The City is pleased to announce that, with the help of the Friends of Parkville Nature Sanctuary (FOPNS), the Bob Fluchel Memorial Butterfly Garden in the Parkville Nature Sanctuary is ready for visitors. The Nature Sanctuary has an impressive history of offering a remarkable, but simple, nature retreat. The Bob Fluchel Memorial Butterfly Garden is an accessible and visible addition to the Sanctuary.

On February 21, the Board of Aldermen named the garden The Bob Fluchel Memorial Butterfly Garden in honor of the late Bob Fluchel who passed away in 2015. His passion was the intersection of nature conservation and education. After retiring from the Missouri Department of Conservation, Fluchel continued his life’s work as the director of the Nature Sanctuary. Bob’s wife Barbara gave her blessing for the name and mentioned that in addition to his work at the nature sanctuary, Bob helped several schools establish butterfly gardens.

FOPNS is a non-profit friends group that was incorporated in 2015 to supplement existing support from the City and fundraising for future programming, maintenance and development of the nature sanctuaries in Parkville. FOPNS wanted to honor Bob Fluchel, who was the primary driver for creation of the group, by completing a project that was manageable for a first major project. The momentum gained from a completed project will help drive future projects and donations.  

Mayor Johnston said, “The City is extraordinarily thankful for the work of Bob Fluchel, the volunteers and FOPNS. We extend a special thank you to Embassy Landscapes. The boulder/rock elements in the original design were removed from the final design due to the cost constraints and Embassy Landscapes donated the labor and materials to complete the original concept.  The results of Bob’s passion and hard work will be part of the lasting gift to the citizens who enjoy the Parkville Nature Sanctuary.”

A dedication ceremony, hosted by the City of Parkville and FOPNS, was held on Monday, June 12.

For more information contact Nature Sanctuary Director Joe Ryan at (816) 741-7676 or by e-mail.

Join the community in honoring longtime resident Bill Grigsby with the dedication of a life-size statue in Pocket Park on Thursday, June 22, 2017, from 6-7 p.m. Mitch Holthus, current “Voice of the Chiefs” will emcee the ceremony. Former Kansas City Chiefs players and members of the Chiefs Ambassadors will also be in attendance. Mayor Nan Johnston will kick off the event.

Grigsby, who died at the age of 89 in 2011, enjoyed a 63-year career in sports broadcasting and owns the distinction of calling the play-by-play for Super Bowl I and Super Bowl IV. He also broadcast for the Kansas City A’s, Kansas Jayhawks, professional wrestling, tennis and boxing.

Thanks to a grassroots effort and the generosity of the National Golf Club of KC, who donated the statue, the brass likeness of “Grigs” will be permanently placed in the heart of Parkville. A longtime supporter of Parkville and surrounding communities, the Grigs will remind us to “Have a Beauuutiful Life”.

Pocket Park is located near 1st and Main streets in downtown Parkville. Parking will be available in the city parking lot near English Landing Park off Highway 9.

For more information about the event contact Mayor Nan Johnston at (816) 741-7676 or by e-mail njohnston@parkvillemo.gov.

The City of Parkville intends to enter into multiple on-call professional services agreements with professional engineering and architectural firms to provide services such as roadway design, storm drainage design, traffic engineering services, construction observation services, material testing and geotechnical services, surveying services, structural engineering services and landscape architecture services.

Four hard copies plus one electronic PDF file version (on a CD or flash drive) shall be submitted to Public Works Director Alysen Abel, 8880 Clark Avenue, Parkville, MO in a sealed package clearly marked “City Engineering & Architectural Services RFQ” by 12:00 p.m. (noon) on Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Request for Qualifications (PDF link)

The City of Parkville will host the next electronics recycling event at Parkville City Hall on Tuesday, June 13 from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. or until the truck is full. There is no residency requirement.

Please note that, due to a change in vendors, the new fee structure will be as follows:

• CRT Monitors – $5 each
• CRT TV’s 26 inches or less – $30 each
• CRT TV’s 27 inches or greater – $50 each
• Wood console and true big screen/projection TVs – $50 each
• LED/LCD/Plasma TV’s – $10 each
• Freon containing devices – $10 each
• All other electronic items are free

The City of Parkville has partnered with the Parkville Commons and 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. These events are open to anyone, not just Parkville residents – anyone can get rid of printers, cell phones, or other electronic items.

Beginning Monday, June 5, the City will be trimming trees in the Bluffs subdivision in preparation of the 2017 Street Maintenance Program. To minimize the impact to the area, the City will only be trimming the area above the street and not the entire right-of-way. Residents were notified in early May to perform any tree trimming within the height of 14 feet from the edge of the curb by June 1st.

The Watkins Foundation is launching a project to help recover lost histories of descendants of slaves and slave owners in the Kansas City area and invites the public to attend a kick-off meeting on Sunday, May 28, 2017.

Attendees will learn about the project and will be encouraged to share stories to help preserve a vital part of Missouri and Kansas City’s history. The goal of the event is to learn more about families, both black and white, that were once linked by slavery in the counties surrounding Kansas City, Missouri. Beyond recovering lost history, the stories can build dialogs between communities.

The event is free and open to the public and will be held at the Meeting House at Park University at 3:00 p.m. Along with learning more about the project, participants can help preserve a lost history, most of which are unknown to historians and the community. A portion of a documentary about slavery in Missouri will be shown.

The Watkins Foundation has been coordinating with the Kansas City Public Library, the Kansas City Museum with the assistance of Freedom Frontier National Heritage Area, Park University, the Banneker Restoration Foundation and Historic Site and the Banneker School Foundation of Parkville, MO Alumni Association to launch the project with the goal of reaching out to the community to record and preserve the histories of Missouri families after slavery.

The Watkins Foundation has identified some of the families in the area that include Banks, Boone, Bolden, Brighwell, Breedlove, Brown, Cave, Carson, Coons, Coffee, Dixson, Douglas, Foutz, Frazier, Hampton, Hendrix, Higgins, Hoskins, Hox, Hughes, Hull, Jackson, Johnson, Jones, Kimsey, Oggett, McDaniel, Miller, Mise, Murray, Pearl, Rixey, Stokes, Tolson, Todd, Torez, Waller, Washington, Wells, Willes and Woods.

Mayor Johnston stated, “We applaud the partnership of Park University and the Banneker School Foundation with the Watkins Foundation, and all the other partners, in promoting history and understanding the value of diversity. We hope the Watkins Foundation’s efforts lead to discovering the descendants of the families who once lived in the area so their histories can be recorded and shared with future generations.”

For more information about the event, contact the Watkins Foundation at (816) 547-9905.

Through a partnership with Park University, the City of Parkville is closer to determining the location of unmarked graves at the Old Parkville Cemetery.

In 2015, the City partnered with Park University on a community-based venture to review management and maintenance of the Old Parkville Cemetery located on Highway 9. City staff recognized the need to develop a plan for future maintenance and preservation of the cemetery. The partnership provided the opportunity to advance the project through volunteer support.

As a supplement to the project, students from the university’s Geography Department began a preliminary mapping and online Geographic Information Systems (GIS) project. The students were able to complete a GIS mapping project and compile names and dates of the visible gravestones. The GIS map is available online at: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=2acccc203a6648d795554146c5f7e75d.

In 2017, Professor Scott Hageman received grant funding to complete a Ground Penetrating Radar survey of the Old Parkville Cemetery to help determine the location of the unmarked graves. The goal is to treat all the burial locations with the respect they deserve and to assure the areas are adequately maintained. The work took place from May 15 to May 17. Once completed and the data is analyzed, a plaque will be placed at the cemetery with a list and location of all the unmarked graves.  Preliminary review of the data estimates over 100 unmarked locations. The unmarked graves will also be added to the GIS map.

Follow the project on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldparkvillecemetery/. For more information, contact the Assistant to the City Administrator Tim Blakeslee at (816) 741-7676.

The City of Parkville is pleased to announce that a team of three police officers from the Parkville Police Department won their Flight at the 17^th Annual Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) CARE Team golf tournament on May 8. The officers participated in the charitable event to help raise funds for the CARE Team programs.

The KCPD CARE Team is a non-profit 501c3 organization comprised of both sworn and non-sworn members of the Kansas City Police Department. The CARE Team raises money for the department members and retirees who need assistance due to an injury, death, illness, or other unforeseen emergencies. 100% of the funds raised go back to helping its members.

The Parkville team was one of 70 teams that participated in the event at the Shoal Creek Golf Course near Interstate 435 and MO-Hwy 152 in Kansas City. The goal was to raise $30,000.

For more information, contact Police Officer Mark Hill at (816) 741-4454.

Join the City of Parkville and over 30 law enforcement agencies at Northland Law Enforcement Appreciation Day on Saturday, May 20 from noon to 4 p.m. in English Landing Park. Come spend the afternoon and share your appreciation with us. The event will occur, rain or shine, and includes free food, police car row, emergency preparedness displays, bicycle rodeos (helmet and bike required), a Drunk Buster course, face painting, fallen Officer memorial vehicle, Child ID program and a large assortment of police equipment including special operations vehicles on land and water. #NorthlandLawDay

The City of Parkville is pleased announce that the next electronics recycling event is at Parkville City Hall on Tuesday, June 13 from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. or until the truck is full. There is no residency requirement.

Throughout the spring and summer, the City of Parkville partners with the Parkville Commons and Surplus Exchange to collect essentially anything with a cord or battery (working or not) during electronics recycling events in the parking lot at City Hall.

These events are open to anyone, not just Parkville residents – anyone can get rid of appliances, printers, cell phones, or other electronic items for free. There is a $20 charge for CRT based items (such as CRT TVs and CRT Monitors).