By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

WEBB CITY, Mo. — Both candidates for Webb City mayor in the April 6 election say they want to improve their town and watch it grow. While the challenger primarily eyes the potential for development, the incumbent wants to finish what he started.

John Biggs

Incumbent John Biggs, 69, 126 N. Webb St., owns a studio at which he does photo restoration and other art projects.

He said he has overseen the start of many city projects over the past four years.

“There are several projects that are midway that I would like to see completed before I give up my term,” he said.

Those projects include the construction of roadways to connect Fountain Road, and the Environmental Protection Agency-sponsored cleanup of former mining sites.

Biggs said a lot has also been accomplished during his tenure as mayor, which began when he was elected in April 2006. King Jack Park, for example, has had “a lot of improvement” over the past few years, he said, including rebuilding the pavilions and landscaping the park’s entrance.

He also oversaw the renovation of the tracks for the park’s streetcar, which started running again last fall after sitting idle for two years.

“When I was elected, there were still concrete foundations and iron rods sticking out of the ground (in King Jack Park),” Biggs said. “That’s all been cleaned up.”

Biggs also adds road and infrastructure improvement to his resume. Daugherty Street, which he said used to be one of the roughest streets in Webb City, has been repaved, and crews are working to complete the Stadium Drive project, which is expected to ease traffic flow around Webb City High School.

Downtown Webb City has gotten a lot of attention under Biggs’ tenure; the city was been tabbed for the state’s DREAM Initiative that seeks to revitalize downtown areas.

The city has acquired land that will become two downtown parking lots, and new sidewalks and lights were recently installed. The city has also acquired properties — the former gas station on Broadway Street and an old church at Webb Avenue and Church Street — that officials hope to turn into visitors centers, and city or community space, he said.

“We’ve made a lot of progress,” said Biggs, who said he wants to see those projects come to fruition.

Ken Ansley

Challenger Ken Ansley, 64, 214 Carl Junction Road, has lived in Webb City for 22 years and works at Christ’s Church of Oronogo and for the city of Duquesne.

He is seeking the mayoral position — his first bid for elective office — to be able to give back to his community.

“We’ve benefited from the Webb City community and schools,” said Ansley, whose three sons have graduated from Webb City schools. “I’ve always wanted a way to maybe repay some of that.”

Ansley said he would like to have a hand in the infrastructure projects that the city has on tap.

“Almost every subdivision needs some infrastructure attention,” he said. “We’ve got a lot more traffic on all of our streets than the streets were really designed and built for.”

Ansley said Webb City needs an alternate north-south route to relieve congestion on Main Street and Madison Avenue, which he said are particularly heavily traveled before and after school.

Schools are another important asset to the city in determining growth, Ansley said.

“Almost every school is in the process of some kind of addition onto their existing buildings,” he said. “We need to partner with them and see what their needs are so we can plan together.”

Ansley said he thinks city officials haven’t adequately anticipated or planned for downtown revitalization. He doesn’t foresee downtown becoming a strong or prosperous commercial area, he said.

“It could make a good business district,” he said. “I think it would be great for business-type offices. There is some housing down there, but it needs to be a little better planned.”

He acknowledged that the city had “spent a lot of money” on streets and sidewalks downtown, but he hasn’t seen the parking problem adequately resolved, he said.

“We just need to think some of that through,” he said. “There are just some things that need to be addressed.”

Ansley said that if elected, he would try to act as a visionary for the city by assigning priorities to important projects and planning for them instead of trying to decide what the “hot-button” issues are as they come up.

Several hundred acres of land, for example, have already been annexed or are about to be annexed by Webb City, he said.

“That will be ready to be developed,” Ansley said. “We need to plan for that ahead of time.”



Unopposed candidates

City Council incumbents Ray Edwards, 1st Ward; Don Darby, 2nd Ward; Jerry Fisher, 3rd Ward; and Gene Mense, 4th Ward, are all unopposed in their bids for re-election.

Webb City Board of Education members Kevin Crane and Dan McGrew are also seeking re-election and are unopposed.