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John “Jack” Helin
(Articles are in reverse chronological order)
TAB 5
The Chieftain (Bonner Springs, KS)
July 14, 2008
Basehor Requests Postal Service Change Bonner Addresses
Author: Jesse Truesdale
Bonner Springs officials got a surprise in the mail last month. It came in the form of a letter from
the United States Postal Service informing City Manager John Helin that the city of Basehor
had requested a number of properties in unincorporated Leavenworth County to have their
addresses changed from Bonner Springs to Basehor.
In a workshop session before its regular Monday night meeting Helin told the Bonner Springs
City Council, "My jaw dropped and hit the floor when I saw the letter." That's because the cities
had reached an informal agreement on future growth boundaries for the two municipalities at a
joint meeting Nov. 28, 2007. The agreement was that the future growth area of Basehor would
not go south of Interstate 70, which the address changes requested in the letter from Basehor
Mayor Chris Garcia contradict.
Helin's report to the council on the matter said he called Basehor City Administrator Carl Slaugh
after reading the letter from the Postal Service, and Slaugh told him the Basehor council
members had changed their minds on I-70 being an informal growth boundary. Helin said he
was shocked, "not because they changed their mind, but because they didn't tell us."
The letter from Garcia to the Kansas City, Mo., address-management system office of the Postal
Service states that the two cities had reached an informal agreement on the future Basehor
growth areas that would allow the inclusion of the 14200-19899 span of Kansas Avenue, just
south of I-70. "This brings up some very serious concerns," said council member Jeff
Harrington. That's because, he said, the joint meeting between the two councils did not reach an
agreement on the issue of what Basehor's responsibility should be to its lower-lying neighbor in
regard to storm-water runoff.
Helin said the issue of which town appears on mailing addresses was "more about what it
appears as," and that the incident seems to show the cities had gone "a step backward" since their
joint meeting.
Mayor Clausie Smith was optimistic the dispute could be resolved and both he and Helin agreed
with Harrington's proposal that the city managers and mayors of the two towns should have a
small meeting. Council member Jerry Jarrett wasn't so quick to be placated. "This just lets us
know, you have to be careful who you're dealing with," he said.
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