Lamar City Council meeting of February 23, 2026

The Lamar City Council held a regular meeting Monday, February 23, 2026 with all council members present. Mayor Kirk Crespin opened the meeting saying it had been a busy few weeks for the city.  He said that the owners of the new Prowers County Market, Inc. recently closed on the store’ purchase, located at 906 E. Olive St. and would opening as soon as they can get the renovations made, possibly as early as April or May and asked the community to support and welcome them.  During the audience participation segment of the meeting, Twila Batterton of Lamar told Council that she is very upset about a neighbor whose dogs are frequently running loose and using her yard as a bathroom.  She stated that she has called several times about this and nothing has been done. She has confronted the neighbor who also has not done anything. Crespin urged her to call again so that it can be documented for Animal Control and asked City Administrator Hammes if he would look into it with the Police Department, which he said he would gladly do.

City Treasurer Kristin Schwartz said the city received the Main Street DOLA grant and a scholarship grant, totaling $18,000.  The Tyler software conversion continues, and the staff is training on utility billing.  City Clerk Linda Williams said she didn’t have much as she is just now able to look at city sales tax revenues but she estimates that tax revenues are up around 2%.  City Administrator Mitch Hammes said the next Common Grounds with City Council will be Wednesday, March 4 featuring the Administration Department and that he would be there eager to talk with anyone who has questions about the city administration.  He also said the city received an officer commendation concerning Officer Lazoya and the person writing the letter had a lot of wonderful things to say about the officer.  The Animal Shelter has a new manager, Alexis Qualls, who previously served as a volunteer at the shelter.  Pool repairs have been made at the swimming pool and the city is accepting applications for summer employment there.

The night’s first agenda item was an annexation application by 220 Holly Street LLC, a limited liability company formed by the O’Hearn family who purchased a large number of acres west of the Cobblestone Inn.  They are working with Prowers Economic Prosperity to create the county’s first “shovel ready” project.  16.1 acres that were purchased are within city limits, but they are requesting that the remaining 19.23 acres which are in the county be annexed into the city as well.  Council voted unanimously to acknowledge receipt of the application and proceed towards the next step, which will be a public hearing.  The second agenda item was a request made by Anne-Marie Crampton, Community Development Director for Lamar, for Council to consider changing the expiration of term dates for members of the Planning and Zoning and Adjustment and Appeals boards to May 1, as members can serve on both boards and meetings can be held back to back on the same evenings.  The city can’t merge the boards without changing the City Charter.  Council voted to allow this.  The third agenda item was a business incentive request for the proposed Denny’s restaurant.  This request had been discussed before but since the project ran into a lengthy delay, the incentive agreement expired.  Managing member Doug Thrall is requesting that Council re-approve this agreement. The request was tabled until the next meeting as Council had erroneously received incorrect paperwork.

Brenda Brown, Community Programs Manager for the city, spoke to Council regarding a community Christmas tree which will be purchased by Main Street Lamar as a result of a recent survey conducted in which multiple community members had requested such a tree.  Those responding to the survey said they remember the past when a large live tree was placed in the middle of Main Street near the train station.  Due to present day traffic and improvements to Main Street, this is no longer possible, but an alternative was to purchase an artificial “panel tree”.  The tree will be 18 feet tall with the ability to add additional footage if so desired at a later time.  The tree comes fully decorated and lit.  Brown was requesting help from the city to assist in setting up and disassembling the tree as well as provided a place to store it off season.  Pat Mason was present at the meeting and said his department could help.  Brown suggested that for now it be stored in the Public Safety Building until the fire and police departments are ready to occupy it.  Discussion was held about where the tree would be set up.  Brown suggested it be placed at the southwest corner of the parking lot at the Welcome Center.  She said she had spoken with CDOT who had no provisions about a specific distance from the highway for its placement and since the city owns the property, approval from the Welcome Center wasn’t needed.  However, to be “good neighbors”, Crespin asked that they be informed about the tree and its proposed location. Council voted to approve the request, contingent upon city workers being able to help setting it up and taking it down, as well as finding proper storage for the tree.  Since the tree is presently on sale at a large reduction in price, this approval was made with those contingencies so it could be ordered this month.

Pat Mason, Public Works Director, spoke to Council about the next agenda item, which was the awarding of roofing bids for work at the airport.  The City had recently bid out the roof replacements for both the terminal building and the aircraft service hangar.  Two bids were received by the city, both of which included bids for replacing the roofs with the existing rock and tar type of roof as well as for a 60 mil TPO-style roofing.  The department decided on looking only at the bids for the TPO roofing due to its durability and recommended that Council accept the bid from Weathercraft Roofing in the amount of $110,922  ($42,672 for the service hangar roof and $68,250 for the terminal roof).  Colorado Front Range Roofing’s bid was nearly $8000 higher than Weathercraft’s.  This was approved unanimously by Council.

Council was asked by the Administration office to approve Resolution 26-02-02 “A Resolution of the City of Lamar, Colorado, Amending the Personnel Policy Manel by Repealing the existing Chapter III, Section 3 Vacation Leave and Replacing it with an Updated Policy”.  This resolution would amend the policy manual to allow all staff to accrue up to 200 hours of vacation time and roll over any unused vacation time up to 200 hours from year to year.  The Resolution was approved.   Agenda items 7 and 8 for the evening concerned copier leases for the billing department and the police department.  The billing department’s printer needs to be replaced, and previous printers have also not stood up to the heavy demand needed by the department.  It was more cost efficient to lease a copier rather than purchase another one.  The copier used by the police department’s lease on its copier is coming to an end and needs to be   replaced as well.  The new copier requested to be leased would offer better imaging.  The contract cost would be more than the current one but imprint prices would be less so total monthly costs would remain about the same.  Council approved unanimously.

Lastly, a public hearing was scheduled for March 9 (next Council meeting) for a new Fermented Malt Beverage and Wine Retail Liquor License for Prowers County Market, Inc. at 906 E. Olive Street.  The owners of the business are aware of the city’s request for TIPS training or in-house training for its employees. The hearing will be held at the beginning that that night’s meeting.

The next meeting of Lamar’s City Council will be Monday, March 9 at 7:00 pm.

By: Barbara Crimond