Parks Transform a City: A Deep Dive into Raymore Parks with Director Nathan Musteen

Episode Transcript
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Melissa Harmer (00:10):
Welcome to Say More in Raymore, the City of
Raymore official podcast.
I'm your host, Melissa Harmer,Communications Director for the
City.
Each episode will bring younews, updates and
behind-the-scenes stories fromyour city government, covering
projects, events and the peoplewho help make Raymore a great
place to live, work and visit.
On today's episode we have NateMusteen, the director of

(00:31):
Raymore Parks and Recreation.
Welcome, Nate,

Nathan Musteen (00:33):
thank you.

First tell me a little bit about you.
You grew up in NorthwestArkansas, which is one of my
favorite places.
Tell me what that was like foryou.

I grew up in a little town called Pea Ridge,
Arkansas.
It's just literally, I think myhouse was five miles from the
state line in Missouri, so wewere right on it, right there
beside Bella Vista, Bentonville,Rogers area.
So you hit 49 and you go southand I'm basically home.
So you hit 49 and you go southand I'm basically home, and it

(01:11):
was awesome.
I absolutely loved it.
Had I not met my wife incollege and blown out my knee
and she got a job first, we'dprobably be living down there
instead of up here so.

So you took advantage of being in the Ozark
Mountains.
Tell me you went to the stateparks and explored all that
stuff around there.

Oh, yeah, oh yeah, I was a farm kid so I grew
up on a 100-acre farm.
My grandpa had a 300-acre farm,my uncle had another 100-acre
farm or 50 acres, and so we wereoutdoor kids big time and it
was in the Ozarks.
So when you think of whatBranson looks like and those
types of the hills and stuff,those were our farms.

(01:49):
So canoeing, camping, that wasevery weekend we actually had.
I kept a canoe in the back ofmy truck.

Oh nice.

Yeah, we were one of those kids that grew up
with gun racks in the back andwe had tents and everything set
up so we would go campinganywhere.
We had access to all thisfarmland.
I mean, I wasn't the only farmkid, all my buddies were, so we
just had it ready to go.
So if we want to go camping itwas you just did and we went

(02:17):
canoeing every afternoon afterafter school and very cool.

Was a there, a creek near you or on your
property?

oh yeah, there was the Elk River, which is, I
mean, that was 20 minutes fromschool, and then we had the Big
Sugar and the Little Sugar, andthe little sugar flowed right
through my uncle's property.
So we that's where we campedmostly was right there on the
little sugar, and we would dropthe canoe a couple of miles
ahead.
Then, uh, we would just truckdown to Uncle Dub's house and

(02:47):
then

Uncle Dub, I love it.

W.
A.
Walter Alexander, so he wasuncle Uncle Dub we would just
caravan and went canoe down andgo camping, spend the night down
on dub's Dub's and uh, that isso cool.

as long as far back as I can remember my family
family, we'd go down there thatarea at least once a year,
camping and everything.
Loved it so much.
But you had it 20 minutes away,it was like four or five hours
from me.

Yeah, we were camping, especially in high
school.
My dad really liked it.
We were on the creek everyweekend and probably camping two
or three times a month verycool growing up.

So would you say you're more of a river or a
lake person because you werealso really close to beaver lake
, right not very far away.

No, no, we were 20 minutes from beaver lake.
Growing up, I was a river kidor a creek kid.
Now I'm more of a lake kid.

Yeah, what about ?
I know you talked about tentcamping a lot.
What about now?
Tent or cabin?

Mostly cabins.
I will say that I would stillprefer to tent camp and do that,
but my wife tends to win thosearguments, and so we're at the
point.
Now, though, we really likejust being on the go.
The sitting by the lake andjust relaxing is not really our
thing.
We want to get up and go hikingand go thing do stuff.

(04:13):
So cabins and hotels are a loteasier, because you can just
wake up and go and spend all dayso that's kind of where we're
in.
The mode right now is I've stillgot too much energy to sit.

Well, that's a good thing.

We just keep going.

So you've traveled to, you've taken some
pretty cool vacations over thelast few years.
Would you say you're more of abeach or a mountain person or
mountain.

I really like Hawaii.

Don't get me wrong.
You had a really greatexperience there.

Yes, but if you were to ask me, I'm heading to
the mountains great experiencethere?

yes, but uh, if you were to ask me, I'm heading
to the mountains.
Nice, no questions.
Yeah, what is your favoriteseason?

then do you have I actually?
That's why I like the Midwest,because I like them all.
I like them all for differentreasons.
We have all of them in extreme,all of them yeah, monthly yeah
but, um, without the business oflife and work and kids and
stuff.
The fall is my favorite relaxedseason and the spring is my

(05:14):
favorite restart season, whichmakes total sense on both of
them.
But being a tree guy, I reallylike the spring because I like
planting trees and I likewatching them sprout and grow
and stuff like that.
So that's energizing to me,kind of a fresh start every year
.

Nice.
And one more question before wedo get into the actual parks
part of this what would you sayis the coolest place you've ever
been?

I really liked Alaska.
The Northwest is probably myfavorite.
This sounds weird, I'm going togive up some stuff, but I'm a
big Northern exposure fan.
It's a TV show from thenineties.
It's like my all time favoriteTV show and we were doing a road
trip up in Seattle when I wasin high school and the show was

(06:01):
still on air and by RoslynWashington, which is where it
was filmed, and I recognized itand we had this caravan of like
five or six of our familiesbecause we were doing a going to
a family reunion up there andwe literally pulled this caravan
off and went to RoslynWashington and I got to see the
set and all of those things sodid you see a moose walk through

(06:23):
?
I did not see a moose at thatpoint.

I did in Alaska.

But that was just really impactful to me.
Very cool Because it was myfavorite show at the time and so
I've got coffee mugs and allkinds of stuff from it that I
probably would never have gonethere if we just hadn't happened
by Cool.
And you asked me a while agoabout like lakes or whatever.

(06:48):
I'm a lake fan now because Ihave a history, like you talked
about Beaver Lake, I was a parkranger on Beaver Lake you were.
I didn't know that yeah, andthat was really how I got headed
into my field.
And now my family is uh, wehave my brother-in-law has a
cabin at Table Rock, whichthey're connected with the Corps
of Engineers, so and the WhiteRiver, so that's really how I

(07:12):
kind of transitioned into Parksand Rec.

Nice, that's actually what I was going to ask
you next how did you was theway you grew up.
Obviously that was influentialin what you chosen as a career.

So if you look in my high school yearbook and
you look at the senior pictures,I say what?

do you want to be?
Actually, could you pleasebring that in sometime.
I do want to see it.
I would love to.

Yes showing pictures of myself is a favorite
thing of mine.
I actually said on there that Iwould be a park ranger and I
worked for the Corps ofEngineers on their maintenance
side and cleaned the buildingsand stuff during high school and
so I got to see the guy, therangers, all the time and it
really just excited me.
I liked it.
So I went to college for a recdegree and I came back to Beaver

(07:58):
Lake and I worked as a parkranger for a couple summers and
that's what got me started andhow I ended up in local
government or municipal versusthe Corps of Engineers is you
don't get to choose where you goin the Corps right you sign up
and they send you where you go,and my now wife, but then

(08:20):
girlfriend, I mean we were goingto be engaged and we were still
in college and there justwasn't stability on what I could
pick and choose, where mycounselor in college said I
think you need to transition tothis because you get to do what
you like, but you can kind ofpick and choose where you want
to go.
And so that's really how Iended up with local government.

(08:42):
We didn't have parks and recagencies down there.
Growing up you had a YMCA andmost everything is kind of on
your own.
You know local parents ran thesports groups.
It wasn't like a parksdepartment.
I didn't see any of that untilI moved into the Kansas City
area.

Yeah, yeah, how long have you been here with the
city?

I started October 7th in 2002.
Been here with the city, Istarted October 7th in 2002.
It was my start date originally.
I worked 10 years and reallydeveloped all of the sports, the
programs.
I was the first true recreationemployee the city had, so we
weren't doing any sports oranything until I got here and we

(09:23):
took all that on and then Iworked 10 years and then I left.
I went down to the city ofPeculiar.
They asked me to come down andkind of help them get started.
So I was there for not even twoyears, about a year and a half,
and the director job forRaymore opened up and I had

(09:46):
several former park boardmembers, city staff members
asking me hey, are you going toapply?
And I wasn't sure I wanted to.
I didn't know if I wanted tocome back.
My heart was always here but Iwasn't sure if I wanted to apply
and not get it.
I struggled with that and Iended up turning my application
in the last day, of course, andI had a former park board member
.
He called me.

(10:08):
I was coming home from Peculiar, going home for lunch, and he
called me and said what are youdoing?
Why haven't you turned this in?

And.

I said I don't think I can handle not getting
it and he said you need to turnthis in.
And I actually had theapplication filled out.
It was sitting in the truckseat beside me when he was
calling and I just took a leftat 58 and went to city hall,
turned it in all right, so thatwas it nice.

Now I've been back 10 years yeah, and so, and,
and in that 10 years, I mean,our park system has changed how
like so much, so much even someof the things that have come
online, I guess, in the last 10years.
It's just incredible to thinkabout.

We have had just a explosion of improvements,
but just remarkable things thatmost departments in cities our
size will never see, and we'vebeen able to do it in a 10-year
stretch.
Yes, we've won major local,regional and national awards for

(11:18):
things that we've done, whichis awesome, and I like talking
about it.
I don't like, and I liketalking about it.
I don't like getting the creditfor it, because I'm just
pushing everybody else to dothings for me is what I'm doing.

Well, sure, but you obviously played a big part.
But yes, and I love that, inRaymore there are so many firsts
in our parks, first in thestate, first in the country.
That's really cool for a, youknow, at the time 23,000
population city, a small town.

I'm pretty competitive when it comes to
making sure our town has thesame things as others, and
that's one of the things I likeabout going to national
conferences and stuff, becauseyou get out of your little
bubble and you see what othersare doing.
And I'm always the when I seesomething I'm like, why not us?
More so than we could never bethat.

(12:12):
So I start pushing for things,I start looking for things that
is not normal in our area and Igo and try and find them and
figure out how to make it happen.
Sometimes we sometimes we get awin, sometimes we don't.
It's certainly a challenge, butit's great to have that positive
attitude of like let's see ifwe can do this oh yeah, and I've

(12:32):
had some tough conversationswith some of my bosses on things
that we've tried, and I've hadsome really good conversations
with them on things that we'vetried that have worked out, and
none of it really bothers me interms of let's go try for the
next thing.
I'm, I really just want to bethe leader in, specifically,

(12:54):
cass County.
I want to be driving and bemotivating for other cities to
like we want to be those guys.
We want to do with those guys.
We want to do more with lesslike those guys, and I want
other directors that I mentor orwork with to to look and say if
he can do it, I can do it.
There's no reason why we can'tdo this.

(13:15):
And if you start looking aroundthe other cities around us, you
see things that we've alreadyaccomplished four, five, six,
seven years ago that they'redoing now and they're calling,
asking me questions how we gotit, and I feel like, without
being just in their face,pushing them, I'm leading by
example and I'm just there tosay, yeah, let's do it for your

(13:37):
town too.
This is great.
You know I'm competitive butI'm not selfish.
Well, that's good.

Share the knowledge and the example.
Yeah, so let's just go througha couple of our parks and our
big accomplishments over thelast couple years.
Do you want to start with what?
Do you want to start with TBHanna Station?
Yeah, okay, that used to be ourlittle downtown back in the day
.

Yes, when I started there were a row of the
old municipal buildings rightoff Washington Street and police
was there, public works wasthere and there were like four
park employees at the time thatwere there.
The buildings were really,really cool.
I wish there was a way we couldhave saved them and restored

(14:20):
them and used them, but theywere way beyond repair.
Restored them and used them,but they were way beyond repair.
So they were, uh, condemned anddemolished.
And right next to it, on thecorner of maple in washington,
by the church, there was alittle park called jc park.
Jc's was an old, uh, civicgroup, kind of like the optimist

(14:42):
club or whatever, and there wasa little shed and that's where
they kept the parks, lawnmowersin the shed.
And then there was, like it wasold school park, like from the
70s, like a teeter-totter and anold steel swing I mean nothing
much A sandbox, right.
Well, when we tore down thosebuildings, we took that stuff
out and we made that hole whichwas basically a half block, the

(15:07):
farmer's market.
There was nothing there butgrass, there was no parking,
nothing.
We just mowed it and we usedour field striper and we striped
out boxes and that's where thefarmer's market started and it
stayed that way and up until myfirst time I left and that time
I was gone they started buildingwhat we now have as the depot
and that finished up.
That was the first project Ifinished up.

(15:28):
Former engineer Mike Kras and Iwrapped that project up.
He really led it and then kindof passed it off to me.
So when I got here 10 years agoit was just the shelter, the
depot.
Since then we've been able toacquire property around us, and
so the first thing we did was wehad an agreement with the
church and we bought the oldparsonage that was across where

(15:53):
the spray ground is now.
There used to be a house therethat was the church parsonage,
and so we bought that from thechurch and we built parking
along there as a shared useparking space for them.
And then where the skate shopis now, or the playground,
there's a little building wecall it the skate shop.
That used to be the post officein town back in the I think

(16:13):
they started.
They built it late 60s and Imean it's just a concrete box is
all it is Very basic.
But it was the post office andwe were able to buy that and
that's where the old railroadused to run through there.
And so when we started lookingat what to do with this park,
mike Grass, to his credit, hadalready built the depot.

(16:35):
What we call the depot was theshelter, but he picked it to
look like an old railroad depotbecause that's where the town
railroad started and the olddepot station was.
So I just went off of that andwe started thinking about what
we could do train theme, how wecould incorporate the history,
because that is the originaldowntown.

(16:56):
We don't really have a downtownlike an old courthouse or main
street in belton.
We Raymore doesn't really havethat.
We, you know, we kind of let itgo.
We didn't keep up with it, sowe're having to rebuild it and I
wanted to put a park in thatspace that anchored that
downtown and kept original townconnected to the new part, and

(17:17):
so there was a purpose to drivedown in there and I think we've
done a pretty good job ofgetting people going down there.
The spray ground and playgroundare huge.
We just put a lot of effortinto conserving the history so
we restored the old post officeand we made it it's a storage
building and then a skate shops.
For the winter, when the icerink is up, we rent skates out

(17:40):
of it and we have aall-inclusive playground, the
all-inclusive spray ground.
We were able to secure 135 000donation from variety kc and
that really helped us kind ofregionalize the park.

People know about it because of that and
that name recognition and ifanyone doesn't know that, the
inclusive part is that it'saccessible to all.

Yes, yes, and the train there that is
customized.
That's the only train like thatthat we know of in the world,
which is basically one of theirstandard units, and we actually
took the train and we spread itout and we customized the train
to accommodate mobility devices,wheelchairs and things like

(18:27):
that.
It they you can buy the train.
It's just really tiny tunnelsthat most children would have to
get on their hands and kneesand crawl through.
Oh, yeah, so we just spread itout, yeah, you know.
And so that that's the parkthat became like the first in
the state of playground andspray ground and the third in
the country that had anall-inclusive spray ground.

(18:49):
So at that point it wasn't eventhree acres, it was about a
two-acre park.
It was a city block down therebut a lot of stuff packed in two
acres and we won some nationalawards for that one.

Yes, yes, and I got to go with you yeah to go,
except one of them which wasvery cool.

Charleston is that where we went.

We were in charlotte, north carolina and
apwa, our second national apwaaward for one of our parks yes,
our other apwa national awardwas for hawkridge park, before
we even got all the cool stuffin there that was the.

That award was uh, hawkridge has gotten to that
award for apwa.
The first one was for themaster plan.
They uh did the master planright as that one was completed
was when I came back, so nobodyhad.
It was basically a fresh printof a master plan and it was

(19:48):
sitting on my desk when I gothere and I just took it and ran.

Nice because it's 79 acres.
Basically it was just rollinghills and a lake right.

Yeah, we bought Hawk Ridge in 2008, and there
was, it was nothing.
I mean, we were still leasingit for hay Right to local
farmers, and we built this tinylittle 10 parking spot, asphalt,
at the end of the street so youcould at least walk down and go
fishing, and we didn't even mowaround it.

(20:17):
I mean, it was just what it was, yeah then we started.
It got traction and startedmowing around it.
When I got here, we uh, we putthe place, the the master plan
in place.
Now, some of these, this growththat we've had it is largely
due to the voters we passed.
We passed two no tax, increasedbond issues, four park

(20:40):
improvements hawkridge park andtb hannah were both built off of
those right supplemented bygrants and and donations and
stuff.

But hawkridge was just a big old hayfield when
I started 10 years ago and itis so cool to see what it's
turned into and, you know,lately we've been getting a lot
of regional recognition for thetrails and it's really cool to
see how we're being noticedaround the kansas city metro,

(21:10):
for it's fun to get on.

Facebook and you know those social media sites
and you're looking at top tenplaygrounds or top ten trails
and we're in it?
How do?

they know about us yeah.

And it's not anything we're doing, it's just
word of mouth.
People are coming, and that'swhat you want.

That is what you want, and one of the bigger
pieces of this is the actualpark, because of the special I
guess, special designs and thegrading of the path can only be
so many degrees and everythingis accessible.
So it's Missouri's first whatyou would call inclusive, fully

(21:46):
accessible park.
You can use a mobility deviceto go all around the park, all
around the trail down to thedock to fish, so that's really
up to our amphitheater stage.
No steps, it's a concrete path.
So everything is accessible,including our gem, the Hawk's

(22:07):
Nest inclusive playground, whichwas such a long process of
getting there.
But, uh, just the like, howlike proud, like I feel like we
are, of finally doing that.

That was such a huge accomplishment I think the
Hawk's Nest is, uh, really my apicture of my career you know
when we started designing HawkRidge Park, the inclusive part
of it was not in the master plan.

Right.

I had gone to a conference and at the time I had
.
You know, when you do thingslike that, you usually have
somebody you're champion, youknow like you're closely
connected to, and they havethese, these needs, and so you
fight to provide that.
I didn't have that.
I'm like I just I went to acouple classes and stuff and I

(23:03):
just kept thinking our town doesnot serve this population and I
need to.
And I started looking at I wasvery uh, I don't know purposeful
in everything we did, like howdo I make sure that meets ADA
standards and beyond?

Right.

And so we just started building it and I I quit
saying no to things.
I said no, this is what we'regoing to do, I'll figure out how
to pay for it, I'll figure outhow to overcome this.
And little piece by littlepiece, it was just like, and
then it became automatic, likewhen we were designing or we'd
have a consultant, and it was a.
It was an automatic.

(23:45):
They were bringing things thismeets your, this meets your
design standards.
I didn't have design standards.
I had my own mission, likeright, this is what we're going
to do right there's no designstandards in there, it's just.
But it just kept compounding andbuilding.
And so the department ofconservation.
They came in and they reallyliked what we were doing with

(24:07):
the lake.
We we entered an agreement withthem on helping maintain the
lake itself and which requiredus to just provide free fishing.
So we don't charge for it oranything like that still need
your license.
You still have to follow staterules but there's no charge to
fish and they just absolutelyloved that we were inclusive and

(24:31):
so they.
They gave us a couple hundredthousand dollars to do a
floating dock that was ADAcompliant and accessible.
A fishing jetty over by theamphitheater that you can wheel
right up to the lake and fishoff of the restrooms on the
south side are accessible so youcan get in there.

(24:53):
And then we just started goingfrom there.
I just didn't stop at thatpoint and we had a playground.

There was $100,000 for a playground in
there and I said, oh my goodness, that's a little bit that's
great.

We're going to get a swing set, you know, and I
met, I met some folks at aconference through unlimited
play and my park superintendent,rulo, steve Rulo, and I, we, we
just said we got to do this, wegot to figure out how to do
this, and so we started off withthe idea of we're going to take

(25:29):
and make it a $500,000playground and by the time we
were done, we had about a $1.4million playground.

I think that's somewhere around there, I don't
know.

Yeah, but we went from $100,000 to, let's
just say, $1.4 millionplayground.
Now it took me a while.
We got a grant for $250,000.
We did a fundraiser, the galathat you led the charge on.

And I would like to just thank the leadership
here for letting me do that,because nobody knew what I was
doing.
But they're like, okay, goahead.
And I remember that was at thevery beginning of fundraising.
I think we raised $21,000 atthat event and I was like cool.
But also, oh my gosh, we haveso much further to go.

(26:23):
And then we had the pandemickind of right after that and I'm
like, oh my gosh, is this evergoing?

to happen.
I thought we were going to loseduring the pandemic, because
you just couldn't do anything,but ironically it just flipped
the other way.
I just kept making it biggerand we, we just kept going, and
and I say that that playgroundrepresents my career is because
I just kept looking towards theend, like we can do it better.

(26:53):
We can do it better, don'tworry about this, we'll get
there.
We can do it better, and it wasabout six years later we
finished it yeah.
And there was less than half ofthat budget was city funded.

Right, we did get grants, we did have lots of
individuals we sold equipmentand we uh donations and stuff
and so I'm just really proud ofit I think it's fantastic.

I love that people use it.
I hate that people abuse itright, because you take
ownership in there and and Irealize that things are going to
get broken and things are goingto get vandalized.
But it hurts a little more withthat one.

Well and also, I think, the best part.
You know, we did this so thatnot just children with physical
disabilities, but also agrandparent, maybe with a
walk-up, can go all the way tothe top of the treehouse with
their grandchild.
And there are special areas forchildren with autism.
If they need a little breakfrom all of the stuff going on,

(27:59):
there's a little kind of likecubby type thing they can sit in
.

That is why I call it.
It's universally designed,all-inclusive.
There's all-inclusive, whichevery playground company now
says all their stuff isall-inclusive.
It's not about the equipment,it's about how you design the
equipment to be used, which iswhat I liked with unlimited play
, because they would takestandard equipment.
Say no, if we put it here, ifwe add this, you, you take a

(28:24):
whole different element, and soI will describe the spray ground
and the hawk's nest asuniversally designed inclusive
playground, right, right, andbasically meaning we have
different ways of getting around, but you go your way, I go mine
, and we can meet at the sameplace.
And our tagline is all ages, allabilities.

(28:44):
Yeah, it doesn't matter.

And the best part is when, after we opened
those and I'm probably going totry not to cry, but we started
getting messages from peoplesaying you have changed my
child's life.

We moved here for this.

And it was so like.
This is the reason we did it,you know, and it's being
recognized and it's actuallylike supporting, you know, the
kids who never got to play onplaygrounds because they
couldn't get on the stuff.

I know.
So I just I love it so much.
So I said earlier that you knowa lot of people have a person
or a family member that theychampion, and I didn't really
have anybody close.
I just knew I wanted to do thischampion and I didn't really
have anybody close.
I just knew I wanted to do this.
But as we got going and youknow, you learn a lot about that

(29:38):
demographic and it's a higherpercentage than you would have,
than you would guess yes, mycousin which we grew up very
close back home and he's like mybrother.
His oldest son, austin, is, uh,autistic.
I never really we didn't putthat together, you know we

(29:58):
didn't.
He was just austin, that's whohe was.
After I built it, I, we, wewrapped up the hawks nest and
all that, I sent Josh picturesof it and videos of look what we
did.
I said I didn't realize I wasdoing it, but I built this for

(30:19):
you to take Austin to, because Iwent from a parent's
perspective of what would I doif my children needed this, and
so I wasn't doing it for Austin.
I actually had Josh in mind,like I'm going to build the
playground for the parent, sothey don't have to worry about
it Right.

(30:42):
So that was the perspective Icame from is it's not trying to
find play equipment thataccommodates them, it's trying
to make a parent's life easierand that's why we decided to do
a playground side by side so inone setting they could go and
picnic and sit in the shade, andthey can have a water park and
they can have a playground andnot have to go anywhere.
We're a one stop shop rightthere.

Yeah, yeah, it's a really both of those
playgrounds or both of thoseparks are really amazing for
what they offer, yeah, so.

I'm really proud of them, and I think we've just
set the tone like you.
Just do it.
There's no.

I mean there's no Kind of a high bar now,
nathan, it is.
It's expensive too.

It's not.
It is expensive it takes me awhile to fund and build things
because we don't have a largebudget and if you look at our
budget, we are like toeing theline every year of but if you're
not aggressive and you're notpurposeful in doing it, you'll
just get sucked into the currentand just do what everybody else
is doing, and I want to bedifferent.

I don't want to be the same.

Keep everything very intentional, so there'll
there'll be years that we don'tdo projects because we're saving
up to do them later, because wewant to go bigger and better
and do it in my mind, the rightway.
Yeah, yeah, and there's.
There's sacrifices we make fordoing that.
You know we could back off, butwe ask our staff to do more so
that we can do more and I thinkin the long run it's just a

(32:01):
benefit and a blessing for thestaff for the town everybody and
that does mean everything is inphases so there are a lot of
phases.

I've never, you know, at some point we're going
to get done with the phases.

I've never done a project whole right.

You know it's always phased out because we
want it to be the best it couldbe.

There might be a few phases and I think that's
one of my approaches is I maynot be able to get it all done,
but I'll get it all doneeventually, and so I just go for
it, like okay so I can onlyafford half of it.
Well, let's do half, and thatgives us a reason to do the
other half.
And that's kind of how Iapproach it is right you just
got to start, and if you waityou'll never get there.

(32:40):
You just go, and so that's whatI do seems to be working.

I hope and I mean, and, like you said, you
know the parks or theplaygrounds built for the
parents, with the parents inmind.
Our parks are not just forchildren, like I love.
Now that sunset lane has opened, I come in to work yeah that
way you all set your cruisecontrol, because it is so hard

(33:06):
right now to go 25 it is, it is.
I set my cruise control everyday through there, but I love
looking over because my otherroute into town before that open
I I didn't drive by any parks,so I love looking over and just
seeing so many people out thereevery morning, uh, utilizing the
trails and it's just.
It's just one thing thatencourages physical fitness,

(33:30):
boosts your mental health, youget exposed to nature and trees
and it's just so beneficial to,I think, just your mental
well-being in addition to beingoutside and being physically
active.

Outside of summer camp or sports leagues
that specific to the younger agegroups, our parks are utilized
by adults more than kids, You'dsay so.

Yeah.

There's not a time I don't go to the park and
see more adults than I do kids.

And we do have a good like.
They're kind of spread outthroughout town, so you're
actually not usually too farfrom one.
In most areas of the city,which is nice, we do have a good
number of parks and we have agood trail system.

Yes, slash sidewalk that connects them, and
that's one of my projects nextyear is kind of overall signage
of the parks.

Resigning, I'm actually really looking forward
to that.
I hope I'm helping with that.
You will be perfect, okay, andthen?

the.
The trails will be a hugecomponent of signage.
So we want to make the trailsuser-friendly and allow people
to be able to find routes andloops and exercise you know ways
that they can know where to goon a trail and not just a.
Okay, well, it ends, let's justturn around and go back.
No, you can loop almostanything you want.

(34:51):
Sure, we just need to teachthem how and provide that.

Right, that'll be part of it next year.
I'm pretty excited about thatthat.
Actually, I am really lookingforward to that project as well.

That project I've had in mind for about eight
years and we just keptexpanding.
I know that's the hard thing.

I know that's the hard thing.
You know we have these littleaccordion maps that we had made
a couple years ago and handedout.
People are like, oh, do youhave another?
Well, we just keep addingstreets and we keep adding
trails.
So maybe next year, at thebeginning of the year, maybe
we'll be close enough we canprint it off again.
But we do have online on ourwebsite we have trail maps right

(35:28):
now at rainwatercom, so justclick on the trails option.
Yeah, we have some trail workgoing on right now actually, if
you want to talk about that.

Yeah, we are redoing most of our trail system
, anything that was built priorto 2018, we went and we passed a
maintenance bond.
Well, we didn't pass it.
We just took out a maintenancebond to fund the refurbishing of
the trails.
So all of the old trail systemthat was once asphalt, aging,

(36:02):
we're replacing it with new10-foot-wide concrete.
So Recreation Park has beendone, Memorial Park has been
done, Ward Park wrapped upyesterday.
They're going to Good Parkway,which is between Lucy Webb and
Stone Gate.
That was the very first projectI ever in my career got to work
on and I was a rookie and myboss just kind of let me tag

(36:25):
along at the time and just kindof watch.
So we built that in 2003.

So it's lasted 22 years With concrete like no
more asphalt.
It's all concrete that's goingto last longer.

These are what I'm calling my retirement
projects.
I won't have to redo thembefore I retire they're
fantastic and we're just.
We're at the point now where alot of our phases of TB Hanna,
hawk Ridge, the bulk of thosethings are done, and now the
trail system is getting redoneand it just felt like, okay, we

(36:58):
could probably do this signproject.

And then just add and tweak it as we go.

And so that's why I went ahead and put it in.

Let's get going.
I mean, it's going to be a lotof signage, it's going to be a
huge project.

But it needs to be done, and I think the
community is going to notice itand appreciate it a lot.
Right, because as we builtthese, we've just taken the old
signs down and haven't put themup, so there's very little
signage out there.
We know the rules, but noteverybody does, because they're
not signed.
So it does get frustrating froma staff perspective of why are

(37:34):
they doing this?
Well, we're not telling themthat that's not allowed, or
we're not telling them that theycan, and so it's just time, and
I think our park system hasbeen developed enough that we
can do it.

Do you want to talk about some of our
facilities the Raymore ActivityCenter at Centerview and what we
have available with those?

Yes, I'll talk about the RAC first, because
that was the one thing in myfirst tenure when I was doing
the sports.
And see, now we have threepeople doing what I did as one
person in the 2000s you know,that's how far we've come and
grown is we've added a reccoordinator to do all the summer

(38:16):
camps and the special eventsand we have a specific athletic
coordinator.
That's just sports.
We've grown so much and we havea recreation superintendent
over facilities, which we neverhad any.
So we've come a long way andwe're still not very big, but we
do a whole lot with what wehave.
I say all that to.

(38:37):
When I first started.
We were in the schools 100%.
I was renting gymnasiums forvolleyball.
The school district was stilldoing basketball and eventually
they said, hey, this is a beast,we can't do anymore.
Do you guys want it?
And I'm like, well, yeah, yeah,I do, but I don't know where
I'm gonna put it.
So we just kept taking thingsand it was always a dream to

(39:00):
like man, I wish we had a gym,because Belton had the community
center, harrisonville had acommunity center, you know, and
we were up and coming, same size, just competing, and we had
didn't have anything, and soalways.

Well, come on, now we had the little park house
we had the park house, that'sright couldn't really do a lot
in there, though spent a lot oftime in that park house.

You know you just dreaming like man, if we
just had a gym and it.
I never really saw it happening.
And then I did my 10 years andI left, never thinking I'd be
back.
And when I came back in 2015,that was the first thing they
handed me was hey, while youwere gone, we did this
feasibility study and we want todo this.
It's basically a communitycenter, but we're going to split

(39:45):
it into two buildings and we'regoing to give you an event
center and then a gymnasium.
And I was just thinking, wow,did I come back at?

the right time, you know.

And so we went to the voters for that first
2016 no tax increase bond issueand it passed.
And now we have Centerview, nowwe have the RAC.
And I think a lot of folks comeat us and ask like why do you
not have like a community centerlike Belton or Harrisonville

(40:18):
and you don't have a pool?
And I'm like well, we have allthose things.
We just have them separate andbetter.
And I say that as a little bitof a dig to my buddies over in
Belton because I can.

We get to do that sometimes.

But I'm also I'm not lying our center view event
space is so much better, I mean, than what you would add to a
community center.
You know Right, the RAC is somuch more flexible and usable
because we simplified it asopposed to overdoing it to where

(40:55):
sometimes there's just thislevel of simplicity that makes
it more usable than if you justadd everything and add
everything and now it's complexand you got to figure out how to
make it all work together.
The RAC is what it is.
People come in all the timesaying, well, where's the, uh,
the gym equipment and you knowthe fitness stuff?
Or why didn't you build a pool?

(41:16):
And my first answer is wewanted to build gymnasiums so
that we could play sports insidewithout having to go to the
school all year long all yearlong.
Yeah, well man, I wish wereally had fitness equipment.
I'd be here and I'm likethere's four you know gyms, Gyms
through town, in town, yeah, ifI built one, nobody makes money

(41:38):
.

Everybody loses.

And that's what I kept telling them, like
there's no point in it.
I can't do this cheaper thanthey can, but I can do this
better than anybody else can.
So we built this and we arerented all the time.
It has our summer camp it.
We have open play volleyball onMonday nights.

(42:00):
We have open play basketball inthe winter.
We have walk-in an indoorwalking RAC, adult leagues,
youth leagues.
We have private volleyballclubs are our largest renter of
the RAC and they're in thereyear round.
I mean, we just wrapped up, noteven a year ago, the expansion
which added a whole nother gym,indoor pickleball courts, two

(42:23):
more volleyball courts and thoserooms two party rooms
multi-part.
We call it the sportsmanship, sothere's the resilience room,
and what was the other one Ishould know?
I named it but we, you can rentthose rooms as private parties
so you can have a birthday partyin there plus a court, and so

(42:46):
you can have uh kids birthdayparties where you bring in pizza
and do all this stuff and thenthey can go out and play
basketball for a couple hours asa private rental.
It's great, can't find iteither.

Oh, it's called Full Multipurpose Space, larger
multipurpose room and smallermultipurpose room on the website
.
Maybe we need to update that.
I know I named those.
Yes, yes, so the RAC isfantastic.

We really like it, and averaging 100 kids a day
for summer camp tells you thatit's what parents wanted and we
have room to grow Right.
You know, 100 kids is notanywhere near capacity of what
we could do.
Centerview Centerview is such ajewel do Centerview?

(43:33):
Centerview is such a jewel?
I said when we did the grandopening of Centerview that Parks
and Rec finally has a home.
That is where we office and forat the time I had only 13, 14
total years of Raymore, but inthat 14 years our office had
bounced around three differentplaces because we didn't have
anywhere of our own works.

(44:02):
Building old downtown for alittle bit we were in a trailer
behind the original city hall,then we were at the public works
down by the uh, where theycurrently are.
Then we bought the old parkhouse and if you were in there
it wasn't an office, it was justan old house.

that was your.
Would your office space like inthe living room or a bedroom or
something?

I had the back bedroom yeah, I chose the back
bedroom because I had the windowlooking over the park, but it
truly is our home.
It's.
Our offices are there, mine'sover there.
But the flexibility of that.
We can run programs or we canrun classes, you can do weddings
, you can do receptions,conferences, trainings blood

(44:40):
drives concerts.
I don't think there's anythingthat we haven't tried and it's
not worked well.
What's great about it is it'sgot the patio and the fire pit
so you can do evening stuff.
We just wrapped up a half amillion dollar boardwalk
butterfly gardens behind it thatis now connected to the trail

(45:03):
system.
This is the first growingseason, but wait till next year
when all those things hit.
I can't wait if you walk backthere now, there's a lot of
color, right, a lot of flowersand just they always say with
the landscaping plan, give itthree years, it'll be at full
capacity in three years.
If it's anything like whatwe're expecting, it's going to
be just beautiful.

(45:23):
We're actually going to submitthat as a as an award recipient
and we're nominating the projectright for uh, for an award and
and we'll see how it goes, you,you don't win unless you
nominate.
I'm not one that typicallynomin, but the firm that helped
design it.
They want to Sure and I'm likesure I'll help you do whatever.

And also I mean how important it is to have
Monarch Waystation.
Yeah, you know, we haveendangered pollinators.

Right.

And so that will be a perfect space back there
for them.

It'll end up being about six acres of Mon
native plantings and stuff, soit's it's big it's.

It's going to be really cool.
Yes, the plants are kind ofsmall now, but I can just
imagine what they're going to bein the next couple years and
what's great about thatparticular project.

It's also a stormwater project.
Those were just basins thatcollected stormwater and then it
dissipated out.

We just enhanced it and made it better yeah, and
so it's functional, but nowit's pretty.
Now it's pretty.

That's exactly right, yeah and if you've not
walked the trail, the boardwalkback there, it's just fantastic.
It is really cool.
We have signage back there ofwhat the plants are going to be
and what we've done and how itworks.
Just really proud of thatproject, I think.
It's it unique.
A lot of cities don't get to dothings like that because it's
not necessary.

(46:48):
We could have not done anythingback there and it would have
worked just fine.
It was just the approach thatwe always have of well, why not,
let's try it.
So that one we took to thevoters and we asked for their
permission to do this back thereand it was approved and with no

(47:10):
tax increase.
So I think we did a pretty goodjob.
I think all of those no taxincrease bond issuance projects
I think our voters are proud andpleased with what we've done.

And it just enhances the quality of life for
our residents.
We're not the fastest growingcity, for nothing.

Right, that's true.
That is true.
I mean, there's components ofwhy you are a fast growing city
and people that don't believethat parks and recreation are a
part of that.
I don't know what they'relooking at, because if you're
not coming to a town for theirparks and their athletics and
just the natural beauty of thetown and having things to do in

(47:50):
town, why are you living there?
You know, and I just wanted to.
I think always it's just beenmy.
I want to make sure that whatI'm doing is a major component
of why your town is thriving andgrowing, and I just tried to do
that, and sometimes you hit itsometimes you don't.
Some people don't care aboutparks, and that's some.

(48:13):
That's all they care about so Ijust try to be right in the mix
, no matter what it is.

yeah, yeah, yeah .
Parks are the one place you canessentially just go to for free
anywhere.

Well, as much as I hated the pandemic, which I
know everybody did Not the besttime.
But where was everybody going?

Yeah, the parks were the only thing you could do
.

We were so busy, I mean, we just shut down all
our sports and stuff.
But from a maintenanceperspective we were slammed
during that time because ourparks were getting so used and I
think our town really found ourpark system during that because
there there wasn't anythingelse to do you, I mean, and if

(48:54):
you wanted to go outside we werethe destination to go.
And I think our community foundus during that time and we
haven't stopped since then.

That's right, that's right, so that's great,
that is great.

There's a positive out of a negative right
, yeah, yeah.

So here we are 52 minutes into our 25 minute
podcast.

Am I a two-parter?
You might be a two-parter, oram I just?
You know, take a break.

So I know we talked a lot about a lot of
areas, but we didn't talk aboutthe sports and recreation
opportunities.
We still have Recreation Park,which is down where the RAC, the
Rheemar Activity Center, islocated.
That's where the majority ofour sports happen, and what are
we gearing up for?

Okay.
So Recreation Park.
As much as I love Hawkeridgeand as much as I love TB Hanna,
recreation Park is still ourcenterpiece.
It's still our crown jewel.
It is the one that consistentlydraws people from out of town.

(49:58):
Not say good things and notcompliment or not.
You know, come to me and say,man, I wish you guys would come
show our parks department whatneeds to be done.
You know that's the ultimatecompliment when they're coming
and saying, even though it'sthere's not much, it is just

(50:19):
aesthetically beautiful and yeahit's.
It's my guys take so much pridein keeping rec park pristine
because it's used and if youdon't stay up on it as much as
we use it right, you will.
You will tear it apart and sowe put a lot of effort and a lot
of time in there and big timesponsorships with big green
sponsor uh ship.

(50:40):
That we did last year ofredoing all the islands in the
roundabout right.
That was huge.
You don't drive down there andnot see the work they did and
think this park is beautiful.
Yep, you know, it's just theway it is.
So we put a lot of effort inthere.
Our soccer program, our flagfootball, which is our fastest
growing sport, is flag football.
You will notice in sports thatas our professional teams go, so

(51:04):
do our youth sports go.
Ten years ago when the Royalswere really good, our baseball
numbers were skyrocketing.
Now that the Chiefs have had apretty decent five run, our flag
football is just going crazyand our baseball is kind of
softening a little bit.
So you see sports come and go.

(51:25):
Soccer is the same way.
When, uh, when sporting kc wasdoing really good, soccer was
really good.
We got the world cup coming up,so we expect to see soccer
really take off next year.
Kc current yeah, the currentdeal a lot of a lot, and so our
sports are extremely popularright now and we keep RAC

(51:46):
personally, we keep RAC of ournumbers in comparison to the
other cities.
We share play and the goal withthe South Metro Sports Group is
to stay consistent.
So you can share if you need to, but stay in-house if you don't
have to.
We're literally at a pointwhere we don't have to share.
We're share-playing becausethey need us.

(52:07):
We can stay in-house in almostevery sport, maybe a couple
divisions or the older oneswhere just numbers aren't there.
So my rec team is leading thecharge and I mean we just are
bigger than the others and Idon't say that to brag, it's
just what the numbers are hey,yeah you know.
but with that I mean that'sgreat, but it also there's a lot

(52:30):
of abuse on your fields and onyour equipment and you're maxing
out, and so when your sportstakes up more time, then you're
drop in play and for regularfolks it's not there because
you're maxed out.
So is there room to grow?
Yeah, I mean, we can alwaystake more.
You know, my dad always saidall it takes is more money.

Hey, that's it no big deal.
Yeah, if we want to add more.

it's just going to cost us a little more, and
then we build it up and go.
But our big thing coming upright now is fall sports, so
soccer, baseball, softball,basketball is coming up and
volleyball is coming up thoseare big and flag football.
So I mean we're about to hitthem all.
A week from tomorrow we havethe.

(53:20):
Is it a week from tomorrow,maybe two weeks from tomorrow,
we have the.
is it a week from tomorrow,maybe two weeks from tomorrow,
we have the rugged Raymore, ourmini mud run yeah, which started
that I used to do a couple ofthe mud runs and the whole time
I was doing those like, uh, thetough mudders and stuff.
All I kept thinking at the timewas man, I wish my boys could
do this.
This is so cool, this would beso cool for kids.

(53:41):
And when we got done, I waslooking and the city of Columbia
did one and I literally juststole the idea.

You were.

inspired A former employee, jerry, and I
come up with the idea.
She wanted to do it and I haddone them before, and so I come
up with a lot of the ideas andit's just been fantastic.
It's so much fun.

I love seeing the kids running through, like
so many times they're justcovered in mud from head to toe,
Biggest smiles on their facesit is shoes missing.
It is just so fun.

It's the one event and even my maintenance
guys will notice, because that'sone that they have to work.
A lot of times those guys dotheir 8 to 5s and they don't see
what they do in the evenings.
This one we work and theynotice everybody's smiling.
It's the one event, one thingthat you know in a sport if a

(54:39):
bad call's made, made, aparent's going to be frustrated
how they're playing, or the mudrun, everybody's smiling,
everybody's happy.
You get done and the parentsare like go again.
All they're doing is gettingthem tired.
You know that's.
It's just one of thosecommunity events where we have
so many volunteers becausepeople want to volunteer for
those stations.

(54:59):
They love watching it.
We, the optimist Club, comesout every year.

Every year?
Yeah, and those folks.

You know we're having to haul them down to some
of those spots because they'rein some pretty tricky areas of
Hawkeridge Park that's hard toget to.
They're troopers, they justlove it.
So that's coming up and we dothat always the Friday before
school starts.
Our idea is that's kind of likethe last summer blowout before
school, so let's go get muddyand let's go wear out the park

(55:27):
system and that's our last bigthing before traditional stuff
starts up again.

And I think one of the most fun parts of that
too is when they're done.
Sometimes South Metro Fire willbe there like hosing them off,
yeah.
Because to wash them off beforetheir parents let them get in
the car.

I know, Last year we had to rethink how we're
doing this, because last yearit was so muddy which is exactly
what you want, but they weregoing to the shelter restrooms
to wash off, oh God, and theplayground was just muddy and
filthy.
The restrooms are bad, and sothe guys were like really after
me, like we got to reroute thisthing because we don't want to

(56:05):
be cleaning bathrooms the wholenext day Right.

Like I agree, so we'll figure out what we need
to do there.

So the South Metro's spraying them down is
very helpful for us.
Yes, we just got to position itright so that at the end.
They're close Before you go tothe bathroom, because the idea
when we started having them waslet's have them up there to
rinse them off before they getin their cars.
Now we've got to rinse them offbefore they go to our
playground, because it's becomelike a family event.

(56:33):
You go do the mud run, and thenyou go walk the trail or you go
on the playground or you haveyour picnic or whatever.
So the park is busy that nightand we just kind of.
Those are growing pains.
I will take them all the time.
Yeah, and our mountain biketrails are a volunteer group for
our mountain bike trails.
They're so gracious.
The work that they do, which isa regional, draw people down in

(56:56):
like the hub of the ozarksvilleand stuff, know about our trail
system and, yes, fantastic.

I was just seeing that someone said you
know, if you want to ride withme, let me know.
But like I'm more than an houraway, so usually when I come up
I make up, I make it a point tospend a couple hours like whoa.

That's pretty cool, and a lot of it's because
it's constantly changing.
Those guys are so dedicated andlove it so much they they're
constantly changing andimproving it.
So every time somebody comes upthere's something new about it,
and now that we're doing theexpansion we've limited them and
once the construction's donethey'll reroute the whole thing.
But they allow us to use theirtrails for the mud run, because

(57:37):
it just helps wear them in andbreak them in.
It's just such a coolpartnership that I don't really
even try to do.

It just naturally happens yeah, really,
they're just, they're doingeverything, which is great
because they have a sense ofownership in it and so, yeah,
they're constantly improving it,yeah, and attracting a lot of
people.

They uh one of the members is on our park board
and we just stay in closecontact and we go out and we do
inspections with them and makesure I mean there's some things
that we're like no, you're notdoing that little too
adventurous and so we just staywith them.
And they ask sometimes like, hey, can you help us put up some

(58:15):
signs or do some of this?
And we're like, yeah, yeah,we'll do that for you because I,
we are definitely getting thebenefit more than we deserve on
that.
Because, yeah, we'll do thatfor you because we are
definitely getting the benefitmore than we deserve on that,
because yeah, we're just outsideof mowing and spraying weeds
and poison ivy.
We don't do a whole lot thereand we reap a lot of benefits
right.

One last thing.
This has been very long, butthat's good, because it's like I
don't feel like we've beentalking for an hour, but there's
just so much going on withparks and so many told you 30
minutes was not I know you lovetalking.
We do know that, and it's easybecause there's so many good
things to talk about do you wantto talk about looking to the
future.
Do you want to talk about thebig master plan that we?

(58:56):
Just have in that I'm so tired.
It's okay no, I, I absolutely doalthough we do have a meeting
in 10 minutes.

Yes, I'll wrap it up.
As far as our current projects,we've got a couple more years of
those phasing and I think frommy career perspective, although
I'm not old at all, I've beendoing it a long time and I need
to start thinking about what'snext in terms of what I'm doing
here for Raymore.
So, personally, on my checklistis I want to wrap TB Hanna, I

(59:26):
want to wrap Hawk Ridge and Iwant to make sure that our
standards Memorial Park and RecPark are hitting on all
cylinders.
Those things are done so we canmove on.
Because what we have moving onis our parkland dedication
ordinance has benefited ustremendously the past couple

(59:48):
years in terms of dedicatingland for the future.
So we have a dog park over off163rd and Madison that we'll
actually do that within the year.
We'll start construction onthat and it will be a a mix of
small dog, large dogs, and it'ssuch a large property we'll

(01:00:12):
probably end up adding somepractice athletic fields in
there because it's a big space.
And then the big one is theranch.
It's 154 acres down adjacent toBridal Ridge Elementary School,
off 195th.
So southwest portion of townyeah, southwest portion of town

(01:00:33):
and in our comprehensive masterplan I've kind of laid out the
groundwork of what that's goingto be and I'm really, really
excited.
It is nothing like anything inour county or anywhere.
The things that we'reattempting to put in are you're

(01:00:55):
driving hours to get to some ofthose things.

Melissa Harmer (01:00:58):
I was just going to say.
It's things that you think youwould have to leave town or
possibly crossover on the Kansasside to go to.
Yes, but it'll be right here.

Nathan Musteen (01:01:07):
I am super excited about it.
The issue with it is thefunding of it.
Things like that don't comeeasy.
They're not cheap and an annualbudget can't afford to do those
things.
So you have to plan and youhave to prepare and you have to
phase and you have to do thosethings.

(01:01:29):
So I realized that as much asfolks are reading it in that
comp plan and they're thinkingit's happened, it's really more
of a 10 year plan.
I have'm.
I have to look ahead.
We're going to do this then,and I'm putting the steps in
place, the measures in place,and so I tell myself a lot of

(01:01:50):
times like I'm teeing this oneup for the next guy to bring it
home, and if that's all I get todo, then I'm going to make him
very or her very successful whenthey get to come in, because
I'm putting all the measures inplace and I'm putting all the
plans in place, so all they haveto do is come in and execute.
And so that's really what I'mfocusing on and a lot of that is

(01:02:14):
leading the charge,anticipation, developing buy-in
from park board, council,community, all of those things
and honestly, that's the funpart for me.
I like it better than theactual construction.
The construction part isdifficult, and it's hard, it's
fun leading up, and then I couldskip that part, and then we
could, and so, um, maybe withinthat I'll hire a project manager

(01:02:40):
sometime in there, so I don'thave to do that part.
If you want to see what theranch is going to look like, go
online, go to our comprehensivemaster plan.
We are Chapter 5.
Our parks master plan isChapter 5, and it will tell you
everything you want to knowabout our park system.
You want to know about our parksystem.

(01:03:03):
It's fresh, brand new.
So you're going to seeHawkridge Park, tb Hanna, Rec
Park, all of it, including ourfuture parks things we want to
do things.
We need to do things.

We have to do yeah, through the next couple
decades.

It's a good plan that is usable.
It's not just, wow, you guysgot this and then you put it on
your boat shelf and you neverlook at it again.
It is an executable plan, rightand pretty proud of that one
too, I had a hand in doing thatone too.
So yeah, I would say I think youshoot for the moon, but it's
also realistic yeah but, as youdo, you always want to go, go

(01:03:36):
big, do it right, do it theright way and I think over over
my 10 years as a director Ifigured out a good balance of
I'm gonna, I'm gonna shoot forit, but I'm gonna make it
practical enough that I canactually get there.
Right, you know right.
And so that's kind of how mycareer has been is like, okay,
let's, let's go for it, butlet's have a good plan in place

(01:03:59):
to get us there, so that we'renot just wasting our time or
empty promises.
I don't like doing that.
If I say it, I want to go do it, do it.
Yeah, it may take a while, butI'll get you there, you're going
to get there All right.

Well, I think that we have an excellent park
system.
I'm so glad that you're hereand making these things happen,
and I know you have an amazingteam and you work with a lot of
really great vendors.

Well, you're a pretty big part of it.
You come in on the backsidewith the arts stuff that we
don't do and you complement whatour offerings are.
You use our facilities in waysthat we don't.
I do love using your parks,yeah so I think collectively we
all just make it a better place.
We all have our little spot init.

And that's what we're here to do.
We're here to serve the peopleof Raymore and here to make it a
great place to live.

Some get it and some haven't seen it yet, but
we'll get them.
We'll get them.

Well, thank you again so much for being here
today, nathan, and thanks forsharing about parks and anytime
you want to come back, I'mpretty sure we could talk for an
hour more.
Yes, we could, so we'll catchup with you, maybe later this
year, but thank you again somuch.
Well, thanks for having me.
It's been a pleasure.

Appreciate it, thank you.

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