City of Eudora plans sesquicentennial events

Election results

With no write-in candidate making an appearance, the three open seats on the Eudora City Council went to the only three candidates on the April 3 ballot.The most votes went to Councilman Jeff Peterson, who received 276 of the 769 votes cast.

Peterson has already spent five months on the council after being appointed by Eudora Mayor Tom Pyle to replace former council member Kevin Miller. His term will last for four more years.

Maria Nelson received 249 of the votes cast, and Fred Stewart gained 244.Stewart filed for his position on the last day possible in January, when he found out only two candidates were running for the three open seats.

– The Eudora News

Eudora ? Eudora leaders are taking steps to renovate the city’s downtown, pave the way for economic development and prepare for population increases.

At the same time, a special committee is planning the city’s sesquicentennial celebration. The major part of the celebration is tentatively planned for the first weekend in October. It will coincide with the unveiling of a bronze statue of Eudora Fish, the town’s namesake.

The statue will depict Eudora as a little girl with her father, Shawnee Indian Chief Paschal Fish, the town’s founder. The statue will be placed in the downtown CPA Park.

“I have seen the final drawing of the statue, and it is really nice,” Mayor Tom Pyle said.

The sesquicentennial celebration will coincide with the annual EudoraFest.

In 2008 the city hopes to go forward with a long-awaited project to renovate downtown. That process will include replacing sidewalks, curbs and gutters. There will be street landscaping on three blocks along downtown’s Main Street from Seventh to 10th streets. Street lighting will be replaced.

The city applied for a transportation enhancement grant from KDOT. The renovation plans are being reviewed by KDOT, and that was expected to take up to 90 days. Once approved, the city wanted to wait until next year to start the project to avoid conflicting with the sesquicentennial celebration.

“We didn’t think it would be wise to have the downtown torn up at the same time we were holding that event,” City Administrator Cheryl Beatty said.

Total cost of the “streetscape” project is estimated at $1.4 million. The grant would take care of 80 percent of the cost.

“The city’s sidewalks and streets don’t match because they are old,” Beatty said. “The landscape areas are to soften the downtown with greenery. There will be places for benches and decorative waste receptacles.”

Brick crosswalks will be built so they can be more readily identified and thus slow traffic, Beatty said.

Eudora is planning to replace old waterlines under Main Street this summer. That project will cost the city $100,000. The delay in the streetscape project will allow the city to handle the waterline project “in house,” Beatty said.

Eudora also is planning a tax increment financing district. The district will be on the east side of town and will include Intech Business Park, the planned Deer Valley subdivision and 30 acres on the northeast side of 1400 Road.

TIF is a financing and development tool that uses property taxes and other taxes generated by new development to pay for costs of construction of public infrastructure and other improvements.

“I’m a firm believer in this,” Pyle said of TIF. “It has proven to work in other areas.”

Eudorans are looking forward to the opening of the city’s new recreation center and swimming pool July 1.

“We’re on the move,” Pyle said of his town. “It’s going to take a little while, but we’re doing it.”