The Reardon Report

Trinity Community Church held a wonderful service today.  It was a moving tribute to the victims of 9/11 as well as a call to all of us to be more supportive of one another.  My whole family enjoyed it and I was honored to be able to present a Proclamation declaring today as a Day of Remembrance in Kansas City, Kansas/Wyandotte County.

It was great to be back on the campus of Rockhurst University and to join with Mayor Sly James in a dialogue about the region and how to move forward collectively.  The turnout was fantastic and I enjoyed seeing Rockhurst friends.  

Sly and I also announced our co-chairs for the By-State Innovation Team.  Dr. Ray Daniels will served as co-chair along with Mike Burke.  Dr. Daniels brings a great depth of experience in education from his service as superintendent of Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools and his current board position at Kansas City, Kansas Community College.  I will be selecting 5 team members from Kansas City, Kansas and Sly will be identifying 5 team members from Kansas City, Missouri.  We expect to make those announcements later this month.

It’s been an exciting week.  Governor Sam Brownback was in attendance at Livestrong Sporting Park on Wednesday for the Farm Aid concert announcement.  Farm Aid will take place on August 13th at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas.  Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews will headline the event.  The stadium looks fantastic.  The opening game takes place on June 9th when Sporting KC plays the Chicago Fire.
 
KU Endowment opened a new building on the University of Kansas Medical Center campus in KCK this week.  The three story building not only houses the endowment offices but also clinical and research offices for the medical center as well.  It is a great new soon to be LEED certified building right on Rainbow Boulevard.
 
The first Junior Police Academy Graduation took place at Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools on Wednesday.  Students from Fairfax School who participated were able to learn in depth the workings of the police department and police officers.  I was honored to join with Dr. Cindy Lane and Police Chief Rick Armstrong in congratulating the graduating students.

I also participated in the senior project event at Piper High School this week.  For the third year seniors at Piper picked topics they were passionate about or interested in and prepared research papers and immersed themselves in the topic.  This culminated in the presentations they made to panels at the school on Thursday.  I have to tell you I was blown away by the talent, preparation and enthusiasm of the students.  It was a proud moment for our community and I am certain they will go on to achieve much in their lives.  My hope is that our city has the benefit of their future endeavors.

Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed making a presentation to the KCKCC Economics Club, Campus Forum and Intercultural Center last week.  We talked about economic development, the potential for more business development and learning with Google Fiber and the new jobs coming on line at Sporting KC, the Hollywood Casino and Cerner Corp.

I also had a chance to make a presentation the the Association of Government Accountants at Johnson County Community College in the afternoon.  A great conversation about the region ensued.  There is a lot of interest in working on making the Kansas City Region a great place.

Finally, yesterday, Site Selection Magazine, an economic development magazine named the Sporting KC, Cerner project as one of the Top 10 Economic Development Deals in North America.  Here is an excerpt from the article: Cerner Corp./OnGoal

Kansas City, Kan.

$414 million, 4,000 jobs

The “other” Kansas City, which found out just last month that it had beat out 1,100 others to become the first recipient of Google’s ultra-fast broadband program, continues to make a bid to become “the” Kansas City when it comes to economic development. This deal with healthcare information management systems company Cerner, Major League Soccer’s Kansas City Wizards ownership group OnGoal and developer Lane4 will create thousands of jobs (at an average salary of $54,000) by 2016, a new stadium for the Wizards and an athletics complex with up to two dozen new fields. In January 2010 the Unified Government Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., approved the deal, 10 months after the idea was first broached. Revenues attached to successful retail growth in KCK helped make the deal, in the process pulling it from its original destination at a former mall site in Missouri, even as Kansas Secretary of Commerce David Kerr jumped ship to Missouri while negotiations were still unfolding in late 2009.

I wanted to take a minute to share the remarks I gave today at the Google Fiber Announcement.

I want to thank everyone for attending today. March 30, 2011 is a momentous day for Kansas City, Kansas and our entire region. We are entering into a transformative partnership that will allow Kansas City, Kansas to deploy a next generation fiber optic system throughout our community – one that will benefit both our residents and businesses.

We in the Midwest understand the importance of infrastructure to the building of cities. Our region has benefited greatly from the rail infrastructure that was laid here and the westward expansion that forever ensured our destiny as a crossroads – a region tied to access and connectivity.

The infrastructure of tomorrow is likewise tied to access and connectivity. Technology leads to opportunity and new frontiers, and in this age it is essential that we build a robust connection to information and ideas on the world wide web — so that our connections today can span the globe while at the same time benefiting us locally.

So today, we are proud to announce our partnership with Google: To create those robust connections with a 1 Gig fiber backbone straight through to businesses and homes. An exciting partnership that will help Kansas City, Kansas realize the full potential of the new economy in a world that is becoming more connected every day.

The selection of Kansas City, Kansas as the site for Google Fiber speaks to our community’s commitment to be enterprising, and is the latest example of what we can accomplish when we work together. Google Fiber joins a long list of important milestones and accomplishments in our community – including the development of Kansas Speedway, Village West, the Hollywood Casino, the new Livestrong Sporting Park and our growing partnership with Cerner Corporation. As a result, we are achieving national rankings in job growth during this challenging economy.

The wonderful diversity of our community, neighborhoods and industry make Kansas City, Kansas a microcosm for the rest of the country. When you combine these assets with our well-established track record of development partnerships, we feel Kansas City, Kansas is the perfect location for Google to launch its Fiber Project.

This successful initiative is the result of strong partnerships with our public utility, our business community, and our school districts. I’m excited today to announce that in partnership with Google, our students will benefit from this new opportunity as free high speed access will be provided at schools throughout the city — allowing students to use this ultra high speed network to fully realize their potential in a global economy.

Our government will also benefit by receiving free broadband access at key facilities, allowing us to strengthen public safety and services to our citizens. In addition, the deployment of high speed broadband internet access into our neighborhoods will undoubtedly further advance the academic vision and goals of our local schools, universities, and learning consortiums.

While Google Fiber may be starting out in Kansas City, Kansas, I know that for an opportunity like this to be truly successful, it must expand beyond a single community. It is my hope that cities throughout ourregion will become part of this initiative. It is this regional focus and opportunity that will provide lasting benefit to all of our citizens as we compete around the globe. Today’s announcement will further regional growth efforts in life sciences, technology, manufacturing and entrepreneurialism.

Finally, I want to thank all those that have worked so hard to make this project a reality. It has been a long process but one that will lead to significant benefit. This truly was a team effort and we worked seamlessly with Board of Public Utilities staff to make it successful. Our negotiating team has been fantastic and I appreciate the dedication to this historic project.

To the Google Team, we have enjoyed working with you to successfully bring us to today. Milo, Kevin, Kris and Joe, and everyone on the Google Team, we have developed a strong relationship that I know will carry us to success as we deploy this new technology – right here in Kansas City, Kansas.

We now begin a community dialogue about the details of this project and its benefits to our citizens. We will be working in partnership with Google to implement this technology. I am proud that Kansas City, Kansas will be part of this effort to bring next generation high-speed broadband to cities throughout the US.