By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – The Linn County Commission received an update on county airport and taxes during a discussion with Economic Development Director Chasity Ware on Monday, Jan. 13.
Ware told the commissioners that, when the weather allowed, she would go out to the airport with a representative of the company that furnish landing strip lights to determine why the lights are not working properly. She said that after that visit she expected to be able to give the commissioners an idea of the cost of replacement.
Commission Chair Jim Johnson said that he would not be for spending money on the lights until the commission decided what they were doing with the airport. Commissioner Jason Hightower agreed.
Ware asked the commissioners if she could involve legal counsel in answering inquiries about the purchase of the airport. Johnson told Ware she could reach out to Mark Hagen, the attorney who has been working on some business issues for the county.
Hightower asked Johnson if he would consider asking Hagen to be the county counselor again, Commissioner Alison Hamilton agreed. Johnson said he would talk to Hagen.
“I thought he did a good job for us, thought he was working hard and trying hard,” said Hightower. “I think we need somebody in that role. I think it’s hampered a lot of our ability to be efficient and get things resolved. I think we need to have somebody on record as our counselor.”
Ware reminded the commissioners of their discussion last week about surveying land that was bid out for lease. She said that she did receive confirmation that if the land was surveyed and only the land being farmed was taxed, the taxes would be lower.
She gave an example of the land at the landfill. She gave an approximate example saying that if the county has 100 acres and if they would survey out the 22 acres that is being farmed, the county would only have to pay taxes on that 22 acres.
Another example Ware gave was the airport. She said that the property taxes on the airport would drop from $38,000 to $23,000 annually if they removed the land they made money on.
Also, if the airport property was deannexed, the amount of taxes would go down dramatically. She informed the commissioners that the deannexation would be another thing she wanted to confirm with legal counsel.
In other business, the commissioners:
• Voted to make Johnson the commission chair and Hamilton vice chair for 2025. Hightower made the motion to make the appointments.
Hightower was elected commission chair at the beginning of 2024, but Johnson and former commissioner Danny McCullough voted to strip him of that title in surprise move last June after Hightower attempted to implement some rules of order and also followed counselor Hagen's advice to ask some department heads not to attend a commission meeting to avoid an expected confrontation. (To read the story where Hightower was voted out as chair, click on the blue link above.)
• Heard from Road Operations Manager Jesse Walton and Public Works Director Shaun West that both had been gone last week and that any roads that had not been taken care of after the storm should be taken care of this week.
Also, learned that Hagen, who had been working for the county with Kaw Valley engineers about a culvert bridge on 900 Road, had dropped off information about how that could proceed. More information will be provided on that next week.
• Heard from West that he had gotten some information together about the swimming beach at the Linn County Park and asked if the commissioners approved of him presenting that to Kansas Wildlife and Parks. The commissioners agreed.
• Discussed the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) policy. The commissioners will work on updating the policy and the fee schedule.
• Approved county Appraiser Lisa Kellstadt’s decision to add an extension of 15 days for sending out change of value notices. She said that the weather has affected the final field work.
• Heard Johnson’s concerns about needing more applicants for the planning and zoning director position. Commissioners decided to advertise in more places for applicant.
• Discussed developing a new pay scale for county employees.
• Made plans to start working on what to do with the old county jail.
• Learned from Akes that he had met with Enterprise Rent a Car to discuss the sheriff’s office fleet. He invited the commissioners to a Zoom meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 31 to talk more with Enterprise. He also told the commissioners that he would like to meet with the commissioners on Feb. 10 after the commission meeting for a feasibility workshop that will last about an hour. Hightower said he would sit in on Zoom meeting.
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