The Leavenworth County Development Corporation and community leaders led a 45-minute discussion Thursday about the LCDC infrastructure committee’s top focus areas and Transportation Leveraging Investments in Kansas priorities.
The monthly LCDC meeting in Basehor served only as a discussion time. LCDC did not meet its quorum, so final action was postponed.
The infrastructure committee lists the Missouri-Kansas project with Platte County, which includes the widening of the MO Highway 92 to Interstate 29. During a recent Mo-Kan meeting last week, a discussion took place about using toll roads to help fund the project, said Scott Miller, Leavenworth city manager.
Miller said the bridge used to have a toll system many years ago. He said toll roads could account for 50 percent of the $100-million project.
“That is one financing vehicle we’re looking at,” Miller said. “There are certainly others that we need to look at.”
A toll bridge also could yield “local participating dollars” in funding the project, Miller said.
“If they’re going to be looking at 100-percent financing, they’re not going to be supportive,” Miller said about Platte City and Platte County.
T-LINK, a task-force committee, was formed in late August and has relied on a “grassroots approach to gathering information about local transportation needs and priorities,” according to its Web site.
While Kansas Speaker of the House Melvin Neufeld appointed members in mid-September to serve on the Special Committee on a New Comprehensive Transportation Plan, it might take more than a year to put a plan together that will pass the Kansas Legislature, Neufeld said in a press release.
The Kansas Legislature is scheduled to review a new 10-year comprehensive transportation plan during its 2009 session. KDOT’s plan from 1999 is set to expire in January.
“Until the end of the legislative session, we honestly don’t know where any of this will be,” County Administrator Heather Morgan said. “These T-LINK meetings, while good, are not the final say. We’ve got to be in Topeka and lobby the right people.”
Mike Smith, Lansing city administrator, said city of Lansing officials already have contacted General Election candidates about the T-LINK priority projects.
“Doing it before the election also has its benefits,” Smith said.
A regional airport and business industrial park is listed as an infrastructure committee and T-LINK priority. Coffman Associates is projected to complete its justification study by February 2009, County Commissioner J.C. Tellefson said. The Federal Aviation Administration must have the findings available when it makes budgetary decisions in March.
Tellefson added that the justification study is just the first step in a project that will take between seven to 10 years.
“There will be plenty of time for public comment,” Tellefson said. “I would expect it’s going to be a public vote for funding.”
During a T-LINK meeting in Olathe, Kan., Kansas Secretary of Transportation Deb Miller said she was surprised that the Kansas Highway 7 corridor was not a top area of focus among listed priority projects, according to Steve Jack, LCDC executive director.
The Kansas Highway 7 corridor committee will have a meeting at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in Basehor. Miller said meetings will take place quarterly at different places surrounding the Kansas City metropolitan area.
“This is a committee that’s been ongoing, but it’s going to start taking off,” he said.
During the discussion’s closing, Mike Yanez, city of Tonganoxie administrator, said he was concerned that Tonganoxie’s and Basehor’s resolution-passed T-LINK priorities weren’t included in a list provided during Thursday’s meeting.
Morgan said a complete list of the county’s cities and their priorities was distributed at T-LINK meetings. She said she would forward the list to Jack.
Infrastructure committee members Chris Donnelly and Harley Russell were unable to attend Thursday’s meeting.
In other business:
* ROUNDTABLE — LCDC will sponsor a roundtable discussion about the cities’ and the county’s comprehensive plans and their integration with LCDC’s strategic plan.
About 60 community leaders will attend the roundtable discussion from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Riverfront Community Center, 123 N. Esplanade St. John Engelmann with Kansas Power and Light will facilitate the discussion.
“We’ve informed everybody about it, but I’m not sure we’ve asked everyone to make an eight-minute presentation about their plan.”
* PROJECT LEADS — LCDC received two new project leads in September, Jack said. “Project Tower” submitted two adjacent properties along the Kansas Highway 24-40 corridor that totals about 15,000 square feet. The company installs wind turbine towers.
“Project Yankee” is a medical product research and development divisional headquarters looking for lab and flexible technical space that would bring 30 jobs, Jack said.
* SITE LOCATORS — LCDC co-sponsored a Kansas City Area Development Council two-day event that centered around Tina Turner’s concert Wednesday night at the Sprint Center. Sixteen top site locators from across the country, as well as consultants and local brokers, attended the networking meetings, Jack said.
“We got a lot of face time over two days with those site locators,” he said.
LCDC will next meet at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 13 at the Tonganoxie Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, 910 E. First St.
Basehor, Kan. —
