Archives for March, 2011
Tweet WaterOne, the Johnson County water utility serving Prairie Village, is planning to begin removal of the water tower at McCrum Park this fall. The tower was originally installed around 1950. It was in operation until a few months ago, when the tank was drained and the tower was put out of commission. The removal [...]
Tweet Indian Hills Middle School students on Wednesday got a living history lesson when 25 veteran of World War II came to the school. The visit served as the kick for a in-depth American History project. Students interviewed the veterans and got to hear firsthand about what they experienced during the war. For a photo [...]
Tweet Less than a week before election day, former and current state and county officials are announcing their support for the Prairie Village mayor candidates, with the majority lining up behind incumbent Ron Shaffer. Of the twelve city council members, nine have publicly announced their support for Shaffer. They are: Dale Beckerman David Belz Charles [...]
Tweet Pembroke Hill graduate Bobby Bollier of Mission Hills and Rockhurst graduate Kevin Webster of Leawood had the honor of competing in the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships last weekend in Minneapolis, Minn. Bollier, who swam at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Dubai in December, was the national runner up in the 200 [...]
Tweet Remember to shut your blinds, Prairie Village residents. Three residential burglaries have been reported in the city since last Thursday, March 24. Police Capt. Tim Schwartzkopf confirmed that someone had kicked in the front door of a home in the 7200 block of Village Drive Monday and stolen electronics. Two other burglaries, one in [...]
Tweet Shawnee Mission School District Superintendent Gene Johnson at Monday’s Board of Education meeting presented the results of the district’s survey on how to make ends meet amid huge financial strains. The district has already had to cut $20 million from its budget the past two years. Johnson said Monday the district expects to have [...]
Tweet After a couple months of working out final design details, the city of Prairie Village has issued a building permit to UMB for its new location at the intersection of Tomohawk Road and Mission Road. Assistant City Administrator Dennis Enslinger said construction is expected to being in the next couple weeks. Crews should have [...]
Tweet Thanks to a PVPost reader for passing along audio from Saturday’s mayoral debate. Download the .mp3 file via ZShare.net here. (Sorry…we were hoping to embed the file on the site, but I’ve yet to master WordPress’s built in audio player).
Tweet A recent report distributed by the Mid-America Regional Council shows Prairie Village and Fairway residents pay among the lowest tax and utility rates in the entire Kansas City metro area. The report finds that Fairway and Prairie Village had the fourth and fifth cheapest costs of the 48 municipalities in the Kansas City metro [...]
Tweet Data from the 2010 census released by the federal government last week shows that Prairie Village, Fairway and Mission Hills saw slight population losses between 2000 and 2010. Prairie Village lost 625 residents over the ten year period, dropping from 22,072 to 21,447, or 2.8 percent. Fairway’s population declined from 3,952 to 3,882, or [...]
Tweet While many high school seniors were taking a rite-of-passage party-filled Spring Break trip, Kansas City Christian’s senior class was working hard in impoverished areas of Trinidad. The seniors’ working spring break abroad is a Kansas City Christian tradition — but this year’s class was the largest ever to organize such an endeavor. Allison Tapp, [...]
Tweet Mayor Ron Shaffer and City Councilman Michael Kelly took to the podium at Cherokee Christian Church for a debate sponsored by the Prairie Hills Homes Association on Saturday, just over a week before Prairie Village voters decide which of them will occupy the mayor’s office for the next four years. (The debate was moderated [...]
Tweet As part of a grand tour of Prairie Village earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder met with SM East students on Tuesday, a day after he addressed the Prairie Village city council. During the visit, Yoder spoke with about 50 students, and sat down for an interview with SM East Harbinger online editor [...]
Tweet We’ve received a few more items we thought it would be worth to put out there regarding the accusations of excessive spending by the Prairie Village city council and mayor. Diana Ewy Sharp obtained the receipt for her stay at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington D.C. Click here to take a look. Ewy [...]
Tweet Records from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington D.C. show Prairie Village city council members Ruth Hopkins and Diana Ewy Sharp were charged $170 per night plus $24.65 in taxes during their July 2005 trip to a National League of Cities conference, according to information released today by City Administrator Quinn Bennion. UPDATED: Click [...]
Tweet Today, the at-large school board candidates address the final item in our questionnaire: how to fix the state funding formula: There seems to be broad consensus in Johnson County that the state’s school funding formula is broken and desperately in need of repair. What’s the best hope for seeing meaningful change in the funding [...]
Tweet Well, kids: you’re in luck. The Shawnee Mission School District has determined that even with six missed school days on account of inclement weather, students will have logged enough “contact hours” to meet minimum state requirements. Which means that instead of tacking on days to the end of the school year and putting summer [...]
Tweet Pizza 51 owner Jason Pryor told PVPost.com last night that his company had finalized the purchase of the old Sinclair station on Mission Road, and will be opening up a new restaurant there this summer. Pryor will be finishing building plans for the restaurant over the next couple weeks. Once they’ve been submitted to [...]
Tweet Since Fox 4 Kansas City’s Stephanie Hockridge appears to have now stolen two stories from me without even a hint of attribution (this one from PVPost.com, and another from the now defunct KCFreePress.com about Memorial Day 2010), I figured her station wouldn’t mind if I stole their tagline for… This awesome post about KCP&L [...]
Tweet Today, the three candidates for the at-large seat on the Shawnee Mission School District board weigh in on the cost-cutting challenges facing the administration: Over the past two years, the district has cut $20 million from its budget, and is currently seeking input from patrons about where to make future cuts. Is it realistic [...]
Tweet When Prairie Village City Councilman Michael Kelly talks about his motivations for entering the race for mayor, he frequently references a management style at city hall that has been too disengaged. For evidence, he says, look no further than a missed application deadline for federal funds that could have netted the city between $800,000 [...]
Tweet In response to requests from citizen Jori Nelson, Prairie Village City Administrator Quinn Bennion on Tuesday sent a memo to Mayor Ron Shaffer and the city council detailing expenses incurred by the city during council and staff trips to the National League of Cities conferences. (Click on the image to the right to download [...]
Tweet Prairie Village native and internationally acclaimed opera star Joyce DiDonato is set to take the stage in her home state next weekend for the Wichita Grand Opera’s Tenth Anniversary Gala. DiDonato will join fellow Kansan Samuel Ramey and Wichita State alum Alan Held in the gala performance March 26, “There’s No Place Like Home.” [...]
Tweet Today we present the first responses to our questionnaire for the Shawnee Mission School Board at-large candidates. Question one concerns the atmosphere surrounding last fall’s school closure debate. The tone during last fall’s debate about closing schools and changing boundaries was frequently contentious and divisive. What do you think the administration and/or the school [...]
Tweet Prairie Village city staff are pulling together more records following requests from resident Jori Nelson, who presented the council Monday with the an assessment of city council travel expenditures from documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act Request. The documents reveal over the past ten years city council members and the mayor have [...]
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