I am Thankful for . . .
Thanksgiving Day may be behind us, but events, local and far away, on this 2008 version of our Thanksgiving Holiday reminded me of how much we have to be thankful for in Raytown and as Americans.
The events in Mumbai, India reminded me of how thankful I am for living in a country where political differences are not settled at the end of a gun.
I am thankful for living in a country where freedom of speech is more than just a thought, but a practice.
I am thankful that Raytown’s major eyesore, the old First Baptist Church in Downtown Raytown, will soon be an image of the past.
I am thankful for the two young men who have taken the bold step of trying to breath life back into the Raytown Post. Print media is the barometer by which the health of a community can be gauged. A community without a local newspaper to bind it together is less than healthy.
I am thankful for living in a community where two of our local high school teams have excelled in the area of sports. Recognition is deserved for the O’Hara High School Girls Volleyball Team, who earned the title of Missouri State Champions earlier this fall.
This makes the third year in a row the O’Hara Girls Volleyball Team has captured the State Championship – very impressive!!!
And how about those Raytown South Cardinals! They made it all the way to big show. They played like the champions they are only to see fate take the game away from them in the last four seconds of play.
The Raytown South Cardinals Football team should be proud of their season and the record-breaking advance to the Missouri State final.
Finally, I am thankful for the regular participants of this blog. It is there activism and interest in the community that is slowly but surely nudging our city government to be more responsive and accountable. Just as the light of day can expose the shadows of night be nothing more than the lack light – nothing cures a community’s ills as much as the free flow of information.
Please remain active. You are making a difference.
Recall? Impeachment!!!
From time to time there have been calls of for recall and impeachment on this blog. Since Raytown is a fourth class city, both options are a hard way to reach that end.
If you are sincere about your desire to change how your local government is run, you should consider filing for public office. The filing period for five of the ten seats on the Board of Aldermen, the Municipal Judge and the Chief of Police opens on December 16, 2008 and closes on January 20, 2009.
Requirements are that you be a registered voter, a resident of Raytown and not have a criminal (felony) record in the State of Missouri.
Comments
I would like to see more than one person run for Judge. The problem is any good attorney can make much more than the judge's salary! That office definately needs a replacement.
Andy Whiteman
However, I don't believe things will ever change in Raytown.
Let's say you could remove some of the elected officials,
who would you replace them with? More of the same?
I don't think these people are bad people. I just think they're
in over their heads when it comes to sorting out the BS
thrown at them from developers, big corporations and lawyers.
It would have been better if they would have ask some simple
questions such as how much will it cost the taxpayers in the long
run, and what would all this do to our town?
As much as I disapprove of what and how these elected officials
do things, I doubt it will get much better until someone with a
business background runs for office.
I feel it's a shame that our elected officials chose not to visit the
people and businesses in their wards. Nobody expects them to
know everything there is to know about everything. A simple "what
do you think about this or that?" might have made them look a
little harder into some of the decisions they have made.
Let's face it, it couldn't make them look any worse could it?
By the way I have heard there is a well known grocery store
in town that may close after the first of the year. I think it is
only the first in a long line of businesses going away.
I really question, what professional would donate his/her time for only $400 per month? They make that much in 2 hours!
Andy Whiteman
The city had a tree specialist from the state come and look at the trees. The ones that were deemed worthy of saving have been marked by the city.
An interesting footnote . . . one of the trees is estimated to be over 150 years old.
To paraphrase Joyce Kilmer, "blogs are written by fools like me, but only God can make a tree."
want to run for office? I believe a professional person that cares
for Raytown and would like to see better things happen should
try it.
Do I think it will happen absolutely not. So the next question is
what do we do now?
I say we find people to run as true representatives for the people.
People that at the very least, are not afraid to talk to, and listen to their constituents. If we can't find "professionals" find people that
will talk to professionals in the field that is being discussed.
I don't mean a study or a survey, I mean an elected official that will get up off his or her backside and go out and ask questions!
However, we shouldn't expect them to listen to any one person but,
we should expect a little common sense to do the right thing.
For far too long it's been an easy ride for our elected officials.
They haven't had to think for themselves. They just listen to lawyers and administrators and do what they are told. It's time they listen to the people of Raytown and do what's right for them for a change.
Again do I think this will happen...............
Who says they have any kind of corner on the intelligence market anyway?
Andy Whiteman
Our kids played like nothing in their lives could ever be more important; to some, maybe it will prove to be, and their thoughts will often drift to 4 hours that changed them forever...fantastic plays, humbling mistakes, heartbreaking calls by the referees. The only detail worth mentioning, and will be forever etched in the hearts and minds of the players and their fans, is 4 seconds. Four very short seconds that seemed like a lifetime.
Score 33 to 34...one last play with 4 seconds on the clock...quarterback looking desperately for a connection...ball flys, arches, caught. Four seconds to mind-blowing glory for one team, 4 seconds to disbelief and unparalled despair for the other.
I felt every second.
Raytown lighting ceremony. It was a great idea and I hope it
grows into something big in the years to come.
There were over thirty four businesses and services that participated.
Gibbens, Drake, Scott provided money to purchase the lights
that were given to merchants along the downtown route.
The Raytown Main Street organization, The Raytown Chamber and
Gobbens, Drake, Scott Engineering along with all who participated
have shown me that Raytown is not dead yet. There is still hope that
the town we all care deeply for, has a lot of good people trying to
make it better.
I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you.
I was unable to attend the lighting ceremony but drove through about 8:00 p.m. last night.
It is an impressive display of people stepping forward and taking charge. I am also impressed that it was done with minimal participation by city hall -- aside from the city's display at the vest pocket park at 63rd and Raytown Road.
Good job to all involved!
Somebody should check out Rudolph at the little park -- his legs light up, his head lights up, but his body does not night.
Maybe they don't know about this at city hall. I hope they fix it. Makes the scene look trashy.
downtown area. Over thirty four were listed and I know some
businesses chose not to participate, for whatever reason.
The lights were given to all that wanted them. The only thing the
building owners were required to do was to install them.
They even gave my business lights, although they were too long
for my building, so I gave them back and bought some myself.
To those who did not participate, all I can say is you missed the
wonderful feeling of contributing to a cause. The feeling of belonging.
This is a feeling none of us has had in over ten years.
Probably because the city had minimal participation. It seems every
time something good tries to happen in Raytown, someone at City Hall
puts a stop to it.
In fact I heard that there were volunteers willing to install lights at the Raytown
Plaza, even the existing stores said they could plug into their outlets,
but the city said no.
But that didn't put a damper on the rest of us.
I am surprised however, that the city didn't come around and make everybody
apply for a permit. As you know in this town you almost have to ask
permission to use the restroom.
But, I don't want to turn this good feeling and good deeds into a complaint.
I was proud to be apart of this and hope next year we are all still here and
can do even more.
Thats one man's opinion.
Andy Whiteman
Mayor Bower announced the lighting at the Board of Alderman's meeting. In this Fascist Fief of Raytown that is public notice expecially since everyone is expected to pay for cable TV so the can watch. My point: I have complained for over 2 years that there is little or NO PUBLIC NOTICE.
I agree there should have been advertising, but I don't know what the budget was like. If there was any advertising, it was not obvious to me.
The ON AIR TV stations have their weather person available for the Christmas lighting in various cities around the area. This is FREE advertising. Maybe the problem was that it was at 6:30 and not 5:58 or 6:17 so it could be on TV. Even 6:26 may bave worked! Why didn't someone invite the TV stations?
Maybe now is the time to start planning for next year!
Andy Whiteman
One does not need permission from the city to decorate for christmas! And I sure would not want the Chamber of Commerce involved with it either, look at what happened with Raytown Roundup Days and the Parade, and the demise thereof. It is the fault of inept leadership at the Chamber, and at City Hall, that this city is facing a dismal future!
What is happening with the Paper? Is the online paper gone forever?
What happen to Dennis Rich?
And the Raytown Post is a subscription only paper. They do not deliver to everyone for free like they used to.
And not everyone can afford cable TV so if you do not have cable, you do not get the City Government Channel that so many up at City hall take for granted that everyone must get.
The City newsletter is a joke.
I do not always drive through downtown because of traffic and traffic lights so I did not see any banners or flyers either. So it was not widely publicised like you say that it was.
Even if I had known about it I probably would not have attended anyway, however, it sounds like it is a nice event as long as the Chamber and the City both keep their noses out of the event.
I think the idea was to get the attraction of the whole metro to attrack business. What a flop with no advertising. Even free PSAs would have worked. CH 4 shows events Friday at the end of the 5PM hour but I don't watch due to obnoxious music and find Nightly Business Report to be of more interest.
Some of the less than smart people at City Hall think CH 7 constitutes PUBLIC NOTICE. I don't waste money on cable mainly because all that I want is on free TV. In this economy how many waste money on cable?
It is very time consuming to keep a web site updated. (I have 3.) Since the Post hopes to make a profit, maybe it is not to their benefit to not update the site enorder to sell subscriptions. The previous owner wrote that his papers went out of business in another state because of giving the paper away free on the web losing subscriptions. I prefer the paper in my grubby hands but will read out of town papers on line. Truthfully I don't check www.theraytownpost.com unless there is breaking news.
Andy Whiteman
Yes, it was on channel 9 news at 10:00pm.
The chamber was involved but the Main Street organization
and a few businesses got the ball rolling for the rest of us.
The lighting was a good thing for the downtown.
We should consider the local paper as a new paper.
It will take time for them to make it the way the new owners want
it to be.
I can see why some think this is just a complaint post.
You can't make everybody happy but it's the gutless Anonymous
writers that stir up things and take cheap shots at any and
everything that upset me.
As to the Anon comment about little advertising in the Post, that can be said about all newspapers. I realized that there are very few classifieds in the Red Star. I then noticed that the Alamogordo News and the El Paso papers also had fewer classifieds than I expected. Could the economy be responsible for this? If Anon is referring to business advertising the same applies. Someone commented that the Post should be free. Free doesn't mean that it is read. All it means is that a driveway is littered and it may or may not lay on the ground for weeks. I assume subscribers read the paper.
Andy Whiteman
As to the Anon comment about little advertising in the Post, that can be said about all newspapers. I realized that there are very few classifieds in the Red Star. I then noticed that the Alamogordo News and the El Paso papers also had fewer classifieds than I expected. Could the economy be responsible for this? If Anon is referring to business advertising the same applies. Someone commented that the Post should be free. Free doesn't mean that it is read. All it means is that a driveway is littered and it may or may not lay on the ground for weeks. I assume subscribers read the paper.
Andy Whiteman
And some of us go to bed before 10pm and do not see the news after that, so if it was on(about Raytowns Lighting Ceremony) , I did not see it. Sorry!