I think we (as a city) have made some great strides back to the role of a productive, fiscally responsible, and professional municipal government. I'm sure that some changes are less popular than others. So here I am to address, to the best of my ability, the concerns that ya'll might have. Obviously, I am not a candidate for this upcoming election but I will try to answer for the last two years in City Government.

By the way, I think you should take a moment to read the latest state of the city address presented at the Bonner Springs/Edwardsville Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting....

State of the City of Edwardsville
January 20th, 2008
By Heinz Rodgers, (proud to be) Mayor

In a year that was historical in our state, nation, and around the globe due to the fall of economies worldwide, 2008 was the year of investment for our community: Investment by the city of Edwardsville, investment by its private citizens, and 12.2 million dollars worth of investment by businesses and industry.

Investment By The City Of Edwardsville

I would like to qualify these top 10 efforts (in no particular order) by pointing out that, although we depend on the help and support of all city employees, elected officials, and hired professionals, Edwardsville City Hall is run with a staff of four people (five if I happen to be at City Hall). I owe a great deal of gratitude to Tammie Burgoon, Michelle Bounds, and Phyllis Freeman working diligently under the excellent Management skills of our City Administrator, Michael Webb.

#1) The City made an excellent effort in the Kansas Lottery Gaming Commission's Casino selection process that ended with the tie-breaking vote cast by the Chairman of the Kansas Gaming Review Board. That feat proved the professional and organized approach of this administration as well as our applicant.

#2) Edwardsville achieved the ranking of a City of the Second Class in the great state of Kansas. This was because of our increasing population and required evaluation of our form and type of government. After many work sessions and meetings, our City Council choose to continue with our present form of a Mayor and five Council-members elected at large with a City Administrator.

#3) We implemented a study of our park resources and resulted with a City Park Master Plan to ensure that investments in our parks will be consistent with our goals. (no pun intended)

#4) We are currently involved in a Space Study of the underutilized building that the city owns which houses City Hall offices, Police Department, as well as a few tenants so that changes will make more efficient use of that investment and will hopefully stimulate a revitalization of the downtown area.

#5) Legal Codification and formatting of our City Codes and Ordinances is currently taking place and the results should be available to everyone via the city's website by July 4th of this year.

#6) Our financial situation has drastically improved from being ¼ million dollars in the red just two years ago to showing a positive balance for year-end 2008.

#7) The developer funded Regional Stormwater Detention Basin was completed and proved to be successful in alleviating some of the flooding problems on the east side of the city which was built on our newly acquired developer-donated 38 acre tract south of 98th and Swartz.

#8) Surveying is now finished on Edwardsville drive /110th street. This is the first step in a major reconstruction project of that main arterial road. We should complete the engineering plan this year and will continue to push for additional funding sources.

#9) The planning commission has been working on updating the City's Comprehensive Plan to assure we stay focused on an orderly growth of Edwardsville.

#10) And finally, Phase I of the Woodend Road widening and reconstruction project is almost complete as soon as the traffic signals are installed. Phase I came in under budget and was funded by $1.3 million of the bonds that the city took out in 2006. The KDOT project portion of that road (Phase II), which involves the road and signals up to and including the exit ramps of I-435, will begin this summer represents investment of another $600k of those same bonds along with $165k from the county and $800k from KDOT.


Investment By Its Private Citizens

Even in these tough economic times, our citizens and homebuilders continue to invest in Edwardsville. Building permits actually went up by 17% over 2007 to 70 being issued in 2008. That includes home improvements and nine new single-family residences.


12.2 Million Dollars Worth Of Investment By Businesses And Industry

Many new and some exiting businesses recognize that Edwardsville is a good investment. Here is some examples of the larger ones from just this past year.

JC Speedy Lube's extreme makeover of the old carpet store on K-32. This was an investment of over $100k and a great effort by the owners to meet the new overlay district zoning standards.

McCray Lumber (who refurbished the old candy factory on 9th street two years ago) moved their Truss Manufacturing Division from Riverside, Missouri to the Edwardsville facility and made improvements totaling one-half a million dollars.

Kaw Valley Sand and Gravel is adding a 10,000 sq ft bagging material packaging facility to open in about 60 days. Another three-quarters of a million dollars invested.

Bonner Springs businessman, Del Coleman, built a multi-tenant office warehouse building along Woodend with up to six 2500 square foot spaces and represents a $850,000 investment.

Monosem Implement, manufacturer of pneumatic injection implements, remodeled the old Latern Building by our city park to the tune of a million dollars with plans for expansion later this year.

Plaza West finished six buildings totaling 40,000 sq ft and opened with full occupancy with a second phase to mirror image it to the west already being planned. That was four million dollars.

Okinite, the nations oldest wire/cable manufacturer (who's early customers included Thomas Edison), is due to open their new 80,000 square foot distribution facility in Midpoint Corporate Center (located in our Industrial Park) March 1st. They are relocating their Chicago facility and have invested five million dollars.


You can see we've been busy in City Hall and welcome the hard work and long hours that it takes in order to facilitate these investments from our employees, residents, and industrial neighbors. I almost forgot to mention that we also wanted to ensure a continued fair and equitable work environment for our dedicated and faithful employees by forming and adopting an official Employee Manual.

So, I would have to agree with others when they have proven that Edwardsville IS a GREAT INVESTMENT!

I have been truly blessed, honored, and proud to be your (for those of you that live in Edwardsville) Mayor and believe the city is back on the right track. There is still plenty to do to improve and it will require exploring more ways to make efficient use of the income the city receives in order to supply even better services to the citizens of our community.

I will try to make it a point to visit here more often to respond to posts. Please bear with me, as my response might not be as quick as you guys are used to here but I will attempt a response to each post.

Thank You Mayor for posting on the Island. We welcome your comments and knowledge of the inside working of the city. We look forward to further posts.

Thanx NanyMom and I look forward to replying in a constructive way!

What the Mayor left out of his list is the "ethical" issues. This city has made a leap forward and upward in areas of honesty and openness that is impossible to place a value on.
Many issues are openly discussed in council meetings now that used to be decided behind closed doors.
The various city contracts are now honestly awarded, not like it was two years ago. This is a credit to having honest people managing and honest people on the council that have the approval vote.

I wish to personally thank Mayor Rodgers for taking the time and making the effort to give us his take on the city of Edwardsville and what has happened in the last two years. I must admit that on face value I was not aware that those things had been going on. I also want to give him credit for reducing what was once a very bleak financial picture for the city into a surplus. I hope that he continues to post and that some of the council feel free to post. I also hope that those running would see the advantage to speaking directly to the people. While you may get some tough questions and possibly even some grilling on certain issues, when a person can read your response it shows many where you land on the issue, whatever that issue may be.

I would also like to stress that this isn't intended to be only about Edwardsville but Bonner Springs as well. I know that Edwardsville politics has usually captured the attention for the main part on this forum, there are many of us who live and vote in Bonner Springs elections. We would like very much to hear from our representatives as well.

And to the public, this is the place to ask any of our representatives your questions, state your concerns and/or give your criticisms of their performance. As long as this is done with basic respect you will be free to ask anything that interests you. We all know there are times when an unanswered question says more than a 12 page prepared speech.

Thank you once again Mayor Rodgers for stepping out and speaking up.

I would be very interested in Mr McTaggert's thoughts on the first rumor of this political season, the idea of combining the fire departments of Edwardsville, Bonner and KCK. In fact I would like to hear where each of the candidates for mayor of Edwardsville and the current mayor and challengers in Bonner stand on that issue.

I would also like to Thank the Mayor for posting and informing us of current things, however I must state that the City of Edwardsville's financial state is due to the work of the City Administrator Mike Webb and his expertise in working with numbers. He inherited quite a debt and has brought the City out of it's crisis era. And the Council for making an open and honest Government and as stated, bringing issues out in the open and discussing them in open meetings and not behind closed doors. The closed door should be used for Private Personnel issues, like Attorney/Client issues and employee issues, not issues that involve the community and it's people.
Also, I would like to bring forward that Mayor Rogers has not brought any NEW development or Retail into the City since taking office. The North end land 'was' a prime location to expand Retail, however, Heinz does not want to expand, Why Mayor? Would that not have helped this city and its financial struggle? Turning away the potential developers was not an acceptable act on your part, and YES a certain developer did feel it necessary to let me know that he was essentially 'turned away' from City Hall as there was no interest in the development of that land at this time.

Hm-mm, why did that happen Mayor? Do you not want our North end to expand with Retail businesses, because you live up there and want to keep the Country feel? We are very Blessed with the Industrial development in the City but need the Retail to balance the budget and get ahead with our Finances. Is that not a correct statement?

Thank You for allowing us to express our opinions and ideas freely without the threat of being attacked, as was before. This island is a blessing.

I FOR ONE NEED A GROCERY STORE CLOSER TO HOME..EDWARDSVILLE. AND I NEED PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. THESE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE ISSUE WITH THE MANY LOW INCOME FAMILIES IN THIS AREA. WE NEED SOMEONE TO LOOK OUT FOR OUR NEEDS. THE ELDERLY NEED THE TRANSPORTATION AND THE GROCERY AS WELL AS THE POOR. WE NEED A NEW BUILDING FOR OUR POLICE, COURTS AND CITY HALL. WHAT A SHAMBLE OUR OLD ONE IS. A BIT OF PRIDE. YOU HAVE THE LOCATION, NOW BUILD SOMETHING FOR THE FUTURE RIGHT THERE! THE NORTH END EXPANSION IS ALL WELL AND GOOD BUT IT IS WAY DOWN THE ROAD...FOR NOW LETS GET SOMETHING GOOD GOING FOR THE PEOPLE RIGHT HERE IN THE HEART OF THIS TOWN.
(nice to meet ya harmony..love the bear)

Right on Nanny!!I don't live out there but you hit the nail on the head.Take care of those you have before you take care of those you don't.
Heck,it doesn't have to be a Walmart(sorry Kit)maybe a Price Chopper.

Hey I think a grocery store would be great. Walmarts are easy to find, LOL!

Even a small grocery would be nice. I go to a lot of places where there isn't a big grocery anywhere close and there are always these smaller markets where a person can get bread, milk and other items. A lot of inner city dwellers live out of these markets. I would think with the surrounding residential area it would support something like this. I don't know how much good a city government can do though in getting something like that. It seems to me that it would have to come from a private business person. They may be able to help with tax incentives.

nannymom, I agree with you all the way, I was just stating that we need retail and that the mayor had turned away potential developers also,
with growth would come a very needed grocery store, even an Aldis's would be great, or another mom &
pop store. Anything that would help our people is what I was attempting to say.

The Mayor keeps saying we do not have enough roof tops to warrant a grocery store, Then start developing and bring in the people and we could get the roof tops that we need to continue growing. We do not want to be a KCK by any means, just our own small town with the proper amenities to sustain us with, and more retail will sustain the tax base for us.

give me the happy foods...heck, they have some good bargains and the people are very friendly...i just hate the location...lets get them out here too!
we had that great guy ALAN in the small store..wow what a blessing. i had 3 babies and no car at the time. i used a wagon and pulled it through the store. i couldn't get much food due to fat kids taking up all the space, haha but we went often! that man even passed me $40 out of his own pocket...that was before srs started paying a dime to help us without pulling teeth and then not enough to get buy on. i am doing pretty darn good now but i see all the poor people walking to the expensive filling station or riding their wheelchairs from the old folks home or apartments. sure the station takes food stamps but with the prices the money will not last to the end of the month. i am sorry his store did not make it...alot of us loved it and needed it. still do. i must now maintain a vehicle..very expensive even without it being old. thank goodness it is old...lower taxes and insurance rates. ha. but i would ride the bus if there was a regular one coming back and forth. from where to where? from here to legends, to bonner springs downtown, to 78th and state ave, to 63rd in shawnee and bonner walmarts and targets, and to meet kck and jo bus lines into town or to the Mo side of the river. xoxo

Hello Mr./Ms./Mrs. Harmony,

First let me make clear that the north end of our city is the targeted area for new retail development. I have always encouraged this even when I chaired the Planning Commission. I agree that credit is due to Administrator Webb along with the rest of the staff and all of our council members for great accomplishments.

North End Development:
During the last two years, we have met with quite a few potential developers interested in that area. The obvious issue for all of them is the lack of infrastructure available there. The main concern is sewers but the water lines and electrical supply require work for increased capacity. These things cost money. Big money. The approach in previous years has been to attract a large enough development that would be able to bear the brunt of those costs. This is a good plan that, to date, has not been successful.

First, you need to understand the financial situation. The city is currently extended in debt from the $5.2M 2006 bond issue that was for road improvements and a $2M KDHE loan for the sewer expansion to the western edge of the city along K-32. (That $2M would have gone a long way towards the sewer needs in the north end of the city) These debts have not been paid for (only interest has been paid) so far and the city’s payments will be increasing in the next few years. If the city were to get more loans to fund infrastructure improvements in the north now, it would drastically increase city tax rates and I doubt that is most residents’ desire.

We have worked with many potential developers interested in the north end and have completed a sewer feasibility study of the north end of the city. The complete study is available to anyone at city hall and you can have your own copy to take with you for the $20 printing cost. That study was funded by developers and shows one option that would cost less than $2M is to extend sewers under I-70 to the north and tap in to the same treatment plant that we currently use. It would serve a few hundred acre area that would bring in sales tax revenue that could put the city in a better financial position to pay off the current debt and fund the sewers that would run along Betts Creek and service most of our city. That is just one option but probably the most feasible. Keep in mind that future sewers along Betts Creek will most likely cost residents that will benefit from it in the form of a benefit district of some kind. I think that is an aspect that has not been made very clear in previous years proposals.

To address the subject of NEW development, you might want to review the latest ‘State of the City Address’ included in this thread. I will also try to post the previous year’s ‘State of the City Address’ on the city’s website for your review.

Mr./Ms./Mrs. Harmony, you speak of a developer that was ‘turned away’. Please give more detail on this since I don’t have any knowledge of anyone ever being ‘turned away’ with any questions or meeting requests be they development interests or any other interests for that matter. I have an open door policy and that applies to all. I will be happy to share details of any of those if you could be more specific. I have no other motives than leading our city on track for future planned growth and open and honest government.

Neither cities nor Mayors develop retail businesses or grocery stores. Cities develop and maintain cities. Those include roads, infrastructure, parks (and other quality-of-life features) and life-safety services. Mayors ensure that the city is responsive and receptive to developers and provide an ethical, professional atmosphere for citizens, developers, and staff and I can assure you that this administration has accomplished those things while being fiscally responsible. None of these things are accomplished without the support of a diligent City Council or a great staff and I have been blessed with both of those.

On the grocery store request: We have expressed our request for a grocery store to grocers nationwide via the Wyandotte County Economic Development Council, where I serve on the Board of Directors, as well as locally via contacts by Administrator Webb. We have even tried to approach smaller grocers that have an emphasis on locally grown produce. We have not had any interested contacts so far by grocers but vow to persevere.

It has truly been an honor and privilege to serve my community in my roles as volunteer firefighter for seven years, planning commissioner for five, and now Mayor for two years. I encourage others to do the same in serving our community. It takes everyone to share in the efforts.

I welcome your further details, Mr./Ms./Mrs. Harmony and will be happy to respond to that accusation once I understand to what you are referring.

Heinz Rodgers, (proud to be) Mayor

Mayor Ro,

Did not the City have a developer that was willing to finance the north end infrastructure and his development plan and was fought all the way, even in Topeka when a meeting took place and no support came from this City nor from it's Mayor! The developer was met with (unreasonable) obstacles throughout his entire process to develop his plan. Even while you were on the Planning Commission, you intentionally interfered.

You know well which developer I am referring to, and if your
memory is short, I can name him.

On the other occasion, a resident of this city sent a developer/Realtor to City Hall to inquire about a development plan for an area of the North end. That developer was met by 'you' and was told that there was no interest at that time to accept any development for the North end. The developer came back from City Hall and informed a very few of us of the outcome.
This was an intentional set up inquiry as many heard the 'rumor' of developers being turned away at the "front door" when they went to City Hall and showed an interest in the development of an area pertaining to the North end.

We all know that you are proud to have served our City and have the pleasure of putting Mayor on your resume, however, that does not absolutely constitute as being the best for the City.

At the time of your election, if you remember, your opponent was John Broman and the people absolutely did not want him in as Mayor as he was involved with the Administration that almost took this City down to nothing. Now go figure Mayor Ro, what choice did the people have? You can tell yourself what you want but that is the bottom line of you being elected.

Many of us had seen you in action while you were Chair of the Planning Commission and how you stopped/delayed projects, and now as Mayor, we have seen the same personality traits from you. This is not an attack, but the bottom line observation of you and how you control what you want and don't want. Everyone knows you have a Control and Anger issue and you do try hard not to express those traits while setting behind the bench. Everyone can see in your face when you get angry about or lose control of any issue. Body language does say a lot.

Bottom line, 'YOU' still have not brought any new development into this city since becoming Mayor. You have tried to take credit for some of the developments that was already in progress when you were elected. And exactly what development would suit you concerning the North end?

Now that the previous developer is unable to fight City Hall and Topeka to have his project developed, and put in the necessary infrastructure, what do we do to move forward and grow with retail sales for this City? Especially now with the recession on our door steps.

So yes, blame is on you for withholding the development of the north end and it is believed to be due to personal reasons, not politically correct decisions.

I appreciate your input on the forum, and your replies to our concerns.

Mr./Ms./Mrs. Harmony,

I am pretty sure I know to which developer you are referring. The Kansas Department of Commerce did indeed approve that project, the Tornado Tower, for STAR bond monies. One stipulation to receive those STAR bonds was for the developer to invest or gather investors to produce 20% of the total cost of that project. There seemed to be a communication problem since the developer insisted that he had secured that 20% investment but the Department of Commerce hadn’t been informed of that or been supplied with any evidence of that investment. In an effort to correct the perceived communication problem, I arranged a multiple meetings with the development team and the Secretary of Commerce along with city staff and up to two city council members (so as not to violate any Kansas Open Meeting Act laws). The initial meeting seemed to clarify any communication problems that might have existed and subsequent meetings failed to produce any of the information or evidence of the 20% investment. One option suggested was for the city to become an investor to the tune of about $70 million which would have been beyond the city’s bonding capacity and would have been a direct cost to all of the citizens of the city. This option would have been fiscally irresponsible and, in my opinion, not in the best interest of the city. So you see, like I stated before, the city is not a developer of private projects and not an investor in private projects. We are to support projects by way of supplying city services to such and assisting in securing state offered STAR bonds in this case. We, the city, as well as myself, went to great effort to ensure that all possible avenues had been explored in order to help the project move forward. In the end, lack of private investor funding is what stalled that project.

As to your ‘front door’ realtor/developer inquiry: No one has ever been told there is no interest in development at the north end or south end or east end or west end of our city. If the question was posed as ‘is there any current development happening in that area’, the answer would have been that none have progressed any farther than the inquiry stage other than the Tower Project that had advanced to the STAR bond application stage and the Casino project that had actually achieved the conditional zoning stage.

I do not take credit for any privately funded development in this city. Those developments are the result of investment of millions of private dollars and not taxpayers’ dollars.

I have no secrets or hidden agendas and strive to be forthright and honest. Thank you for your inquiries and I hope you have received specific answers to specific concerns. Feel free to visit with me at city hall or call me.

thanks for your response Mr Mayor

Hello NannyMom,

As to your comment on the city hall/police building: We are working with an architectural firm now on a design concept to revamp the city owned building to meet modern standards and to become more space and energy efficient. One concept moves the police department where city hall is now and moves the city hall offices to the unused portion of the building with a public entrance from the font of the building allowing most business to be handled when you walk in, be that court clerk business or general city business.

It will be interesting to see the final proposal and there is possible funding programs available to our city for such improvements. I hope to see something for the council to consider yet this month. It would be nice to have a city hall that we can be proud of and one that is ADA compliant. And one that would reduce our major spending on utilities while bringing up the standards of the old shopping complex.

Thank you for your comments Mayor Rodgers I appreciate your response. I would like to say again, to everyone, there will be respect shown in every question and answer of this section. So far I think we have done well and wish for it to continue. One thing we should realize is that these candidates are answering these questions as themselves, not as anonymous names.

The plans sounds nice on changes between City Hall and the PD. At the present I don't think City Hall looks that bad, but space for both I can see being an issue.

Mr Mayor, Thanks for your replies. I was wondering what happened to the apartments, sewers and new roads. Anything new? thanks

Hello Mr./Ms./Mrs. Edville,

That project has slowed to a crawl (undoubtedly due to the economic environment). The development team has already deeded over the western 38 acre parcel to the city (as per the development agreement). They have FULLY FUNDED the regional detention facility located on that parcel (that has already help to alleviate some of the flooding problems previously experienced just north of K32) as well as the completed engineering design of the Eastside Sewer Branch (from north of Metropolitan to K32) and all of the land acquisition costs for the sewer easements. (residents in that area have already been paid for their temporary and permanent easements)

The city is still benefiting from these investments and will for quite some time. With that much invested, I'm sure it will proceed, but I do not know when and would hate to speculate on things beyond our control.

I don't venture in here much,but from someone who lives a couple thousand miles away I am very impressed that any mayor would come to a website and speak to his constituants in a question and answer setting....
Kudo's to Mayor Rodgers,(even if you may not be the Mayor anymore as of this post).

Mr. Water

Thank you Water!
Heinz (devoted citizen)