Aglow for the holidays: Find fairy gardens, more at this JoCo garden wonderland
Again this holiday season, the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens is hosting a series of luminary walks, which take visitors along candlelit pathways, past gnome and fairy villages and within earshot of four musical performances.
Upcoming walks are scheduled from 5 to 10 p.m. Nov. 25-26, Dec. 2-3, Dec. 8-10 and Dec. 15-17. The last entry is at 9 p.m. In addition, an adults-only Candlelight Stroll will take place during the same hours on Dec. 1.
The cost is $15 but free for those 5 and under. Tickets can be purchased through the events tab at artsandrec-op.org. The arboretum is at 8909 W. 179th St.
Olathe middle school being replaced
The Olathe Public Schools broke ground Nov. 17 on a new Santa Fe Trail Middle School, which will replace a building first constructed more than 50 years ago.
The current building at 1100 N. Ridgeview Road, which dates to 1968, has been renovated or expanded periodically since then.
“However,” the district said, “looking at the continued infrastructure challenges, as well as the outdated design, small classroom space and the cost to continue renovating the existing building, a fresh start was the best answer for the Santa Fe Trail community.”
The new school will be built on the existing campus, but students will remain in their current building until the new one is ready in 2024.
The middle school is one of many projects funded by a $298.3 million bond issue approved last March through a mail ballot election.
Lenexa’s K-9 Bruno is on the job
Now on staff at the Lenexa Police Department: K-9 Bruno, a 19-month-old German Shepherd born in Slovakia.
He replaced a police dog named Leo, who died after being diagnosed with lymphoma. In the summer, Bruno and his handler, Master Police Officer Brian Thomas, obtained their credentials as a K-9 team and completed their training in September.
Bruno and the city’s two other police dogs are trained in both narcotics detection and patrol use, which includes building searches and searches for articles, suspect tracking and apprehension, vehicle extractions and handler protection.
KDOT reopens all lanes on K-10
Driving to Lawrence and back has been nightmarish in recent months, but the Kansas Department of Transportation says all traffic lanes on Kansas 10 — from Kansas 7 to Kill Creek in western Johnson County — were open as of mid-November.
The bottlenecks were caused by highway bridge repairs, but many have been completed.
Deck patching and overlay work was finished by mid-November on the westbound bridges at Evening Star Road, Sunflower Road, Camp Creek and Cedar Creek, as well as the eastbound bridges at Cedar Creek Road and Cedar Creek Parkway.
Deck replacement was to be completed later in the month on the westbound bridge over Lexington Avenue, as were pavement repairs on the westbound bridge over Kill Creek.
Meanwhile, work will continue into February on improvements to the Lexington Avenue interchange on K-10, including additional ramp lanes.
Another incentive to relieve labor shortage
Weeks after instituting hiring bonuses for paraeducators and second-shift custodians, the Shawnee Mission School District has decided to pay current employees $200 for successfully referring people to classified jobs like custodians and paraeducators.
Employees are encouraged to email smsdreferral@smsd.org with the name and contact information of the prospective employee. The $200 will be paid if that person is hired and is in good standing after 90 calendar days of employment.
The Shawnee Mission school board approved the program on Nov. 14, and it will continue through June 30, 2023.
Lenexa bakery owner earns state awards
The owner of a bakery at the Lenexa Public Market has been named “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Kansas Department of Commerce’s Office of Minority and Women Business Development.
The honoree is Kate Smith, owner and chef of Butterfield’s Bakery & Market. She also is a 2022 winner of NextGen Under 30, another program of the Kansas Department of Commerce.
“If I saw myself five years ago, I could never have imagined I would own two (soon to be three) businesses at the age of 27,” Smith said in a news release. “I couldn’t have done it without my amazing team supporting me and giving me their best every day.”
As a child, the release said, Smith took notice of the cooking and baking skills displayed by her grandmother, Jo Ann (Butterfield) Fath. In 2017, Smith received a degree in hospitality management from Oklahoma State University and moved to the Kansas City area in 2018.
Her specialty, French macarons, became popular at shopping expos and weddings. She began selling macarons as a day cart vendor at the Public Market in March 2019 and within months expanded to a specialty confectionery stall, Kate Smith Soirée. She opened Butterfield’s in 2020.
The Lenexa Public Market, operated by the city, is an 11,000-square-foot food hall at 87th Street Parkway and Penrose Lane in the City Center area west of Interstate 435.
91st and Nieman: Time for a four-way stop?
After 40 years with a traffic signal, the Overland Park intersection at 91st Street and Nieman Road may soon become a four-way stop.
The signal has reached the end of its useful life and traffic volume has declined at the intersection, so the city is studying whether the change would cause traffic to flow more smoothly.
“At times,” the city said in a news release, “drivers may wait for a red light to turn green, even when no traffic is coming from the other direction.”
During the 90-day testing period beginning Nov. 29, the signals flash red in all directions. Drivers should navigate the intersection as they would a four-way stop.
About 8,700 vehicles passed through the intersection in 1982, when the light was installed, but the average has dropped to 2,700 vehicles daily — below the standard for a signal. If the signal system were to remain there, the city said, it would cost about $450,000 to rebuild.
High-profile projects begin in Merriam
November groundbreaking ceremonies were scheduled for two major projects in Merriam.
The first, on Nov. 21, was for Merriam Grand Station, to be built on the long-vacant former Kmart property near Shawnee Mission Parkway and Antioch Road. The project by Drake Development includes two apartment complexes, space for up to five restaurants or retail businesses, a parking structure and green space for live music and art games. Completion is expected in 2026.
A Nov. 29 ceremony was scheduled for the Merriam Plaza Library, next to the Merriam Community Center at 6040 Slater St. When completed in 2024, the $13.68 million library will replace the nearby Antioch Library at 8700 Shawnee Mission Parkway.
Shawnee embarks on K-7 study
Shawnee is inviting the public to a meeting Nov. 30 on the K-7 Corridor Study, where residents can learn about current traffic conditions along the north-south highway as well nearby roads including Woodland Drive, 75th Street, Hedge Lane Terrace and Clare Road.
The goal of the study, commissioned by the City Council in September, is to determine what road improvements will be needed as development continues in western Shawnee, and when those upgrades should take place.
The open-house-style meeting is scheduled from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at City Hall, 11110 Johnson Drive. People can come and go throughout that time period.
The city is paying the Olsson engineering firm $77,580 to conduct the study.
Principal named for new middle school
Darcy Sly will be the principal of Forest Spring Middle School when it opens next August in the Spring Hill School District.
The 30-year educator has been principal at the district’s Dayton Creek Elementary School since 2021. She has also been principal for Timber Sage Elementary.
The new middle school is near the southwest corner of Ridgeview Road and 191st Street.
