Dear Editor:
This writer has lived in the Great Bend community all his life and has practiced law here for the last 45 years. In looking at the past, it is sad to realize that we have lost so much in this great town for which there seems to be no answer. We used to have one of the greatest hospitals with specialists, numerous men’s and women’s clothing stores, variety stores, and Great Bend was a general hub for the shopping public in central and western Kansas.
Now I read that our police department is down five officers and has a building that is totally deteriorated. Having had the opportunity to be in that building a number of times, it is way past due for a re-vamp or a new building. I see the expenditures going out for a multi-million dollar baseball complex for which readjustments had to be made to the length of the fields because of errors in the design; re-doing of the Convention Center which was gifted to the City by the bank, as the bank knew it was a white elephant; the funds spent in Amber Meadows; the $330,000 loan to downtown Great Bend of which none has been repaid; and recently the band shell, etc. There are funds for these projects but not for our community’s safety?
My question to Mr. Partington and to the Great Bend City Council is why is our police department not given sufficient funds to competitively pay our existing police officers and hire new officers? A review of information from surrounding cities shows other cities’ pay scales to be much higher at all levels. With the increase in crime in Great Bend you would think they would want to do something about increasing the number of police officers and also the pay scale of both the police and the fire department. The two main ingredients of this city for its internal working are being neglected. It is obvious there are slush funds for things being done without the transparency to the public.
Why are we having all these “pet” projects and not taking care of our own police department and fire department? I urge you citizens to ask for a tour of the police department and to ask the other officers on patrol just what they think of the current situation. They are being overworked and underpaid. Not only can we not find any new officers, but we have them quitting because they are tired of the extra hours and not being paid accordingly. This is called burn-out.
I urge each citizen to call the city administrator to complain about this issue and to talk to your council members. Is it time for a change in administration?

Dennis Keenan
Great Bend