Alex Welch Blattner

Say YES Shawnee - September 22, 2025 SHAWNEE CITY COUNCIL MEETING September 22, 2025 You can stream the full City Council meeting at the link below! If you don't have time to watch, here's my quick recap. Councilmembers Burchfield was a...

My recap of tonight's meeting is live! If you enjoy these updates, please follow along on our website or our Facebook page "Say YES Shawnee" and share with a likeminded friend in Shawnee! #SayYESShawnee

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There's some issues with the live stream for council committee so it looks like I'm not going to be able to cover that. Sorry!

Semimonthly claims pass unanimously.

Misc. Council Items: Councilmember Stiens praises the bustling downtown area.

The meeting adjourns. Council Committee will pick up in a few minutes.

Councilmember Knappen: thank you for prioritizing this. I hope we can all attend the meeting.

Councilmember Gillette: what would the project cost?

Manning: in total, around $43 million.

Manning: we also have to have an idea of how much the city is willing to contribute. We do have some funding sources identified such as Hickok-Zarah TIF district and CARS funds.

Next item is an update from Kevin Manning on the KDOT local consult for the K7 and 75th interchange the council has been requesting. This is an open meeting where elected officials and staff can come advocate to KDOT about the projects they want.

It seems like there is a consensus on that.

Councilmember Gillette: to clarify, can we reduce the sidewalk and green space by 1 foot each, then include 3 foot bike lanes, and we are still under 51 feet total.

Councilmember Stiens: I agree, the lanes should be narrower.

Councilmember Knappen is talking but his mic is off so I can't hear what he's saying.

Councilmember Kemmling: what I care about most are the people who live right on the street. I'd favor going as narrow as possible.

Councilmember Walters: I agree. I know I drive slower when I feel like I have less space.

Councilmember Whitted: I'm also leaning towards option 2, but adding a bike lane.

Councilmember Murphy: I think the bike council people would lean towards option 2 for safety reasons. I wonder if we could make the sidewalk and green space narrower to make room for the bikes.

City Manager Paul Kramer: we'd like to get to a consensus tonight so we can get started on design.

Gillette: I'd lean towards option 2, but with a 4 foot sidewalk instead of 5 and 3 foot bike lanes. That way we get traffic calming, bike lanes, and take less resident land.

Jason Van Luke from the public: this is taking from our current green space. We're losing 10% of our property. I'd like to keep it that way, but I understand improvements are improvements.

Aubrey Van Luke from the public: I measured the lanes on 51st myself and the lanes are 12 feet and the bike lane is a little over 3 feet. The sidewalk is 4 feet and the green space is a little over 5 feet. So everything's a little less than what the slide says and every little bit counts for us.

Doug Sims from the public: my driveway empties out onto 51st Street. I brought a presentation. I am fine with sidewalks but am concerned about stormwater impact. I think narrower lanes would be better to control speed.

Ginger Adameack: I appreciate concerns about the speed, and I also want to point out that the road is not flat as described in the packet. There is a hump when you cross 51st from Quivira and you can't see. People drive way too fast. I'm fine with bike lanes but the cars need to slow down.

Gillette: it seems doing it my way would give everyone what they want. Narrower lanes would slow people down. Monticello has wide sidewalks and wide bike lanes, and it's basically a highway.

Manning: 4 feet is standard for a bike lane. Another way to think of option 2 is an 11 foot lane with a 2 foot bike lane - once you get narrower, you don't want to stripe it. We COULD do a 3 foot bike lane, but on Monticello we did 4' bike lanes with 11-12' car lanes.

Councilmember Gillette: I think Option 2 is most favorable by most residents and also taking the least land from residents. Could we do 3 feet wide bike lanes instead of 4 feet wide bike lanes, with a narrower street width? What was the overall lane widths we did on Monticello and MIdland?

Manning: cyclists would rather not ride on a narrower lane if it's shared. A complete bike lane makes them feel safer.

Councilmember Angela: would the speed calming be included in option 2?

Manning: typically if you want to lower speeds, you want narrower lanes. So option 3 would be your best option in that case. Option 1 has narrower car lanes but if there's no one in the bike lane then cars may still go faster.

Knappen: can you explain the special highway fund?

Manning: these projects are funded through a special 3/8 cent sales tax for street improvement.

Councilmember Knappen: how many members of the public responded to the survey?

Manning: 30.

Councilmember Murphy: does the budget include the cost of property acquisition?

Community Development Director Kevin Manning: yes.

Now they're on to the 51st Street Improvement Project between Quivira and Black Swan. The governing body is deciding between Option 1 (12' car lanes with bike lanes,) Option 2 (13' lanes with no bike lanes,) and Option 3 (11' car lanes with no bike lanes.)

Contract authorization passes unanimously.

Councilmember Gillette: I often hear that document links are too cumbersome. Will there be improvements on that? And will there be improvements to mobile browsing?

Donahue: yes, we are using this as an opportunity to make sure links are less cumbersome. The new site will be built for mobile first.

Now on to the bid review and contract approval for website hosting.

Councilmember Knappen: will we have a new website? The current one seems good.

Communications Director Doug Donahue: the current design will inform the new design so the user experience doesn't change too much.

Bid review and contract approval for office equipment for the Facilities & IT Office Remodel passes unanimously. This item came in under budget.

Resolutions authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds passes unanimously. This is for a group of CIP projects later this year that will need debt financing.

Councilmember Gillette: what is the duration of these bonds?

Finance Director Rocco: 10 years.