RAYTOWN REPORT

by Greg Walters Regular readers will remember a story we ran last Spring about Frank Potter and his neighbors on 84th Street in Raytown. Their back yards and adjoining woods were the site of a sanitary sewer renovation project built by the city in their neighborhood. The result of the new sewer construction is most accurately described by the term “scorched earth”. Potter was told by representatives from City Hall that upon completion of the project the property would be returned to its original condition. Trees were cut down and ground into mulch which was then spread over the construction area. The work crews then took pulverized rock mined from under four lanes of Raytown Road and graded it over the mulch. What was once an idyllic wooded glen is now a wasteland of rock and mulch.Potter contacted the Department of Natural Resources and was told the city did not have a current Land Disturbance Permit for the project as required by state law. The DNR visited the site and informed c...

RAYTOWN COMMUNITY PLANNING PRIORITIES Next Tuesday, October 27th , from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Raytown City Hall (10000 East 59th Street) the Raytown Board of Aldermen is conducting a public hearing to review and provide input on the draft City of Raytown Community Planning Priorities Study . A draft copy of the study can be obtained on the city's website at http://www.raytown.mo.us/ or by contacting Mr. John Benson , Senior Planner for the City of Raytown at 737-6075 . This is the Raytown community's opportunity to provide feedback on development and reinvestment priorities for the future. The meeting time is not very convenient for most working individuals, but it is chance for the public to be heard. Busy Intersections Are No Place for Children by Greg Walters Raytown has a unique soliciting ordinance that requires individuals begging for change on street corners to obtain a license to do so. The license does not cost anything. The law also requires that those sol...

by Greg Walters . . . a pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition. Potemkin villages were purportedly fake settlements erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigory Potyomkin to fool Empress Catherine II on tours along the Volga River where she witnessed a happy and thriving bourgeoisie living in clean and prosperous villages. But this was all a show to cover disease, poverty, and misery that lay just behind the facade that had been erected for her benefit. This is the origin of the phrase Potemkin Village, a place where a politically generated appearance covers a less impressive underside. The term came to mind as I drove past the Raytown Road/Gregory Boulevard construction site of Raytown’s newest “Gateway Intersection”. Just south of that construction site is another at 350 Highway and Raytown Road where a new traffic island is slowly taking shape. No doubt the new intersection will be i...

Last week, in response to complaints that the Raytown Report is “too negative”, we offered our page to anyone wishing to write a “positive” story for our weekly publication. Former Raytown Alderman Sandy Hartwell has stepped up to the challenge. Her analysis of the present and her look back on how things can work in Raytown is unique and interesting. Mrs. Hartwell served on the Raytown Board of Aldermen from 2003 to 2007. We hope you enjoy her report as much as we did. Editors Raytown Report Proactive Code Enforcement Needed by Sandy Hartwell On September 17th, 2009 I and three individuals from other parts of Raytown, met with Beth Lynn, the Director of Community Development for the City of Raytown. The meeting was called because of obvious city code violations in our neighborhoods. Before that meeting I went out with another person and in 2.5 hours we were able to list 114 code violations in just two precincts of Raytown. I did this to make a point. If I can do it why is it that t...