Open farmers market Page 2
Simple, savory chops Page 7
Golf tournament Page 8
Free complimentary copy June 6, 2014 • Volume 1, No. 36
www.raytowneagle.com • 75¢
Raytown Recreation Pool & Billiards Hosting Tournament By Diane Krizek Editor Pool and billiards has been a Raytown tradition for nearly 70 years. Doug Brink of Raytown Recreation Pool and Billiards aims to continue that tradition. His family has run this pool hall since his father, Don, acquired it in 1970 and devoted the rest of his life to the game after a 20year career at Bendix. To generate a little excitement, they’re hosting a Nine-Ball Pool Tournament with a $20 buy-in. First prize is $120, second prize $75, third prize $40 and fourth place wins $25 which is $5 more than the buy-in. No professionals will be allowed for this tournament that will be held on either a Saturday or Sunday afternoon at
2:00 p.m. There’s still time to get in on the action. If you’ve never played pool at Raytown’s pool hall, it’s time to get acquainted with the last of its kind in the Kansas City area. It’s iconic neon sign at 10012 E. 63rd Street marks the entrance to the stairs that leads down to the basement of a building that used to be a general store built by Herman Rieder back in the day. It’s the only building on the block with a basement. Norman Hussey bought the store and converted the basement into a pool hall in the Fifties. The concrete floors were always bare so Don added carpet for the comfort of his customers. He found an old warehouse in the West Bottoms of Kansas City where he bought ten 30-foot rolls of car-
pet at $10 each that came out of the former Alameda Plaza now the Intercontinental Hotel at Wornall and Ward Parkway. The oriental carpets are threadbare but they add character to the place. You’ll find nine pool tables surrounded by walls covered with photos and memorabilia, including fairly recent articles written by Donald Bradley of the KC Star about this historic pool hall and its 102 yearold Big Bertha. Next to the Bertha, a five by ten foot pool table, sits the impressive Belgium-made heated Verhoven billiards table. The Brinks would love to see more pool players take to billiards, a sport popular in Mexico and Europe, but faded from the American scene about fifty years ago when gents in suits and
Left to Right Donna Ries, Donna Adams and Julie Venable come from different parts of the KC metro area to play pool twice a week at Raytown Recreation
By Diane Krizek Editor The first Raytown Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) graduated on June 3, 2014, in a brief ceremony that took place at Raytown City Hall. While some municipalities in the area do not have a CERT, Raytown can be proud that it now has a 23-member team which is an admirable start. The Raytown Police Department sponsored the first CERT training class this year under the command of Capt. Michelle Rogers who will replace Frank Stranimier, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, when he retires. The training was a collaboration between Raytown’s Police Department, Fire Protection District, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Lee’s Summit Bomb Squad. This initiative could not have been done without the organization skills of Marilyn Fleming, Community Service Unit Coordinator for the police department. Paul and Joe Watts, a father and son team from the Eastern Jackson County Emergency Management, were the main instructors for the training class. The Watts are also members of the Raytown Amateur Radio Club. After seven weeks of verbal training, the CERT class had a chance to apply their skills on May 31 with a hands-on drill in a mock
tuxedos played the game. Dennis Reinecker comes in from Shawnee just to play billiards. “It’s a game you can’t learn to play in a day like pool,” he says. There is no rack of balls or pockets in the table for what Doug calls a game of “geometry and motion.” The cue ball must bounce off the cushion at least three times before hitting its target. Raytown Recreation has a diverse following of customers. Robert Copeland, who has been playing there for 50 years says, “It’s too late to quit.” Donna Ries of Brookside, Julie Venable of Lee’s Summit and Donna Adams of Raytown meet twice a week to play pool. “We used to meet at Premier Bowl where they have only two tables so we decided to try this pool hall and we’ve been here ever since,” explained Ries. In 1973, Ries placed second in the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship with
Doug Brinks sports a 35th Anniversary shirt while playing a game of billiards a final score of 75–72 in 42 innings against the 14 year-old prodigy, Jean Balukas, who beat five-time champion, Dorothy Wise, the year prior.
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Raytown’s First FEMA CERT Class Graduates
earthquake disaster, the failure of the Madrid Fault. REAP graciously provided the use of their facility to host this exercise where volunteers played the roles of victims with various injuries such as burn and eye injuries and contusions. The team had to rescue a victim trapped under fallen debris, deal with a death and come to the aid of a mother and child separated from each other. The triage team had to quickly prioritize the victim’s medical needs and take appropriate action. After the end of the exercise, the CERT class participated in the “hot wash” where learning is reinforced with their self evaluation of how they handled their assignments and what they could’ve done better along with the shared observations of their instructors. Paul Watts reminded the team, “Everybody, no matter their age or class, wants to be called by name so introduce yourself and get their name. Keep them informed about what is being done for them.” Linda Chase of the Independence CERT stressed the importance of volunteers in a disaster. “The Joplin tornado took out fire, EMS and police so they had to rely on volunteers from the area that saved millions of dollars. The cost of recovery was reduced to hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to the value of a huge number of volunteers who worked the
Raytown CERT in front of City Hall after graduation ceremony area”, she said. President of the Raytown Chamber, Vicki Turnbow, graduated with the CERT class. She would like businesses to consider making a disaster plan. “Some Raytown busi-
ness owners live in Raytown. Do they have secondary location where they can maintain operations?” she challenged. “Another important aspect in developing a plan is that we need to get agreements in place
with local businesses that have assets and resources to offer in a disaster. Those resources can be either donated to FEMA, a nonprofit,
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