PECULIAR, Mo. — Peculiar, Missouri, city leaders want voters to approve a bond issue to help pay for civic improvements, including a new police station.
“I think it’s very exciting days here in Peculiar,” said City Administrator Mickey Ary. “We’re growing, we’re developing, we’re a part of the Kansas City metro and we want to be a part of the excitement and enthusiasm.”
The city's population grew seven percent over the last five years and now is home to more than six thousand people.
That's the reason city leaders are asking voters to accommodate that growth.
“Really, it's meeting the needs of the city," Ary said. "Any city is going to face changes and part of that is growth challenges. This is one of them."
Voters will be asked to approve a $4 million in general obligation bonds for a new police department headquarters and a courtroom.
“We know it’s a large ask, but we believe we can do a lot with $4 million," Ary said.
The city says if the bond passes, the police department will out move of the strip mall and into a new space.
In addition, the money would allow the police department to offer animal control services, have space for proper evidence storage and more services.
“There’s a history here of the police department being in buildings that weren’t designed to be police departments,” Ary said.
The city's police chief can remember the varied locations.
“At one time, our police department was a pharmacy," said Peculiar Police Chief Don Shepard. "This was a pharmacy counter here, a video store after that and other parts were an insurance agency. This is our 'jail', for lack of a better term.”
The department has 13 sworn officers, three reserve officers, and one professional staff member.
Shepard said the layout doesn’t work for them and there is a lot of unused space.
“So all of our storage right now is here in this narrow hallway," Shepard said. "We share this with municipal court also, so everything goes here.”
Rick Clausing has lived in the city for more than a decade.
Clausing, with Peculiar United, is an advocate for the passage of the April bond question.
“It’s home, its where my home is, its where my kids go to school," Clausing said. "I know everyone in town, they know me, most of them still like me."
Clausing sees how the police department has grown out of its space in the downtown strip mall and says the bond's passage could mean more retail space to bring businesses to the community.
“This is our downtown," Clausing said. "It’s a perfect opportunity for a small business, a new business, to come in here and grow. This location is perfect,” Clausing said. “In a town this small, we have some older style of thinking it’s a town, but really what it is, it’s a city, and it's growing."
He says the town needs to move forward while balancing tradition and change.
“We need some common ground between the younger and older generations so we can both understand how important it is to stay small, but also to grow. "Maybe that small-town feeling can stay a feeling,” Clausing said.
About 600 voters turn out in any ballot issue in the city.
