Tonganoxie Mayor Mike Vestal will take questions about issues in his town.

Trouble

When WE voted you in WE thought the GOOD OLD BOY POLICY would stop! Why have you joined them?

Trouble

How can you appoint a city clerk and let the city clerk have the title of ASST. City Administrator?

Trouble

Why don’t the city put work that needs to be done in the city out for bids? Is’nt the money the tax payer or do you and the council think it is your money?

nonbeliever

Do IRS &/State wage reports reflect the “perk” city employees receive by driving city owned and issured vehicles to and from work–to run personal errands– such as transporting children to & from school? Some employees live several miles from town. Is there a daily or weekly log kept of miles and gas used by city vehicles? Is this not part of a salary package that taxes would be paid on?
Why after city clerk/assistant city adminstrator and the city adminstrator clearly violated KSA 21-3910–“Misuse of Public Funds” was there not an “outside” audit conducted?? Will this blantant & documented violation be addressed by an attorney generals’ investigation or just considered an “honest” mistake? Where did these (mistakenly accepted for 3-5 years) funds go and will they be repaid from the same account?
If an injuction which seeks to require open bidding on all aspects of the new swimming pool (design–building, etc) what will your response be to the architects and council after signing an illegal contract?
Why hasn’t the EAST STREET connection between 4th and 7th been constructed after having been proposed 5 years ago? Is there not a major safety issue of access to Tonganoxie’s Nursing home and newly constructed Jr. High to consider as of the utmost importance? This street would allow access to both facilites in a timely and safe manner.

kathyu

Hi, Mike. Thanks for all you are trying to do to help Tonganoxie. We need more people like you.
Reading the story on the swimming pool today, I found it interesting they are planning on a grassy area inside the pool fence. Seems like this could get very dirty and contribute to dirty water not to mention that upkeep would be constant. Has anyone thought of some other type of surface? I know there are surfaces used around swimming pools in Arizona that don’t absorb heat.

thernan14985

When will we see active code enforcement. Many locations need to be cited.

nonbeliever

Mayor Vestal,
Do you honestly feel that the majority of the past & present city officials are actually representing and spending funds to meet the true needs of this city?
Why does the council not address the most pressing needs first?
Why do we continue to ignore infrastructure issues such as streets that would allow emergency vehicles and current residents access from the north side to the southern side town—why now after the new school is in use have we suddenly discovered there are no sidewalks for the children to walk on–is it safe for them to walk in the street?

Moderator

Thanks for joining us today. I’m Haley Harrison with 6News and I will serve as moderator for today’s chat with Tonganoxie Mayor Mike Vestal.
Mike, thanks for joining us.

Mike Vestal

hello

Trouble

If the Judge on the county Road 1 comes back letting the council to decide to put our tax money out there are you for that?

Mike Vestal

welcome to my online chat

Mike Vestal

yes I would be if we had an Interlocal agreement with the county

consumer1

Mayor, thanks for taking my comment. I live here in Lawrence, and have been considering buying a home in Tongie. Tongie still has affordable housing. I am concerned the greed will spread to Tongie before I can buy a house there. I know Tongie needs to grow, but is there any way to keep the prices of housing reasonable, ie: Don’t let Lawrence Realtors buy up all the property? or even sell in the city of Tonganoxie??

Mike Vestal

We have many different prices on our homes and several of our builders make it very affordable to buy homes in Tongie. We adhere to our subdivision regulations. I believe our home town builders our very reasonable. So come out and check us out

roxanne_zarda

Hi Mike! Roxanne Zarda(Glidewell) here. How are you ? Hey my son Wyatt is wondering what’s going on with the skate park? Are we going to get one ? I figured it might be on hold with the swimming pool project.

Ya know I think if we do get a skate park that all kids should be required to wear a helmet. Hope we get one. It will keep them off the streets. And we wouldn’t have to drive all over the metro to different parks.

Have a good day Mike! See ya around! 🙂

Roxie

Mike Vestal

Yes, we are planning a skate park, we have included it in our 2008 Capital Impovement budget. The difficult part is finding a site to build it. Yes kids should wear headgear and other protection. Thank you for your interest

thernan14985

Why don’t we have an active chamber of commerce. I never hear of them doing anything. They did sponsor the christmas lighting ceremony, but they never showed up.

Why are we losing so many businesses.,

Mike Vestal

I believe we have a pretty good chamber, I know their working to market our city better. They do a good service, I believe for our community. As far as businesses go., it’s hard to pinpoint why businesses do not stay. I believe the Economy has a lot to do with it and population of our city with respect to customer base.

Chief_Tonganoxie

Mr. Mayor,
The south side of town, Eagle Valley in particular, does not have a park or playground. Is there a plan to develop a park in that area? The land south of the new middle school is undeveloped, is there a chance the city and the USD 464 could work out a co-use agreement and develop a park on that property?

Thank You,

Mike Vestal

I can honestly say I haven’t heard of any plans to build a playground on the subdivision site although it is a very good idea. I would love to work out something with the school but this would have to be a project worked out with the school board.

flowergirl

Hi Mr Mayor,
I’m just wondering if we’ve heard anything yet from Judge King regarding the
Cnty Rd 1 petition?
By the way, I think you’re doing a great job! Thanks for your commitment to our town.

Mike Vestal

Yes, just received a phone call from district court. The court has ruled in cities favor. What happens now is up to the county whether they want us involved.
Thank you for your compliment. I will try to not let voters down.

Trouble

Why is the city worker driving our city vehicles home every day? Why should the tax payer pay for their gas to get back and forth to work and let them use it for there own privite use is this one of those times where you and the council think that it is yor money your spending?

Mike Vestal

This is a policy that was adopted before I came into office, However it is NOT to be used for personal business. This may be something the Governing body needs to address. Thank You for your inquiry

Moderator

Here is part of a question posted by a reader…
“Why hasn’t the EAST STREET connection between 4th and 7th been constructed after having been proposed 5 years ago? Is there not a major safety issue of access to Tonganoxie’s Nursing home and newly constructed Jr. High to consider as of the utmost importance? This street would allow access to both facilites in a timely and safe manner.”

Mike Vestal

East st. I believe was pushed back each years by what was thought to be more higher priority projects. The bridge on Pleasant is going to be repaired an open for heavy traffic by Labor day.
The east st. project is on the budget for next year. Yes, it is important to get emergency vehicles to the south end of town and repairing this bridge is the quickest way right now to soluve problem, until our bridge funds become available. But East street will be put through also.

Moderator

We have time for just a couple more questions.

Trouble

why would you want to have any thing to do with county road1 when there was close to 400 people that signed the petition and in april 3 election only 500 people voted. Don’t you think that the people who put you in is saying put it to a vote?

Mike Vestal

I do think the county rd. 1 project is a good project, but unless the county wants us involved we won’t be. In cases where a City wants to spend money on projects without a sales tax hike they are as in all cities are able to use money from there capital improvement funds.
Before any thing can happen for us to get inolved, there will have to be an interlocal agreement between the City and county.

matt11

Was curious to see if there was any plans to help improve some of the older homes in Tongie. I see some projects going on and was curious if the city had any input or plans to help homeowners out with these projects.

Mike Vestal

There are no plans that I know of as far as our city doing any kind of urban renewal projects. Thank you for that question.

Moderator

Time for one last question…

thernan14985

When will a new police department building be built?

Mike Vestal

The project is set on the 2010 budget. there are many street projects needing to be done first. Thank you.

Moderator

I regret that our time is up and we still haven’t been able to answer all your questions. I understand that Mayor Mike Vestal is still interested in hearing from you and answering the rest of your questions….

Mike Vestal

Thank you for joining in our chat today. I still want to hear from you, the citizen, You can e-mail me at tkpd603@sunflower.com. I will be glad to answer your questions. Thank you again.

Moderator

Thank you to everyone for participating today. This concludes our chat.