City says no to second offer on Wellington field

    City council members turned down a second offer from the current owner on buying the Wellington football field.
    After a 40-minute closed session Monday night, the three council members present voted against the proposal from Sam Kunnemann, who purchased the field last October from Chase County Schools.
    Kunnemann spent $65,000 for the field. The current market value of the nine Cornerstone lots he proposed to trade is $67,393.
    Eight of the nine lots are on East 3rd Street, which recently was paved and has curb and gutter. Those eight lots are priced at $7,347 each.
    A larger ninth lot, which is  also on East 3rd, is priced at $8,516.
    There was not much discussion from the council after they exited from the closed session, but some in attendance offered input before the city officials went into the closed session.
    Barb Prottsman, who lives across the street from the Wellington field, said she felt Kunnemann was taking advantage of the city with his proposal.
    “He went to that auction and he didn’t look into things and didn’t research it. Now, he’s looking for you guys to bail him out,” she said.
    Nick Schultz recalled about a year ago the city had offered the school $50,000 for the entire Wellington property, including the buildings. The school then decided to sell it by auction, due to advice from school attorneys, so turned down the city’s offer.
    With this offer, Schultz said the city, in effect, is being offered just the football field for close to $70,000.
    He wondered if the city couldn’t continue the arrangement with CCS to continue using a school field for soccer.
    Council member Johna Jablonski noted one of the issues with using the school’s practice field now is there are no lights, but that is “something we could work around.”
 

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