ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The City of Liberal now has a new slogan thanks to action taken by the Liberal City Commission at its most recent meeting Tuesday evening.
Updating the city’s slogan and logo has been a project in the works for some time now, and Tuesday’s discussion began with Director of Public Affairs Keeley Moree.
“As you all know, before I was hired, there were multiple public engagement activities that were conducted last year regarding the City of Liberal's logo and official slogan, which is currently ‘Crossroads of Commerce,’” Moree said. “Surveys and community feedback indicated a preference for retaining the current logo appearance while adopting a new slogan, ‘From generosity to prosperity.’ The slogan change requires a modified logo, which would be phased into new city branding over time, and a phased approach to logo replacement so it wouldn’t incur additional taxpayer expense. If we’re going to make any logo changes, this would be the time to do it since we’ve got new City of Liberal vehicles coming in and we have other things we want to be able to brand with the new logo.”
“This has been in the works for a year at this point, and it did seem as though we couldn’t find a logo that anyone really latched onto,” Liberal Mayor Jose Lara said. “I feel like this also keeps the essence of what the old logo was, and it’s also a nice nod to the city’s historical founding, which is really important.”
Liberal Pastor Rex Petty, who had been a proponent of the project, then shared some of his thoughts.
“I was born and raised in Liberal, and in fact, my grandfather was NB Mahuron, and his name was adopted for that park out on 8th Street,” Petty began. “There used to be a football field out there, and he was the superintendent for USD 480 for more than 30 years – he came to Liberal in the 1920s and retired in the 1950s and still holds that longevity record. I found something very special about all the years I’ve spent in Liberal, and I was in the same class as the vice mayor, and I know many, many others who grew up here in town. But I found something that ties this community together which I’ve personally experienced, and that is the generosity of the people, and the new logo that was just brought up represents that really well. I brought that to the commission about a year ago and shared a story from Proverbs 11:25, which says ‘A liberal man will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.’ I read that verse again and again and thought how much that sounded like Seymour Rogers, the man who founded Liberal. Just about everyone in the community knows the story, it’s about a man who came to live here. He needed water, so he dug a 88-foot well and finally struck it. After that, when people came through, and since water was a pretty precious commodity in that time, he would give everyone a free drink, and they would respond ‘That’s mighty Liberal of you.’”
The word ‘liberal’ is a particularly key word, Petty continued.
“The word ‘liberal’ is key to all of this because the verse refers to a liberal man, but the word has been hijacked and pirated by politicians and others in a rather derogatory way,” Petty said. “But in reality, the word ‘liberal’ just means generous, kindness, blessing, and doing things to help people. The word ‘liberal’ has a lot of different ways to translate it properly, and I first learned how misguided the interpretation of the word has been many years ago during a trip. I’d gone to visit a former roommate in New York, who was working at ABC with Peter Jennings, and he asked me and my family to visit the studio and watch the filming of that evening’s news from the nest area. We watched, and it was an amazing experience, and afterward, my friend came up and said Peter wanted to meet me and my family, which was a shock. So we went down and talked a bit and after we told him we were from Liberal, Kansas, he chuckled a bit and said ‘I didn’t realize there were any liberals in Kansas.’ The word ‘liberal’ needs to be kept in the context of what it truly means, and it’s important for the idea of generosity leading to prosperity to be part of the city’s new branding, but we can’t forget its origins from Proverbs. It’s important for people to know people in Liberal are kind and generous and caring and we want to do something good and make a difference. We’re not liberal because of politics or any of that, we’re liberal because we’re generous. Everyone probably saw in the paper last week the results from the scholarship banquet and saw the generosity of all the businesses and entities and individuals who put forth money so these young people could continue their education. I’m amazed every year to see how much money gets raised through that and how people come together.”
After approving the new slogan, Lara read the proclamation making everything official.
“WHEREAS Seymour Rogers homesteaded in Seward County in 1885, and WHEREAS Seymour Rogers hand-dug a well 88 feet deep on a barren prairie where water was hard to find, and WHEREAS Seymour Rogers gave his water away freely to weary travelers, earning him the name of ‘That Liberal Fellow’ for his generosity, and WHEREAS that generosity led to the fledgling community that followed to be named Liberal, and WHEREAS Liberal continued to prosper and grow and continues to prosper to this day, and WHEREAS Seymour Rogers and the Liberal community reflected in Proverbs 11:25, which states, ‘A liberal man will prosper; whoever waters others will himself be watered.’ Therefore, from that inspiration, let it be known that the slogan of the City of Liberal will now read ‘From Generosity to Prosperity,’” Lara read.
Earlier in the meeting, City Clerk Alicia Hidalgo was recognized for completing her Master Municipal Clerk (MMC) advanced training program, which is the highest accreditation level granted through the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC).
“Alicia received her CMC in February 2020 and became and Athenian Fellow in December 2020. She was elected the Kansas City Clerk of the Year in 2022, and now has obtained her Master Municipal Clerk designation,” Lara said. “The Master Municipal Clerk program is one of the two professional designations granted by the IIMC, and the MMC program is an advanced continuing education program that prepares to inform complex municipal duties. The program has an extensive and rigorous education component, and a professional and social contribution component. The MMC applicant must demonstrate how they have actively pursued education and professional activities outside their scope of municipal duties. Alicia is one of 34 Master Municipal Clerks in Kansas.”
In the meeting’s other new business, the commission approved authorizing solar energy generation improvements and provided for the payment of the costs at the Liberal Police Department, Recreation Center, Wastewater Treatment Plant, and City Hall, and designated $800,000 from the Streets, Drainage, and Other Capital Improvements portion of the 1-Cent Sales Tax for the project. The commission also approved the purchase of 11 ballistic vests for the Liberal Police Department and approved the purchase a greens mower and an sand bunker rake for Willow Tree Golf Course. The commission also approved the Financial Policies & Procedures Manual and the Language Access Plan, approved the appointment of Debra Huddleston to the Liberal Memorial Library Board, and agreed to a land transfer with G&G.
