It’s awfully easy, most of the time, to just let things slide.
Seriously.
There is a problem that we know won’t have too much of a down side or we can come up with a good enough excuse, and we let it slide.
This week, officials at the Barton County Courthouse did not do that.
They didn’t let it slide.
It was brought to the attention of Barton County Administrator Richard Boeckman that the Jack Kilby Memorial Plaza project has temporarily left the courthouse without its usual flagpole.
To be fair, the Kilby project design includes very nice replacement poles, one for the American flag and one for the Kansas flag.
That will be there when the project is done.
What was suggested to Boeckman was to make use, in the interim, of the old pole that is associated with the Civil War statue, located to the north of the courthouse.
That is on city park property. The pole has not been in use for years. The apparatus needed repair.
The list of potential excuses goes on and on, but they weren’t used.
Instead, Mike Gilbert, who helps take care of the courthouse, took a ladder out, replaced a pulley and put on a new rope. Starting Tuesday, the county had a flag flying again.
It’s not a big deal.
The county wouldn’t have shut down if this hadn’t been done.
But it is refreshing to have someone raise a legitimate concern, offer a suggestion for a plausible solution, and then see our local government get on it and solve the problem so quickly.
— Chuck Smith