Update: Confirmed Reardon Not Seeking 3rd Term January 9, 2013

Reardon

City Hall at KCK is buzzing after the announcement KCK Mayor Joe Reardon will not seek a third term
The city elections are approaching. Now that Reardon has decided not to seek another term, the race for Mayor becomes wide open.
In a letter, Reardon says there is much more work to be done. He says he is confident “great people” will step and lead the city.
Insiders say Reardon, who has a young family has decided to step back from public life for a while.
Reardon is a Democrat. In heavily Republican Kansas, his political options in the future may be limited.
As Mayor, Reardon is credited with bringing Google’s ground- breaking ‘Fiber City’ project to the metro first. Google promises the fiber optic system will speed up the internet and provide a base for residential and commercial development to the area.
Reardon has been a close ally to Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Sly James in developing cooperation across the Kansas-Missouri state line.
Developing.

GM Annouces 20 Million to Support GM Product Line June 13, 2011

General Motors says the company pitting $20 million in new investment for the Kansas City, Kansas plant. It’s part of GM’s $2 billion investment in its system throughout its system.
“This is critical to the resurgence of the Buick brand” , said Jim Glynn the manufacturing manager.
Buick’s 2012 LaCrosse will be produced at the KCK plant with a lithium battery system and an electric motor system. GM called this “light electrification”. The system will broadened into other Buick cars later.
KCK Mayor Joe Reardon  said  the large federal support of GM, the criticized as “auto bailout” worked. “This was not a bailout” said Reardon, “it really is an investment”.

KCK Officials Worry EPA Could be Moving Out March 31, 2011

What a difference a day makes.

One day after scoring a potentially huge economic development project, Google’s first ‘Fiber City’, Kansas City, Kansas officials are worried the federal government may pull the region 7 Environmental Protection Agency headquarters out of downtown KCK.

“We have expressed to the GSA and our congressional delegation our concern about the EPA being a long-term tenant in our downtown,” said Mayor Joe Reardon in an interview with KMBC TV today.

The General Services Administration supervises federal buildings. Local spokesman Charlie Cook will only say that the GSA is in the “procurement phase”, and that GSA won’t say anything else until a lease is completed.

The current lease between the GSA and the buildings’ owner, Urban America, has expired. Reardon says they’ve extended the lease during the negotiations. The possibility of the move may be due to the difficulty in getting a new lease for the building.

Once source says the GSA headquarters could be moved to the Sprint campus in southern Overland Park.

Reardon says he doesn’t know what will happen.

But he also points out the federal government likes to place its offices in central  business districts or downtowns.

“There is an executive order that Jimmy Carter signed”, says Reardon, “that says GSA institutions ought to be located in central business districts because of the positive economic dynamic that they can bring”.

A reliable source says that the Kansas Congressional delegation may get a notice shortly that the move is being made. 

The EPA headquarters is located at  901 North 5th Street in downtown. The building was built for the EPA in the late 1990’s  Most of the 650 Region 7 employees work there.  But some work in an EPA laboratory not far from the headquarters. That building has a different lease.

Another Washington source say the decision could be coming within a few days.

A third said “the decision is coming fast.”