Darren Doonan earns statewide recognition
According to their website, KMU is the statewide association representing Kansas cities and other public and not-for-profit agencies involved in the ownership and operation of municipal utilities. Formed in 1928, KMU provides assistance, information, and support to members regarding legislative and regulatory issues, training and educational programs, and numerous other services towards advancing municipal utilities to achieve maximum benefits for the customer-owners served by our member utilities. KMU is the only state association focused and dedicated exclusively to municipal utilities and the issues directly affecting them.
In 2024, Diana VanBruggen with the City of Russell received the Water Operator Award of Excellence at the annual KMU Conference. This year's conference takes place April 23-25 at Wichita.
Meeting at a glance
Here's a quick look at Monday's Great Bend City Council meeting.
Dr. Mike Malone, DVM, left, receives an award from Mayor Cody Schmidt in appreciation of his years of service as the veterinarian to the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo.
—Mayor Cody Schmidt made the following appointments — Reappoint Steve Dyer and Jim Hayes to the Airport advisory board — Reappoint Jean Clair and Cathy VonFeldt to the Humane Society board — Appoint Alma Lares to the Housing Authority board
—The payroll ending April 12 was approved for $542,638.
—Main Street from 24th to 12th Street will be closed from 10-11:30 a.m. on June 7 for the Big Bend Bash Parade. Lakin Avenue will be closed from Main Street to Williams Street from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. for a car show.
—A one-day Cereal Malt Beverage License for a beer garden at the Cinco de Mayo celebration on May 3 in Jack Kiley Square was approved. The applicant was Julia Marin. The council also approved an ordinance to allow alcoholic liquor and cereal malt beverages to be sold and consumed on the premises.
—Dry Lake Brewery received a temporary premises extension from 4 p.m. to midnight on May 3 for their anniversary party. The area includes the alley and part of the parking lot behind the business.
—The purchase of a TruNarc Analyzer from Thermo Fisher Scientific for $38,495 for analyzing narcotics was approved, using the Police Department's money from the opioid settlement funds. Chief Steve Haulmark described the system, which rapidly identifies drugs in their packaging. Among its benefits, the system can identify fentanyl without the officer needing to touch it.
—Electrical work at the Wastewater Treatment Facility was approved. Hammeke Electric submitted the only bid, for $49,262.
—The Council approved a three-year contract for veterinary services to the zoo with Nels N. Lindberg, doing business as Animal Medical Center. Longtime vet Mike Malone, who is retiring, was recognized.
—Councilman Gary Parr asked questions about the City's decision not to contribute to Barton County's Facade Improvement Grant program.
—Sara Arnberger and Amanda Gaddis reported on plans for the first Big Bend Bash in June.
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6 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
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Patrice Pastor spent big bucks on Carmel-by-the-Sea, in part because of cherished childhood memories, vacationing with his father in this charming, if quirky, coastal town. But after snapping up more than $100 million in properties in the area in recent years, the Monaco billionaire has grown increasingly infuriated by delays on his development projects, including a mid-sized retail and residential development that he has been trying to get approved. After six years of hold-ups and redesigns on that project — due, he said, to townsfolk endlessly nitpicking his plans — he has decided to bail on Carmel. 'It's time to leave this strange community, if you can call it a community,' Pastor said in a statement after the City Council this month delayed taking any action on the development, which he named the JB Pastor project in honor of his great-grandfather. City officials, he wrote, have used 'reasons that are akin to a schoolyard' to stand in his way, and it is time, he said, to 'reconsider my investment in Carmel.' In Carmel-by-the-Sea, development — including upgrades to private homes — is notoriously slow. This wealthy Monterey County enclave strictly regulates architecture to maintain the much-vaunted 'village character' of a place filled with cottages, courtyards and secret passageways. Residents in the one-square-mile town, population 3,200, have long sought to keep out the so-called trappings of city life. They have no street addresses, instead giving their homes whimsical nicknames like Almost Heaven and Faux Chateau. And they have no streetlights or sidewalks in residential areas. Over the last decade, Pastor has bought at least 18 properties, including The Hog's Breath Building, the site of the pub once owned by actor and former Carmel-by-the-Sea mayor Clint Eastwood; and the L'Auberge Carmel hotel, which houses a Michelin-star restaurant. In 2023, he paid $22 million for Cabin on the Rocks, the only oceanfront home ever designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Last year, the California Coastal Commission approved his 'visionary plan' to restore public access at Rocky Point, a seaside property he bought for $8 million in nearby Big Sur with views of the picturesque Rocky Creek Bridge. In Carmel-by-the-Sea — where, according to Zillow, the average home price is $2.3 million — Pastor's purchases have become a source of intrigue, and, for some, downright suspicion. Pastor is the scion of a powerful real estate family that built much of mega-rich Monaco, a dense, one-square-mile nation on the French Riviera. His defenders in Carmel-by-the-Sea have questioned whether he has been discriminated against because he is too rich. 'We are not treated the same as everyone else,' Pastor wrote this month. 'I suppose we are now at the point where we need to accept we are not wanted and draw the necessary conclusions.' The city has rejected several of Pastor's design proposals, including multiple pitches for a mixed-use development on the site of what locals call The Pit. Pastor bought the massive, unsightly hole in the ground — the site of a downtown construction project whose previous owners ran out of money seven years ago — for $9 million in 2020 and is still trudging through the city's permitting process. Pastor, in his statement, called the delays with that project a 'grotesque situation.' The latest opposition to his JB Pastor development may have been the final straw. 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She said it was frustrating to residents who have 'been through excruciating renovation projects and followed the rules' to see certain projects get a pass. City codes, she said, 'need to be applied consistently in order to preserve this village in the forest.' During the six-hour meeting, the City Council delayed making a decision on the appeal, putting everything on hold again. Ian Martin, one of the appellants, said in an interview Friday that the push-back against Pastor's projects is 'absolutely nothing personal at all' and that longtime locals also go through the same long process. 'Of course, Clint Eastwood was so frustrated with the planning process that he ran for mayor,' Martin said. 'Pastor is not being singled out.' Eastwood, who was mayor in the 1980s, ran for office after fighting with the City Council over what he said were unreasonable restrictions on the design of an office building he wanted to erect. Pastor now owns that building. Martin said that of the 11 appellants, two are former City Council members and three, including himself, are former planning commissioners. They are 'very well versed in the general plan and the municipal code and the design guidelines,' he added. The group, he added, is 'not opposed to the project.' They just believe it has to play by the rules. Chris Mitchell, managing director of Esperanza Carmel LLC, the local branch of Pastor's international real estate company, said in a statement that 'this process has made a mockery of the city's own rules.' 'Our project was reviewed for six years, redesigned five times, and approved by the Planning Commission and City staff,' he wrote. He called the appeal a 'last-minute' political maneuver and stall tactic. 'The message from City Council is clear: it doesn't matter how much you follow the rules, if your business is not wanted here, you won't be treated fairly,' Mitchell wrote. 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Ontario allows more density, building height near Toronto transit
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