Inside:

Page 2: Contact informa-tion

Page 3: Free-dom Day Parade photos Page 5: Calen-dar

Page 7: Hazard-ous Waste recy-cling

Armour Hills Homes Association Member of Homes Associations of Kansas City 4200 Somerset, Suite 216 Prairie Village, Kan. 66208

August 2009

Armour Hills Clarion

From June 1 through August 10, there were 15 new homes listed in Armour Hills. The av-erage price was $255,000, and the majority of these homes listed between $200,000-300,000. During that same time period, nine homes were sold, with an average price of $203,225, and these homes were on the market for an average of eight days.

These sales statistics indicate first-time buyers make up a ma-jor part of the market’s cur-rent sales. Most first-time buy-ers want to purchase a home under $225,000 — and there are

usually numerous homes in Ar-mour Hills that meet that price range.

And the Armour Hills/Brookside area is very desirable for these buyers.

The $8,000 tax refund/credit for first-time buyers will expire No-vember 30. Local agents expect a surge of sales within the next two months as buyers finally decide they better start looking now and make offers if they want to beat that deadline. As the first-time buyers purchase homes, there should be a dom-ino effect bringing more sales to the higher priced homes.

AH real estate news

Chelsea Whitehead returns balls to her father at the tennis court at Arbor Villa Park.

Kansas City’s Parks & Recrea-tion Department installed the much-needed wind nets behind Chelsea earlier this summer as well as a new center-court net.

Tennis, anyone?

Miscellaneous numbers Neighborhood Assistance Center (311) 513-3200 Kansas City Public Works (block party permits) 513-2679 Nature’s Rubbish 444-4050 Lawn-Corps 761-3046 Deffenbaugh Industrites 913-631-3300 RecycleFIRST 513-3490

Committees Activities, Mary Yzon Arbor Villa Park, Pete Egan ATA Liaison, Andrew Snyder Clarion Editor, Sadie Johnson clarioneditor@sbcglobal.net, 361-4553 Code Enforcement, Mary Hutchison Crime Prevention & Community Awareness, Margaret Taylor & Craig Kuhn Email News, Andrea Ways Newman armourhills@kc.rr.com, 444-1154 Parks and Islands, Maya Coopersmith

AHHA and Miscellaneous Contact Information

Homes Association of Kansas City 913-385-2440 ha-kc.org

Board Members Stephen Parker, President 509-8959 Mary Yzon, Vice President 444-8151 David Pucci, Treasurer 210-8633 Margaret Taylor, Secretary 523-1691 Maya Coopersmith 333-1755 Andrew Snyder 444-5417 Mary Hutchison 523-8363

Freedom Parade a great success

Page 2 Armour Hills Clarion

By Margaret Taylor More than 200 residents participated in the Armour Hills 11th Annual Freedom Parade. Festivities be-gan at Wornall & Gregory, where balloons and flags were distributed. Parade column was formed and everyone walked north to 65th Street for the judging of the floats, wagons and bicycles. Neighbors gathered and thoroughly enjoyed lemon-ade, Foos Fabulous Custard and home-made cook-ies. After much deliberation by neighborhood judges Betti and Bill Kalahurka, Judy Gemmill and Gun-nar and Gianni Hughes, following prizes were awarded: Dane Billet, 6517 Brookside Road, sailed in on his battleship to take first place; James Doer-flinger, 6831 Grand, chugged in on his train to sec-ond place; and Vivian Riehl, 16 East 67th Street, pedaled in to third place with her uniquely deco-rated bicycle. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all the families who made the event more fun with their decorated bicycles and wagons. Special guests included our 4th District Council-

woman, Jan Marcason, Scott Burnett, Jackson County Legislature District 1, as well as Sharon Mohler, Sally Wirtz and their families -- Sharon and Sally were the creators of our parade eleven years ago when they shared chairmanship of our Activities Committee. Mary Yzon, VP/Activities Chairman, extends many thanks and appreciation to volunteers Shirley and Charlie Kearney who contributed so much to making this event so successful. Also, thanks go to Board Mem-ber Mary Hutchison who was our official pho-tographer as well as eve-ryone who donated home-made cookies.

Page 3 August 2009

Photos by

Mary Hutchison

see additional photos on p. 4

Page 4 Armour Hills Clarion

Additional Freedom Day Parade photos...

By Margaret Taylor

In our monthly meetings with the Metro Division Police and other area homes association, Sgt. James Pearce talked about burglar-ies. Most of the time, entrance to the home is gained by kicking in a door. Entrance is rarely gained by breaking a window -- mostly be-cause of the danger of getting cut and the broken window indicates immediately something is amiss.

Sgt. Pearce says it is important to respond when someone knocks on your door -- make noise, talk through the door -- let it be known that someone is home. Get a description if you can and call 911. Burglars are looking for empty houses and will normally go away or make some lame excuse for knocking on your door. Sgt. Pearce says: Re-member, you do not want to be in your home when someone kicks in the door.

...And speaking of doors. How se-cure are your front and back doors? Crime Prevention Officer, John Trainor, says your deadbolt should have at least a one inch throw, strike plate should be up-graded to 4 holes with at least 3” screws. Reinforcing collars over the edge of the door that wraps around the deadbolt are also avail-able. Most hardware stores can give you full information.

Year-to-date statistics are located in this Clarion and you will see that burglaries have been greatly reduced because of increased patrolling of our neighborhoods and the fact that two burglars, who accounted for so many burglaries in our gen-eral area, were apprehended. At the same time Stealings are up and for the most part these are thefts from cars -- GPS being the item most often taken.

Silence Is Not Always Golden Says Sgt. Pearce, KCPD

Crime Statistics

Jan - July

2009 2008

Robberies 0 0

Burglaries 5 15

Stealings 14 5

Auto 1 5

Totals 2 0 25

Summer and fall are popular times to sell homes, cars and ga-rage “treasures”. Please take note of these Armour Hills and ATA rules pertaining to signs. Signs are prohibited on Ar-mour Hills islands and the entire ATA right-of-way (green space between Wornall and Brookside Road) including the planted entrances. Advertisement signs (lawn mowing, weight loss, etc) are not permitted.

Please advise your realtor that “Open House” signs are per-mitted in common areas ONLY from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the day of the open house.

If signs are not in the proper spot or removed after this time, they will be taken down and discarded. Also, any weight-loss or other “advertisement” signs are not permitted on telephone poles or other posts. “Lost” or “found” animal signs may be placed temporarily, but it is more effective to have the Armour Hills email manager send a

Who’s New

Sign rules remain amid home, yard sales

Page 5 August 2009

AUGUST

• Arbor Villa park pool closes August 16.

• No monthly board meet-ing.

SEPTEMBER

• Ice Cream Social, Friday, September 11, 5:30 to dark.

• Monthly board meeting, September 15.*

OCTOBER

• Monthly board meeting, October 20.*

CALENDAR

Photo by Sadie Johnson

65th Street Sean & Stephanie Switzer, 109 West 67th Street Laura Hogberg, 303 East 68th Street Paul Defoe and Lauren Jack, 123 West 69th Street David & Kelly Klinkon, 2 West 70th Street Brian & Lynn Baltzell, 121 East 70th Terrace Scott Glendening,

232 West Sam & Julie Polise, 111 East Dartmouth Eric Lau, 16 East Katie Watson, 16 West Benjamin & Elizabeth Haynes, 11 West Brad Hamilton, 330 East Edgevale Caleb Markovich, 6637 Oak Stephanie Shustek, 6508

A neighbor on Main Street created an alternative drinking spot for pups on walks…. a “Pup Crawl”.

From The Kansas City Star: When the warm weather hits, so do they. A young lady selling magazine sub-scriptions knocked at Lisa Lund’s door last summer. She was friendly, compelling. Her pitch was personal. “She said they were making money to help put themselves through school, to get a better job and sup-port their family,” Lund said. She handed over a $75 check for three years of Seventeen magazine. Weeks later, she had nothing but a growing suspicion that she had been ripped off. National watchdog groups say Lund and others have opened their doors to a largely unregulated industry where unscrupulous operators can flourish. Though some companies are legitimate, experts say, others can get away with defrauding customers and victimizing young salespeople, too.

Consumer and parent groups are calling for tougher laws. Brian Frazier sees the sales crews almost every weekend in south Over-land Park. “They’re fun to talk to. They’re witty,” Frazier said. But every time they knock, he tells them he was burned once and never again. After buying a subscription and get-ting nothing, he left nine unanswered messages at Kansas City-based New Direction, the same company that Lund bought from. So far this year, the local Better Busi-ness Bureau has received 19 com-plaints against New Direction, which lists a Harrison Street address in Kansas City. Frazier and Lund each lodged a complaint, and others came from as far as Utah and Texas. The Star called the company’s two listed numbers, answered by women who claimed to have no association

with New Direction. And when a reporter checked, nobody lived at its listed address, an apartment. A national publishers group says it has long discouraged such activity. However, the Better Business Bureau says it has received more than 11,000 similar complaints this year against 50 magazine sales companies.

September 26, 2009 There is still time to register for the 2009 Strutt With Your Mutt in Brookside. Come out to the dog event of the season and see every-thing from a Chihuahua to a Clumber Spaniel. The day is full of fun things to do with your dog including:

• On-site doggie pictures

• $15 microchip clinic

• Fun contests

• Food from the Brooksider

• Adopt a new buddy

*Each registration is per person with up to two dogs *Children under 10 need not register *T-shirts limited to the first 500

$25 General Registration $35 T-shirt Registration

Wayside Waifs waysidewaifs.org 3901 Martha Truman Road Kansas City, MO 64137

Page 6 Armour Hills Clarion

Keeping track of homeowners

If you plan to move but retain ownership of your property in Armour Hills, our office needs to have your new address on re-cord. As long as an owner holds he title, they are responsible for homes association dues.

Please send updated addresses to: Homes Associations of Kan-sas City, 4200 Somerset, Suite 216, Prairie Village, Kan. 66208.

A sales pitch for stricter door-to-door sales

Strutt with your Mutt

South Kansas City Household Hazardous Waste Recycling

8 a.m. to noon Saturday, August 29

Hale Cook School, 73rd/Pennsylvania

From 9 to 11 a.m. only, a shredder truck will shred confidential docu-ments. There is a 300-car limit, so come early. The event ends at noon, or when the limit of cars has been processed. The event is for residents of KCMO and participating communities. ID required. Materials will be accepted from residents or neighbor-hood clean-ups only, no businesses. Containers larger than 5-gallon buckets are not ac-cepted. All traffic enters from Pennsylvania from either north or south and exits on Jefferson. All participants are requested to donate a minimum of 1

Acceptable items • Antifreeze • Oil • Car batteries • Household batteries • Paint • Paint-related items

like stain or paint thinner • Tires • Leaves • Brush

The terms of two long-time board members Maya Coopersmith and Margaret Taylor are up at the end of this year and neither one is seeking re-election.

If you are interested in learning more about your homes association, neighborhoods and city, please con-tact Margaret at 523-1691 or mtay-lor26@att.net.

She will give you all the details. Elec-tions will be held at our annual meet-ing on November 19.

August 2009 Page 7

Derek Nolen pitches balls to his son, Archer, at Arbor Villa Park.

Can You Serve?

Get Involved! What would you like in your neighborhood? Who’s doing work for your board? Want reports from neighborhood committees? Come to a meeting or send a sug-gestion.

You can always get involved in what’s happening in our neighbor-hood. Meetings are held at 7 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at the Country Club Congregational Church, 205 W. 65th St.

Upcoming Board Meetings: September 15 October 20

November 19 (Annual Meeting)

Page 8 Armour Hills Clarion

PRSRT STD 

U.S. Postage 

PAID KANSAS City, MO 

Permit No. 5988 

The Clarion is published four times a year for neighbors and friends of the Armour Hills Homes Association.

Clarion editor — Sadie Johnson clarioneditor@sbcglobal.net

armourhills.org

Armour Hills Homes Association Member of the Homes Associations of Kansas City 4200 Somerset, Suite 216 Prairie Village, Kan. 66208 913-385-2440

Come out to Arbor Villa

Park for the annual Ice

Cream Social! Enjoy good eats and ice-cold treats. A visit from the Kan-sas City Fire Department is most certainly a favorite for all ages. See some familiar neighbors and say hello to new ones.

Activities are from

5:30 p.m. to dusk on

Saturday, Sept. 11