November 20, 2007
We all are waking up to a brisk morning today as we head
into the Thanksgiving Holiday. I
want to thank you for your interest in the happenings in our City.
I hope this email newsletter finds you well and that you and your family
have an enjoyable Thanksgiving Holiday!
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Brittney Hills Home Owners
Association meeting. Several of
you thanked me for my email newsletter and let me know that they were
forwarding this newsletter to their friends.
If you have friends that would like to receive this newsletter
directly just send me their email addresses and I will add them to the
distribution list. It is my
pleasure to be of service.
The weekend following the Mayor’s Prayer breakfast I visited the home of a
Vietnam Veteran who had not been able to attend the Prayer Breakfast because
they and three other Vietnam Veterans had been volunteering for our school
district putting up US flags. I
brought this to Mayor Steiner’s attention and he made sure that these four
veterans received their Mayoral Medal of Honor.
I would like to thank Mayor Steiner for making sure these citizens
were properly honored for their service to our country!
Parkway Estates is a new middle to upper end subdivision
that is being built north of the intersection of Adams Dairy Parkway and
Moreland School Road. In my door to
door visits many of you have voiced frustration about the difficulty in finding
homes as you look to step up in value and stay in our City.
Homes are now being built in this subdivision that may be in the range
you are looking for. If you haven’t
had the chance I would encourage you to drive by and take a look.
With progress sometimes comes frustration.
This week the City Council heard from residents that live near the
Parkway Estates subdivision regarding blasting and open burning that had been
occurring within the bounds of the project.
I and the other council members received many emails and calls regarding
the open burning which is not allowed by our city codes.
When we asked our City Staff to investigate they asked the developer to
shut down the burning which was done immediately.
My investigation, through City Staff, found that all of the
blasting was well within the limits of our blasting codes.
However, there remained a concern because some nearby residents reported
damage to their foundations.
We agreed to put city inspectors on site for each blast and to explore the cost
of third party monitoring to verify that blast sizes are being accurately
measured.
While visiting the construction site and nearby homes I had a resident in
The Pines subdivision bring to my attention damage that had occurred to
their home as a result of the blasting.
I am working with them to make sure they are connected with someone
who can help them with that problem.
If you live near the blast site, please be certain to request a
pre-blast survey of your home. The
company to contact is Dressler Consulting Engineering Inc. in Overland Park
at 913-341-5575.
We are blessed in Blue Springs to have a professional and
responsive City Staff to help the City Council manage issues like that above.
If you get the opportunity this holiday season to drop by City Hall
please be sure to thank them for all they do to make our City great!
Last week New York NY Fresh deli opened in the Copperleaf Village Shopping
Center. I stopped by for lunch
and found that the owner was a constituent in District 1 that I had visited
with three years ago during my door to door campaign.
He shared his excitement about how the progress he has seen in the
last three years encouraged him to make this investment in our city by
opening this new business. I
would encourage each of you to stop by and thank him and his staff for
creating new options for us to dine in Blue Springs!
As many of you know, District 2 Councilman Joe Stubblefield has been
spearheading an effort called “Breath Easy Blue Springs” to implement a
stronger smoking ban in our City.
A substantial number of citizens have visited our last two council
meetings to encourage the rest of the council to get behind Joe’s efforts in
this area. Please email me with
your thoughts and comments regarding this issue at
jeff@jeffreyquibell.com.
The holes where the underground storage tanks were removed from the old
Sinclair station on North Highway Seven have now been filled.
I will keep you posted as to what may be happening at this location
as I learn more.
This
weekend I returned from representing our City at the National League of Cities
Congress of Cities Conference in New Orleans.
More information about NLC is available at
http://www.nlc.org/. At the
conference I completed the requirements for being recognized as a Leadership
Fellow in the Certificate of Achievement in Leadership program.
Programs such as these offer your elected officials the opportunity to
improve their skills to serve you, our citizens, more effectively.
the devastation from Hurricane Katrina and how New Orleans is rebuilding was a
humbling experience. The spirit of
the people working to rebuild their city was inspiring.
We saw entire neighborhoods that were still behind chain link fence
waiting to be restored. In the
lower 9th Ward were street networks where all of the homes were
simply gone.
Viewing
Councilman
Stubblefield and I joined a crew of 80 elected officials working in a
section of the city called Musicians Row where 347 Habitat for Humanity
homes were being built simultaneously.
Our crew worked on installing roofing, putting insulation in some of
the homes, organizing tools and materials for future crews, and working on
floor underlayment in several of the homes.
There is a complete picture album on my website at
http://www.jeffreyquibell.com/Photos.aspx?AlbumID=5.
Thank you for your interest in Blue Springs and for your
support. Please let me know if
there is anything I can do to be of service!