This is the third story in an 11-part series featuring the candidates for City Commission and School Board. One story will be featured each day between Oct. 8 and Oct. 18.
Jim Kerby
Candidate for City Commission
Current Job
Work admissions for LMH, volunteer firefighter/EMT
Why are you running for this election?
I want to get involved in getting this city to advance. I love this town. This is where I was born, or at least it’s where we lived when I was born. And I’ve been back here since 2001, and I love it here. It’s quite peaceful, I think reasonably safe. You go six miles one direction, 15 miles the other direction, you’ve got anything you want to do. So I enjoy it here, and I want to help the place do some organized growth.
I’ve thought for a long time that Eudora has been poised for growth and, with the battery plant over there, I think it’s coming and don’t really see a whole lot of any plan for potential growth going on. If I’m missing something, I’m sorry, but I really don’t see a whole lot other than some talk about maybe putting a couple of things in on 20th Street, and I want to make sure that we are able to be part of the growth instead of swallowed up by the growth. I don’t want to play catch up.
The opening of Panasonic will have a big impact on the region. What steps do you think the city should be taking right now to prepare for that?
Should be looking, one, for land for growth. De Soto has already annexed within a mile of our county line and have it graded and ready for businesses to start building there, and for one, we need to start looking at where we can grow, what have we got available that we can bring into the city that we can use for any business that wants to locate here or residences, apartment buildings. We’re going to have to have a place to put people. De Soto is talking about it. Lawrence was talking about where to put people. I really haven’t heard a whole lot about it here.
Residents in town have expressed concerns both about how much taxes are and about the need to keep the small town feel for Eudora. How do you think the city should address these concerns?
We need to be looking for alternate ways to maybe pay for things besides taxes. Are there grants out there? Is there co-pays with maybe contractors, developers? Where can we be more efficient within the city government itself? Look for where there may be waste, either things that can be done different, things that can be improved upon so that instead of putting a Band-Aid on something, you know, find a way to be able to fix something right and then be done with it instead of having to go back and do things over.
There have been talks about road improvements with the RAISE grant, other needs for wastewater treatment renovations, etc. What do you see as the biggest infrastructure needs for the city right now?
Depending upon how much growth we are going to have from the battery plant over there, minus that growth,these water lines need replaced over here. There’s ancient water lines here.
Minus the plant, we need to look at upgrading the water lines. With the growth, we’re going to have to start looking at new treatment plants for the sewer. Certainly expanding on their water department, make sure we’ve got pressure to get out to whatever edge of town that the growth is going to take. That’s my first take on infrastructure is water lines. If we’re going to get growth, expanding water and expanding sewer.
What departments in the city do you see as needing more support, funding or additional services?
If we get the growth that we’re projected to get, probably about all of them. Certainly the fire department. Depending upon how much population we get, the police department. Our city utilities, they’re going to have to lay all this in the sewer lines, water lines, the power lines, so certainly those three. Parks and Rec, they’re kind of a favorite in town, but we need to see how much growth we’re gonna get before we look at expanding them. First things first, let’s make the place livable and then make it able to recreate.
What are your hopes for the future of the Nottingham development?
We need a new developer out there. This has been 8-10 years we’ve heard every year ‘Oh this is coming in, that’s coming in, we’ve got commitment from this one, this other one is looking seriously.’ What we’ve got, we’ve got a Wendy’s and we got a convenience store to move four blocks. That’s all we’ve gotten in eight to 10 years. Either our developer out there that the city’s got contracted with either needs to show some progress – I see, of course, though we’ve got Scooter’s coming in – So they need to start showing that they’re moving on things for that development out there besides just sitting back collecting an annual paycheck or we need to find somebody else to help develop it. Pure and simple.
The city is exploring a STAR Bond and bringing a sports arena/entertainment district to town. What are your views on this proposed project?
I think it’s a neat idea. I think we got things to take care of prior to that. A sports complex is gonna be great if we get the population in here. An amphitheater would be something neat because when you’ve got like the CPA, the EudoraFest, we’ve got new things that are going on. We got a monthly market downtown where we’ve got people coming in and doing little concerts, and they’re in CPA Park, but that’s not built for entertainment.
An amphitheater would be neat to be able to book people in to do concerts during some of these special events we have but make sure we’ve got the primary tasks moving first. STAR bonds, great. If we can get something, great. If we can build sports complexes, etc., but that is all meant to entertain people that are coming in.
We need to be able to have a place to put the people that are coming in first. We’ve got to be able to move them into town and give them places to work or ways to commute before we start coming up with the rest of these entertainment ideas.
The senior citizen population is important to Eudora residents. How will you support them and are there services you want to see increased for them?
I’d like to be able to have – if we can talk them into it – like the health department, Douglas County senior services maybe come over once a week, once every couple of weeks and have a place, whether it’s in City Hall, at the Rec Center, at the offices for Pine Crest, and the new assisted living out there, where the residents don’t have to figure out how to go to Lawrence to get their services. Baldwin, Eudora, we’re part of Douglas County, too, and it says Douglas County Health Department, not Lawrence Health Department. Douglas County senior services.
Let’s get the rest of the county included. Work with them to maybe give them space in Rec Center, City Hall, the offices of the different places, some place that the seniors have that’s right there, handy that they can go and get the services. We didn’t get to have it this year, but we have a health fair every year at the fire department and we have all these different agencies there once a year, presenting the resources that are available to everybody.
But we need it more than once a year and for the seniors also with the growth that we’re supposed to be seeing, it would be nice if we could get with them federal housing to somehow see if we can build more housing for seniors, housing for retirement, housing for disabled, so we have more room for these people, rather than have a waiting listing for them.
Overall, what is your vision for Eudora’s future?
Organized, planned, controlled growth. Yeah, I like seeing it small, too. It is so neat to be able to sit on your front porch in the evening and just relax and enjoy the peace and quiet, but we’re going to grow. We’re going to grow whether we plan for it or whether it swallows us up. It’s coming our direction. We need to be able to be in charge of our own growth, our own pace, our own ideas, rather than, you know, play catch up. Once it gets here and say, ‘Oh no, we need about 20 more police officers, we need a second fire station, and we need more utility workers, we need, we need, we need,’ look at what the possibilities are of the growth that’s coming and get a plan in place ahead of time how to handle it and how to be prepared for it and have it done before it gets here.
Anything else you would like to add?
I’ve been here for many years. So much of the city knows me through the fire department/EMS. I’ve gotten acquainted with a lot of the residents through that. Hopefully they know me as being an honest person. Not in this for any profit. I just want to – I love this city like the rest of the residents do – and I want to see it continue being a good place to live, a good place to raise a family and a place that we’re,10 years from now, still gonna be safe.
That’s one of the big selling points of this town is it’s reasonably safe. Do what we can to find grants, whatever we can find from government agencies, whatever. Have somebody that will look into those and see what’s available for the things that we need to do and want to do. Apply for things and see how much of it we can get paid for with assistance without having to raise property taxes because goodness knows they’re high enough right now.
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