Quick news update in regard to the recent five break-ins in one night in the Platte City business community.
“We are progressing well on those investigations,” said Platte City Police Chief Jeff Wilson on Tuesday night. He declined to elaborate, as the situation is still “an open investigation.”
More on this next week, but happy to say we have awarded our 2025 Landmark English Award to a deserving Platte County High School graduating senior. It is the largest cash award we’ve given in the history of the annual scholarship, which the newspaper began in 1982.
Details, such as the winner’s name and how the award grew to its largest size ever, in next week’s Landmark.
I was reminded that I never got to completely finish the inside story about the Denver Nuggets deciding to fire both their coach and their general manager in the closing days of the regular season, and why that decision has me quietly pulling for the Nuggets in the playoffs. I say quietly because I’m not an NBA fan, don’t watch any of it until the NBA Finals get here. Even then it’s a tough watch, as The Finals are after hot weather has arrived and by then most of us are not interested in sitting in front of the TV watching millionaires play an indoor sport. But I digress.
What made the late season firings by the Nuggets really unusual is that the Nuggets just won the NBA title a couple of years ago, and at the time of the firings the Nuggets had already clinched a playoff spot for this year and in fact finished as the fourth seed in the Western Conference.
Upon reading a lengthy article by a sportswriter with day-to-day knowledge of the team and its inner workings, I learned that the reason for the firings was that the coach and the general manager were engaged in a feud. Not working in tandem. Basically backstabbing each other. Instead of taking a side in the internal feuding, Nuggets ownership stepped in and said, and I’m paraphrasing here: “To hell with this childishness. Since you guys can’t get along, you’re both fired.”
Not just one of you is fired. Both of you are fired. No picking or choosing.
Hah. Love it. I’m suddenly a Nuggets fan for the playoffs.
Just a little inside nugget about the Nuggets that you might enjoy, even if you’re like me and don’t follow the NBA closely.
The Nuggets did win their first round series and are now engaged in a second round best of seven series against the heavily favored Oklahoma City Thunder.
You may have read on a recent Landmark front page about a scheduled water line project that is planned by the City of Platte City to improve the quality of water for city customers in the 500 block of Branch Street. By the way, Branch Street is more commonly known as Hwy. 92, but you probably already knew that.
City officials say there is nothing wrong with the safety of the water that goes into six buildings on the north side of Hwy. 92 east of Fourth Street, but what is wrong is that the water looks gross and far from appetizing. Discolored, I believe is the technical term, if you’re into highfalutin verbiage and stuff.
The city has awarded a contract to Tunk Construction at a cost of $101,793 to replace 900 feet of water main, which should solve the discoloration problem. I noticed in the latest public works subcommittee paperwork that the tentative schedule calls for work on this project to begin in late July/early August, which will come as a relief to businesses served by this stretch of line.
Tariff talk.
Platte City will be sponsoring a July 4th fireworks display again this year, and in fact the fireworks have already been ordered. There’s a reason for the early ordering, and as you may have guessed, that reason is tariff talk and “uncertainty of trade issues with China.”
China, as I think all of us who celebrate July 4th know, is the source country for nearly all commercial fireworks. J&M Fireworks has provided the city with its Fourth of July fireworks show for many years. Last year, the city contracted for a slightly longer show than normal at a total cost of $17,700. This year, the city again wants to have the slightly longer show, featuring a total of 492 shells at a cost of $19,800. The cost increase is largely due to a 10 percent increase in import costs that were imposed after last year’s show.
The catch to getting the $19,800 price, however, is that the price and supply could not be guaranteed for any orders placed after May 1, primarily because of tariff uncertainty. So the city got on the ball and placed its order early, with the topic getting approval at an April 15 meeting of the board of aldermen.
Prior to last year, the city’s fireworks show was 441 total shells. Last year and again this year it will be 492. Which one of you will be counting shells just to be sure?
Not sure why anybody is getting worried about tariffs, since we’ve been told by our president that it’s the foreign countries who pay the tariffs, not us consumers. Whew, what a relief. . .
Also, the president this week said that if there are price and supply chain factors this year due to his trade war your young daughters only need two dolls this Christmas, not 10 or 11. So maybe have a backup plan, I guess.
(Tariff Foley via email to ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
