Lee's Summit Airport Upgrades Advance

Lee's Summit took another small step toward airport improvements Thursday when the City Council voted to pay consultants for tasks related to buying land.

The City Council revised its agreement with Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc., an engineering firm working on the airport design, to oversee acquisition and to hire consultant O.R. Colan Inc. for the project.

The firms will handle surveying, environmental field tests, appraisals, negotiations and other jobs necessary to prepare for buying land.

The engineering firm would get no more than $689,531 for work on buying up to 25 parcels of land. The city's share of the cost would be about $68,000, with the federal government covering the rest, Public Works Director Chuck Owsley said.

At this point, the city still hasn't committed to the controversial step of lengthening its north-south runway.