscal year 2018 budget and 2018-2023 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) ordinance. The City’s budget includes 15 governmental funds and totals approximately $10.5 million. In addition to the operating budget, the 2018 CIP, totaling approximately $1.1 million, prioritizes capital projects and establishes a financing strategy for completing each project in 2018. The final budget document is available on the City’s website.

The expanded budget document provides additional information, beyond the budget ordinance, that helps communicate to the public not only the City’s revenues and projected expenditures for the upcoming year, but a vast amount of additional information. In addition to being a financial plan, the document is a policy document, an operations guide and a communication device for the benefit of taxpayers.  

In 2017 for the second year in a row, the City received a Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the 2017 annual budget. It is the highest form of recognition and the only national awards program in governmental budgeting. Only 26 municipalities statewide received the award in 2017, putting Parkville among the top three percent of its peers for excellence in municipal budgeting.

The budget is the most significant document that the City prepares each year and is organized to convey the services being delivered to the community in 2018. The Board of Aldermen held a strategic planning session in August 2017 to review community priorities and set organizational goals. The Board identified five critical success factors to achieve the City’s mission: basic services, infrastructure, economic development, parks and finances. The 2018 budget maintains essential services at current levels and directs limited additional resources toward the five critical success factors, of which the 2018 budget focuses on addressing.

Highlights of the 2018 budget include:

• Year-end expense savings in the General Fund primarily due to personnel and legal services savings, as well as CIP projects that were postponed to 2018.
• The Board continues to strategically maintain reserves beyond the minimum target of 25 percent, in accordance with adopted Neighborhood Improvement District Financing Strategy, in order to make the payment of bond principal, interest and fees to the Brink Meyer Debt Service Fund and Brush Creek Debt Service Fund.
• The entirety of the 2018-2023 Capital Improvement Program includes $9.47 million of capital improvements, with a 2018 budget of $1.1 million; large projects to be done this year include construction of the English Landing Park low water crossing, continuance of the Downtown Manhole Reconstruction project, the initiation of construction on the Route 9 street project, and the purchase of a new Police patrol car.
• The 2018 Debt Service includes the first payment toward the increased street maintenance program which allowed for the repair of 40 streets and an increase in the overall street rating; interest and fees will be paid beginning in 2018 and the next four years.
• Funding for the partial implementation of the Compensation and Benefit Study completed in 2017.

Mayor Johnston said, “I want to thank the City staff who worked hard to prepare the annual budget that will guide City operations this year. I appreciate the effort of the staff each year to analyze budget recommendations and respond to questions while handling their routine duties. We are proud of the budget document, its purpose of promoting transparency in government and the opportunity to better communicate with our residents how we proposed to spend their tax dollars.”

The 2018 budget became effective January 1, 2018. The final budget document has been prepared and is available on the City website at https://parkvillemo.gov/download/FINAL2018Budget.pdf.

For more information about the budget document, please contact Assistant to the City Administrator Anna Mitchell at (816) 741-7676.

On Friday, February 16, 2018, the City of Parkville and Platte County finalized the transfer of Platte Landing Park to the City. Platte Landing Park consists of approximately 131 acres of riverfront parkland west of English Landing Park. The City now owns about 200 acres of parkland along the Missouri River.

In May 2008, the area now known as Platte Landing Park was purchased by Platte County and in 2011 the City and the County entered into a memorandum of understanding. Since its approval, the City has been responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the park and the County has been responsible for capital projects.

The driving force behind the City’s interest in acquiring Platte Landing Park was the 2016 Parks Master Plan that included baseball fields, multi-use fields and the United States Corps of Engineers Section 1135 Wetland Restoration Project. The wetlands project is the key element to the phasing of the Parks Master Plan and will help improve aesthetics, complement recreational features, augment the existing trail system, provide fill material for future sports fields and improve habitats for a variety of wildlife.

The City engaged in discussions with County officials concerning the transfer of ownership of the park to the City. Since the City has been committed to maintaining the park, City ownership will enable control of future decisions on park development, as well as park programming, without seeking approval from the County. In September 2017 the City adopted an ordinance approving the transfer.

The land transfer agreement called for the transfer of the park to the City in consideration of $1.00, with certain terms and conditions including the assignment of operation and maintenance obligations from previous state and federal grants, a payment from the County to the City for future long-term maintenance of the road and parking lot and a commitment to maintain the land as a public park. The City will now be responsible for ongoing maintenance, including the parking lot and road, and future capital projects.

Mayor Johnston said “The City appreciates the partnership with Platte County in the initial acquisition of Platte Landing Park, and now the transfer to the City. The park serves recreational needs for the community and we are excited about the prospects of further expanding recreational opportunities for our residents. The inclusion of Platte Landing Park with English Landing Park makes Parkville’s riverfront a regional recreation and open space attraction. The parks are community gems and we are really proud of them.”

For more information about the transfer contact City Administrator Joe Parente at (816) 741-7676.