June 11, 2022

The City of Lake Lotawana has resolved its legal action with Blue Springs, allowing us to continue working on the annexation of properties at the corner of Hwy 7 and Colbern Rd.

We have completed the process on the NW Corner that includes the Station 7 Restaurant, two cars lots, the Cannabis dispensary, marine repair shop and the building adjacent to, but not including the Martini Shack. We will continue working to annex the Martini Shack.

On the NE side of the intersection Pinnacle Bank is fully annexed, and we are working with the Temp Stop owner to complete the annexation of the properties to the east, including the Temp Stop.

The SW corner is undeveloped Lotawana, and the SE corner is partially Lotawana, and partially Blue Springs. The new building being constructed is the Blue Springs Dollar General. The far west piece of this property headed south is Lake Lotawana.

The Board of Aldermen recently approved the voluntary annexation of the Dirt World property on the SE Corner of Hwy 50 and Hwy 7.

All annexed property has been recorded with the County and will be on the city sales tax roll the second half of this year. I want to thank all the Aldermen for their support of this effort, and even more thanks to our City Administrative Team led by Nick Shigouri in seeing this process through to the current state.

The city is still working on the engineering phase of a new sewer line to serve the area of Hwy 7 and Colbern Rd. Part of the settlement agreement with Blue Springs addressed easements to run the sewer line to the corner. At the appropriate time we will attempt to directly connect the Blue Springs Dollar General to our city sewer thus eliminating their current sewage plan. One of the reasons for the annexation is to address the water quality due to the retention pond runoff in that area. This part of the agreement also allows for significant savings on the sewer line construction.

The Lake Lotawana Sewer Plant renovation is expected to be completed this fall. This update makes the plant expandable and will help us operate into the future as we look at the longer term sewer plan for our city. Our next area of focus will be evaluating the needs of the collection pipes leading to the sewer plant.

Over sixty new homes are in various stages of construction at the south part of the city, and several of these homes are occupied by new Lake Lotawana residents. We are looking into a sidewalk project in the Foxberry subdivision later this year.

There are city roads that need repair. The first will be in the Oakhaven subdivision followed by areas of Old Lone Jack – Lee’s Summit Road. We are considering how best to proceed on these lower used roads.

Funding for city projects comes from revenues generated by the city sales tax initiative passed in August 2020. It took over a year for this voter approved sales tax to get through the State processes but is now in place along with the USE tax that was approved at the same time.

The city will be working aggressively on storm water remediation around the community, especially in areas of new construction. The State is also monitoring the situation, and we do think there is improvement to be made.

I would like to thank the Board of Aldermen for their dedication to the city and the projects that have been completed, with special acknowledgement to our newly elected and re-elected Aldermen: Ruth Neighbors, Larry Antey, and Jan Rase. We have a great team!