It’s time to abolish Kansas winter.
There is everything wrong with these winters and nothing good about them.
Growing up the son of a mining engineer who moved from project to project throughout the American West, I’ve had experience with winter in other places.
We lived for a time in a town called Wallace, Idaho. It was generally a miserable place and the town’s leading export was ignorance.
But winter was the highlight of the year.
We had a ski area called Lookout Pass that got about 30 feet of snow, and you could ski from mid-November to mid-April.
There was even a bus that picked you up and took you to the ski hill for a couple of hours after school. Or, you could clear the snow off of a pond and skate. Folks had snowmobiles and even horse-drawn sleighs to pass the time.
And Wallace winter gave me my first introduction to the ways of local government.
There was a well-established red-light district in the middle of Wallace and brothels operated openly on a wink-and-nod basis.
The local police would regularly “raid” the houses, fine the prostitutes, test them for VD and then release them back to their jobs.
My dad thought that was kind of distasteful and took me with him to a City Council meeting where he raised a complaint.
When he finished his comments, one of the council members leaned back in his padded chair and said, “Mr. Lefler, are you aware that the fines from these establishments pay for all the snow removal from the streets? Do you want to pay higher taxes for that?”
Dad looked him square in the eye and said “You know, I don’t think I should have to pimp to get the snow off the streets.”
Let’s face it, Wichita winters bite. If we had a mountain and snow we could ski. And if it were cold enough long enough, we could skate.
The city only plows a small fraction of the streets when it does snow, so we have to put up with icy ruts as the runoff thaws and refreezes for weeks at a time.
Maybe we could use some brothels after all.
The one thing Kansas politicians all agree on — and talk incessantly about — is the need to attract and retain talent for the betterment of our economy.
