As you will notice there a few opinion polls posted here. These polls are locked, and neither I nor any other contributors can change any other person's votes. In addition, anyone who has voted can change their vote any time they log in. I do ask that everyone please refrain from "stuffing the ballot box."
If you haven't voted please do so. In addition, I would like to hear any suggestions you may have for any other poll questions.
Walt
P.S. Please welcome JFK, John Farrell Kuhns, who has been invited to be a full contributor to this blog (he has posted a couple of comments). Several other folks have been asked to be contributors. Stay tuned.
Friday, October 17, 2008
A new voice added to the blog
I have been invited to be a direct contributor to Our Parkville MO instead of just leaving a comment or two. I understand that several other folks have been, or are being, invited to be contributors/editors. First, I want to thank Walter A. Grantham, WAG, for inviting me. I have no axes to grind and no particular causes to espouse, but I really don't suffer fools well. I see this blog as a place where legitimate discussions can be carried on, and where some of the news that never seems to make it into the local press can be passed on in a timely manner.
I feel that the most important thing happening in our beautiful town right now is the prospect of the Steamboat Arabia Museum coming to town. I was one of the handful of folks originally invited by the Hawleys to the meeting last month at the museum in the River Market. Previous to that the museum's representative, here in Parkville, first came to visit with my wife, Carol, to fill her in on the museum's desire to locate on the bluff at Park University. Surprisingly, about one week after he laid out the plans for the museum to occupy a piece of land overlooking the exact site on the south bank of the Missouri River where the boat sank. I sat in on the meeting and I can say Carol and I were as excited about the prospects as was the museum's representative. He had several pages of site plans and maps.
A week later, at the meeting at the museum with representatives of the city and the county, it was reported that the university stated they no longer wanted the museum on campus (for whatever reason). I talked to some officials at Park and they all stated they had heard nothing about it. They stated thay not only didn't know the university was no longer interested, but that they had never heard that there had been any conversation about locating it on campus in the first place. What a dissapointment! However, the Hawleys made it clear that after looking at a few other sites, including Weston, that they still wanted to locate in Parkville. There was skepticism expressed by some of theose present, especially from the county people.
Since that date, as was reported here on Our Parkville MO there is some serious movement with the city, and it seems the Board of Aldermen is involved. None of this has been reported in any of the local newspapers. It seems that some may have spoken out of turn, but I have confirmed from other sources that contact has, indeed, been made and that things are proceeding.
There are very few things I can think of that would be better for Parkville. Imagine the positive impact on the quality of life the museum would have here. This, of course, would be in addition to the positive impact it would have on the economics of our town.
I would like to hear from you on this subject.
==JFK==
I feel that the most important thing happening in our beautiful town right now is the prospect of the Steamboat Arabia Museum coming to town. I was one of the handful of folks originally invited by the Hawleys to the meeting last month at the museum in the River Market. Previous to that the museum's representative, here in Parkville, first came to visit with my wife, Carol, to fill her in on the museum's desire to locate on the bluff at Park University. Surprisingly, about one week after he laid out the plans for the museum to occupy a piece of land overlooking the exact site on the south bank of the Missouri River where the boat sank. I sat in on the meeting and I can say Carol and I were as excited about the prospects as was the museum's representative. He had several pages of site plans and maps.
A week later, at the meeting at the museum with representatives of the city and the county, it was reported that the university stated they no longer wanted the museum on campus (for whatever reason). I talked to some officials at Park and they all stated they had heard nothing about it. They stated thay not only didn't know the university was no longer interested, but that they had never heard that there had been any conversation about locating it on campus in the first place. What a dissapointment! However, the Hawleys made it clear that after looking at a few other sites, including Weston, that they still wanted to locate in Parkville. There was skepticism expressed by some of theose present, especially from the county people.
Since that date, as was reported here on Our Parkville MO there is some serious movement with the city, and it seems the Board of Aldermen is involved. None of this has been reported in any of the local newspapers. It seems that some may have spoken out of turn, but I have confirmed from other sources that contact has, indeed, been made and that things are proceeding.
There are very few things I can think of that would be better for Parkville. Imagine the positive impact on the quality of life the museum would have here. This, of course, would be in addition to the positive impact it would have on the economics of our town.
I would like to hear from you on this subject.
==JFK==
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Politics in Parkville
Well friends, last night was a good night for politics in Parkville. The Bill Quitmeier fundraiser was held at the National and the last presidential debate was on television and radio. I'd like to hear from anyone who was at the Quitmeier event; who was there, what was said, what are your impressions? I think this is a tough race for an ethical and reasonable man. He's running against an opponent who refuses to debate due, I think, to her lack of knowledge of what the job entails and her fear that she will look bad in the presence of a man who knows the facts and who really wants to keep Platte County moving along without giving it up to the developers and their lawyers.
Quitmeier has repeatedly said this is Platte County, not Flat County. Your thoughts?
On the presidential debate I was forced to catch snippets from the radio as I drove back into town from Minneapolis (I travel way too much for my family-owned business). What I missed were the facial expressions and body language of the two candidates. Once I got home I tried to watch the rerun at midnight, but sleep beckoned and I missed it. Again, I'd like to hear what you folks thought. This morning the commentators seemed to be in agreement that Obama, again, won the debate and seems to be steaming on. Comments, please.
Quitmeier has repeatedly said this is Platte County, not Flat County. Your thoughts?
On the presidential debate I was forced to catch snippets from the radio as I drove back into town from Minneapolis (I travel way too much for my family-owned business). What I missed were the facial expressions and body language of the two candidates. Once I got home I tried to watch the rerun at midnight, but sleep beckoned and I missed it. Again, I'd like to hear what you folks thought. This morning the commentators seemed to be in agreement that Obama, again, won the debate and seems to be steaming on. Comments, please.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Steamboat Arabia Museum
Well folks...it seems a certain Parkville alderman let some folks get a peek at the kitty in the bag. There is more than speculation and hopefulness that the Arabia Museum will actually be coming to our fair town. Stay tuned. Isn't this exciting?
Comments?
Comments?
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Parkville Community Development Corporation
Wow! The buzz on the street about last night's meeting of the Parkville Community Development Corporation, PCDC, is even louder than the news about the guy who was killed on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) tracks last night. It seems that the publisher of the local "newspaper" showed up at the meeting and proceeded to raise strenuous objections about projects the PCDC board was proposing. His performance was given no consideration by the board, and they proceeded to approve a program to recognize the many volunteers who have helped make the PCDC events so successful. It seems he is against recognizing these valuable people...this is completely in line with his stand to do as much harm to the psyche of downtown Parkville as possible.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
A Blast in Parkville!
English Landing, Saturday, October 4th: According the club members of the Kansas City Association of Rocketry (KCAR) this day's event was the biggest so far of the annual gatrhering of amateur rocket scientists in Parkville. Called October Skies, the event is organized yearly by H.M.S. Beagle, Kansas City's science store. The KCAR members run the entire show and provided the necessary expertise needed to flawlessly launch over 100 rockets. Beagle personnel, Leif Bahl, Bill Nedblake and John Kuhns handled the check in for all aspriring rocket scientists.
One participant's father was over heard telling another, "Isn't it great what these folks are doing for parkville?" I later found out that two bus loads of students and teachers came for the day from Turner Middle School's Science Club, nearly each student had a rocket to launch. Launches were done for prizes in two catagories. First was the "spot landing" where the participants' rockets were supposed to land as closes as possible to am R2D2 robot model, and secondly there was "flight duration." The wind wasn't usually a factor, but for some of the lighter rockets with larger engines the duration of flight was truly awesome. One rocket we watched propably landed on Joe Millers deck.
Local restaurants, including those as far away as Nick & Jakes, reported they had the largest day in months. Tommy T's owner Tom Hutsler said his burger joint had the biggest day since they opened.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Changes in Downtown
The e-mails are flying, and I am sure that there will be a newspaper publisher running stories and editorials that will attempt to make downtown Parkville look as bad as possible. Of course, as everyone says, his job is to sell newspapers and not to promote the town.
Well, here's the news for all of us: While it is true that Angelo Gangai announced that the Power Plant Restaurant and Brewery is closing indefinitely downtown Parkville still has the lowest vacancy rate of any of the business areas in the town with the possible exception of the strip center on Missouri Highway 45. The loss of the Power Plant is to be mourned as is the figure of Angelo briskly walking the downtown streets taking care of his many tasks. We saw the last group gathering at the Power Plant, a campaign strategy meeting for Bill Quitmeier. As one leaves three others are coming in.
Word has it that a book store is coming to downtown as well as a tea room. In addition the scooter/motorcycle shop is coming along and we hop we'll soon see it in operation on County Highway FF west of the Power Plant building. We can count on one hand the vacant storefronts in the downtown. We wonder how many hands it takes to count the vacant storefronts in Parkville Commons. Comments?
Well, here's the news for all of us: While it is true that Angelo Gangai announced that the Power Plant Restaurant and Brewery is closing indefinitely downtown Parkville still has the lowest vacancy rate of any of the business areas in the town with the possible exception of the strip center on Missouri Highway 45. The loss of the Power Plant is to be mourned as is the figure of Angelo briskly walking the downtown streets taking care of his many tasks. We saw the last group gathering at the Power Plant, a campaign strategy meeting for Bill Quitmeier. As one leaves three others are coming in.
Word has it that a book store is coming to downtown as well as a tea room. In addition the scooter/motorcycle shop is coming along and we hop we'll soon see it in operation on County Highway FF west of the Power Plant building. We can count on one hand the vacant storefronts in the downtown. We wonder how many hands it takes to count the vacant storefronts in Parkville Commons. Comments?
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