You thinking about coming to St. John, Kansas? Well as you drive into town on US 281 Highway just take a good look at what you see. You would think if a town wanted you to visit and stay, they would clean it up, at least put their best foot forward! This house is a prime example of what happens in St. John, They must have cleaned it out, the contents were thrown into the street and on the curb -- another view -- even food who knows what kind of varmint that will draw -- another view -- another view. Now if you been in Kansas very long you know how the wind blows, well guess where most of this trash will be. A friend of mine wrote about western Kansas, "Expect high winds in the western half of Kansas. On the rare days when the wind doesn't blow, half the natives in the state fall over" and we live in the western half! Two weeks later more junk shows up -- more junk -- more junk -- This is what the city thinks is cleaning up this mess? more junk -- more junk -- more junk -- grass in the gutter after it washed here by a rain. How long will it be before it's picked up. This time they piled grass clippings in the gutter and street which is against a city ordinance. Was a ticket issued this time? Will one be issued for this mess? Who knows the city won't send the city court news to the paper to be published. Why? This has laid here for several days. Another one of them deals, if it lays there long enough the rain will carry it into the storm drain and plug it up. This area has a storm drain problem anyway. Just ask the couple that live across the street! Now more trash is being piled up, this junk chair showed up and if you look just over the chair there is another pile of trash about three feet high. Here is a photo of a car at the same house that is parked to close to the intersection and over the sidewalk. Police drive by it and others in town just the same way, and they call themselfs LEO? What a joke!

This is a unique idea for the old used couch at another residents in town. Is this what you want to live next to and raise your children in this environment? But no this is the way it has been for years, and will stay this way for years to come unless there are some changes at city hall. It does no good to complain to the officials down at city hall, they just blow you off by saying, "we'll look into it." Don't know where they look, but it never happens. But wait you haven't seen anything yet!

Just drive around town and see what they think of the main street -- more downtown -- more downtown -- more downtown. These photos shows a downtown corner, more downtown -- more downtown -- This will tell you what you're in for if you really explore the city. There is an ordinance to go by for these weeds in a sidewalk, but again no action to enforce it. How about dangerous intersections? Look at this photo close for the red car coming from the left, you can't see it until it is to late. There are several like this in town, this is just one of them.

No this isn't someone's flower garden, this is bindweed, there is an ordinance for this also, but it grows all over town because of no enforcement. This weed is very easy to control. We had it in our back yard. When an old building was taken out, the yard was filled with dirt that was contaminated with bindweed. Just your over the counter "Weed Be Gone" from Wal-Mart will take care of it.

There are dilapidated houses on every block almost, here are a few, many are hard to find!, another -- another -- another -- and one more -- there may be one over there? This is how the city fixes a problem, with a band aid. This house had a fire in it several years ago, it also has a hole in the roof the fire department cut in it. The weeds in the yard are over six feet tall. The weeds and house have been complained about for years and nothing done.

Lets say you're tired of looking around and want to take a little break and have a picnic in the park, maybe let the kids play around. You find the park and lay out your lunch and start looking around, something just isn't right. You find that you've set your table right next to a feedlot. A feedlot in the middle of town? This can't be, you turn around to find out what is wrong with the wife, she's fighting off the flies that are carrying off your wonderful picnic you were about to eat. She is also yelling at the kids to find something to cover her nose as the smell is about to get to her. Can you believe that after spending ten's of thousands of dollars on a park and swimming pool that the city would allow this to happen. This feedlot sits just south of the track and football field.

This feed lot and several others within the city limits are within 300-1000 feet of a city water well. Oh did I mention that the City of St. John has poison water also. The city sent out a letter stating that the water was unsafe to drink for certain people, if it's unsafe for certain people then it must be unsafe for everyone. We had a close friend who went to his doctor for tests and was told that he better quit drinking the water or he would die, well he did a few weeks later.

Junk cars, dead animals and weeds are big problems in St. John. #1 Junk vehicle -- #2 Junk vehicle -- #3 Junk vehicle was here in 2002 -- #4 Junk vehicle -- #5 Weed Patch -- #6 Weed Patch -- #7 Weed Patch -- #8 Weed Patch -- #9 Weed Patch -- #10 Weed Patch -- #11 Weed Patch -- #12 Weed Patch & Feedlot, there are plenty more where these came from. This is what the city does with dead animals! If you wait long enough they will rot away. This animal was reported to the city shortly after it got hit, not weeks later.

You might think that we just drove to the slum area of town and took photos. Well you are wrong about that unless you call the whole city a slum area. These are photos of homes that are between, across the street or next to the places above. across the street -- down the block -- next to -- between -- next to -- across the street -- across the street. How would you like this view day in and day out? Wouldn't you be upset also?

Here are a couple of photo's of drug houses that people who care about their neighborhood had to buy and what had happen to them after these same people had spent several thousand dollars just to get rid of the blight they were causing in the neighborhood. Drug House One -- Meth Lab -- What Should Happen to the rest of the junk houses in town! Drugs, yes there are plenty in the city and county. We have always said that Stafford county has more drugs and drug dealers per capita then any county in Kansas! So if you're a drug dealer or use drugs most of these house will fit you just fine, unless a citizen who cares about St. John buys them first.

The St. John News our local newspaper recently printed an article on the deadbeats in town that don't pay their city bill. They ranged from a few dollars to over $7,000. Sounds like someone isn't doing their job at watching who is paying and who isn't. Then on top of this loss the back property taxes were printed and most of the deadbeats that don't pay city bills are the same ones that don't pay county taxes either.

Now here is the really sad part of this whole thing, look at this photo. You can see that this couple have a beautiful home, yard and are trying to improve it by putting a porch on the front of the house. In order to build this porch, they had to go to city hall and pay a fee or "fine" as we call it. Do you think this is right? When just down the street is a junkie old yard and house or someone that never mows their yard? My theory is that if someone wants to improve their property or home, "just get the hell out of the way" or help them and if the city thinks they have to have their nose in someone's business, go fine, ticket or better yet arrest the people who are breaking the law and turning the City of St. John, Kansas into one great big slum area! I thought the goal of the city council was to look out for the best interest of the citizens in the community and things that improve their quality of life. Not in St. John, Kansas.

What Other People Say!
Your article is 100% true and the truth hurts sometimes.
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I can't believe that in a small town like St. John is that you would have such a wide spread problem. Good Luck in getting it cleaned up!
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I love your comment about the deadbeats not paying taxes, you are totaly wrong in calling them that, they are politicians those are the ones that don't pay taxes. You know what they say, "Politicians are like dirty diapers they need to be changed often." Do you have an election coming up?
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The photos on your site speak for them self. It is sad that a city would let things go south like that. Good luck in your fight with city hall.
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It's amazing how many of the buildings are in my neighborhood!! Recognized quite a few.
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Totaly true and the proof is in the pictures. This is why our school system is going down hill right along with the city. There will be nothing done until we can vote these people out and get someone in city hall that cares about St. John. The city council don't or should we say won't do anything about this problem, they think they have great people running this town. Boy do they have another think coming!
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We've gotten 12 emails saying: Thanks!
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When we found your page on St. John trash, we just couldn't believe this was happening in our town. We seem to be in a hurry when we are in the car. The other day we took a slow drive around town and couldn't believe what we saw. You've hit the nail on the head so to speak. The pictures show just who is not doing their job. Now if it will do some good, which I doubt!
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Your page on St. John Trash mad me laugh, then I got to thinking about how my part of town looks. Yes we have some problems but not like you have photos of. Maybe if the right people see this page something will get done, but I doubt it as there is no one down at city hall with the back bone to enforce the laws on the kind of people that live in these houses. Love your dead beats tag! ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

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