In April registered voters in Olathe will have a chance to decide whether or not the city's 1/8-cent Parks Sales Tax should be renewed for another 10 years.
According to the Early Spring 2023 issue of Olathe Link, the city's newsletter, the tax has raised $3.7 million on average annually. The tax provided funds for "25 improvement projects throughout the city, including large projects such as Lake Olathe and Lone Elm Parks, and repairs and refreshes at other parks" since it was renewed in 2014. It also has made possible the construction of five miles of trails for Meadow Lane Trail, Cedar Creek Trail and Boulder Creek Trail, the newsletter went on to report.
The tax was first approved by voters in 1999 and first renewed for 10 years in 2004. It is scheduled to expire March 31, 2025, unless voters act to renew it next month.
In a story from the Olathe Reporter that club member Howard Cripe, N0AZ, shared with me in late January, some of the city's long-range plans in the area of Parks and Recreation were detailed by Chief Information Officer and Quality of Life Division leader Mike Sirna. Those plans included "refreshes" at Ensor Park and Museum, Two Trails Park and the "smaller parks around North Walnut, Arapaho, Frontier, Scarborough and Mahaffie Pond Park," the creation of a new 15- to 20-acre community park and a "multipurpose recreational facility," and improvements to Cedar Lake Park and Frisco Lake Park, plans that could conceivably "take flight," if you will, if the tax is renewed.
Olathe acquired Ensor Park and Museum in 2006, two years after the eight-acre site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The city also will be asking voters to consider the proposed extension of the 3/8-cent Street Maintenance Sales Tax, which was first approved in 2013. It is scheduled to expire March 31, 2024.
According to Olathe Link, mail-in ballots are to be mailed to registered voters on April 5 and must be received by the Johnson County Election Office before noon on April 25.