Summer on minds of city staff
BY DALE HOGG
dhogg@gbtribune.com
Temperatures have warmed recently, giving folks a glimpse of warmer months ahead. But, as the cold returns, city of Great Bend crews are already at work preparing facilities for spring and summer.
City Administrator Howard Partington told the City Council the staffing for the Wetlands at Great Bend is being finalizing. Devan Boeger will return as the aquatic director, and they have 28 lifeguards and 10 concessionaires that have agreed to return this season.
Parks Department staff members are currently working on preparing the ball fields since high school practices will begin in early March. In addition, they have been helping with a cleanup at the Great Bend Zoo and is completing some repair work around the horseshoe pits at Brit Spaugh Park.
On a related note, Kim Vink, who has operated the concession stand at the Sports Complex for the past few years, has notified the city she will not be able to run the stand this summer, Partington said. His office is desperately seeking someone else to take over the job.
In a flashback to this past holiday season, Partington said the lighted tunnel that was used as a Christmas decoration at Brit Spaugh for several years has been scrapped, since it was in serious disrepair. But, city personnel are building a new one for next year.
The information on the parks was part of Partington’s departmental report Monday night. Other topics included:
Police
• Last week, detectives cleared:
1. Auto theft incident from Cedar Park Place.
2. Runaway located.
3. Drug search warrant served at 2300 Franklin.
4. Subject arrested for Indecent Liberties with a Child.
• Patrol Division had two narcotic arrests.
• Detectives subpoenaed to Chapman murder trial for the next two weeks.
Public Works
• Started monitoring the burrowing animal activity on the levee with trail camera to identify the animal or animals. The damage done by this digging can threaten the integrity of the flood-control system, said Great Bend Public Works Director Don Craig.
City crews have filled hundreds of burrows and now hope to catch the culprits in the act. The animals may have to be captured and moved to another location.
• Upgrading chlorine booster pumps in water wells.
• Pretreatment inspection of Fuller Industries LLC.
• Sanitarian: 39 year to date complaints, 26 new complaints (13 by citizens and 13 by staff), seven complaints completed by citizens, one abatement notice sent and one vehicle into compliance.
Administration
• The Retail Meeting was held this Wednesday morning at City Hall. Retailers and Community Coordinator Christina Hayes discussed promotional ideas and unification efforts to better help local business.
• Hayes is working with Human Resource Manager Terry Hoff to launch a new Wetlands water park website, Facebook page and promotional materials. They also plan to continue to collaborate and grow city pages and possibly work towards merging all city department pages so everyone can stay in sync.
• Hayes is organizing a Downtown Art Walk with Retailers for May 1 in association with the Rotary Club convention that is coming to town. This event will feature various pieces of artwork with a silent auction on some pieces to raise funds for the Tot Spot Playground to be installed at Brit Spaugh Park. Rotarians and the Barton County Young Professionals will be selling tickets to a catered dinner that evening at the Great Bend Zoo with special tours and tastings.
The Great Bend City Council and city personnel held a team-building work session last Friday at the Great Bend Convention Center. Council members took turns running through lists of suggestions and concerns.
One of the central themes was the need to step up efforts to clean up the city, particularly trashy properties, and increase the number of abatements. “Some of these look like salvage yards,” Councilman Dana Dawson said.
Perhaps, council members said, police officers and other city employees could be the eyes for the city sanitarian. They are out and about and, if they see an eyesore, report it.
Another common topic was the Great Bend Zoo, which the council said had become overgrown with vegetation and didn’t have enough animals on exhibit. “The public wants to see animals,” Dawson said.
Perhaps, Councilman Wayne Henneke said, too much effort and recourses have been spent trying to get the zoo to meet the costly and stringent Association of Zoos and Aquariums standards. “We need to keep up the zoo to a standard that we like and that the people like. We will never be AZA accredited.”
And, Henneke said, we need animals that are easy to care for.
City Administrator Howard Partington said since the departure of Zoo Director Scott Gregory, the zoo staff and crews from other city departments have been busy cleaning up the facility. They are also considering downsizing the zoo.
Other items discussed including expanding the offerings at the Sports Complex and Wetlands water park, adding new Christmas decorations to the Trail of Lights, establishing a citywide vision and goal, bringing downtown buildings up to fire and safety codes, and the Great Bend Public Library.
In addition to a number of topics discussed, a tour of the Convention Center and massive labyrinth-like office building to the south. This yielded a number of suggestions and ideas on how to best utilize the space.
Being considered is moving the Great Bend Convention and Visitor’s Bureau to the center, utilizing what is now the front conference room and making CVB personnel city employees. This, and the addition of windows in the new office, would assure there was someone in the building everyday and make it more inviting.
As for the office area, the city may only look at remodeling a portion of it for now, but the potential for more opportunity is great, Partington said.
It was noted that new paint, the new dividing wall and other improvements have already made the center a better facility.
The session last week was a resumption of meeting held last November at the city’s Front Door facility. The key subject was substandard housing, but council members wanted to meet at a later date to discuss other matters.
