Tom Watkins Results

Residents from the Tom Watkins Neighborhood attended the fourth Community Listen event Monday, May 11 at Williams Elementary School.

Five City Council members attended, including Phyllis Ferguson, Jan Fisk, Craig Fishel, Ken McClure and Mike Schilling. Numerous partners from community agencies listened in, including representatives from Ozarks Community Technical College and Missouri State University; Mercy; City Utilities and the Impacting Poverty Commission. Community Listen has a long list of partners committed to hearing citizen concerns. 

Most of the City’s departments were on hand to answer questions, including Director of Building Development Services Chris Straw, Deputy City Manager Tim Smith, Assistant Director of Public Works Kirk Juranas, Park Board Director Bob Belote, Police Chief Paul Williams and Fire Chief David Hall.

Zone 1 Councilwoman Ferguson handed out T-shirts boasting “North Side Pride” and encouraged participants to take part in a “renaissance” of the City’s historic neighborhoods.

City Manager Greg Burris led the group through a series of somewhat sobering “intensity maps” that illustrated some of the challenges in the Watkins neighborhood and the rest of the City’s Zone 1.

Watkins-1
Downloads & Links
• View the PowerPoint presentation.

• View Results. 

• MIss your neighborhood's meeting? Share your thoughts on the Community Voice section of our Web site.

• Contact your neighborhood association.

Zone 1 is the northwest quadrant of Springfield. To start off the “listening” portion of the evening, Director of Public Information & Civic Engagement Cora Scott shared findings from the City’s most recent Citizen Survey, which outlined the priorities of survey respondents from Zone 1 and satisfaction ratings for various City services. Participants offered suggestions about what things they would most like to see fixed in the Tom Watkins Neighborhood.

The top five issues will be incorporated into a plan to address issues in Zone 1. Burris said he expected a plan to come forward after partner agencies meet with City officials in late June.

Tom Watkins Top 5 Issues
  • Bathrooms in the park.
  • Landlords (especially absentee landlords) who are not accountable to their properties. Buildings in disrepair and overgrown properties.
  • More busing (HHS students are crossing barrier streets of Kearney and Kansas).
  • Cars off sidewalks.
  • Lack of police presence, lack of reporting and lack of participation in Neighborhood Watch, check alleys and lack of sidewalks.

Tom Watkins Full Results
  • Bathrooms in the park. (30 points) = 28.6%
  • Landlords (especially absentee landlords) who are not accountable to their properties.
  • Buildings in disrepair and overgrown properties. (10 points) = 9.5%
  • More busing (HHS students are crossing barrier streets of Kearney and Kansas) (12 points) = 11.4%
  • Cars off sidewalks (9 points) = 8.6%
  • Lack of police presence, lack of reporting and lack of participation in Neighborhood Watch, check alleys. (8 points) = 7.6% and lack of sidewalks (8 points) = 7.6%
  • Overgrown vegetation (5 points) = 4.8%
  • Create a community garden (5 points) = 4.8%
  • Things for young people to do in the neighborhood (5 points) = 4.8%
  • Create a food pantry (4 points) = 3.8%
  • Animals on the loose (3 points) = 2.9%
  • Widen Oakland and address speeding and address Lexington & Elizabeth (3 points) = 2.9%
  • Workforce help (jobs) (3 points) = 2.9%