As you’ll see on our front page, the Platte County commissioners have created a county administrator position.
In general terms, I support the idea of the county commission having a professional administrator running the show over departments that are under county commission control. I think the county has reached the point where an administrator is needed. Importantly, when an administrator comes on board I think it’s reasonable for taxpayers to expect an uptick in professionalism in all processes–everything from grant writing and funding acquisition, long term planning for all departments, professional courtesy and office availability to members of the public, improvements in communications and transparency, and much more–at all levels of county government.
As most of you know, even most of the cities in Platte County have a professional administrator on staff. Over the years, area cities have had some really good city administrators and some not-so-good ones. The recently retired DJ Gehrt worked wonders for the City of Platte City, for instance, as that entity’s administrator.
Hopefully a county administrator will eventually have similar successes.
I do have concerns about the county paying the first-time county administrator a salary of $200,000. That’s way, way, way (that was a three-way, my first ever) ahead of anyone else on the county payroll and–after anticipated hard feelings get aired–it seems likely to cause a chain reaction of significant and expensive proportions to the salary structure at the county. That part will be interesting to watch.
For $200 grand per year taxpayers will have a lot of expectations, and rightfully so.
Thanksgiving week is traditionally one of my personal favorite weeks of the year. As you know, that’s a week in which we hustle to print the paper ahead of our normal time (used to be we printed the Thanksgiving paper on Tuesday, but with the advent of slower mail delivery of periodicals by the United States Postal Service, in recent years we have moved Thanksgiving week press day all the way up to Monday).
After the Thanksgiving edition has hit the streets on Monday afternoon, typically I can find time to catch up on some projects around the office, catch up on the bookkeeping end of the business, make detailed notes about planned upcoming stories and commentaries, sneak in a couple hours off to do some projects around the house, maybe clean the cars or get the oil changed, that type of thing. Any sole proprietor knows the lifestyle. When you own the place, you’re involved in every aspect of the operation so there really is little to no free time.
And in the newspaper business, when you try to schedule free time the news gods seem happy to rain on your parade. For instance, this Thanksgiving week I was planning to take at least half day away from regular work stuff to paint a few pieces of repurposed furniture that we’re going to add to our new office space.
So much for that. So much for any of that.
Thanksgiving week in 2023 turned into a series of breaking news stories about crime incidents, traffic crashes, and much more that had me contacting sources and quickly writing stories we posted on our website and social media outlets. Because that’s what we do. We’re out here workin’ for ya, folks, even during Thanksgiving.
Was there a full moon or something? On Wednesday I escaped the office for what I hoped would be a quick but relaxing day-before-Thanksgiving lunch with buddies, and even that was interrupted by word of a shooting at Rally House. Since we were in the neighborhood at the time, I took a break from the lunch with friends to snap a photo at the Rally House crime scene and contact the KCPD for info.
At that point it seemed I wasn’t chasing the news, the news was chasing me. I hope my boss noticed. Might need to hit that guy up for a raise.
So the extra time between print editions wasn’t what I had expected, but it certainly made for an interesting and non-stop way to fill the hours around the holiday.
Anyway, please don’t let anything weird happen this Friday. I’m hoping to get away from the office that day to get some fresh air. I’ll still be checking phone messages and emails, of course, but I wouldn’t mind getting through that particular day with less drama than last week.
I just jinxed it, didn’t I?
The alleged shoplifter who turned into a shooter in the Rally House situation carried out five to seven jerseys and whatnot, Rally House employees say. Total value about $300.
What were the items the shoplifter was stealing, you might ask? Court records indicate police found a KC Royals Mondesi jersey (who would steal a Mondesi jersey? Probably couldn’t have got one for a $1), a KC Chiefs stocking hat, KC Chiefs hoodie, KC Royals blue hoodie, and KC Royals blue/cream wearing apparel.
Rally House employees took possession of the stolen merchandise after the items were photographed as evidence by police, in case you were curious. Maybe those items are now on a special rack at the store, who knows.
I don’t know what the Rally House policy is on employees dealing with suspected shoplifters. In last week’s incident, according to court documents the employee followed the suspect “and grabbed some of the clothing to recover some of the items.” That’s when the suspect turned around and fired a single shot that struck the employee’s left leg, court documents allege. According to court documents, the gunshot caused the employee’s femur bone to break and he required immediate surgery.
In regard to the recent shooting in the parking lot near the Platte City Wendy’s that, according to court documents, occurred during the course of an alleged pre-arranged marijuana transaction: Folks on social media have been asking why the alleged marijuana buyers didn’t just go to a dispensary and safely purchase it. The answer might be that legal recreational weed buyers in Missouri must be at least 21 years of age. The man shot and killed that night was 18.
(Holiday or no holiday, keep the news tips coming to ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
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