Month: October 2021

Jim Walters, candidate questionnaire

Jim Walters

Name and office sought: James Walters, District 7 commissioner, Unified Government.

Age: 68

Occupation: Architect. Experience: designing sport facilities nationally and internationally, including Sporting Kansas City stadium in Wyandotte County.

Education: Bonner Springs High School; University of Kansas: Bachelor of Environmental Design; University of Kansas: Bachelor of Architecture.

Organizations, clubs, groups to which you belong: Urban Land Institute, Avanti Owners Association International

Reasons for running: Making Wyandotte County a better place to live by increasing job opportunities, increasing investment in our county, increasing the tax base, increasing the number of people living in Wyandotte County and lowering taxes. All these contribute to being able to make improvements to our community to improve livability and sustainability.

  1. Effective use of infrastructure funds. Develop strategies among commissioners and pressure staff to implement those improvements.
  2. Redeveloping and repopulating portions of our communities that have been abandoned. Public – private partnerships to make transformational changes. Incrementalism takes too long.
  3. Reducing tax burden on WyCo residents.
    a. Work with other taxing authorities within the county to reduce mill levy,
    b. Work with state to reformulate how community colleges are publicly funded,
    c. Work with the state to revise how automobile registration taxes are calculated,
    d. Increase tax base and focus on tax relief.

If you are an incumbent, list your top accomplishments in office. Lowering of the mill levy, construction of the juvenile detention facility, constructing the Quiet Zone in Edwardsville and Bonner Springs.

Have you run for elected office previously? When, results? yes, 1975, University of Kansas Student Senate, 2013, 2017 UG Commissioner. Results were awesome!

KCK school board to meet today

Athletic eligibility policy, discussion on changing school names and mascots, on agenda

The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12.

The meeting will be shown on YouTube.

The district’s eligibility policy for athletics and activities is on the agenda again. At a recent meeting, the district’s athletic director proposed a plan for high school and middle school students with a grade below C to be required to participate in a student support plan at the student’s school.

Currently, students are not allowed to participate if they have failing grades. The proposed plan would allow them to participate if they spend some time each school day, around a half-hour, being tutored before attending practice.

Some of the proposed policy grew out of situations created by students being required to stay home during quarantines, according to officials. Some of the students fell behind on their assignments when they were at home.

Three board members at a recent meeting were not in favor of loosening the requirements for athletes to have passing grades, however. The vote was 4-3 on the issue at the Sept. 28 meeting, with Yolanda Clark, Maxine Drew, Randy Lopez and Stacy Yeager voting yes, and Janey Humphries, Wanda Brownlee Paige and Valdenia Winn voting no.

Also scheduled at the Oct. 12 meeting, according to the agenda, is a board discussion about changing school names and mascots that might be considered racist.

See previous story on eligibility at https://wyandotteonline.com/kck-schools-consider-changes-to-athletic-eligibility-rules/.

Accident reported on I-70 near 57th

An accident was reported at 5:15 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, on eastbound I-70 near 57th, according to a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper’s report.

A GMC Acadia was in front of an Acura when a third vehicle cut off the Acura on the ramp from 57th to eastbound I-70, the trooper’s report stated.

The Acura swerved to avoid the noncontact vehicle and lost control, rolling, according to the trooper’s report. The Acura then struck the Acadia, the trooper’s report stated.

The driver of the Acadia, a 37-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, woman, had a possible minor injury and was taken to a hospital, according to the trooper’s report.

A 19-year-old male passenger in the Acadia from Kansas City, Missouri, had no apparent injury, the report stated.

The driver of the Acura, a 19-year-old man from Raytown, Missouri, had no apparent injury, the report stated.