Photographic Art on display through October 31, 2025 at

Midcontinent Raytown Public Library

Raytown Branch

6131 RAYTOWN ROAD

RAYTOWN, MISSOURI

Take me Out

to the Ballgame

PHOTOGRAPHER

Mecee Walters

ABOUT THIS PHOTOGRAPH

For once the weatherman hit the mark!

Predictions of heavy rain at 7:00 p.m. brought a rain delay of two hours.

The sunset illuminated the back of the storm as it moved to the East.

Mecee took the photos of this impressive scene over the playing field

She asked Greg, “What should I shoot?”

Greg’s reply

"With a storm like this . . . Everything!”

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BY GREG WALTERS

A Solution to Neighborhood Speeding.

On the night of June 9th at 2:00 a.m. in the morning 100 cars slowly drove into Colman Park located at 59th Street and Lane Street. At 2:00 a.m. occupants of the vehicles pulled out their weapons and began firing weapons from pistols, shotguns and  to high powered rifles (some with "bump" stocks) into the night sky. 

The salvo continued for ten minutes. It ended when the Raytown Police arrived. Those firing their weapons fled immediately.

At this point you may be wondering what does this have to do with "Neighborhood Speeding"?

The answer is simple.

The solution engineered by Park Board Director Dave Turner and set into motion by the Raytown Park Board has ended the dangerously lawless behavior at Colman Park in the wake of what took place on June 9th.

Three sets of speed bumps were installed on Lane Street, which stretches the length of the 13 acres that comprise Colman Park. 

What happened next has proven to be a pleasant surprise.It turns our that those who like to speed through residential parks in their favorite toy, in this case their cars, do not like speed bumps. Here is why speed bumps make it impossible to hold drag races on Lane Street through Colman Park.Speed bump shorten the unimpeded driving space to an area too small to conduct "side shows". Driving over the speed bumps at high speeds can literally destroy the front steering of a motor vehicle. Speed bumps make riding a motorcycle at high speed through the park are over. As well as the illicit conduct that often  More importantly, there has been a return of young families, walkers with and without their dogs on the walking trails in the park. The number of people playing pickle ball, tennis and softball has increased. Which begs the question . . . if speed bumps can have such a positive effect at a city park. Can the same speed bumps speed bumps (or humps) be used to slow down speeders on our neighborhood streets?

Our answer is Yes

All Raytown need do is follow the lead of surrounding cities like Lee's Summit and Kansas City to see how successful such a Traffic Calming Program can be.

First, a distinction needs to be made as what we are talking about.

A proposal I intend to bring to the Board of Alderman at City Hall would be to offer neighborhoods a program of installing "speed humps" in residential areas plagued by speeding and dangerous driving practices. 

Colman Park uses "speed bumps", which works perfectly for the problems the Park had.

Speed humps (as the pictures below show) have a less radical incline for residential streets than the speed bumps used at Colman Park. 

SPEED HUMP IN KANSAS CITY ONE
HALF A CITY BLOCK EAST OF
62ND TERRACE AND WOODSON ROAD

Speed humps have a "calming" effect on traffic. This "traffic calming" works at slowing down speeders. It works in Lee's Summit. It works in Kansas City.

The genius of speed humps is that they work ALL THE TIME. You do not need police personnel to enforce the speeding because speed humps are self-enforcing. They literally teach drivers with an ongoing experience to slow down and follow traffic laws.

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Paul’s Rant! BY PAUL LIVIUS

An interesting exchange between two Aldermen at the last meeting of the Board deserves some attention. So without any further ado, we will get straight to the chase!

Park Board Director Dave Turner had just finished a report on the construction of a new skate board park at Kenagy Park. The current skate board park is over 20 years old has reached that point of "it can't be repaired any longer".

In his report, Turner said the cost of the project is under budget. But, since it is a grant, the city is not required to return the extra funds.

Ward 1 Alderman Greg Walters suggested a good use of the funds would be to install fencing on the southern most tennis court at Colman Park with fencing for Pickle Ball use. The Park Department has already striped the tennis courts for Pickle Ball.

Walters said, "The balls used in Pickle Ball are made of hard plastic. Though light in weight, they are very sturdy.

When a ball leaves a court into an adjacent court it could create a trip hazard for a player in another game on a different court. 

Pickle Ball is not a "contact sport". However, it most certainly is competitive. As in most sports, the players are concentrating on the game. A ball rolling from one court to another could be the prelude to a disaster."

After Walters finished his comments Alderwoman Bonnaye Mims asked for the floor. She said, "I am confused, I thought we were talking about a skate board park, not pickleball".

To which Greg replied . . . "we were talking about both".

Well said, Greg!

On another topic . . . 

I did some digging on the topic of speed humps and came up with some interesting facts. 

Kansas City has gone big into using speed humps to slow down speeders in many residential neighborhoods. This year the City of Kansas City is on track to install and additional 120 speed humps on residential streets. Since beginning the program five years ago Kansas City has installed close to 500 speed humps in residential neighborhoods in their city.

And that number does not include areas like Brookside, a residential neighborhood just south of the Country Club Plaza. Kansas City installed speed humps as long ago as the turn of the century (25 years ago!). 

Lee's Summit has also embraced a policy of installing speed humps in both new and established neighborhoods throughout their city.

The reason this path has been taken is because speed humps work. The Board of Aldermen would be wise to take a serious look at starting a program for Raytown.

This illustrates that speed humps are effective and popular. There is not a valid reason for not using this same traffic calming method in Raytown. 

SPEED HUMP N KANSAS CITY NEAR
THE TERMINUS OF THE 62ND TERRACE
AND  WOODSON ROAD ENTRANCE

If you run into one of your elected officials do you and your neighbors a favor. Ask them to please, please, please . . . support any initiative that would bring the safety of speed humps to Raytown neighborhoods.

By the way, anyone wanting to check out some speed humps near Raytown can view them just east of Woodson Road and 62nd Terrrace. Just take a left turn on 63rd and Woodson. Then a right turn on 62nd Terrace. You will be entering Kansas City almost immediately. The street is approximately two miles long and has four speed humps on it. Enjoy the road trip! Drive safely!

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