RAYTOWN REPORT

I’ve been bouncing back and forth on whether or not to try this out. With the Missouri Primary Election just around the corner, I thought it would be interesting to conduct a poll of my fellow bloggers to see how it stands up to the actual results. Of course, there is no way to tell if anyone is voting more than once. Or, if they are jumping party lines – but it could prove to be at least as accurate as those polls that predicted Obama to thrash Hillary in New Jersey or the Nevada pollsters who failed to predict Ron Paul would finish second in the Silver State’s Republican Caucus. The poll is not scientific. But it could be fun. Since there are really two contests going on (and since it is MY poll and I get to make the rules) each participant is allowed to vote in both the Democratic and Republican primary. However, in fairness, I ask that you only vote one time per party. Remember, we are the honor system – so let’s be professional about it and may the best candidates win! Who...

A week ago Saturday the Kansas City Star ran a story in which Kansas City area suburbs were ranked. From any Raytowner’s point of view, the story was not welcome news. Our hometown received the lowest ranking in customer service and dissemination of information from city hall than any other suburb sampled. To underscore their point, the reporters for the story wrote “neither Mayor David Bower nor City Administrator Michael Miller responded to repeated email or telephone messages seeking comment for this article.” At last Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Aldermen the Mayor made comments regarding the survey. But those comments did not include any enlightenment as to why he failure to respond to the opportunity to speak on behalf of Raytown. Most people are not upset with the survey results. If the recent New Hampshire Primary taught us anything, it is that polls and surveys are often written in sand. The strangest of events can change the result. Just as Hillary Clinton’s spontaneou...

It is a phenomenon that has happens each year. The Raytown Recycling Center located at the Joe Herndon Vo-Tech Center on 350 Highway had to shut down early last weekend because there was not any room left for recyclables. The center, which is open only two weekends a month, was inundated with Christmas recyclables. That means that many people kept their recyclables through the holiday weekend (in other words, two weeks) rather than leaving the material for their trash hauler. “We made certain all of our containers were empty before opening for the weekend,” said Dave Frazier, Assistant Public Works Director for Raytown. “The cardboard, paper and aluminum/tin can containers filled up quickly. The recycled glass container was also nearly full. We simply ran out of room for the material being brought in.” If ever there was a spontaneous show of support for recycling in a community, this is it. Raytowners have spoken quietly and eloquently with their actions. This was no organized effo...

Three seats on the Raytown School Board are up for election this April 8th . As of this date, four candidates have filed. Three of the candidates are incumbents, Rick Moore, Cathy Mack and Terry Landers. The forth candidate to file is former Raytown School Board member Dean Bray. Potential candidates can file for the School Board at the Raytown School District Administration Building located at 6608 Raytown Road. The administration offices are open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Since the school board positions are elected at large, the three candidates that receive the most votes will be win the seats. Candidates must be registered voters living within the Raytown School District. There is no filing fee. Clarification . . . A regular contributor to this blog, Mr. Mark Siettmann, asked if funds set aside for storm water mitigation not used for that purpose could be used for other purposes, such as downtown redevelopment, etc. In response to his question I wr...