Been a bit of a rough week for me, if you want to know the truth. Today I was verbally reprimanded by our office manager for absent-mindedly leaving my ink pen on her desk. I kinda feel fortunate to still have a job.
And if you think it’s not likely that an office manager feels comfortable enough to verbally reprimand the business owner then you’ve never hired the meticulously organized Cindy Rinehart as your office manager.
The Trump/Israeli battle with Iran has left a not-so-pleasant gift for you at the gas pump. Gas prices started shooting up on Sunday in some spots, and continued into Monday after attacks were first launched by Israel and the U.S. on Saturday, Feb 28. Local gas prices were around $2.55 per gallon before the recent spikes. QuikTrip was the first and the most aggressive to hit consumers with a gas price bombing.
Here were some of the Platte County-area prices as of Monday morning around 7:30.
QuikTrip in Platte City $2.99; MFA in Platte City $2.54; Trex Mart in Tracy $2.55; Casey’s in Platte City $2.55; Hy-Vee on 64th St. $2.89; Phillips 66 at Green Hills & Barry $2.59
On Tuesday morning around 8, some of the local prices were:
QuikTrip in Platte City $2.99; MFA in Platte City $2.69; Casey’s in Platte City $2.99; Trex Mart in Tracy $2.89. So in terms of price, MFA has been the early winner of the local gas war, at least in Platte City. The price at Costco, located at NW 88th St. and North Platte Purchase Drive, was $2.59 mid-afternoon on Tuesday.
(Wednesday morning update: MFA has caved to peer pressure and raised its price to $2.89. Disappointing).
The other day I spent a few hours hanging out with David Barth, local developer, having lunch with David and his wife Jennifer at the Barth-owned and operated Bee Creek Bistro (try the breakfast wrap, it was perfect), and touring some of his properties in Downtown Platte City.
The Barths now own a total of eight buildings on Main Street. Their string of acquisitions began in 2023 when they purchased the historic Landmark Newspaper building at 252 Main from Ivan and Linda Foley (hey, I know those people). The opening of a new business in the Landmark building–now with a renovated interior–is just weeks away. Lottie & Lou, whose Facebook page describes it as a women’s clothing store, “a locally-owned business founded by three cousins offering a unique selection of apparel celebrating Kansas City pride, alongside cozy blankets and carefully curated accessories” plans to open at our former location in late March.
It was pretty cool to see what Barth and his crews have done with the main floor of The Landmark building, where I spent 41 years cranking out a newspaper every week and where in 2008 we renovated the exterior back to its original brick and installed fancy arch windows in the second floor.
Now the interior walls on the main floor are no longer covered by plaster–the interior brickwork is now fully visible and has some historic class to its look. Very nice. The upstairs of The Landmark building, a good portion of which we used as the studio for many of our Landmark Live shows from 2017-2022, is being remodeled into a two-bedroom/two bath apartment that will be an attractive option for renters when completed.
I know the public is anxious for an update on the former’s Shirley’s Fashion Center building, which for a long time was owned and operated by local legendary fashionista Shirley Kirmsey. Shirley’s place is now owned by Barth at 339 Main across from the Platte County Courthouse. Work on the interior is proceeding nicely. The interior walls have been sandblasted to expose the original brick, and I can confirm it’s looking sharp. Barth says a new look to the storefront should be in place soon. Barth believes work on the building will be done in April and it is anticipated the restaurant operator will be ready to open May 1.
I haven’t been given the green light to tell you the name/operator of the Italian restaurant that will occupy the building but I can tell you that some online speculation that the name of the restaurant will be Shirley’s does not match what I have been told.
You’ll notice Menards, the large regional home improvement chain, has joined the list of Landmark advertisers beginning this week. An advertising contract has been signed and you can now look for inserts/ads from Menards nearly every week over the course of the next year.
The deal with Menards is one of two reached in recent days. In a couple of weeks, beginning March 18 to be exact, you’ll notice a national discount retailer chain joining The Landmark’s club of advertisers with flyers tucked inside your favorite newspaper. More on that one in two weeks.
While gathering some public information for our front page scoop–which we broke last Wednesday evening on our social media and are printing today for our hard copy readers–I came across something that has not previously been reported. The Platte County Commission was reprimanded by the Missouri Ethics Commission for an action it took during the campaign for presiding commissioner in 2022 when Scott Fricker was running against John DeFoor for the seat being vacated by Ron Schieber, The reason for the reprimand? On the county commission’s online calendar, the commission posted an Oct. 6, 2022 event titled “Scott Fricker for Presiding Commissioner Event” scheduled from 6-8 p.m. at Ten & Two Coffee Bar.
The interesting part is I remember back in 2022 reading the county’s online calendar at the time and cringing when I saw Fricker’s event being promoted there. “Self, that’s an ethics violation,” I said to myself back in 2022, and wondered aloud if anyone would complain. Obviously someone did, via a formal filing to the Missouri Ethics Commission, which eventually found that “there were reasonable grounds to believe violations of the law had occurred.”
Members of the county commission at the time were Schieber, Dagmar Wood and Joe Vanover. I don’t know for a fact which commissioner felt inspired to get Fricker’s campaign event posted on the county-owned website, but I’m thinking I could correctly guess. If you have a guess let me know and I’ll tell you if it matches mine.
(Find Foley touring Downtown Platte City and email him at ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
