I wanted to pass this along.
I don't have much to say as I still am trying to comprehend what happened. I will say Chris Byrd truly cared about making Platte County and Kansas City a better place to live. He served in leadership positions of the Northland Chamber of Commerce and the Platte EDC. For the past 4-5-6 (I don't remember) years he has been on the KCMO Public Improvements Advisory Committee which is a volunteer committee that decides what capital improvements projects are funded.
There are a lot of people in government or politics who are there only to serve themselves. Chris was different in the fact that even though his involvement helped him professionally his heart always was in doing the right thing. He didn't serve for money, he served because he wanted to see things get better.
I will miss working with him on things like the US 169 interchanges, the Line Creek Trail, etc. He was very key in a lot of relationships in getting things funded and done. We had a couple of instances where we were on opposite sides of an issue when it came to development but he was always respectful and able to keep things from getting personal. I had a lot of respect for him.
He was good at what he did. I will miss working with him and just talking about development, business, law, family, making fun of politicians, and of course harassing him for his frequent wearing of a bow tie.
He was Line Creek Valley born and bred. I wish I could thank him one more time for all his help and efforts.
I just want to say that I am sorry Tracy, Ian, and Colin and that I truly was blessed with the opportunity to know him and work with him for the past ten years.
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