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BREAKING NEWS
JULY 16, 2013, DOWNTOWN RAYTOWN.COM:
Make your voice heard once again July 16! According to Board of Alderman (BOA) meeting discussion on July 2, the aldermen who voted for Ordinance 5453-13 that creates a special Planned Zoning Overlay District for Walmart Neighbor Market (WNM) do NOT want to rescind the ordinance. Even though Wal-Mart has pulled its sales contract, these aldermen seem to think that rescinding this zoning district is “going backwards”. Mayor Bower said Wal-Mart spent over $100,000 and sees no reason for another developer to recreate the design. But what about the more than $250,000 of taxpayer dollars that has already been spent on Planning, Zoning and Economic Development commission meetings, the huge volunteer effort that engaged about 300 people and the city staff expertise and labor that went into creating the Central Business Design Standard that everybody could agree on? In his Raytown Times’ Letter to the Editor of June 26, Alderman Creamer’s comparative analysis of the Walmart Neighborhood Markets in Blue Springs, MO, and Overland Park, KS, fails completely because not one of those stores is located in the downtown of their respective city! Alderman Ertz thinks it sends a bad message to developers if the city rescinds zoning. Aldermen Van Buskirk and Mock claim the zoning district needs to remain if we hope to have any kind of anchor development and so a future developer will not have to start all over. Alderman Melson agrees with them all. On the contrary, serious developers of a town square will not be interested in the Planned Zoning Overlay District created exclusively for WNM. For one, the huge parking lot is a big turn off. And developers will not make a huge investment on a property in a City where the zoning can be arbitrarily changed for the benefit of one private interest. Developers must be assured that their property will maintain its property values with a zoning district that remains in place to protect them from neighbors who don’t meet the zoning design standards. We don’t understand why Mayor Bower traveled to Bentonville to plead with Wal-Mart to come back to Raytown. Our City should be issuing an RFP immediately to invite quality town square development. The last RFP was issued in March of 2010. No wonder the Green Space has been sitting undeveloped for years. We have maintained from the very beginning that the Walmart Neighborhood site plan is bad urban planning because it does not make the full use of the land and, consequently, will never generate its full capacity of sales and property taxes to benefit all the tax jurisdictions. To put it bluntly, anybody who allows the development of a big box store in our downtown instead of high density development will be directly cheating our school district, police department, fire district, parks dept. and city for years to come. To make matters worse, the impending lawsuit by former Mayor Sue Frank alleges that the BOA unlawfully gave its legislative power to a private interest by entering into a “contract zoning" agreement instead of ensuring the life, health and property values of the citizens of Raytown. It would seem to be in the best interest of the City for the BOA to rescind an unlawful and unconstitutional zoning overlay district. SECOND READING FOR RESCINDING ORDINANCE 5453-13 IS JULY 16TH! |
Observations BY GREG WALTERS
Or have they?
The letter received at
Raytown City Hall was very clear in its intentions to not pursue plans for a
Neighborhood Market. Yet the Mayor and a majority of the Board of Aldermen have
dug in their heels on rescinding the zoning application for the applicant. The
reasons given at the last Board meeting were pretty flimsy.
After all, it is highly unlikely
that another developer would come in with another development using another applicant's plans.
In light of the fact that
former Mayor Sue Frank has brought legal action asking for a declaratory
judgment from the Circuit Court ordering that the unused zoning application be
rescinded – it would seem to save time and money simply to undo what has been
done through the zoning process.
It certainly would save the
City the time and cost of going to court.
For an elected body that
frequently complains of not having enough money to run the City, it gives one
pause to wonder.
The Board of Aldermen will
have their final word on an ordinance sponsored by Ward 3 Alderman Janet
Emerson this Tuesday. Emerson’s ordinance returns the zoning status to the
Green Space before application for a Walmart Store was made last winter.
Petition Anyone?BY PAUL LIVIUS
Petition Anyone?BY PAUL LIVIUS
So far, no official word
has been received by the Raytown Report from the petitioners. When they are
ready we will give them the space to tell their story. In
fairness to the other side of the coin, we also offer space to those in
opposition to a State Audit.
Greg and I had to chuckle when we
read complaints from some anonymous writers about two regular contributors to
the Raytown Report. The anonymous poster complained that people who do not live
in Raytown should not be involved in the discussions of how the city was run.
We figure they were
referring to Pat Casady and Elisa Breitenbach. Both are Raytown business owners who frequently post on this
page.
Why are we laughing?
Because Pat and Elisa both
have a stake in the Raytown community. They make their livelihood here. They
pay taxes here that benefit all of us. They are active in the community,
frequently donating or taking an active part in local causes. They create job opportunities for other Raytowners.
That being said, we wonder
if the anonymous author has the same feeling about our city department heads.
None of them live in the community. The salary they earn here leaves the city
at the rate of over $250,000 annually.
In short, the local business owner gives much more back to the community.
In the case of Pat Casady and Elisa Breitehbach, they also sign their blog entries.
Raytown Charter Election set for April 8,
2014
The Raytown Board of
Aldermen has set the date for a special election for voters to consider the
formation of a Raytown Charter Commission for April 8, 2014. At that same election
voters will elect 13 members to serve on the Commission. A number of “alternate”
commissioners will also be elected in case an elected commissioner is unable to
finish the term of office.
Any registered voter living
in Raytown is eligible to run for the Charter Commission. Filing for the status
of a candidate is done by petition. Petition forms can be obtained from the
City Clerk at Raytown City Hall. There is no filing fee to run for the Charter
Commission.
All petitions must be
completed and turned into the City Clerk no later than 60 days before April 1st
election.
DeLong Files Three Complaints with City/Police
Long time resident Jim
DeLong has filed three complaints with the City of Raytown over conduct of the
Raytown Police Department in enforcement of city codes at Colman Park. He and
other neighbors of Colman Park have made direct appeals to the Raytown Park
Board and on two occasions, presentations before the Board of Aldermen, asking
for more enforcement of city codes at the park
Mr. DeLong has provided
copies of his complaint to the Raytown Report. Those complaints are displayed
below.
As of this writing, neither the Raytown
Park Department or the City of Raytown have responded to Mr. DeLong.
Clean Eating - The Challege is Done - But I am Not! BY KRISTEN
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was taking part in the 10 Days of Real Food Pledge, and I’m happy (in more ways than one) to say it’s over. Overall, I think it went really well, but let me be clear—I wasn’t perfect. I slipped up a few times without meaning to, adding a splash of an “illegal”… Continue reading
National
Night Out Against Crime - August 6th
The Raytown Police Department in conjunction with the National Night Out
Against Crime will hold its annual this year on Tuesday night, August 6th
from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This year’s event will be held at Kenagy Park in
Raytown located at 79th and Raytown Road (enter from the 79th
Street parking lot.
65 comments:
You do have to chuckle about it .... Agreed! It is like saying only those who live in Raytown and our employed in Raytown should have a voice... To funny
Ran into an old friend today; listened to him complain for 30 mins about everything wrong with Raytown; first he thinks the bars should be open till 3 am not 1 am K.C. does and as he says if I go to a at at 9 pm that doesn't give me long to drink and dance but K C. I can't smoke and Raytown I can. Trying to see both sides of the coin was not going to happen for him..... My point is you just can't please everyone no matter how hard you would try and not everyone is able to see both sides of the coin and some people just have to be angry and complain ; it's just who they wish to be. After my friends 30 mins of complaining I excused myself and wished him well, doubt he ever realized not once did he care to ask about me or mine or ever give me a word in; again my point is sometimes we get so wraped up in ourselves that's all we care to hear or see......... May you take the time to enjoy those around you
Would a State audit divulge payments from special interest groups to those in city government (including the Mayor, council members and appointees?
I'd love to be a fly on the wall at this event.
AIA Chapter Events > Social Events:
August 7, 2013
, 5:30pm - 7:30pm
, Populous
August Cocktails & Conversations
Architect as Civic Leader
Your community needs you. As an architect you are uniquely qualified to serve your community. How do we know? You possess the skill set of being a problem solver.
During our next Cocktails and Conversations we will talk to five elected officials who also happen to be architects. They will be answering questions from how they got into public service to issues facing their municipalities today. This informative panel will be moderated by Kevin Collison, Development Reporter for The Kansas City Star. The panelists include:
David Bower – Mayor of Raytown
Joel Marquardt – Mayor of Roeland Park
Carrie Rezac – Leawood City Council
Ron Shaffer – Mayor of Prairie Village
Jim Walters – KCK/Wyandotte County Unified Gov. Board of Commissioners
Thank you to Populous for generously hosting this event in their grandstand space.
This event is sure to be a full house so make sure you register today.
It looks like non-service is not limited to animal control. I understand the city does not even do that on weekends any longer. I remember when they created the tax on pets. The money was supposed to pay for that service.
Another broken promise.
I have a dog and I have to license it every July. I thought the license fee was supposed to offset the cost of the animal control. If it doesn't, why are we paying the fee?
The animal license is a clear violation of the Hancock amendment and the former attorney Nancy and Community Development Director Beth knew it when they enacted it. They were just betting that if they were not greedy with the fee's the sheep would just go along with it.
I'll admit I don't totally understand the Hancock amendment. Please explain why the animal license is a violation. I'm not disagreeing, I'm just trying to understand.
Maybe you should check into the fire dept being dispatched by KCFD. 9 calls in KCMO for every 1 in Raytown. When KCFD has to cover a Raytown EMS call, they are not as qualified as RFD. Don't let the admin people fool you into thinking this is a good thing.
Good point about the Hancock Amendment. Any NEW license, tax or fee requires a vote of the people for approval.
A small matter. Most people in Raytown do not license their pets anyway. And they certainly do not need to worry about animal control breaking any records enforcing it. Especially on the weekends because they are not working on those days.
So if you want to let your dog run in the evening or on the weekend, go ahead. No one from the city will stop you.
All of the department heads are back home in places like Raymore, Bashor (KS), Lee's Summit, Kansas City, Riverside and points beyond.
So you know they don't care. They took their paychecks and left.
The City Council and Mayor must think its okay because they will not do anything about it. In fact, they did just the opposite when the one position required by ordinance to live within the city, the City Administrator, was voted to be ignored.
How a city council can vote to ignore a law is beyond me. But tha is what has happened.
I feel soorry for the people a Colman Park. I know what they are going through. We have the same kind of problems at Kenagy Park. The city does not seem to care about enforcing laws over here either.
As for a petition for a state audit. If it will make city hall more responsive i am all for it.
Re to "Anonymous Anonymous said...
Maybe you should check into the fire dept being dispatched by KCFD. 9 calls in KCMO for every 1 in Raytown. When KCFD has to cover a Raytown EMS call, they are not as qualified as RFD. Don't let the admin people fool you into thinking this is a good thing.
July 15, 2013 at 7:01 PM"
First the EMS thing- KCFD isn't as "qualified?"
KCFD's EMS qualifications generally exceed or are at least on-par with Raytown's EMS service.
As far as the dispatches- you-re probably fairly close with the call ratio.
Odd that Raytown EMS is still dispatched by RPD (like the FD once was)- not KCFD.
The big worry I see there (besides the fire trucks being elsewhere if needed) is who ends up paying for the added mileage- wear and tear to Raytown's apparatus.
How many police do you see at Walmart and Hy-Vee on weekends
and evenings? How many police do you see working our city parks
protecting the good people of Raytown? I guess it’s going to take
someone getting hurt or killed in our parks to get laws enforced or
some kind of protection for the good people of this town. Right
now we know who is running the parks and setting the rules for them,
and it’s not the good element in our town. If our city hall doesn’t enforce
codes and the laws, our town will be lost for ever!
I know Walmart and Hy-Vee pay for the police to be there to protect
and watch out for robbery’s bad behavior. Let’s see now what is it
exactly we pay for????????
I saw this exact post on July 7 th blog ; word for word but time was different 4:13 A.M.; must feel it needs to be repeated till someone comments...... Well too bad you can't be a fly on the wall...., remember hearing that as a kid and it is still a cute saying; keep us informed on
Raytown is going the way of Grandview 20 years ago. Already, the realtors are steering people to Raytown. Before long, property will be worthless, the tax base next to nothing, and services non-existent. We should be calling our elected officials and demanding better code and law enforcement. We should be doing it now!
I know HyVee; when it was on Blue Ridge; used to hire off duty police on the evenings and weekends. I always was so appreciative as sometimes my daughter worked late when she was in college and was watched as she went to her car; Kuddos to stores who watch out for their employees and patrons
If the Hancock amendment requires a vote of the people and that didn't happen, would an audit by the state force the city to stop collecting the dog licenses?
Those attending tonight's Board of Alderman meeting might also want to speak up against the 353 tax abatement for the property at 6020 Blue Ridge Blvd. This is the building across the street from the gas station that a long time ago has a coffee shop in it.
It is always sickening to hear the Board of Alderman talk about free enterprise and then turn and give tax dollars to private business, but it should be noted that several of these same Alderman do not send their kids to the public schools so why should they care if they are messing with tax dollars for public education.
Well guess what that is money that all of us make up for in higher personal property taxes.
Just another reason why in 2 years we have several other Alderman that need to be moved on.
KCFD Fire Trucks have EMT's, not paramedics, therefore they are B rated and RFD trucks have paramedics, therefore they are A rated. The citizens paid for this training and every time a KCFD fire truck responds to a Raytown address with EMS, the citizens lose out. Not to mention the extra wear and tear on the trucks plus extra fuel.
Another plug for the audit , I see;........hey I went to the state of Missouri about pet tags and such and there is a whole chapter on it and was real interesting. I can see where pet owners should license with proof of tabbies vaccination much like people with cars and proof of insurance; I thought it was silly till I read about it. And of course not everyone tags a pet just like not every driver has insurance ; sure made me think
I thought all the property including the plaza got that 353 tax abatement? In saying a private business do you mean a Mom and Pop shop? Thought that's what everyone wanted and discounts for them; guess I'm confused; let me know.. Thxs
Raytown Fire department has 21 full time EMT and 2 full time Paramedics; there are NAEMT scholarships. In 2002 a sales tax imitative was passed and later renewed this help with the purchase of option technology and 3 ambulances. In 2005 became a training center accredited by the state of Missouri
I feel sorry for everyone in Raytown not just those who live by Kenagy and Colman Parks.
You have a park director who only cares about receiving a paycheck.
You have a park board who just wants to micro manage everything.
You have a park board president who is known as very employee unfriendly.
What once was one of Raytown's strong points is now being run into the ground. Wake up people, Raytown's parks have never been in worse shape. Worse thing that happened was running Rick Lowderman and Bob Smith out!!!
hey 4:47 your numbers are incorrect.
Raytown Fire Has
13 Paramedics
1 awaiting testing and certification
17 EMTS
Please if you don't know ask. Don't post bogus information.
Thank You
Capt Doc Summers
I am going to defer to the Capt., on matters of the RFPD. However, I do not really do not know why this "bothers" me, but hearing on the scanner I am new hearing P-51 (Pumper), and P-52. I have even seen on RFPD E-2 (Engine) a big 52 on the side. I know this is more in the lines for the KCFD dispatching, but I find it somewhat disconcerting. Those are "our" pumpers/engines, and not the KCFD's. I do not have a problem with them doing the dispatch, because I feel that the KCFD is better suited for handling certain situations, along with the KCFD being the bigger, more aggressive department.
Anyone know where the Mayor was tonight? I saw he was not at the Council Meeting. Alderman VanBuskirk did a reasonably good job of running the meeting.
When is the city officials actually going to do something to make Raytown look good like out law smoking in public places.
As it stands we are like 1 of 2 of the last places within Greater Kansas City to think about public health.
If we are not going to do the right thing then we need to start marketing the fact that we "Love Smokers" and draw in that extra business and tax dollars in brings.
Bower we are waiting to hear where you are on this, but again you have not said anything about the problems at the park so why decide either to "Out Law Public Smoking" or market it as "Raytown Loves Smokers"!
Just a thought....
...If the city enforced property codes that forced people to keep their property up would there still be that need to give away tax dollars to fix the properties up.
Silly me this is Raytown and we wouldn't want the professionals at city hall to actually earn their pay checks.
Sorry but I got all that information off the Internet under RFD. Maybe it needs to be updated . Thank you for your clarification in this matter.
How arrogant can our city leaders be?
The people spoke loud and clear when they voted out
the Wal-Mart lovers except, VanBuskirk, the people didn’t
know how he flipped until after the election, or he would
have been gone too.
The people spoke loud and clear at several meetings when
they showed up in huge numbers for the fight against
the Wal-Mart grocery store.
The city is even being sued and still they won’t do as the people want.
I just hope that the three new aldermen won’t be swayed or
bullied into changing their way of thinking as did VanBuskirk.
We need elected officials that will work for the people not
against them. Raytown deserves better. Raytown deserves
elected officials that care for the town and the good people
that want to live and play safely in our parks and in their homes.
People shouldn’t have to listen to profanity and dodge bullets
and paintballs in our parks. They shouldn’t have to explain to their
young children what something means that has been painted on
the shelter house walls.
11:16 PM
While we are talking about government websites that need updated maybe we should ask Mayor Bower why we are paying someone over 60,000 a year plus benefits to be our public relations director, but the calender on the city website is no longer keep updated.
That is right Mayor Bower and others we had been saving over 60,000 a year and got better service.
If Mayor Bower and other elected officials at city hall want to save us some money they need to clean house by first moving those that do nothing like this public relation director back to the rock she crawled out from under. The second thing we need to do before hiring new worthless individuals is decide if we even need the position.
Mayor Bower what happened to that stuff you keep pushing at election time about running city hall like a well ran business.
To Anonymous July 16th 11:03AM Now your complaining about giving a 353 tax abatment to a business and how it would affect the schools. We could have had more money for the schools if the people would not have ran Wal Mart Neighborhood grocery out. Don't feel bad about giving the 353 to the business. You need to get off the pot or poop!!!
I watched last night's meeting. That Joe Creamer and Charlotte Melson have nothing good to say about anyone or anything.
It looks like they have an axe grind. Like they want to settle old debts and get even with people.
They should quite the schoolyard antics and act like adults!
I watched last night's meeting. That Joe Creamer and Charlotte Melson have nothing good to say about anyone or anything.
It looks like they have an axe grind. Like they want to settle old debts and get even with people.
They should quite the schoolyard antics and act like adults!
See ya later Raytown (Dought It!!!)
my dad built our home around 53rd & Hedges about 1960,we were about the 4th or 5th house on the street,a raytown grad & even a member of the business community. that home sold & I bought a home for my family near Coleman park & stayed in Raytown but am moving because Ive had enough of the steep decline of property values and huge increase of crime.Raytown will never be the same.My home has been vandalized,a car stolen,my vehicle as well as my neighbors have been broken into several times.My understanding is Raytown has more police officers per population than any other surrounding city.Yes its alittle sad for me but how can you expect anything better from the people running the show who don't even live in Raytown.Raytown has been dying a very slow death for some and nobody really care's enough or is smart enough to see the generous life perserver being thrown at them from a (albeit unpopular) money giant like Walmart.Good Luck Raytown,,you definatly need it.
Joe Creamer was whining like a little child. He embarassed himself, the Board of Aldermen and this city. Kudos to Mr. Jason Greene for handling himself with maturity and putting Creamer in his place.
Anom at 11:17
How would putting in a Walmart in the greenspace create new revenue for our schools? IT DISPLACES EXISTING REVENUE STREAMS FROM SIMILAR RETAILERS IN THE AREA! Secondly, you do realize WalMart could go to the county for a 353 not just City Hall....with all the lies WM reps told at those meetings, don't doubt it. Whats killing the city and the school district is the WM on 350 period!
I think you are right about the number of police per capita in Raytown. But when you spend your time processing over 400 arrests at the Walmart on 350 Highway it takes away from patrols in neighborhoods, doesn't it?
On the other hand there could be more accountability at city hall.
Problem is most aldermen would rather turn a blind eye to real problems like crime at our parks and spend their energy picking fights with other aldermen.
Sad situation. Maybe a charter is an answer. But we need one that makes some real changes. After all,if everything is fine the way it is why do we need a charter?
I know we allow smoking in Raytown, but I thought some stuff was still illegal until I read the post from Anon at 11:16 on 7/17/2013.
Please keep in mind schools are not funded by sales tax.
Maybe, if the new Wal-mart had come to town it would have generated tax on the property again the key word is maybe.
Wal-Mart said at this time they are not asking for the 353 tax abatement, but they never got that far into the process and we all know Wal-Mart loves those tax breaks at our expense.
If this was not the case the city, fire district, school district and many many other taxing entities would not be hurting from that mess on 350 highway.
Keep in mind Wal-Mart could have come to the table and wrote a check to each of those entities for the loss tax revenue and signed a new agreement with those same entities to pay off those bonds and end any abatements that impact our school district. That is right folks that Wal-Mart on 40 highway is too having a negative impact on our taxes and therefore our school district.
But wait folks it gets better the empty building (Old Sam's Club) on 40 Highway too is having a negative impact as a building that is keep up and occupied generates more property taxes.
So you slap happy Wal-Mart loving people really need to ask what has Wal-Mart done for Raytown and what other companies would attract more business than adding another grocery store to a city that already has more per cap than other cities.
Open minded thinking should have you going what type of business is not in Raytown and what could we do to get them here, but for some unexplained reason the only company those at city hall can think of is Wal-Mart. That good people opens a whole new can of questions, which might explain the state audit.
So let us try to all be open minded and find new things for Raytown to make us the place to shop and not the land of Wal-Mart or grocery store village.
I would like to hear what the true cost of those 400 arrest at Wal-Mart are costing us.
If we have to lock those fine members of society up it is not cheap and all those good church people decades ago stopped the chain gangs which actually made those who didn't want to follow the law of the land do something productive for society.
Joe Creamer got Bob Smith off the park board and now drive by any of our city parks and see the condition.
How much more can we take before it is time to move Joe on
If Raytown can keep giving these tax brakes to businesses why are they not reducing the property taxes for us home owners.
I mean we must have the money or we wouldn't be giving it away would we.
The copious tax abatements certainly are hurting our schools.
Another thing which is more insidiously hurting our schools is that they've adopted COMMON CAUSE.
Do you really know what your children are being taught with your tax dollars?
As I see it, Raytown now has three good aldermen. They seem
to care about the people. It’s too bad the rest including the
mayor cannot or will not listen to the people.
Does anybody else find it strange that there are now signs for
not smoking in the parks and it doesn’t even mention gun smoke?
That was me trying to be funny. But, really, smoking is their
concern? How about safety? How about language? How about
trashing the parks? All I can say is it’s a good thing the police are
putting on the “National Night Out” in Kenagy Park because if it
was you or me we would be run out by dark!
Correction:
Not Common Cause, Common Curriculum
I think I figured it out Joe Creamer has required the park board to make the parks look bad to try and scare those bad people out of our parks.
It also has made our parks look worse then that private lake where Joe's good friend Witt lives so she will stop asking the city to clean up their private lake.
What a leader we have in Joe Creamer!
Read inteh Raytown Times about the Park trying to be smoke free. What a great idea.
Do you think making it a gun free zone would be a good idea too?
Typical bureaucratic thinking. Ignore the real problems and create false problems so that you can claim putting up a sign is a solution!
So, so sad.
Darn if they do away with smoking at the parks does that mean I won't drive by the park see a group of kids passing something around that smells like burning leaves.
Does anyone know if the park department is going to cleanup the mess called a lake before the "National Night Out Against Crime"?
What crime against our tax dollars for the condition the park department has let that lake become the past two summers!
I look forward to finding out where the tax dollars from the parks is really going as it sure is not going to keep them clean and safe.
Watch out for Senator Will Kraus and his so called "Fair Tax".
There is nothing "Fair" in a tax that will reduce tax with the richest people in MO while costing each of us more in sales tax.
It is not just the sales tax we pay on goods we use today, but on services. This so called "Fair" tax will cost each of us 10% more on all kinds of things.
Do you think your medication is enough today? How about and additional 10% thanks to Will's "Fair Tax"
Please call or write this good senator and let him know a true "Fair Tax" would be for all of those fine people at the lake of ozarks to pay taxes on those big boats.
I just received my 2013 tax return back from the IRS. It puzzles me!!! They are questioning how many dependents I claimed. I guess it was because of my response to the question: "List all dependents?"
I replied: 12 million illegal immigrants; 3 million crack heads; 42 million unemployed people on food stamps, 2 million people in over 243 prisons; Half of Mexico; 535 persons in the U.S. House and Senate and 1 useless President. Evidently, this was NOT an acceptable answer.
I KEEP ASKING MYSELF, WHO DID I MISS?
I just checked the Website for Raytown and it is up to date. The calendar has current meetings. The city has added Facebook and Twitter to send information to the residents. There is a new newsletter that is very informative. Why do you guys have to be so mean. I can understand criticism (although not made up or just not true is even more despicable) but just out and out hate and mean comments isn't the Raytown that I want to live in. Keep it up and you'll not get a charter because you are so divisive.
To Befuddled Taxpayer: I agree with you totally. I about fell out of my chair laughing!!!!!!!!!
What appears as contradictory statements on this week's blog portion of the Raytown Report caught our eye.
It is regarding the city's website.
We checked it out this morning.
The city's website is up to date as of this date.
We also checked the the city's website when we received the original post earlier this week. At that time the city's website was not up to date.
Both statements are accurate relative to the time they were posted.
Mrs. Smith,
Please read Paul's post and you will see the city is not proactive, but reactive.
I am sorry that you and Mayor Bower find those who point out on this blog or on the streets of our city the things the city should be doing (proactive), but take the position why bother until complaints start coming in (reactive).
All you have done is help prove one more reason we need the charter, which is for the recall piece.
Those of us that are pro-charter have a list that we are adding to daily of the things that we cannot do and hold this city back.
I thank you for your help in giving us just one more reason we need a charter.
Paul and Jody
I think you both might want to take a another look at the calendar and this is the thing the caught my eye that there is a problem with it, which actually comes from Mr. Walters piece about the problems at the park and that he attended a park board meeting last month. The problem is that the last park board meeting on the calendar was in May.
I am glad Mr. Walters was able to find out when the meeting was, but as for those at city hall they are doing a fine job of keep things off the website as it appears they do not want 100 of us to show up at a park board meeting like was done over the Wal-mart issue.
Keep in mind Bower keeps saying he has an open form of government so why would several people be up set with spending 60,000 a year and getting less and less information.
This 60,000 plus the 30,000 pay increase for that other department head and those tax breaks clearly says we can start thinking about not renewing some of those special taxes in Raytown. Like the transportation or public safety tax.
Personal property tax includes boats and the trailers they rest upon; two separate taxes; how funny would it be if cars and then the tires they rest upon we're taxed? As you see boats are taxed. As are farm equipment. Boats and trailers are tagged separately as well.
I have been battling computer issues after a bad Microsoft update on the 10th so have really missed many of the posts here because I am just out of time, but a couple of comments:
I have never been to Coleman Park but I wonder if it is possible to lock it when it is closed? Or at least put a lockable arm over vehicle access points similar to those that block interstate access during blizzards. Lake Lotawanna has a gate that can block passage across the dam during high water events.
Keeping a website up to date is NOT easy. I have 4 websites and it is difficult to keep track of what needs to be updated. In fact due to software issues, I have been unable to update anything for over 3 years! I suggest the city split up the responsibility by assigning a person in each department or office to be responsible for their portion of the site. If these individuals aren't technically able, it would be their responsibility to notify the IT person of changes that need to be made. Obviously one person is unable to know everything that needs updating.
Andy Whiteman
The City also has a Facebook page. They will no longer let me comment on. I find it amusing they did that.
On the City Facebook page last Tuesday night at 8:59 a man asked about the meeting Alderman Melson was going to be doing on the Fire/EMS. The information person never has answered him. I just checked it. Information is hard to come by for some.
Ms. Smith was so correct; why be mean and nasty?
Great comment! Must be very hard for one person to do it all ; and love your suggestion of a person from each department being responsible; hope that catches on!
People were blocked from a web site after giving a shout out Bout other " local" shops also people were blocked from this same we site when they agreed with the owner of the local website but said it was good to hear both sides..... Hmmm was it because they did not like the people, the local bussiness's, or just someone else's opinion??? We shall never know; also many questions were asked to back a comment by the web site owner and yet months later have yet to be addressed , so why should the city we site be any different than that one and especially why of all people should that surprise you?
Andy,
Good try but unexceptable answer when in the past we have not had issues with standing meetings being keep updated on the city calendar until we spend $60,000 for someone to keep us better informed.
Clearly this person has shown we could find better ways to spend $60,000 and once again we find the Board of Alderman doing nothing about the problem.
Obviously the $60,000 person is unneeded and Raytown was better off without her services.
Andy Whiteman
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