[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 34 (Thursday, March 21, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E417-E418]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO MISSION, KANSAS, MAYOR SYLVESTER POWELL
______
HON. DENNIS MOORE
of kansas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Mr. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mayor
Sylvester Powell, of Mission, Kansas, who died on March 6th, at the age
of 82. Sylvester Powell served as mayor of his northeast Johnson County
community, which is located in the Third Congressional District, from
1955-65 and from 1977 until his death.
Sylvester Powell was born on May 12, 1919, in Springfield, Ohio. He
was drafted into the Army in March 1941, and after the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, entered Officer's Candidate School. He was commissioned as a
second lieutenant and eventually attained the rank of captain. He
served as a company commander in General George Patton's Third Army
during the war. While in the Army, he met his future wife, Merle Cline,
and they were married on July 21, 1943. Mayor Powell is survived by
Merle, their son, Stephen, and their daughters, Janet and Dianne.
After leaving the Army and receiving an undergraduate degree from
Wittenberg College, Sylvester attended law school at the University of
Kansas City [now the University of Missouri-Kansas City], graduating in
1949. He was to practice law for the next 47 years, representing
defendants in personal injury litigation.
The Powells moved to Mission in 1951, where he helped write the city
charter that year, which established the city limits. Sylvester was
elected to the city council in 1953 and was first elected mayor in
1955. As the Johnson County Sun recently noted: ``Through Powell's
tenure, Mission grew from a sleepy community to the vital retail area
it is today. Many improvements were made to the city's infrastructure
during the Powell years. But perhaps Powell's greatest legacy was the
$8 million Sylvester Powell, Jr., Community Center, which opened in May
1999 . . . The almost 3-year-old community center was an instant
success and surprised both detractors and backers by covering its
operational expenses.''
I knew Syl personally. As a lawyer and a public official he was truly
outstanding. But most of all, Syl was a good friend who will be missed
by his friends and his community.
Mr. Speaker, I am taking this opportunity to place in the Record two
recent pieces from the Kansas City Star regarding Mayor Sylvester
Powell: an obituary that the paper carried on March 7th and a column by
Mike Hendricks, reflecting the character and ability of the man whom we
knew as ``Syl,'' that the Star carried on the following day. I am proud
to have known Sylvester Powell. As the Johnson County Sun said in a
March 6th editorial: ``People often wonder what one person can do. Syl
Powell showed them.'' My only regret is that we will not soon see his
kind in public service again.
[From the Kansas City Star, Mar. 7, 2002]
Sylvester Powell Jr., Longtime Mayor of Mission, Dies at 82
(By James Hart and Grace Hobson)
Mission Mayor Sylvester Powell Jr., who helped build the
town he loved into a prosperous suburb, died Wednesday night.
He was 82..
A World War II veteran and Kansas City trial lawyer, Powell
was regarded by many as the dean of Kansas mayors. He served
Mission in that capacity between 1955 and 1965, took a ``12-
year vacation'' and returned to office in 1977, winning every
election for the post since then, most recently in 2001.
``The people don't put somebody back in office that many
times unless he's well-respected,'' said Police Chief Bob
Sturm, who worked with Powell for more than 30 years.
Powell had suffered lung problems and had been hospitalized
for weeks, Sturm said. The mayor loved his city, Sturm said,
the way he loved his family and his church.
Officials in the city of nearly 10,000 will ask residents
to lower their flags to half-staff today. A memorial service
has not yet been scheduled.
Powell was fond of telling others how, when he first became
mayor in 1955, Johnson Drive was a two-lane road and the city
had an operating budget of about $38,000.
He was elected to the City Council in 1953, and one of his
first acts as a public official was to help place a traffic
light at the intersection of Nall Avenue and Johnson Drive--a
project he researched himself by recording traffic with a
stopwatch.
Several decades and more than a few traffic lights later,
Mission stands as a model municipality with a vibrant
downtown and a solid tax base. Some of Powell's proudest
accomplishments included his work to help with the
development of Mission Center Mall, Johnson Drive's success
as a retail area and construction of the community center
that today bears his name.
``I like that little city and seeing progress made,''
Powell once said of Mission.
The secret behind the city's success, most people agreed,
was the gruff trial lawyer who served as mayor. Powell, known
as ``Syl'' around town, liked to visit the Mission City Hall
every morning when he didn't have an appearance in court.
``He's a person who . . . takes a stand and says, `OK, this
is what we're going to do,' '' Westwood Mayor Bill Kostar
said in February.
While some critics said Powell held the city's reins too
tightly, he clearly was in control of city government during
his tenure.
The city did not hire a professional administrator until
last year, after a consultant recommended the move.
``I don't think they're going to flnd anybody who can run
the city better than I do,'' Powell said in 2000.
Last year, the city's management became a campaign issue in
Powell's first election challenge since 1985, and he pledged
to hire a professional.
City Councilman Lloyd Thomas, who has served since 1976,
said Mission's strong financial position today was the result
of Powell's control over the city's finances throughout the
years.
``That's what you call being frugal,'' Thomas said
recently. ``He spends the taxpayers' money just like he does
his own. He's very frugal with it.''
Powell was able to build the city's sales tax base with
development projects that didn't sacrifice Mission's small-
town feel, Kostar said. That's a formula other mayors in
northeast Johnson County want to emulate, he added.
Asked once why he stayed in office so long, Powell said:
``Sometimes I think about retiring, but it's like giving up
something dear to you. If you're running the city well, they
ought to keep you in.''
Councilwoman Laura McConwell will become Mission's new
mayor.
____
[From the Kansas City Star, Mar. 8, 2002]
Lucky for Mission, Mayor Was Tough
(By Mike Hendricks)
When I read Syl Powell's obituary yesterday, the first
thing that came to mind was the time he hijacked the Olympic
torch.
No single act better defined the longtime mayor of Mission
and the hardball politics he practiced, a style we don't see
much of anymore.
It was 1996, the year of the Atlanta Games. Metropolitan
Kansas City was to be part of the symbolic torch run. But the
original route bypassed much of Mission, the northeast
Johnson County town of 10,000 Powell had watched over like
the overprotective father of a teen-age daughter.
The idea was for runners to cut through Mission on a short
stretch of Shawnee Mission Parkway, but there wasn't going to
be much chance for the city's residents to see it.
Powell had an idea. What if the torch run made a detour
down Mission's main street, Johnson Drive?
``The torch is something we may not get a chance to see
again, and I thought the people of Mission should be able to
see it,'' Powell said at the time.
Naturally, Olympics officials blew him off. Theirs was an
international organization. Who was Powell but mayor of some
pipsqueak town in the Kansas City suburbs?
Talk about a miscalculation. When the Olympics officials
failed to respond to Powell's polite request, he turned Don
Corleone and made an offer they couldn't refuse. Then he
embarrassed them by letting the world know.
``I said, `I hate to do this, but whether you like it or
not, you're going to come down Johnson Drive . . . I'm going
to barricade (Shawnee Mission Parkway) with public works, and
you won't have a choice.' ''
A threatened Olympic blockade? Sure enough, they changed
the route.
It recalled the time Powell vowed to pull Mission out of
the Mission Chamber of Commerce if the organization changed
its name.
[[Page E418]]
Powell liked to have his way--and sometimes he played rough
to get it.
Some called the Olympic torch threat self-centered,
childish, an embarrassment.
Yes. Sure. Exactly. And it was bloody marvelous, too.
Not only did the power play illuminate Powell's character,
but it was the kind of leadership we miss so much in local
politics these days. Strong and uncompromising.
Of course, Powell was no T.J. Pendergast and no one ever
questioned his honesty or accused him of accepting a payoff.
But in his way, he was as tough as Boss Tom, a rarity in an
era when most local politicos would rather get along than get
their way for the benefit of the community.
There are a lot of wimps out there. I'd like to think that
if Sylvester Powell Jr. had been mayor of Kansas City rather
than Mission all these years, there'd have been a whole lot
less hand-wringing downtown.
Cantankerous, shrewd, arrogant and big-hearted, that was
Powell. He insisted on building a Cadillac of a community
center for his constituents. And he saw to it that his name
was on it.
I once labeled Powell Mission's ``mayor for life.'' He was
that. Thirty-five of the last 47 years, he was Mission's
chief executive. Critics deplored his overbearing style. But
when he died Wednesday at the age of 82, few residents of his
tidy little town had called anyone else Hizzoner.
By the way, when the Olympic torch came through here this
year, I noticed that the route through Johnson County came
nowhere near the Mission city limits.
Probably just a coincidence.
____________________