L&T Publisher Earl Watt
While there have been plenty of distractions in our community recently as the county continues to operate in chaos from one manufactured crisis to another, there are plenty of good things happening in our community that can get lost in the dysfunction.
Scholarships were awarded at the Rosa Parks banquet.
The City of Liberal is moving forward with the preliminary stages of a second overpass. Rail traffic has changed significantly since the first overpass was built with trains coming more often and at greater lengths. This has caused major delays in traffic movement crossing the tracks.
Eventually many attempt to go around by heading to the overpass, and it is usually packed because all other motorists have made the same choice.
A second overpass is critical to easing the flow of traffic, especially when some train stoppages have lasted more than half an hour.
This project will cost tens of millions of dollars, and currently Liberal is in the planning stage thanks to grant money acquired with very minimal local matching, and thanks to the 1-cent sales tax, we have the funds.
While this project may still be years away, the preliminary work to get us there is happening now.
The City of Liberal is also working on developing an industrial park and returning to the original vision of building a spec building to help expedite industrial growth.
Unlike the original plan, the city won’t be paying for the construction costs. Instead, the city is working with a developer who will build the facility, and city funds would only be used to bridge the lack of a lease payment if it should take a longer amount of time to find a tenant.
Seward County Community College, the city of Liberal and USD No. 480 are continuing to work on a plan for a competition pool. There is no final plan yet, but the ongoing conversations sound hopeful that a solution to replacing the aging pool at SCCC is on the horizon.
The City of Liberal is also working on a solution for the issues at Adventure Bay as well as securing a consulting firm to explore the possibilities for a redesigned Downtown district.
All of these are positive developments happening in our community.
While a self-inflicted wound may have been a distraction, we cant overlook the effort provided by all of our area first responders, specifically our fire personnel who sprung into action to fight off the blazes that were closing in on Liberal Feb. 17.
Emergencies aren’t solved the day the fire breaks out. There are years of training and planning that guide the firefighters and supportive staff well before the spark becomes a flame.
Resources are allocated based on the training and emergency preparedness plan prior to the emergency, not during, and those efforts may have been tiring, but the entire community owes these firefighters a debt of gratitude for what they did for all of us.
As the smoke, ash and soot drifted through Liberal, we are very fortunate it wasn’t worse.
Farmers also kicked in by disking areas to create breaks, no easy feat with a whipping wind that was allowing flames to jump roads.
While a handful of properties were lost, there were no reports of the loss of life.
While we all may think we can jump in and provide support, we can actually become more of a hindrance than a help of we are not part of the plan, so it is best to allow those who are to lead the effort, and Seward County Chief Andrew Barkley guided his small staff through a very challenging event, and he deserves our thanks.
Liberal Chief Kelly Kirk also deserves a big thanks for making his resources available as well.
When it comes to fighting the blazes, the lines between city and county disappear as all hands are trying to provide the resources needed, and by all accounts that is what happened.
The Seward County Sheriff’s Department helped evacuate people including some at the Thorp homestead moments before their property was engulfed in flames.
It’s easy to see the roadblocks and the chaos that is happening in our community, but we don’t have to look far to see where planning and cooperation are taking place in our community.
We don’t have to move from one crisis to the next. We can see what happens when positive elected leadership coupled with solid leadership and community engagement comes together to move us forward.
I wish we could just cover the positive, but we do not have that luxury. We have to cover what happens. We have to verify if the information being provided is accurate. We have to provide you what statutes say and how they apply to the issues at hand.
Hopefully we can get to a point where we don’t have to focus on the chaos and can focus on growth, like all the new houses being built in Liberal. We can focus on economic expansion, like the new battery assembly plant coming to Liberal.
We can focus on our beautiful parks, are well-lit walking paths and plans to improve the Downtown district and creating a second overpass.
Problems happen, like those facing the water park. But competent leadership is working through the challenge to provide the city commission and the public options on how to move forward.
No one is perfect. We’ve certainly made our mistakes. But we believe it is a bigger mistake to not provide you the information you need to know what is happening in your community.
We won’t shy away to provide a narrative that some would prefer that would be contrary to the truth. While Seward County might be receiving what some would characterize as negative publicity recently, the coverage speaks for itself. A video of an altercation between the fire chief and the county chair speaks for itself. Waiting to inform the public so a narrative can be created will never be our position.
It is sometimes hard to see all the good because of the distractions rising from the chaos. There is good out there, and it is happening every day.
