In another Link 2 Lee's Summit live event, hosts Jason Norbury and Nick Parker sat down with Lee's Summit R-7 School District Superintendent Dr. Dennis Carpenter and Associate Superintendents Dr. Katie Collier and Judy Hedrick on Monday Feb. 26 at the Missouri Innovation Campus. The event, sponsored by Ameriprise Financial, drew more than 50 local residents interested in hearing the conversation covering current issues facing the district.

The hour-long conversation allows residents to get a better understanding of the district's educational equity programming, school safety, student mental health, the changing landscape of education as it pertains to career tracks and facility development and more.

Hosts Jason Norbury and Nick Parker introduce the three candidates for mayor (Ron Williams, Bill Baird and Rob Binney) and talk a little on issues and questions they'll have for the three at the Lee's Summit Town Hall candidate forum set for 6:30 p.m. March 7 at the VFW in downtown Lee's Summit. And in this week's segment of As the Council Turns... Jason and Nick say the Council may have made the right decision by punting on decisions for implementing City staff pay increases. But doing the right thing, after four tries, doesn't necessarily mean they — or anyone else in the community — doesn't have cause for frustration with how the process has been managed. How to implement, and how to pay for, changes to City staff compensation will be an area of conversation for all candidates as the next Mayor and Council will immediately be faced with this task.

As the local election season kicks into gear, hosts Jason Norbury and Nick Parker introduce residents to the four candidates running for two seats on the Lee's Summit R-7 School District Board of Education. The duo hold short conversations with each candidate, covering why they're running, how they envision serving the district and communicating with their constituency. They are joined (in alphabetical order) by incumbent Julie Doane, Michael McMenus, Ryan Murdock and John Schuler.

In the second segment, the guys attempt to decipher what was a confusing City Council meeting and where we sit in the ongoing conversation about increasing pay for City employees and its affect on the City's budget.

Here they are, digging into the batter's box. Thursday's public meeting marks the Lee's Summit City Council's 4th trip to plate and Lee's Summit Town Hall hosts Jason Norbury and Nick Parker wonder if once again they'll keep the bat on their shoulders and watch the pitch go by.

Spring training starts soon, so forgive the baseball analogies. Nick can't help himself. This week, we are once again talking about the Council's stated desire to increase pay for City employees. All eight members of the Council — and Mayor Randy Rhoads — have made very clear their support of the new compensation philosophy. What makes this interesting, and of concern to residents, is that no one on the dais seems ready to make a public declaration on when and how to actually put the plan into action. With a clear majority of the Council using language to say this must be done, and done now, Jason and Nick ask why haven't they taken action to vote it through? Are they not ready for the public criticism to follow? Do they fear retribution at the ballot box for voting for a plan that could mean increased taxes, new taxes, job cuts across all City departments (including City Hall and the police and fire departments) or a combination of all of the above? These questions, Jason and Nick say, deserve answers.

This week, we're giving you the softer side of Lee's Summit Town Hall. Hosts Jason Norbury and Nick Parker update listeners on some upcoming events and review what will be an important conversation and issue during the campaigns for City Council and Mayor.

In the second segment, the duo is joined by Downtown Lee's Summit Main Street executive director Donnie Rodgers and Missouri Main Street director Gayla Roten. Donnie and Gayla talk about the community's opportunity to show off for a national audience by hosting the 2018 Main Street Now Conference' Big Bash event in March. The event will bring hundreds of community professionals and downtown/main street enthusiasts from across the nation to shop, dine and experience our downtown district. And if you're looking for a chance to volunteer and help show off our downtown, Donnie and Gayla tell you how easy it is to participate.

Drama in the Jackson County government is nothing new. But this latest saga pitting County Executive Frank White against the legislature has taken quite the turn. Hosts Jason and Nick take a short dive into the matter and let you know why we should be paying attention and some of the local organizations who have cause to be nervous.

After the break, the duo is joined by local CPA Julia Hampton and City of Lee's Summit interim director of human resources, Jackie Heanue, to talk about the low-income tax clinic they help run in Lee's Summit. During the conversation they not only talk about the people they help, but also make a call to the community for some volunteers to help the cause.

Our guess is, unless you're an employee of the City, you probably didn't pay much attention to last week's City of Lee's Summit City Council meeting. But hosts Jason Norbury and Nick Parker tell you why you should and why this particular issue will likely be significant during the now active election season. The issue at hand is one of how the City compensates its employees. This group includes City Hall employees, as well as the police and fire departments. A common consensus is that City Council members see a need to increase compensation in order to reach, sustain and sometimes even exceed market rates. The confusion comes in how they get there and how the City can afford to maintain these raises. Jason and Nick attempt to break things down and make sense of what looks to be a complex solution to reach a common goal.

In our second segment, the hosts sit down with Mid-Continent Public Library's Seth Moses and Amanda Rhoads to talk about the many services offered to our community and what improvements we can expect after the success of Proposition L in last spring's election.

Welcome to the Season 2 premiere of Lee's Summit Town Hall! We're still a

little more than two months shy of celebrating our 1 year anniversary, but

hosts Nick Parker and Jason Norbury decided to go ahead and celebrate the

new year by calling this the start of our show's second season.

Lee's Summit Town Hall started as an experiment. It began as way to convince a smart and involved member of the community to share his thoughts and insights on local issues. It began with a goal of encouraging people to be engaged with with the community both as an informed voter but also through service.

As 2017 draws to a close, Link 2 Lee's Summit publisher Nick Parker wanted to celebrate the successful conning of Jason Norbury into co-hosting as well as helping connect listeners with a host of people making our community a better place through their business and social ventures. Lee's Summit Town Hall has been "on the air" for 43 weeks. In that span, Nick and Jason have focused their efforts on three things:

Inform residents on local issues

Hold local elected officials accountable by keeping issues in the public conversation

Celebrate and encourage community involvement

In this week's episode, Nick and Jason take a little time to reflect on some of the short interviews with big impacts not only on the conversation of the time, but also on the community as a whole. The duo looks back on conversations with Roberta McArthur, Teri Curp, Dave Eames, Dr. Dennis Carpenter, Matt Sanning and more.

Nick and Jason's original idea for this week's show was to talk about the incredible levels of awesomeness achieved in the latest Star Wars movie. Unfortunately, neither were able to see it before recording. Instead, the Lee's Summit Town Hall hosts sat down with Amy Johnson, a Lee's Summit entrepreneur focusing her energy and talents on starting a movement. The goal of The Noticed Network is to help teach us how to take a moment to recognize the people around us and the positive impacts they have on our lives, and the lives around us. The concept sounds simple, but her message has had big results as she works with schools and corporations to improve communication and change their perspectives on relationships they make.