KIRKSVILLE, Mo, — The Kirksville Fire Department, Police Department and City Council have been working hard to spread awareness about Proposition B on April 8’s ballot.
The proposal is a three-eighths cent sales tax that would pay for a new fire station, police station, community center, and an expansion to city hall.
To help show why the city needs the proposition to pass, workers will give tours every Tuesday and Wednesday until the election to educate residents.
“We’ve been telling, we want to show as well,” said Kirksville’s Communication Director Austin Miller. “So these are opportunities for people to come in to city hall, come to the police station, see the facilities as they are now, get a description from staff of what those various deficiencies in needs that aren’t being met… then they can make whatever decision they would like to make when it comes to vote on April 8.”
Miller said that the city hall tours will show the size of the council chambers and the 911 center, as well as highlight the need for more ADA accessible in the building.
“You walk in the door upfront there’s a flight of stairs and our residents that have mobility issues, if they’re unable to walk stairs, they’ve got to walk all the way around the building, into an alley, into an elevator to then come back the length of the building anyway. So visualizing how those kind of things don’t serve those parts of our population that need the same amount of service as everyone else,” Miller said.
Miller says he thinks the tours will be a benefit for the community, because it gives residents a chance to see in-person what city workers do every day.
A lot of things in our day-to-day these days are online [or] over the phone,” Miller said. “You don’t get that kind of same face-to-face reaction. But we do have several dozen people come to the counter every day to pay their water bill, get set up for service. And that kind of a face-to-face contact is very valuable, for people to know who are in these positions.”
The tours will be through the Kirksville City Hall and the police station every Tuesday and Wednesday this month. The times will be 11:30 a.m., noon, 12:30 p.m., and 5:15 p.m.
Citizens interested in touring the police department are encouraged to call ahead to register, while those wishing to visit city hall can simply arrive at the designated times.