Weather permitting, on Friday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m., lane and ramp closures on I-35 will begin for a repair project at the I-35 and I-435 interchange in Johnson County.
Coach Don Bechard celebrates after leading the 1996 Trailblazers basketball team to its first-ever state championship . Photo courtesy Clint Bond
Amy Cunningham
acunningham@gardnernews.com
At an impromptu ceremony, Gardner Edgerton High School volleyball and boy’s basketball coach Don Bechard was honored for his accomplishments on the court with an induction into the GEHS Athletic Hall of Fame.
"Don was very proud and happy, he had a big smile on his face when he received the award," said Kent Glaser, GEHS athletic director.
Debbie Dreiling, Gardner real estate agent, understands that when gas prices are high, prospective home buyers spend a lot of time winnowing down their search on a computer before stepping foot into houses for sale.
"But you can’t get a feel for the home without going in it," she said. "Pictures don’t tell the whole story when you’re looking online."
Micheal Strohschein regularly encourages his agriculture students at Spring Hill High School to apply for scholarships, awards and recognition. And his students encouraged him to do the same.
"They said you need to apply for these type of awards, too," Strohschein said.
When he acted on their words of wisdom, Strohschein ended up a winner.
A dispute over tax abatements for the BNSF intermodal logistics park is headed to court this month.
On Sept. 18, a judge is expected to decide the fate of a citizen-initiated petition that would restrict tax abatements to 30 percent for industrial warehouses.
A group of Gardner residents — including a former mayor and former city councilman — earlier this year sponsored an ordinance that would limit tax abatements for industrial warehouses to a maximum of 30 percent for 10 years.
An abandoned propane tank stopped traffic over the Center Street bridge Tuesday night.
The tank itself wasn’t a cause for concern. It was the contents of the small tank that caused police to stop traffic over the bridge for more than four hours.
The tank contained anhydrous ammonia, a gaseous compound used as fertilizer for crop fields in honest uses, and occasionally used for more nefarious purposes like methamphetamines.
Now that the Gardner City Council has agreed to keep its electric utility rather than sell to a private entity, the real work is about to begin.
"I would like to tell you that the road ahead is this nice, straight, bucolic setting," Colin Hansen, executive director for Kansas Municipal Utilities (KMU), told the council during its Aug. 25 work session. "But the reality is that you’ve got a lot of tough decisions ahead of you."
Following years of debate whether to keep or sell the utility, the council decided last week to keep it and run it like a "business" rather than a "hobby."
Electric rates as much as 25 percent higher than those of private utilities prompted the debate.
A rendering of a conceptual plan for the new Spring Hill Aquatics Center. Couresy of Aquatic Design Consultants
Danedri Thompson
newera@kc.rr.com
Spring Hill resident Amy Williams has been swimming in the existing city pool since she was a fifth grader in the mid-1980s, and she’s ready for a new watering hole.
"The pool that we have is the one I was swimming in in 1985 and before," she said.
The city council will consider putting a half-cent sales tax on the November ballot to fund a new city aquatic center and lake side park. Consulting firms unveiled plans for the new recreational facilities to the public at a meeting on Wednesday night.
