You can see the election results by clicking on the link on our main page.
Nothing too surprising there.
The Abrams vs. Goodwin race will be interesting. Lots of people thought Goodwin would not run for reelection to the state senate, and that Kasha Kelley would run for the office. Not too many, if anyone, would have predicted that Abrams would be in this race.
The city commission passed its budget last night. No new tax increase, but there will be an increase in your water, sewer and sanitation rates. The water increase is the fourth raise in a five-year phase of raises.
It's all gonna cost about $3 a month for the average residential customer. The sanitation - trash pickup - rates will go tup $2.25 a month for 2009 and about .25 a month for the next five years. Water and sewer will also be going up about 25 cents a month each.
They did cut the museum as expected. Now the community needs to step up and volunteer .
Also, the commission gave KACY permission to have its concert down by the levee. However, they denied them permission to sell beer there. Hockenbury, Margolius and Smith were opposed. McDonald and Kuhn were for it.
If this were private property there would not have been an issue at all.
Hopefully the show will go on, regardless.
That area is a great venue for an outdoor concert.
People can sell beer at the agri-business building and there are some other venues where it would be allowed.
A few issues here, maybe we should split it up into different posts?
Id like to say im glad to be back from vacation. Id like to.
Could have used another week. I was just getting really relaxed and settled when it was time to come back.
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Wow...thats quite an increase on sanitation rates. So let me get this straight, unless I am misunderstanding by chance, the sanitation rate increase. Right now I am paying $15.10 a month. Next year with the increase I will be paying $17.35, add the .25 cents a month for 5 years. By 2014 I will be paying $32.35 for the trash only. Not to mention the increase in water rates. Jeez
Next year with the increase I will be paying $17.35, add the .25 cents a month for 5 years. By 2014 I will be paying $32.35 for the trash only.
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no, its 25 cents a month to raise 25 cents every year.,
so add 1.25 to the 17.35 to see you would be paying 18.60 by 2014.
k, thanks for the clarification, wasn't positive I was right or misreading. Thought those numbers sounded a little off the wall.
yea what i wrote wasn't really clear.
ill make it more clear in the paper today, and maybe fix this up later on.
yep good ol stevie the new city manager tells us they have to cut services, help, spending, etc etc etc not fill vacancies but shove the work off on others and again with no raises but by gosh he got his raise why couldnt he just step into the position and say well times are hard i am already makeing city manager salary so no thank you on the raise. if the city has to curb spending, make cuts in job positions, take away employee benefits and bonuses and lower their raises, raise our water and sewer rates yet AGAIN (when we are already on the list of some of the highest water and sewer rates in the state) then why cant all this cutting and curbing start at the top with him? i dont see that he has had to do without anything but the citizens and employees are asked to do without over and over again. must be nice to be him in this town...
I couldn't agree more.
you would say that was too much money regardless of who it was being paid to. quit harping on steve. he's doing a good job as far as I can tell. cuts are hard. please tell me which one of you will be the first to step up and volunteer to give up your money to the museum or big brothers. not so easy is it to just volunteer your dollars away. so don't harp on him for it either you hypocrite. fact is everyone wants a handout. everyone wants to pay the same for services even tho the cost of providing them goes up. at least you have a job. hopefully this area will be shielded from some of the bigger waves of economic instability sweeping through other parts of the nation. you should also be thankful you don't have to pay more property tax.
city workers have donated with their benifits wages and bonus reductions- can u read? city needs help all the time because of it read the want ads while your at it. and heck yes i shouldnt be paying any more property taxes kansas is on the list of highest in the nation on that one- lucky us again i guess 100% transparency in government is much needed and glad to see them working on that the 'city manager position' has not suffered any cuts while everyone else has. its not fair to the taxpayers or the musuem or BBBS or anyone else that had to take a hit he shouldnt get special treatment like hes royalty or something he is paid by the taxpayers too- keep in mind hes not the owner or ceo of the place in this situation and it should start at the top to be fair to all the taxpayers and other employees of the taxpayers. I feel that IS the right thing that should be done- that position should be no more 'special' than any other when it comes to cuts (and rate hikes assessed because of) he KNEW when he took the job he works for the taxpayers and if he wants to be treated special he can go to work as a ceo or something in the private sector for perks like he is accepting it is WRONG for all to suffer but one selfish one -giving up the car allowance would 'only' be slightly under $6000 a year and the job would still pay almost a $100000 a year!- bet the musuem or others could have done A LOT with that money...
Did the city also cut the budget for bigbrothers/bigsisters? If so I think that is a HUGE mistake. I think in the end we'll end up paying MORE although it will be in the form of the police dept and their budget. To some kids in that program having a big is possibly the one thing that might keep them off the street and have a role model in their life. I understand times are tough for everyone and every dept BUT to cut something is that is a positive is such a shame.
THey did cut BBBS, but that wont eliminate the program.
They made lots of cuts.
City employees are getting raises, a 2 percent cost of living raise. There is also some money for merit raises, but those have to be earned.
THey did cut BBBS, but that wont eliminate the program.
They made lots of cuts.
City employees are getting raises, a 2 percent cost of living raise. There is also some money for merit raises, but those have to be earned.
James hit the nail on the head. BBBS doesn't go away as a result of the cuts. NOW it is time for YOU to step up to the plate and make BBBS the program it needs to be. Put YOUR dollars on the line and don't ask Steve for his. The city never should have taken bbbs on in the first place and as much as the museum is great and all the city never should have taken that over either.
I would like to publicly thank the 19 people besides my wife and I who voted for me in Precinct 1D. The percentage wasn't bad for a total unknown. Complacency doesn't pay.
I do not believe programs like BBBS should be supported with tax dollars. I do support the program and believe it is a good thing. I just think this should be paid for on a voluntary basis, especially in a time of an economic crunch. This will make it harder for organizations like this to operate, but if they (and other citizens) truely believe in their program they will find a way to make it work.
I know I'm probably going to burn in &*#@ for saying that, but that's how I feel. Right or wrong, I think it's another example of government being involved in things outside it's responsibility.
If the city government shouldn't be involved in BBBS, then should the state government be involved in programs like Vision or the federal government be involved in social security?
They are all programs designed to help underprivileged portions of our society.
bravo to you Keeli for having the guts to say that. good question about vision and social security. NO, we shouldn't have them for anyone who has an income over $18k per year. we need to get rid of the welfare state. people need to work if they want to eat. we have to quit coddling everyone. handouts are killing taxpayers and the handout takers alike. churches need to step up and getrdone like they used to before the Big Deal. they abdicated their responsibility and became socially irrelevant when they sat back and didn't know how to respond because of government competition at providing services for the needy.
you would say that was too much money regardless of who it was being paid to. quit harping on steve. he's doing a good job as far as I can tell. cuts are hard. please tell me which one of you will be the first to step up and volunteer to give up your money to the museum or big brothers. not so easy is it to just volunteer your dollars away. so don't harp on him for it either you hypocrite. fact is everyone wants a handout. everyone wants to pay the same for services even tho the cost of providing them goes up. at least you have a job. hopefully this area will be shielded from some of the bigger waves of economic instability sweeping through other parts of the nation. you should also be thankful you don't have to pay more property tax.
August 6, 2008 1:09 PM
give me a break he didnt need a raise that big just to cut programs and no one is asking him to personally pay for anything . its not his money its ours
and you dont tell me to quit harping on him, he is in the public eye so deal with it , maybe thats the cost of a BIG raise
an income over 18000 a year you try to live on that with 3 kids , see ya at the soup kitchen
i dont give $ to BBBS or the museum , i donate my time which cannot be given back ,
maybe you shouldn't have 3 kids if you are going to choose to be poor
"maybe you shouldn't have 3 kids if you are going to choose to be poor"
Not very nice, and quite cold hearted.
How about this: If you are dirt poor, just too lazy to work, and suckling from the government tit, STOP HAVING BABIES!
Some people do deserve to be poor because of their choices.
However, assuming everyone that is poor deservies it, is often just an excuse ... a copout so you dont feel guilty about not helping them.
Be too bad if you became poor and had to look for a handout wouldnt it. :)
I, personally, would rather give handouts to those who are trying and do not ask for them. I am less inclined to help those who ask for or demand my help. Is it just me?
Our country is a very generous one. There are many people who will volunteer their time and money to those who really need or deserve it.
if we are now going to ask the 'poor' to stop having babies, that will be A LOT of people and will in turn effect everything, especially employment needs in the coming years. Before you make statements like that, you should look up what the poverty level of income is in this country according to your own government. I myself feel that there will be a revolution in this country again soon, maybe not in my lifetime but probably the next. We now work in this country and hand over half of what we earn for taxes, we might as well be ruled by the king again (which is what caused the first revolution in this country). Of course, those with incomes far above the poverty level get to use so many tax breads designed for them that it gets them out of handing over that much and some large corporations get out of paying any at all- something is very very wrong with that. Something is also very very wrong when hard working citizens have to work for such low wages that they can still recieve assistance. Anyone working for minimum wage would qualify and many working jobs that only pay $8 to $10 per hour would qualify- and most of the jobs around here that you see in the paper pay just that. Our government positions in this country are filled with the rich and elite and they only care about (&owe favors to) their fellow equals, they could care less about the middle and lower classes in this country. We need more of the 'regular' class in government for sure, but none of us 'regulars' can afford to buy our way in to the 'good ol boys club'. Thats why they make all those promises to you for your vote and then completely forget about all of them once they get the vote- too busy repaying favors for all the campaign $$$ once they take office.
Obviously our country is too generous...to too many other countries, such as the war in Iraq. Way to much money is being spent on the war when we should be taking care of our own. Its really pathetic that in this day and age there is still people in the United States homeless and starving to death.
dear mr. editor, please take 2% of the wages of a trash man for the city here and report the pathetic amount you come up with. then take 2% of the city managers pay and report the much better amount you come up with. he just gets handed a much better $20,000 raise instead anyway, so the point would be moot i guess.... and while your at it please interview the city employees (the ones out on the streets working everyday) and see how many bonuses have been actually handed out in the last several years and what those amounts were- i am positive you will come up with mostly NONE. unless you choose to only interview the city manager (or his 'buddies' the department heads) they of course will have astonishingly higher amounts to report this year :) in times of floods and other disasters in the future, start paying attention to who shows up and works hours and hours on end because it won't be the above just mentioned as it's either not their job or they don't get overtime to do so. I guess at those times they forget that is why they supposedly get paid so much more than the little guys...
Pay of City employees are supposed to be public record. Some towns even post them on the front window of City Hall each month.
I have looked over the city pay schedule and don't see any jobs on there except for a couple of entry level positions that aren't reasonably competitive for this area. I don't get what all the complaining is about. If you worked Steve's hours out, you'd probably find out if he were paid by the hour and made no overtime he'd actually be making something on par with $20 to 25/hr and there are a decent number of jobs in the city that pay that much to those who are qualified.
Pay of City employees are supposed to be public record. Some towns even post them on the front window of City Hall each month.
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I think its on their web site, or at least you could figure it out pretty easily from the numbers on the web site.
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