Gladstone approves one-year agreement with Northland Neighborhoods Inc.; NNI highlights home repairs and vaccination outreach

The Gladstone City Council voted to adopt Resolution R-25-38 authorizing an agreement with Northland Neighborhoods Incorporated (NNI) to provide consulting services for neighborhood development from 07/01/2025 through 06/30/2026.

The agreement, approved as part of the council’s regular business, funds consulting and neighborhood-revitalization support from NNI, which staff described in an annual update to the council. Deb Herman, chief executive officer of Northland Neighborhoods Incorporated, told the council that NNI focuses on preserving homes and providing services such as plumbing, roofs, siding, windows and foundations work. "We're not Kansas City. We're Northland," Herman said, adding that NNI spent about $150,000 on home repair in Kansas City last year and that the organization continues to work in Gladstone.

The nut of the council action was procedural and financial: adopting R-25-38 authorizes the city manager to execute the one-year consulting agreement with NNI. The resolution appears on the consent agenda and passed without items being removed for separate discussion.

Herman described several program areas NNI will continue or expand in the Northland, including senior home repair, neighborhood meetings, and an upcoming schedule of vaccination clinics for children and families timed to school requirements. She also noted a new funder — the Health Foundation — as providing recent support for Northland improvements. "We will also [be] getting into this program the next couple of weeks, we'll start vaccines," Herman said, adding that NNI keeps evening hours so working families can bring children for shots and return them to school.

Discussion vs. decision: the council’s action was a formal adoption of a resolution authorizing a contract; program details and service priorities were presented by NNI staff as informational. The transcript shows no amendment to the resolution and no council conditions attached at the time of the vote.

Proper names and program details mentioned by NNI during the update included Northland Neighborhoods Incorporated, the Health Foundation, and local home repair staff members named by Herman. Funding amounts cited in the presentation (for example, the $150,000 home-repair figure) were presented by NNI staff; the resolution text included the contract term but did not specify line-item budget amounts in the public discussion.

The council approved the measure on a voice vote during the item listed as "Resolution R-25-38," and the agreement will run from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, per the motion and resolution language.