Fireworks Reminder / Raytown Report History

COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Raytown Girls Softball League is holding sign ups March 12 at Walnics, 10028 E 63rd Street. We are looking for t-ball players through women's division. Players should bring a copy of their birth certificate. Readers can contact Mark Unruh, League President at 816-213-3697 or by email at markunruh@comcast.net if they need more information.

Our Lady of Lourdes will hold a Las Vegas Night / Auction. Proceeds will benefit Our Lady of Lourdes Parish School. The event is scheduled for Saturday Night, March 5, 2011 from 6:00 to 10 p.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes School Gym located at 8812 East Gregory Boulevard. Tickets are $35 per person or $55 per couple at the door. Sometimes, All You Have to do is Ask Last week I received an email from a an individual who wondered why AT&T U-verse does not broadcast City Council meetings like Comcast does. The writer is a subscriber to AT&T and misses being able to watch live broadcasts of meetings of the Raytown Board of Aldermen. I have received similar requests from AT&T subscribers as my door to door campaign slowly winds its way across Ward 1. The question took me back 25 years when two young Raytown Aldermen asked the same question of Jones Intercable (the cable provider before Comcast). The two “young” Aldermen were Garth Bare of Ward 2 and Greg Walters of Ward 1. At the time the City of Raytown did not broadcast its meetings. Jones Intercable had recently acquired the cable service for Raytown and was applying for a franchise agreement with the city. Garth and I asked representatives from Jones if they could provide the city with television equipment to broadcast City Council meetings. Many o f our fellow Board members argued against the request saying it was too onerous of a requirement of the cable company. To the surprise of all, the representative from Jones said, “Yes, we can help out.” Garth and I expected that the city would receive some old worn out black and white cameras with limited ability to broadcast from City Hall. Back in 1984 color televisions were common, but the computer technology that we take for granted now was in its infancy. Most computer monitors were either green or amber screened and cells phones were called mobile phones. Electronics as we know it today, was in its stone age. Much to our surprise, Jones Intercable came through with state of the art color cameras and equipment for broadcasting. The City of Raytown became the first city in the metropolitan area to regularly broadcast meetings of the City Council. So much for a trip down Memory Lane – I thought the question from the email deserved an answer so I contacted a local representative of AT&T U-verse and asked if it would be possible to broadcast from Raytown City Hall on their service. As with Jones Intercable, the answer was a simple, “Yes, it is possible.” In fact, Olathe, Kansas is already broadcasting on U-Verse. To be sure, there are some hoops that must be jumped through in the way of formal requests and negotiations . . . what is called “due diligence” at City Hall, but it can be done. Which makes me wonder why it has not been done before? After all, if it works in Olathe it can work Raytown. CAMPAIGN NOTES . . . Cold Weather Campaigns OR, THERE IS ALWAYS A BRIGHT SIDE This winter has had quite an impact on my campaign for the Raytown Board of Aldermen. It as if the snow is refusing to melt. The cold temperatures are not too bad, unless they are backed by stiff wind. Then the cold seems to cut like a knife. On the bright side, my feet are not sore. The snowpack is usually soft, and until recently, free of ice underneath it. With the proper boots it is somewhat like walking on flattened pillows. All things considered it is not too bad. I can remember pounding on doors in past campaigns in the heat and high humidity of summer literally sweating so much that I had fears of becoming dehydrated. In many ways, the winter campaign is a preferred time to campaign. You Can Always Count on the Other Side TO TRY AND TWIST THE PAST I have to say that my opponent in this campaign has not disappointed. Early on he tried to pretend that he did not vote to raise our property taxes by 13% by using Personal Property Tax figures instead of Real Estate Tax figures to explain away his vote. Just recently I received an email accusing me of changing the city’s policy on residency requirements back in 1997. The writer claimed I was part of the Board of Aldermen who made the change in policy. No, I was not. I was not on the Board of Aldermen for the period between 1996 and 1998. That was during the middle of former Mayor Jack Nesbitt’s single term as Mayor. I had lost the 1996 election by three votes to former Alderman Steve Scheetz. But as long as we are on the subject, there is one vote I did make regarding residency requirements. That was when the Board voted to set aside the residency requirement for the City Administrator for a three year period. For the record, I voted NO. Had I been on the Board in the recent decision by the Board to extend the policy another three years I would have voted NO then as well. For inquiring minds, my opponent, Joe Creamer, voted YES to extend the set aside of the residency requirement for the additional three years. Clean Up Raytown Day Each Spring the City of Raytown sets aside a day for residents to bring all the “stuff” that we accumulate and need to get rid of to a central location. The word on the street is that the powers that be at City Hall have changed one very important part of that clean up effort. This year Raytowner’s will not be charged a fee to dump unwanted material. The press release is not ready for distribution at the time of this publication. When we receive it we will post all the particulars. Franken Foods by Erin Whitehead 2 Comments I’ve seen this experiment done on various websites and blogs over the years, but as it has a valid point, I thought I’d share it in case you haven’t seen it. Plus, I just saw a re-run of Oprah that talked about the documentary Food, Inc. On the show, author Michael Pollan (who co-starred in the movie) talks about his recent book, Food Rules. One of his rules is “Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot.” In this post on The Consumerist , you can see that a McDonald’s Happy Meal doesn’t exactly rot. The fries even look surprisingly edible. Most disturbing is that the burger aged quite well. Grody. Also, check out the links left by commenters. My favorite is the MIT experiment on Twinkies. That’s rotten. Jenn Walters and Erin Whitehead jointly publish Fit Bottomed Girls. To read more of their thoughts on lifestyle choices and fitness go to Fit Bottomed Girls LINKS TO OTHER RAYTOWN NEWS SOURCES To catch up on O'Hara Sports use this link O'Hara High School To catch up on Raytown South Sports use this link Raytown South High School To catch up on Raytown High Sports use this link Raytown High School To catch up on the Raytown Police Blog go to Raytown Police Blog To view Raytown Crime Statistics go to Raids on Line Last Week’s Poll Results Should the Raytown City Council curtail the use of "emergency ordinances" as a way of conducting business? 81% . . . Yes 17% . . . No 2% . . . . Not sure To post a comment click on the word comments below: