ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Earlier this year, the City of Liberal received some grant funding through the Kansas Arts Commission for a public art project to go up in Light Park, and Tuesday evening, the Liberal City Commission approved a contract with a local artist for that project.
“As you all are aware, we’ve been working on a community mural project, which is part of a grant through the Kansas Arts Commission that provides matching funds for us to be able to create a mural that will be placed in Light Park facing Kansas Avenue,” City of Liberal. Public Affairs Director Keeley Moree said. “We’ve done a lot of community engagement to be able to select some of the themes of that mural, and we’re at the point now where we need to approve a contract between the City of Liberal and the artist. We did research standard fees for concept sketches for outdoor murals specifically and came to put together a budget that was part of the actual grant application. The contract would be with Karem Gallo, and it has the potential to come to a total of $10,000 due to reimbursement of some of the project supply costs. There are three different fees built into the contract. The first fee is for the three concept design sketches, which comes to $750 since the market for that is $250 to $300 per sketch, so we’re within reason on that. The painted mural is 160 square feet, and we’ve calculated a price of $50 per square foot, and these murals can range anywhere from $25 per square foot to more than $100 per square foot depending on the complexity of the design and the fact that this mural will be outdoors. But again, we’re well within reason in that regard. With the project supply costs, that includes paint, supplies, primer, sealant and everything else that goes into the actual construction and creation of the mural, and all of that could go up to $1,250.”
Moree added the agreement also includes the proposed scope, deadlines, compensation, and other logistics of the project.
“I did also include the budget itself for the grant just for the commission’s reference as well as some examples of Karem’s past work,” Moree said. “The amount is a 50 percent match, which you will see in the budget for the actual mural. We did weigh heavier on grant funds for these actual artist and supply costs. There are some structural costs as well as our community engagement we’d picked up a heavier part of. Truly, all of the grant funds coming from this will be paid toward the actual agreement with the artist for the creation of the design. We intend for this to be created by the end of maybe June 2025, so it is a somewhat quick timeline, and we’re on a strict timeframe with everything, as is seen in the agreement itself. Legal counsel has reviewed this agreement as well.”
The commission ultimately approved the contract for Gallo at a cost of $12,330 to come out of the Beautification portion of the 1-cent sales tax, with half of those funds being reimbursed from the Kansas Arts Commission grant funding.
“We actually had almost 350 people take our online survey to select the top themes, so as we enter into this contract, that will allow us to pick three different concept designs, which we’ll put out into the community for more voting,” Moree said. “We’re really looking forward to getting this project off the ground.”
Earlier in the meeting, the commission also approved the Standard Traffic Ordinances and Public Offense Codes as put together by the League of Kansas Municipalities and also approved Resolution No. 2423 concerning the waiver of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
“As you might remember, earlier this year, after multiple conversations with accountants and consultants, we felt moving to Kansas Municipal Audit and Accounting Guide (KMAAG) was in the best interest of the city as we look toward the future,” Interim City Manager Scarlette Diseker said. “This is how we handled the 2023 audit, and I felt like it went very smoothly – everything came in on time and according to plan, which I was very pleased with. And, just to give an overview, KMAAG streamlines our audit process and expedites the financial statement preparations due to the elimination of asset and liability reporting. That part of the GAAP financial is pretty complex as it pertains to the reports that are involved and the balancing involved in the fixed assets. This is more like a financial statements that is an extended version of the treasurer’s report, so it basically has starting cash, receipts, disbursements, and unencumbered ending cash. I like the way everything looks, I think it’s very streamlined and easy for people to read and understand. That was something new we did for the 2023 audit we wish to continue in 2024. Around 90 percent of Kansas municipalities have moved to KMAAG, and only about 10 percent of them still utilize GAAP, so we’re definitely in the majority by staying with KMAAG in the way we handle our audit and financials. There’s also a considerable cost savings involved since the GAAP financials are very long and intense, so there are some savings there with the audit firm.”
The commission also approved Resolution 2424 concerning setting the urban boundaries for the City of Liberal as well as a contract between the City of Liberal and Tessere Inc. in an amount of up to $140,000 to construct a bus storage facility, which is set to be located at 4th Street and New York Avenue. To conclude the meeting’s new business, the commission also gave approval for Gavel Roads Auction to sell the property at the Old Liberal Iron and Metal site and approval for the Liberal Police Department to purchase body cameras in an amount not to exceed $81,000.
