By John Huxman
Freelance reporter
Special to the Tribune
At the February 3 regular meeting of the Pratt City Commission, commissioners denied a request from the Pratt Area Chamber of Commerce to continue paying them $1,500 per month for Travel and Tourism through the end of their fiscal year in June. The city is dropping its Travel and Tourism payments to the chamber because it hired Tiffany Riley as Tourism Ambassador and since the chamber director requested that those duties be moved to Riley and the Travel and Tourism office, that money will now paid to her. Chamber board representatives at the meeting said they had hoped that the city might continue paying them through the end of their fiscal year because they had built their budget on the assumption that that money would be there. Since the City of Pratt is a dues-paying member of the chamber, the chamber will continue to receive money from the city, just not the amount set aside for travel and tourism budget.
The city commission granted Kyra Kissinger, owner of Phoenix Fitness and Massage on S. Main in Pratt permission to use Lemon Park on Sunday, May 25 from 7:30 a.m. to noon for a See Spot Run 5K fundraiser that will benefit the Pratt Area Humane Society.
“I am new from Wichita. I am a nutritionist, massage therapist, ironman coach, and I am interested in organizing some [community events] that we have done in the past in Derby and in Wichita: triathlon and running races,” Kissinger said. “I am very avid with dogs … I want to have a one mile walk that anyone can do and try to get some of the older community and young folks and have a competitive 5K.”
Kissinger said she hopes that the See Spot Run event might become an annual event, though under someone else’s leadership.
“I really want to have some more fun and try to bring the community together and try to get this rolling so maybe I can hand it off to somebody to be a yearly thing. There needs to be more fun stuff,” Kissinger said.
Kissinger also indicated that she wants to do a triathlon later, possibly in June. She had hoped that this would benefit an alcohol recovery program, but feels that Pratt does not currently have a program that she can sponsor. She has yet to determine an exact date and venue for this event, so she will be presenting it to the city at a later meeting.
In other business, the Commission:
*passed Resolution 020325 authorizing the city to sell to Parkwood Village the property on which it is located. Previously, the city was leasing the property to Parkwood.
*heard the annual Pratt Community College Economic Impact report from Dr. Calvert, PCC’s president. The college has had at least $50 million of economic impact on the community, minus the $8 million that it takes in in taxes that comes to no less than a $42 million net benefit to Pratt.
*approved up to $40,000 to be spent for repairing the Fire Department’s Engine #2. Half of the cost will come out of capitol reserve and half out of the equipment budget. The repairs will be done in-house.
*directed LaClair to determine what the costs of posting meetings online would be and also decided to find out what other similarly sized cities are doing.
*dealt with an irregularity where the Airport Authority signed a contract that was incorrectly worded as being between KDOT and the City of Pratt. The Airport Authority is no longer part of the city of Pratt, but an independent taxing entity. The contract will need to be canceled and a new one drawn up correctly reflecting the parties involved.
