Volunteers Enhance Strawberry Hill Garden

Seniors from Pembroke Hill High School spent Friday, May 18, 2012 working hard in the Strawberry Hill Neighborhood Association Garden at 7th and Sandusky in Kansas City, Kansas (just a couple of blocks south of City Hall...click the map to enlarge).

The students organized a fundraiser for the garden and then went to work on the site. According to Strawberry Hill Neighborhood Association president Carole Diehl, the group installed a beautiful stone walkway, marble edged flower beds, a gate, flowers, 3 huge raised beds, a playground for kids, a glider and much more.

Well-known KCK artist Mike Savage provided a new sign for the garden and a beautiful mural for the wall along the north edge.

Ms. Diehl praised the students for their efforts and said they are "absolutely the greatest".

Volunteers are needed to help tend the new flower garden along the north edge of the garden. If you'd like to volunteer or if you'd like to inquire about planting vegetables in one of the garden's raised beds, please email Carole Diehl at cdneighborhood@yahoo.com. Many thanks to the wonderful Pembroke Hill students for enhancing our downtown and to the many volunteers from the Strawberry Hill Neighborhood Association who tend the garden year 'round!

Here are some photos (click any to enlarge)...

~ Brian
bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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St. Margaret's to be Renovated!!

The mood at the St. Joseph / St. Benedict's Watchdogs neighborhood group meeting on May 9, 2012 was joyous as developer Steve Foutch of the Foutch Brothers company announced that his company will renovate the old St. Margaret's hospital into a residential facility that will contain 108 living units for senior adults (age 55 and over).

The St. Margaret's building is located roughly at the intersection of South 7th Street and I-70.

Many people in District 2 remember St. Margaret's as a thriving hospital for decades. Several (like myself) were even born there. St. Margaret's merged with Providence Hospital in the 1970's and the two organizations moved to their new facility at 90th and Parallel in 1976.

The old building has been used for a variety of purposes since the hospital moved out, but for the last several years it has been vacant. Despite a security fence around the building, vandals and vagrants had a heyday in the building, breaking windows, scrawling graffiti and destroying property.

The Foutch Brothers company specializes in renovating historic buildings and turning them into usable spaces. According to their web site, "We start by working with communities to save existing and historic buildings.  Next, we work with residents and business leaders to determine what housing or services are needed in the vicinity.  Finally, we design and build new apartments, offices, and community spaces to sustainably reuse the building and site. In doing so, we are able to restore neighborhoods, create new architecture, and complete projects many thought impossible."

The plan is for renovation to begin in August 2012 and wrap up by December 2013.

Many thanks to Foutch Brothers for helping improve District 2. I'm confident that the positive effects of this renovation will spill far beyond the St. Margaret's site!

Here are a couple of pictures of St. Margaret's that I took last month. Looking forward to the renovations...

~Brian
bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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Cabela's Hosts Big 11 Event

Well over 200 people gathered at Big 11 Lake on Saturday, May 12, 2012 for a fishing deby hosted by Cabela's. What a great morning!

Cabela's gave away 175 fishing rods and lots of supplies to the youth who attended.  A couple of dozen Cabela's employees were on hand to help with equipment, bait hooks and give tips on fishing technique. Cabela's employees had also visited the park earlier in the week to pick up trash and clean the area. It looked beautiful.

Unified Government representatives from the Parks Department helped organize the event and were on hand to help out Saturday morning.

Cabela's provided a prize for the largest fish (weighing in at a whopping 0.99 pounds!).

The Black Police Officers Association cooked and served lunch to cap a great day.

Thanks to everyone for a great event!!

 Cabela's employees helped out with equipment and advice.

Enjoying the day!

 Attendees gather for a group photo at the end of the morning.

Lunch time!

~Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org

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Catching Up

OK...looks like I've got everything in place for the blog. Now it's time to start posting stuff!  :-)

I'll be catching up a lot of news and events over the next few days (so lots of posts).

After that, my goal is to post at least every other week (more often if there's more cool stuff to talk about).

Let me know if you have news or information about great things happening in District 2.

~Brian
bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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Welcome to the Blog - Let's Talk

So...why the heck does the Commissioner for District 2 in the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas have a blog??

By way of explanation, allow me to introduce myself and give a bit of background.

My name is Brian McKiernan and I've been the Commissioner for District 2 of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County / Kansas City, Kansas (UG) since April 2011. Here's a picture that shows what parts of KCK are in District 2 (click to enlarge).

Here's a link to my page on the UG web site where you can learn a bit more about me.

Brian McKiernan's web page

Background #1
When I was considering whether or not to go on this adventure, former District 2 Commissioner Bill Miller promised me two things if I was elected.

First, he promised me that I would learn more than I had ever learned before.

Well, I have two BS degrees plus a Ph.D. and he was right...it feels like I've learned more in my last year on this job than I did with any of those degrees.

Second, he promised me that I would meet more great people doing great things than I could imagine.

And he was right about that, too.

Every day I learn about more and more people who are making a difference in Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. It's not just the big stuff like the speedway and the casino, either. There are great people doing great things on every street and in every neighborhood of this city.

Reason #1 for the blog
One of the reasons that I'm starting this blog is to help spread the word about great people doing great things in District 2. To paraphrase the Bible, our bright lamp is squarely under a basket. We need to let our light shine. I'll use this blog to help shine our light. I already have posts lined up about neighborhood cleanups, park renovations, volunteer activities and much, much more.

Background #2
I have learned over the last year that one of my many roles is "connector" (people to government and government to people). I need to do my best to help improve communication between the UG and the people it serves.

Reason #2 for the blog
Another reason that I'm starting this blog is to tell you what we're doing in the Unified Government and to gather information from you about what's on your mind and what you think is important for your neighborhood and our city. Here's a start. I've created a virtual Suggestion Box. You can visit the Suggestion Box any time night or day and leave me a comment, suggestion or idea about anything related to the Unified Government or District 2. I look forward to hearing from you.

Click here to access my online Suggestion Box

That's all for now. We'll talk again soon!