Remarks by Brett Kell
62 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 3
Motion to approve the proposal. Oh, yeah. OK. I got you there.
When does this contract end with final one? July. Okay. So we have roughly six, seven months. If we want to find a way to extend this, we can work on this, correct?
This is something I think is very valuable for Topeka. I know some people have had some hesitations when it comes to the financial part of it. But This is something, I've said it before, these youth are, they have that wide life. They're going to go down one path or another, or a fork, whatever you want to look at it, they're going to go down a certain path. And those SROs are very influential in their lives. Like I said, my daughters had Officer Kyle. They still know how many years later Officer Kyle. I worked close with Officer Bell and other things, and that man is has a smile on his face…
Any other comments or questions from the governing body nope council member kelly one thing I forgot I know I think it's 450 if we have to which I don't I don't want to go this route but they do a 50 50 on schools so that might be something to look at but that is something I don't want to do. But if it's a compromise to get us there, to have something there, that's something that, you know, I think we need to look at. But I'd rather still have what we have in place at this moment. But if a 50-50 is the best compromise we can come up with, with either 50-50 or none, I want to go with 50-50.…
Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Council Member Kell. I get where you're coming from on trying to reduce our bonds, which we need to try to figure out where we can. But again, if we start pushing too much stuff down the road, are we actually saving any money? With the way things have risen in cost over the last seven, eight, nine, ten years, there are costs keep on going up and up and up. That are we really saving any money by moving something five years down the road that or we're changing stuff around that or are we going to have to change some more next year and keep on pushing more projects…
I just look at the long-term effects. If we constantly have to push back projects, are we spending it?
So over the last few years when we've done this, it seems like by the time the letters go out and all that, we start getting a lot more, that number starts dropping off a lot more. So I think that's kind of the one first good step we have going for us is we get that, because when you go off the 169 letters sent and that number, that's $822.27 per letter. So that's owed. So in essence... Out of those 169 accounts, in essence, that's 820. So, I don't know if some of these are with repeat offenders, if they're just waiting until the city comes and says something to pay or what, but it seems like…
Just like Councilmember, I'm going to kind of reiterate what I said before. I think we really need to look at 10. We're looking at an area that 10 is not covering, that it's in that four-minute area that is the fastest growing part of Topeka. And it keeps on getting denser and denser. I'd like to see this map actually show the density of certain areas. Like, you look at something like Big Chunga Park. Put that on the map with maybe some hashtags, because I look at that. Yes, there are people there on occasion that need medical services. But 77 acres. It's being covered where a neighborhood…
And speaking to some of the firefighters, that aspect there is kind of debunked a little bit by actually, if you were to try to, I think, go from that boulevard spot to that area over closer towards like Jardine Middle School and Elementary School, by being able to hop on the highway real quick and go up rather than trying to get off on 37th Street where it's sometimes not the easiest to get in and out of on that fire station there, that you can kind of increase your response time. And this is coming from the firefighters. It's almost like I think maybe some of these areas need to be tested…
showing us a map that, like you said, Big Chunga has got a pretty good coverage to it, but it's an unpopulated area. So that's where I think we need to look at certain aspects and say, this is not an area that we need to really work on. We need to work on certain other areas because we have an area that's rapidly growing, and it's outside the four-minute bubble. And a little adjustment, a tenth of a mile away, makes a big difference.
I used the KTA slash KDOT area, not White Lakes, because it put you right on the highway, put you going south on Topeka Boulevard, put you going north on Topeka Boulevard, put you in a lot more expedited area than...
There's two events coming up that I'm involved in. The Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas Celebrity Waiter's Foray is October 3rd. There's still tickets available to go to that. And then I know I'm probably going to steal some thunder from two of my colleagues up here, but Brew at the Zoo is this Saturday. It's 80s themed. There's still tickets available for that as well. I'll be working the VIP area and wherever else they put me at. This time of year is always tough for me as the fact that we're coming up on the 25th anniversary of 9-11. I was in New York two days prior on 9-9-2001. Saw some…