By: DOUG REMPP
I’m Doug Rempp, I have filed for one of the 3 City Commissioner seats in the Nov 4th Election. Many of you will know me as Mr. McDonalds or the McDonald’s guy. I had the Franchise in Salina from late 1995 till 2017. I have had a residence in Salina for almost 30 years. Upon retirement my wife of 43 years, JoAnne and I spent a few months in the winter in AZ. I’m not a big fan of cold weather. We did make AZ our primary home for a couple years but a family need brought us back to Salina in 2022. We have a son and daughter that both live in Salina and grandkids that attend school in Salina.
During my years in Business I have dealt with the City a lot. Some good to deal with, others not so much. Probably one of the more memorable visits from the City happened about a decade ago. The 4th of July was on a Saturday I think. I purchased a hundred 18” American flags and put 1 every 10 feet around the Crawford and Ohio McD’s. Within 2 hours I had a City Official visit telling me we needed to remove the flags. They were considered an “Attention getting device.”
I have always listened to my employees and my customers. I have never shied away from work and never felt a job or task beneath me. I have made many financial decisions over a million dollars many times. Decisions that I had to live with and pay for. The business payroll was a ¼ million dollars every other week. I’m not sure how many of our current commissioners have had to sweat making payroll or go without pay as business expenses come 1st. The way they spend taxpayer money can be irritating.
The Cozy Inn was the deciding factor for me to put my name on the Ballot. Seems to me that just 1 of the Commissioners could have gotten personally involved in this and found a solution. I have seen the current Commissioners develop and approve a variance to code at their normal meetings. The Cozy is a 103 year old Business in our Community. I think it would have been very easy to carve out a variance to code. Instead, we probably will spend a million dollars fighting them and get negative attention across the state and beyond.
A lot of great things have happened in Salina over the last 30 years. I am not against growth. Just the opposite. It’s just my thought that the taxpayers of the City should not have to subsidize new businesses. For example the Mall as it relates to a 146 million perhaps subsidy to redo the Mall. I don’t think that is fair to other retailers in town. Especially those on the South end. A business could be “Poached” from Mid States Plaza to a new space at the Mall. Same with Restaurants. If an existing Restaurant loses just 10% of their sales, they may lose 30-40% of their profits.
I’m not opposed to the great things that have happened downtown. I’m not opposed to a new parking garage and Hotel. In this case, the bulk of the business could come from another hotel they own just a couple hundred yards away.
The need that brought us back to Salina has sadly passed. Salina will be our primary home for the foreseeable future. My wife and I did buy a Townhome in Az earlier this year. We do plan on using it for a few months over the winter. I have committed to traveling back for a meeting a month minimum when we are away for a few months. Less than ideal but doable. A commissioner was zooming in at the last meeting I attended.
I think what I bring to the commission offsets me having to Zoom a few meetings annually. Your call Salina, just please be sure to vote come Nov 4th.
Best regards, Doug