With shovels, left to right: Rob Evans, City Administrator; Ron Cook, Prowers County Commissioner; Lamar Mayor Kirk Crespin; Quyntyn Johnson, Senior VP of Operations for LV Petroleum; Michelle Carver, Site General Manager of LV Petroleum; David Zavala, Lamar City Councilman
Under a bright blue sky on Saturday morning, June 1, 2024, ground was broken for construction of the long-awaited and much-anticipated new Arby’s restaurant at 1002 North Main St. in Lamar. Present for the groundbreaking were Quyntyn Johnson, Senior VP of Operations for LV Petroleum, Michelle Carver with LV Petroleum, Lamar Mayor Kirk Crespin, Lamar City Council members, Prowers County Commissioners, City Treasurer Kristin Schwartz, Community Development Director Anne-Marie Crampton, and City Administrator Rob Evans.
Mayor Crespin thanked everyone for attending and then introduced Mr. Johnson, who then welcomed attendees to the groundbreaking. He spoke for a few minutes about how excited they were to be bringing the new business to Lamar, saying that construction is expected to be completed by November and that the restaurant should be up and running well before Thanksgiving. He mentioned that the restaurant is still in need of a “great general manager”. He ended by thanking the mayor for doing a “fabulous job” in bringing the project to fruition.
Chairman of the Prowers County Commissioners, Ron Cook, addressed the crowd next. He said “I want to thank you on behalf of the Prowers County Commissioners and our constituents here in our county and we want to thank you for the investment you’ve made in our community. This has been contentious and long waited for and everybody is very excited for what is coming to our community and what you’ve done to be a partner in our community. You’ve stepped up with that economic development thing and we just want to thank you for being a partner in our community.”
Left to right: Councilman Brent Bates, Councilman Manuel Tamez, Councilwoman Gerry Jenkins, Mayor Crespin, Councilwoman Shalah Mata, Councilman Joe Gonzales, and Councilman David Zavala
Mayor Crespin spoke next, saying “Thank you all for coming out today. We really appreciate your support on this. This has been a project years in the making. It started out way back when Angie Cue was our Community Development Director and we contracted with a company who was doing data mining to determine ‘where do our residents spend their money when they leave our community?’ and Arby’s was at the top of the list. So from that point on, Angie Cue started working on trying to find somebody to bring an Arby’s to Lamar. It wasn’t until 2019 when I became the mayor that I got involved and started working on this as well. And since then, for the last 5 years it has been a rollercoaster trying to get this thing going. It has been an up and down battle. But here we are today and I could not be more excited. I want to thank everyone who has contributed because this hasn’t just been a labor of love for me, it’s been a project of the many, not the few. This has been a project of so many people who have contributed. We have people like Joe Spitz, who helped me make the connections. We have individuals like Jon Littler and Tracy Williams who helped us have access to this property that we are going to be building this project on. We also have our staff members like our past City Administrator Steve Kil, who was helpful. We have our current City Administrator Rob Evans. We have our City Treasurer Kristin Schwartz. We have our City Clerk Linda Williams. And I can’t forget our City Attorney Lance Clark who I ran through the wringer on this project doing so many different contracts. I can’t thank him enough. Last but not least I want thank Quyntyn and his team from TA Express for making this investment and I really want to thank Jeanette who could not be here today; Jeanette Davis, Vice President of LV Food Service Concepts, who actually took my call and listened to my sales pitch and accepted it, so thank you to Jeanette. We really appreciate it and miss you here today. Last, but not least, I have to thank my City Council. This City Council has worked hard on trying to improve our community. They have been diligent about trying to improve our infrastructure, the way we govern in our community, on improving the quality of life through public safety and making the investments and, most of all, in working on incentive programs and trying to help with our economic development. They have been vital in this. As I said before, this is a project of the many, not the few. So everybody who has contributed; I thank you so much. Before we go I want to say, to whoever is listening out there – it’s been five years in the making if not longer, to try to get this company here, this Arby’s. It’s meant a lot to us and it’s meant a lot to me. And if I want anybody to take something away from this, it’s that the City of Lamar has worked hard to bring this company to Lamar. We’re ready to grow. We’ve made the investments for the future. We’re going to continue to look for opportunities and if you’re out there looking for a place to invest in whether you’re retail, a restaurant, a hotel, a home developer or a manufacturer, Lamar is ready to grow. We are positioned for the future and we are open for business! Thank you. Let’s break ground!”
LV Petroleum, LLC is the owner of the TA Express in Lamar. It purchased the former Pilot Truck Stop in October of 2022 and has quickly become a part of the community, supporting law enforcement with a recent donation of body armor to the Prowers County Sheriff’s Department and becoming a voting member of Prowers Economic Prosperity. Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc., is the franchisor of the Arby’s Brand and is part of the Inspire Brands family of restaurants headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Arby’s, founded in 1964, is the second-largest sandwich restaurant brand in the world with more than 3,500 restaurants in nine countries.
By Barbara Crimond
