Week 2

City Hall was closed on Monday for Martin Luther King’s birthday so this week was a short one.  On Tuesday morning I attended a meeting of the department heads to discuss items for the agenda for next Tuesday night’s City Council.  At this time there was still no news regarding the funding for the Victims of Domestic Violence Program (discussed in last week’s blog).  Other issues touched upon include the need to hire one or two employees in the water billing and finance departments.    Following this meeting I attended a meeting downtown (2 blocks away) which was also attended by the City Manager and both of the Assistant City Managers.  Barbara Burns, Newton’s Community Advancement Coordinator, has taken me under her wing this week.  A retired teacher, she is quite a dynamo and a very positive, upbeat individual.  This meeting was led by Willis Heck, a member of the City Council, who is participating on a State panel looking into changing the tax structure.  Originally it was intended that tax revenues would be derived equally (1/3 each) from property tax, sales tax, and income tax.  A special panel appointed by the governor is reviewing this structure with the intent of making Kansas more favorable to attract businesses and industry.  Other members at this meeting included local bankers, representatives of the local school district, Harvey county officials, Bethel college administrators, and city officials from North Newton (a small, but separate community).  Councilman Heck chaired roundtable sessions which reviewed several proposed plans and sought suggestions to take back to Topeka.  Immediately, following this meeting was a meeting of the Downtown Newton Development Corp (DNDC) which has been recently reorganized.  Some of the members from the previous meeting took part in this meeting.  George Krivens, a local architect, led the meeting and is eager to see the DNDC take action.  Areas discussed dealt with development - financial, property, retail, and streetscape.  The Historic Fox Theatre is the main project at this time (this is quite an undertaking).  Well this was my Tuesday. 

On Wednesday I met with Assistant City Manager Lunda Asmani to discuss my involvement in upcoming projects.  He then took me on a tour of the city’s water billing and finance departments.  In the afternoon, I went with Barbara to attend a meeting of the county’s Health Initiative Task Force.  This was led by Jo Miller, Harvey County Director of Health Services.  The county is implementing a program called MAPP or Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnership.  The focus appeared to be for at-risk children without warm clothing and hungry.  There were numerous non-profit groups present as well as city and county officials.  Although cordial, it was apparent to me that these groups do not view the problem similarly, but time will tell.

Thursday was spent with the police department.  I was given a complete tour of the facilities by Police Chief Daily.  Lieutenant Murphy took me through the evidence room, where I saw meth, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana.  In the property room I saw unclaimed property (bicycles and guns) that had been recovered.  There were only four bicycles as they held an auction last month.  It saddened me to see that drugs and alcohol have become a problem in what I have always pictured as an idyllic community.  Detective Brad Celestin, a pleasant scholarly-looking young man, splits his time between the police department and the FBI.  His specialties are cyberspace crime and internet child pornography.  Adult pornography is not illegal under the amendment protecting freedom of speech.  For those of you who post videos on YouTube, I found out that the police frequently view these.  This happened when I was here with four officers viewing a fight in a public park.  As this is a small town, they had no difficulty in identifying the participants.  I am not sure whether they planned to follow-up on the incident.  My day with the police was capped off with riding with Master Patrol Officer Rousseau for several hours in the afternoon.  He was amazing!  He can spot body language that I did not even notice.  In that short time, we (he) handled two accidents and stopped two vehicles.  I learned that you can’t search a vehicle without probable cause.  He believes in trusting his gut instinct. 

This morning (Friday) I attended a Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Meridian Center (owned by Newton) along with most of the city and county officials.  The program focused on endowments and stewardship for the Central Kansas Community Foundation.  As of December 2011, the foundation has over $12 million in assets.  The Central Kansas Community Foundations serves several counties and small communities.  Later in the morning I went with Barbara to meet Patrick Johnson and Mrs. Hague at the Historic Fox Theatre to discuss the restoration needs.  As a person who is not very artistic, it was quite an education in listening to these pros discuss architecture, colors, and textures.  There is so much work to be done on this.  I learned a valuable lesson as I was listening to them…contacts are very important!!  Someone who could donate materials, someone who could supervise volunteers, someone who could lend their name to the project, someone who might provide substantial financing for the project…and the list goes on and on.  The day was capped off with a short meeting with Lunda.  I will be attending a meeting at 9:00 on Monday to discuss the coordination and integration of the city’s IT communication equipment.  This is the same thing that many of the communities in the Metro-Phoenix area are in the process of doing…eliminate the silos! 

            End note:  It is 24 degrees here today and windy, but no snow.  Thought I might document that I worked 26.25 hours this week and 30.5 hours last week for a total thus far of 56.75 hours.  Chief Daily told me today that Newton was awarded the grant funding for Victims of Domestic Violence.  Hooray!