Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Still No Parks Director in Omaha

Transcript

Still No Parks Director in Omaha · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

0:00
Speaker 1: You know, Peyton, we did have Todd Schmater on Monday.
0:04
Speaker 1: We wanted to talk about I wanted him to come
0:06
Speaker 1: on to talk about what happened May twenty ninth, in
0:10
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, and that is when we had the protests,
0:13
Speaker 1: and we had the riots that happened in the city
0:17
Speaker 1: of Omaha Friday night Saturday night, what we did, why
0:20
Speaker 1: we made those decisions. I think it was great to
0:23
Speaker 1: have Chief Smater on because you know how it is
0:26
Speaker 1: with the police chief of a major city. The media
0:30
Speaker 1: just doesn't say, ever, hey, this is a great day
0:33
Speaker 1: in Omaha. Let's have the police chief on and talk
0:35
Speaker 1: about what's going on here in Omaha. Today you only
0:38
Speaker 1: have the police chief on when there's an incident, and
0:40
Speaker 1: it's usually something very serious. And people tend to think
0:44
Speaker 1: Chief Schmater is all business and very serious all the time.
0:48
Speaker 1: And I've known him for sixteen years, worked with him
0:51
Speaker 1: since he was Captain Schmater and I was city council
0:54
Speaker 1: member Stothard, and we had a good time.
0:56
Speaker 2: And he's good.
0:57
Speaker 1: He's fun, He's really funny, and he's fun to be around.
1:01
Speaker 1: And I wanted people to know that about him too.
1:04
Speaker 1: And he's a darn good policy.
1:06
Speaker 3: You know what, Gene. We had a question too in
1:08
Speaker 3: the email inbox that day, and I said, how did
1:10
Speaker 3: you manage you get the chief on the show? I
1:12
Speaker 3: thought the mayor wasn't letting his team talk to you.
1:15
Speaker 1: Well, okay, in full disclosure, I will answer that question
1:19
Speaker 1: because I was given instructions that if I wanted any
1:23
Speaker 1: of Chief or not Chief Smutter, any of Mayor Ewing's directors,
1:29
Speaker 1: which we've talked about before, all who I hired and
1:32
Speaker 1: worked with for twelve years on the show, I had
1:35
Speaker 1: to ask his communication director. I did email his communication
1:39
Speaker 1: director and ask about Bob Stuby coming on, and she
1:43
Speaker 1: originally denied it, and she said any further requests from
1:46
Speaker 1: you in the future will also be denied by orders
1:48
Speaker 1: of Mayor Ewing. So full disclosure, I did not follow
1:52
Speaker 1: the proper process. I wanted Chief Smutter to come on.
1:56
Speaker 1: And I think, and I really think seriously about this,
2:00
Speaker 1: that the police chief of a major city should be
2:02
Speaker 1: able to talk to the media or a radio station
2:05
Speaker 1: or a television station or a newspaper any time that
2:09
Speaker 1: he has needed. He is there to serve the public.
2:11
Speaker 1: He's not just there to serve the Mayor. So I
2:13
Speaker 1: went directly to Chief Schmater. I didn't follow the proper
2:16
Speaker 1: channels that I was instructed to do and ask Chief
2:19
Speaker 1: Schmeter if he would come on, and he said he
2:21
Speaker 1: absolutely would, which is something that I think he would
2:24
Speaker 1: have said because he's a good chief. And he said
2:27
Speaker 1: he did notify Mary Ewing and said I'm coming on
2:29
Speaker 1: the show, and that's how he came on. So that
2:34
Speaker 1: order still stands that he will deny any requests that
2:38
Speaker 1: I made. But I just did this directly with Chief Schmater,
2:40
Speaker 1: and that's what he should have done. I mean, he
2:42
Speaker 1: was great about it. He said, sure, I'll be on
2:44
Speaker 1: the show. Because we weren't talking about Mary Ewing. We
2:47
Speaker 1: weren't talking about anything today. We were talking about what
2:50
Speaker 1: happened in May twenty ninth and May thirtieth and May
2:54
Speaker 1: thirty first, in twenty twenty which when I was mayor
2:57
Speaker 1: and he was chief and what we did together.
3:00
Speaker 2: And I think it was really.
3:01
Speaker 1: Interesting to go through that because there was a whole
3:03
Speaker 1: lot of questions when that happened about you know, who
3:07
Speaker 1: was to blame, who let the fire, that's a you know,
3:10
Speaker 1: just a saying, but what caused this peaceful protest to
3:14
Speaker 1: turn into riots, violence, destroying public property, dangerous situations, and
3:20
Speaker 1: I think it's it's very important for our citizens to
3:23
Speaker 1: understand why the decisions were made and how we de
3:27
Speaker 1: escalated that situation so quickly. I mean, in three days,
3:33
Speaker 1: it was it was pretty it wasn't over, but the
3:37
Speaker 1: riots were over, and we called the National Guard in,
3:40
Speaker 1: as Chief s Mitters said yesterday, on the third day,
3:45
Speaker 1: you know, Peyton, I just wonder if that incident happened
3:48
Speaker 1: today with what is happening with Ice, if calling in
3:53
Speaker 1: the Guard and having the Guard walking up and down
3:55
Speaker 1: the streets in the Old Market in downtown Omaha with
3:58
Speaker 1: their firearms, if they would get the same reception as
4:02
Speaker 1: they did in twenty twenty. Back in twenty twenty when
4:06
Speaker 1: we did this, people were thanking them. They were saying,
4:09
Speaker 1: you know, thank you for being here, for protecting us.
4:12
Speaker 1: Got to remember, there's a lot of residents downtown Omaha
4:15
Speaker 1: that were scared to death when this was going on.
4:18
Speaker 1: They were handing out water bottles to the people that
4:21
Speaker 1: were still down there, asking questions, working with the Omaha
4:25
Speaker 1: Police Department, and remember we called other law enforcement in
4:29
Speaker 1: from our surrounding areas from the Sheriff's Department to you know,
4:33
Speaker 1: Papilion to Gretna, all the way around here. We have
4:36
Speaker 1: other law enforcement that was helping us to try to
4:39
Speaker 1: keep the peace and stop the violence. And so it
4:42
Speaker 1: didn't stop there because as we talked about yesterday, with
4:46
Speaker 1: what happened with the shooting of James Skurlock, and that
4:49
Speaker 1: happened on May thirtieth, on the Saturday night who was
4:52
Speaker 1: fatally shot. That caused a lot of concern and a
4:56
Speaker 1: lot of incidents that followed for weeks. But still I
5:00
Speaker 1: think we got control of the city and it was
5:02
Speaker 1: really good to have him on also to talk about this,
5:05
Speaker 1: and I hope we have some questions too that people
5:07
Speaker 1: want to ask about that it was a very very
5:10
Speaker 1: rare type of occasion. There had not been a curfew
5:14
Speaker 1: in Post and the City of Omaha in decades. The
5:18
Speaker 1: mayor has the ability by the city charter if you
5:21
Speaker 1: declare emergency that you can do a curfew without city
5:25
Speaker 1: council approval for four days, and if that curfew was
5:28
Speaker 1: going to last any longer than that, then I had
5:30
Speaker 1: to get city council approval. So we had that curfew
5:34
Speaker 1: and effect on May thirty first, which was on the
5:37
Speaker 1: third day anything. They people could not be out on
5:40
Speaker 1: the street between eight pm and six am, and lots
5:44
Speaker 1: of negativity I was shot towards me for making those
5:48
Speaker 1: decisions and for also chief matter. But I think in
5:50
Speaker 1: the long run, we came out better than many many
5:53
Speaker 1: cities in the country.
5:55
Speaker 2: And you know, as I said yesterday, the police they
5:58
Speaker 2: really I mean, I can't.
6:00
Speaker 1: Say enough good things about the Omaha Police Department, but
6:03
Speaker 1: they really have to walk a really fine line ensuring
6:07
Speaker 1: that their response is proportional to the actions and moods
6:10
Speaker 1: of a crowd. And while at the same time they
6:13
Speaker 1: have to protect the officers, they have to protect the public,
6:16
Speaker 1: and they have to protect property, and they have to
6:19
Speaker 1: protect First Amendment rights. So there's a fine line in
6:22
Speaker 1: there when there is something like this going on. And
6:24
Speaker 1: it started out with a few people peacefully and then
6:28
Speaker 1: it was thousands and thousands.
6:30
Speaker 2: So interesting history of the city of Omaha.
6:35
Speaker 1: Like I said, we came out of it better than
6:37
Speaker 1: many many cities. We spent approximately two million dollars in overtime.
6:42
Speaker 3: That's a big number.
6:43
Speaker 2: That's a big number, but that's what we had to do.
6:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, Gene and the podcast with Omaha Police Chief Toadschmatter
6:50
Speaker 3: that is on the kfab comment line with Jean stawthrt
6:53
Speaker 3: podcast page on the kfab dot com or the iHeartRadio app.
6:58
Speaker 3: All of our episodes are uploaded to podcasts. You can
7:02
Speaker 3: always go back and listen to them. I have a
7:04
Speaker 3: few people on the line here that we can get to,
7:07
Speaker 3: but I also wanted to just quickly bring up you
7:11
Speaker 3: recognize the Omaha Omaha Police Department and Todd Smatter and
7:15
Speaker 3: we saw him here in the studio. We were taking
7:17
Speaker 3: his live press conference after an officer involved incident last night,
7:23
Speaker 3: and just like you said, we heard about this with
7:27
Speaker 3: Terry Lahy in the newsroom somewhere between five twenty and
7:30
Speaker 3: five thirty, and Todd monitor was up on the TV
7:34
Speaker 3: about fifteen to twenty minutes later on scene, right ready
7:38
Speaker 3: to jump into action.
7:39
Speaker 2: Right he always did. He was did a really great
7:41
Speaker 2: job with the media.
7:43
Speaker 1: He had a you know, and we had made a
7:44
Speaker 1: decision when I was mayor that we wanted him to
7:47
Speaker 1: be upfront there with any incident. We wanted him to
7:50
Speaker 1: be as transparent as he possibly could be. People are
7:54
Speaker 1: wanting to know details really quickly, and a lot of
7:57
Speaker 1: incidents as well. It's still under investigation, can't give out
8:00
Speaker 1: all the information, but they wanted to see. You know,
8:04
Speaker 1: all of our officers now have body cameras. A lot
8:07
Speaker 1: of times the public and the media were demanding body
8:09
Speaker 1: camera video. And the one thing that Todd did while
8:12
Speaker 1: it was still under investigation is he may not release
8:16
Speaker 1: the whole video immediately, but he would release stills from
8:20
Speaker 1: that video so people could actually see things that the
8:23
Speaker 1: officers saw, put it in context when they were making
8:25
Speaker 1: those decisions of what they were going to do. But
8:28
Speaker 1: he was always out there to be upfront and to
8:31
Speaker 1: be as transparent as we possibly could be. And he
8:34
Speaker 1: and I did a lot of press conferences together that
8:37
Speaker 1: were some really really horrible incidences. But he always maintained
8:42
Speaker 1: his cool and he has to, you know, be as
8:46
Speaker 1: police chief. But again, when when he is being interviewed,
8:50
Speaker 1: people think he's very business in life and very you know,
8:54
Speaker 1: serious about everything, and he has to be when these
8:57
Speaker 1: terrible incidents has happened. But if you know the real tidechmatter,
9:00
Speaker 1: he's a great guy too, and he's great to be around.
9:02
Speaker 3: Absolutely. One reporter asked a question after he had given
9:06
Speaker 3: his analysis and he said, well, I just said that,
9:09
Speaker 3: but and I just thought that was funny. I kind
9:12
Speaker 3: of saw his character show a little bit.
9:14
Speaker 1: They kind of yeah, they can repeat themselves quite a bit.
9:17
Speaker 1: And I was laughing about it yesterday because these are
9:20
Speaker 1: usually serious incidents, as when he and I would do
9:22
Speaker 1: press conferences together, but I was telling the truth. It
9:25
Speaker 1: would be him and me together and the reporters would
9:28
Speaker 1: just swarm around Chief Smater and I would go, hey,
9:30
Speaker 1: I'm the mayor, and they'll go, yeah, whatever, just step aside.
9:33
Speaker 1: We want to talk to Chief Schmoter. So he does
9:36
Speaker 1: a really.
9:37
Speaker 2: Good job with that.
9:38
Speaker 3: Very good Gene. And like I said, we have Rick
9:40
Speaker 3: and Dave on the line. I want to get to
9:41
Speaker 3: you guys. But just sticking with Chief Schmater right here,
9:45
Speaker 3: and these events that happened with the protests a few
9:48
Speaker 3: years ago. This is a talk back Mike. Here we go, Gene.
9:51
Speaker 4: Jean Justin would quick draw news. The interview yesterday was
9:55
Speaker 4: gray with the chief. I think you should talk about
9:56
Speaker 4: the level Worth Cafe though, and the pressure that got
9:58
Speaker 4: put on it during those that whole time. The protest
10:01
Speaker 4: that made it shut down. The Levelworth Cafe was awesome
10:04
Speaker 4: and it's I think it's a real state in our
10:06
Speaker 4: community that we let those protesters, you know, it pushed
10:10
Speaker 4: the pressure them into shutting down. It was a real loss.
10:13
Speaker 4: Can you talk about that?
10:14
Speaker 1: You know I would before I wouldn't want to get
10:17
Speaker 1: into the details about the Levenworth Cafe. I think I
10:20
Speaker 1: would need to do a little review to freshen up
10:23
Speaker 1: my memory on that because there was a lot of
10:26
Speaker 1: controversy with that. I know that there was a lot
10:29
Speaker 1: of concern about what was happening. I know I talked
10:32
Speaker 1: to the owners. I know Chief Schmater was involved in that,
10:35
Speaker 1: and what we could do to prevent what happened, which
10:41
Speaker 1: was shutting down that cafe.
10:42
Speaker 2: But I think if you give me.
10:44
Speaker 1: Till tomorrow to do a little reviewing, I hate to
10:46
Speaker 1: say anything that I'm not absolutely sure about that's good
10:50
Speaker 1: of how that how that actually transpired. But you know
10:54
Speaker 1: that the the the incidences on May twenty nine, thirtieth,
10:58
Speaker 1: and thirty first were the ones that we were really
11:00
Speaker 1: focusing on yesterday. But you are so right because there
11:03
Speaker 1: was other repercussions that happened because of all of that,
11:07
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of civil unrest, civil disobedience,
11:10
Speaker 1: criminal behavior that was going on and we just had
11:13
Speaker 1: to take extraordinary measures to get through it.
11:15
Speaker 3: Thank you justin for the talkback that's on the iHeartRadio app.
11:18
Speaker 3: There's a little microphone. You press that button. We're gonna
11:20
Speaker 3: go to the phone lines now. We got a few
11:22
Speaker 3: spots open four zero, two, five, five, eight, eleven ten
11:26
Speaker 3: or the email inbox works excellent as well. Comment at
11:29
Speaker 3: kfab dot com phone lines we go. Dave, you are
11:32
Speaker 3: now live with Gene Stauthor here on eleven ten kfab.
11:36
Speaker 2: Good morning, Hey, Good.
11:37
Speaker 5: Morning, jan Hey. I have a couple of questions in
11:40
Speaker 5: regards to put gears a little here with the City
11:42
Speaker 5: Parks and the City Parks of Omaha. Recently, I've learned that,
11:48
Speaker 5: you know, Lake Cunningham has been taken over by the
11:50
Speaker 5: Walter Scott Foundation. Miller Parks now been taken over by
11:54
Speaker 5: the Logier Foundation. It seems to be that we're privatizing
11:58
Speaker 5: these parks so that they're to be up kep and
12:01
Speaker 5: kept up. It sounds like I don't know whether it
12:03
Speaker 5: was left over from your administration or the UN administration.
12:08
Speaker 5: It doesn't seem like the funding for the Omaha parks
12:10
Speaker 5: is their their monum. Maybe every three to four weeks,
12:14
Speaker 5: the weeds are at all time high. They say they
12:16
Speaker 5: don't have enough money for chemicals. I'd like to get
12:18
Speaker 5: your feedback on the status of the parks because I'm
12:21
Speaker 5: also hearing in the community that they're looking at for
12:23
Speaker 5: potentially privatizing a couple more city parks. What's your thoughts
12:28
Speaker 5: on that?
12:28
Speaker 1: Sure, And I'm really glad you brought that out because
12:30
Speaker 1: Number one, we have a lot of parks in Omaha.
12:32
Speaker 1: We have two hundred and fifty six parks in the
12:35
Speaker 1: city of Omaha. So the Parks department handles manages a
12:39
Speaker 1: large amount of parks. That includes the community centers, that
12:42
Speaker 1: includes four nine hole golf courses for eighteen hole golf courses,
12:48
Speaker 1: so they have a big job.
12:49
Speaker 2: And keep in mind that.
12:51
Speaker 1: They don't have a parks director yet. I did a
12:54
Speaker 1: national search. I had a great parks director. Brooke Bench
12:58
Speaker 1: was a parks director that I hired after I became mayor.
13:02
Speaker 1: He is the one that went to Lake Cunningham to
13:05
Speaker 1: kind of oversee be the director of the development out there.
13:10
Speaker 1: But Lake Cunningham and also Miller Park what you brought
13:14
Speaker 1: up are still Omaha public parks. They are not private parks.
13:18
Speaker 1: They have not been privatized. It is just that there's
13:21
Speaker 1: a lot of philanthropic money going into redeveloping those parks
13:26
Speaker 1: so that the public can enjoy it. And I will
13:28
Speaker 1: tell you I remember when I was first approached about
13:32
Speaker 1: Cunningham about a lot of philanthropy, philanthropic money going into
13:37
Speaker 1: Lake Cunningham. Their first thought was should we make this
13:41
Speaker 1: a state park? And should we make it so that
13:44
Speaker 1: there is an entry fee? And that is one thing
13:47
Speaker 1: I immediately said, no, you cannot do that. These are
13:50
Speaker 1: Omaha public parks and they need to stay public, free,
13:54
Speaker 1: open to the public, and they still are. The log
13:57
Speaker 1: Years started putting in money in Miller Park when I
14:01
Speaker 1: was still mayor, but again insisted that these stay to
14:05
Speaker 1: be public parks. They did put a lot of money
14:08
Speaker 1: in there. They have a lot of pride in Miller Park.
14:11
Speaker 2: The Los Years.
14:11
Speaker 1: You know, Nelson Mandela School is right up there across
14:15
Speaker 1: the street from Miller Park. Miller Park is where the
14:17
Speaker 1: Carrier Roscoe baseball Field is put. There was a lot
14:22
Speaker 1: of incidences, a lot of crime happening in Miller Park
14:25
Speaker 1: away back, and there isn't anymore because of the help
14:29
Speaker 1: of the lows years and the City of Omaha. That
14:32
Speaker 1: park has been really turned into something that anybody can
14:35
Speaker 1: enjoy any time of the day. And so it is
14:38
Speaker 1: very The City of Omaha is limited in the amount
14:42
Speaker 1: of money of course they have that goes into the
14:46
Speaker 1: general fund that would fund the Parks Department as well
14:48
Speaker 1: as public works, as well as the planning department, as
14:51
Speaker 1: well as a law department, all the city departments, fire department,
14:54
Speaker 1: police department.
14:55
Speaker 2: They're limited.
14:56
Speaker 1: I will tell you when COVID hit I put some
14:58
Speaker 1: of the biggest amount of COVID money into our parks.
15:01
Speaker 1: I put about twelve million additional dollars into our parks.
15:05
Speaker 1: But with two hundred and fifty six parks, you really
15:08
Speaker 1: have to prioritize. And when you can work with philanthropy,
15:11
Speaker 1: and philanthropy can get interested in one or two parks
15:14
Speaker 1: and want to put their money in. That's a big
15:16
Speaker 1: benefit to all of us because you're using less taxpayer dollars.
15:20
Speaker 1: We could still keep our tax levy as low as
15:23
Speaker 1: we can, but we could still do these major developments
15:26
Speaker 1: in some of our parks. So I just want to
15:29
Speaker 1: let you know that that Miller Park and Lake Cunningham,
15:32
Speaker 1: they are not privatized. There's a lot of philanthropic private
15:37
Speaker 1: money going in there, but they are still Omaha public parks.
15:41
Speaker 1: We need to have a parks director.
15:42
Speaker 3: Though, Yes, And that's a great segue to my follow
15:46
Speaker 3: up here. This is something that Scott Vorhees and Lucy
15:49
Speaker 3: Chapman talked about last week. It happened a few days ago.
15:53
Speaker 3: I think you were out of town, and I'm sure
15:55
Speaker 3: we would have talked about it. But the key there
15:57
Speaker 3: is we don't have a parks director exactly right. The
16:01
Speaker 3: City of Omaha has launched this initiative for people to
16:05
Speaker 3: help volunteer. Omaha's launching its quote pitch in for Playgrounds
16:10
Speaker 3: end quote, a new volunteer initiative through the Volunteer in
16:13
Speaker 3: the Parks program where volunteers can help clean up litter,
16:17
Speaker 3: polish playground equipment, and work on light beautification projects.
16:22
Speaker 1: Okay, that you know that sounds really good and it
16:26
Speaker 1: sounds really friendly. Let's all pitch in and help. It's
16:29
Speaker 1: like let's adopt a park. But long run, the City
16:32
Speaker 1: of Omaha needs to take control of their two hundred
16:35
Speaker 1: and fifty six parks and guarantee the public that their
16:38
Speaker 1: tax dollars are being used appropriately and that the parks
16:42
Speaker 1: are being kept in really good clean shape, that we
16:45
Speaker 1: don't have to depend on the public coming in to
16:48
Speaker 1: polish playgrounds.
16:49
Speaker 3: It's just not reliable, is it. It's not dependable.
16:52
Speaker 2: It is not reliable. It is not dependable.
16:55
Speaker 1: As I said earlier, I hired brook Bench when I
16:58
Speaker 1: first became mayor. He was a a great parks director.
17:01
Speaker 1: He's out there managing Cunningham now. Then I did a
17:05
Speaker 1: national search and hired Matt Kalsovich. I thought he did
17:08
Speaker 1: a great job too. He was the most enthusiastic parks
17:11
Speaker 1: director I have ever worked with. He had so many
17:14
Speaker 1: great ideas about every one of our parks and I
17:18
Speaker 1: used to kiddyim Sanna, you probably saw all two hundred
17:20
Speaker 1: and fifty six parks at least once a day. But
17:23
Speaker 1: Matt was terminated by the current mayor within about a month. Unfortunately,
17:30
Speaker 1: they did one national search. They were unsuccessful. They didn't
17:35
Speaker 1: find anybody, and now apparently they're doing another national search.
17:38
Speaker 1: Is what Mary Ewing announced when he did the State
17:41
Speaker 1: of the City in the summer or whenever you give
17:44
Speaker 1: the State of the city.
17:46
Speaker 2: So anyway, they need a parks director because this is
17:49
Speaker 2: busy season. This is when we.
17:51
Speaker 1: Have all our time our parks, you know, Hummel, We
17:54
Speaker 1: have all of our day camps. Our swimming pools are opening.
17:58
Speaker 1: There was quite a bit on the news just recently
18:00
Speaker 1: about some of the pools not opening this year because
18:02
Speaker 1: of some maintenance problems. Some that are opening, they phase
18:05
Speaker 1: them in hiring the lifeguards now all of the things
18:10
Speaker 1: that go on in the summer. The golf courses, you know,
18:13
Speaker 1: are golf pro retired also, and I'm not sure they've
18:16
Speaker 1: hired a new golf pro yet. And we turned the
18:19
Speaker 1: golf our golf courses into an enterprise and that really
18:23
Speaker 1: helped the golf because all the money that is the
18:27
Speaker 1: revenue that is made with our golf courses goes back
18:29
Speaker 1: to the golf courses. It doesn't get dumped into the
18:31
Speaker 1: general fund and use for other things. So they need
18:34
Speaker 1: a full time parks director. They have an interim parks
18:36
Speaker 1: director now he's been there for quite a while. I
18:39
Speaker 1: had the same guy, Jake is an interim parks director
18:42
Speaker 1: for a while too. But you need a permanent parks director.
18:45
Speaker 1: And let me tell you another thing that a parks
18:48
Speaker 1: director really needs to do. And they need to be
18:51
Speaker 1: able to work with philanthropy. They need to be able
18:54
Speaker 1: to work and say, hey, I've got a great idea
18:56
Speaker 1: for this park or that park, and you know, would
18:59
Speaker 1: you be willing to give some private dollars. Look what
19:02
Speaker 1: happened with the Jean Leahy mal Heartland of America Park
19:05
Speaker 1: and Lewis and Clark Landing. There is a great example
19:09
Speaker 1: of the City of Omaha city owned parks that are
19:12
Speaker 1: still public parks. There are still public parks open to
19:15
Speaker 1: the public. But four hundred million of private money went
19:21
Speaker 1: into our riverfront parks and they're still public parks. So
19:25
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean if philanthropy is giving a lot of
19:27
Speaker 1: money that they now are privatized. The Lubinarium down on
19:31
Speaker 1: Lewis and Clark Landing is one hundred percent privately funded,
19:35
Speaker 1: one hundred percent, and that is something that a lot
19:38
Speaker 1: of cities don't have. So thank goodness, we have this
19:41
Speaker 1: generous philanthropic absolutely absolutely.
19:44
Speaker 3: Earlier this year, in the Mayor State of the City address,
19:47
Speaker 3: Mayor John Ewing talked about an assessment of Omaha City
19:49
Speaker 3: parks and said finding, sorry, finding that someone might not
19:56
Speaker 3: be in the city budget. And then this is a
19:58
Speaker 3: quote ing said in March. The assessment counted how much
20:02
Speaker 3: more the city would need to budget for basic park
20:05
Speaker 3: operations and maintenance and came up with an amount of
20:07
Speaker 3: approximately five million annually. I'm going to go to Bill here.
20:11
Speaker 3: We're a little bit short on time. We need breaks.
20:13
Speaker 3: But Bill, you are live with Jean Stauthard. Good morning, Yeah,
20:17
Speaker 3: good morning, good morning.
20:18
Speaker 6: As mayor, I just have an idea, just a thought,
20:25
Speaker 6: maybe until we get a parks director, is there any
20:28
Speaker 6: thought of utilizing some of these folks with that are
20:34
Speaker 6: in the penal system for community service, you know, we're
20:39
Speaker 6: just community service or even possibly work release programs through
20:46
Speaker 6: the jail for low offending people. Any thoughts on that,
20:51
Speaker 6: you know, I mean.
20:52
Speaker 1: That is something that that potentially could be done temporarily.
20:57
Speaker 2: But if you're utilizing the penal system.
21:00
Speaker 1: I think there's very little that you could actually have
21:03
Speaker 1: them do except some maintenance, some cleaning.
21:07
Speaker 2: Types of things.
21:08
Speaker 1: What we're talking about is and I added more money
21:11
Speaker 1: to the park's budget every year when I was mayor,
21:14
Speaker 1: But what we're talking about is a lot of our
21:16
Speaker 1: parks need some major rehab. And that's why you really
21:19
Speaker 1: got to you really have to have a plan. I
21:22
Speaker 1: asked Matt Kalsovich while he was still the Parks director
21:25
Speaker 1: and I was still mayor, if he would come up
21:28
Speaker 1: with a park's master plan so that he could prioritize
21:32
Speaker 1: all of our Omaha parks what needed the most work,
21:35
Speaker 1: what we needed to do in these parks this was
21:38
Speaker 1: kind of major work, and then how much money that
21:40
Speaker 1: we needed to fund those things to get them done. So,
21:43
Speaker 1: you know, if you utilize volunteers, you utilize volunteers, say
21:47
Speaker 1: from the penal system. I think that that's it's not
21:50
Speaker 1: as dependable as what we need to keep our parks
21:53
Speaker 1: in really, really, really good shape. So that's kind of
21:56
Speaker 1: what I feel about that the parks director makes a
21:59
Speaker 1: big difference. I have not seen the results of that
22:02
Speaker 1: park's master plan since Kalsovich is gone and we don't
22:05
Speaker 1: have a parks director yet, but I would really really
22:08
Speaker 1: like to see that. But what Mary Ewing said, I
22:11
Speaker 1: mean we do that every year. I mean every single
22:13
Speaker 1: year when we do the city budget, we ask the
22:16
Speaker 1: Parks Department as well as all the other departments, what
22:19
Speaker 1: do you need to run your department appropriately?
22:22
Speaker 2: Do you need more? Can you do it with less?
22:25
Speaker 1: I hate to hear somebody say well, the Parks Department
22:28
Speaker 1: doesn't have enough money for chemicals to treat the weeds.
22:30
Speaker 1: That should be a priority. That should be in the
22:33
Speaker 1: park's budget every single year. There should be no excuse
22:38
Speaker 1: for no chemicals for weeds. We don't have enough people
22:42
Speaker 1: to bow, or we don't have enough equipment to do
22:44
Speaker 1: our job. That should be part of the budget, and
22:47
Speaker 1: that equipment should be part of the capital budget.
22:50
Speaker 3: There's chemicals you can use for weeds. Why did my
22:54
Speaker 3: dad make me hack them away with knives and get
22:56
Speaker 3: the roots?
22:57
Speaker 1: Because that's your job, that's what you're doing. I said,
23:00
Speaker 1: it's yes, my mom had me do the same thing.
23:03
Speaker 1: But look at the medians. I mean, you know, the
23:05
Speaker 1: medians when especially with all this rain, I hate to
23:08
Speaker 1: see those medians full of weed. You know, there was
23:11
Speaker 1: one time, this is the truth, there was a median
23:14
Speaker 1: at one hundred and sixty eighth in center right there
23:16
Speaker 1: by Legacy. There was the biggest marijuana plant growing out
23:20
Speaker 1: of that median. I swear to God, and I saw
23:23
Speaker 1: it and there were weeds everywhere, And I called the
23:25
Speaker 1: parks Department. I go, you guys got to get out
23:27
Speaker 1: of here. You gotta clean this median up.
23:30
Speaker 3: Right, that's way very good.
23:31
Speaker 1: But with all the rain, I mean, obviously your lawn
23:34
Speaker 1: grows quickly. I have pretty flower beds at my house
23:38
Speaker 1: and I'm out there pulling weeds every day. But they
23:41
Speaker 1: need to incorporate that in their budget, and it should
23:44
Speaker 1: be done every single year. We are sitting here chit
23:47
Speaker 1: chatting with Chris Baker a little bit here. Oh, he'll
23:50
Speaker 1: be on at two o'clock in the afternoon. He'll have
23:52
Speaker 1: plenty of times.
23:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, we had to kick him out. We're coming back, Chris.
23:55
Speaker 3: You get four hours later in the day. I know
23:57
Speaker 3: us our time.
23:57
Speaker 2: Now lock the door, will you?
24:00
Speaker 1: Like I asked Todjmatter yesterday, I said, can't you figure
24:02
Speaker 1: out a way to arrest him or something and maybe
24:05
Speaker 1: keep him quiet for a while. But no, we love
24:07
Speaker 1: Chris Baker. He does a great job.
24:09
Speaker 3: So I did get an email yesterday, and I didn't
24:12
Speaker 3: have time to talk to Omaha Police Chief todch Monitor
24:15
Speaker 3: about it. But maybe this is something that we can
24:17
Speaker 3: look into and get some answers back. This is from Pat,
24:20
Speaker 3: he said. I guess he was just looking for a
24:23
Speaker 3: little bit of numbers and a little bit of statistics
24:25
Speaker 3: in regards to these George Floyd and BLM riots a
24:29
Speaker 3: few years ago. How many arrests were actually made, what charges,
24:34
Speaker 3: if any, were brought, How was the damage to business compensated?
24:38
Speaker 3: A few questions like that, And I would be so
24:41
Speaker 3: impressed but not surprised if you had these numbers on
24:43
Speaker 3: your head. On the top of your head, Gene. But
24:45
Speaker 3: maybe this is something we can talk about as the
24:47
Speaker 3: week goes on.
24:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, we can. And you know, I think Todd and
24:51
Speaker 1: I talked about it yesterday too. There was probably a
24:54
Speaker 1: good forty or so arrests that were done between Saturday,
24:59
Speaker 1: which would bend the thirtieth, and Sunday the thirty first.
25:03
Speaker 1: Once the National Guard came in, it really it really
25:06
Speaker 1: slowed down. But you know, it was just that I
25:10
Speaker 1: mentioned the amount of overtime that we spent. It was
25:13
Speaker 1: over two million dollars in overtime. This was not just
25:16
Speaker 1: the Omaha Police Department. It was the Omaha Fire Department.
25:19
Speaker 1: To Chief Dan Olsen was in charge at that time.
25:23
Speaker 1: He was down there all of the time, you know,
25:25
Speaker 1: all the time. Got to realize able one was up
25:28
Speaker 1: in the air all the time, so we had to
25:29
Speaker 1: play pay our you know, our flight crew. There was
25:32
Speaker 1: a lot going on as far as you know the
25:36
Speaker 1: private property that was damaged. There was a lot of
25:39
Speaker 1: glass broken things like that downtown. Of course, the private
25:43
Speaker 1: businesses used their own insurance for that. It was the
25:46
Speaker 1: city's responsibility to get to get the peace. And to remember,
25:51
Speaker 1: after Skurlock was shot, he was a twenty two year
25:54
Speaker 1: old African American protester. After he was shot, a lot
25:58
Speaker 1: more came once that the Douglas County Attorney ruled that
26:03
Speaker 1: it was self defense. It went to a grand jury,
26:07
Speaker 1: ended up with four criminal charges to Jake Gardner, the
26:09
Speaker 1: one that was the shooter. Jake Gardner ended up committing suicide.
26:15
Speaker 1: I mean this went on for quite a while. The
26:17
Speaker 1: repercussions went on for quite a while. So a lot
26:21
Speaker 1: of equipment was used, Like I said, pepperballs, There was
26:25
Speaker 1: all sorts of things that were used. But decisions had
26:28
Speaker 1: to be made really really quickly, and you just really
26:30
Speaker 1: didn't have time to sit and think how much is
26:32
Speaker 1: this going to cost?
26:33
Speaker 2: You just had to react to it.
26:34
Speaker 3: You have you have no time for that. Right, We're
26:36
Speaker 3: going to talk about the parks real quick here. Charlie
26:39
Speaker 3: has something that he would like to chime in about
26:40
Speaker 3: real quick, Charlie here you are alive with Jean's author.
26:43
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning Mayor, Good morning.
26:48
Speaker 7: Mayor. I've got a real uh so bad feeling about
26:55
Speaker 7: Homa Park. It's the roads are the horrible. There's three
27:02
Speaker 7: major washouts that have been there for since last fall,
27:08
Speaker 7: and they have barricades up blocking it for republic safety.
27:13
Speaker 7: But you know what kids do. They could come along
27:15
Speaker 7: and grab the barricades and throw them in a hole.
27:18
Speaker 2: Yes they do.
27:19
Speaker 1: And you know, Humble Park used to be an area,
27:23
Speaker 1: as you probably know if you lived here for a
27:26
Speaker 1: long time, of a lot of crime and a lot
27:28
Speaker 1: of issues that happened out at Humble and it was
27:32
Speaker 1: you know, it was really changed to be a park
27:35
Speaker 1: we felt that everybody can enjoy. And we have the
27:39
Speaker 1: very famous Hummel Day camps that happen there that fill
27:42
Speaker 1: up the moment they become open online and so you
27:45
Speaker 1: got a lot of kids coming in and out of
27:47
Speaker 1: Humble Park all summer long. The area where the camps
27:51
Speaker 1: are is pretty nice. They have a shelter out there
27:54
Speaker 1: now that can be used as a storm shelter, but
27:56
Speaker 1: there's like there's twelve different camp sites there that need
28:02
Speaker 1: I mean all of that needs a lot of work.
28:05
Speaker 1: I agree with you that that Again, I go back
28:08
Speaker 1: to we need a parks director. We need a park's
28:12
Speaker 1: master plan to be completed. We need to make sure
28:15
Speaker 1: that we have a plan and prioritize which parks needs
28:20
Speaker 1: most work, and then we need to find a place
28:23
Speaker 1: to put that in the budget.
28:24
Speaker 2: That's what we need to be doing.
28:26
Speaker 1: And I hate to hear those things like a roads
28:29
Speaker 1: have been washed out at Humble for you know, since
28:32
Speaker 1: last fall that haven't been fixed yet, because that just
28:35
Speaker 1: leads to more problems all the time.
28:37
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And just to reiterate one more time, I'm getting
28:41
Speaker 3: a few more emails as well about the Levenworth Cafe.
28:44
Speaker 3: So this is something that we should bring up tomorrow
28:46
Speaker 3: the day after. If we get some more information, we
28:48
Speaker 3: will touch So on top of it. You're so on
28:50
Speaker 3: top of it, you always are. We're gonna switch topics now.
28:52
Speaker 3: We had some guests on yesterday from the College World Series.
28:57
Speaker 2: Gene Yes, and that was that was really fun.
29:00
Speaker 1: I thought it was fun because I love the College
29:02
Speaker 1: World Series when it happens in Omaha. Jack Deezing is
29:05
Speaker 1: the Chairman of the board and CEO of the Men's
29:09
Speaker 1: College World Series of Omaha, Inc. And his daughter, Lisa
29:11
Speaker 1: Dezing is on the executive committee and she was here
29:15
Speaker 1: with him too. But it's so much fun to talk
29:18
Speaker 1: about to me, the history which College World Series started
29:21
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty seven in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and it has
29:25
Speaker 1: been in Omaha since nineteen fifty and then we built.
29:28
Speaker 2: A new ballpark.
29:29
Speaker 1: I thought it was great to go through the history
29:31
Speaker 1: of it, how the tournament runs. There were some things
29:36
Speaker 1: that we didn't get to which people really want to
29:39
Speaker 1: know about, like the food. Every year there's new food
29:42
Speaker 1: that they have that I wanted to talk about, weather,
29:47
Speaker 1: what happens with the weather. There's a lot of things
29:49
Speaker 1: that I wanted to get to. So I asked both
29:51
Speaker 1: Lisa and Jack if they would come back after the
29:53
Speaker 1: College World Series this year and we could do a
29:55
Speaker 1: wrap up. We could talk about the championship games, any problems,
29:59
Speaker 1: a good thing, things that we need to improve on.
30:02
Speaker 1: I think it would be fun to have him back afterwards.
30:04
Speaker 1: And they agreed, and.
30:05
Speaker 3: They're always they seemed very welcome, honest and encouraging of
30:09
Speaker 3: receiving feedback.
30:10
Speaker 1: Yes they are, and that's what they want to do.
30:12
Speaker 1: They want to make it better every year. And you know,
30:15
Speaker 1: the thing about Jack Deezing that I really love is
30:18
Speaker 1: he is into baseball.
30:19
Speaker 2: And during the.
30:20
Speaker 1: College World Series, you do not see Jack Deezing up
30:22
Speaker 1: in the suites. Jack Deezing is sitting right there in
30:25
Speaker 1: the second row behind home plate, right out in the sun,
30:28
Speaker 1: right right there. I mean, he wants to play ball.
30:31
Speaker 3: He wants to get that sunburn on his thighs and
30:33
Speaker 3: forearms because he's sitting in the sun.
30:35
Speaker 2: He loves baseball, and you.
30:38
Speaker 1: Know it started out with his dad, Jack Deezing Senior,
30:41
Speaker 1: and he just loves baseball. And they have to maintain
30:44
Speaker 1: a really good relationship with the NC Double A and
30:46
Speaker 1: all those guys are really great too, but you know,
30:49
Speaker 1: you work together. I've been involved in twelve now wrap
30:52
Speaker 1: ups with the NC Double A after and we do
30:54
Speaker 1: it immediately after the series to talk about what what right,
30:57
Speaker 1: what went wrong?
30:58
Speaker 2: How can we improve every year.
31:00
Speaker 1: I know the one thing people will notice this year
31:02
Speaker 1: is the new scoreboard out in the outfield, which we
31:05
Speaker 1: didn't have before. And so lots going on with a
31:08
Speaker 1: College World Series, but that ten days of baseball in Omaha.
31:11
Speaker 2: Is really fun.
31:12
Speaker 3: Absolutely and Tim called us this morning at the KFAB
31:17
Speaker 3: comment line for zero two, five, five, eight, eleven ten.
31:19
Speaker 3: He had some ideas about the College World Series. Tim
31:22
Speaker 3: you are live with Jean Stauthord on KFAB.
31:25
Speaker 2: Hi, welcome morning, Good morning.
31:28
Speaker 7: Hey, you need more than an hour on this show.
31:30
Speaker 7: You can't get nothing.
31:31
Speaker 5: Done in an hour.
31:32
Speaker 1: Well, I could talk for a couple hours, but they
31:34
Speaker 1: want you can, but they won't let me.
31:37
Speaker 7: I know you can. Hey, we need a College World
31:41
Speaker 7: Series Hall of Fame museum downtown and the perfect spot
31:44
Speaker 7: would be the old Civic Auditorium side. I mean, there
31:46
Speaker 7: ain't nothing been there for years, so why not build
31:48
Speaker 7: something like there?
31:49
Speaker 2: I mean that'd be perfect.
31:50
Speaker 7: For a museum and a.
31:51
Speaker 3: Hall of fame.
31:52
Speaker 2: You know what.
31:53
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you brought that up because we have
31:55
Speaker 1: been working on that.
31:56
Speaker 2: There is a group of men.
31:57
Speaker 1: I think the Hall of Fame right now is down
32:00
Speaker 1: I'm hesitating.
32:01
Speaker 2: It's in Texas.
32:02
Speaker 1: I want to say where it is in Texas, but
32:05
Speaker 1: we have been in conversation about having a College World
32:08
Speaker 1: Series Hall of Fame. I will tell you my best
32:11
Speaker 1: place that I think it should be is at the ballpark.
32:14
Speaker 1: There is still areas at the new ballpark that have
32:18
Speaker 1: a dirt floor, if you can imagine that that you
32:21
Speaker 1: could enter from the street that is not finished off yet.
32:25
Speaker 1: And there is a perfect place at the current ballpark,
32:29
Speaker 1: at Charles Schwab Stadium that we could put a College
32:32
Speaker 1: World Series Hall of Fame in, And so those negotiations
32:36
Speaker 1: had already started. They kind of stalled for a while.
32:40
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure why, but I agree with you
32:43
Speaker 1: is we're going to have this College World Series here
32:46
Speaker 1: for ten more years at least, as Jack said yesterday.
32:49
Speaker 1: I thought it was until twenty thirty six, but he said,
32:52
Speaker 1: we will still play ball in twenty thirty seven and
32:55
Speaker 1: hopefully keep it here longer than that. So the College
32:57
Speaker 1: World Series Hall of Fame needs to have its home
33:00
Speaker 1: in Omaha.
33:00
Speaker 2: I agree with you.
33:01
Speaker 1: But there is a spot at the baseball stadium, the
33:04
Speaker 1: current stadium, which I think would be.
33:06
Speaker 2: A great spot to do it.
33:07
Speaker 1: And that civic site is also you know that it's
33:10
Speaker 1: being developed right now by White Lotus, and that would
33:15
Speaker 1: be a good spot too, But I think being right
33:18
Speaker 1: there downtown in the midst of everything would be a
33:20
Speaker 1: great spot for it.
33:21
Speaker 3: So you guys are already thinking about this, which means Tim,
33:23
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. I think it's a little bit too late
33:25
Speaker 3: for you to get any royalties on this idea. But
33:28
Speaker 3: I love you, I love where your brain is at.
33:29
Speaker 3: And we need to go to break here, Geen. But
33:31
Speaker 3: I had a woman call me this morning and I
33:34
Speaker 3: just wanted you to give your little elevator pitch about this. Sure,
33:38
Speaker 3: she's left a few phone calls to the Mayor's hotline
33:41
Speaker 3: multiple double digits. She says, nothing has has been returned,
33:46
Speaker 3: and she doesn't feel like this is, oh, my neighbor is,
33:51
Speaker 3: you know, not cutting his lawn. She feels like this
33:53
Speaker 3: is a pretty serious matter that she wants some answers
33:55
Speaker 3: on what's the best option for her.
33:59
Speaker 1: Boy, I hate hearing that too, because I took a
34:01
Speaker 1: lot of pride in that hotline. I had a communication
34:04
Speaker 1: director that was great, Carrie Murphy. She pretty much managed
34:08
Speaker 1: the hotline about what the issues were of the day.
34:13
Speaker 1: And you know, she would go in there and talk
34:15
Speaker 1: to them every morning and here's an issue today, hoolest potholes,
34:18
Speaker 1: snow removal, shoveling, whatever are you know an issue downtown, Midtown,
34:22
Speaker 1: out west and Omaha out in Elcorn And she would
34:25
Speaker 1: talk to them and Our goal was that people would
34:28
Speaker 1: get an answer that day. The hotline just wasn't there
34:31
Speaker 1: for people to call and leave a message. The hotline
34:33
Speaker 1: existed to solve problems, and it wasn't just to say, oh, well,
34:37
Speaker 1: now you need to call the planning department. You know,
34:39
Speaker 1: they had screens up in front of them that they
34:41
Speaker 1: could if they reported a pothole, they could put that
34:44
Speaker 1: pothole on the screen, report it for the person, and
34:47
Speaker 1: they could see when that pothole was fixed and repaired
34:49
Speaker 1: and get back to people. The other thing I had
34:51
Speaker 1: is a couple and I don't even know if they're
34:54
Speaker 1: still there because this is questions for Mary Ewing, but
34:56
Speaker 1: a couple several of retired Omaha police officers that we're
35:00
Speaker 1: working in the hot line, and you know, a lot
35:03
Speaker 1: of times people call and they're really angry about a problem,
35:06
Speaker 1: and those police officers were so good at de escalating
35:09
Speaker 1: things and sometimes just sitting there listening to them and saying,
35:13
Speaker 1: you know, I get it, and let me tell you
35:15
Speaker 1: what I'm going to do, and they would get back
35:16
Speaker 1: with people. So I have heard that I have I've
35:19
Speaker 1: been approached at different events saying I've called the hot
35:23
Speaker 1: line recently and I'm not getting the service I used to.
35:26
Speaker 1: I hate hearing that, but I would say, call the
35:29
Speaker 1: Mayor's office. I mean, this is something that the mayor
35:32
Speaker 1: should be in control of because the Mayor's hotline is
35:37
Speaker 1: required by the city Charter. And the city Charter is
35:40
Speaker 1: like our constitution, you know, is approved by a vote
35:44
Speaker 1: to the people, and the city Charter it says the
35:48
Speaker 1: mayor will have a complaint line. Well, we changed it
35:51
Speaker 1: to the you know, the hot line because I didn't
35:54
Speaker 1: want it to be just complaints, because if you said
35:57
Speaker 1: this is a complaint line, people would call every day
35:59
Speaker 1: and complaint. I wanted it to be to solve any
36:02
Speaker 1: problem that people had, whether it was a complaint or not.
36:05
Speaker 1: I will tell you the other thing I did that
36:07
Speaker 1: I hope they're keeping up with is every Monday morning,
36:10
Speaker 1: we had cabinet meeting with all the directors and the mayor,
36:13
Speaker 1: and I would have the hotline give us a report
36:16
Speaker 1: so that all the directors could see what the number one, two, three,
36:20
Speaker 1: four most prominent calls were into the hotline, so like
36:24
Speaker 1: in the summer it was weeds and litter, and so
36:26
Speaker 1: then the Parks Department would see this is the thing
36:28
Speaker 1: they really got to be on in the winter. It
36:30
Speaker 1: was potholes and snow removal and ice removal. So I
36:33
Speaker 1: wanted all the directors to see what the calls but
36:36
Speaker 1: the number one call that came in all the time,
36:38
Speaker 1: year round, or neighborhood problems or neighbor problems. And so
36:43
Speaker 1: this new initiative now with the new administration of the
36:47
Speaker 1: Year of the Neighbor, there's a lot more that people
36:51
Speaker 1: want answered about neighborhood problems than just let's be friendly.
36:55
Speaker 3: Yes, Year of the Neighbor, and we are back.
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Speaker 1: You know, we were talking about the neighbors and the
37:02
Speaker 1: problems that we get in the hotline with neighbors.
37:04
Speaker 2: But you know, Peyton, when I.
37:06
Speaker 1: Was driving in here today, I was listening to Scott
37:08
Speaker 1: and Lucy talk about do you know your neighbors?
37:12
Speaker 2: I mean, that's a good question.
37:13
Speaker 1: This is the Year of the Neighbor, Okay, do you
37:16
Speaker 1: know the names of your neighbors? And then he started
37:18
Speaker 1: talking about when he was younger, do you know I
37:21
Speaker 1: grew up in Wood River, Illinois. That's where I grew up.
37:24
Speaker 1: That was my hometown. Wood River was a refinery town.
37:27
Speaker 1: It was built by Standard Oil for the places for
37:30
Speaker 1: when they built the refinery for people to live. It
37:32
Speaker 1: was a very blue collar neighborhood. I remember every one
37:36
Speaker 1: of my neighbors. I remember Missus Schuler and Missus Levi
37:40
Speaker 1: and Missus Maroney. There was a Missus Shuler lived across
37:43
Speaker 1: the street and she had this obnoxious little yip yup
37:45
Speaker 1: dog named Poocha Khn. I remember Poocha con And every
37:48
Speaker 1: time I would walk out, I'm like, yes, my front yard,
37:51
Speaker 1: Poochacn would come darting across the street and he'd try
37:54
Speaker 1: to bite your ankles. But my best friend Beverly McGinnis
37:58
Speaker 1: lived across the street from and do you know what
38:01
Speaker 1: we used to in her backyard? Listen to this. We
38:04
Speaker 1: used to play in an old refrigerator.
38:07
Speaker 3: Oh that's the best.
38:08
Speaker 1: Do do you know how many children died playing in
38:13
Speaker 1: old refrigerators getting like legitimately died, yes, getting locked in
38:17
Speaker 1: these old and it was out in the backyard and
38:19
Speaker 1: we used to play with it. So this is what
38:22
Speaker 1: my my maybe not the best, my youth was like,
38:25
Speaker 1: but you know what, it was a very like I said,
38:27
Speaker 1: not posh, very blue collar town. But everybody's dad worked
38:30
Speaker 1: in the refineries, you know, there was Standard Oil, and
38:33
Speaker 1: there was Sheldon. They were Sinclair and that's what Wood
38:35
Speaker 1: River was all about. I didn't move to my home
38:38
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis until I graduated from nursing school, so
38:42
Speaker 1: I was an adult when I actually moved over to
38:44
Speaker 1: Saint Louis. But yeah, I mean I loved it. My
38:46
Speaker 1: childhood was very, very good. But I knew every one
38:49
Speaker 1: of my neighbors, all.
38:50
Speaker 3: Of them absolutely. I did two And the neighbor that
38:53
Speaker 3: lived a few streets down from me, he lived on
38:55
Speaker 3: the corner to the entrance of the neighborhood, and so
38:57
Speaker 3: I would ride my bike down in back on the sidewalk,
39:01
Speaker 3: and I was probably six years old. I fell off
39:04
Speaker 3: my bike and I busted up my toe and his
39:09
Speaker 3: mom was there and she said, oh, let's go get
39:11
Speaker 3: you a band aid, and lo and behold she had
39:15
Speaker 3: a son my age and he's in my wedding. We've
39:20
Speaker 3: been friends for life after that, six to now. And
39:25
Speaker 3: he was my neighbor. We played football together, basketball.
39:27
Speaker 2: Those are great stories. I know.
39:29
Speaker 1: My husband he grew up in Crestwood, Missouri, and he said,
39:32
Speaker 1: you know, he was one of six kids, and he said,
39:34
Speaker 1: his mom in the morning was like, go get go up,
39:37
Speaker 1: get on your bikes and go play today and be
39:39
Speaker 1: back by dinner. And everybody, just everybody knew the neighbors.
39:42
Speaker 1: They would be riding their bikes around, they'd be playing ball.
39:45
Speaker 1: That's just what you did back then. And you know,
39:48
Speaker 1: be home by dinner if you want, if you want
39:50
Speaker 1: to eat when the street lights turn one.
39:53
Speaker 3: That's right, yes, absolutely, well, it is the year of
39:57
Speaker 3: the neighbor. Nonetheless, it is.
39:59
Speaker 1: And you know it would be great if it was
40:01
Speaker 1: that easy, but it's it's it's not whether you have
40:04
Speaker 1: a noisy neighbor, you have a dog bark, and you
40:06
Speaker 1: have trees, you have litter, you have cars in the
40:08
Speaker 1: front yard. These are real problems that the city needs
40:13
Speaker 1: to be helping with and not just say we're going
40:17
Speaker 1: to do a hugout and everything's going to be fine.
40:19
Speaker 3: And on a lighter note, like we've ended the show
40:22
Speaker 3: already speaking about the neighbors. You were telling me when
40:24
Speaker 3: we when I came in this morning, you've got a
40:25
Speaker 3: funny Max story for us. Is that true?
40:27
Speaker 1: My world famous grandson, the six year old Max is
40:31
Speaker 1: I always take care of him every Wednesday, not today,
40:33
Speaker 1: because obviously number one school's out, but they are on
40:36
Speaker 1: this great vacation in Hawaii.
40:37
Speaker 3: Haaiaii.
40:39
Speaker 1: They are in Hawaii and this was so funny. My
40:42
Speaker 1: daughter sent me a text yesterday. Keep in mind that Max,
40:45
Speaker 1: which I call Maximus, that's not his name. His name
40:47
Speaker 1: is Maxwell. But they're in Hawaii. He's six years old.
40:51
Speaker 1: And she said, Mom, we're doing an evening snorkel with
40:54
Speaker 1: manta rays tonight and Max says, are we going to
40:56
Speaker 1: be in the area with nets? Are we going to
40:58
Speaker 1: be out in the ocean? And I said, we're going
41:00
Speaker 1: to go out in the ocean and he said, Nope,
41:02
Speaker 1: not gonna happen. Thirty five people die every year due
41:05
Speaker 1: to shark attacks and I am not going to be
41:07
Speaker 1: number thirty six today.
41:09
Speaker 2: This is my six year old grandson. I can't believe
41:13
Speaker 2: this kid. He is hilarious. I don't know.
41:15
Speaker 1: He probably was doing a Google search on shark attacks
41:19
Speaker 1: or something.
41:20
Speaker 2: He is the smartest kid ever.
41:21
Speaker 3: You You'd almost think he reads the Dictionary for fun
41:24
Speaker 3: because his vocabulary, his vernacular is so incredibly beyond his years.
41:28
Speaker 1: It is, and how he uses it. It's really something too.
41:31
Speaker 1: But they are having a great time. She sent me
41:33
Speaker 1: a video of him yesterday jumping off a plank on
41:36
Speaker 1: a boat into the ocean.
41:37
Speaker 2: I don't know.
41:38
Speaker 1: This kid's a daredevil too, and he's an excellent swimmer.
41:41
Speaker 1: He's really good, so well well talked about Max when
41:44
Speaker 1: he comes back from Hawaii. But I want to thank
41:46
Speaker 1: you all for being with us today. We have a
41:49
Speaker 1: lot more to talk about. I had about six more
41:51
Speaker 1: subjects I wanted to bring up today, but we have tomorrow,
41:54
Speaker 1: so I hope you join us again. We'd love to
41:57
Speaker 1: have you tomorrow listening again. And I am Jean Style
42:00
Speaker 1: And this is eleven ten k F A B