City Council meeting November 25, 2024

Prior to the regular city council meeting of November 25, 2024, a short work session was held.  The first issue discussed was the request by the Variance Board for Council to absolve the Variance/Code board. Two members of the board currently sit on other boards (the Adjustments and Appeals Board and the Planning and Zoning Commission) and it was suggested that the remaining members serve as alternates for those boards.  Council agreed unanimously to approve same (Councilman David Zavala was not present for the city council meeting this date).

Next on the work session agenda was an audience with Council requested by Rick Robbins to discuss the city’s involvement with Prowers Economic Development.  He will be stepping down from the board soon but wanted to provide some history of the city’s prior financial support and to say he hoped they could see to not only continue that but to increase the amount pledged to support PEP in the future.  Tallie Harmon will be replacing Cheryl Sanchez, who is retiring very soon as Director of PEP.

Mayor Kirk Crespin welcomed the audience to the regular meeting with a short speech about the upcoming community activities.  He wanted to remind viewers of the coming weekend’s Parade of Lights and downtown Cocoa Crawl.  The Cocoa Crawl, sponsored by the Lamar Chamber, is from 10 am to 2 pm.  The Parade of Lights begins at 5:15 pm.  There will also be live music at 2 pm at the Shore Arts Center with free admission.  Crespin also suggested that people try to shop locally when they can and to check out the shops in downtown Lamar, helping to strengthen the local economy.  He ended by wishing everyone a “wonderful Thanksgiving”.

City Administrator Rob Evans announced there will be no Coffee with Rob on November 27.  He gave a reminder about the Library’s Holiday Food Drive from November 1 through December 20, with items being donated to Sparrow House Ministries.  All city offices will be closed November 28-29 for Thanksgiving.  The annual Christmas party for city employees is Saturday, December 7 at the Lamar Elks Lodge from 6-11 pm.  He thanked the city street department for their work in getting the streets in good shape and for putting up the holiday lighting.  He mentioned that the new Arby’s restaurant will be opening at some point in the near future and Mayor Crespin added that January 6, 2025 is the target date for opening, as staff is currently in training.

Present at the meeting were Connie Jacobsen, Cody Laughlin and Elizabeth Whitham representing the Zonta Club of Prowers County to witness Mayor Crespin signing a Zonta proclamation giving the City of Lamar’s support for Zonta’s “16 Days of Activism” against gender-based violence.  Council approved staff to apply for an El Pomar grant for the city’s proposed acquisition of a K-9 dog, crates for both the vehicle and handler’s resident and a transport crate.  The city will apply for a $22,680 grant with no city match.

Also discussed at the meeting was the new Public Safety Building.  Crespin said that for the past year or so, there has been “serious consideration” of this new building, which will house Police and Fire personnel and equipment.  Options considered were renovating the current building, purchasing an existing structure that would fulfil the needs or starting over with new suggestions.  Renovating the current building is cost-prohibitive (with estimates from $10-30 million).  Two locations that have been for sale and consideration were the old K-Mart building and the old Car Palace building.  Council voted to approve the purchase agreement of $650,000 for the Car Palace location, for sale by the Bud Wooten family.  The Wootens have offered a $25,000 discount to the city in exchange for naming rights for the facility.  Council voted to accept the discounted price of $625,000, contingent on all structural investigations.

The next regular meeting of City Council is Monday, December 9 at 7 pm.

By Barbara Crimond