Lamar City Council meeting of December, 8, 2025.

Barbara Crimond | Dec 08, 2025 | Comments 0

Lamar City Council met for a regular meeting on December 8, 2025. Mayor Kirk Crespin apologized to the audience about the meeting starting a bit late due to a work session with CIRSA, the city’s insurance provider regarding public official liabilities. The work session served as both a refresher course for incumbent council members as well as informational for the two new council members. He then went on to mention the recent City of Lamar Christmas party, last weekend’s Thunder Throwdown basketball tournament, and the upcoming Holiday Basketball tournament. On a more somber note, he mentioned the recent passing of community member Galan Burnett. Galan was present at nearly every City Council meeting for several years and was adamant about making his voice heard at meetings that concerned liquor licenses, a topic he felt strongly about. Crespin expressed Council’s thoughts and prayers for the family and said that Burnett will be dearly missed.

City Treasurer Kristin Schwartz gave her department’s report. She said the City received the Animal Assistance Foundation grant for $18,000. It is an annual grant that pays for the salaries of the shelter manager and some expenses at the shelter. The T-Mobile Hometown Grant that the City had applied for to be used for the Enchanted Forest was denied. City Clerk Linda Williams had no report for Council. City Administrator Mitch Hammes listed several upcoming events. Saturday, December 13 will be the annual Kids Christmas party at the Lamar Library from 10-1. Saturday December 13 and Saturday, December 20 will be the Lamar Police Department Auxiliary’s Christmas Light Tour. Admission is $10 per person. The Elks Hoop Shoot free throw contest will be held starting at 9 am. It is a free event for kids ages 8-13 and will be held at Lamar High School. The annual Holiday Basketball Tournament will be December 18-20 at the Community Building. The Lamar city offices will be closed on December 25 and 26 for Christmas and again on January 1 for New Year’s. The next Common Grounds with City Council will be Wednesday, January 7 at 7 am in the Cultural Events Center. He also reminded everyone that the December 22 City Council meeting has been cancelled due to the Christmas holiday. He then went on to say that there was a great turnout for last weekend’s City of Lamar Christmas party which included the announcements of several city awards. The Volunteer of the Year was Gayle Crawford with the Lamar Public Library. Department of the Year was the Fleet and Maintenance Department with Public Works. The Community Choice award went to Tracy Fagan, ballpark foreman with Parks and Recreation. Employee of the year was awarded to Ted Vasquez. He then mentioned the multiple career milestone awards presented to 22 employees at the luncheon event earlier that day (full report is in The Prowers Journal). Mayor Crespin reminded all of this year’s Two Shot Goose Hunt which begins Wednesday, December 10.

Lamar High School Head Girls, Addy Krug and Tylee Greenlee were present at the meeting and wanted to publicly thank the City for their help with the Student Council’s recent project at the school. The project was the update and repairs to the school’s parking lot. Tylee told Council that the project was completed in one day. “Although it didn’t take much time, the change is drastic. I can voice for everybody at Lamar High School that we are extremely grateful” said Krug. Mayor Crespin thanked the girls for coming to meeting, saying that Council appreciated their taking the time to express their thanks in person.

Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 25-12-01 “A Resolution Appropriating Additional Sums of Money to Defray Expenses in Excess of Amounts Budgeted for the City of Lamar” after holding a Public Hearing during which no community members had any public comments. Resolution 25-12-02, “A Resolution to Adopt 2026 Rates and Fee Schedule”. Treasurer Schwartz said this rate and fee schedule is addressed each year at this time. Only a few changes were made in fees, including raising fees relating to Animal Control to cover the City’s costs. Also approved was acceptance of the 2026 VALE (Victim’s Assistance and Law Enforcement) grant in the amount of $23,624.

A public hearing was scheduled for January 12, 2026 for a new Fermented Malt Beverage and Wine Retail Liquor License for All American Meat, Inc., dba Farmers Country Market #12. All required documents have been submitted, fingerprints completed and fees paid. The owner has been made aware of Council’s request for TIPS training or in-house training for employees. A phone poll of Council members was ratified with a unanimous vote. This poll concerned approving policy for Years of Service recognitions, which allows the City to give recipients of the recognitions a pre-determined number of paid time off as part of the award. The number of hours increases with each award, with 5-year recipients receiving 4 hours, 10 year recipients 8 hours, etc.

Several bids were awarded at the meeting. First was the bid for Asphalt and Concrete Materials for 2026. Only one bid was received, from Brannan Aggregates for their portion of the upcoming projects. The second was the bid for 2026 Screen Printing and Embroidery, which was awarded to J&N Shoes. Their bid was the lower of two bids received. Thirdly, the annual Main Street Flower Contract was awarded to Home Store. This is for flowers for the pots along Main Street and some on East Beech Street. A past Federal grant paid for the pots and benches along the streets; the City only pays annually for the flowers. This year, the project will not include planting flowers within the Pocket Park due to some ongoing negotiations. Due to 2026 being a Centennial Year, the color scheme of the flowers will be red, white, and blue. The yearly bid for the City’s paper of record was awarded to the Kiowa County Press.

The last item on the agenda was a discussion about various Council members’ roles as City liaisons to various community Boards. Several roles remained the same as this year’s but most Council members agreed to accept positions on boards that were new to them. Some of these Boards meet during the day and others in the evenings, which played a factor in which ones each Council member could accept based on their employment situations.

The next Lamar City Council meeting will be at 7 pm on Monday, January 12, 2026.

By: Barbara Crimond

Filed Under: City of Lamar • Featured