point of view

On the first day of school, a History teacher removed all of the desks in her classroom. She told her students "you can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk." "Well, maybe it's our grades? our behavior? Throughout the day no one had been able to tell her just what he or she had done to earn the right. "Now I am going to tell you." She went over to the door to her classroom & opened it. 27 Veterans, all in uniform, walked into that classroom each one carrying a school desk, putting it into place in rows & went to stand alongside the walls. By the time the final desk was in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned. They went halfway around the world, interrupting their careers & families so you could have the freedom you have. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Let us always remember. True Story from Martha Cothren, Robinson High School in Little Rock, September 2005.

Tuesday, 4pm - Community Center Quarterly Meeting; Municipal Court

Wednesday, 9am - Dry Fork Greenway progress meeting, Farmer's Markets

Thursday, 10am - Housing Authority

Friday, 6pm - Lyrics on the Lawn

Dry Fork Greenway Project is under review for a US Army Corps of Engineers 404 permit. The project replaces the N. Main low water crossing & elevates the roadway, removes exposed sewer pipe & manhole outside of riverbed & constructs new stream crossing with concrete encasement, & restores 875 LF of Dry Fork to address stream instabilities & reconnect creek to its bankful floodplain that is impacted by development encroachments & channelization. This project proposes to reduce the frequency & severity of flooding by upsizing the undersized culvert under the roadway, to address the threatened sewer pipe within Dry Fork & to provide flood storage.

Farmer's Markets (morning @ Community Center 9-11:30am & afternoon @ Hitch Lot 4-7pm)

Lyrics on the Lawn - The band playing is North Austin, along with Just Good Food Food Truck.

Celebrating work anniversaries this week - Ethan Sams, Lifeguard - 4 years; Jeddidah Watkins, Firefighter-EMT & Caroline Wenz, Wellness Cafe-2 years; Deven Bierle, Police Officer & Tim Frie, Cemetery Sexton - 1 year

• Just a reminder to visit the Comprehensive Plan project website & take the survey, your voice is important. ExcelsiorACommunityRising.com. This website will be the landing page for everything related to the comprehensive plan. Our next visioning session is geared toward hearing from our youth & young professionals.
• The council has approved an ordinance to allow backyard chickens in residential areas under certain conditions. The ordinance was a compromise between permitting chickens in the city limits & anticipating conflicts between neighbors in close proximity. Permits need to be obtained from the Police Department in advance to avoid effort & expense if locations are not approved.
• To date we are on target to complete the Lead Service Line Inventory by the October deadline, we have excavated & identified 2,095 of 4,450 water service lines, we have received 621 private responses, have 992 to go before the October deadline.
• The historical cemetery records are being converted to digital maps; the geometry of map is complete, going through to identify each plot matches records; working on columbarium area expansion to accommodate the growing interest in cremation.
• Work is 50% complete on crack-sealing streets.
• Clay County will be holding informational sessions in the fall for those interested in learning more about the Senior Real Estate Property Tax Relief program. Applications will be available for completion & submission beginning, January 2025. https://www.claycountymo.gov/523/Senior-Real-Estate-Property-Tax-Relief
• Job well done! "Thank you, Melinda, for all your efforts to bring this (CEC) together. The evening was great & I believe we made a great impression upon our visitors." Mayor. This effort is made to be the host City for the Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities Conference. Next steps: once notified, will be to get the votes out to make sure we are selected as the community. Our work isn't done yet. Thank you to Courtney Cole, Susan Conyers, Lyndsey Baxter, Sam Gilmore, Lindsey Hall, John McGovern, Lisa Morgan, Brian Rice, Gary Renne, Mark Spohn, Reggie St. John, Shannon Stroud, Stephen Spear, & our downtown businesses really made our community shine!

My first visit to this awesome town. There are lots of wonderful small businesses & a lot of interesting history. I toured a very nice hotel, The Elms Hotel & Spa. This town is worth the trip whether you are in nearby KC or across the state. Read it on "Love My Missouri Backroads"