Editorial
Editorial Note: Sorry for the delay
Just a quick note here from the editorial desk. We would like to apologize for the lack of information over the last couple of weeks. While I prefer not to lay out all the details of what has been happening during that time, there have been some significant family needs that have involved a majority of my time of late and unfortunately, eudorareporter.com has suffered somewhat.
I do want to thank those close to me who know about the family matters I needed to attend to and offered their support. Thank you so much.
On the positive side, we should be back in the game and bring you all the important news and events coming up. Again, my apologies for not being able to keep you completely up to date about happenings in our town. We will be filing some stories in the coming days that will fill in any gaps we have had.
Thank you for your patience and continued reading of eudorareporter.com
John Schulz
Managing Editor
Editorial: Follow up to comments about the Public Safety Building
We have had some of our avid readers write some questions in the comment section about the Council’s actions in regards to the proposed Public Safety Building at 10th and Main that is now on hold. Many people may have these or similar questions about the project and rather than address them in the comment section that may or may not be read, we thought it would be better to present in an area where more people could find out the answers.
While some of the comments have been longer, we will address the areas that pertain to specific questions.
Businessman wrote the following questions (in italics):
Was it not written that the Monday meeting was changed to Tuesday one night later ? or was it one week later ?
The meeting on March 12 was “technically” held. A quorum was not present, as anticipated, and since a quorum was not present the meeting was immediately adjourned. This is why there was nothing on the agenda of March 12 (http://www.eudorareporter.com/city-council-meeting-monday-march-12-2012/). The meeting was rescheduled for March 20. This special meeting was noted in our story abut the public safety building on March 14 (http://www.eudorareporter.com/eudora-public-safety-building-begins-to-take-on-a-look/). We had planned on posting the agenda for the March 20th meeting, but due to an email error, the agenda was not received until shortly before the meeting. We apologize for not being able to post that agenda like we normally do with all regular City Council meetings, but it was beyond our control.
I also thought that a city meeting had to be in written notice for no less than 14 days , is this not true ?
While I am not certain of any law that states a public meeting has to be announced 14 days prior and what form an announcement must be in if required (printed in newspaper of record, posted on door of City Hall, etc.), I will check into it. While we may or may not agree with things the city does, I will say that in my observations of nearly two years, they do things, without exception, within the law. I think that this needs to be a topic that should go to a public vote , not a city leader vote. This is a whole lot of money and the amount of mill increase is a very very large amount for some to absorb with everything else that is costing more nowadays.
This very topic was brought up during the discussion. Speaking in reference to a $4 million project at 10th & Main, Councilwoman Ruth Hughs said “If we were to say yes, the next thing to come out of my mouth would be: Then let the people vote on it”. Councilman Kenny Massey also asked if a group of citizens could mount a petition drive to stop the project. City Administrator John Harrenstein did state that Kansas statutes specifically allow governing bodies to build public safety facilities and those are not subject to protest or a mandatory vote. Citizens can speak to the body at a public hearing on the issuing of bonds, but in this particular situation, the public hearing has not been scheduled because the process has not gone that far.
Why now and why 10th and main st,
Why now is the fact that the current Fire Station is in such poor shape according to audits completed in late 2010. While this process has come to the point of being ready to bid, or not bid as now it seems, this idea began back in the summer of 2011. While we did not write about every step that has been taken in the process, it has been an on going process. To take an idea, any idea of this magnitude from the beginning to the point we are at, takes months of work. !0th and Main was chosen because of the major road access to the entire community for this location. Also, the land was available as it was the location for the closed (and in deep neglect) Middle School building that needed to be torn down.
why not an off street for way less money and a lesser building.
This is precisely what city administrators are going to be looking at in the coming days and weeks at the direction of the City Council. Many factors including available land, cost of land, access issues (it is the Fire Department we are talking about), and other factors will go into determining where.
and maybe include a storm shelter ( concrete building ) for tornadoes?
Christine Zimmer also posted the following on this topic:
Amen to the tornado shelters being built. After living in the trailer court for 17+ yrs and having to scurry for a safe place to be I think this should be priority. It would not just be for folks that live in trailers but a lot of people who don’t have basements either who live in slab houses could benefit from the safety this could provide. We need somewhere for a safety shelter. If Joplin,and some of the latest tornadoes does not speak volumes to this, what could?
While this is a good idea, it is very hard to put into practice. Building a shelter is easy (likely not cheap, but easy). Unfortunately, it has to be locked most of the time for security reasons. When a storm approaches, someone is going to have to be available to come unlock it. Mother Nature does not afford the opportunity to schedule storms so someone will have to be on call 24/7 and be able to be there with only minutes of notice. The next logical answer would be to say “okay, give the Police officers keys to unlock it.” A good idea, but what happens if the on duty officer(s) happen to be rescuing someone else at that moment or working some other type of incident which is extremely possible in a storm situation. They would have to drop everything (including who knows what or who) to come unlock the building.
Another situation that could happen is the one that occurred in Baldwin City on February 28 when tornadoes rolled through the area and residents of a mobile home park were not able to gain access to a newly built storm shelter. If you wish to read more about this here is a link to our friends at Fox 4 in Kansas City.
http://fox4kc.com/2012/03/07/tornado-shelter-off-limits-to-neighbors/
While I don’t want to make excuses or add fuel to the fire as to why we should or shouldn’t build a storm shelter, these are just some of the problems that could be faced.
I think we people who pay them need to get more involved in it as well.
Yes, I put this one in bold. I cannot agree more with that comment. The best way to get involved is talk to your representatives and attend Council meetings. For the day I started this site, I have said this time and time again. While commenting on a web site can have constructive outcomes, this is not the forum or avenue “to get more involved.”
I have been to 95% of the Council meetings since I began eudorareporter.com and with the exception of student class assignments, the audience for a council meeting is made up of the people with specific business on that nights agenda and, at most, only one or two interested citizens. Rarely will anyone come to these meetings just to listen to what their representatives do for them. There are usually near 40 chairs in the Council chamber for audience members and around 30 or more are usually sitting empty.
If you care about what’s going on, your city leaders need to see and hear from you in person. Comments made by a sometimes anonymous name, while interesting and good ways for the public to communicate with each other, they will not carry a lot of weight with clity leaders. Seeing a person sitting in the room, writing a letter on a piece of paper, or making a phone call are the ways to get things done.
John Schulz
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The above comments are solely those of the Managing Editor of Eudorareporter.com and do not necessarily reflect the views of staff or advertisers of this website. Those that have alternative views are always welcome to express their opinions in the comment section or by writing an email to: editor@eudorareporter.com
Editorial: Codes
Eudora News and Information – www.eudorareporter.com
The city officials of Eudora need to wake up. I have spent countless meetings listening to officials from various branches of our city government including the City Council, the Planning Commission and conversations with city officials about the codes in Eudora.
The one thing I hear about from many people in this town, particularly business owners, is that the codes in Eudora are so restrictive that businesses don’t want to locate here or in a few cases want to stay here. This has been echoed in the comment section of this website on many of the stories. City officials need to realize that, because of the code restrictions currently in place and more getting placed seemingly at every month, it is turning businesses away. While these idea behind these codes are to make the town “look pretty” (read that Johnson County-ish or Lawrence-ian), it hinders economic development.
This was pointed out very plainly at the Planning Commission meeting held this past Wednesday night. Java to Go, one of the newer businesses in town opened up on a temporary permit because of the sign moratorium that was in place earlier this year. With that moratorium in place, the building, because of its design, could not have opened without a temporary permit. Now that the moratorium has been lifted, the building can obtain what is called a Use Permitted Upon Review (UPUR) permit. Without a long explanation of the permit, this is basically what any new business needs to open their doors.
Java to Go, located in the C & S Market parking lot is owned by Erica Spurling, Spurling and her husband appeared before the Planning Commission to obtain this permit. This was a rather interesting situation since Spurling is herself a newly seated Planning Commission member. She recused herself from the Commission during this discussion due to the conflict of interest and joined her husband to support the application. Several Planning Commissioners balked at multiple issues about the current property including the fact the power of the 8 x 8 building is above ground, not below ground, lack of enough directional signage for cars using the drive up window and the setback from the street. The Commission did vote 4-1 to allow the UPUR so Spurling could continue to operate the business, but, for a time, the permit was in doubt. Had the permit not been allowed, the business likely would have shut down or be moved. This is only one example.
Kaw Valley Bank is planning on building an ATM near the corner of 14th & Church Street. This will be a drive through location containing only the ATM. There will be no other banking facilities here at least in the short term. To get the permit to build the ATM at this location, Jim Hoover, owner of Kaw Valley Bank, had to jump through several hoops to satisfy the Planning Commission with such things as enough shrubs, posts and curbing so that people wouldn’t drive through the grass instead of using the concrete pavement that will be placed to get to the ATM. The requirement of sidewalks was also discussed as possibly necessary to obtain the permit, but that eventually was not required. (It’s a drive up facility only. Why do you need to worry about sidewalks for something that is going to be redesigned and likely rebuilt in a couple of years when the bank does hopefully expand?) Again, the permit passed, but it was rather questionable as to if it would be approved.
The types of code issues are not isolated to the Planning Commission. You can refer to our story of last week about the City Council not allowing Jay Wilson to keep his quail and what hoops and, ultimately, losses he has experienced to try to keep his birds. These are all very recent examples, and are only a few examples, of codes and code issues that come up routinely. They have come up routinely for several years now.
The City recently hired Collin Bielser in the newly created position Economic Development Director. They also have a very qualified individual in Susie Pryor leading the charge as head of the Chamber of Commerce. How can these two do their jobs effectively if businesses are put off by going through largely unnecessary, costly and bothersome mountains of regulations?
In response to some of my questions in the past about codes and their restrictiveness, the following statement has been made to me by city officials, “Well, you have to have regulations otherwise you’ll have complete chaos.” I agree 100% with that statement. You don’t want someone throwing up a glorified cardboard box on the street downtown and calling it a building and opening a business in it. You do not want some shoddily built strip mall every two blocks, nor an inflatable ape in front of every store. At that same time, saying that you can’t have this sign because it hangs six inches to far over the sidewalk or your building has to be in an less preferred location “because that’s the rules, that’s the plan we put together” is detrimental to business that want to locate in Eudora.
In defense of the City Council and Planning Commission, the permits were issued for the establishments shown here as examples. We also understand that a possible ordinance change about allowing birds is going to be discussed at the next City Council meeting. These groups are not just denying everything requested or applied for. With that said, giving business and citizens the feeling they need a lawyer and/or jump through so many hoops and spend more money than originally planned to get a permit issued or ordinance varied, turns people off to wanting to conduct business or even live here.
Businesses are the lifeblood of this town and a major source of the tax base. We need some type of larger company to invest in our community and employ our citizens if you expect people to live here. Without businesses, large and small, the residents of Eudora will end up paying such a huge amount in property taxes, they cannot afford to live in the city anymore.
The bodies that govern our city need to realize this is not Overland Park, Lawrence or Lenexa. We are a small town and not a suburb. You need to think about the businesses that are trying to earn a meager income and, believe it or not, help our community grow.
John Schulz
Managing Editor
www.eudorareporter.com
The opinions expressed in this editorial are solely those of the editor. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff or advertisers of eudorareporter.com
Guest Editorial: Senator Tom Holland
Eudora News and Information – www.eudorareporter.com
Every so often we want to feature editorials from those in control of our future. They could be city, state or national leaders. They could simply be a member of our community.
We received the following editorial from State Senator Tom Holland. Sen. Holland represents the 3rd District in Kansas, which includes the city of Eudora and the surrounding area.
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Memorial Day a Priority to Kansas Legislature
This Monday, May 30th, the State of Kansas will commemorate its 143rd annual Memorial Day. It’s a day to honor the fallen and to thank the thousands of brave men and women in uniform who continue to fight valiantly to protect our freedom.
While each state recognizes Memorial Day in their own unique way, I’m proud to live in a state that actively pursues programs and initiatives that benefit our veterans and active duty military personnel.
As a member of the Kansas Senate, I proudly voted this year for a Senate Resolution recognizing the state’s 33,000 military children. These brave young Kansans make sacrifices and serve their country as much as anyone in uniform does, quietly shouldering a heavy family burden.
As legislators, we must ensure that local resources are available to help these children cope with deployment, school transfers and childcare needs.
To pay tribute to the service of Kansans killed in the line of duty, our state continues to operate a Flag Honors Program. The program allows the United States flag to be displayed at half-staff throughout the state when a member of the Kansas National Guard, Kansas Air National Guard or the armed forces is killed in action.
Also this year, the 30-member Governor’s Military Council was permanently extended through an executive order. The voluntary commission serves as a vital resource by promoting the important role the military plays throughout the state, advocating for jobs and improving the quality of life for all military families.
While our state has made tremendous strides to honor our brave men and women in uniform, we must continue working to make Kansas the most military-friendly state in the nation. Just as these brave Kansans have made our safety and freedom a top priority, their care and well-being should be one of our top priorities.
Editorial: Happy Easter!
Eudora News and Information – www.eudorareporter.com
We would like to take a moment and wish all our readers a very Happy Easter. We hope that the Easter Bunny visited all the children in town today and left a basket full of surprises and treats.
As you celebrate this special day, and hopefully enjoy time with friends and family, we do want to remind you the real reason for the day. This is the day Christians celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead.
Happy Easter everyone. May your day be full of great fun, good times, and brightly colored eggs.
