Big news, you guys.
The new LongHorn Steakhouse is now open at Tiffany Springs. We’ve written about it on our front page a couple of times in recent months, as well as mentioned its anticipated opening in this column space. No more anticipation. It’s now reality.
I haven’t been to the Tiffany location just yet. As discussed previously, your Landmark owners are frequent visitors of the LongHorn at Legends and also the location at Liberty. We’ve had fine experiences at each spot.
Most recently we hit the LongHorn at Legends. Enjoyed the finest tasting KC Strip I’ve had in a long, long time. Now anxious to give the Tiffany Springs location, which is in the building that formerly housed Ruby Tuesday’s, a try real soon.
Landmark office manager Cindy Rinehart says she has already patronized the LongHorn at Tiffany and offered it rave reviews.
A buddy texted me this week to say he also gives LongHorn Steakhouse top performance reviews, except for one minor detail. He says it went like this:
“It’s my favorite place even though they refused to serve me a beer on my 67th birthday because I got a new billfold and didn’t have my ID. To say I was upset is understatement. They said they were cracking down. On what? Old men who can’t remember where they left their ID?”
I’m wondering if it is a thing for places to give you a free beer on your birthday. In the old days it wasn’t unusual. Modern times, likely not. I mean, my buddy didn’t specifically say he was gonna get a free beer on his birthday he just says they were refusing to serve him a beer on his 67th birthday. So not enough details in that quick text message for me to know.
The only time I remember getting a free beer was on my 18th birthday. It was in the state of Kansas. It was tradition at that small watering hole for the first beer on your 18th birthday to be on the house. And yes, at that time the legal drinking age in Kansas was 18, so don’t waste your time reporting me to the authorities or attempting to spew shame my direction. Ain’t having it. Not today.
Columnist Guy Speckman and I had an informative conversation with State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer on last Thursday’s episode of Landmark Live. If you haven’t yet seen the video, you’ll want to check out what the senator has to say on a variety of topics. Not the least of which includes tax appraisals and efforts to legalize sports betting and such.
One of my favorite topics we encouraged the senator to touch upon included the political demographics of his senatorial district, which includes the counties of Platte and Buchanan. Those trending demographics might come as a small surprise. I’d tell you what the senator said about each county’s demographics but I’d rather you go watch the video to hear it straight from him. You can find the show at Platte County Landmark on Facebook, at Platte County Landmark on YouTube, and on our website plattecountylandmark.com.
We need to get frequent co-host Brad Carl back on Landmark Live fairly soon. Our resident COVID/election denier, Brad has been busy developing a new conspiracy theory. He believes that NFL games are somewhat scripted and fixed, shall we say. For instance, he sent this text after Monday night’s big upset by the Bears over the Patriots, a game in which the Bears came in as about a nine point underdog.
“Hard to believe how predictable last night’s upset was for this guy (referring to himself). I should’ve bet the house.”
Speckman, meanwhile, says that NFL deniers are a threat to democracy.
I don’t know who’s more accurate, I just don’t want Brad Carl storming The Landmark building in a viking headdress and propping his feet up on my desk.
Pretty cool to see the new City Hall starting to take shape in the area off of Marshall Road in Platte City. It’s scheduled to be completed in March.
Gotta say we’ll miss City Hall being in the immediate downtown area, though. I’ll miss being able to walk up there and back for meetings and such, which hasn’t happened often the past couple of years but did happen more often than I could count in the many years prior.
On the bright side, city officials have said they’ll use the current City Hall as some kind of downtown community center and headquarters for city-sponsored downtown activities and such, so that’s a way to keep a connection with downtown.
So how is Platte City paying for the new City Hall/police department headquarters? “Primary funding for the project is the $3.2 million general obligation bond issue that was approved by voters to construct a Police Station/City Hall. That bond was on the ballot and approved in April 2018. The bonds have a 20 year term and will be paid off in 2041. Funding source for the annual bond payments is the city’s general obligation property tax levy,” says DJ Gehrt, city administrator.
“The city had always intended to use bond funds for part of the cost and reserve funds for the remainder. The primary funding source for the additional funds (above the bond funds) is the cash reserves in the general fund and the capital improvement funds (CIP),” Gehrt explained.
Gehrt said over the past 10 years the city has slowly built up the general fund reserves and the CIP reserves to allow for the financial mix of bond funds and pay-as-you-go funds for major non-utility projects.
“If you look back over the past 30 years, the city generally has a pattern of 5-6 years of significant capital projects followed by 5-6 years of smaller projects to pay down debt and build up reserves. 2011-2016 was a pay down debt/build reserves period. 2016-present has been a period of larger CIP projects,” the city administrator notes.
By the way, Gehrt is scheduled to retire on July 1, so he won’t get much of a chance to “enjoy” the new city digs.
(Ivan Foley is busy checking his phone for conspiracy theory text messages from Brad Carl but you can email him at ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)