Our Successes
Our Successes!!
May 2004 — We came together and fixed up the old bus shelter at the corner of 16th Street and Overton! We invite you to take a look at the photos we took that day!
November 2005 — As his “last great act” before moving to Arizona, former NWRA Chairperson Mark Kille finishes visiting 19 key property members along Winner Road. He convinces 16 of them to sign an agreement to form a “Neighborhood Improvement District”. As a result of this majority (we needed 13 out of 19) approval, these property owners agree to raise their own taxes (really!)… in order to fund building medians and new light poles along a 2-3 block segment of Winner Road.
The NID provides 40% of the funding. A Community Block Development Grant provides the other 60%.
The City of Independence then said they’d use TIF repayment funds (money generated by TIF development projects elsewhere in Independence) to build the desperately-needed sidewalk on one side of Winner Road. (Originally, that’s all we wanted out of this project: that sidewalk! However, the city advised us to think bigger and we’d then be more likely to win the CDBG grant money.
This sidewalk will run from Truman Road (at the north end of our neighborhood)… all the way around to the edge of Englewood, near Maywood Baptist Church (which is several blocks east of our neighborhood).
Total cost: NID $40,000 + CDBG $60,000 = $100,000 for median and lights
TIF Funds = $255,000 for the sidewalk
March 2006 — We were discussing what to do about an old, bent, eyesore of a flagpole (you can actually see part of it to the left side of the bus shelter photo above). We could not afford to replace it. Suddenly, our City Councilman, Don Reimal “volunteered” to have the Public Works department remove and dispose of that flagpole. (Public Works Director Howard Penrod happened to be at that meeting.) The flagpole was removed shortly after this meeting.
October 5, 2006 — Ground finally breaks on the “Winner Road Project”!
April 28, 2007 — Worked cooperatively with the Englewood Business Association, the Maywood Watch Dogs Neighborhood Watch, Bristol #5 Neighborhood Watch, and the Englewood Gardens… to paint over the graffiti-covered railroad bridge at 18th and Ash!
Photos of this event are viewable in our image gallery!
June 2007 – March 2008 — Represented our neighborhood in multiple public meetings with the City, where City Staff wanted to work with us to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to each neighborhood. This project was called “The Great Northwest Independence Initiative”.
Although some of the information obtained from these meetings was “nice to see on paper”, as I type this (January 2009), in retrospect, it was a waste of time. Most of the “to do list” items that the city came up for itself were things it was already doing. No public input was allowed on building that list of solutions. Nothing was done about the whole thing for months afterward, until the person in-charge finally took another position in another city. The person who took over his position has done nothing with that “to do list”. Nor have meetings with neighborhood representatives continued. The whole thing is dead. This may be due to the fact that the new person is unaware of that project….as a result of a poor transition of knowledge between the incoming and outgoing personnel. However, the project was going nowhere months prior to that transition.
August 2007 — Worked heavily with other small groups to perform an amazing feat!: We collected 10,000 signatures on a petition in just 14 days, during the hottest part of the year! This petition was requesting that an issue be placed on the November ballot: We want people in Independence and Kansas City to vote on allowing the 7 schools that are in the KCMO School District, but physically lie within the City of Independence…to be taken over by / brought into the Independence School District.
September – November 4, 2007 — Worked to lobby our neighbors and all of Independence and Kansas City to vote YES to the transfer of seven schools from the Kansas City School District to the Independence School District. In the end, we were thrilled to see “big success”: Not only did folks in the Independence School District vote to approve this transfer, folks in the Kansas City Missouri School District voted to approve it as well! (The “Neighbors of Winner Road” celebrated this together with “Taco Night”!! )
April – May 2008 — Worked with the “Englewood Business Association to raise money to purchase U.S. flags and flag poles for the new “old-fashioned-looking” street lights that now run along Winner Road, from Chrysler to Truman. These flags were hung in time for Flag Day. We raised money for these flags by giving a portion from our annual garage sale profits, plus we promoted individual sponsorships ($100) of flags and flag poles.
A bit later, the EBA alternated some of these flags with banners promoting the Independence School District! This was done in time for the day when the seven schools that we took ownership of from the Kansas City Missouri School District were officially brought into the Independence School District!
May 5, 2008 — Won one of the City’s Annual “Hickman Preservation Awards” for our sidewalk / median / new streetlights project! These awards are given out annually by the Historic Preservation Department. We won in the category of “Outstanding Visual Enhancement”.
September 2008 — This year’s Annual “Block Party” was a hit! We tried having it at a new location. We were very happy to see some new families. The kids were the “life of the party!”
December 2008 – January 2009 — Successfully put up resistance to a developer who wanted to buy a piece of property and build a private prison on it! We were among the first people to hear of this proposal. This property directly-bordered private homes in the neighborhood that is just south of our neighborhood. The “Neighbors of Winner Road” immediately created a web page and an email mailing list on the subject. We also immediately emailed all of our contacts.
The developer tried to “sneak this through” during and right after Christmas. A rezoning of the land and a special-use permit were required in order for the developer to proceed. He was only required by law to notify any property owners living within 185 feet (about 20 people).
We went door-to-door, delivering flyers about this. We contacted public officials and made our opinion known. And, in the end, due to public pressure, the developer withdrew his application for the rezoning and special-use permit! The people had prevailed and young families had been protected!
Here is an ARCHIVED COPY of the central webpage that we kept for information on this issue, while it was going on.
September 2009 – Successfully challenged a landlord who wanted the city to change the zoning rules to allow him to turn four duplexes on one property into four duplexes on four properties. The lots would have been made way too small. Plus, we were totally against the city doing any “favors” for an out-of-town landlord whose property had a history of code violations.
Even more outrageous… at the same time that this landlord was lobbying the city for a favor, this landlord was allowing a burned-out duplex to remain in existence for nine months!
Here are some photos:
http://www.winnerneighbors.org/images/burned_duplex_1.jpg
http://www.winnerneighbors.org/images/burned_duplex_3.jpg
The end result of our battle was that the property is now divided into three lots instead of four, so a slight compromise for the landlord. However, another result… a blessing that we really did not expect… was that the city ruled that the burned-down duplex could NOT be rebuilt. (The reason for this was that in order to make the three lots, that fourth one became a part of #3.)
September 2009 – Had a FANTASTIC turn-out at our neighborhood block party! There were approximately 50 people who attended. It was a lot of fun!