By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The City of Great Bend currently has a lease agreement for 17 acres of the Westport Addition with the K&O Railroad. Within the agreement, K&O is supposed to ask permission to sublet. The railroad has been subletting the property near the Great Bend Municipal Airport to Venture Aggregates.
City Administrator Brandon Anderson said the city decided that a cleaner agreement would be directly with Venture and removing K&O from the lease.
"We sat down with Rocky and Chris with Venture a couple of times," said Anderson. "We did tell them that by law, we have to get fair market value for the lease. They went to Keller Real Estate to give us an estimate, or fair market value assessment, of what we should get on the lease of that property."
Venture agreed to a 20-year lease for the property at 8920 8th Street. The fair market value will charge $500 per month for the first 10 years of the lease. The rate will increase to $600 per month for the final 10 years of the agreement. The lease will also have a 10-year extension allowed as long as both parties are agreeable when that time comes.