GIRARD, Kan. — Friday’s county commission meeting started off with a “Thank you” from Terri Harley, president of the Girard History Museum. Terri, along with museum treasurer Maurice Harley, presented each commissioner with a 250th anniversary coin as gratitude for their support in maintaining the museum.
The church housing the museum is an artifact of its own, dating back to 1888. Inside is a collection that tells Girard’s story, including farm and fire equipment and displays prominently featuring the city’s literary history, from J.A. Wayland and “The Appeal to Reason” to the “Little Blue Books” published by Haldeman-Julius.
Terri has been involved with the museum since its start, a decade ago. Before that, she founded a Girard History Group in 1989. Located inside the St. John’s Episcopal Church at 300 South Summit in Girard, the museum has steadily grown.
“It looks better every year,” Commissioner Bruce Blair commented.
Planned pyrotechnics
Mick Marietta gave the commissioners an update on the upcoming fireworks display at Camptown in Frontenac. Marietta said he has secured lots around Camptown to accommodate up to 15,000 vehicles and expects 50,000 visitors for the fireworks display on July 25.
Currently, he and his team are still working on the logistics of how to effectively move so many people, which most likely will require assistance from the county to close a road or two.
Marietta said the local communities have been very supportive of his efforts and is glad to see this project bring so many of them together for a common goal, even joking that Frontenac and Arma have been cooperating, saying, “That’s a feat!”
Hotels and B&Bs have already started filling up, Marietta said. Campgrounds, too. His team has been working to help potential visitors from across the country find accommodations, with many planning on spending two or more days in the area.
What is hard to describe is the scale of this project. Marietta said if used the word ‘large’ to describe a pizza, everyone would understand. But ‘large’ doesn’t quite work in this case. For context, Marietta compared his planned display to Pittsburg’s annual display.
“Pittsburg spends about $35,000 for a 20-minute show,” Marietta said. “We plan to spend $35,000 a minute for 30 minutes. You will get Pittsburg’s entire show every minute.”
Communications
Crawford County resident Roger Lomshek came to the commission with a proposal for updating official communications with the general public.
Lomshek mentioned a recent Planning and Zoning meeting held on Thursday night that he only found out about just two or three hours beforehand. He said he searched the county’s official website and Facebook page and found no mention of the meeting or the proposed regulations to be included in the new comprehensive plan.
The county’s website, crawfordcountykansas.org, does have Planning and Zoning information clearly posted, however. At the bottom of the homepage are links to the most recent meeting (which was livestreamed) and to the most current 2026 zoning proposal. At the top of the page, under ‘Departments and Agencies’, there is a link to the ‘Planning and Zoning’ page, which in turn has a link to the ‘Planning and Zoning Board’ on the left side under ‘planning and zoning’. The board page gives the meeting day and location (the third Thursday of every month at the courthouse) at the top of the page. If the location changes, it is announced at the preceding commission meeting.
The county posted notification of the meeting in their official newspaper — The Morning Sun — 21 days prior as required by law. Lomshek said that just posting in the paper was “something that worked 20 or 30 years ago when the newspaper had a much wider circulation, but these days, it “doesn’t really get it in front of very many people.”
Lomshek went on to suggest the commission, in addition to posting in the newspaper, pass a resolution allowing them to post official notices on their own website and Facebook page as well as community-managed platforms, such as the Citizens for Pittsburg Facebook group, of which he is an administrator.
With 13,966 followers of his page, as well as other local pages with 5-to-10,000 followers each, Lomshek said the county can more effectively reach people by posting to those pages, as compared to the newspaper’s subscribers, which in addition to approximately 2,500 print and digital subscribers includes a Facebook social media presence with 15,500 followers.
The commissioners agreed that the wider the net the county can cast, the more likely it is to promote community involvement.
Commissioner Tom Moody mentioned that ‘the paper’ covers all of their meetings with Blair adding that he appreciates what ‘the paper’ does by “filtering out the nonsense.”
Lomshek then changed gears and addressed some inconsistencies and concerns about regulations for wind and solar, citing noise issues, setbacks, vision barriers, water usage and future upgrades as they are currently written.
Blair said these are all good points, but the process isn’t completed yet, and feels it is best to let the Zoning Board do its thing before it comes to the commission when they will pick through it and look at every aspect before approving it. “The important thing is what we approve is what we want,” Blair added.
This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews
