ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
There has been a lot of progress made of many projects in the community recently, and city officials say the work will not be slowing down anytime soon.
“We have our special projects manager, Steve Carroll, who has done an excellent job going through our golf course and being able to look at some of the different amenities and think about what else we could offer,” Chief Communications Officer Keeley Moree said. “At the golf course, we definitely have an outdated clubhouse, so we are looking at ways to be able to do some groundwork and interior renovations to that space. It’s highly utilized by the community and it’s another area where we’ve seen record visitation this year. It’s great to know people are enjoying that space and taking advantage of it.”
Moree added there could be some other bigger projects on the horizon.
“We have also been talking about STAR Bond project ideas in terms of looking at our future planning and how we want to grow the community by creating perhaps a special district where we’re able to address different types of needs in the community,” Moree said. “That could include spaces for entrepreneurs to come in and open up a business, or a larger space to have a farmers market, or a space to put up some multi-family housing, or maybe entertainment. The Kansas Department of Commerce will be here in early December to meet with different people from the community and our city leadership to talk through some options. STAR Bonds have been used in many different ways by many different communities throughout the state – the very first STAR Bond project was actually the Kansas Speedway, so it’s been around for a long time. Lt. Gov. David Toland is extremely interested to see Liberal have a STAR Bond project, so we’ll be talking with state officials about what some of those options are. It’s great how we’ve been doing both our Comprehensive Plan and then walking into this conversation at the same time because we have a lot of great community feedback to roll into all of that.”
“And the tax revenue that would be generated from the STAR Bond project and all the other factors involved in that, it helps pay all of that back,” Interim City Manager Scarlette Diseker said. “With that in mind, it’s really important we pick solid projects and work and attractions people actually want to be involved with. It’s great the powers that be are interested in Southwest Kansas.”
Another future project that will benefit city crews will be a new bus transit facility.
“We were recently able to move forward with an architect to be able to continue working on a new bus transit facility. We currently park the buses outside City Hall,” Moree said. “We have had some issues with people tampering with the vehicles in those lots, and we also have our drivers who want to keep as they’re prepping their vehicles first thing in the morning, especially when it’s cold outside. We want to make sure they have a good working condition to be in, so we are creating a bus transit facility that will have bays where they’ll be able to park the buses securely overnight. It will also be a better place to be able to have them dispatching and have that office space they can work out of that’s much more user-friendly. A large part of that project is through a grant through the Kansas Department of Transportation, and they’ll be funding a significant portion of that service as they have since we started the program.”
Liberal Municipal Airport will also be seeing some upgrades in he future, Moree said.
“We’re working through another federal grant for an airport terminal project. I did talk with Brian [Fornwalt] very recently, and we’ve completed all the necessary environmental assessments, which is a bit of a long process, but they have completed that work,” Moree said. “They are pulling together a request for quote to be able to move forward on drawing together concepts. He anticipates possibly in 2025 having the parking lot area done, and perhaps in 2026 or 2027 having the actual terminal done, so it’s another one of those projects that takes a while to get going. We’ve visited other regional airports in the area that have had similar renovations done, and it was really exciting to see what those looked like so we could get an idea of what our airport would look like.”
Citizens should also look for expansion of the Liberal City Cemetery in the future, Moree said.
“Expansion isn’t something that’s really thought about until it’s actually needed, but the cemetery is an important part of the community, and the staff does a great job taking care of the grounds out there,” Moree said. “However, we are running out of space, and as we look toward future needs, we do own property to the north of the current cemetery, so we’ll be working soon on the process of annexing that land into the city so we can start that development. Some of our preliminary sketches are showing we might be able to add an additional 4,000 spaces, which should last a long time, and it’s very much needed.”
Liberal Mayor Jose Lara shared some thoughts on the future projects.
“With the bus facility, we might not think about it, but the employees are because they’re the ones going in there at 6 a.m. every day and come in at 6 p.m. or later every day, so I’m glad to see that going in,” Lara said. “They’re also the ones dealing with the wear and tear on those buses, so their safety is also super important to keep in mind.”
“And that facility is something our grant director, Karen LaFreniere, has been working on since before the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s definitely been in the works for a long time,” Diseker added. “We’re very excited to have that be at the point it is now, and it should end up being really nice, and we can’t understate enough how much hard work everyone on the City of Liberal staff has put toward everything that’s either been completed or will soon be completed.”
