Mayor Crafton reflects on financial turnaround and ambitious plans for Kennett's future

Mayor Jake Crafton is midway through his term and recently reflected on accomplishments and future plans at the Kennett Rotary Club.

“You've got a great council,” Crafton said. “Two years ago, you about had half the council change.”

Crafton informed, “There were some difficult times two years ago. The first year we had to concentrate on finances.”

“To say our finances were in dire straits is an understatement,” he added. “I was elected in April and in May I discovered we only had $24,000 in our checking account. Now, the following week we received our sales tax revenue, but it was not much.”

Crafton stated, “We were operating on a very low checking account. It should never have been that way.”

“We put measures in place that are still in place today that really stopped the spending,” he said. “We had a spending problem, not a revenue problem. You have to be able to say no sometime.”

Crafton shared there have been department changes, as well, in the past two years.

“We have a new street commissioner, city clerk, and our police department has more enforcement on the streets now,” he stated.

Crafton continued, “It's not because we're pushing for tickets. The police committee, Dennis Pelts, our councilman, he has really changed the police department for the better.”

“We're pushing them to get out and be seen,” Crafton said. “Not to write tickets, but to be seen. It's good to be seen in the neighborhoods, the businesses, and about.”

“It keeps the bad guys thinking twice,” he shared.

Crafton informed there had been some other changes in the department, as well.

“They've just went to 12 hour shifts,” he stated. “That should provide better coverage for our citizens. We're here for the citizens and what's best for our town.”

Crafton added, “We've recently changed the council meeting format. In public participation, if you want to come to the council to address a concern, we just ask that you call city hall and be placed on the agenda.”

“That way you come to the podium with a problem, you're not looking at a bunch of people staring at you because they don't know what your problem is until you bring it up,” he added. “With it being on the agenda, we can study it and provide some information at that time.”

Crafton then shared on the city's finances.

“Your government is debt free, essentially,” he said. “We do have loans, but the money is in the bank to pay those loans off if the interest rates come down.”

Crafton informed on the clean-up efforts to Kennett.

“First and foremost, we started with city property,” he stated. “City Hall looked dingy. A simple thing like changing light bulbs, half the light bulbs were out, made a significant improvement.”

“It's our city property, and we need to take care of it,” he added.

Crafton provided, “The Utilities will be taking care of sanitation at the end of this year. I know that was a hot topic, but I feel like they'll take care of our city. They're really good at what they do.”

Another avenue of interest was the blight in the city.

“We have budgeted $200,000 for taking care of dilapidated buildings,” Crafton said. “We want to take the $200,000, merge it with CBDG grant money for another $200,000, that will be $400,000 total, to demolish residential structures that are dilapidated in our city.”

Crafton stated, “It's unfortunate that we have to do it. We need to clean it up, and make the neighborhoods look better.”

“Another hot topic is rental inspections,” he said. “That came about because we want to clean our town up.”

Crafton continued, “I'm probably one of the most anti-government government official. I didn't want us to go there, but there was no other means that I could see that would take care of our neighborhoods.”

“The tenant will actually get a background check,” he informed. “If they have any outstanding code violations, they can't move to another location in the city until that violation is corrected.”

Crafton then discussed future plans for the city.

“I believe 2025 will be good year for Kennett,” he stated. “There are a number of items that are in the process right now.”

Crafton shared, “There's nothing concrete, but we're going to have some good news about our healthcare and some other news that people will be happy to hear.”

Crafton concluded, “You all have great representation at the state capitol. We have a good senator, Jason Bean, we couldn't wish for any better. We have a good representative in Cameron Parker.”

“Please thank them if you see them out and about,” he said.

Crafton summed up by stating, “Again, 2025 will be a good year for us. We'll keep working on these topics and we will get our town clean.”