Sunday, May 22, 2011

Viva Las Vegas

It’s that time of the year again. The Global Retail Real Estate Convention is being held by the International Council of Shopping Centers in little old Las Vegas.

So, who is going to represent Shawnee? Well, we can start with Andrew Nave, Executive Director of the Shawnee Economic Development Council. Then there is Doug Wesselschmidt, Development Director for the City of Shawnee. Now in my opinion, that’s where we need to stop.

But nope, two more individuals are going: City Manager Carol Gonzales and Ward III Councilmember Dawn Kuhn. Last year three local businessmen also went to represent their own interests. Not sure if any are going this year.

Will this trip prove beneficial for Shawnee? Who knows? It is my understanding that as a result of last year’s trip we got the new Burger King coming to town. Maybe this time we will get a Hardee’s.

Question: When will we, after all these years, get something to draw some bleed off from the Village West complex?

Oh, is Dawn Kuhn planning on staying a couple of extra days after the convention in Vegas like she did last year? Must be nice.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

All We Cand Do is Watch Part II

Well if you scroll down a little you will see the original post on this topic.

Now we know that the Willi Nelson FarmAid 2011 concert is coming to town. And guess where this one is going to be? At the new soccer stadium in Village West? (Side note: Soccer games are starting soon)

Will Shawnee get any bleed off from that? Do we have anything to attract those folks down the I-435 corridor?

Those guided tours of the largest landfill in the midwest are getting to sound pretty good.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Refunds & Credits

As previously noted on this blog, funds were advanced for both airfare and meeting registration fees for Councilmember Vaught for a NLC convention which he subsequently did not attend.

Inquiries to the city manager have resulted in the following information being received:

The airfare is available for Mr. Vaught to use within a year. NLC has refunded the registration, all but a $70 change fee.

So the city got back a majority of the money for the NLC registration fee. Good.

What about the airfare?

IMHO, here are the options:

1. Use the airfare in the future, which would also mean spending additional funds for registration, hotel, meals etc.

2. Same as one above, but make sure we keep the number of participants to no more than 2 and that Mr. Vaught is one of the two.

3. Suffer the loss of the airfare without paying for any additional travel related expenses.

I still think these meetings can be beneficial. Just don't feel that we need to send a whole bunch of folks. Would recommend number 2 above.