LJWorld.com

June 27, 2007

This chat has already taken place. Read the transcript below.

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.