BY LUCIE KRISMAN
The Eudora City Commission approved participation in a First Impression Program aimed at bettering the community during its remote meeting Monday.
"It's really just a voluntary program that communities can participate in to better themselves," Assistant City Manager Leslie Herring said. "It really is community driven."
The program, which is organized by K-State Research & Extension, would involve a group of Eudora community members visiting a similar community and documenting their experience as visitors while a group from that community visits Eudora and does the same.
Douglas County Extension Executive Director Marlin Bates said the program has worked with 85 communities so far.
“What we're really looking at here is kind of a secret shopper program for communities," he said.
A partner community would be within a 90-minute drive of Eudora. Bates said groups would ideally be chosen for visits at different times of the day, with one visit in daytime work hours during the week and one visit on a Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon so communities have a full experience of the community as first timers. The program would begin in the fall at the earliest.
"What we get out of that is a host of information that often draws our attention to the sort of things that maybe we're already aware of, but also some of the things that maybe we've become blind to because we see them every day or we don't play them up as much as maybe a first-time visitor would recognize," Bates said.
The program would also include a public meeting where the observations from the peer community visiting team would be revealed and discussed. Bates told commissioners this process has benefited communities across Kansas.
"We hope that it's a fruitful experience for Kansas communities," Bates said. "We know it leads to meaningful projects, oftentimes done by volunteer groups.”
Mayor Tim Reazin and Vice Mayor Ruth Hughs voiced enthusiasm about implementing the program in Eudora.
"I like the idea," Reazin said. "It's a good opportunity for us to see the center of the peer communities and get fresh ideas and hopefully share those ideas that we've been working on. I hope to participate."
"I think this is an amazing program," Hughs said. "I believe that we can feel confident that this will make us a better community."
In other business, Michael Comparato and Don Currise of Vieste LLC. led a work session for the commission regarding Monarch Build, LLC., the contractors for the Nottingham property redevelopment project.
Comparato and Currise discussed Monarch Build's response to the city's request for information, such as the company's previous experience in construction.
As direct adviser to the city on the project, Comparato said he is pleased with what he has seen from Monarch Build so far and that it is part of the typical process for the company's work to be peer reviewed before contracts for its work on the project are executed.
"We want to make sure that everything that the contractor is doing, they are capable of doing and they have previous experience doing," Comparato said.
Currise said he is pleased with what he has seen from Monarch Build so far, but its work will still be reviewed.
"We've been able to benefit from a lot of their input during the pre-construction phase of the project we've been engineering," Currise said. "We'll continue to follow that through this process toward contract point, at which we'll conduct that peer review."
Currise said Monarch Build has not charged a fee for its pre-construction work. According to the meeting packet, the approximate price for Monarch Build's contract on the Nottingham project is $5,200 as of April 9. Currise said it is not necessary at this point to interview other contractors for the project.
"We've been very satisfied with their work so far," Currise said. "So far, to date, they seem to be very responsive and very knowledgeable. I personally have no concerns at this point."
During city staff reports, some staff members provided department updates regarding COVID-19.
Parks and Recreation Director Sally Pennington said putting orange tape around parks as a means to limit public gatherings isn’t effective since it draws more attention to the parks and is easily torn down.
The department is working on promoting virtual activities on Facebook that residents can do in place of visiting parks.
Public Works Director Branden Boyd reported that employees will drive separate vehicles and maintain distance where possible and will be receiving masks to wear while working.
The City Commission will next meet at 7 p.m. April 27. Details for accessing for meeting will be available online.
Reach reporter Lucie Krisman at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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