By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Barton County's Facade Improvement Grant Program continues to be popular for downtown business owners around the county. At Wednesday's meeting, the commission approved three more grants for businesses in Hoisington, Great Bend, and Claflin. Colby Miller with Miller's of Claflin plans to put a western facade on the flooring warehouse located at 220 Main Street. That will complete the downtown look.
"The building we're modeling it after was the Carter Billiard Saloon," Miller said. "That was in Claflin in the 1880s. It was a lost in a fire. We didn't have any pictures and couldn't find anything of it, so we actually found some buildings at Disney World we really liked. They spend a lot of time and money on making it period correct, so we kind of copied one of their designs with it and took off from there."
Millers received a $20,000 grant and will contribute $19,122.90 to the project. Grant and Shannon Unruh also received $20,000 for upgrades to Mitchell's Bakery, located at 1110 Main Street in Great Bend. They will contribute $15,650.34 to the improvement. Michael Davis received $9,673.72 for improvements to Cardinal Thrift Store at 158 S. Main in Hoisington. He will contribute $3,224.57 to the project.