Updated Nov. 10.
City Commission incumbents Roberta Lehmann, Alex Curnes and Tim Bruce won another term as complete but unofficial results show them in the lead Friday.
City Commission Unofficial Results:
Roberta Lehmann – 454
Alex Curnes – 451
Tim Bruce – 397
Brian Landon – 321
James Kerby – 248
All results are unofficial until the canvass Nov. 20.
Lehmann said she is excited to return to the commission for another term.
“I think the first thing that comes to mind is – I’m grateful for all the people in Eudora who got out and voted today, and I appreciate their support and trusting me to continue the vision that our City Commission is currently working on,” she said. “I’m really pleased that the three of us are returning and I think the commission works well together, so I’m excited about continuing to work with everybody.”
Curnes said he is excited to continue connecting with Eudora people and small businesses in town. He also said he is thankful for everyone who supported him, his wife, kids and the community.
“I am honored that the people of Eudora have elected me to represent them as their commissioner. You know, the responsibility that the role entails is not something I take lightly,” he said. “I’m going to continue to focus on providing, you know, more robust services to our senior community, on building stronger connections for our small businesses and just building connections with people.”
Bruce said he is “excited to continue to be able to still represent the city of Eudora and help them prepare for what the future holds.”
Kerby said he wants to congratulate the winners tonight. He also thanked the people who voted for him and hopes to try again next time around.
“I just ask them in their decision to always keep the good of the people of the city at heart when they’re making their decisions,” he said.
Landon said, “I just want to wish the three people who won the best of luck.”
In prior interviews with the Eudora Times, all three incumbents agreed it is important to alleviate the tax burden on residents and diversify the city’s tax base by building new businesses in town. They believed projects like the STAR bond district and Nottingham development will help do this.
All three candidates support the entertainment district and look forward to the continued development of the Nottingham Center.
“When we came to the sports tourism component, that interested me from a standpoint of I want people to come here, spend their money, I don’t need a huge staff to get a decent amount of dollars in the town,” Bruce said.
To prepare for Panasonic, Bruce said it is important to advocate for the residents while also doing what is necessary to plan for growth.
“My background being in construction, I actually came up through the excavating trade, so I’ve installed a lot of sewer lines, water lines, and so I’m pretty passionate about the infrastructure portion of our community and what that looks like and how we maintain it and how we take care of it and how we plan for it,” Bruce said.
Lehmann said it is important to keep that small-town feel while still working to achieve the city’s growth goals.
“There’s no way we can grow beyond that. We are landlocked, so we’re going to have growth, but we will not be a Johnson County. It’s not going to happen. But to add more services and to have more things for the Senior Foundation to do and then the youth, families, all of that,” Lehmann said.
There are a lot of needs for city infrastructure, especially as the city grows, Curnes said. It is also important that the city thinks strategically about how growth happens to allow existing residents and businesses to thrive.
“Even if there’s a bunch of new homes or new businesses, we already have excellent businesses here in downtown. We already have folks that live in this community. We don’t want to forget the basic necessities of living in the city: infrastructure, roads, the things that people don’t want to talk about – sewer and water and things like that – we need to make sure that we’re still supporting those causes, too,” Curnes said.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected]
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