Free complimentary copy May 20, 2016 • Volume 3, No. 30
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Raytown’s first outdoor graduation ceremonies a success
By Kris Collins Despite a daunting forecast earlier in the week, the Raytown C-2 School District successfully held its first outdoor graduation ceremo-
nies for Raytown High School and Raytown South High School seniors on Monday and Tuesday evenings. The rain stopped Monday in time for Raytown High’s ceremony and after wiping down a few wet
seats, the ceremony went off without a hitch, said Brian Huff, assistant superintendent of secondary education. “We had a window of no rain from about 6 o’clock until about
8:30,” he said. “That gave us just enough time to get all the seats dried off … We handed out about 1,000 towels for everyone to wipe their seats down. It went well. It was a little chilly, but the ceremony
Photos by R.C. Jones
went fabulously.” Huff said Raytown South’s ceremony was particularly fun because the weather cooperated. “It was sunny and beautiful and
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Raytown EMS, KC Fire mutual aid under examination aBy Kris Collins The mutual aid agreement for emergency medical services between Raytown EMS and the Kansas City Fire Department is getting a little too one-sided, according to Kansas City Fire Department Chief Paul Berardi. Mutual aid agreements are made between agencies so that an
emergency vehicle will respond to a call when call volume in one jurisdiction exceeds an agency’s resources. When Raytown EMS receives more calls than its two ambulances, which are staffed 24 hours a day, can handle, the agency reaches out to surrounding jurisdictions in order of proximity to request mutual aid. According to figures provided
by Berardi, the Kansas City Fire Department, under which the emergency services are operated, responded to mutual aid calls in Raytown 239 times in 2013, 250 times in 2015 and 322 times in 2015. Doug Jonesi, director of Raytown EMS, shows Raytown requested mutual aid 215 times in 2015. As of May 17 of this year, Raytown has requested mutual aid from Kansas
City 72 times. Berardi said Kansas City has requested mutual aid from Raytown once since 2013. “We always like it to be balanced,” Berardi said. “That’s why it works best, if it’s mutual. Then we can rely on each other. It’s the most efficient, best way to do that ... It obviously puts a burden on us if we can’t rely on them to share.” Berardi sees the imbalance as a
staffing issue and said his department will have to re-evaluate the mutual aid agreement if mutual aid requests remain at a high volume. Jonesi contends the mutual aid requests are a result of call volume, not staffing shortages. “The volume of mutual aid requests that we make is not even
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Raytown development director hired in Marshfield
John Benson
By Kris Collins John Benson, Raytown director of development and public affairs, will leave his position with the city in June to achieve a career goal of becoming a city administrator.
Benson, who has worked for Raytown for 14 years, submitted his resignation on Monday. He will be the administrator for the city of Marshfield, which lies just outside of Springfield in southwest Missouri. Benson’s last day on the job in Raytown will be June 17. “I love working in Raytown,” Benson said. “Staff, elected officials, and community members and other entities have been great. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of great individuals on a lot of great projects to move the city forward. That’s enough to cause hesitation on any job offer. I’ve been honored to be involved. My heart is here and wanting to stay involved in the city of Raytown. I’ve been here 14 years. The longer you’re in a place, the deeper the roots get. That made the decision to leave
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that much harder.” Benson graduated with a master’s in public administration two years ago and has since been looking for an opportunity to fill the highest staff role in a municipality. Benson was one of three finalist for such a position in Fergus Falls, Minnesota in February and he was named a finalist for city administrator in Marysville, Kansas earlier this month. He withdrew from the race in Marysville when he was offered the job in Marshfield. “I’ve been selective on the community and size,” Benson said. “I haven’t been a city administrator so size and population of a community is a factor and what their community is looking for in a city administrator and how that compares to my background.” Robert Williams, mayor of Marshfield, said Benson was se-
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lected among seven finalists. “We looked at his 29 years of experience, his education and obviously through interviewing and contact, we determined that it basically matches where we’re at in Marshfield and where we’re going,” Williams said. “Marshfield is very team-oriented in our leadership and management. We have multiple organizations right now working on economic development. We have multiple projects going on right now and John brings the skill set to that team that will help us move those forward.” Raytown Mayor Mike McDonough declined to comment, but wished Benson the best of luck. The city currently has vacancies in the public information officer and economic development director positions. Come July,
Benson and City Administrator Mahesh Sharma will have also departed from the city. McDonough said the city is conducting a nation-wide search for a new city administrator. The city is currently evaluating the other positions to find the most efficient and cost effective way to fill the positions and cover all their duties. “Just because it has always been done one way doesn’t mean there’s not a better way to do it,” McDonough said. “In a small town – just like when I was in the police department – we all wore more than one hat. “Right now we’re still trying to determine how best to spend taxpayers’ dollars on positions that had once been filled there.” Sharma’s last day with the city is July 1. He will be the county administrator of Scott County, Iowa.
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