Latest news with #MikeZeller
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Rock Island Bridge will spur waterfront activity on the Kaw, developers say
A long-awaited entertainment center that will sit 40 feet over the Kaw on a former railroad line should finally come to fruition this fall. Mike Zeller, chief executive officer of Flying Truss and the mastermind behind the Rock Island Bridge, told The Star last week that his multi-purpose, two-level project will be open to the public once it wraps up ongoing construction on the bridge and after the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, complete accessible ramps and stairs to get people to the bridge. Zeller and government officials have pitched the project, which has seen a few delays since its initially promised 2023 completion, as an entertainment venue with seating for shows, a bar and restaurant, restrooms and a connection between Missouri's West Bottoms and Kansas City, Kansas. As the project has progressed, its partners have seen the bridge as an opportunity to open the slower-moving waters of the Kansas River up for recreational use. 'What began as an infrastructure renewal project has grown into a broader, river-activation effort that new city signage calls the Kansas Waterfront,' Zeller wrote in an email to The Star. 'With water speeds at just about one-third of the Missouri River's, the Kansas, or Kaw, as it's known locally, is ideal for paddle craft.' The project surpassed a few key hurdles recently. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month finished raising levees as part of a 13-mile-long levee-raising initiative, Zeller said. The Unified Government has conducted site work and construction to widen the levee to create a nearby overlook park adjacent to the bridge. The government will next extend Wyandotte County area trailheads to lead to the bridge and work on the ramp and staircase access, Zeller said. The Unified Government expects the ramps and staircase work to be completed in September. Wyandotte County's economic development committee last month signed off on extending its development agreement for the project through March 2026. Ahead of the unanimous vote, commissioners Bill Burns and Tom Burroughs expressed their support for the project. Burns, who represents District 2 and the Armourdale neighborhood, said he's been out to the site and thinks it will be a safe and fantastic addition to the community. 'It'll be a great thing to have that's not in western Wyandotte County, it'll be down here,' Burns said at the time. Burroughs, the at-large District 2 commissioner, said the project will set the county's eastern side up for more economic development opportunities. 'The eastern part of our community has been crying out for economic development,' he said. Zip KC, a recreational zip line company based in Bonner Springs, told The Star that when it heard about Zeller's project, it wanted to bring other assets to the area that would complement the project and bring energy to the waterway. That's why owners Dan Scott and Brad McDonald purchased two former ferry boats from Galveston, Texas, that they plan to dock near the bridge. Scott told The Star last week that he and McDonald envision a floating bar and lounge where people can sit and sip on a warm afternoon or host private events. The two are still drafting a development agreement that they plan to bring to the Unified Government later this year. In the meantime, the riverboats are dry-docked at an area recycling yard. McDonald and Scott also want to rent out paddle boards, kayaks and other slower-moving craft for people to take out on the water. 'We really want to help be an anchor for that type of activity,' Scott said. And although they're still working to bring their end of the project to reality, Scott said he and McDonald are 'really excited to see Mike be able to pull this bridge off.'
BBC News
11-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Coniston GP search sees Lake District village produce video advert
A rural village "at risk of losing" its GP has got creative in a bid to recruit a new current postholder is due to retire this summer, with a replacement yet to be parish council teamed up with local film-makers and residents to produce a social media campaign to entice a new doctor to the Lake District village, highlighting its natural beauty, pubs, schools and friendly Tracy Coward said: "A GP is at the heart of any community, so everyone I asked to get involved was really keen." A similar approach worked when the village was looking for a headteacher for its secondary school, she said."When we knew we were at risk of losing our GP when our current doctor retires at the end of July, we thought 'we've got to get creative' and we thought to target social media." The video has been shared more than 1,000 times from the council's Facebook page alone - more than the number of people living in Coniston, which stood at 845 at the latest on BBC Radio Cumbria's Mike Zeller at Breakfast, Coward said: "We've got a really strong, vibrant community, but that takes hard work and we all pitch in."Dr Katharina Frey and Dr Ahmed Abbas, who run Coniston Village Surgery at Wraysdale House, announced they would hand back their contract to the NHS from 1 practice said this was due to Dr Frey's retirement and it being unable to recruit a new partner. 'Unsuitable building' A petition has also been launched by Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron, urging the NHS to find a new GP provider for the Cumbrian village, the Local Democracy Reporting Service Liberal Democrat MP has also written to the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), calling on the body to actively seek a replacement. Writing to the ICB chairman Kevin Lavery, Farron said Coniston's full-time population was "beginning to increase again"."It would be a tragedy if - after 170 years of continuous provision of a GP service in the village - Coniston was to lose their GP on our watch," he Tinson, director of primary and community commissioning at the board, said the current building housing the GP surgery was not fit for purpose and options included finding a new provider to run the practice or asking residents to register added: "The current Coniston Village Surgery building is not owned by the NHS and while it has housed GP services in the area for a number of years, it does not meet the requirements we would prefer to use for modern healthcare settings." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
