KSHB 41 News anchor Taylor Hemness has filed several reports on the lily pad problem at Tarsney Lake. You can contact Taylor by email.
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At our Let's Talk event last August in Grain Valley, a viewer asked me to visit Tarsney Lake to see its lily pad problem firsthand.
After I did so, I reached out to Jackson County to get answers about what was possible.
In January, I visited the lake again with Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota, who promised residents the county would get to work on the issue.
On Tuesday, I was there once again as the process finally started.
The county awarded a contract to Aquatic Control, based out of Truesdale, Missouri, to monitor and treat the lake this year, as well as monitor it again in 2027.
The first step in that process was Aquatic Control's Randy Kramer actually getting out on a boat to collect samples of the different vegetation that’s beginning to crowd the lake.
Later this summer, after the flowers have bloomed, Kramer will chemically destroy those plants.
“Probably early July will be our first treatment,” Kramer said. “Then, we'll come back about four weeks later. You have to kill the roots, or else they just sprout right back. That's what the products do."
The lake won’t look pretty once that treatment starts.
"It will look horrible, 'cause all the plants are dying,” Kramer said. “What's green now is going to be black and brown."
The dead plants will then sink to the bottom of the lake.
Before he hit the water, he answered residents’ questions about the chemicals he'll eventually use and what the treatment plan entails.
He confirmed that boating, fishing and even swimming will be totally safe during the chemical treatment process.
I talked to those neighbors, too.
"I thought that we were going to start probably in April, and that in May we could enjoy it," Jonne Santoli told me. “It's nice to have somebody come out. But it's not done, and we've had how many meetings? Years and years of meetings. Repetitive, and so you get frustrated."
Jackson County is committing thousands of dollars this year and again in 2027. Kramer says the hope is that the chemicals kill all the lily pads.
Kill but not remove.
Jackson County got bids from four companies, and only one included plans to kill and remove all the vegetation. But that's a lot more expensive.
READ MORE | Jackson County's Request for Proposal for Tarsney Lake vegetation control
"We need to find out if they die. And it's at the bottom of the lake, and it's bad, and we need to come in there later next year and dredge it,” LeVota said. “But right now, my biggest responsibility, if I'm not sitting in this chair, [is making sure] the next person here understands that Tarsney Lake is a Jackson County issue."
I've stayed in touch with Debora Corn, Tarsney Lakes Citizens Inc. president, for almost a year now. As far as she's concerned, LeVota is keeping the promise he made to her neighborhood.
"In the world we live in, and the money we have to work with, we should be thankful that we got something done after 25 years,” Corn said. “So I'm thankful for that. Promises made, promises kept."
Corn told me that just seeing Kramer out on Tarsney Lake was progress, stressing it’s the first time in decades that someone paid by the county has examined the lake.
But the people who live around the lake are still at least a few months away from knowing if the plan the county chose to pursue was the right one.
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