Colbern Road & Highway 7 intersection

Mayor Ross saying a few words at the ribbon cutting.

MoDot Area Engineer Matt Killion saying a few words at the ribbon cutting.

City Administrator Eric Johnson, Mayor Carson Ross and MoDot Area Engineer Matt Killion cutting the ribbon.

The changing of the calendar to a new year is typically seen as a time for fresh starts and new beginnings.

For Blue Springs, 2012 will be the year in which we see visible progress on the Missouri Innovation Park on Adams Dairy Parkway. As the University of Missouri prepares to break ground at its permanent location in Blue Springs, its involvement and commitment will raise the visibility and viability of MIP to the world’s animal-health-related companies, along with other entities and organizations.

It will take time, but we anticipate the demand for locations within the MIP will result in new, high-quality jobs for Blue Springs residents and those in the surrounding areas.

This year will also see the installation of the new digital radio system for our Police Department. This system, paid for by the public safety tax that Blue Springs voters approved last year, will substantially improve our Police Department’s communication ability and will help make our city safer. The improvements to the public safety building will enhance downtown and provide an improved workplace for our police officers.

Hopefully, 2012 will see progress on the regional transit proposal, which could bring even more activity to our downtown in the coming years.

The redevelopment of Woods Chapel Road continues, and residents will see utilities relocated this spring in preparation for the widening and resurfacing from Duncan Road on the north all the way south to Walnut Street. Right-of-way acquisition is under way, and we should see work on the road begin this year, with scheduled completion scheduled for 2013. The new diverging diamond interchange at Interstate 70 will improve the flow of traffic, especially during rush hour, and the signalized intersection at Duncan Road will make that area safer and less congested.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest appreciation for the many cards, notes, copies of the newspaper and kind words regarding the story of the Christmas ornaments from my birth mother. To Martin Augustine of KMBC Channel 9 News and Lee Hill Kavanaugh of The Kansas City Star, thank you for telling the story in such a wonderful and compassionate manner. The response has been overwhelming and very much appreciated. For those who missed the stories, they can be viewed at http://bit.ly/QuibellOrnaments and http://bit.ly/AnnChristmas.
Happy new year, everyone! I look forward to another year of sharing with you all of the great things happening in Blue Springs!

The first six months of my current term in office are now behind me. It’s been an interesting change from my previous term in office just a few years ago.

The Blue Springs City Council is working well together, without the frequent angst that we sometimes experienced in the past. The hard questions are still being asked and we don’t always all agree, but good outcomes are occurring with regularity. Scripted political agendas have disappeared, and a true spirit of cooperation has brought a breath of fresh air to the political climate of our city.

A frequent question lately regards progress on the Woods Chapel Road expansion. This important project is ongoing and actually moving along at a pretty good clip behind the scenes.

Planning and progress at the beginning of a large road project aren’t visible in the first few years. The project is first designed and rights of way purchased from the hundreds of property owners on each side of the road. Construction contracts go out for bid. Significant amounts of work occur before the first shovelful of dirt is turned, but I assure you we are moving forward and are on schedule.

The final steps in acquiring the last few properties needed to construct the road have been set in motion, and an agreement with Kansas City Power & Light is approved to begin moving the utilities in preparation for the new roadway. This will be the first noticeable change that will occur.

A funding agreement is now approved with the Missouri Department of Transportation for the construction of Woods Chapel from Castle Drive to Walnut. This piece of the project is an expansion of the voter-approved improvements from Duncan Road down to the railroad tracks.

This week RED Development provided an update on the Adams Dairy Landing project. This TIF-funded project is paying great dividends for our community. New shopping is available to our residents to buy products at a lower tax rate than they were paying in other retail venues while also saving on the gas they spent to get there. The new tax revenue generated by the project is helping our city maintain services in difficult economic times. Because of a carefully crafted TIF policy and bond issues coinciding with store openings, the project cash flow is positive and paying its own way as expected. It is a benefit for our residents, the city and the people employed at the new stores.

RED Development announced several new stores that will be opening over the next year: Ross Dress for Less, T.J. Max, Home Goods, Charming Charlie, Rue 21, Yogurtini, Ulta Beauty, Arby’s and Chick-Fil-A.

We have all seen them. Motorist Assist vehicles frequent our highways, helping stranded motorists disabled by a flat tire or someone simply running out of gas. They seem to show up at the right time somehow. I had often wondered about that and recently learned a little more about how the process and how Motorist Assist functions so successfully.

KC Scout has cameras that watch the ebb and flow of traffic on major highways. The Missouri and Kansas departments of transportation provide funding for the system.

Published on electronic signs all over the area, the information from this system updates drivers on how long it will take to get to a specific destination ahead of us. Those same signs also provide guidance involving an accident ahead, giving basic detour information to assist us in avoiding a traffic jam.

The KC Scout system also sees when a car has stopped along the highway. When that occurs, the nearest Motorist Assist vehicle is dispatched to see if the driver needs any assistance.

When an accident occurs, the Scout system sees that incident and Motorist Assist is deployed to put out signs and provide protection to our emergency responders. This helps traffic flow and enables lanes to reopen as quickly as possible. This support technique has resulted in an average 90-minute reduction in traffic tie-ups due to serious accidents, compared with the situation before the implementation of the Motorist Assist program.

Data from KC Scout are fed to companies that provide navigation information for automotive GPS systems. If you have a traffic module with your navigator, you are benefiting directly from the KC Scout system when your GPS routes you around a traffic tie-up.

I recently visited the KC Scout center and was very impressed with the “war room” style monitoring system that provides the KC Scout personnel with all the information they need to keep traffic flowing as safely and smoothly as possible throughout the region.

For more information about KC Scout, go to http://www.KCScout.com.