Inside:

Page 2: Contact informa-tion

Page 4: Be wary of over-eager salesmen Page 4: AH market remains strong

Page 5: Who’s new?

Pages 6-7: Freedom Parade photos Page 8: Blue bin reminders

Armour Hills Homes Association Member of Homes Associations of the Country Club District 222 W. Gregory Blvd., #201 Kansas City, MO 64114

August 2008

Armour Hills Clarion

Extensive plans are underway to bring Armour Hills residents their annual Ice Cream Social in Arbor Villa Park.

New to the event this year will be a wel-coming committee of board members. With four new members voted to the board last November, the hospitality table will allow residents the chance to mingle with the board members.

As usual, refreshments will include free hot dogs, ice cream and bottled water

and lemonade. Entertainment includes a Wacky Banana, face painting and tattoos. So come to the Ice Cream so-cial to meet new and old friends.

The social runs from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Ice Cream Social ushers in autumn on September 3 Wacky banana, hot dogs and ice cream to highlight social

By Margaret Taylor

After attending a neighborhood meeting held by the Kansas City Water Department, I came to the conclu-sion that our water bills are going to quadruple.

The meeting was intended to explain the federal man-date to clean up our water system, which will be a long and expensive project — costing some $2 billion. It is an absolute necessity to keep storm water in the ground and out of the sewers.

In our part of Kansas City, the same pipe that carries wastewater also collects storm water runoff. This is called a Combined Sewer System. Some of us are

aware of the problem with sewer-backup in our base-ments during heavy rains and the need for correction. Eventually, the sewers will be separated, but in the meantime it is most important and advantageous to keep stormwater in the ground and out of the sewers.

We can all help by:

• Disconnecting downspouts and sump pumps from sewer pipes and redirecting rainwater to gardens or grassy areas

• Avoid excessive watering

• Install rain barrels

Make every drop of rain water count

Please….

NO PETS! Because of the number of children and the size of the park, please leave pets at home.

See RAIN GARDENS, page 3

Committees Activities, Mary Hand, chairman 444-8151 Suellen Dice, member 651-4198 Arbor Villa Park, Pete Egan 523-2905 Armour Hills News, Andrea Ways Newman armourhills@kc.rr.com 444-1154 ATA Liaison, Andrew Snyder 444-5417 Clarion editor, Sadie Johnson clarioneditor@sbcglobal.net 361-4553 Code Enforcement, Mary Hutchison 523-8363 Crime Prevention & Community Awareness, Pete Egan 523-2905 Parks and Islands, Maya Coopersmith 333-1755

AHHA and Miscellaneous Contact Information

Miscellaneous numbers Neighborhood Assistance Center 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

HACCD — 523-2440 Web site — armourhills.org

Board Members Peter Egan, President 523-2905 Stephen Parker, Vice President 509-8959 David Pucci, Treasurer 523-1691 Suellen Dice, Secretary 361-4198 Mary Hand 444-8151 Maya Coopersmith 333-1755 Andrew Snyder 444-5417

hnson

Page 2 Armour Hills Clarion

Columns need repair, financial help By Sadie Johnson

In an effort to repair the historic brick columns at Meyer Boulevard and Wor-nall Road, the Greenway Fields Homes Association launched an aggressive fundraising campaign to help offset the costs for the project. Greenway Fields has done so even though the columns are not within their association bounda-ries.

Katie Allison, a representative of the Greenway Fields Homes Association, said the organization submitted a PIAC (Public Improvement Advisory Commit-tee) request to the city of Kansas City, of which $26,500 was received in May of this year. In addition, some other private donations have been made.

The columns are traditionally the re-sponsibility of the Kansas City Parks & Recreation Department, but with budget shortfalls, no money could be allotted for the project.

In order to adequately repair the crum-bling brick and iron work, it’s estimated

costs could range from $45,000 to $90,000, leaving at the very least a $12,000 to $15,000 shortfall.

Greenway Fields Homes Association is asking residents in neighboring homes associations for private contributions. Our homes association contributed $150, while the Brookside Merchants Associa-tion and other sister homes associations have also made contributions.

The Brookside Merchants Association will also use it’s “Southtown Founda-tion” to channel charitable money dur-ing fundraising for the columns.

Contributions by check are payable to Board of Parks & Recreation Commis-sion for Meyer Columns, 4600 East 63rd St., Kansas City, Mo. 64130.

The columns at Meyer Boulevard and Wornall Road are in need of repair.

Photos by Sadie Johnson

By Andy Snyder

The school building will begin hosting classes August 25 as Southwest Early College Campus (SWECC). The Kansas City Missouri School District opened SWECC as a math and science campus for 6 through 12 graders preparing for a college education.

The first students, roughly 240 sixth and ninth graders are from all parts of the city, according to new principal Steve Scraggs.

A community “grand opening” will be held sometime in mid-September. Scraggs said the building has already undergone renovation, including a new roof. He said the district is trying to keep the school true to its original design and architecture as it continues to prepare the building for new students.

Adults interested in volunteering to help

with the restoration of the building and surrounding property can call Scraggs at 816-582-0965.

Scraggs, who previously served as princi-pal at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, said the school day will likely run from 7:10 a.m. to 3:10 p.m.

The campus will be closed during the school day.

Southwest High School was built in 1925 and functioned as a high school until the building was closed in 1998.

The campus is a partnership of the District, UMKC, the Woodrow Wil-son National Fellowship Foundation, (Kansas City's

Partnership for Regional Education Preparation) PREP-KC and the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute. By the time a student graduates from SWECC, they will have earned as many as 60 hours of college credit from the Univer-sity of Missouri-Kansas City.

August brings an improved Southwest High Resurrection of SHS completed

Page 3 August 2008

• Plant a rain garden

• Apply fertilizer and pesticides sparingly

• Throw away pet waste; it isn’t good fertilizer and can wash into waterways untreated The Water Department has excel-lent guides and instructions on all of the above and I will be happy to obtain copies for anyone interested in more information. You can reach me by phone at 523-1691 or e-mail mtaylor26@att.net.

Our Homes Association has already done some things to keep stormwa-ter in the ground. In 2003 previous board member Mel Solomon devel-oped the plan to replace some 200 missing trees. Homeowners ap-proved a special assessment to get this done, adding not only to the

beauty of our neighborhood but taking responsibility for our envi-ronment. Several years ago Board President Pete Egan initiated the use of degradable “mutt mitts” in our parks to dispose of pet waste. Now the board is in the process of getting an estimate to re-circulate the water in the small Rockhill Fountain as well as repair or replace the circulation system in the Edgevale Fountain.

We all need to make a commitment to make every drop count — start-ing now.

RAIN GARDENS from Page 1

Photo by Andy Snyder

Photo by Sadie Johnson

This rain garden, at the corner of Edgevale and 66th Terrace, was planted and is maintained by Deborah Carlton.

Kansas City, Mo. police officers are of-ten privy to activities in our city most neighbors wouldn’t care to know about. But recently, one encountered an indi-vidual at their home while off duty that homeowners in Armour Hills should be aware of.

Despite a “no soliciting” sign on the front door, a door-to-door salesman ap-proached, offering a “free” alarm sys-tem.

Once he brought up the $39.99 per month monitoring fee, he was arrested — for soliciting. In court, he pleaded innocent, but was found guilty and fined. This is at least the second time this sort of salesman was in the neighborhood. A man from the same company refused to leave the prop-erty a couple months ago, and only did so when the homeowner was identified as a police officer and threatened to ar-rest him.

In the 7300 block of Washington, a con-cerned neighbor called, fearful that the salesman was scamming an elderly neighbor. When officers arrived, the sys-tem was being installed, and only after

informing the resident of the contract did he fully understand what he was getting into. The salesman on that call said they ignore “no soliciting” signs — ignoring the law.

After some research, it appears the sales-men make several hundred dollars per sale, explaining why they are so pushy and less than honest about the contracts they offer residents.

Most legitimate door-to-door sales peo-ple keep walking when they see a “no soliciting” sign. It is highly recom-mended that resi-dents purchase a small sign and place it on their front door. They can be purchased at any hardware store. Ac-cording to a city or-dinance, the person

does not have to admit they saw the sign, they only have to solicit where a sign is posted to be in violation.

If enough people in the neighborhood post these signs and be willing to prose-cute violators, our neighborhood will be a less desirable place for such pests (like the ones who spray diluted Windex on your antique brass mailbox without per-mission and quickly rub off years of ac-

quired patina in order to sell their special “cleaner”.)

Another common method criminals use to case houses is to knock on the door to see if someone is home. If someone an-swers, they make up an excuse for being there — like asking to mow your lawn without a mower or asking directions to a fictitious person’s house.

KCMO City Ordinance

Sec. 50-8.5. Prohibitions in certain ar-

eas.

c) Prohibitions. (5) Private property. It

shall be unlawful to panhandle, or to

solicit the sale of goods or services on

private property if the owner, tenant or

lawful occupant has asked the person

not to solicit on the property, or has

posted a sign clearly indicating that

solicitations are not welcome on the

property.

AUGUST

• No monthly board meeting.

• Arbor Villa Park pool closes August 16.

SEPTEMBER

• Monthly board meeting, Tues-day, Sept. 16*.

• Ice Cream Social, Arbor Villa Park, Wednesday, Sept. 3.

OCTOBER

• Monthly board meeting, Tues-day, Oct. 21*.

*Monthly board meetings are at 7:30 p.m. at the Country Club

Congregational Church, 205 W. 65th St.

Be wary of overly eager door-to-door salesmen

Page 4 Armour Hills Clarion

By Mary Hutchison

With all the talk about home prices falling, consider this: the aver-age price of an Armour Hills home was $20,000 in 1970! In 1980, the average price was $67,900; in 1992, $88,107.

Surely we have many Armour Hills resi-dents that remember those prices. In the years since, home prices in the area have continued to climb, averaging $159,892

in the year 2000. Today's average price of an Armour Hills home (January-May 2008) is $219,875 with an average of 45 days on the market.

Despite the overall gloomy picture in the national real estate market, remember that all real estate is local — what mat-ters is what happens in your area. Amour Hills is still a very desirable location for home buyers, especially if the home is well maintained, updated and properly priced.

AH market remains strong

CALENDAR

66th Terrace Michael Beltz 66th Street Stephen and Kimberly Styrett, 5 West

70th Street Mary Haubrick and Kristine Livingston, 204 West 70th Terrace Kevin and Jessica Kelley, 114 East Matthew and Sara Garrett, 30 East Scott Reed, 313 East

Dartmouth Vacek Wayland and Kathleen Mariani, 12 West Daniel McIntosh and Julie Urbanich, 21 East Grand Karen and Nicole Graham, 6632 Linden John Klos and Patricia Valuseka, 6516 Winthrope Kevin Curtin, 2 West Chad and Rebekah Johnson, 231 East

Who’s New to Armour Hills

Armour Hills, as well as ATA, prohibits signs such as “home for sale,” “garage sale,” etc. to be placed on any of the islands in Armour Hills, the ATA right-of-way (area between Brookside Road and Wornall) and the planted entrances on the connect-ing streets between Wornall and Brookside Road.

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 Ar-mour Hills email man-ager send a message and to contact local vets, animal con-

trol and kcpetconnect.com.. Armour Hills email manager can be reached at armourhills@kc.rr.com. Please advise your realtor that signs placed in com-mon areas are only allowed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the days of an open house. If signs are not re-moved after this time, they will be discarded.

All other signs need to be placed on homeowners’ property.

Sign rules remain amid elections, sales

Page 5 August 2008

As the fall college football season arrives, these neighbors on Edge-vale Road seem to already be provoking each other — one with a purple Kansas State University flag (right) while the house on the left dons a crimson and blue University of Kansas flag.

Photo by Sadie Johnson

College colors

Keeping track of homeowners

If you plan to move away but re-tain ownership of your property in Armour Hills, our office needs to have your new address on record. As long as an owner holds title to

the property, they are responsible for homes association dues..

Please send updated addresses to: Homes Associations of the Coun-try Club District, 222 West Greg-ory Blvd. # 201, Kansas City, MO 64114.

Page 6 Armour Hills Clarion

Freedom ParadeFreedom Parade 20082008

It was another successful year for the 10th Annual Freedom Parade. With great weather and a large crowd, the Foo’s custard and homemade treats (provided by resi-dents) went fast. Balloon hats and magic were pro-vided by Eric Price with Magic at Hand.

Page 7 August 2008

Get Involved!

What would you like in your neighborhood? Who’s doing work for our board? Want reports from neighborhood committees? Come to a meeting or send a suggestion to the board. The tree program of the last few years es-tablished 240 trees, of which 20 didn’t make it. Please contact board member Andy Sny-der at andrewtsnyder@yahoo.com or 444-5417.

You can always get involved in what’s hap-pening in our neighborhood. Meetings are held at 7:30 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at the Country Club Congregational Church, 205 W. 65th St.

Check out the new Web site at armourhills.org.

Upcoming Board Meetings: August — No meeting September — 16th

October — 21st November — (Annual Meeting) 20th

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 the Country Club District 222 W. Gregory Blvd., #201 Kansas City, MO 64114 523-2440

The following items are acceptable for our curbside bins:

• Aluminum cans and other metal cans

• Plastic bottles with a neck (#1 & #2 ONLY, look for the symbols), such as water and soda bottles,

milk jugs and detergent bottles

• Office paper, junk mail, newspa-pers, phone books, catalogues and magazines. Cardboard (thick cor-rugated and thin cereal box-type)

Find out what’s NOT acceptable by emailing armourhills@kc.rr.com.

Blue bins: What’s a ‘go’, what’s a ‘no’

1815 N. Chouteau Trafficway

10301 Raytown Road

Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday for resi-dents to dispose of leaves, yard waste and brush.

* If you use plastic bags, you must

empty them and take them with you

* No duct tape or wire

* No grass clippings or trash

* Proof of residency — such as a driver's license or water bill — is re-quired.

KCMO leaf and brush drop-off sites