Say More in Raymore
There's always more to learn, discover and talk about in Raymore, Missouri. This podcast shares information from the City of Raymore, including upcoming events, City project updates and insights into City departments and the people working to serve the community every day.
Say More in Raymore
A Conversation with Mayor Kris Turnbow
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What does it take to keep a fast-growing city safe, connected and proud of where it’s headed? We sit down with Mayor Kris Turnbow to trace his path from Navy service and a 36-year policing career to four successful mayoral terms in Raymore, Missouri. Mayor Turnbow opens up about the moments that shaped him, from 9/11 activations and Pentagon duty to a year advising in Iraq, where he helped start up forensic labs and push a crime scene preservation checklist that reshaped evidence handling. Those lessons—process, training, accountability—now anchor how he thinks about public safety at home.
We talk about proud moments during his tenure, as well as how industrial growth can bring good jobs while respecting community standards, and what it takes to keep young residents from leaving. The mayor points to the Ray-Pec LEAD program and trades partnerships that put students on real job paths—operating heavy equipment, learning the building trades and gaining hands-on experience that translates into careers. It’s part of a broader strategy to match education with local opportunity so families can build their lives here.
Looking forward, Mayor Turnbow makes a case for smarter transportation as the next priority. With rising costs and regional job centers, Raymore needs better mobility options for seniors, commuters and families—supported by strong roads, new connections and collaboration with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority. We also explore housing: creating a healthy mix of single-family homes, townhomes, condos and well-managed apartments that fit Raymore’s look and feel while giving people a fair shot at living, saving and moving up without leaving the city.
Along the way, you’ll hear about the daily work that binds a community together: parks and arts, stream cleanups, Rotary and Optimist projects, and a slate of celebrations ahead—from a patriotic July 4 to Raymore’s sesquicentennial. It’s a candid, hopeful look at how steady leadership, strong institutions and engaged residents can keep a city safe, welcoming and future-ready. If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a neighbor and leave a review to help more listeners find us.
Learn more about the City of Raymore's Communications Department at www.raymore.com/communications
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Threads @CityofRaymoreMO
Welcome to nSay More i Raymore, the City of Raymore's official podcast. I'm your host, Melissa Harmer, Communications Director for the City. So today, our guest is a Navy veteran, someone who had a 36-year police career between Raytown and Raymore police departments, spending 26 years as a chief of police, retiring in 2012, had the public service bug after that retirement, so ran for mayor in 2016, and he has been re-elected four times. He serves on many regional boards, including the Cass County ESB, Emergency Services Board, the Mark Board of Directors, that's the Mid-America Regional Council, the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Little Blue Valley Sewer District, Board of Trustees, the Rotary Club Optimists, has a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from Avala, a Masters in Public Administration from Park University, and also served 39 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve, called to active duty three times after 9-11, retired at the rank of captain, is our very own Mayor Kris Turnbow.
Kris Turnbow:Good morning.
Melissa Harmer:How are you?
Kris Turnbow:I'm great. Yeah, today's great. Good. Beautiful day.
Melissa Harmer:Well, thank you for being here. And hopefully our residents can learn a little bit more about you if they don't know very much already. And hopefully, my intro gave us a few points we can talk about.
Kris Turnbow:Sure. Well, we're constantly getting new residents into this growing community. And so I'm I'm sure there are people wondering who is Kris Turnbow. So I'm happy to be here this morning to try to get to the bottom of things, as you would would say.
Melissa Harmer:So tell me, where did you grow up? And just tell me a little bit about that, and then what made you want to get into public service? Of course, your career first started with with Raytown.
Kris Turnbow:With Raytown. Well, or was it with it was with the Navy, really, yeah. Out of high school. So uh yeah, so I was born and raised in Raytown. Um mom and dad moved there in 1950. I was born in 52. Um spent my life there growing up. It was a great community to grow up in. Uh, graduated from Raytown South High School in 1970. And uh about a year later, after I'd gone a year to college at Rockhurst, I realized college wasn't my thing. So I ended up going into the Navy. My dad had been in the Navy, and uh I'd always seen myself potentially going into the Navy anyway. So I went into the Navy. I was an aviation structural mechanic and enlisted kid and uh went to boot camp up at Great Lakes and uh then got stationed out at NAS Moffett Field in California. And prior to going out there, though, I got married and I was 19 years old. So we moved out to California. I took my new bride with me uh while we were there. We had my oldest son, Scott, he was born in 1974, and um got the bug when I came home. My brother-in-law, Larry Smith, who had actually worked here uh part-time with us when I was on one of my deployments and stayed on as a mentor, uh, he was a deputy out in Johnson County, Kansas. And we came home on leave one time with the new baby, and he says, Hey, why don't you come ride with me uh tonight? And uh so I I rode with him his entire shift, and there were so many things going on in Johnson County, Kansas, and I saw some of the wonderful things that he was doing with people, helping them. He was kind of my not a mentor, but kind of sort of, um, but uh loved Larry. Uh he has since passed, unfortunately. But he and I um really uh clicked that evening. Uh he told me some things about law enforcement and why he'd gotten into it. And uh so I went when we went back to California, I actually went through a reserve officer program with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office and was had just graduated from their academy when the end of my enlistment came up. So my wife and I we decided to come home uh back to the Kansas City area. And I originally had applied to the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, naturally, uh, but uh they weren't hiring at the time. And my old hometown of Raytown was. They had a grant program going on at the time, and they were hiring five new officers, and so I was having prior military service. That's always uh something that especially back then at the end of the Vietnam War, uh police departments around the country were looking for uh those individuals who had that uh desire to continue their public service life, which I did. So I became a police officer there in Raytown. And uh in 1983, I ran for, after I got my degree in 81, I ran for and was elected uh police chief there in Raytown in 1983. Got elected four more times, ended up retiring from there in 1996 to go into the private sector. I went to work for Hallmark Cards in their security as their security manager over distribution at the Liberty facility, and commuted from Raytown up there. Really missed police work. I became a reserve officer with the Sugar Creek Police Department in that two and a half years that I was uh out of law enforcement, so I was actually part-time law enforcement and got the bug. Uh, you know, I was back on the street as a patrol officer, helping people, doing things, really missed law enforcement. And uh when the job came open here in Raymore, I put in for it and was fortunate enough to get selected in June of 1999 and then stayed on here. Uh the whole time uh in both careers, I was still in the Navy Reserve. When I came home, I stayed in the reserve. But I had converted from being an aviation structural mechanic to an intelligence specialist and then got my commission in 1982, um, after I'd gotten my degree in '81, uh became an officer in the Intel world and the rest is history, you know, got called up three times after 9-11 as police chief here. I'd only been here a couple of years when 9-11 happened. In fact, we were still in the old facility uh the morning of the of the tragedy of the attack. And it was uh it was a real eye-opener. I had just become the commanding officer for the unit the day before uh that I was over. It was a 66-person unit out of uh uh Scott Air Force Base. It was a joint Intel command and uh had to activate about half of my unit, and about a month later I got called uh to go to the Pentagon. So I was there for about a year uh working for a joint intelligence task force. And um anyway, finally got loose after two years, because uh first year they took me there to the Pentagon. Uh then the next year uh the uh person I was reporting back to at Scott Air Force Base for uh US Transportation Command, he retired and they didn't have his replacement. And so they activated me a year to be the director of the counterintelligence staff office there at Scott Air Force Base. So I was commuting from time to time back to to Raymore uh to kind of keep track of things. Um Captain Mayberry, who was acting chief at the time, uh, he did a great job uh filling in for me. Uh they kept me updated on what was going on with the department while I was away. And then uh again got uh called up in 2000 got got home in 2003 for good uh for a little while and then in 2008 got activated again to go to Iraq. That that was hard. That was 14 months of uh of advising over there. It's another long story. I don't know how far we're going with the podcast today, but uh in my duties in Iraq in uh all of 2009, the first uh couple of months of 2010, um I was an advisor to the um Iraqi training and advisory mission, ITAM, and um I had three responsibilities. I was uh the director of security over the counterintelligence, excuse me, the uh counterexplosives program, uh the criminal investigations division program, and the forensics laboratories. In fact, during my tenure there, we outfitted, they had been, they were building them, and we outfitted five forensics labs throughout the country so that the country of Iraq could move from he said, she said, kind of accusation. Uh it was about the only thing that happened in their court systems. They had a little ballistics capabilities for evidentiary purposes, but they really didn't have any solid kind of forensics capabilities for the purpose of of uh determining who might uh be guilty or not guilty in a specific crime. They didn't have any DNA, um, they didn't have any uh fingerprints uh, so to speak. Uh so we built all those systems up for the Iraqi government so they could build a a better rule of law kind of system, similar but different than what we do here in uh in a western culture here in the United States, but uh better than what they had. Um my one fingerprint that I left in Iraq uh would could would be attributed to a 24-point crime scene preservation checklist. Uh got that approved through uh the criminal investigations division. Uh I had a team that I worked with and we put together a great checklist because over there um in Iraq, the it's uh the Arab culture is that if someone is uh killed, um they cleanse the body, wrap them in linen within 24 hours, and then they uh bury them. So it's uh if you have a chaotic crime scene like a bombing, uh like an active shooter, it's kind of different. They're emergency management teams of people are almost like a serve pro, so to speak. They go in, they clean the scene, and all the evidence is washed away. And so you really don't have any preservation of physical evidence to determine who was the person that was guilty for uh this particular crime. So we had to create this checklist for their law enforcement so that when they did arrive, they could secure the scene, obviously render aid to those injured, but leave the scene intact until evidence could be recovered. So this 24 item checklist was designed specifically for that, so that all the evidence could be collected. Uh that was a real task to get that through. And we finally got that through the Iraqi government's National Security Council, and it is now implemented in their Iraqi um police college uh training syllabus for preservation of evidence. I haven't been there since 2010, so I don't know if it's continuing to be practiced, but that checklist did help them kind of start the process for uh evidence preservation. So that that's kind of my my little uh foot uh fingerprint that I left on the on the country of Iraq.
Melissa Harmer:Did you also leave a literal fingerprint? Was your fingerprint the first one as used as a sample? I guess it could have been.
Kris Turnbow:Yeah, it could have been. I I do know that I did give blood so that they could do DNA. So that was kind of fun because we had the the DNA uh uh infrastructure that we put into these forensic laboratories so they could uh check for DNA. Uh so that was that was kind of fun to watch that. Um and that at the Baghdad Police College, that's where our scientists actually taught their scientists how to use all of this equipment. And uh yeah, so that I mean that's a lot to talk about with regard to uh where I'm at today. You know, like you said in the introduction, I retired here from uh Raymore in 2012. Actually went to work as the director for the Missouri Peace Officers Association, their executive director. It was a part-time uh position that um the MPOA is the oldest law enforcement professional organization in the state of Missouri. And uh I became the executive director for about two and a half years and then decided that I really wanted to continue to serve Raymore. My home was here. Um loved being police chief here, although it is kind of a joke when I people asked me how long were you police chief in Raymore? And I said, uh about 12 and a half years, and and the officers that I worked with here always wink at me as to say, well, you were gone for about three and a half of those years on active duty. Well, you had to do that. You're right. I was so uh yeah, but the city was great to me. They always uh welcomed me back with open arms and always supported uh my family and myself while I was away. Uh Vicky, my wife, she was tremendous, holding the home front down while I was away. And um a lot of those things create that kind of love for a community. And so that's why I I just I felt in in 2016 I had uh continued kind of watch the uh the goings-on of the government here, and I felt like I could can still contribute uh from my former experiences, my desire to continue to serve. And that's why I ran for mayor in 2016. And gosh, over the past almost 10 years now, uh things have uh really blossomed here in the community, and uh it's been fun to be a part of that. There's a great team here at City Hall. We've got a great council. Um, when you're a united front, you can get a lot accomplished.
Melissa Harmer:Well, and since you started here in '99, in your time here, our population has more than doubled.
Kris Turnbow:It has.
Melissa Harmer:You have seen so many new uh facilities come on, so many more people come here to raise their families, and everything has just grown so much. What is it that you think is has been the the biggest accomplishment since you've been mayor? I guess if we take it just back to 2016, what have you seen that has made you really proud to be the mayor of our city?
Kris Turnbow:So well, the the uh the industrial growth, which can provide job opportunities for our residents, uh I think has been um a great accomplishment. I know people get kind of a little upset with all the warehouses, but they bring hundreds, almost thousands of jobs to our community. And while there are people that come into our community uh to take those jobs, there are locals too that are working in those facilities. And I I think for our young people, one of the one of the things that I learned early on uh working with the other governments here in Cass County uh right after I became mayor is that there was a desire to try to keep our young people here. Uh statistics show that a young person that goes away to college or goes to college here and gets a college degree, about 80% of them leave the community. We'd love for them to stay here, but in order for them to do that and want to uh live nearby is that there has to be job opportunities for them in and around the area. So we're working toward that, uh trying to keep our our um our youth here uh they have established their homes. Hopefully they'll continue to look for um to establish their own home here uh near their parents. The other uh issue is young people who don't but get into the trades, that don't go to college but get into the trades, um that's almost 70% actually stay in their community if they uh have the if they continue to get into the trades and and they'll stay in the area. And so that's why I love that's what I love about the Raypec School District, is they they've started this lead program, leads program, and it is it's phenomenal. It is helping us grow our future here. And I I I just love that about the RayPec School District. I think they've done a great job. And um Dr. Slegel and I get along great. He's he's he's a wonderful individual and has a great vision for the school district.
Melissa Harmer:And there aren't a lot of centers like that that are teaching real-world business uh lessons like that. Well, there are a lot of districts that it happened to.
Kris Turnbow:Yeah, they get they a lot of districts have that workforce program in it, but I I don't know that they have developed it to the point where you know you've got the the lead center up here teaching all the trades. You've got they've now incorporated a relationship with Heavy Operators 101. They've got heavy equipment out there by the uh the East uh Middle School uh that where kids can learn to run and operate those heavy pieces of equipment to get into the trade. Uh they've got they they built a house on premises at the high school uh to help kids how learn how to do household chores and um it is it's just uh it's just a great school district, and that's one of the things that uh I think draws people to our community. It's a safe community. I think the government is here is very stable and uh and the school district's top notch.
Melissa Harmer:All attractive things.
Kris Turnbow:Absolutely. Why wouldn't you want to live in Raymore?
Melissa Harmer:Right. If there is one moment in your time here, whether it was as police chief or as mayor, that made you stop and think, like, this is why I do this. Is there anything that stands out as one defining moment?
Kris Turnbow:Well, of course, the killing the landfill as mayor, uh you and I uh worked very closely together on that one, as did the rest of the team here at City Hall. And uh that was very gratifying when we were able to eventually tell our community um we were safe. And um that was that was a defining moment as mayor. Now, as police chief, there are multiples uh there. There are when you get to work with the public every day, and you not necessarily have um successes every day, but when the successes uh do occur, it's very rewarding. When you're able to help an individual either change directions with their life uh to a more productive uh uh path, uh whether you help someone out in an emergent situation and save a life, whether you're able to bring justice to a family that has been wronged by a criminal and catch that criminal and bring them to justice. There are there are a lot of things within law enforcement that motivate these wonderful officers that we have here and and in many area departments. But uh but I've seen it in the eyes and the actions of the officers here uh where they're um uh they just love what they do. Take for instance Trey Wilson. Yeah, he's a wonderful officer who has uh embodied what law enforcement in a community like Raymore should be. When he goes in uh to a hot call, he brings a calmness. His size itself will cause people to react or calm down. His his demeanor also brings that uh to a situation that calms the situation. And then his caring attitude and follow-up, helping young people, following up with them, finding out how they're doing, he'll uh it that that kind of uh nurturing in a community is what I love to do too. So I see a little bit of myself in him when I was a law enforcement officer. I love following up with families who'd either been traumatized by crime or had had an incorrigible young person in the household that needed direction and and wasn't getting it at home, or wasn't wasn't understanding it. And I think when you have a young man like Trey do that, it it uh it it just makes you feel good that you know that you've left a department in great hands. Chief Wilson does a great job of nurturing that kind of behavior in his officers.
Melissa Harmer:And I I think For anyone that doesn't know, they're not related.
Kris Turnbow:Oh no, no, that's true.
Melissa Harmer:They're not related to the same last name, but they're they're not related.
Kris Turnbow:That's true. Although I think Trey has gotten a lot of pass me downs from Chief Wilson's old equipment.
Melissa Harmer:Well, as long as it still works.
Kris Turnbow:That's right. As long as it still works.
Melissa Harmer:What do you see as the next big area of development for the city of Raymore?
Kris Turnbow:Yeah, I think uh we have to concentrate on our transportation. Um transportation has become so important for people to get to and from either if they're an elderly uh individual to get to and from the doctor or uh uh shopping or whatever it's gonna take. And then for a workforce, uh if they have um a job that's outside the area, how are they gonna get there? Gasoline is not gonna get any cheaper. Um the cost of transportation is not getting any less. And I think for people in our community, they need to get where they've got to go, you know. And we have a great infrastructure system here, we have a great public works department that keeps our roads in great shape. Uh, but I do feel like transportation and the ability to move people from one place to another is something that we have to concentrate a little bit more on. And so I'm hoping that you know that as we as our strategy for growing this community moves forward, that we're making sure our infrastructure is adequate in place. And what are there other what other opportunities for alternative transportation are there to our community? We're right on the edge of a major metropolitan area. We're naturally going to have to look into those things. Uh, and I think we can we can bring a lot more uh relief to folks here in our community if we can concentrate on those transportation opportunities. I know Mr. Townsend sits on the KCAT board, ATA board. Um that's the Kansas City Area Transit Authority, and he's constant, he lives here in Raymore, he's constantly thinking about and working with the people on the board to see what kind of opportunities they can bring to Cass County. Um, so I think we just have to continue to work at uh on those items and strategize on and thinking outside the box and strategizing what what kind of uh other alternatives are there.
Melissa Harmer:Sure. So where do you see the city in five years from now? Are you still the mayor?
Kris Turnbow:Who knows, you know? Uh maybe, maybe not. I uh there if there uh if there are things that uh that I feel like I can continue to contribute to, uh I will do it. Um but um I think in five years uh where we're gonna see our city is uh we have to make a determination through our uh comprehensive plan, how we we pretty much outlined it. I think now we have to carry it out. You know, specific. I know there there's been a concentration on specific um numbers or percentages of the types of uh living opportunities that there are here in town, whether it be single family, uh duplexes, multifamily townhomes, condos, um, we have to have a range of those that give people an opportunity to live here in Raymore. We can't rely on just single-family homes uh to help support this community and to give people an opportunity. If they want to live in Raymore, let them live in Raymore. And if that means you rent an apartment or a condo or a townhome or you're able to uh purchase your own home, what are the levels of capability for that? Uh house prices have gone astronomical, and so it's it's difficult. So you have to kind of grow into your ability to buy a single-family home. And we'd like to have those other opportunities for living arrangements here that are more affordable, but give you the opportunity to prepare for your own future, and hopefully that's here in Raymore. And that I I think um, yeah, so in the next five years, housing, uh, we have to concentrate on what percentages we want split on those different opportunities to live here in Raymore, and we have to get comfortable with that. And um, and and the market, of course, is always going to kind of push us in one direction or another. If uh if a landowner wants to sell their land to a company that wants to build apartments, we have to make sure that they're the kind of apartments that fit into our community. I don't think we can push them away necessarily, but we have to make sure that it's the kind that will come in, do a great job in uh constructing it and then managing it, and then uh keeping it nice so that it blends in with the aesthetics of our beautiful community.
Melissa Harmer:Right. You're on so many boards and commissions and in clubs, and what do you do when you're not working, when you're not here or when you're not attending a meeting? What do you do for fun?
Kris Turnbow:Uh well, Vicki and I will travel a little bit. She just recently retired within the last year, but she's working part-time for the Chamber of Commerce here in Raymore now. And uh, because that's her passion uh is the chamber world, and she loves to serve in that capacity. But uh, like, you know, we're we've got a couple of trips planned here over the next uh several months. Uh golf is one of my passions while I'm still able to play golf and play it fairly decently. I I love to do that when I have an opportunity.
Melissa Harmer:How how is your game? If you throw out a number, I'm not gonna know what you're talking about, but maybe someone will think that's a game.
Kris Turnbow:I'm about a 10 handicapper.
Melissa Harmer:Okay.
Kris Turnbow:So yeah, so I th that's about where I'm at. Uh sometimes better, sometimes worse. It's the game of golf, you know. Uh but uh the local courses here, of course, Creekmoor is one of the premier courses in the metropolitan area. So it's uh it's it is a layout. Creekmoor, the whole, the whole Creekmoor area, the homes, the lake, uh the amenities they have, the golf course. So proud of what they've done. Cooper Development has done with that and um and continues to do. It's just a it's just a beautiful community. And then we have other uh areas of town that have kind of emulated uh what they've done at Creekmoor uh with their uh quality living arrangements. You you know, even you got Eagle Glen, you got Parkside. I mean, they're just places that that continue to grow and and are beautiful. That that uh and now we've got the Sendera project going on out south of Hubok. Uh the infrastructure is in. Hopefully we'll be seeing homes come up there soon. Uh but uh yeah, that's where were we at on the question?
Melissa Harmer:A lot of a lot of good stuff going on.
Kris Turnbow:Yeah, there is a lot of good stuff going on.
Melissa Harmer:I said, What do you do after when you're not here? But then you go back to the back of the back of the back of the back.
Kris Turnbow:It's hard not to. It really is hard not to. It's uh uh Mr. Feuerborn and I have a great relationship. Mr. Feuerborn's the city manager here, and uh known him. Uh of course I got to work with him when I was police chief, and uh we have a great relationship. He uh he uh has a a great feel for the comprehensive plan uh that is in place and and And gives his uh team of uh his management team um the the uh the reins to do their job. And I I love that about him. He's not a not a micromanager, but he he uh is always insisting that people uh follow the comprehensive plan and move in the right direction and and uh listen to the council and and what the council's input is. I I love that about him and and he has a I think he has a a real vision of the priorities of the community and a and a finger on the pulse of the community. So he's uh he's a good leader and um it's just enjoyable to work with and and move forward. And of course I know everybody here too. It's uh having been a part of the staff here, it has helped, I think, with me as mayor, it has helped them know that they have uh a supportive element at the elected level.
Melissa Harmer:Because you've been there, you've experienced that.
Kris Turnbow:Exactly. Yeah, I I know what it feels like to not be supported from time to time.
Melissa Harmer:And we don't want that.
Kris Turnbow:We don't want that. No.
Melissa Harmer:Who is your favorite staff member? I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Don't answer that. Well, first I want to ask you a question, then I'll tell you, then I'm gonna reveal something to you. Oh, okay. All right. So our residents have submitted names for snowplows. Our public works crew is gonna name their snow plows again.
Kris Turnbow:Yeah, Vicki was telling me they had the snow plow naming.
Melissa Harmer:Okay. So I took the list of everything and it's it's blind. They're gonna pick, um, they don't know who submitted anything, but they're gonna pick from the list. Uh-huh. Do if would you now this won't count because they've they're already picking. Right. But do you have a suggested name? If you could name one, what do you know what it would be? Do you have a can you think of anything?
Kris Turnbow:You know, when we she and I were talking the other day about that. I came up with one. Now I can't remember what it was. I I I really don't I don't I don't have a name.
Melissa Harmer:So now I'm gonna tell you. Do you know that somebody submitted the name Mayor Turn Snow?
Kris Turnbow:Oh, I like that. Mayor Turn Snow. I liked that.
Melissa Harmer:So I don't I don't know if anyone would be intimidated to choose that for their talk, but it is in there, and there was also a Jim Flurryborn.
Kris Turnbow:Oh, Flurryborn.
Melissa Harmer:So we'll see if any of those make the final make the final cut.
Kris Turnbow:Oh, okay. All right. We'll see.
Melissa Harmer:Yeah, I just want to let you know that someone was thinking of you. Yeah. Yeah.
Kris Turnbow:It was probably my wife, wasn't it?
Melissa Harmer:No, it was actually Alex.
Kris Turnbow:Oh. Oh, really?
Melissa Harmer:It was. It was.
Kris Turnbow:I knew I liked her.
Melissa Harmer:Yeah. Um what is one of the most fun things about your job as a mayor? I feel like I'm jumping all over here, but I'm just thinking of the you do a lot of serious stuff, but you also get to do a lot of fun stuff. So what is one of the most fun parts of your job?
Kris Turnbow:So I I love the flexibility of uh of of being a part-time mayor. And um I one of the one of the funnest things to do is to get out and just visit with folks in the community and and uh because I'm not tied to the office because of hours or anything, uh I do love talking to folks and and just getting out and and being around the community. And I I mean I I I I like my two service organizations, Rotary and the Optimist Club. Uh the Optimists Club makes you get out of bed real early on Tuesday mornings. Uh so it gets me a good early start and a good breakfast. But uh the people there are wonderful. Uh the former mayor, Mayor Kerkhoff is a is a member there, and and so I get to see him every Tuesday and visit with him. Yeah, it's uh it's a good group. And and the Rotary, you know, they they're they're kind of different. Uh of course, Rotary is also another charitable organization that likes to do projects within the community. The Optimists Club is uh extremely dedicated to dedicated to the youth of our community and helping them uh be successful. And I love that part about it as well. So I the the two organizations complement one another, and I so I I do like being a part of uh of those and they're service related again, but uh you know it it just uh grows and makes a stronger community.
Melissa Harmer:And then in addition to that, you do attend a lot of community events hosted by the city, parks and recreation, Chamber of Commerce Commission, Chamber of Commerce. So you are out there quite a bit. So if anyone hasn't seen you, maybe they can hit up some of those events and and yeah, we had the stream clean up uh Saturday morning.
Kris Turnbow:I drug my nine-year-old grandson out there so he'd get a a little shot of public service there. He had fun.
Melissa Harmer:I weirdly, it is kind of fun when you're doing something like that together with other people, even though you're picking up trash, you do it it is a good sense of accomplishment.
Kris Turnbow:It really is. Yeah, yeah. And you you feel like you're doing really good. So I in fact, we were there last year, and uh this year because we were uh we had a great crowd last year. We had a good crowd this year, but uh it seemed like there wasn't as much trash. Oh, that's a good so what that excites me that people are beginning to really uh take care of their parks. I like that, and I'm really proud of the people here in Raymore. They they do take pride in the park system, which is a very robust, uh, very accommodating park system that we have here. And then of course our events through the summer are absolutely wonderful. Um you're a part of that. I appreciate the you and the arts commission and what you do and and bringing entertainment uh to our community for people to to be able to locally enjoy those those kinds of uh of events.
Melissa Harmer:Thank you.
Kris Turnbow:Yeah, it's it's it's awesome.
Melissa Harmer:We have a lot of good stuff going on.
Kris Turnbow:We do have a lot of good stuff going on, and we're preparing for quite the uh 4th of July celebration next year, yeah. Celebrating not only our uh the World Cup coming here, but the 250th anniversary of our country. It's gonna be very patriotic as we move forward here.
Melissa Harmer:And then the next year after that in 27 will be Raymore's Sesquicentennial 1 50th birthday celebration, and we'll have some meaningful events and I have some cool things planned for that.
Kris Turnbow:So hopefully, yeah, we that in that one we can just concentrate on us. Right. Next year it's the country, but the year after that, yeah, it's it's Raymore.
Melissa Harmer:Well, is there anything you would like to leave us with in closing?
Kris Turnbow:Well, I I want to uh wish everyone well in our community. I I I feel like we don't thank them enough as as a city for their support. Uh they've been very generous uh with their tax dollars uh to allow us to provide the kinds of services that we're able to provide. Uh the most recent one would have been the uh the public safety sales tax uh that will allow us to add eight new police officers to the department, adding to uh an ability to provide even better safety to our community. And I I think that's really important. As in the national government, the number one reason the national government exists is to provide national security. It it comes down to local. The number one priority for the city of Raymore is to provide public safety to our community. And I think the people of our community realize that, and anytime uh there is something that they can do to help support public safety, they do. Now they're always very complimentary of the other amenities, the parks, the work, uh, the public works department, uh, roads, snow removal, things like that. They uh they're very supportive of those as well. But uh it does seem like we have our priorities in place here uh to to just make this a great community. And I um I I've always appreciated that about uh the people of Raymore.
Melissa Harmer:Well, that's a lovely note to end on. Thank you so much for. Well, thanks for having me.
Kris Turnbow:Yeah, I appreciate it.
