News

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Communities throughout the U.S. will soon be commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and honoring his work and legacy.

Liberal will be among those communities, but as Martin Luther King Committee President Presephoni Fuller tells it, the 2025 festivities will be slightly smaller than in the past.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Increases in economic development have been a major goal for local officials, and in 2024, the Seward County Development Corporation made some big strides with that in 2024.

“Looking back on 2024, there were several big wins and a lot of great projects that are still in motion. One of the kickers with economic development is working to keep companies from saying ‘No’ to you, and sometimes that can stretch out for years due to whatever circumstances are going on,” SCDC Director Eli Svaty said. “Overall, we’re in a very good position at the end of 2024, much better than we have been before, at least in the time I’ve been involved with economic development.”

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The city of Liberal has undergone some big changes in recent times, and 2024 especially saw some shakeups throughout the city.

“For 2024, I feel like there's been a lot of positive forward movement on a lot of really critical work that needed to happen, and it needed to happen in a certain order,” Public Affairs Director Keeley Moree said. “When you look at where we'd like to go and some of the things we'd like to accomplish, being able to really hone in on housing development has been a big deal, because as we look at some of the large economic development projects on the horizon, we're definitely expecting a big increase in our population within a few years. In terms of timing, I feel like things have landed really well throughout 2024 to make sure we're expanding the infrastructure we need in order to continue expanding our transportation network, which has continued to be a big part of what we're doing. All of that work combines to really support those large-scale projects coming our way. Another big piece that stands out to me about 2024 is the Comprehensive Plan we've been working on and the progress we've made in putting that together so we have that 10-year development plan and guide as to which areas we want to focus on. Not just so we have a roadmap for ourselves, but also so the community and people outside the community can have an understanding of who we are and what we're looking to develop, and that's really important especially when you transition from one commission to another or circumstances like that. When you have a good plan in place that's based on community feedback, that's really going to help us with going forward in a strategic way.”

ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

As 2024 draws to a close, progress continues on road projects in Seward County.

C.W. Harper of Kirkham Michael & Associates, the firm the county hired to help with those projects, updated commissioners on some of the work being done at the commission’s Dec. 16 meeting.

Much of Harper’s presentation centered on what has been an ongoing project for some time in the county, and that is the Masoni Bridge.