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- - - BREAKING NEWS - - -

Raytown School Superintendent 
to Address YMCA Closing

Raytown School Superintendent Dr. Allan Markley asks that you join him Thursday evening to discuss the closing next month 
of Raytown's YMCA.
 
Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 6:00pm
Raytown Schools Education & Conference Center
10750 Highway 350, Raytown, MO 64138

The Public is Invited to Attend

 

REPRINTED FROM THE KANSAS CITY STAR:  . . .  The three Y’s to be closed next month are the Independence Family Y, 14001 E. 32nd St.; the Richard C. Green Sr. Family Y on Missouri 350 in Raytown; and the Eighth Street Family Y in Kansas City, Kan. The closed facilities have a total of 2,400 members and have 11 full-time and 160 part-time employees. READ MORE

use this link: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/12/4114583/big-downtown-ymca-is-planned-but.html

REPRINTED FROM THE KANSAS CITY STAR:  . . .  Paula Oxler, YMCA spokeswoman, said the decision to shut down the facilities was not made quickly, but only after 24 months of research that included community focus groups and market demand analysis.

Government and school district officials in Raytown and Independence were included in the dialogue in recent weeks, Oxler said. READ MORE

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/12/4116633/ymca-closures-dismay-nearby-residents.html#storylink=cpy

use this link: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/12/4116633/ymca-closures-dismay-nearby-residents.html

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/12/4114583/big-downtown-ymca-is-planned-but.html#storylink=cpy

Walmart has Become Hot Political 
Issue in Local City Council Races BY GREG WALTERS

A homeowner on Blue Ridge Cutoff shares his feelings about a new Walmart Store planned for Raytown.

Go by Doughboy Donuts located in Woodson Shopping Center on 63rd Street and you are bound to hear conversations about a proposed Walmart Grocery Store in Downtown Raytown. Sitting on the counter is a stack of papers over half an inch thick of signatures of Raytowners opposed to the plan. Talk to candidates running for the City Council in the upcoming April 2nd Election and they will tell you the number one issue is, you guessed it,
Walmart.

Many Raytowners feel that City Hall has broken faith with them. Denials and pleas of ignorance by City Hall politicians of plans for a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Downtown Raytown have been proven to be false. 

That has fueled distrust of the leadership at Raytown City Hall.

Conceptual drawing of Walmart Store time-stamped February 8th. This same rendering was published in the Raytown Times. The time stamp was cropped from the picture 
published in the Raytown Times. 

The conceptual drawing shown above of a Walmart Neighborhood Market is clearly time stamped as received by City Hall on February 8th. Yet, for most of the month of February city officials have denied any knowledge of what type of retail operation is planned for the area known as the Green Space.

As one political observer opined to us this past weekend, "The lack of transparency from City Hall is appalling. It makes you wonder if the Board of Aldermen care more for the developers and Walmart than they do for the people they represent."

PAUL LIVIUS

The Paul Livius Report

Raytown Board of Aldermen Meeting – March 5, 2013

Vicki Turnbow told the Board this year’s Summer Fest will be held June 14-15.

Pam Clark and Phyllis Goforth reported this year’s “Egg-transava” will be held at the green space on March 30, starting at 10:00.  There will be a car and truck show, as well as a parade from City Hall to the Library.

In his communication to the city, Mayor Bower said Randy Battagler incorrectly reported in the Raytown Times that the city had sold the green space.  Mayor Bower said the green space is still owned by the city.  He also said the State of the City address will be given on March 13.

John Benson explained to the Board the Master Plan for the Downtown Streetscape Project.  The Streetscape Master Plan, which was recently completed, proposes vehicular, pedestrian, bicycle and aesthetic improvements to various streets.  The plan creates the vision for these street improvements which will be completed in phases over time as funding becomes available. City Staff has and will continue to pursue grants and other funding to pay for construction of these improvements.  For more information, or to see the Master Plan, go to http://www.raytown.mo.us/vertical/sites/%7B418C71C3-E397-4C87-B464-C498EC8900F9%7D/uploads/03-05-13_Web_Packet.pdf    

The Streetscape Project starts on page 4.

The City Administrator said the staff has begun a  review of development plans for the following projects: 

• Dunkin Donuts: City staff and staff from the Raytown Fire Protection District have reviewed the final site development plan for the proposed Dunkin Donuts restaurant that is proposed to be built at 8820 Highway 350. Staff met with the architect and engineer for the applicant and is awaiting submittal of a revised site development plan addressing staff’s review comments. An application for a variance to the 60 foot front yard setback along Highway 350 has also been submitted for this project and is scheduled to come before the Board of Zoning Adjustment on Thursday, March 21st at 6:00 p.m.

• Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market: As part of a submitted application proposing to change the CBD Design Standards Overlay District and the Town Square Overlay District to Planned Development District for property located in the 6200 block of Blue Ridge Blvd. on which the grocery store is proposed, city staff and staff from the Raytown Fire Protection District have received and begun review of the preliminary site development plan for this development. The specific date at which the rezoning application and preliminary site development plan will come before the Planning & Zoning Commission and Board of Aldermen has not yet been determined.

• Staff received and began the review of a site development plan for the NewZroom Café that is proposed to open in an existing building located at 6020 Blue Ridge Blvd. The site plan proposes construction of a parking lot, outdoor seating area, and other site improvements.

The Board approved a resolution approving a license agreement with the Raytown Area Chamber of Commerce for the Raytown Summer Fest.

The Board approved a resolution approving the purchase of ammunition from Gulf States Distributors.

The Board heard the first reading of an ordinance to repeal the current Alcoholic Beverage Code and replace the code with the State statutes.

Alderman White told the Board that in the past, the Board gave the City staff permission to pay the first quarter Police Pension Fund payment.  She asked the Board to give the staff permission to pay the second quarter Police Pension Fund payment.  The motion passed.

Meet and Greet Forum to be
Hosted by the League of Women Voters

Janet Emerson, Candidate for Alderman in Ward 3 dropped us a note informing us that she had been invited to a Candidate Meet and Greet Forum hosted by the League of Women Voters on Tuesday, March 26th from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. at Raytown City Hall.

We have not received any formal announcement from the League but did confirm that other candidates had been invited as well.

Events such as the scheduled forum are a good idea. It has been our observation that the public would be better served if the events were held further out than one week before the election. Notification to media outlets would probably help to bolster the number of attendees as well. 

Walmart Activist Complains 
of City Hall Foot Dragging
All Elisa Breitenbach wanted was a list of members of the Raytown Planning and Zoning Commission.

So, up to City Hall she went. 

City Clerk Teresa Henry told Mrs. Breitenbach to receive the lists, she would have to fill out a form in writing requesting the names. Mrs. Henry told Mrs. Breitenbach that she would call her when the list was ready to be picked up.

Undeterred, Breitenbach decided to take a stand and continued asking around City Hall for the information the City Clerk refused to give her.

She finally received the list from another employee at City Hall. To protect that employee from reprisals, Breitenbach asked that his/her name not be given out. 

The names of members of ALL public Boards and Commission are kept on file at Raytown City Hall. They are accessed by city personnel for social events, such a the Mayor's State of the City address, requests for information from organizations like the Raytown Chamber of Commerce, realtors, quasi-governmental agencies like MARC, the Truman Heartland Foundation, etc.

The bottom line is that those groups are not made to present a request in writing for the names.

So why is Mrs. Breitenbach asked to jump through so many hoops for such a simple request?

Any attempt to stonewall and hinder individuals from public information is a wart on our city's image. City Council members should take note of this abuse and see that such practices are discontinued.

City Clerk Henry may have been following procedures. But requiring an individual to make a second trip to City Hall to receive a simple list of public officials is over the top.

GREG WALTERS

OBSERVATIONS BY GREG WALTERS
It is always exciting when the public uses its power of free speech to let their elected officials know how they feel on a public issue.

What I find odd about the on-going debate over a proposed Downtown Walmart is that the discussion is so one sided.

I have yet to hear one person stand up at a public meeting and say, "I think putting a 24 hour Walmart Grocery Store in Downtown Raytown is a good idea."

Even on the blog portion of the Raytown Report, which has seen some pretty lively discussion this past month on the issue, has been devoid of comments from anyone in support of building a second Walmart outlet in Raytown.  On a page which guarantees anonymity by the writer, that is exceedingly rare.

Not one City Council member has spoken out on the issue. Part of that is because of a mis-guided policy at City Hall of not allowing members of the City Council to respond to comments and questions from the audience at City Council meetings.

The only exception has been Mayor Bower. Who, oddly enough, seems to be exempt from the veil of silence imposed on the other elected officials.

The practice makes it appear that the Mayor is speaking for the City Council. 

Given the denials, pleas of ignorance and misrepresentations coming from the Mayor's office this last month, that is a poor decision. 

The City Council should re-think a policy that makes them appear to be pawns of the Big Boss.

Will They Listen?
There will be at least three opportunities for the public to address their elected officials. One will be before the Planning and Zoning Commission. The other will be before the City Council when they finally vote on the issue whether or not to allow Walmart to build a grocery store in Downtown Raytown.

The people are speaking. The question is, will their representatives listen?  
 

FIT BOTTOMED GIRLS 
Run the Trolley Run With Us! BY JENN 
One of my favorite races in Kansas City is the Trolley Run. It’s a four-mile course that starts in my neighborhood and ends up down on the Plaza (which, sadly, has been all over the news). Besides being pretty and having a start line that’s within walking distance of my house (talk about convenient!), the course is pretty... Continue reading

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