Mayor Tyrone Garner Embraces Vision for Wyandotte County
Published on January 27, 2022
The new Mayor and CEO of the Unified Government, Tyrone Garner, has embraced a busy schedule as he structures his team and begins outlining the next steps of achieving his vision for Wyandotte County.
Garner recently joined Mayors from across the country at the 90th annual United States Conference of Mayor’s Winter Meeting, which was held January 18-21 in Washington, D.C. The conference focused on key issues such as public safety, equitable COVID-19 recovery and quality of life priorities such as achieving functional zero homelessness, climate resiliency, technology and innovations.
The conference included discussions and interactions with 11 cabinet members of the Biden administration, many of them former mayors themselves1. Garner stressed the importance of these opportunities to interact with officials at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
“It’s vitally important to build strong working relationships with top officials at all levels of government, because many times solving challenges at the local level means working with representatives at the state and local level,” said Garner. “In addition, the opportunity to collaborate and learn from the other mayors at the conference was an invaluable experience. I look forward to working towards the implementation of some of the initiatives we explored and incorporating some of the ideas from the conference into my vision for the future of Wyandotte County.”
Addressing the Future, Face to Face
Garner addressed a group of future Wyandotte County constituents at an early graduation ceremony for the Kansas City, KS Public School District on January 22nd. He drew on the similarities between being a new graduate and being a new Mayor, saying that the future held opportunities and challenges for both.
“We will all have challenges in our future,” he explained, telling students to embrace the inevitable adversity that comes with new endeavors. “But the challenges you face as you climb that mountain aren’t just rocks or trees. They’re what you hold onto as you make your way up. They aren’t barriers – look at them as opportunities that help you learn and keep on climbing.”
Garner also encouraged the graduates to give back to their community and become a part of Wyandotte County’s future. “Wyandotte County is counting on young people like you to come and be part of the fabric of our community. It’s a great place to build your life – build a business, build a family and build a future right here.”
Proposing Future Downtown KCK Revitalization
Mayor Garner also revealed that his Economic Development Advisor, LaVert Murray, recently proposed a renewed revitalization strategy for downtown KCK. Murray was the economic development director for the Unified Government for many years, retiring in 2009. During his tenure, the Jack Reardon Center was built as the main event center and space for downtown KCK. Murray also assisted in attracting the Hilton Garden Inn to its current site adjacent to the Reardon Center and relocating the BPU office building to that campus.
Garner supports Murray’s new strategy, which would enhance the image of the entryway to the downtown area. In addition, this effort would refocus efforts to preserve and update the Reardon Center and promote office and retail development on key vacant sites in downtown KCK.
“We would like to give our downtown revitalization effort a boost and path forward with a positive vision for renewed investment opportunity for retail and office growth and upscale mixed use residential development,” said Garner. “This allows us to take advantage of our strategic location of being only three minutes away from the Power & Light district in Kansas City, Mo.”
Mayor Garner will continue with a full schedule of community outreach, meetings and events designed to engage the community and move his vision of the future for Wyandotte County forward. For example, the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast will take place in February (more details to be announced soon).
For more information on Mayor Garner’s plans for Wyandotte County please visit https://www.wycokck.org/Departments/Mayors-Office.
1 In his closing remarks, President Biden specifically mentioned Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, former Mayor of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, former Mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio; Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, former Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana.