In This Week's Raytown Report

Snow Stories Speaking of Snow Removal Boulevard Brewing Introduces Ripple Glass High School Sports

-- BREAKING NEWS -- Cushman Pulls Out of Race for 48th District

Raytown's EMS Director, Matt Cushman, has decided not to run for the 48th District State Representative seat district currently held by Will Kraus. In a letter released by Cushman on Monday, he wrote, "In my many conversations with my wife, family, and close friends, I have heard one underlying theme… “Listen to your heart.” Sometimes that can be challenging when your brain/ego is constantly talking to you too. For me to do anything my heart must be in it. The foundation of my heart is my family. My wife and family are the most important things in my life. They are the ones that continue to make me a better person. And, as such, is the primary reason for my decision. I will not be a candidate for the 48th District House race at this time." Kraus had previously announced that he will be running for the Missouri State 8th District Senate seat being vacated by Matt Bartle (who is term limited from running for re-election). That action has left the seat "open" for next November's General Election in Missouri. The open seat has created a scramble of possible candidates in the Democratic party. The district is considered a "swing district" in Missouri. Kraus, a Republican, has held the seat for the last three terms. Other individuals who have expressed interest in the seat include Gavin Fletchall (who has officially announced his candidacy), Pat Riehle and Joe Volpe. Volpe ran against Kraus in the 2008 election. Snow Stories The Kansas City area has been hit with some unusually heavy snowfall this year. As I am typing I can see that another three inches has been dumped on my driveway this Sunday morning. The weather guesser is predicting another “good sized” storm to hit on Wednesday or Thursday. While visiting with some folks this past weekend I realized that a lot of what we are talking about is the weather and how it affects us. The conversations generally revolved around snow removal by our local governments. One woman told me city snow plows blocking her driveway with a wall of snow over 4 feet tall. It took her nearly four hours to dig through the ice and snow so that she could get her car out of the driveway. The hot topic (pardon the pun) on the Blog portion of the Raytown Report has definitely been snow removal. So, with that in mind I thought it would be interesting to hear what readers have to share. You can enter your experience on the blog, or, if you wish, send a longer version directly to me at gregtwalters@sbcglobal.net and I will consider running it in this space. I would write more, but I have to go shovel another three inches of partly cloudy off of my driveway. Speaking of Snow Removal . . . I did some digging around on the city’s web site this weekend and found the city’s snow removal plan. Most interesting was a map showing the pecking order of which streets are to be cleared first, etc. To access the site use this link: City of Raytown - Snow Removal Plan If you have an emergency that is related to snow removal you can call City Hall at 737-6000. Boulevard Brewing Introduces Ripple Glass Boulevard Brewing Company has announced a new venture called Ripple Glass. It is a glass recycling program for the metropolitan Kansas City area. In Raytown recyclers can take their glass bottles, jars and other glass containters to Berbiglia, located at 9150 East Gregory Boulevard. Look for a large purple bin. Last year alone, Kansas Citians threw away 150 million pounds of perfectly good glass. To the dismay of the people at Boulevard Brewing Company, this included some 10 million empty Boulevard bottles - lost forever, buried in local landfills. Kansas City businesses use nearly 100 million pounds of recycled glass every year (brought in from hundreds of miles away), so why almost no local recycling? Because there was no nearby facility to process the glass. And why no local processor? Because, in classic chicken-and-egg fashion, there was almost no local recycling. The folks at Boulevard finally got tired of being part of the problem. So, with the support of local companies and community organizations, they came up with a solution - Ripple Glass. Ripple has constructed a state-of-the-art processing plant right here in KC, and placed dedicated glass recycling containers throughout the metro area. Best of all, we've found a local customer that will convert the recycled glass into fiberglass insulation, saving enormous amounts of energy and dramatically lowering emissions while producing a product that saves still more energy. It's a great way to close the loop, protect the environment, support local businesses and even make homes more energy efficient. For more information about Ripple Glass click here Ripple Glass Frequently Asked Questions . . . Do I have to separate glass by color? No, you don’t. All brown, green, blue and clear food and beverage containers can be mixed together in the same collection bin. Do I need to take the labels off? Nope, You can leave all the labels on your containers, unless you’re into label peeling for some reason. Do I have to rinse the containers? Well, that would be nice. But it is not essential. You may, however, decide that rinsing the containers keeps your home or garage smelling a bit fresher. Can I put window glass in the bin? What about Pyrex and old coffee mugs? Ripple Glass cannot accept window glass, pyrex, corning ware or ceramics. We can accept any glass food can beverage containers. High School Sports Cardinals Can’t Climb out of Hole in Loss to McClure North Poor shooting and a bit of sluggish play in the first half proved to be too big a hole for the Cardinals to climb out of as they lost to McCluer North in the championship game of the Normandy Christmas Tournament. Playing in their fourth game in as many days, Raytown South had made it to the final game of one of the nation's oldest and most competitive high school basketball tournaments but lost 56-51. However, the game could have been a lot worse as the Cardinals were down 28-17 at halftime. For the rest of this story and other stories about Raytown South sports use this link: Raytown South Sports O’Hara Wins Patterson Division of William Jewel Basketball Classic By Brother Richard Geimer One year ago, a lane violation cost O'Hara a last second victory but this time it took a double overtime game, and the Celtics came away with an exciting 71-70 Championship in the Patterson Division of the William Jewell Basketbal Classic.Teamwork and talented individual efforts paid off for O'Hara who led much of the way before the game went into overtime. It appeared the Columbia Rock Bridge Bruins would take the game in the first overtime period when they went up by five points, but eventually T. J. White tied the contest with a layup and the game proceeded into the second overtime. The Bruins' Ricky Kreklow had two seconds on the clock when his shot missed and the game went to the Celtics. O'Hara was off to a great start in the first quarter picking up 17 points while holding Rock Bridge to 9. They outscored the Bruins 19-12 in the next quarter as well. To tie up the game in regulation time, the Bruins put defensive pressure on the Celtics and managed to outscore them by five third quarter points and ten fourth quarter points. The score was 61-61 going into the overtimes. Top scorer in the game was Justin Miller for the Bruins who had 23. Ricky Kreklow who had three three-pointers and Travis Jorgenson each had 13 for Rock Bridge. O'Hara's Josh Rupprecht was O'Hara's leading scorer with 17 followed by T. J. White with 15. Junior Jevon Lyle contributed 10 points. In addition to O'Hara taking the Championship with Rock Bridge as the runner-up, Park Hill won the battle for third place with a 66-49 win over Lincoln Prep. Winner of the Consolation bracket was Grandview topping Lee's Summit West 67-56. For more stories about O’Hara sports use this link: O'Hara High School Sports