KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Neighbors in Stongate reached out to Ryan to share their voice in a decade-long fight to get the city to address flooding in a park near their homes. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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The Raymore Park Board approved upward of $90,000 to address over a decade of flooding concerns from a creek in a local park.
KSHB 41 Cass County reporter Ryan Gamboa amplified the voices of concerned neighbors on Monday night.
"I have been harping at the city for 20 years," Kim Hanner told Gamboa on Monday afternoon. "Water is still coming, the rains are still coming, moving this [trail], lifting this up, this creek is still going to flood."
Hanner has lived in the Stonegate neighborhood in Raymore for over 20 years.
She is one of many neighbors who have continuously reported excessive flooding and erosion problems in the green space and creek area of Good Parkway, a 33-acre trail system on Raymore's south side.
When KSHB 41 visited the area that was formerly underwater, Hanner and her neighbors explained they'd be wading in waist-high water.
The neighbors have improved their properties to combat flooding and erosion, providing years of documented elevated water levels to Gamboa.
"If I could say something to the city, it would be to save money by being proactive, not reactive," Sheneda Mirador said on Monday.
According to meeting documents, a contractor must address the flooding and erosion levels of the creek and fix the trail system.
Raymore Park Board members addressed these concerns on Tuesday night.
Raymore Park Director Nathan Musteen told the board this area is "most in need of repair."
According to Musteen, it will take significant time to repair, given the park's floodplain.
He explained that city staff have been working on this project for a long time, but it was determined the project was too big for city services to handle alone.
Musteen stated that a priority will be addressing creek erosion and the concrete pathway.
Neighbors called on the city to invest in a survey to look at a long-term downstream plan.
"We don’t have downstream planning. Nobody had the foresight to think ahead, where is this water going?" questioned Kelly Gebauer, another neighbor in the area.
Munsteen said the contract will include multiple surveys and also a downstream plan, following questions from Board Member Daniel Mapes regarding the creek's downstream flow.
Musteen acknowledged the influence the recent rash of storms has had on flooding.
"It was roaring," Munsteed said.
It was also mentioned that city engineers would classify the water from this storm as a 50-year flood.
But the records of flooding kept by neighbors would indicate there have been at least four 50-year floods in the past 10 years.
It's important to note the neighbors who have expressed concerns about the flooding do not reside in a floodplain. The only land in a floodplain is operated and maintained by the city of Raymore — yet the flood waters and erosion continue to impact their homes.
The Raymore Park Board unanimously approved a contract to improve this area.
Munsteen said the goal is to have project designs by the fall, a construction bid by late fall, and the project's construction should begin in the winter.
The goal is to have the project completed by spring 2027.
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