Liberty school district agrees to pay $1.2 million for flyover

By Angie Anaya Borgedalen

The Liberty school district has agreed to release $1.2 million to help pay for design and engineering costs for the Flintlock Flyover.

Over the last few months as Liberty and school administrators wrangled over funding for the proposed overpass, school district officials said they would pay $600,000 toward the engineering and design.

The higher amount was met with tempered relief from the City Council at its meeting May 5. The city had initially hoped to get the original $3.7 million pledged by the school district through the Shoal Creek Valley Tax Increment Funding District. The school district later reneged on that promise but agreed to honor the $600,000 commitment.

“I feel good about the $1.2 million. We’re 100 percent entitled to it under the signed contractual agreement,” said Mayor Bob Steinkamp. “It would’ve been nice if they participated in the construction like they originally said they would.”

Steinkamp said it was still up to the Kansas City Council and the Kansas City TIF Commission whether to allocate the remaining $2.5 million in payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, from the Shoal Creek TIF to construct the portion of the flyover along 76th Street in Kansas City.

Interim Superintendent Mike Brewer said it is the school district’s contention that the surplus PILOT money belongs to the district to use for educational purposes.

He said the district would send a letter to the Kansas City TIF Commission agreeing to the release of the $1.2 million to Liberty. North Kansas City Schools also agreed to go along with the request.

“We are keeping our word, but our circumstances have changed,” Brewer said. “We want as much money as possible to go to classrooms.”

After appealing to an advisory board of the Kansas City TIF Commission last month for the entire $3.7 million, city officials were not sure where the TIF funding stood.

“After going down there and talking to them, I didn’t know if we were going to get zero or $1.2 million,” said Steve Hansen, public works director for the city.

Hansen said HNTB, the city’s engineering consultants, would now continue with completion of final design and engineering on the estimated $22.5 million flyover in anticipation of going out to bid by spring of next year.

The council May 12 voted to increase HNTB’s contract from $1,071,000 to $2,269,000. The city has also set aside $1.5 million in the 2009 budget for construction of the overpass.

After acquiring a $19.2 million federal earmark for the overpass in 2005, the city agreed to manage the project after the school district promised to help pay the shortfall between the federal funds and the actual cost of the flyover. Hansen said the city was uncertain how much of the $19.2 million earmark it would get from the Missouri Department of Transportation for the project.

Hansen said the city would not know how much Flintlock Flyover would cost until bids were opened. He said the city was obligated to take the project through the bid process or face returning $940,000 to the federal government for preliminary costs for design and engineering.

Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 781-4941 or aborgedalen@npgco.com.