Cool Vintage Watches in downtown Parkville heads up the list of some of the businesses receiving grant awards in the latest round of approvals by the Platte County Commission. This seems totally natural because, hey, how many of us during the height of the shutdown didn’t say to ourselves: “Darn, this really sucks, wish I could go buy a cool vintage watch right now.”
No word yet on whether a secret not-so-secret private club/watering hole type operation that folks keep saying is active in downtown Parkville will be applying for any CARES money.
Wondering in which downtown building the alleged secret not-so-secret back room club is in? We’re being told if you hang out on Main Street in Parkville late at night you’ll be able to figure it out. Those with alleged inside knowledge say an initial “membership” fee of $500 is followed by a monthly fee of $100. Those who claim to have knowledge say “members” get an assigned “locker” in which to keep their favorite beverage that they supposedly bring in. I’m guessing it’s not milk.
The buzz about this secret not-so-secret place started well over a year ago and has really picked up steam lately, enough that I’ve left a couple of messages with downtown peeps looking for more info that we could pass along to an increasingly curious public.
I suppose it’s possible that those in charge don’t want just anybody and everybody to know, but then that would be a curious approach since I am assuming this is a legit deal. By that I mean I’m assuming it’s an above board situation with all the proper licensing, permits, and collection of any applicable sales taxes on any provided goods and services and such.
Recently I’ve left two voicemails for Kelly Putnam, executive director for the Main Street Parkville Association, hoping as head of that downtown association she might have knowledge she could share as we try to help promote the place. But alas, Kelly hasn’t returned my calls. She’s probably just really, really busy.
Speaking of CARES money, brace yourself for some more silliness at the county commission level when another round of federal aid arrives.
According to the National Association of Counties, part of the American Rescue Plan Act includes $65.1 billion in direct flexible aid to every county in America. Numbers put out by the National Association of Counties indicate Platte County will receive $20.4 million in aid.
The county commissioners got really goofy with their handling of $12.2 million in CARES money, falling over themselves to give it to everyone except those public agencies actually dealing with/feeling the effects of the pandemic. The result was the county would have had to give back millions of dollars because it was not allocated by the initial deadline of the end of 2020. The feds later changed that deadline to the end of 2021, which saved–at least temporarily–the commissioners the embarrassment of having to return millions of dollars.
Now, according to the National Association of Counties, it looks like Platte County will be getting an additional $20 million in federal aid. No word yet on when the crony line will start to form but let’s just assume this is good news for the Southern Platte County Athletic Association and Cruise Holidays.
Can it be baseball season yet? I’m officially ready.
Sure, I’ll watch a lot of the March Madness but as we’ve discussed previously, the atmosphere for college hoops is just not the same this year. Bring on baseball, more of a relaxed atmosphere sport in which small crowd sizes and a lack of the normal crowd noise won’t be a bother. Heck, we’re Royals fans, we’re pretty well used to quiet stadiums most seasons anyway.
The way he is tearing it up in spring training, if Bobby Witt, Jr. is not on the Royals Opening Day roster it means I’m not buying the company line of “we’re playing to win this year.” It will mean the front office is more interested in financial things, like when to start the service time clock on a budding young superstar.
Last time I looked, Vegas oddsmakers had the over/under on the number of wins for the Royals this year set at 74. I’d still take the under. Pitching depth over the course of a 162 game season will prove problematic at some point.
That being said, kudos to the Royals for taking steps to improve the roster over the off-season. And I liked what I saw from Mike Matheny as manager in the shortened 60-game season of 2020. The days of watching Ned Yost seeming to not care all that much about wins and losses in his final couple years as manager were hard to absorb.
Kansas University football.
Insert your own joke here. You don’t need my help.
We’re doing a Landmark Live Thursday night at 6 on our Facebook page. We have some new gadgets, gizmos, a green screen and other new technology we want to try out/show off. We’ll have a mysterious masked singer and talk about speakeasies and whatnot.
(Speakeasy, if you will, to Foley via email at ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)