Looking for some good news? Well you’ve come to the right place.
As we reported a couple of weeks ago in a front page story, the Hwy. 92 bridge over I-29 at Platte City is slated for repair this summer. The bad news is the repair will require the entire bridge to be shut down while the work is being done. MoDOT believes the work will begin in late May and be finished by the time school begins for the Platte County R-3 School District on Aug. 20.
The upcoming closure is the bad news. So what’s the good news?
The good news is that the winning bid for the repair project came in well under engineering estimates for the job. MoDOT engineers had set the estimated cost at $1.2 million. In recent days, bids were opened and a contract was awarded at a price tag at about half a million dollars less than that. Yes, I said less than that. Winning bid is right at $700,000.
“The contract was awarded in the amount of $699,293 to Emery Sapp and Sons,” Ben McCabe, transportation project engineer told me on Tuesday afternoon. That number is so far below the estimate that I asked McCabe twice just to make sure before going public with it in this column space. “Yes, good news for all involved,” McCabe answered to my follow-up.
Good news for taxpayers. And potentially good news for the individual(s) responsible for the damage to the bridge, when an extended excavator being carried on a flat bed truck struck the bridge and sheered through concrete and rebar in three sections. MoDOT says it is pursuing payment from those responsible for damages. McCabe recently told me the state “will explore our options for recovering costs” from those responsible.
So do we have an exact date when the work will begin? No we do not but thanks for asking.
“We (MoDOT) have reached out to Emery Sapp & Sons but a pre-constrction meeting has not been set up,” McCabe said.
Stay tuned, when MoDOT is able to get us a date for closure of the bridge we’ll bring it to you right away.
Wanting some interesting news? Well you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s talk about courtroom sizes. You’ll recall Ann Hansbrough, the presiding judge for the Sixth Judicial Circuit in Platte County, says all the courtrooms in the Platte County Courthouse need to be larger than the current size and one needs to be 1.5 times larger than large. County commissioners, who are in charge of county-owned buildings and facilities, have pushed back against the judge on this topic.
Have you noticed the size of the New York courtroom in which the Trump trial is taking place? Joe Vanover, county commissioner, has.
This week the New York Times published an article going into detail about the courtroom in which the Trump hush money trial is being held. Based on a recent photo of Trump sitting in the courtroom, Vanover says “The Trump trial courtroom appears to have 126 seats behind the bar (where the public sits normally). This is approximately the same size as the Division 1 courtroom in our courthouse.”
And this is where it gets good.
“If the Platte County Courthouse has a courtroom large enough to handle a criminal jury trial against a former president, I can’t imagine we would ever need a larger courtroom. Yet the Platte County presiding judge says all the courtrooms need to be roughly this size and one courtroom needs to be another 50 percent larger,” Vanover told me this week.
Ready for some exciting news? Well I may be driving the hype train with the “exciting” description but it’s very good news if you’re interested in seeing a July 4th daytime celebration in Platte City.
We reported last week that the Platte City Chamber of Commerce would like to see a daytime Fourth of July event in the city, despite the fact the City of Platte City says it is stepping back and will not be actively involved in manning such a celebration this year after doing so the previous three summers. Lack of manpower, the city says, has forced it to decline to plan such an event. But the city has told the chamber it would provide some financial assistance for a daytime celebration if the chamber can guarantee it will have the volunteer manpower to handle such a thing. City officials asked the chamber to come up with a team of at least 20 volunteers before the city will consider providing financial assistance.
Mission accomplished, says Jamie Kacz, chamber director.
“We now have over 30 volunteers for the July 4th celebration,” Kacz told me Tuesday. “We are finalizing our budget to share with the city in hopes for financial support to make this event happen.”
The chamber’s tentative plan is to put on July 4 daytime activities on Main Street from 9 a.m.-ish to noon-ish. Free hot dogs rather than free offerings from food trucks is part of the tentative food plan. Bounce houses and other kids activities were mentioned as part of the still-in-the-making entertainment options.
We’ll keep you posted.
The seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster is trying to stay afloat.
In its fight to stay above water, Red Lobster “temporarily” closed 87 locations on Tuesday. One of those 87 closings is the Red Lobster located in Legends in Kansas City, Kan., which is not all that far from the Platte County line. I’ve experienced that particular Red Lobster and it’s closing is not shocking.
Yes, I’ve been to that Red Lobster in Legends a few times in recent years. Employees there acted like the restaurant was already closed. Service was terribly slow and disinterested and sometimes non-existent. After an initial bad experience with service we were willing to give it another try or two, because hey, everybody has a bad day. On one occasion we were seated at a table but after about 15 minutes of no wait staff coming over to even acknowledge our presence we simply walked out.
If you’re curious, the Red Lobster on Barry Road at Metro North near the Platte County line area remains open. Never had a bad experience with service at that location.
(You can find Foley waiting for a waiter at the Red Lobster in KCK)
