Prairie Village Ward 2 council members want Brush Creek fence removed

The Prairie Village City Council members whose ward includes the nearly 20 houses along Tomahawk Road that now look out over a brand new black chain link fence lining Brush Creek say they will recommend that the fence be removed.

Ruth Hopkins and Steve Noll of Ward 2 say the negative feedback they’ve received from area residents since construction of the fence started the last week of December has been so overwhelming that they see no other reasonable choice.

“The people who live across from it are incensed,” Noll said. “And I can understand why.”

That may seem an odd sentiment from Noll, who was one of the ten council members who cast a vote Oct. 3, 2011 allowing the project to move forward. But he says he — like every other council member he’s spoken with — was not aware that the item they were voting on included a fence made of chain link. Hopkins, who voted against the measure because she felt the city should focus on maintaining current parks infrastructure instead of building new infrastructure, says she sympathizes with those who voted in favor of the project but are now upset with the outcome.

“I think everyone on the council had a reasonable expectation that this would look like the other section of trail that had been built in the city,” she said. “This was completely different.”

Prior to coming before the council for a final vote in October, the Brush Creek trail project had been kicking around City Hall for a few years. The city had on more than one occasion submitted applications for grant money to fund the project. In each of those applications, the proposed fence material was listed as wooden rail.

When the item came before the council in October, no member of the Public Works department or Parks and Recreation Committee alerted council members that the material had changed from the original proposals. The schematic included in the council packet did list the material as black vinyl chain link — but in copy so small as to be almost illegible.

Parks and Recreation Committee Chair Diana Ewy Sharp, who represents Ward 6 on the City Council, has not returned a call seeking comment on the series of events that led to the installation of the fence.

Noll said he intends to introduce a measure to remove the fence at the City Council Meeting next Tuesday, Jan. 17.

“I have been apologizing to everyone who has called, because I wasn’t as vigilant as I should have been,” Noll said. “I’ll say that I’m definitely wiser for having had this experience. But I think the fence needs to come down, and we need to have a public discussion about what the trail will look like.”

The Parks and Recreation Committee meets tonight at 7 p.m. at City Hall.