This will come as welcome news to anyone who lives or does business along Troost Avenue and who has been inconvenienced by the street closing at 85th Street.
The obstacle course is set to end soon.
A year and a half ago, construction began on replacing the Troost bridge over 85th. The extensive construction has shut down traffic on Troost and 85th.
The good news is that if the weather obliges, that span will reopen to traffic Friday.
And 85th has been upgraded from two lanes to four from Holmes Road to Tracy Avenue.
“If the weather is halfway decent, we’ll have it done by July 11 as promised,” said Glen Dvorak, the project manager for the Jackson County Public Works Department. “This is still all tentative. There are a few more things that need to get done yet. But we’re on schedule.”
Stripes still have to be placed on the roadway and signs still need to be erected before the $7.8 million project is ready for traffic.
“We won’t open it up until it’s completely safe,” Dvorak said. “We want the public to just bear with us a few more days longer.”
•••
First there was the Mayor’s Night Hoops.
Now get ready for the sequel: the Mayor’s Night Kicks.
Night Kicks, a soccer version of Night Hoops, will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Kansas City Wizards Swope Park complex.
Night Kicks will involve a soccer tournament at night for ages 17 to 25. Games will be played Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 p.m. until midnight.
The tournament’s championship game will be played Aug. 22. The trophy for the winning team will be presented Aug. 23 at a Wizards game. So far, 12 teams have signed up.
The program is an attempt to involve young people in positive activities on summer nights.
Chrispin Rea, assistant to Mayor Mark Funkhouser, expects Night Kicks to be a big hit, especially with the Latino community. The competition promises to be diverse. Two teams made up of Somalis also have signed up.
“The teams may come from different cultures and have different faiths,” Rea said. “But the one thing all these teams share is a love for soccer. Night Kicks is going to have broad appeal.”
•••
The city of Kansas City has more than 70 boards and commissions. And an idea is taking form that would allow some of the youths who serve on the city’s Youth Commission to also serve as ex-officio members of some of those other boards and commissions.
The youths would be non-voting. The plan is still a few months from rolling out.
“The idea would be for youth to provide a youthful voice on those boards and commissions,” said Rea.
“The education that young people would pick up would be incredible. They would see firsthand the inner workings of city government.
“And the boards and commissions would be helped. With the youth on board, it would ensure that their decisions would take into account the special considerations of our young people.”
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