This is the second story in a nine-part series featuring the candidates in the city and School Board races.

There will be two seats open for the November City Commission election, with four candidates running for the seats. 

Early voting for the general election will begin in-person Oct. 15. Advance ballots will also be mailed Oct. 15. The last day to apply for an advance voting mail ballot is Oct. 28. 

The county election office at 711 W. 23rd St in Lawrence will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Oct. 15 through Oct. 24, then 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 27 through Oct. 31. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 1, Eudora City Hall and the county election office will also be open for advanced voting. Nov 3 is the last day for advanced voting, which will be from 8 a.m. to noon at the election office. 

Regular voting will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 4.

Grant High 

Current Job 

Customer service coordinator at Kaw Valley State Bank 

Community involvement

CPA president, treasurer of Convention and Visitors Bureau, trustee for Eudora Baptist Church

Why are you running for this election?

I’m running because Eudora is its own community. Eudora has its own identity, and I believe that we need to harness the power of that identity to grow from within as a community. We don’t need to be like somebody else because we’re yours, and we should be proud of that and embrace that and use that and grow with that.

What issues are most important to you? 

The issues that are most important to me, I would say probably first and foremost, would be public works infrastructure because when people pay taxes, their very base assumption is that that money is going to provide them with the best infrastructure that they can be afforded. People want their streets to be good, their water to be good. They want their trash picked up. They want sewer, you know, they want their electrical to be maintained and reliable. 

I’m kind of a back-to-the basics kind of guy. So, we have infrastructure. Safety is really important. I think we could do a lot to improve safety for particularly pedestrians in Eudora by just, cheaply, by adding some more all-way stops, lowering some of the speed limits in certain key residential areas. I think we can make Eudora a safer community with the resources we currently have without spending a lot to get there. 

Panasonic is officially open. What steps do you think the city should be taking to continue to plan for growth surrounding that? 

Panasonic has already hired their initial 1,100 people, and sources have told me that out of those 1,100 people, no one is planning to move to De Soto or Eudora. I think we should start looking inward and stop looking outward. It appears as though the impact that Panasonic will have on Eudora is negligible, and so we need to start managing our resources based upon what we already have versus what ifs. 

There is a housing shortage in the county. How should the city continue to address this? Are you in favor of tax incentives for developers like the ones being used already?

Most importantly, I think that any development that is considered in Eudora should be something that won’t change the character of the community. People choose to live in Eudora for very specific reasons. They like the small town. They like how social it is. They like the small businesses that Eudora has. It gives them that rural community feel on the edge of the suburbs. 

I have started describing Eudora as semi-suburban, because, really, you have the best of both worlds, but with the wrong development, we could lose that feel forever. I’m not in favor of over incentivizing development. I’m in favor of common sense changes to our planning and code process to make it simpler and easier to understand for builders that want to build in Eudora. 

I think we should incentivize affordable, single-family homes. I’m a big fan of the concept of putting in senior villas. Personally, I’m not a fan of apartments. I’m not against building more apartments. I just don’t want to see all apartments, especially close to existing rural and residential areas. I think that would just change the character of our community too much in a short time frame. 

I understand that certain people favor that type of development just because it’ll bring a lot of people in at once, but when it comes to development, we need to be looking at quality over quantity. I’m not anti-development, but it isn’t really fair to use the resources of people that have chosen to live in Eudora to incentivize development that they’re not in favor of. 

So, as a city commissioner, I definitely want to respect the wishes of the people that live here, because it’s their community. As a city commissioner, you’re just representing the people of Eudora.  It’s not your money, it’s their money, it’s our money, and that has to be respected.

How do you think the city should address concerns about property tax rates and the need to keep Eudora’s small-town feel? 

As far as property tax rates are concerned, unfortunately, I don’t really see what could be done in the short term to lower property tax rates at the city level. There are other governing bodies that also affect the mill rates locally, and the city can’t control those. I don’t want to see the city’s mill rate increase any, I really don’t. I think we need to, you know, try to balance the budget and make it work, and look for any potential waste, be better stewards of the tax dollars that we’re collecting. 

But I don’t, as much as I would like to say that we could lower the taxes, I don’t see how we can currently, but if we get to a place where we can diversify our tax base a little bit, then it would be a possibility. But right now, it just isn’t.

What do you think are the city’s biggest infrastructure or improvement needs?

For me, the biggest need is addressing infrastructure shortfalls in older parts of Eudora. We need to identify what infrastructure is in the greatest need for replacement in the older parts of town. We need to start prioritizing it, and we need to develop a plan and allocate part of the budget for doing that over time. 

You can’t rebuild the old part of town all at once. We can’t afford that. It isn’t possible, and it isn’t practical. It would be too much of a disturbance. But we need a plan where we’re rebuilding at least three or four blocks at a time, you know, so that we can provide everybody in Eudora with the infrastructure that all of us are paying for.

What departments within the city do you see as needing more support, funding or additional services?

I’m all about the basics when it comes to government, as we’ve already discussed. Infrastructure is really big to me. I would like to see Public Works receive more resources. I would like to see a Public Works advisory committee with local people that, you know, have served in Public Works for other communities, currently serving Public Works for other communities. We have a lot of valuable resources right here in our community that we can tap into without paying consultants to help us figure out what our priorities and needs are. But I would say definitely Public Works.

What will you do to help spur additional development in the Nottingham development? What do you see as necessary steps? 

For the Nottingham development, it’s important to me that we don’t over incentivize, you know, I would like to see market based-growth. If city resources are used to recruit a competitor for our existing small businesses, then it just creates hurt feelings and strife between the local small businesses in the city, and we already have enough of that. 

So, I mean, if the market dictates who moves in there, it’s one thing, but using public resources to recruit somebody to come in there that would compete against an existing Eudora business it just isn’t fair. However, I would like to see a business located in that area that we don’t currently have, and there are so many different types of businesses out there that we don’t currently have that would be a great fit for that area. 

Also, I wonder if we shouldn’t set aside part of that property for the expansion of Parks and Rec instead of developing the entire property. I think it would be wise to do so. Parks and Rec is currently landlocked otherwise. 

What are your views on the proposed STAR bond district to bring more sports/entertainment to town? 

I have spoken to people in state government. I have spoken to people that have experience with previous STAR bond projects. I have read testimonials related to STAR bond projects. I don’t think that it’s an appropriate project for Eudora.  Many people know that, personally, I’ve been against it since the beginning, but I’ve tried to have an open mind. And it’s just not right for our town. 

It goes back to what I keep saying about changing the character of Eudora. The STAR bond project could potentially be, and more than likely would create, a cost burden for Eudora that we would have to shoulder for decades to come, in addition to changing the character of our community. And I don’t really think the people of Eudora want either one.

With the senior community such an important part of Eudora, what do you see being needed to continue to support them service-wise? 

I have a particular fondness for seniors. I spent so much time with all my grandparents growing up. I spent so much time in the Eudora community with the seniors at church growing up, and I’ve always had special relationships with seniors, and I don’t know, I felt like I’ve always been able to relate to them well. 

I think, most importantly, we need more diverse housing options for seniors. I think that Eudora could be a great destination for retirees. It really could be, but we need to focus on conveying to developers that the seniors of this town are a priority and that we would like to see development that caters to them, so that we can not only recruit more seniors to Eudora, but that we can retain the seniors that we currently have that are looking to downsize or change their current living situation. 

There has been conversation about needing a new City Hall building. Would that be a priority for you if elected? 

As someone who has spent their adult life working inside of older buildings, I have an appreciation for older buildings. I have an appreciation for utilizing existing buildings and not building new. I would like to explore different options we have for space usage before considering the construction of a new City Hall. 

I love old buildings. I love repurposing buildings. I’m very much about repurposing and reusing resources, and so to me, a brand new City Hall is not a priority. It’s not that I lack compassion for people who maybe feel that their space is inadequate. I’d like to learn more about that, and I would like to explore what we can do. But I feel like we have some great underutilized spaces, even on our Main Street, that could be redeveloped and used as a part of our city administrative complex and exploring that further is a priority of mine. 

Overall, what is your vision for Eudora’s future?

My vision is a strong and healthy community that continues to grow while not leaving the people of Eudora’s past behind. We have a lot of people that have felt like that. They’ve been left behind, and in many ways, they have been. We can grow and change and take everybody with us. I think we have to divorce ourselves from the idea that we can’t grow without leaving the past behind. The healthiest growth, in my mind, is one where the community grows with everyone involved.

Anything you want to add?

I just want to add that I grew up in Eudora. I was very much involved in church activities and Scouts and CPA and other activities growing up, and the Eudora community did so much for me as I was growing up, and I hate for us to lose that community that gave me so much throughout my youth and continues to throughout adulthood. 

The people of Eudora, I relate to them. I feel like, no matter whether or not we agree on the issues, we have good relationships, we can sit down and talk, and we can move on, and we can work together, and we have to continue to foster that spirit here.