Jan 26, 2026

SHAWNEE CITY COUNCIL MEETING

January 26, 2026

You can stream the full City Council meeting at the link below! If you don't have time to watch, here's my quick recap. 

Tonight’s council meeting was brief with only a few routine administrative items. One member of the public spoke during Business from the Floor with concerns about ICE’s attacks and constitutional overreach and asked what local law enforcement is doing to protect residents. Councilmember Aldridge shared these concerns during Misc. Council Items at the end of the meeting.

The most substantive item on the agenda was an extension of the redevelopment agreement for the Westbrooke North shopping center at 75th and Quivira. The developer went over the progress they’ve made including restoring the fountain and retention pond, new windows and awnings, and a lot of interior work in the grocery store space. The governing body granted their request for an extension to have an occupancy license for the Shawnee Fresh Market grocery store by the end of July. There wasn’t much discussion, but the councilmembers were excited to finally have a neighborhood grocery store in that space. 

Additionally, the Council considered the following:

• Passed consent agenda (unanimous)

• Tabled discussion of approving the concrete contract for the Midland Drive Improvement Project (unanimous)

• Accepted CARS funding for the Midland Drive project and KDOT funding for the Johnson Drive and Barker project (unanimous)

• Approved design-build contract for the Shawnee Community Services project (unanimous)

• Ratified semimonthly claims (unanimous)

During Council Committee, the council discussed their part of the county’s transit program for the World Cup. There will be one stop in downtown Shawnee serving the airport, FanFest near the Liberty Memorial, and the stadium on match days. There is outside funding for a lot of this, but Shawnee is asked to contribute $52,000 to the program (some of which will be reimbursed with fares collected during operation.) Staff suggested using Transient Guest Tax (TGT) funds to cover it and possibly increasing the TGT tax to bring it into line with surrounding communities. Councilmember Knappen opposed raising the transient guest tax because he felt it was too soon to raise it again after it was last raised in 2020. The rest of the council seemed open to raising it either temporarily or permanently, seeing the World Cup as an opportunity to bring in more revenue for the city without it coming from Shawnee residents. The council will discuss approving the transit plan and increasing the TGT on their next agenda. 

Public Works Director Kevin Manning also gave a presentation on the city’s sidewalk program. We have around 240 miles of sidewalks in Shawnee. The areas that tend to lack sidewalks are the older parts of Shawnee, i.e. the eastern side/northeastern quadrant and 2-4 miles of sidewalk are added/replaced each year as part of the Mill & Overlay program. Councilmembers Persson and Murphy expressed the need for sidewalk connectivity to serve pedestrians in Shawnee.

Live Stream Meeting Link: 

https://cityofshawnee.civicweb.net/document/316189/?splitscreen=true&media=true 

Recap by: Alex Welch Blattner