RAYTOWN REPORT

A NOTE TO MY READERS: Last week’s editorial on Hindsight will be continued in a future story on this page. This past week I received a number of calls from constituents. At City Hall we call these types of calls “Requests for Service. I thought you would find them interesting. First was a call from an old friend. He asked me to turn on the Raytown Government Channel 7 – I did so, and found that the radio station city hall re-broadcasts over the channel was not tuned in properly. The result was an irritating static that made the viewer either turn the volume down or switch to another channel. (I checked this evening -- it appears the problem has been corrected) Another caller complained about an inoperable truck in front of her neighbor’s house. The truck, she said, had been there for six months. It had out of date license plates, a flat tire and did not run. She told me the vehicle had been turned in to the city’s code department, the police, but to no avail. There was a time i...

After reading the past few week’s postings by the active members of this blog it is apparent the time come to speak out on some of the issues that have spawned much of what is happening in Raytown today -- Both the good and the bad of the past eight years. It was approximately eight years ago that Curt Wenson came on the scene at Raytown City Hall. Wenson was hired as City Administrator just shy of the one year mark of Mayor Sue Frank’s first year in office. It was the unanimous decision of the Board to hire Wenson. A little known fact is that his application actually came to the Board after the deadline for applicants had passed. It was on the insistence of Greg Walters that his application be considered. When Wenson began his run as City Administrator it appeared that his administration would be one of reform. He brought with him a new city attorney (Joanne Graham) and a new Public Works Director (Beau Groceman). There were also other changes. A few people were “let go” – and ther...

Two years ago voters issued a mandate to form a recycling commission to study ways to improve recycling efforts in Raytown. The question was voted on as a “pull-out” issue in the last City Charter Election. The charter failed, but the voters overwhelmingly approved the formation of a Recycling Commission. Ward 1 Alderman Greg Walters asked Mayor Sue Frank to form the Commission on at least two public meetings of the Board of Aldermen. Frank refused to form the Commission. Fortunately, Mayor David Bower has decided to take a more proactive approach in tackling the recycling issue in Raytown. He teamed up with Walters to name the members of the Commission and made the appointments official in early September. The six members are an interesting mix of known Democrats, Republicans and Independents. The members named to the Committee are: Diane Krizek, Mark Siettmann, Ken Fleischmann, Norma Storms, Pat Ertz and Greg Walters. Ertz will serve as liaison to the Board of Alderman. The Mayor ...

I have been reading over the different postings of the last two weeks. Many interesting comments, some insightful and some are down right nasty. The most important observation I can make is that the number of participants is growing. Keep in mind that there are many who read but do not comment on the many posts on this blog. I can assure you those numbers are growing. So, if you are sharing your thoughts, the audience is greater than just those who are corresponding via the blog. A few personal observations: To the person who believes that I am posting comments anonymously. Not so! That is my picture on the upper left corner of this page. I am not ashamed to plainly state what I have to say publicly. If that were not the case, I would have left any identification of my own responsibility for the Raytown Report. The Raytown Report’s purpose is very simple. To give those who wish, a forum in which to speak out. I personally know many of those who have shared their thoughts on this pa...

Have you ever wondered where you water comes from? By this I mean who is supplying the water utility companies in Raytown for the product they mark up and re-sell to you. If you do not know, please read on. Raytown is served by two water utilities. The Raytown Water Company serves the northern section of the city. It buys its water from Kansas City. It is not part of this story. The southern section of the city is supplied by Public Water Supply Disrtrict No. 2. That utility buys its water from Independence and Kansas City. Sources from Independence, Missouri tell me that a recent audit has shown that the D-2 District has been overcharged for the water it purchases from the Independence utility. No doubt they will try to re-coup the money from the over-payments. If they are successful the money should be passed back to the Raytown ratepayers who carried the financial burden of paying the rates. Whether or not that will come to pass is yet to be seen. If ever there was a chance for...