TONGANOXIE NEWSLETTER
Spring 2025
City of Tonganoxie, Kansas
4th St Bridge Project Completed
On Friday, March 21, 2025, the new 4th Street Bridge was opened for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. This $1,285,000 project was completed on- time and within budget, and financed solely by the City’s Capital Projects fund; a distinct fund that is dedicated to capital improvement projects and a majority of the revenue in this fund comes from the City’s share of County Sales tax. The bridge was designed by BG Consultants of Lawrence, KS and the contractor for the project was King Construction Co., Inc of Hesston, KS; King was the winning bidder for the project out of four submittals, which included a request to include an accelerated completion schedule. The project began on September 23, 2024, and met the accelerated schedule by completing the project in just under 6 months. The previous bridge was constructed in 1976, and based on a detailed evaluation completed in 2021, carries over 800 vehicles per day. Based on bridge inspections that are completed every other year, as required by KDOT, several factors lead into the recommendation for full bridge replacement and included age, delamination, and chloride testing results. The City Council had previously considered the added cost of an attached pedestrian crossing, and during the 2024 Capital Maintenance and Improvement Plan (CMIP) Budget development, prioritized and funded the bridge replacement to include the pedestrian walkway. This bridge project completion marks the second bridge replacement in a two year period. The first bridge replacement was the Church Street bridge, which was completed in 2023. The City maintains a total of 5 bridges, and in addition to the two discussed previously, includes Main St. (North of 1st St, year built 2000), Tonganoxie Dr. (East of Pleasant St, year built 1987), and Pleasant St (South of 5th, year built 2011).
The City Council dedicated the bridge in memory of Rocky Himpel, who served on the City Council and as Mayor Pro Tem, and advocated for the budget prioritization of a new bridge with pedestrian access.
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Tonganoxie Police Department provides year-end Data
The City of Tonganoxie Police Department (TPD) is pleased to provide the data and historical trend information in the chart to the left. We are proud of our Community Policing approach and the engagement we have with our citizens which builds a proactive partnership towards preventing crime and improving public safety. We are also grateful for the opportunity to extend that to the safety of our students as a partnership with U.S.D 464 allows for funding of a full-time School Resource Officer, which allows fosters a supportive learning environment and promotes problem-solving strategies.
Last year, phone and online scam solicitations increased the number of reported thefts in our city, but TPD continues to focus on thorough investigations which lead to the arrest of perpetrators. Our low crime rate primarily relates to our advantage of personally knowing many community members, which fosters mutual trust and cooperation. TPD has more flexibility in addressing specific neighborhood needs, often leading to more effective crime deterrence. We have a strong commitment to equity, robust training, and engaged in multiple community initiatives in 2024. This includes ALERT Active Shooter training at U.S.D. 464, Touch a Police Car, Lead to Read at the grade school, Use of Force Simulator (community demonstrations), High School DUI deterrence (demonstration), and various others.
Congrats to Cpl. Young for receiving the “Officer Of The Year Award” from the VFW!
Water Park renovations underway Planned Water park improvements are underway. In the 2025 City budget, the City Council authorized some facility improvements, which included repainting of all pool surfaces in the park ($37,571), new diving boards and stands ($34,802), new carpeting and chairs in the office building ($3,694), and new signs for Park Entry rules and safe use of water slides ($2,755). Additional work completed by City staff included updated lighting to LED (financed mostly by a grant from Evergy) and painting of interior building spaces. Starting with the 2025 Water Park season the City is moving to a new and improved activity management software system called Sportsman Web. This upgrade will include many new features for patrons to enjoy including access to a personal online patron account with features including online access to swim lesson registrations, facility reservations, season pass purchases, and online payment options for many of these purchases.
New diving boards and stands, replacing the original equipment
All pool surfaces being repainted. Last time this was completed was 2020, prior to COVID.
Tonganoxie Fire department Stats Your fire department continues to aggressively research and apply for grants to assist the community and the department. In 2024 we have received over $30,000 in grants from various sources. This included the growth and development of our High School Cadet Program. This program allows THS students the opportunity to experience what the fire service has to offer and helps them attain college credit hours.
2024 TFD Calls for Service
Inspections on water towers are completed every 3-5 years, in compliance with the American Water Works Association standards. The water tower located on US 24/40 had an inspection completed during early summer of 2024, and as a result, the City budgeted to have that structure repainted. Request for Proposals went out in February 2025, with three bids received by March 2025. The project award went to Maguire Iron, Inc. of Sioux Falls, SD, but with Regional offices in Olathe, KS, in an amount of $165,120. Painting, both the interior and exterior, of water towers is crucial for both aesthetics and structural integrity, as it protects against rust, corrosion and weather damage, which extends the life of the tower and ensures reliable water storage and distribution. This project will also be the first to utilize the City’s updated logo. How to Contact your City Council members indicated several other cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area have made recent adjustments to longstanding practices and requirements for pet licensing City staff made a presentation to the City Council to remove the City’s licensing requirement. During the March 17th City Council meeting, after consideration, the Council moved to eliminate the City’s licensing requirement. Water Tower repainting Pet Licensing changes City staff have been working in recent months to compile a list of licensing and code requirements currently in effect for the City of Tonganoxie that could be evaluated for potential direction from the City Council for policy changes or updates. Many of the City of Tonganoxie’s pet licensing requirements, penalties, and other considerations date back to City Code edits adopted in 1993, with some limited changes implemented in 2011. Fee waivers for either all pet licensing or for pet owners taking part in planned community vaccination and microchipping events have been approved by the City Council in multiple years. Following research, which Rendering of repainted Water Tower on US 24/40
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