Liberal City Commission Meets, Mary Frame Park Gets Facelift

The Liberal City Commission met Tuesday evening at 5:30pm for their regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting kicked off with two proclamations being read. The first one proclaimed April as Child Abuse Prevention Month with representatives from the Kansas Childrens Service League accepting the Proclamation. The Second Proclamation honored the City of Liberal/Seward County Telecommunicators by Proclaiming National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.

The meeting then turned to Reorganization with the election of a new Mayor and Vice-Mayor. With the Kansas Legislature moving elections to November, and new commissioners that would take office in January following the election, the commission moved the Reorganization to January of each year. The current Mayor and Vice Mayor will stay in place until January.

Commissioners called for a Public Hearing on the Advisability of Creating a Community Improvement District for Liberal Restaurant LLC. The hearing has been set for May 10, 2016. When questioned about the prospective restaurant, Economic Development Director Jeff Parsons said the investors intend to put in an IHOP. Location of the restaurant will be north of the current Applebees.

The Commission next then approved a transient guest tax policy that would allow the developers of the new Marriot Fairfield Inn to use the bed tax collected from the Fairfield Inn to be applied to the construction of a new convention center. Once the convention center is completed, the bed tax would then revert back to the Convention and Visitor Bureau.

The Liberal Police Department will be adding a motorcycle unit to its force as they were able to purchase 5 Police outfitted motorcycles from the Garden City Police department in the amount of a total of $8500.00, breaking it down to $1700 per motorcycle.

Mary Frame Park will soon get a facelift as new playground equipment has recently been purchased and will be in place sometime in May.

With grant money from a local organinzation, several items were approved by the commissioners. Among those were handheld radios for the Fire Department, Batting cage equipment for the Recreation Department, and picnic tables and small shelters for Arkalon Park.

Christian Ermann a local Life Scout, will be partnering with the Convention and Visitors Bureau for his Eagle Scout project and will be removing and replacing the playground equipment at Dorothy’s House. The upgrade will cost approximately $50,000.00 with Ermann and other Scouts removing the old equipment, and with help from the manufacturer, Athco LLC, will install the new equipment. The Project should be completed this summer.