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John “Jack” Helin
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TAB 5
The Chieftain (Bonner Springs, KS), April 30, 2009
Council to Voice Opinions in Letter Form By Melissa Treolo
Bonner Springs City Council members, along with city manager John “Jack” Helin, are taking
their issues with the Kansas Department of Transportation to paper. The issues surround
KDOT’s latest design for the yet-to-be-funded Kansas Highway 7 and Interstate 70 project,
which would create a tri-fold system of interchanges at 130th Street, I-70 and Kansas Avenue
along K-7. “My belief is that we should provide some kind of written response to their latest
plan,” Helin told council members in a work session before Monday’s council meeting. The
written response would be in the form of a letter outlining several problems the council sees with
the project – the overriding problem being that it would take away developable land the council
believes Bonner Springs can’t afford to lose.
Despite signing a memorandum of understanding in April 2007 acknowledging their support of
and agreement with the project, Helin said members of the council only signed the document as
a safeguard against not having a chance to voice their opinions when the need arose. “We
reluctantly agreed to sign that agreement because we felt it was better to be at the table than not
invited when conversations took place,” Helin said.
Some issues the letter would contain include:
• The closing of 134th Street, which is a strong possibility under the current project design.
• One of the interchanges of the tri-fold system, at K-7 and I-70, which council member Jeff
Harrington said was too large and would take up land the city has been trying to fill with new
development.
• Other project design possibilities, which members of the council said they had never seen
during the course of the project. Many questions were raised at the work session about what
other designs were looked at, such as those including the more expensive options of retaining
walls and flyovers the council believed would be worth it in the long run because these builds
would take up less developable land.
As it still awaits funding, construction on the interchange project may not begin for quite some
time, but Helin said therein lay another problem. Even if the city tried to bring in more
businesses in the interim between now and the start date, it would have a hard time finding
interested developers. “We’re obligated to tell any (prospective developers) that this is a
possibility,” Helin said.
Helin insisted, while the current project design wasn’t one the council was happy with, KDOT
had tried to accommodate and work with the city as much as it could. He said the letter might be
an effective way to make KDOT see the council’s position and change the design accordingly.
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