INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — For the first time since the city’s founding in 1827, Independence voters will be asked to approve a series of general-obligation, or GO, bonds during the April 8 municipal election.
The Independence City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Monday to put three questions, which could raise as much as $197 million to fund a range of projects, on the spring ballot.
“What we’re doing tonight can be transformational for this city,” Mayor Rory Rowland said of authorizing a vote on the GO bonds questions. “What we’re doing tonight, with the voters’ support and help, we can change this city for generations. ... This is our opportunity as a community to make a gigantic investment in improving this community as we have never done before.”
A 2016 study estimated there were more than $900 million in unfunded maintenance and improvement projects citywide.
More recently, the City Council formed a Citizens’ GO Bond Committee to examine those needs and make recommendations for projects to prioritize.
GK Callahan served as vice chair of a Citizens Committee that made recommendations to the Independence City Council about community priorities.
“I think Independence is a lovely place to live, and I think we need to step in line with that and continue to try to fix what we have,” he said. “... Anyone who owns a home knows that it needs maintenance, so that's one of the things the city has to do.”
At-large council member Bridget McCandless couldn’t agree more.
“Independence has never had a general obligation bond, and we're almost 200 years old,” McCandless said.
She said Independence lags behind its peers in Jackson and Clay counties — where Blue Springs, Kansas City, Lee’s Summit, Liberty and Raytown are among the cities that have passed GO bonds in the past — when it comes to public maintenance.
The City Council hopes that will change with the April vote.
“We looked at what was the most urgent, what were the things that we thought the community was most interested in, and put together a package that seemed to be the things we should start with,” McCandless said.
Public safety bond question
Question 1, which focuses on public safety, comes with the highest price tag.
If passed, the $130-million bond would allocate up to $123 million for a new justice center on the current site of the Independence Power and Light Customer Service Center.
“That was the one priority that everyone could pretty much agree on,” Callahan said.
IPD’s current headquarters, a 50-year-old building at the southwest corner of Truman and Noland roads, isn’t big enough to house the growing police department and no longer serves its needs. Not to mention the deferred maintenance that’s accumulated over the years.
“Our police station really is dated and unsafe,” McCandless said.
IPL customer service center will relocate to the former GEHA Building off Little Blue Parkway near Interstate 70 in the spring, so its old building can be retrofitted to accommodate IPD.
The campus also would be expanded to also house municipal court services.
“The Justice Department is spread over multiple buildings — I think, seven locations around Independence,” Callahan said. “So, instead of being in one centralized location, they have to commute back and forth to work together. That alone just makes it cumbersome.”
The bond also includes $4 million to demolish the existing headquarters, remediate the site and prepare it for future development, which was a priority for the Citizens’ Committee.
The final $3 million from Question 1 would be used to buy the Independence Animal Services building from Jackson County and repair it.
Public infrastructure bond question
Question 2 is a proposed $55 million bond for roads, bridges, curbs and sidewalks.
The biggest chunk — $30 million — would be used for resurfacing streets.
Noland Road and other major arteries would be among the priorities to help clear a backlog of more than $430 million in deferred road maintenance.
Another $15 million would be earmarked for fixing or replacing more than a dozen city-owned bridges.
“We have 14 bridges that are really in need of attention,” McCandless said. “We have four that are already closed and they're expensive to replace. I think this is a piece that is critical for safety, for people being able to get the ambulance when they need it, for school buses to get safely where they need to be.”
The remaining $10 million would go toward fixing or creating sidewalks at seven Independence elementary schools — Blackburn, Cassel Park, Fairmount, Ott, Mill Creek, Cler-Mont and Elm Grove.
“We really concentrated around schools so that it would be safe for kids to be able to walk to school,” McCandless said. “We have the seven schools that the (Independence and Fort Osage) school districts identified as their priorities. The community has also said that's a big, important piece for them.”
Historic buildings and parks question
The smallest of the proposed bonds is Question 3, which seeks $12 for maintenance of historic buildings and money for the Independence Athletic Complex.
Three historic buildings — the Vaile Mansion ($2.2 million), Bingham-Waggoner Estate ($3.8 million) and Truman Memorial Building ($1 million) — would receive money.
“These historic buildings are more than 100 years old, and we have been doing small investments over time, but as they age they need more love,” McCandless said.
Volunteers often do a wonderful job maintaining the interior of the buildings for tour, “but money to do the exterior work has been lacking, and we're starting to see some decay that we have to address or these buildings will really get damaged,” she added.
The Independence Athletic Complex would receive $5 million for improvements.
“We have to think about the future,” Callahan said. “We have to think about residents that don't live there yet, our children that are growing up in our community. ... Independence has been very good at being fiscally conservative, but I think there's some needs that they need to address with a lot of our infrastructure moving forward.”
Ballot questions for the April election must be certified by Jan. 28.
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