Larned council retains Sterling attorney for city

Michael Gilmore, Great Bend Tribune, Kan.
·2 min read

Mar. 8—LARNED — In a light agenda Monday, the Larned City Council retained a Sterling municipal lawyer to fill the city's vacant attorney position.

Mark Tremaine, Sterling, currently serves as city attorney for the city of South Hutchinson and performs legal services for other communities in Central Kansas.

He currently works with Abbyville, Buhler, Nickerson and The Highlands and does defense work for Rice County.

Tremaine, who was introduced to the council at Monday's meeting, met with Mayor William Nusser, Council President Kim Barnes and City Manager Brad Eilts, who recommended that he be retained as city attorney and municipal court prosecutor.

Tremaine succeeds Ron Smith, who retired in January.

Smith, who retired after a 40-year legal career, had served as Larned city attorney since 2013, succeeding Jacque Butler. Tremaine will receive a monthly retainer of $2,000 per month as city counsel and municipal court prosecutor.

LPD officer Stos recognized With the recent Academy graduation of officer Damian Stos, Chief Lance Duft now has a full complement of sworn officers at the Larned Police Department.

"Damian had come over from the Kansas Fire Marshal's office as a building inspector," Chief Duft said. "He also had previous experience at Larned State Hospital security before that."

Stos was recognized by Chief Duft and the council at Monday's meeting.

Stos was hired last October and went into Academy training later that month, graduating Feb. 23.

"The Academy training is 14 weeks, but this time it was about 17 weeks due to time off for the holidays," Duft said.

"We will continue to give him his training and see if he desires to specialize in something," Duft said.

"We are now fully staffed," the chief noted. "We have eight full-time sworn officers including myself." Larry Atteberry has been hired as part-time dispatcher and part-time road patrol.

"It is really nice because it had been about five years of being consistently short staffed," Duft said.

Duft noted that the department is operating from a new rotation schedule that allows at least one weekend off per month. "That really helps them with family events and things so they don't have to use their benefit time to take a weekend."