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  Carrie Rengers  

City puts a dent in auto-body shop's plan

Dan Wheeler and his father, John, have talked for a long time about putting an LED sign atop their Kammerer Auto Body and Paint shop at Waterman and Washington downtown.

Kammerer's recent remodeling and expansion is complete, so Dan Wheeler says, "We thought, why not now?"

But they're about three years too late.

When the city extended its central business district zoning in 2005 to include Washington, the point was to encourage redevelopment in the core of the city and help businesses, too.

"The only thing it's done is hurt us," says Wheeler, who spent $2,500 trying to get the 300-square-foot sign approved.

The rezoning says that off-site signs, which are billboards on someone's property advertising other businesses, are not in the public interest. There can be no more than five in a one-mile area.

There are already five signs along Washington from Kellogg to Central.

"It's just kind of a stranglehold," Wheeler says. He adds that some of those signs are technically too close according to the new zoning, and if they fell down they couldn't be rebuilt.

The Wheelers requested a variance for their billboard.

Even though city planners said the sign wouldn't detract from surrounding development, they said it would go against the spirit and intent of the law. So the Board of Zoning Appeals rejected the request.

"Our intersection would be great," Wheeler says. "It's a main entry into Old Town."

Art Stanfill of Star Boards Inc., who was helping the Wheelers with their request, was surprised by the denial.

"I don't know why they wouldn't allow such a thing that would support local business," he says.

Stanfill says he knows that through the years a lot of billboards have been neglected, but he says the LED board represents a much bigger investment.

"I don't believe it's in the same category as... somebody just throwing up a great big paper billboard somewhere," he says.

Making her point

A few weeks ago, if Helen Cochran would have taken the podium at the downtown Rotary club and started grooming herself, everyone would have thought she was nuts.

But that's the first thing the leader of the opposition to the $370 million school bond issue did Monday in her debate against school board president Lynn Rogers.

In case anyone wondered whether she would state her case forcefully, Cochran made her point without saying a word: She applied lipstick.

Some in the audience snickered, and some laughed nervously.

Rogers didn't have any similar props, nor did he attempt to compare himself to a pit bull, a la Sarah Palin.

"We kind of just let the facts speak for themselves," Rogers says. "Our message is really about the kids, not lipstick."

Worn out

A new LLC owns longtime Wichita business TeeShirtMan, but the partners involved haven't changed.

Dan Carney, his son, Mike, and Randy Love, formerly chief executive of Love Box Co., purchased TeeShirtMan about a year ago and operated as GHMS LLC.

"Basically, we just decided it was time for that company to go away," says Brent Welch, who, with his wife, Christie now manages the business.

He says there were previous managerial problems, including a loan default. Those managers are now gone, Welch says. So is a lot of the former company's equipment, which the bank repossessed.

"We knew it was going to happen," Welch says. "It's very complicated."

The new business is Wear It Out LLC.

"It started fresh," he says.

The store is at 3105 E. Central, near Central and Hillside.

Welch says the store's new equipment can produce better-quality products faster and with increased color options. He says he's looking to expand the business as well, in part through scrapbooking and quilting-related products.

He says the company's problems are in the past.

"We're trying to focus on the future," he says.

You don't say

"Rub it in."

--Kansas State Fair general manager Denny Stoecklein's response to a reporter's comment about sunny, beautiful Monday, the day after a wet, soggy fair ended

Got a hot tip or quirky story? Call Carrie Rengers at 316-268-6340 or e-mail crengers@wichitaeagle.com.