BonnerSprings.com

Bonner Springs Public Works employees can look forward to a summer spending hundreds of hours less mowing right-of-way properties the city now cuts four times a year.

They’ll still be working — on street repairs and other projects — which was touted by city staff as one of the main benefits of the change.

At the workshop session before its regular meeting Monday night, the City Council gave consent to City Manager John Helin to eliminate the mowing of land adjacent to some streets by half. The change will mean an estimated savings of 316 man-hours, worth $15,200, and $1,429 in fuel costs.

Personnel time now spent on this maintenance will now go to other duties such as street repairs.

“The most important part is not the money but the man-hours,” Public Works Director Kevin Bruemmer told the Council.

The Council did not make its decision quickly, debating whether residents would resent the change after the city had been maintaining these rights of way for at least 30 years.

The Council had considered briefly another of Bruemmer’s recommendations that included the elimination of mowing the weeds along 138th Street from Kansas Highway 32 to Kansas Avenue. Council member Jeff Harrington said he didn’t like that concept, because the weeds eventually would get so tall that drivers on the already-narrow road would tend to drive toward the center of the street.

“138th is hard to drive as it is,” Harrington said.

Mayor Clausie Smith added that the road is a “main drag” for people attending sporting events at the high school.

“I say let it go and see what comments we get,” said Council member Lloyd Mesmer.

That provoked an immediate “No” from Council members Larry Berg and Wayne Gray.

The Council gave its consensus to City Manager John Helin to eliminate mowing along the following stretches of road:

• Kansas Avenue, from Kansas Highway 7 to 122nd Street, and from 134th to 142nd streets.

• 142nd Street, from Kansas Avenue to State Avenue.

• Metrpolitan Avenue, from142nd to 138th streets.

• Sandusky Avenue, between 141st and 142nd.

• 134th Street, from Kansas Avenue to K-7.

• Stillwell Road.

• Woodend Road.

• The south side of Gibbs Road/Kansas Highway 32

• 147th Street, between Gibbs and Stillwell roads.

• 121st Street, from K-32 to Metropolitan Avenue.

• Martinek Road.

• 118th Street, from Martinek Lane to Riverview Avenue.

• Stevenson Street.

• 122nd Street, from Stevenson to Riverview

All intersections still will be maintained, Bruemmer said, for sight distances, and he stressed that the change is on a trial basis.

In his report to the Council, he noted that of the surrounding five communities of Basehor, Linwood, Shawnee, Lenexa and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., only Basehor and Lenexa mow their rights of way.

In contrast to Bonner Springs’ 38 miles of rights of way that get mowed, Bruemmer said Basehor has just 12 miles. Lenexa mows its rights of way three times a year.

Still, Council member Jeff Harrington said, “those areas around here are not doing it, but also they’ve not been doing it for 30 years. This is a significant change.”

In addition to the benefit of freeing staff hours for other maintenance and repair, Bruemmer said the reduction of mowing would reduce the wear and tear on machinery, thus saving equipment maintenance costs.

Also, Bruemmer said, the change should have a “positive effect on our air quality.”

The Kansas City metropolitan area is now in violation of the ground-level ozone standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The state of Kansas is now implementing a plan to bring the area into compliance with the EPA standards.

The city has discussed with the Mid America Regional Council’s air quality program manager the effects on the environment of burning diesel fuel, Brummer reported. MARC’s studies show burning one gallon of diesel puts 28 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Bruemmer said.

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