Post from Mark Bitter, Kustom Floor Designs in response to discussion that was brought up at the Jan. 20, 2020 Great Bend City Council meeting of a councilmember wanting a property 'cleaned' up. The original article is below.
"Hello, this is Mark Bitter, owner of Kustom Floor Designs….and the parking lot that is the subject of the article. I normally do not read facebook posts but after some were sent to me, I thought maybe it was time to respond.
My company has been blessed to serve this community for 41 years so far, and in that time I can say we have never tried to intentionally disappoint someone with our service, although I am sure we have. So when I learned of the story written based on comments made at the city council, and the comments you all have made following, it gave me a perspective maybe I had not considered before.
I don’t see anything wrong or out of the ordinary with the parking lot, it is being used in the course of daily business and obviously in our line of work pallets are a daily item. But what I am hearing is that the parking lot and the windows in our one building are a disappointment to others for different, varied reasons. We can improve this, and we will soon, because it is very important to me how my business, and how our community is viewed, which brings me to a final comment.
In all of this I was reminded that sometimes actions we are taking can be damaging or harmful to others...even when we think they aren’t…… we need to be careful with those actions, and realize that each one of us is in charge of the perception of others and of our community by the things we say and do. My hope is that we can all recognize the opportunity we have each day to either build or destroy others and our community with our words and posts.
I hope we all choose to be builders rather than destroyers…...I hope we have media that is careful of how they portray our community and the people in it, and I hope as individuals we take the personal responsibility to carefully use our words and actions towards others to be positive…..this is our community, it will become what we collectively work together to make it…...we have been given wonderful tools to share our thoughts and opinions….lets use them to build our community and not destroy it. Share and celebrate the positive, and when you have something negative to say to someone, don’t post it for the world, go to them and constructively discuss it….
Thanks for your time in reading this, and thanks for your posts that created this opportunity for us to have this conversation….oh, and keep an eye on those windows, something positive might just happen…..
ORIGINAL STORY
Great Bend City Council member Brock McPherson had a request for City Sanitarian Austin LaViolette to enforce cleanup of scraps and wooden pallets just to the east of the Great Bend Public Library.
McPherson stated he drives be the lot on Williams every day and the wooden pallets and debris are worse than some of the other abatements that are brought up at the meetings.
"We are trying to do economic development, and we are trying to make things look good," said McPherson. "This looks bad. We need to do something."
LaViolette told the city council he talked to the owner earlier this year about getting the property tidy, but because the lot is located in a commercial zone, the owner is allowed to have the pallets near the building.
"They are stacked there so when they get enough for a load to take to recycling or the dump, that is when they take them," said LaViolette. "The ordinance does allow them on site as long as they are stacked and organized."
McPherson suggested a change in the ordinance to not allow the items piled up along the building. City Administrator Kendal Francis says staff is looking into revising some ordinances that could make it tougher for businesses to leave piles outside their buildings.
According to the Open Records of Kansas Appraisers’ search, the property at 1410 Williams Street is owned by Kustom Floor Designs Inc.