The RaytownOnline.com van lost its’ catalytic converter while sitting in the driveway, sometime between 3 pm Monday and 11 am on Tuesday. Apparently it only takes a minute or two with a power tool to cut the converter off. Thieves sell them to metal salvage companies for $30 to $50 each. This is going on all over Raytown, and is not limited to just the shopping center parking lots. One online suggestion was to engrave your license plate number on the catalytic converter, another was to park in well lighted areas. I am not sure how well either suggestion would work, if they can cut it off in 1 or 2 minutes, they surely can grind off any engraving and even if it is under a flood light, who is going to notice a theft that takes a couple of minutes in the middle of the night. Sounds like it is time to clean out the garage, so there is space to park the car again.
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What is needed is legislation making it almost impossible to sell or deal in catalytic converters without documentation of who is buying and selling this item and where it came from.
The Raytown School District is proud to announce its Alumni Hall of Fame Class of 2013. Hall of Fame activities are set to take place October 11 and 12, 2013.
The Class of 2013 has six inductees: Thomas Brown, Raytown South High Class of 1971; Harry Robert (Bob) Craddock, Raytown High Class of 1955; Robert Hudson, Raytown High Class of 1972; Mark McIntosh, Raytown South High Class of 1976; V. Edwin Stoll, Raytown South High Class of 1972; and Kristofer Turnbow, Raytown South High Class of 1971.
Brown is an internationally known organ, piano, and harpsichord performer. Craddock passed away in 2012 and will be posthumously inducted. He served 35 years as an educator and coach. Hudson is the founder of Cohesive Automation Incorporated, was honored as one of the Top Three CEO’s in Dallas, and is the CEO of a Top 100 Workplace in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
McIntosh is a known radio sports reporter, host, anchor, motivation speaker, and the founder of Victory Productions. Stoll is the Director of Collections for Jackson County, was a former Chairman for the Missouri Housing Development Commission, and is the Assistant District Commissioner for the Heart of America Boy Scout Council. Kristofer Turnbow is a retired Raytown and Raymore Chiefs of Police, served as a Senior Naval Reserve Officer, and is an expert in military counterterrorism.
Inductees will visit both District high schools, participate in a community luncheon, and visit a school of their choice on Friday, October 11. On Saturday, October 12, inductees will be honored guests at the Raytown Historical Society in the morning, followed by an induction ceremony at Hilton Garden Inn in Independence that afternoon.
The Hall of Fame began in 2005, and in total since that time, 58 individuals have been inducted. For additional information about the program or this year’s inductees, please call the Community Relations office at 268-7000.
The Raytown Democratic Association met on the July 18th (the third Thursday is the standard meeting date) at Las Chili’s on Raytown Road. The featured speaker was Scott Burnett, Jackson County’s 1st District legislator. Raytown’s State Rep. Tom McDonald was also present and gave his “what is happening in Jeff City” Report.
County Legislator Scott Burnett
Pictured are some early birds who showed up at about 6:15 for the 7:00 pm meeting. The meeting may start at 7:00, but the chat and chew session normally begins at 6:00 pm.
The Raytown Board of Aldermen committee consisting of Charlotte Melson, Steve Mock, Jason Greene and Michael Lightfoot meet to publicly discuss a proposal by the Raytown Fire District to take over the City of Raytown’s Emergency Medical Service.
Construction caused a gas line leak at a little before 11:30 am today. The gas leak is just South of 63rd on Raytown Road. At 12:30 pm police are diverting traffic from 63rd to 67th. Traffic was flowing again by 1:00 pm.
Eye witnesses stated they noticed a man walking quickly from the area of a white backhoe in between the Valero gas station and Sonic Drive In, have a heated discussion with other workers about a half block North of the backhoe and then that group of construction workers jog South, waving their arms and yelling for everyone to leave the area immediately.
Later investigation by RaytownOnline.com revealed that a 1/2 inch gas line had been cut by a backhoe that was doing work as part of a project to install underground Google Fiber lines on the East side of Raytown Road.
Raytown Board of Alderman meeting part 3. This is agenda item 8 through item 11. The discussion about the chart and the repeal of zoning changes reverting from the accommodations made for Wal-Mart. This segment has a lot of heated discussion.
City Administrator’s ReportFROM: Mahesh Sharma, City Administrator
Development & Public Affairs
The City of Raytown will host a table at the kick-off breakfast for the Greater Kansas City on July 23, 2013. The mission of the group is to provide safe transportation so that older and visually impaired adults remain vital to the economic and social health of our community. Every day senior and visually impaired adults face the reality that Raytown is a great place to live unless you cannot drive. Older adults want to remain independent, living in their homes and active in the community they love. How do we help make that happen? This program looks at solutions for these and other issues. We are excited to be part of this new program. The breakfast is free. If you are interested in sitting at our table please email Brenda Gustafson, brendag@raytown.mo.us.
For the past six months, Brenda Gustafson, John Benson (Development and Public Affairs) and Kevin Boji, Dave Turner (Parks Department) have been meeting to determine what the City would need to bring a farmers’ market to Raytown. They have now pulled together a group of interested parties from throughout the community to form a committee to pursue it. The committee is still in the forming and investigative stages but has great potential to bringing not only produce but community gardens and school curriculum around fresh food. Charlotte Melson, Alderman Ward 3, is also representing the Giving Grove on the committee. This program promotes donated fruit trees for the community to enjoy. If you are interested in helping this group please email Brenda Gustafson, brendag@raytown.mo.us.
If you haven’t had a chance to read the City of Raytown’s Spring/Summer Newsletter, we encourage you to get a copy from the City’s website, www.raytown.mo.us. The informative piece gives you an overview of how taxes are allocated, codes issues, safety issues and a directory for aldermen and key city departments. A Fall/Winter newsletter is in the planning stages and will have a schedule of the Parks programs included.
The City has received and approved all needed plans, permits and licenses to begin construction on the new Dunkin’ Donuts at 8820 E. 350 Highway.
The city has reviewed the construction plans is awaiting the revised construction plan for the Willow Bend Development. This senior living development at 51st and Blue Ridge will have 40 units and a community center.
The bulk of business licenses have now been renewed. About 25% of renewals have taken advantage of the new two-year option.
Now that the Board has approved the majority of the new editions of International and National Codes the planning department is updating all forms to reflect the adoption. The forms will be available on our website, www.raytown.mo.gov.
We encourage you to keep up-to-date with what is happening in the City by joining our City of Raytown Facebook Page and our Twitter account @cityofraytown.
The Human Relations Commission has worked with Brenda Gustafson to develop a PowerPoint presentation and updated brochure. Their goal is to pursue opportunities to speak at local organizations and educate the community about the group’s mission of helping our citizens and businesses. If you have questions concerning this group contact John Benson, johnb@raytown.mo.us.
Reminder; August 6 is National Night Out at Kenagy Park, 79th & Raytown Road from 5:30-8:00 p.m. The police department leads this event annually that coincides with the national program. The program strives to bring neighbors together for the betterment of their neighborhood. The night will have programs on safety, prizes and free hot dogs (while they last). For questions about the program contact Marilyn Fleming at fleming@raytownpolice.org
The meeting for the Raytown Open House at Google Fiber went well. Our residents and businesses can sign up for updates on when and where Google Fiber will proceed at www.googlefiber.com. This will also show the organization our interest. Although Google was unable to give us a definitive date for the start of marketing for our fiber neighborhoods, they have started the installation of the cable. Contact Brenda Gustafson, brendag@raytown.mo.us if you have any questions. You can also get information by following the Google Fiber blog at googlefiberblog.blogspot.com
EMS
Please mark your calendars for the Community Blood Center Blood Drive being held at Raytown EMS, August 28, 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Board, Committee and Commission Meetings, and Events
July 23 – Raytown EMS/Fire Discussion Committee 7:00 p.m.
Part 1 of 3 From opening through agenda item #3. This includes public comment on the reversal of zoning changes made for the proposed downtown Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.
Kansas City Police spotted a man wanted on Federal warrants today. The suspect fled down Highway 350 passing through Raytown. Raytown Police personnel joined in the chase. The suspect was caught just past 291 highway in Lee’s Summit.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was the featured speaker at the June meeting of the Raytown Democratic Association. The organization meets on the 3rd Thursday of each month at Las Chili’s in Raytown. The video is a portion of her speech, in which she explains the importance of a new program she created to help veterans.
Raytown Fire District is now using Kansas City Fire Department dispatching service. There is a proposal by the Raytown Fire District to take over Raytown’s EMS (ambulance) service. Readers have expressed concerns that if Raytown’s EMS service is combined, it also be automatic-assistance and result in a lower quality of service for Raytown residents. RaytownOnline.com ask three questions about the level of service KCMO Fire Department is now providing. What follows is the response to those questions.
I am in receipt of your email requesting information regarding ALS ambulances. In response to your questions;
1. What percentage of ambulance responses are ALS and what are BLS?
Because ALS/BLS responses are determined by the care provided and not by the original determinant designated by Emergency Medical – Dispatch, (EM-D), which is the system triage protocol, to answer to this question it is necessary to review patient care reports and tally the type of care provided which will require resources and staff time. However, the following information may suffice. Yesterday was a typical day. We ran 225 EMS calls for service. 68 of those calls were determined to be “Life-Threatening” calls, 157 were determined to be “Non-Life-Threatening”. KCFD responded to 100% of those 225 calls with an ALS ambulance.
2.What percentage of ambulances are staff with at least 1 EMT-P personnel?
100% of KCFD ambulances are staffed with at least 1 EMT-P
3. What are the personnel training levels numbers for EMT-B, EMT-P, EMT-I (85 & 95)
100% of KCFD line personnel are trained to the EMT-B level. The number is approximately 1100 EMT-Bs The number of KCFD personnel trained to the EMT-Ps level is approximately 170. The number of a-EMT (EMT-I) is approximately 15. (This is a pilot in the very early stages.)
Paul Berardi Fire Chief 635 Woodland Avenue, Suite 2100 Kansas City, MO 64106
It seems that a “wild” peacock has been causing a little trouble in Raytown recently. Thanks go out to Fox 4 news for allowing the embedding of their story on this.
On Monday, July 15th 2013 Google had a special presentation for Raytown at the Google Fiber offices. The presentation was polished, but did not answer the one question that many residents are most interested in. That question is “when is the product going to be available in Raytown?” On the technical side we found out that those who opt for pay service will also get a 1 terabyte Google Drive, the TV boxes will also serve as WiFi relays for better coverage and that the IP address will only be offered as dynamic.
Good afternoon. I would like to address an article that was posted on the 14th of July regarding Raytown Fire Dispatching and the EMS proposal. While well written there are a few points that need corrections. There have been several numbers that have been floated about the payment that the Raytown Fire Protection District was making to the City for dispatching services by the Raytown Police Department. The actual fee agreed upon by both sides was $50,000.00 per year. You are correct that even though the Raytown Fire Protection District is no longer paying this fee the duties of the Raytown Communications Center have changed but not diminished.
Regarding the paragraph about how dispatching is routed to the Police Communications Center, the following is the correct summation of how this is handled. The Raytown Police Department is the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for the City of Raytown. All 9-1-1 calls are routed to it through a selective router based on two things: a physical address or the location of the device placing the call. If the call is from a land line it is sent to the AT&T selective router which then looks at two items to determine where to send the call: The ANI (Automatic Number Identification) and the ALI ( Automatic Location Identification). ANI corresponds to the subscriber’s seven digit telephone number and ALI provides for an address display of the subscriber calling 9-1-1. The ALI display includes the subscriber’s address, community, state, type of service and name. If the call is from a cell phone it is routed through the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) wireless router based on the latitude and longitude that are displayed. There are two different types of technologies that are used based on the type of handset technology that each wireless carrier has decided to utilize for their company. One type of handset uses the triangulation method which utilizes three towers to determine a location, while the other uses GPS technology that is located within the handset device to display the position of the caller. The FCC requires wireless service providers to be within 50 to 300 meters of the handset location depending on the type of technology used by that carrier.
When a 9-1-1 call is connected to the Raytown Communications Center, a Communications Officer will answer the phone, ask a series of questions to determine what type of response is needed, and then either dispatch the appropriate unit or transfer them to the Kansas City Fire Department if it is a Fire incident. The transfer process takes less than a minute to complete, depending on the amount of time that the Kansas City Fire Department needs to answer the 9-1-1 call. Once at The Kansas City Fire Department it is placed in a queue for actual dispatching. Before the change in service was initiated by the Raytown Fire Protection District, the Raytown Communications Center would gather all of the information, dispatch all necessary units at the same time and respond to any request for additional resources necessary to support the response. With the current status of transferring calls to the Kansas City Fire Department, once the Raytown Communications Center delivers the 9-1-1 call to the Kansas City Fire Department the call is disconnected so that Kansas City Fire dispatchers can gather the information and send the appropriate units to the call. This could be a Raytown unit or a Kansas City Fire Department unit depending on which one is closest to the location. If further assistance is needed from any Raytown Emergency responders , the Kansas City Fire Department must place a telephone call to the Raytown Communications Center to request Police or EMS be dispatched to assist them. This slows down the necessary response of units to an incident.
I appreciate being able to respond to your article and I would be happy to sit down with you to discuss dispatching further. If you would like a tour of the Raytown Communications Center please let me know.
Click on the above links to see the agenda and web packet. There may be some public interest in one item on the agenda, the rollback of the zoning changes made to accommodate Wal-Mart.
11. SECOND Reading: Bill No. 6327-13, Section XIII. AN ORDINANCE RESCINDING ORDINANCE NO. 5453-13 WHICH GRANTED A CHANGE IN ZONING FROM NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL AND TOWN SQUARE OVERLAY DISTRICT TO NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL AND PLANNED ZONING OVERLAY DISTRICT ON LAND LOCATED AT 6200 BLUE RIDGE BOULEVARD, 10016 E. 63RD STREET & 10028 E. 63RD STREET IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THE COMPREHENSIVE ZONING REGULATIONS FOR THE CITY OF RAYTOWN, MISSOURI. Point of Contact: John Benson, Development & Public Affairs Director.
1. Money, Kansas City is providing dispatch for free and the Fire District was paying $55,000 a year for Raytown Police dispatch services.
2. Lowering our rating with the insurance companies (lower is better). ISO (Insurance Services Office) gives fire protection districts a rating of 1 to 10. Raytown’s Fire District is rated at a 4. This rating is use to formulate a PPC (Public Protection Classification) and the PPC if used to calculate rate insurance companies charge. ISO states that the average loss per $1,000 of insured property is twice as much for the worst rated communities as it is for the best rated communities. Click HEREto see the ISO manual and pay attention to page 4 that graphs out the differences.
ISO ratings are dependent on 3 criteria: equipment and men, water supply, and dispatching quality. According the the Fire Chief, Raytown has seen improvement in the first two areas since the previous rating by ISO in 1998, but lack of improvement in the 3rd area (dispatching) resulted in no improvement in Raytown’s rating of a 4. Kansas City is mostly rated 2 or 3 depending on the area of the city (with some isolated areas rated as high as 9) and the area around Raytown is mostly a 3 rating. There is a possibility that by using KCFD dispatch Raytown property owners could see their insurance rates drop a small amount when ISO gets around to re-evaluating Raytown’s rating (the last time span was about 14 years) and if the property owners insurance company uses the ISO ratings (State Farm and many other major companies are using in-house ratings and no longer using ISO, according to a local insurance agent).
As part of moving dispatching from Raytown PD to KCFD, Raytown has gone from a mutual aid status to an automatic aid status. Mutual aid means Raytown will help Kansas City in response to a requested need. Automatic aid and unified dispatch means that the KCFD dispatchers make the decisions about which units respond to which call automatically. The first month of the switch resulted in a much larger percentage of Raytown FD responding to calls in Kansas City than Kansas City FD responding to calls in Raytown. Since then, according to the Raytown FD, Raytown FD is still responding to Kansas City calls at a higher rate than Kansas City FD is responding to Raytown calls, but the disparity is smaller.
How does dispatching actually work for Raytown now? 911 calls go to a MARC (Mid-America Regional Council) center where they are routed to the appropriate agency automatically. For a land line, the address is used and for a cell phone, the three closest towers are used to determine location. Fire, ambulance, and police all are reached by calling 911. When someone calls in a fire in Raytown, the MARC system routes the call to the Raytown Police dispatcher, who then routes it to the KCFD dispatcher. With the new Raytown Police communication equipment, this may be automated to a push of a button to transfer calls to the Kansas City Fire Dept. once the nature of the call has been determined.
The recent proposal by the Raytown Fire District to take over EMS (ambulance) service in Raytown makes this issue even more complex. (click HEREfor a RaytownOnline.com article on this proposal) I have been advised by Chief Mawhirter that EMS would not have to be on automatic-aid, and could remain on a mutual-aid basis. Kansas City FD is already being criticised for failing to meet a required 90% in 9 minutes response time for ambulance service. (Click HEREfor an article on this in the North East News on this) Raytown currently opperates with a average response time of under 5 minutes and requires a report if the response takes 6 minutes, according to the EMS Director Doug Jonesi. Questions remain about how this change could be smoothly implemented. Would EMS dispatch remain with the Raytown Police, or would Kansas City FD dispatch for both fire and EMS, and split the responses so that one is mutual-aid and the other is automatic-aid?
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There is a cost savings to the Raytown FD of $55,000 a year, but Raytown Police actually still have to field the calls due to the way 911 calls are routed, they just do not get paid for it anymore. There eventually may be a small savings on property owners’ insurance rates, if they use an insurance company that still uses ISO for ratings and ISO takes less than 14 years to re-evaluate. However, based on the charts from ISO showing the difference in average loss between an area rated 3 and an area rated 4, the savings would be very small. Kansas City FD is much larger and by the nature of size and diversity of needs it must address, there are facilities, programs, and personel that Raytown could benefit from in both training and response, but do we have to be on automatic-aid status for this to happen?
Kansas City has major problems with its ambulance response time. These problems are long-standing and probably will require equipment, personnel, and upgraded facilities to fix. Splitting the type of response in a combined Fire Department and Ambulance service with a central dispatch seems to add complications. The bottleneck is always going to be the Raytown Police Dispatch, given the way 911 calls are routed. There needs to be an evaluation of the Raytown Police Dispatch. If problems are identified with number of personnel, training, or equipment, then steps need to be taken to solve those problems.
The RaytownOnline.com van lost its’ catalytic converter while sitting in the driveway, sometime between 3 pm Monday and 11 am on Tuesday. Apparently it only takes a minute or two with a power tool to cut the converter off. Thieves sell them to metal salvage companies for $30 to $50 each. This is going on all over Raytown, and is not limited to just the shopping center parking lots. One online suggestion was to engrave your license plate number on the catalytic converter, another was to park in well lighted areas. I am not sure how well either suggestion would work, if they can cut it off in 1 or 2 minutes, they surely can grind off any engraving and even if it is under a flood light, who is going to notice a theft that takes a couple of minutes in the middle of the night. Sounds like it is time to clean out the garage, so there is space to park the car again.
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