FYI-Kansas ABATE

OFF THE WIRE
County denies permit request

By MATTHEW CLARK
The Morning Sun
Posted May 01, 2010 @ 01:07 AM
GIRARD —
The Crawford County Commission, on Friday, rejected a special-use permit request from a motorcycle group wanting to bring their regional rally to the Crawford County Fairgrounds.

ABATE of Kansas District 3 had requested a special use permit to allow up to 800 members to come to the Crawford County Fairgrounds next weekend (May 6-9) to conduct its annual district rally, which previously had been held in Neodesha.

Commissioners heard disapproval from Crawford County Sheriff Sandy Horton and County Health Officer Janis Goedeke during the course of the meeting.

“Personally, I don’t have anything against it, but it could have been planned a little better,” Commissioner Bob Kmiec said.

Horton spoke out against the request to have law enforcement personnel leave the facility after 5:30 p.m. each day as well as public shows of nudity and the potential use of drugs on the site.

“We are talking about public property,” Horton said. “This is also a public event, and they will not tell me when we will leave the area.”

Horton said that the event has been in Neodesha for the last 25 years and, in talking with Neodesha Police Chief Danny Thayer, Neodesha’s department has left the facility at 5:30 p.m. as requested, only to return if they were called.

In addition, Horton had an issue with the “beauty contest” that he said consisted of bands “coaxing women to come on stage and take their clothes off.”

“We said that was not appropriate,” Horton said. “It is lewd and lascivious behavior.”

In his conversation with Kelly Wilson, the ABATE District 3 representative, Horton said that there may be “marijuana usage” at the event.

“We will not work hard to get warrants and kick down doors to arrest people for marijuana and turn around and let it happen, openly, at the fairgrounds,” Horton said.

He said that he would need approximately 50 officers for the event, including some from the Pittsburg and Girard police departments and the Kansas Highway Patrol. The overtime to the Crawford County Sheriff’s department would run an estimated $9,000. Jeff McDonald, Girard Police Chief, said that his overtime to staff the event would cost the city $1,300 and the overtime cost for the Pittsburg Police Department would be around $4,800.

“This group does do good things, however, this is really not a good thing,” Horton said. “I am appalled that this event is allowed to happen.”

Girard resident Randy Geier, who said he has attended this event before as well as others across the country, said that there has never been any problems or fights at the rallies past.

“I don’t understand the anxiety about this event,” Geier said. “I have been to even larger events and I have never seen a fight ... not once.”

Goedeke, the county health officer, said that with the potential open drug and alcohol use, there is a health risk involved.

In the end, Commissioners said that the timing of the request was such that it was difficult to plan logistics to ensure a “safe event.” Commissioners did state that they did not want to discourage ABATE from trying to bring the event to the fairgrounds in the future.

“If we get it right, this can be a very good thing,” said Commissioner Ralph McGeorge.