This is the fourth 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.

Tim Reazin

Current Job 

Firefighter 

Community involvement

City commissioner/current mayor, vice president of the Eudora Area Historical Society,  coached baseball for Parks and Rec, mentoring program through middle school

Why are you running for this election?

I’m running for the same reason I’ve ran before: to maintain positive, purposeful growth. I’m hoping that we finish out some of the projects that are long-term, positive outcome projects for the community. Might not always be on the surface the most popular thing, but I like to play the long game and think what positive effects this can have on our community in 20 or 30 years.

What issues are most important to you? 

I’m still interested in community, and neighborhoods that build community, and making sure that the things that we do and the decisions we make have purposeful intent. My biggest thing is to continue our push to have a planner in the city that will help us to get better, bring in development and growth that will hopefully diversify our tax base. 

Residential will help us, because residential rooftops build retail. So my hope is that we can continue the growth with the residential side, and then the retail will see that they can come and then we diversify the tax base, and we’re not putting the tax burden on rooftops.

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

I think our history plays a part in the knowledge of what’s there with Panasonic and the ammunition plant. We had a lot of growth when the ammunition plant grew, and then the ammunition plant left, so we have to make sure that the growth that we have is sustainable if and when the Panasonic plant doesn’t become useful, or if it doesn’t go to full production and how that affects us. I think we continue down the path right now. 

I think we’re the best bedroom community in the state because of our connectivity, and I’m hoping that connectivity piece, and when we offer housing, that we draw some of those people that are driving an hour to have to work. I treat it as an opportunity, but I’m also challenged with the state not helping the community the way I feel they should. They’ve stopped a road and beautiful trails like a mile from town, and I think that they’re being short-sighted in their vision of how we can help build houses in a charming community with great schools to support that business.

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?

I think we continue to grow housing organically, but we work to build purposeful growth, not just a rooftop, but we build something that’s sustainable, that the community can use. And by community can use, I mean, it’s not always a great way to say it, but cradle to grave, we have a home that you can grow up in, and then your family grows so you move to a bigger home, and then that first starter home becomes a home for the next generation, whether it be apartment or a smaller home, and then you continue to build up until we have affordable senior-living opportunities. And that’s been part of my goal working with the Senior Foundation is to find ways for every development to have senior-built housing.  

The incentives are challenging to me. I know we can use federal and state funding. It’s harder for me to utilize local funding to give tax breaks to a developer, and the reason for that is, I think that when we give away all of our our extra money for developments, then we’re forsaking the streets that are older, the streets that were developed during the ammunition plant time, and then before that, everything north of 10th Street and their aging infrastructure. 

So, if I’m giving away dollars to a developer, I’m not helping the rest of the community, I’m helping that developer. So I would prefer that we focus on the use of our RHID [Rural Housing Incentive District] and any other federal or state grants to help with those funding opportunities. And I feel the state should come in – because of the housing need, because of Panasonic – we should have a little bit of state help on infrastructure, and we’re working towards that. 

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

I think the small-town feel is based on the community and their involvement and engagement. The property tax piece is driven by the county, and the largest tax user is the school district, which is the reason that a lot of folks move to town.

So, I don’t think we reduce that piece of it because we want to maintain the ability to repair infrastructure, to increase the amenities for town, but then also the school district is a large taker of that tax. So if we take away the burden of tax, or take away that property tax piece, then we’re really affecting the long-term piece.

My idea of keeping the small-town feel, like I said, is based on the community members, and a community is driven by those folks that live in it. So, if you feel like it’s a small town, it has a good feel, it’s because you probably talk to your neighbors and you’re involved in sports and you give back to your coach, or you’re on a committee somewhere, so you feel like it still has the small-town feel. 

And I would encourage folks to find what it takes to give them that feeling. But there’s also people in the community that don’t need a small-town feel or don’t want it. So we have to be aware of that side of it, that there’s a population that doesn’t want the city to grow, and then there’s a population that wants the city to grow because they want more amenities, they want better parks, and they want an indoor pool, and those things only come with some growth. 

I can’t put that burden on a residential rooftop and say we need to do a new water treatment plant, a new sewer treatment plant, new streets, new Parks and Rec facilities, and just expect a citizen to pay for that in their taxes. We should diversify and bring in more opportunities for that tax burden.

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

The most prevalent to me is the one we’re working on currently, is the water treatment plant. Our water treatment plant was built in 1950, added onto in the ‘70s, and then again in the ‘90s, and we are outgrown from that water treatment plant. That’s our first big piece. 

The next big piece is continuing to improve infrastructure under the streets. That’s your water, sewer, potentially electric that needs to be upgraded. So, we need to work on continuing that. We also have a need for the substation that we rent from Evergy, and that price went from $5,000 a month to $25,000 a month, and then they can charge us more as they do these repairs or upgrades. 

So, we would rather have that within our own purview, so we can manage and maintain it, which would cost us the same set amount through the life of the bond agreement so that we don’t have a risk of raising that cost for citizens. 

Other infrastructure needs, they’re coming up constantly. But we have the need to continue our trail program for connectivity for kids walking. We have the connectivity issue of new subdivisions and how those are attached to arterial lines for in and out of the community. So, I think those are things that we need to continue to work on and be purposeful in our decision making of how the streets are laid out with the developer.

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

I think the top one for me for more services is the fire department. As a 25-year career firefighter and a past volunteer here, I think it’s important that we figure out a way the community doesn’t always even realize that we’re not a paid department, that we’re driven by volunteers, which is an incredible opportunity, but the tax burden to have a full-time department is going to really rely on how we diversify our taxes for the long term, and we have a safe and sustainable fire department with enough members that those folks that are risking their lives every day are doing it for the residents, and they’re not sacrificing their lives with nobody to support them.

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

So, we’re continuing to think of creative ways to deal with it. We’ve had a few offerings I don’t feel fit the community long term, and that’s the point of that is to try to find things that would serve the community. And we’re struggling because those developers that want to come in have to make money off of a project, and when we do studies that show that our dollars are being spent in other communities, it’s harder for that developer to come in and say they’ll make money to build it. So we’re still being purposeful in our decisions. 

We want to bring in things, and we have a few ideas coming through now that we’re hoping to get letter of intents on that will give us some live-in space with residential over retail style, that will give us restaurants that we can go to, that are sit-down restaurants that the community has asked for, and then kind of diversify what we have for offerings for food, but also services. 

If we could have any of the services that people leave town for, whether it be a dentist or – we have great dentists and eye doctors in town, and we have Eudora Family Care – but if they have something else that’s needed, or pediatrician, particularly if we can bring them into town, that’s kind of a goal for Nottingham to see if there’s a spot there that fits.

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

So I think the STAR bond initiative is sometimes misunderstood, that folks think that they’re going to be spending extra tax dollars, and it’s actually just the state tax funding for that district is coming, is going to the state, so it’s being paid off by those folks that are in the development and the STAR bond district, for me, gives an opportunity to diversify our taxes in one lump. But it gives us a place for some more retail offerings, some spots that Parks and Rec can share, that the school district can share if they chose to have tournaments there, and we partner with them and the companies that are coming. 

We should have a letter of intent in October to drive the STAR bond district. So, if we have that letter of intent in the state and the lieutenant governor’s office and Commerce feel that it’s still beneficial to the state, they’ll offer that funding. But I think the big thing for people to know is that it’s not funded with our dollars directly. And we’ll have folks that come in that give a shot in the arm to our economic growth when they use that facility, and then they leave. And we’re trying to find some different routes to get folks to that spot, to lessen the impact on the community. 

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

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Ruth Hughs, who’s a member of the Eudora senior community and the foundation. Her drive and purpose has guided me in what I make decisions for, for senior-living opportunities. And every developer that we have come in for land, which we have several hundred acres of potential growth, those folks are hearing from me directly that we want an opportunity for senior housing and affordable senior housing. 

And it goes back to that answer I had before that. It’s the idea of we want a place that folks can come and raise a family, and then as their kids leave and they age out of the size of house they need that they have another housing opportunity, whether it be apartment, if that’s what they choose, or the senior cottages type of thing, with the zero maintenance lifestyle. 

So, we’re hoping that, as every development comes, we don’t have folks secluded to one part of town, but the seniors have an opportunity to live in different areas of town, and then the ways that we continue to support. I think that we’re doing that with just the interaction with seniors, and they’re allowed a voice at the table, just like anyone else, to ask for opportunities and to share things with the city.

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

I think at some point there is a need for a new City Hall. At this point, we have other infrastructure needs that are more important. If we had worked through the partnership with the library was kind of our first hope, and when that [didn’t] pan out, we kind of live with cramped spaces of the employee group in City Hall, but we’re creative about it, and the folks understand the wants versus needs, and that’s more of a want in the infrastructure and growth part of it. 

At some point, it’s going to be necessary, but if we look for things as wants versus needs, a need for us is infrastructure improvements and maintaining better housing for people, like, they come home, their water works, their lights work, and their streets are not full of potholes. So that’s to me, it’s a priority, but it’s a lower priority and more of a want than a need overall. 

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

My vision hasn’t changed. I like to say that I’m not from Eudora, but all four of my boys are from Eudora. So I’d like to see a community that thrives, that’s never east Lawrence or west De Soto. I’d like to be a community that’s sustainable, that has offerings, that brings the kids that graduate from high school and then go on to college, gives them a reason to come back to Eudora and raise a family. So, that’s my hope. 

So, we build a sustainable community with positive personal growth that makes it an attractive community for people to live or want to be, but that’s the key to it is community, and if we grow at a rate that doesn’t allow us to be charming Eudora, then we’re growing at a rate that’s not fair to the future of our community.

Anything you want to add?

I haven’t wavered from the positive, purposeful growth in the time since I started. I’ve never started with an agenda other than that of helping to maintain a community’s growth and be a voice for those that don’t choose to be. I would encourage people to reach out. 

I say that I like to grow my circle of influencers, and if folks can come to me and give me an idea that I haven’t seen, then that’s the reason that I’m elected is to run for the ideas. I’m not here to build a community that’s not sustainable, and my hope is that we continue to work towards those positive, purposeful gains.