Your Landmarkers get out and about. Well, unless we have active warrants.
It’s official. Your Landmark columnist Chris Kamler is the voice you’ll hear doing the public address announcing for Monarchs baseball games on Thursdays at Legends Field (that’s in KCK at The Legends, of course) now through the end of the season.
So you’ll want to go check out the golden vocal cords of Chris Kamler at least one Thursday this summer. For tickets, go to monarchsbaseball.com. Hit a Thursday game and let us know whether you would describe Kamler’s sounds as booming pipes or the voice of an angel. And yes, we are still planning on a Monarchs pre-game Landmark Live from Legends Field this summer.
It’s also official: Brad Carl got himself a musical gig. Brad, who you often see as our co-host on Landmark Live and the man behind the hit tune (huge in Parkville) “Meet Me at the Speakeasy,” which is raking up the downloads on Spotify and the views on YouTube, will be performing his music later this summer in Overland Park. I would describe his musical style as like Johnny Cash on downers. His gig is Saturday, July 17. More details cometh, in case you want to become a Brad Carl groupie, which I’m pretty sure he would welcome with open arms.
Meanwhile, yours truly is in hawt talks about a speaking engagement at a political group’s gathering in the Northland in late summer/early fall. More on that when the deets are finalized. I’m confident it will be amazing, borderline Woodstock in size and such. We’ll talk politics and media and whatnot. Be thinking of your questions, folks, because I’m ready to get weird.
Finally, you can find Landmark humor columnist Guy Speckman holding forth at any number of area wineries this summer, frequently spraining his ankles while break dancing and not-so-secretly hoping a strip club goes in at Smithville Lake. Always doing heavenly work, that man, and that’s why we love him.
Don’t forget Chris Kamler and I will be on the plank at the dunk tank at Platte City’s Fourth of July celebration in Downtown Dreamtown. The Fourth of July celebration is set for–wait for it–July 4. Let me clarify Chris and I won’t be on the plank at the same time, it’s not that kind of show (not that there’s anything wrong with that, we don’t judge here).
I’m still worried Kamler will show up in a Speedo. I can confirm I will not be wearing a Speedo. But I might be sporting my grandson’s inflatable water wings. I also might consider some kind of special padding in the backside of my swim trunks to prevent bruising of the tailbone, which happened the last time I took part in a low-depth dunk tank event. Talk about being butthurt. My ass ached for weeks. If that happens again somebody please gift me an inflatable donut for my office chair.
To make the dunk tank event more fun, I’m willing to offer incentives to certain public figures if they care to try to send me for a splash.
.If county commissioner Dagmar Wood can put me in the water on her first throw I’ll donate $75 to her favorite conspiracy theory. I’ll double that donation if Dagmar storms the dunk tank while wearing a #StoptheSteal T-shirt and a Viking headdress.
.If county commissioner Ron Schieber hits the target on the first try I’ll give $75 to his wife’s employer, in hopes that he’ll stop making every county taxpayer do so repeatedly.
.If Parkville Mayor Nan Johnston can hit the target at least once on an unlimited number of attempts I’ll donate $100 to her ethics violations legal defense fund. (Increased the dollar amount and the number of allowable throws on this one because I think she’ll need the help).
.In the interest of transparency, if one of the Parkville aldermen hits the target I’ll donate $75 toward the city’s Sunshine legal fees, which at last check were at $165,000 and climbing. But remember, aldermen, if you’ll be gathering at the dunk tank with a quorum present you’ll need to post it as a public meeting. Don’t want you to get in trouble. Again.
The Platte County Commission on Monday renewed the county’s ordinance covering conflicts of interest for county officials. Under state law, the county is required to re-adopt it every two years and send it to the state. Ron Schieber voted in favor, though based on past actions I’m not convinced he fully understands it.
Also at Monday’s meeting, the county commissioners had a rather bizarre discussion about transparency, a topic that was brought up by resident Sharen Hunt in the public comments portion of the meeting. I’ll likely get into this more at a later time but some of what Schieber said is bizarre. At one point he claimed the county commission often sends out press releases (if less than a dozen press releases in seven years can be considered ‘often’ then I guess that would be a true statement).
Then, at another point, Schieber said members of the press used to call him but now “I haven’t heard from the press in months. I don’t know if they’ve lost interest or what.” And if you think I’m smiling while I type Schieber’s words you would be correct.
Anyway, I’ll likely get into Schieber’s word salad in a bit more depth at a future time. Just know that the best idea to come from the discussion was when citizen Hunt suggested that county commissioners host Zoom calls with concerned citizens in the future. Heck, since apparently Schieber wants more opportunities to talk to the press, I think the commissioners should host Zoom calls with the media on a regular basis. I think it would be great fun and informative. We can even invite a muted public to listen in to the commissioners’ virtual press conferences. Sign me up for that right now. I’ll get the popcorn ready.
(You’ll have to furnish your own popcorn but you can get more Foley on Landmark Live, on Facebook, on Twitter or by email to ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)