Adoption will Enhance Countywide Communications and Facilitate Virtual Neighborhood Watch

 

The Unified Government (UG) of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas announced today a partnership with Nextdoor(www.nextdoor.com), the private social network for neighborhoods, to improve countywide and neighbor-to-neighbor communications.

 

 This integration with Nextdoor will enable the UG's Public Relations team, Mayor's Office, Liveable Neighborhoods along with other departments, to build stronger, safer communities with the help of residents.

 

"Today, we are excited to officially partner with Nextdoor," said Mayor Mark Holland. "Nextdoor will provide residents with more avenues to easily and effectively connect with city departments, and each other, about the things that matter most to their communities."

 

Already Nextdoor has proven to be an essential and well-adopted tool for Kansas City residents. To date, more than 25 neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas are using Nextdoor.

 

With Nextdoor, residents can join private neighborhood websites to share information, including neighborhood public safety issues, community events and activities, local services, and even lost pets. UG departments will be able to post information, such as important news, services, programs, public events, and emergency and safety notifications to Nextdoor websites within the city.

 

Nextdoor is free for residents and the UG. Each Kansas City neighborhood has its own private Nextdoor neighborhood website, accessible only to residents who verify that they live in the neighborhood. Neighborhoods establish and self-manage their own Nextdoor websites and UG Departments will not be able to access residents' websites, contact information, or content. Information shared on Nextdoor is password protected and cannot be accessed by Google or other search engines.

 

Those interested in joining their neighborhood's Nextdoor website can visit www.nextdoor.com and enter their address. If residents have questions about their Nextdoor website, please visithelp.nextdoor.com. 

 

Introducing Nextdoor

The Unified Government has launched a new system to make renewing automobile tags more convenient.

The customer "Q System" is up and running at both the downtown Courthouse and the Unified Government Annex location at 82^nd and State. 

The "Q System" allows customers to be issued a ticket number and enter a cell phone number so they can be notified by text when their number is about to be called. This helps eliminates long lines by allowing customers to leave and show up later when it's their turn. Within the next few weeks customers will be able to get their number and by going on-line. So far, the new system has helped cut wait times at the tag offices for more than 8,500 customers. 

Wanda Stewart thought she was doing everything right, when she pulled twenty yards off the side of the road to feed her three-month-old son in 1981. A drunk driver slammed into Stewart's car ejecting the baby from the car, causing his death and putting Stewart in the hospital for more than a week.

"The impact on our families was devastating, an indescribable pain," Stewart said during a press conference Wednesday in Wichita. "It was nearly 10 years before I was able to listen to the audio recording of the funeral."

Stewart spoke at a news conference announcing "YOU DRINK. YOU DRIVE. YOU LOSE.," the Kansas Department of Transportation's annual campaign to keep impaired drivers off the road during the upcoming Labor Day weekend and year around. Police and Sheriff's departments statewide along with the Kansas Highway Patrol will be conducting overtime saturation patrols and sobriety check lanes during nighttime hours.

The stepped-up enforcement effort is already underway and will run through Labor Day, September 1. Federal traffic safety funds are being used to pay overtime specifically used to patrol for impaired drivers.

Nationally, nearly 100 of the nearly 400 people who died in traffic crashes over Labor Day weekend in 2012 did so because a driver or motorcycle operator had a blood-alcohol concentration nearly twice the legal limit in all states.

Stewart said the teenager who rammed into her car was drunk. The driver received what now would be seen as a light sentence, a $100 fine and license restrictions that limited her driving privileges. Today's penalties are more stringent, thanks in part to group efforts of including Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Stewart was involved in forming Kansas MADD following the death of her son.

"If you've been drinking, take a taxi, call a sober friend or family member, or use public transportation," Stewart said. "If you see a drunk driver on the road, call the police. You're not turning someone in. You are saving someone's life."

Nearly half of the 18 to 34 year-old drivers who died in crashes on Labor Day weekend in 2012 were drunk. In that same year, 76 percent of all drunk-driving fatalities occurred at night.