For the first time ever, the Kauffman Foundation will run a PSA during the Super Bowl on Feb. 5. The announcement will lead viewers to a website featuring entrepreneurship resources. The ad will feature many of Kauffman’s key messages about entrepreneurs’ contributions to the economy, to job creation, and to fostering innovation.
Here’s a preview of the spot, which will be posted on YouTube next week.

Our lives are a collection of experiences; joys and sorrows seldom shared publicly with those around us. Many of my friends know that I was adopted shortly after my birth. My parents, Don & Trudy Quibell of Warrensburg, gave me an excellent childhood and a wonderful life. They helped me to achieve the path in life described in the once secret adoption records that documented my birth mother’s goals and aspirations for me.

This week, details of my life story were revealed in a very public way, and the response I have received is both amazing and humbling. In 2002, after forty-four years of secrecy, I found Ann Padmos, the incredibly courageous woman who is my birth mother. Our reunion has been marvelous and uplifting, and it has been my honor and privilege to share our story publicly. Following are links that will take you to both the KMBC video and the Kansas City Star articles that tell the story of my Christmas Ornaments.

http://bit.ly/QuibellOrnaments

http://bit.ly/AnnChristmas

May God bless you and your families this Christmas season as we all gather together and add to the stories that make up each of our lives!

See my Christmas Ornament Story on KMBC Channel 9’s website at http://www.kmbc.com/r/30036735/detail.html

Now followed by an article in the Kansas City Star:

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/22/3336172/ornaments-tell-a-no-longer-secret.html

Each year, as we take time to enjoy our national day of Thanksgiving, we stop to consider all the many blessings in our lives. As I reflect on the people in my life, and the community Wanda and I have made our home, the list of blessings is extensive and varied.

On Monday, the city of Blue Springs and the University of Missouri took the next step toward the realization of the Missouri Innovation Park. This is a development that each of us in Blue Springs can be thankful for as it will bring new, quality jobs to our community. I am also thankful for The Examiner’s excellent article on Tuesday. The accurate description of the MIP letter of agreement and the impact on our community was well written and detailed.

Many of our residents are thankful that the long-vacant Kmart building is gone and replaced with a larger Hy-Vee Grocery. The 140 new employees are thankful for the opportunity for employment. While there is still plenty of work to be done, a lot of progress has occurred at the intersection of U.S. 40 and Missouri 7.

I am thrilled with the new QuikTrip on North Missouri 7. Not only did it replace the vacant former gas station on that corner, I can now shop at PriceChopper and use my gasoline rewards on my way to work at the CPros building, next to the Paul Consiglio Center. I am thankful that CPros has this permanent home in which to serve our community’s computer and software needs.

A many of you know this is the first Thanksgiving since the death of my father. I am so thankful for the many years of love, wisdom and humor he shared with me and thankful my mother is here with us and continues to share in my life. Of course, I’m thankful for my wonderful daughters, Ashley and Crystal, and for my amazing wife, Wanda. I am thankful for my brother and sister who shared my childhood and for the five sisters and three brothers in my biological family whom I have had the privilege to meet and love over the last nine years.

The opportunity to meet my biological parents nine years ago, especially my biological mother, ranks very high on my thankful list. When I think of the sacrifices she made to ensure that I had the opportunities she was unable to provide, “thank you” seems so inadequate. This fall, she is undergoing treatment for uterine cancer. I promised her that if she lost her hair during her treatments I would lose mine so she wouldn’t have to go through baldness alone.

This past weekend, the chemotherapy caused her hair to fall out, so first thing Monday morning Mike Courtney of Courtney Bros Barber & Shaving Parlor in Blue Springs graciously shaved the hair from my head. I am thankful for Mike, his business and friendship. I am also thankful for my wool hat!

I hope you each have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving holiday!

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Blue Springs Car Cruise - Saturday, September 3 from 5 until approx 7 p.m. along Main Street, downtown. Relaxed, casual atmosphere with food, shopping, and over 100 classic cars. Molle Chevrolet and the Main Street merchants help sponsor this event.

Music in the Park Concert Series - Double Header! – Sunday, September 4 at Rotary Park located at 400 NW Vesper.  This free concert series features a different band every Sunday night. This week enjoy an early start and two bands! Cold Blue Band performs at 3 p.m. and the 51% Blues Band starts at 5:30 p.m. Bring your lawn chairs, blankets and food or drink. Concessions are also available.

Centennial Pool-Plex – Open 12:30-7 p.m. Saturday, Sunday & Monday.  The pool, located at 2401 NW Ashton Drive, features a zero depth wading pool w/water features and two giant waterslides.

Adams Pointe Golf Club – 1601 NE RD Mize Road. 18-hole championship course and a practice facility. Call (816) 220-3673 for daily fees and a Tee Time.

For additional information on any of these events, visit www.bluespringsgov.com/parks or call the Blue Springs Parks & Recreation Department at (816) 228-0137.

Pam Buck

Superintendent of Recreation

Blue Springs Parks & Recreation Department

City Hall, 903 West Main Street

Blue Springs, Missouri 64015

Office (816) 228-0238

Mobile (816) 645-0287

www.bluespringsgov.com/parks

Call it ancestry, genealogy, or family lineage; most of us have an innate need to know where or who we came from. For adult adoptees in the state of Missouri, the quest to learn our history just became a little easier. For many years, the only option for an adult adoptee searching for their biological family was a petition to the family court for a search, then seeking the permission of both the adoptive and biological parents before releasing identifying information to the adoptee. If one of the parents had died, the search came to a legal end.

Thanks to the efforts of many Missouri residents and the insight of our State Legislators and Governor Nixon, Senate Bill 351 has changed that process. An adult adoptee or their lineal descendants, if the adopted adult is deceased, may now initiate a search, and the death of a parent is no longer an obstacle.

In 2002, I had the honor and privilege of finding my biological parents, with the support and urging of my adoptive Mother and Father. The reunion was wonderful and allowed me to meet many additional family members including five half-sisters and three half-brothers, along with nieces, nephews and cousins. Under the previous law, if I had waited until this year to do my search, my adoptive father’s death this past January would have become a significant obstacle to my search.

I joined a group of adult adoptees this past Monday as we visited the Jackson County Family Court. Many of those attending have waited decades to learn of their origins, but were prevented by the death of a parent. Each one officially began the process of discovery and they are hopeful to finally learn the circumstances of their adoption. I pray for their success and wish them the best.

If you are an adult adoptee and are interested in searching for your biological roots, more opportunities are available to you now. If you have been searching but have not yet found your biological family, now may be the time to try again. I encourage you to continue your search. For more information about searching, go to the Jackson County Family Court website at http://www.family-court.org/adoption.htm.

Meanwhile, we will continue to strive for opening adoption records for adult adoptees in Missouri. Our goal is for every Missouri adoptee to be treated equally under the law and to have the opportunity to know firsthand the circumstances of their birth and adoption.

Good things continue to happen in Blue Springs, in spite of tough economic times. This past Sunday I had the privilege to attend the Eagle Court of Honor for Riley Kramer of Troop 1058 at First United Methodist Church. Riley’s Eagle Scout project involved placing identifying signposts in Rotary Park at the new Arbor Walk around Railroad Lake. Of all scouts nationwide, only about 5% achieve the highest rank, the rank of Eagle Scout. It is indeed an achievement, and indicative of their commitment, involvement and leadership. Eagle Scouts often grow up to be active in their communities and leaders in industry.

Overlapping with Riley’s Court of Honor was the groundbreaking ceremony for Pointe of Hope Church, which took over the building once used as 84 Lumber, located just North of I-70. The church expects to be open for services in November. I’m sure many of us are excited to see the improvements on this site.

Next to Point of Hope, the new Quik Trip is opening soon, which many in the northern portion of the city have been excited to see. This redevelopment of the former Sinclair station along with the development of Point of Hope church is a significant improvement of this section of 7 Highway.

The City Council will have a work session on the 2011-2012 budget at the Central Jackson County Fire Protection District training facility on 40 Highway on Thursday, August 18 at 6:30pm. The council will discuss options for the allocation of resources, meeting the priorities of our residents, and planning for future projects that will occur as a result of the passage of the Public Safety Tax. The meeting is open to the public, and I encourage you to attend.

We have all seen them. Motorist Assist vehicles frequent our highways, helping stranded motorists disabled by a flat tire or someone simply running out of gas. They seem to show up at the right time somehow. I had often wondered about that and recently learned a little more about how the process and how Motorist Assist functions so successfully.

KC Scout has cameras that watch the ebb and flow of traffic on major highways. The Missouri and Kansas departments of transportation provide funding for the system.

Published on electronic signs all over the area, the information from this system updates drivers on how long it will take to get to a specific destination ahead of us. Those same signs also provide guidance involving an accident ahead, giving basic detour information to assist us in avoiding a traffic jam.

The KC Scout system also sees when a car has stopped along the highway. When that occurs, the nearest Motorist Assist vehicle is dispatched to see if the driver needs any assistance.

When an accident occurs, the Scout system sees that incident and Motorist Assist is deployed to put out signs and provide protection to our emergency responders. This helps traffic flow and enables lanes to reopen as quickly as possible. This support technique has resulted in an average 90-minute reduction in traffic tie-ups due to serious accidents, compared with the situation before the implementation of the Motorist Assist program.

Data from KC Scout are fed to companies that provide navigation information for automotive GPS systems. If you have a traffic module with your navigator, you are benefiting directly from the KC Scout system when your GPS routes you around a traffic tie-up.

I recently visited the KC Scout center and was very impressed with the “war room” style monitoring system that provides the KC Scout personnel with all the information they need to keep traffic flowing as safely and smoothly as possible throughout the region.

For more information about KC Scout, go to http://www.KCScout.com. 

I’m resending this per request….my opinion THE BEST Severe weather web page is http://www.crh.noaa.gov/eax/

Book mark this….It’s the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill. Do NOT rely on AccuWeather, Yahoo, etc…..  Click on the link now…you will see in red…the current tornado warnings.  Click on the Red Polygon….once the forecast comes up…look for the Red Text “Tornado Warning” above the written out forecast.  Click on “Tornado Warning” and you can read all the current info. regarding that specific tornado. Even listing towns/cities in its path.. 

Pete Grigsby

www.BSSDTV.net

www.BSSDRadio.net

www.JagTVnews.net

Paul Consiglio Education Center

1501 NW Jefferson Street

Blue Springs, MO  64015

816-224-1740  X-314