The Mayor and five members of the Raytown Board of Aldermen (Schlapia, Hamilton, Riehle, Creamer, Ertz) have sponsored a bill to replace the city’s logo with a new design. Most people will not get too excited about that event one way or another. But the way they are going about it – and what they have designed to replace the black smith pounding an anvil with his hammer leaves a lot to be desired. To be fair, the readers should know that I am partial on this debate. I like the little guy with the hammer logo. It speaks to a small part of history in Raytown that harkens back to the days of the Santa Fe Trail and a blacksmith shop owned by a man named William Ray. The location of that shop is commemorated by a plaque located at 63rd Street and Old Raytown Road, the geographic center of what is now Downtown Raytown. It is also at the center of the city when it was first incorporated. (Raytown annexed additional land in later years to reach its current size) True, the logo is old fashion...
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It was by far the most educational piece of information
I have read in a long time. It used both logic and facts to
point out flaws in the way this city is being run.
I'm not against anybody making money or getting a raise
but, how about the taxpayers getting a little something for
their tax dollars. So far all we have seen is big corporations
getting the breaks and the taxpayers footing the bill.
It's time for a cleaning out of the council and elect aldermen
that will work for the taxpayers for a change. For far too long
it's been one for taxpayers and nine against. Tuesday is a chance
for the taxpayers to express how they feel. Please talk to your neighbors and see if they will get out to vote.
In answer to your question about the $275,000 set aside in the budget for economic development (from last week's posts).
The item was approved by the BOA by a 7 to 3 vote.
However, the item had no line items or suggestions of how it was to be used. The Board will vote on that issue at another time.
So the money is in place to be spent -- but it is not spent until the Board approves the expenditure.
The lack of a description was one of the main reasons that two member of the Board voted against approving the budget last October.
I would encourage the readers of this blog from Ward 2 to visit www.hopeforraytown.blogspot.com
Justin Tomac outlines his agenda if elected to office. Though I am a Ward 5 resident, I would encourage the Ward 2 visitors of this blog to consider Mr. Tomac's message if you are still unsettled on a candidate.
I believe in having a backup for everything. So I have a laptop if my PC goes down. Isn't as nice as a PC but is also good for travelling which I rarely do.
Everyone please remember to VOTE tomorrow. Vote for whomever or whatever you feel is right. We need a large turnout. I hate the local elections with minimal turnout. IT IS BOTH YOUR RIGHT YOUR DUTY TO VOTE! EXCERCISE YOUR RIGH TO VOTE!
Andy Whiteman
and the time is Pacfic Time. I assume either the server is in the west coast or Arizona which does not observe daylight time.
Please remember to VOTE!
Andy Whiteman
I read the flyer and was very impressed with it.
I was checking out the Raytown City homepage a week ago and ran across the "data" that was referenced in the Post articles. (www.raytown.mo.us - go to bottom middle) It has been my experience working with this type of data that it is accurate but is only telling part of the story.
For Example, lets take the hourly call volume, notice the spike from 1800 to 2200, what typically happens during this time? People come home, find break-ins, domestic disputes, traffic accidents, etc. A basic question to be asked here is, "what is the breakout by type during each hour e.g. domestic dispute, accident, EMS, etc.?". This leads to other questions which may point to alternate solutions....as we all know Data is good, but if it tells you nothing then it is just data & not information.
Other things that jump out from the presentation is that if we are to receive 6 officers with a total spend of $366,000, what is the avg salary of these officers? Initial blush would say $366k/6 = $61k. A question to ask is if this is a fully burdened (i.e. health, retirement, etc.) included or is this just their salary? If it is a truly fully burdened cost (in this model use 1.3 factor), the avg salary would be $46,925. If these assumptions play out, the question would be what type of raise are we giving these officers yearly or will that be another tax down the road?
But I guess the above questions are all for naught because tomorrow will the fate be decided.
Get out & Vote!
JWDT
As for break ins, domestic disputes, etc., I can't believe anyone would think of handing it off to the neighborhood watch. The neighborhood watch was designed to spot and report "in progress" type crimes. Neighborhood watch can't investigate a break in. A domestic dispute is the most dangerous call a police person will respond to. It is idiotic and dangerous to expect neighborhood watch to handle a domestic. It takes professionals.
Andy Whiteman
It seems our city issues will be decided by a few!
Before you complain, ask yourself if you have voted.
Andy Whiteman
It wasn't my intention to imply that neighborhood watches take domestic disputes or hanlde investigations. I will disagree with your comment that all a neighborhood watch should do is to monitor for 'in-progress' type crimes. This is what your neighbors should be doing as well as the neighborhood watch. The Watch Group shouldn't be just an additional set of eyes during the evening hours, but play a key role in the neighborhood by promoting neighborhood functions and involvement as well.
Also, if the neighborhood watch has the training why wouldn't they be able to be the 1st responders while the police are enroute for "some" of the less risky types of calls? In my opinion this is part of the reason governments are becoming large (requiring most of what we earn), because no one wants to look at the alternatives, instead they want to pass the buck.
Poor voter turnout has always been a curse in this town.
For the last ten years or so special groups have been the only deciding
factor in Raytown's elections. Until a larger group of people that want
a change in the way things are done, nothing will change.
Three new faces, I don't think, will be enough to make a difference in the
way this city is run. Even if they were all for the people, it would still be three
against seven. So what do we say every two years? Better luck next time,
it's not the end of the world.
Thank you for your continued service to the city. Once things cool down from the election and you get your life back, it would be interesting to hear your plans for the near future. I believe I speak the obvious when I say that I don't believe we have seen the last of Greg Walters' involvement in the city.
Pat,
I found your "better luck next time" comment interesting. You are right. It seemes to be a perpetual sentiment of the community that the BOA/Elected Officials in general do not fulfill the desires of the people. Why do you think that is? My first inclination would be to say that people lack a connection with these officials. They essentially are given a couple of names on a ballot to choose from and often feel they must pick the lesser of two evils. I think there is a plethora of great minds in Raytown who would make great officials. Yet, I would bet many of them have never even thought about running for office. With a changing political landscape coupled with the now cliched call for "change", it would be interesting to see the effect of a community-led committee with the objective of recruiting qualified, potential candidates with something additional to add to the Board.
In sports, management brings in is much talent as possible. Fierce competition for starting positions ensures that the team has the best combination of players on the field at any given time. They accomplish this objective by serious recruiting.
Why should a city's BOA "team" be any different?
This past election, we saw several candidates running the "change" message. I am of the camp that not all change is good change. Just because something is new does not mean it is better. Recruiting candidates would give the people a deeper bench of qualified candidates.
Just a thought.
Congratulations to those who were victorious at the polls yesterday.
8:24 AM, I find it hard to believe you would put mileage on your car and pay for gas to save 50 cents. Sounds penny wise and pound foolish to me.
Justin, Neighborhood Watch could be first responders but ONLY if trained as such. I used to live in a village where EMS and Fire freguently responded to the emergency on foot while others brought the the ambulance or fire truck.
I never knew Neighborhood Watch did any more than watch. In all of the places I have lived, I have seen the only the sign and no apparant activity of the Neighborhood Watch. My wife wondered if the signs were there to scare off the bad guys. Being a loner, I have no interest in social activities. Hank Dogg and more recently Red Dogg and I used to walk through the neighborhood and the PD did receive a few calls of suspicious events from us. But that stopped about a year ago when the city stopped maintaining the streets. It is too dangerous to be walking these streets and I am referring to street maintenance.
******
I was just at the new Hy-Vee. It is a nice store, much larger than the other Hy-Vee. It wasn't crowded but had many more customers and employees than the old Hy-Vee.
Andy Whiteman
I agree, 3 new faces may not but lets give them time to show the stripes to the voters who they now represent. I too struggle with the 'apathy' of the turnout. I would take it beyond that as well. While on the campaign trail I found most did not realize each Ward had two alderman and some if not most did not even know what was all on the ballot. I often ask myself why this is, is it part of the education system we have, is it the lack of parental involvement, etc., etc.,. In the end I believe it is just pure laziness for most. Lets face it, our society has become a culture of handout recipients...."minimize the effort to maximize the benefit"
How to energize this is beyond me...I ran into a few people while campaigning that claimed they vote in every election. It was very difficult to bite my tongue when I carried with me the last seven elections of who voted in my ward and their name/address was not on the list. In the end all you can do is encourage them to get out and exercise their duty and right.
Daniel,
I agree 'change' is an overused clique'. What I find interesting is this sound byte is the one that resonates with the majority of voters. When asking the voters what to change, no answers or comments were forthcoming, so you fill in and let the imagination do the rest. For a perfect example, take our current President. One end predicts catastrophe, the other some utopia. After the dust settles I predict the change will be much different then any of us ever imagined; it may be good for some and horrible for others, but one thing is certain it will be a change and be different.
I like your analogy of Sports team recruitment for the BOA. In Ward II, I actively recruited several to run. When they all gave the thumbs down is when I decided to.
What is difficult to discern is once you decide what qualifications, skillsets, behaviors and demeanors you are recruiting, what the measurement system would be that all would recognize? My bet is that would be a larger hurdle then spanning the different leagues to recruit.
As I mentioned on my blog, Congrats to all those victorious yesterday.
JWDT
As you can see my computer problems have been solved and we are up and running full steam again.
After a couple of weeks of maintaining the blog with more strict over-sight I have decided that it is the format that will be continued.
To be sure, there are still those who like to spew venom and hate that are trying to post on this page. I can tell you from what some of them have written that they are a very frustrated and unhappy lot.
So sad, too bad!!!
I had posted that results would be offered on this blog but have found a much better source for all of us political junkies. Go to the Jackson County, Missouri Board of Election website. Vote totals and (eventually) precinct results will be posted at that location. Here is the address:
www.jceb.co.jackson.mo.us
As for the election. Of course I would have rather won than lost -- I will post my comments this Sunday on my read of what the results mean this Sunday.
Congratulations to the winners.
For those who lost, remember that every failure is a chance at a new beginning.
As you can see my computer problems have been solved and we are up and running full steam again.
After a couple of weeks of maintaining the blog with more strict over-sight I have decided that it is the format that will be continued.
To be sure, there are still those who like to spew venom and hate that are trying to post on this page. I can tell you from what some of them have written that they are a very frustrated and unhappy lot.
So sad, too bad!!!
I had posted that results would be offered on this blog but have found a much better source for all of us political junkies. Go to the Jackson County, Missouri Board of Election website. Vote totals and (eventually) precinct results will be posted at that location. Here is the address:
www.jceb.co.jackson.mo.us
As for the election. Of course I would have rather won than lost -- I will post my comments this Sunday on my read of what the results mean this Sunday.
Congratulations to the winners.
For those who lost, remember that every failure is a chance at a new beginning.
As you can see my computer problems have been solved and we are up and running full steam again.
After a couple of weeks of maintaining the blog with more strict over-sight I have decided that it is the format that will be continued.
To be sure, there are still those who like to spew venom and hate that are trying to post on this page. I can tell you from what some of them have written that they are a very frustrated and unhappy lot.
So sad, too bad!!!
I had posted that results would be offered on this blog but have found a much better source for all of us political junkies. Go to the Jackson County, Missouri Board of Election website. Vote totals and (eventually) precinct results will be posted at that location. Here is the address:
www.jceb.co.jackson.mo.us
As for the election. Of course I would have rather won than lost -- I will post my comments this Sunday on my read of what the results mean this Sunday.
Congratulations to the winners.
For those who lost, remember that every failure is a chance at a new beginning.
It seems that every two years a lot of us business owners say, better luck next time.
I don't know about the rest but I really mean it. "Next time" maybe we will get people
in office that will do for the people and not big business. Maybe we can get people
in office that will carry out promises made during their campaigns.
Just maybe we will get people in office that will make this great little town a better place
for everybody. That's why we say "Better luck next time." it never happens but, hope springs eternal. Someday we may have good streets, a thriving downtown, beautiful and safe neighborhoods. Until then...........Better luck next time.
Next time won't happen until citizens VOTE. Very few voters are making the choice for all.
Justin, I may be plain dumb but I would think all of the signs would give people some clue that an election is taking place, especially when there is a notice in the sewer bill!
Some may not be registered voters. I wasn't registered for a long time because it is one of the lists used for jury duty. I have no problem with jury duty except court is during the day and I don't function days. I just didn't want the arguement but when they sent me a questionaire, I sent them a statement that I am disabled and don't function days. At that point, I decided that a could register to vote and gave some voice in this Facist Fief.
Andy Whiteman
After the mayoral race the sign @350 Hwy & Raytown Rd. on the billboard at the mechanic shop was up well over a week.
Let's not get petty, yeah, they need to come down after so long after the election.
There's other things to be worried about, like how are the new elected people going to handle the problems at city hall or even if they can?
It's just petty.
Doesn't the law allow 3 days for sign removal? This is only day #2.
Andy Whiteman
I am surprised Raytown's code department has put blinders on to those signs. I mean, the election was held over five months ago.
leftover signs.
Have a joyous Easter,
Andy Whiteman
Have a joyous Easter,
andy Whiteman
According to our City Finance Director, Jeremy Wilmoth, the TTD has yet to be activated. The money raised from this additional sales tax could drive the tax up another 1%.
The money collected will pay for improvements to 350 Highway and an intermodal bus station (for the ATA bus service) that serves Kansas City.
That would place the sales tax in the Walmart district well over the 10% mark.
How many people will shop at a store that charges you 10 cents for every dollar you spend?
You would think that they would want to save them...since we did make history with the election they could be worth something.
April 10th 9:09 must be one of those Fat Cats.
I didn't see the sales tax article in the Red Star. I shopped at Hy-Vee last week and there was over a 5% tax ON FOOD!
I don't think the average person will shop by tax rate. I shop because a store has what I want and/or has a sale. Gee Whiz, if I was really smart, I could spend $2 on gas plus $30 worth of my time to save 50 cents on sales tax. It just isn't worth the effort to me if I can go to the Raytown Hy-Vee, Apple Parhet, Westlake, or Walmart, for what I want.
Andy Whiteman