The summer of the prison tax brought with it some dramatic interpretations

I noticed that Barley & Vine, the upscale wine bar and brewery in Downtown Platte City, has added more TVs to their impressive interior design just in time for Chiefs football season. There are now TV screens on both floors of this popular downtown attraction.

“We just upgraded the game with four TVs in our bar. Get ready to kick off Chiefs football season in style,” Barley & Vine posted on its social media channels. “Join us at our wine bar in Platte City for the ultimate Opening Day watch party!”

Very cool. If you're planning ahead, the opening game for Taylor Swift's boyfriend and the rest of the Chiefs this season is Thursday night, September 5, at home against the Baltimore Ravens at 7:20 p.m.

And as always, I'd like to remind you that when you visit Barley & Vine, you should definitely try a Landmark Lager. We're honored that the lager brewed by Barley & Vine is named after this newspaper. And I can confirm, by the way, that it's a tasty offering.

Hot Summer Night in Downtown Platte City was a huge success. I was impressed by the size of the crowds, both at the daytime water fun and at the later activities, which included a pyro show. The pyro show, featuring dance artists from the group Pyro Flow, began at about 9:15 a.m. and was a unique addition to the celebration that seemed to be a mesmerizing hit with the people gathered around a section of the 200 block of Main Street. Good thing. We posted a short video of part of the pyro show on our Platte County Landmark Facebook page. Check it out.

The slide didn't quite go according to plan, but visitors still had fun in the water. The slide on the hot asphalt apparently wasn't as slippery as hoped. But the Central Platte Fire Department came to the rescue by spraying water on the slide from their aerial ladder. “We had high hopes for the slide, but unfortunately we weren't able to quite realize our plans. We just wanted to give people a way to cool off and have fun. Thank goodness the Central Platte Fire Department helped out,” said Sarah Rudis, president of the Downtown Platte City Association. There was brief talk of pouring baby oil on the slide to create a more slippery effect, but that never happened. “The police chief strongly advised us against it. The oil could pose a hazard on the road. We completely agree with that,” Rudis added.

“Overall, it was a great event. There were no major mishaps and the community really showed up in large numbers. Our goal is to bring people downtown to see what we have to offer outside of corporate stores. Some stores stayed open later and we hope that helped spread the word about what downtown has to offer. We look forward to more events downtown,” Rudis noted. Another great event downtown last Saturday was the Firehouse Market, which featured vendors at the Central Platte Fire Station. It was a great day downtown.

With that in mind, it's time to mark your calendars that the Platte City Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Main Street Festival on Thursday, September 26th from 5-8 p.m.

Check out some of these quotes I found recently in other media. Pop quiz: Which Platte County commissioner made these strange and tempestuous remarks in the lead-up to the recent $408 million prison tax ballot?

• “The forces of the left and their willing accomplices want to prevent Platte County from putting criminals behind bars.”

• “The Liberals want a revolving door in prison and are prepared to take extreme measures to prevent prison expansion.”

• “As Commissioner, I will stand against the forces trying to stop us from expanding the Platte County Jail.”

• “On August 6th, we will know if the people of Platte County want to protect their community or if they want to watch our county descend into the crime seen in Jackson County and other great, liberal cities in America.”

Wow. Those are really dramatic lies. First of all, whoever said that has no idea of ​​the political climate. According to those comments, a lot of invisible “forces on the left” and “liberals” were working against the County Commission's bloated prison tax proposal. Lol. Excuse me? Sorry, but 62% of Platte County voters are not “liberals.” And remember, there was no organized opposition. No one resorted to “extreme measures” other than publicly voting against it. The opposition was overwhelming, and came from the grassroots of all political parties, “liberal” and “conservative.” The opposition to the prison tax proposal was due to alert, financially savvy Platte County residents who saw it as an over-the-top money-making scheme. They wisely recognized that the tax was too high for too long a period of time; they recognized the 471-bed proposal as massive overdevelopment; They realized that the proposal was a double taxation because many of the proposed expenses (up to $144 million, according to one expert's analysis) were items already covered by existing taxes, and so on and so forth.

So the answer is: A. Scott Fricker. B. Dagmar Wood. or C. Joe Vanover? You will find the correct answer further down in this column.

How about the Platte County Republican Central Committee's decision to share some of Chairman Commissioner Scott Fricker's temper tantrums over the prison tax online, as if he were giving influential, award-winning speeches? What a poor decision. Fricker didn't exactly deliver Ronald Reagan-style prose in his attacks on the people who opposed his $408 million tax proposal. It was clear that Fricker's outbursts and his decision to personally attack the proposal's opponents were hurting his cause rather than helping it, and the Republican Central Committee leadership fueled him and shared his emotional breakdowns. Instead of trying to calm him down privately and offer him adult leadership, they shared his posts, further demonstrating his lack of emotional maturity.

One local Republican told me, “He (Fricker) doesn't have the right demeanor for the job, nor the experience. The guy just messed up. Joe (Vanover) is just as guilty.”

The county commissioners were shocked that their proposal was defeated. It was not just defeated, it was crushed. This is proof that the county commissioners, and apparently the leadership of the Central Committee, operate in an echo chamber. They don't exactly have their finger on the pulse of the community. 62% of voters just challenged them.

The answer to the quiz is C. Joe Vanover. And Joe is the one who is generally considered the most reasonable of the three commissioners. Unfortunately, he was anything but reasonable and realistic on this prison tax proposal. Vanover is lucky that his re-election opponent did not campaign on the platform against the highly unpopular prison tax proposal.

(You can find Foley on the hunt for overly dramatic political statements. Email: [email protected])