[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.

       

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