KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Candidates for Mayor/CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, participated in a forum Saturday to talk about community concerns, including the devastating floods last week.
Over the past week, we've been amplifying the voices of KCK neighbors dealing with the devastation caused by flooding.
In a packed room, neighbors wrote down their concerns.
Four of the six mayoral candidates answered questions from the group of about 60 residents.
Diversity, development, homelessness, and fiscal transparency were among the topics discussed at the event.
KSHB also asked the candidates about the flooding.
“Unfortunately, there were a couple of things that came into play," said mayoral candidate Tom Burroughs. "With that amount of water, I don't know that anything would have prevented it from backing up."
He believes the trash pickup that day made the situation worse.
“It plugged up a lot of the inlets for the water to escape,” Burroughs said.
Other candidates said better infrastructure could have helped.
“When we don't take care of the infrastructure in our communities, this is the kind of result we get,” said Christal Watson a mayoral candidate. "Right now, I think we need to focus on how we're going to fix it so that we can prevent this."
“We're not making investments in our infrastructure; we have not maintained a real maintenance schedule—only reactive responses to our infrastructure issues,” said candidate Rose Mulvany Henry. "We have to put ourselves in a position to be able to be more proactive with this, whether it's resources, whether it's actual work being done."
Mayoral candidate Gwendolyn Thomas said that support from the city is also essential after incidents like this.
“We need to have a plan in place to help the homeowners and residents of Wyandotte County when this happens,” Thomas said.
Candidates Mark Gilstrap and Janice Witt did not participate in the event.
The six candidates will compete in the primary election on Aug. 5, and the top two finishers will face off in the general election on Nov. 4.
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KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.
