Public Works Committee forwards engineering contract and three transportation grant agreements to full council

The Lee's Summit Public Works Committee on July 14 voted unanimously to forward an on-call engineering services agreement and three federally backed transportation funding agreements to the full City Council.

Senior staff engineer Karen Quackenbush told the committee the city issued RFQ 2025-054 on March 6, 2025, received 20 submittals and ranked Walter P. Moore and Wilson & Company as the top two firms. The ordinance authorizes one-year on-call agreements with up to four one-year renewal options so any city department can hire the firms for transportation, stormwater and structural engineering work. After brief questions about prior project experience, the committee voted 4–0 to advance the ordinance.

Dave Lowe, engineering manager, presented a Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) funding agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission to support the Lakewood Way complete-street improvements (Woods Chapel Road to Bolin Road). Lowe said MoDOT approved the city's submittal and cited a grant amount of $1,190,000. The committee moved to forward the ordinance and approved it 4–0.

Craig Kohler, senior staff engineer, described a Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) agreement for Southeast Douglas Street (Blue Parkway to Fourth Street). Kohler said the TAP funding must be used or started by fiscal year 2027 and highlighted safety and multimodal benefits for proximity to downtown and nearby schools; the committee voted 4–0 to advance the agreement.

Scott Eason, senior staff engineer, clarified that Walter P. Moore is the engineer of record for a TAP supplemental agreement for Ward Road improvements and that the supplemental ordinance extends the project schedule to allow letting no later than Jan. 15, 2026. The committee approved forwarding that ordinance 4–0.

Roll-call votes on each motion were recorded with Chair Mia Pryor, Vice Chair Rader, Council member Carlisle and Council member Hodges voting aye. The transcript does not identify the individual who formally moved or seconded each motion in spoken record; minutes to the full council packet should list movers and seconds.

The ordinances will appear before the full City Council for final action at forthcoming meetings. Staff said the on-call contract is intended to streamline procurement for engineering support across departments and that the grant agreements will be used to advance specific roadway safety and multimodal projects.

Reporting note: quotes and presenters are taken from the Public Works Committee presentation and roll-call recorded during the meeting.