Derby has taken ribbing from Wichita for being behind the times or worse. But the community is busy busting the stereotype: On Tuesday the Derby City Council voted 5-4 in favor of a clean indoor air ordinance that, unlike Wichita’s weak compromise, bans smoking in all businesses and public places. It goes into effect Sept. 1. Only outdoor patios at bars and restaurants are exempt, and then depending on how far they are from the main entrance and ventilation unit. (Maize also passed a limited ban last week.) Last week also saw the first meeting of a Derby advisory board assigned to study and make recommendations on residential trash franchising and curbside recycling – two issues that Wichita’s leaders seem happy to willfully ignore.
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49 Comments
And, notice Derby is NOT building a government financed arena in their thriving city.
Just as well I have not been to Derby in years, until this topic I had all but forgot Derby was even there.
Derby is a good example of a well managed, small bedroom city. Lot to be learned from their common sense approach to things.
More government intrusion on people’s lives and buisnesses. Simple solution is you dont like smoke don’t go where they allow smoking.
Writer dog and Regular: The city of Derby is like the fictional city of BRIGADOON in one of my favorite old movies … Derby only appears every four years, then disappears again to outsiders. That’s how it retains its suburban charm.
Who finds this line of thought remotely worthwhile? It’s like saying the Jones family next door told their kids to stop smoking so we should! And they force their children to recycle!
Second rate logic of ‘keeping up with the Jones’. Who buys into this stuff? Those in favor of the nanny government apparently.
Given this little tidbit I’m surprised the Wichita Eagle hasn’t talked about the ‘community’ swimming pool Mulvane build recently. If we are going to keep up Wichita needs to build a waterpark. . .
jwink LOL I had never thought about it but your spot on! The last time I have thought of Derby was because of a restaurant there that was named “the silver dollar saloon” best place I had been to since moving back to Kansas from Oklahoma. Great value and the amount of food for the dollar was great too. Best bargain, the first time I went there I said to the owner “you are from Oklahoma aren’t you?”.
They were and I had not been to such a restaurant since moving back sadly they closed within the year.
But yes Derby does seem to only appear ever so often through the mist.
I remember how, 25 years ago, Bob Getz (AKA “El Getzo”) used to trash talk Derby at every opportunity as being a dinky, one-stoplight town. This was chiefly motivated by Derby’s refusal to allow itself to be directly annexed by the city of Wichita. After all, weren’t they missing out on all those great services Wichita’s government provided?
Evidently, considering how Wichita’s leaders blunder from pillar to post, keeping their distance was pretty wise of them.
I used to drive through Derby on my way to Shell Knob where my Mother lives. Since 400 was improved I haven’t even driven through. Don’t they have schools that perform well and a football team that wins championships? Those are the only two tidbits of info I can remember hearing. JWink has summed it up — they’re flying under the radar, probably their intent!
Well Rhonda just proved that its not the liberals behind the smoking ban, it’s the social conservatives who are demanding these abuses of rights of businessowners.
Of course whom am I to talk I live in wide spot in the road just before you find civilization on the way between Fredonia to Wichita.
Actually, Wichita’s Smoking Compromise is very progressive, it’s called coming up with a solution that protects rights while making everybody happy. A smoking ban is just the opposite, a smoking ban is drawing up two fueding sides and having a needless warring of words, and infringing on a business owners rights to choose what customers they wish to cater to.
Oh, no, no more smoking in Derby’s strip clubs. I wonder how Michelle feels about that.
I remember the days when they had only one stoplight in town… At Madison (79th So) and K-15. Yep, you can sure tell they have grown since then. There are stoplights are all over the town now!
“I wonder how Michelle feels about that.”
Guess one could look at it that both hands would be free to strategically place the bills without endangering the “help.” Wouldn’t want anyone to be burned in this exchange!
DERBY is coming up with ways to keep people AWAY?
I should think they’d want a reason or two for people to remember the little place even exists.
It’s funny. The Bush administration is supposedly taking alllll of these rights away from me (hasn’t happened to me yet) and this is bad. But the libs taking away my right to smoke is good. Hhhmmm, seems with all the extra taxes being imposed on smokers, doesn’t seem we are getting very good representation.
But I guess its okay to the libs because they don’t like evil smokers, but LOVE our money. I guess that is the Libs mantra.
We hate you (if you’re not exactly like us) but love your money.
“writerdog” reveals –
“…I live in wide spot in the road just before you find civilization on the way between Fredonia to Wichita.”
There’s civilization on the way between Fredonia and Wichita? (Fredonia doesn’t count.)
And, as a dabbler in Kansas history, who was “Fred” (for whom, I assume the town was named)?
And why did they name the town “Derby?” Was it before or after the old oil company. How did Wichita become “Doo-Dah?” What’s with all those tiny western Kansas towns call themselves “[fill in the blank] City” when they’re the furthest possible antithesis of anyone’s concept of a “city?”
“Emporia” (a Latinate version of “many stores”) obviously was named by business interests. “Eureka” (”I have found it!”) probably has something to do with the Oil Bidness, I dunno. And, of course, “Newton” was named for Gingrich.
Perhaps due to the preponderance of manure, “Topeka” still is “A good place to dig potatoes.”
“Representative Government” is a phrase the Eagle does not understand.
Maybe Derby voters WANT these laws.
Maybe Wichita voters do NOT WANT these laws.
I do not smoke.
I nag my family members to stop smoking.
I do not like smoking bans.
It is the fault of my friends and loved ones that they smoke. Establishments should not have to suffer on this issue.
The whole idea of “second hand smoke” being a real health risk has been vastly overblown.
Air filtraton, smoking areas and other things can accomodate those with allergies or asthma.
My guess is that many people with allergies or asthma are often having trouble with things they can not see, like dust or mold, and those people blame their health problems on what they can see: cigarette smoke.
It also bothers me a great deal that those who push for smoking bans do not seem to be the type of people that go to night clubs in the first place.
Nanny state socialism is nothing to be proud of.
Franklin, I’ll share an experience with you. I don’t smoke any longer; when I did a nagging family member always made me want another cigarette. Several more actually! Nagging never had a positive affect (on me anyway)!
Don’t discount Derby. They have the largest high school in Kansas. Their own waterpark which draws lots of outside traffic. An eighteen hole public golf course. A new Lowes and Kohl store. Their own Super Dillons. Are in the process of getting a new Super Target and new shopping mall. Many new restaurants including Applebees and Rib Cage. AND most days they have the cheapest gasoline in the Wichita area. $3.49 yesterday.
A not very well kept secret. My kids live there so we go that way often. They have come a long way from being the brunt of Bob Getz’s one stop light town.
On the “mandatory recycling” issue, the market has enough “product” for the most part, where recycling is concerned.
There are many communities, with “mandatory recycling” where the land fills have neatly seperated piles of clear plastic, green plastic, white plastic, etc.
I think recylcing is a great idea, but we need to work on the “demand” side of recycled materials a bit.
I propose a “cap and trade” system on the Wichita Eagle.
Let’s tax the Eagle $1.00 for every pound of newsprint that the Eagle produces.
Let’s then use that tax to subsidize Wichita’s solid waste needs, including any recycling.
Newsprint is old, dirty technology. Newspapers cut down trees. Newspapers require the production of wood pulp and ink and solvents, all with enviromental consequences.
Newspapers require much gasoline and diesel fuel, for the raw material to be shipped to the Eagle, processed, and then distributed to people for lining their bird cages.
Let’s discourage behavior we don’t like: Using dirty, expensive, wasteful newspapers!
Tax the Eagle!
Actually, Derby used to be called “El Paso” and they decided to change their name to Derby.
There is still an “El Paso Cemetary District” listed as a taxing authority in that area.
I don’t like the government to get involved in managing our lifes either but until you cope with COPD I don’t think you can really appreciate what a person with limited lung capacity suffers through when exposed to second hand smoke.
My husband is an ex-smoker and he is much less tolerant than I am of smoke.
Linda
I understand your point on the nagging.
I have tried to be positive.
I have paid for “stop smoking” treatments for them and offered to pay for stop smoking counseling.
Look, I could lose 10 pounds and I love greasy barbeque and I love Hickory and Mesquite smoked food with lots of salt.
They have a hard time changing my habits, as well.
I’ve found newspapers to be a good weed barrier. I save them and put down a fairly thick layer under the new mulch. Does as good, maybe better, a job as the weed fabric and I’ve already paid for the newspaper so I save.
Yep, breaking those less than healthy habits is really up to each individual, isn’t it? Or at least meeting with success seems to happen when it’s what WE want vs doing it for someone else. I still have ALL my other bad habits so the only one I have experience with breaking is the smoking habit.
The vast majority of people with COPD are former smokers or current smokers.
I have seen people on 02 with cigarettes in their mouths!
Anyway, how “fair” is it for someone to ruin his or her own health, by smoking, and then DEMAND that nobody else is allowed to smoke in public places, when that person has a health problem?
Oh yes I can grm, my grandma had COPD and continued to smoke. There is noplace so unventilated in a non smoking section that would cause that sort of reaction.
A little history of Fredonia. Something to be proud of and laugh at, at the same time:
1794: A stone discovered on a hillside southwest of Fredonia above the Fall River with this date carved into it gives evidence alluding to the presence of European explorers in the area.
1857: First European settlers came to the area.
1861: Creek Indian leader Opothle Yahola led 7000 Native Americans, and 300 slaves, who were loyal to the Union Cause from Deep Fork, south of present day Tulsa to escape conscription into the Confederate Army. They ran north through Montgomery County to Fort Row north of Fredonia in Wilson County, hoping to find the promised food and other aid from the Union Army.
1868: Fredonia Town Company was organized, the name chosen and the town was platted. Dr. J. J. Barrett erected the first building on the southwest corner of the square.
1869: A county election on June 8 selected Fredonia as the county seat.
1871: The first religious building was the Congregational Church built on a lot given by the town company. When the church closed, the building became the public library. In 1969, the old building was razed and the present library is built on that same ground.
1871: Another county election on May 23 again selected Fredonia as the county seat. Citizens of Neodesha contested the election.
1872: Charges of fraud in the May of 1871 election were filed in the District Court. Judge Gooin ruled the May election invalid and directed that the county offices be removed to Neodesha. This decision was appealed to the State Supreme Court.
1873: Another election was held January 28, and Fredonia was again selected as county seat.
1874: In May, the State Supreme Court upheld the District Court’s decision to disqualify the May, 1871 election and remove the county offices to Neodesha.
1885: September 7 yet another election was held, which passed a bond issue of $30,000.00 to build a courthouse in Fredonia. That ended the county seat dispute.
I would say that Derby certainly moves ahead of Wichita in petty government fascism.
“Franklin” cut-and-posts –
“…1868: Fredonia Town Company was organized…”
And then.. THREE years later
“1871: The first religious building…”
I guess that pretty much scotches the whole concept that American civilization was “founded by religion,” now doesn’t it?
This is a nation of bidness.
It made us what we are. It might turn out to be our fatal flaw.
Pmom I have COPD have never been a smoker but was raised by one and had a live in grandpa who smoked. My husband smoked the first 20 years we were married. I won’t vote to make every place non-smoking but do avoid them if I know ahead of time that the ventilation isn’t adequate.
Monkey
You are a true bigot.
It is entirely possible, in fact likely, that church services were first held in homes and businesses prior to building a free-standing church.
It amazes me that I can bring up the proud history of Fredonia, as a place of hope for Freedmen, or escaped slaves, who were helped on their journey by American Indians —
And YOU can turn it into an attack on religion and an attack on business!
Derby is a great place to live. It’s been rated number one best small town place to live in the USA. That’s awesome. Since Derby is basically part of Wichita Metro.
One of the worst small towns, very non-progressive in Kansas, has to be Pratt.
Franklin, your 10:34AM post is pure gold. It definitely deserves a prominent place in the “political blogs hall of fame”. Right on Brother.
Part of the recycling problem is the cost of recycled products. It can range to 15% higher than “fresh” products. That has to change. There is also a quality issue that needs to be addressed as well. But in the long run, recycling does mean less use of virgin products such as, wood, plastic, and many metals.
One company I worked for had a problem getting enough sawdust and recycled plastic for the product they produced.
With plastics taking centuries or more to degrade, it only makes sense to reuse it as much as possible. One would think that’s a no-brainer, but for some, even that smacks of socialism. Which just goes to show you can’t please everybody. Such is life, huh?
One of the great small towns of Kansas, of course, is Pratt, also known as the Aspen of the Plains. Pratt’s approximately 8,000 hard working citizens have succeeded in protecting its 1920’s architecture along Main Street much unchanged from the old days.
About a year ago, I visited with Bill Curtiss, the renowned TV commentator, at his Pratt Chamber of Commerce speaking engagement. As we gazed over the top of a veritable forest of Cottonwood and Oak trees in Lemon’s park from the 4-H building toward downtown Pratt, Mr. Curtiss incisesily commented on the fully occupied store fronts he had noticed along Pratt’s Main Street, the rapidly flowing Ninnescah River at the south edge of town, the operating oil wells and contented cattle grazing in the fields, the newly cut wheat fields at the edge of town, the two progressive banks in the center of town.
I told Mr. Curtiss some of the amazing history of Pratt that doesn’t casually appear to the tourist passing through on Highway 54.
I told him about the old 1920’s Fish Hatchery a couple miles east of town along the cool always flowing waters of the Ninnescah River that he hadn’t had time to visit.
I told him about the large immaculately maintained swimming pool built in the depression era by Franklin Roosevelt’s WPA program.
I told him about how long time boosters of Pratt High School, many of whom haven’t lived in Pratt for years, still talk about the marvelous brick main street, the twin water towers marked “hot” and “cold” on north Main street, the new high school building.
We talked about how early Wichita airplane manufacturers, Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman were assisted with finances by a 1920’s Pratt banker at the Peoples Bank and by Mr. Innes of Wichita in meetings at a hunting lodge still visible south of Highway 54 on the Ninnescah River bluffs five miles east of Pratt.
I told him about how TWA airlines was founded and operated by a Pratt rancher until 1934 when forced to resign along with other airline presidents because of an air mail route disagreement. And how the same rancher continued to serve on the Board of the Santa Fe Railroad and many other boards throughout Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, into the 1960’s.
Frankly, if it wasn’t for Pratt, Kingman, Eldorado, Augusta, Wellington, Hutchinson, Great Bend and the countless farm to market communities surrounding Wichita, Wichita wouldn’t have got its start serving as a kind of central coordinator of the southern Kansas economy.
I suspect the few people who dislike the town might be avoiding the Pratt County Sheriff who doesn’t look kindly on law breakers.
We left Derby (and Kansas) in 1979. We returned in 2002, and came right back to Derby. We were surprised at how much it has grown. One of the nice things is that you do have person-to-person contact with the City Administration, the Police Chief, or anyone else you need to talk to. An interesting side-note: When we arrived in 2002, nobody asked where we came from, or what I did for a living. But everyone asked, “what church will you be going to?”!! Last time I checked, we had 27 churches, and only about 3 or 4 bars. (Not counting the strip joints.) Derby is indeed a pearl of a place to live.
Isn’t Derby like the gateway to Haysville?
Go Derby! I’m kinda upset with my fellow local vets who think they preserved my right to breath filthy air, and that I should shut up and be happy with it. Their view may be the loudest, but that does not make it right. They are better than this.
I’m not a smoker, but feel it would be hilarious if they somehow came up with a cure for smoking addiction. It would literally bankrupt the goverment! They make allot more money off of it than the tobaco companies.
Ahhhh, they would just print more money I guess, so we would be OK.
Seriously, it’s up to the people who own the property in question. The business owner. You don’t like the policy of the business, don’t go there. These types of law are no different than using the US Constitution to wipe your ass on.
I live in derby and i am a non smoker. However i have to say it is incredibly stupid to ban smoking in bars. A bar is usually a place that people go to talk and meet up with friends and have a drink or two and there are a lot of people who like to enjoy a cigarette while drinking. I think the people who go to bars and get upset about smoking need to just stay away from them and go somewhere else like a family restaurant. A Bar is exactly what it is a bar and if you dont enjoy smoking then don’t go to them. I agree with banning smoking except for patio areas at family restaurant. It is not fair and it is complete stupidity to ban smoking at bars. I feel sorry for the bar owners of derby they are going to lose a lot of business due to this smoking ban. People will go else where and it is not the fault of the bar owners.
Is Bob Getz still alive?
Upstaged only because Derby has 2 clods to kick.
Should be good news for Wichita.
Derbians that smoke can come to Wichita to spend their money and add to our sales tax coffers.
Monkey,
You can find out a lot of historical info on Kansas at the following site:
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/counties/
As the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote – “Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.” – thanks for the share!