KCTV 5Busy road, Rosedale obesity has group on a mission

The busy Mission Road has one neighborhood group lobbying for change in an effort to combat childhood obesity.

The road separates the Rosedale neighborhood in KCK from the neighborhood park. Without a community center, activists like Devore and Heidi Holliday say the park is the only avenue for physical activity.

As a result, the KC Healthy Kids Initiative is seeking changes after a study showed more than half of Rosedale's children are obese.

"There's a lack of sidewalks here in Rosedale and our main concern is the one over here on Mission Road that gives access to the largest park in Rosedale which is Rosedale Park," said Erika Devore, a KC Healthy Kids representative.

Holliday has held her breath as she has watched children dash across the thoroughfare.

"It's scary. I also see parents pushing strollers up and down the side of Mission Road because there isn't a sidewalk to go on," Holliday said.

Ashley Claypool lives across Mission from the park but she chooses to drive her kids to the park.

"You can't walk across the street," Claypool said. "The street is too busy to walk across so you usually really have to drive over there. I have three small kids so you can't walk across that street with three kids."

KCK engineers are working on design concepts but there are some challenges.  Mission Road serves as an off-ramp for Interstate 35 causing high-speed traffic to filter into the neighborhood. It's also a steep road. Houses along Mission Road were built close to the street leaving little room for sidewalks.

It could take several years before any changes are implemented.

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