Commission hires for interim economic development post; discusses adding duties to job

By Charlene Sims, Journal staff

LCJeditor@icloud.com

MOUND CITY – The issue of not having a full-time economic development director raised its head again at the the Monday, May 11, Linn County Commission meeting.

Commission Chair Alison Hamilton announced that the interviews for the part-time economic development position had been completed and made a motion to hire Ashlee Allen.

Allen will receive $2,000 for working with the economic development committee and eCommunity group to award the summer youth grants, community organization and childcare grants. She will receive $1,000 at the county’s next pay period and the other $1,000 when all the grants have been awarded and administered for 2026. Allen, who is on the economic development committee and eCommunity, was asked to resign her position from those groups when she took the position.

Her job description includes:

• Maintaining economic development information on the county website and Facebook page,

• Collecting and organizing local grant applications in a timely manner,

• Planning, coordinating economic development, the board and the eCommunity meetings,

• Presenting grant applications to the board for review and decision-making,

• Notifying grant recipients of award decisions,

• Coordinating with the clerk’s office to ensure proper disbursement of funds, and

• Collecting and maintaining all required documentation regarding and related to grant awards.

  
  

Shortly after the motion was made to hire Allen, Jennifer Leach-Harlow, chair of the economic development committee, met with the commission to discuss items that needed to be addressed by the county for economic development grants and lots at the La Cygne Industrial Park that the county wants to sell.

Leach-Harlow prefaced her presentation by saying she wasn’t prepared for the commission hiring Allen before she spoke. As a result of that, what she would say could contradict what they had already done.

“I am here on behalf of economic development,” she said. “We have been searching for someone who is interested in adding value to our current grant projects.”

Leach-Harlow told the commissioners about grant awards that needed to be completed, lots at the industrial park that were up for sale, and her support of Allen taking the position.

Grant awards

Not being aware that the hiring of the economic development part-time position was taking place on Monday until after she arrived, Leach-Harlow gave the commissioners information that was needed to get started on the summer youth grants and asked the commissioners approval to get it posted on Facebook.

Leach-Harlow, told the commissioners, “I know (County Clerk Chasity Ware) as well as myself have received many phone calls of the local businesses wanting to get that completed so they could get it filled out.”

Leach-Harlow said that there were many small businesses in the county that cannot provide summer employment options because they’re not sure if they are are going to receive a grant or even if there is going to be the grant opportunity.

In the past, the deadline for applying for the Summer Youth Grants was April 1 and after being chosen, the business had until the first Tuesday in May to have hired an employee.

Leach-Harlow said the she would send all of the information to Allen and she will update it with all of her information. She said she  didn’t know how soon this was going to progress or when the interview was going to be done, so the economic development committee just has it here updated for you to look at.

“But we do have the okay to go ahead and get this posted as soon as we can?” she asked.

Hamilton said that was now in Allen’s job description to do that.       

La Cygne Industrial Park lots for sale

Leach-Harlow continued, “While I was here, I did want to touch on one other thing if I could as far as economic development and the eCommunity. As I had someone reach out this weekend, interested in the land that we have in La Cygne and (asked) who they would contact on possibly discussion of buying. I really didn’t know who to send that to. I told them I would get back with them on that.

“I have had a few conversations with Janet Miller (Network Kansas) and it kind of came to me with different things that are going on that I would like for the commission to consider. Would they be interested in taking bids on a Realtor® that could assist us in promoting and selling this land? I feel like we have a lot of great Realtors® in our community. No matter which one you select, whoever would give you the lowest bid. Whoever, whatever, even if another agent sells it from our county, they would still receive commission off that as well. They have the tools to advertise and market and the contacts needed to bring business to our community.

“You know it’s not only about selling the land, but it’s about increasing the local business support in our area. The families that attend our schools, the local grocery store, additional job opportunities, and overall economic growth.”

She said she had set up a meeting with La Cygne Police Chief and Planning and Zoning Director Zachary Mathies who had attended the commission the week prior to ask questions about selling the industrial park lots. She said that Peoples Telecommunications has the network built for infrastructure that support an industry wanting to come into the community.

“I don’t, as a board member, know what goes into researching land and knowing what we need to know,” she said. "I feel like with a lot of Realtors® that we have, they know what we need to do to find out how we can get this land sold or get it promoted. And so, that was just my two cents on that. And I think Janet told me that she had already had information for you.”

Hamilton said that she felt like the commissioners had addressed every issue that Mathies brought to the commission that day and now commissioners were in the process of getting the appraisals.

Hamilton continued, “Well, it’s a process for us. And so, right now, we’re in the process, right, of  getting the appraisals and that’s what we have to do in order to get to the next step.”                                                                                                                          

Leach-Harlow asked, “So when these people ask me do I just tell them …. Who would I tell them, ‘Hey, this is who you need to contact. They’ll take your information, they’ll pass it on.’ Do we have anybody that I can say contact them? And then they’ll reach out to you when this is complete?”

“They can always call the Public Works office,” said Hamilton. “We’re having all the parcels appraised, La Cygne and Pleasanton (industrial parks.)

Later in the meeting, Hamilton told the commissioners that Public Works Director Jesse Walton had stopped her in the hallway and told her that he was not in favor of calls coming into Public Works for people inquiring about lot sales. She asked the commission to make a decision on who would take those calls.

“My idea on that, even though I may not have stated it clearly, was that the phone calls would come into public works which would then create a message to call back and so those would be brought to us. They’re not answering any questions,” said Hamilton. “I know we have Ashlee in there now but that’s not part of her job description at all. It’s either that or they go to Jenny (Cummings, Planning and Zoning Director), which Jenny is under the direction of Jesse.

“To me, it makes more sense that it would come into this office. Do you guys have any comments?”

Commissioner Jason Hightower asked if the call was to just come before the commissioners, wouldn’t it just come through the clerk’s office.

Commission Jim Johnson asked, “Just to give number to call back, I mean, that’s all we’re asking for is to tell them to say ‘Okay give us a number. You bring it to us and then we ….’”

“Because for me, Jesse’s under our direction and Chasity’s really not. She’s her own office,” said Hamilton.

Johnson asked Ware if she minded doing that.

“I guess my question is an individual is just going to call in and we’re just going to take a name and a number?” Ware asked.

Hightower asked if the message could be brought to the next meeting.

Ware asked if it could just be emailed because she would hate for a call to be lost or dropped.

County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta joined the discussion and said, “When you all approved the resolution regarding the appraisal, we didn’t get any interest from any appraisers that wanted to appraise the Pleasanton and La Cygne Industrial park land.

“And so the next option would be to individually reach out to appraisers to sort of specifically request that they give me a quote for appraising those individual parcels so that you would then have a fixed price in accordance with that resolution.

“So to the extent that you all want me to do that, I can contact appraisers directly to request that they give us a value for those parcels because that’s another part of the problem with these inquiries that are going to come in.

“They are going to be asking what is it listed for and we don’t know yet because we don’t have any appraised values for any of the parcels.”

“I look at calling out for appraisals as an economic development position,” said Hamilton. “I know we’re not there yet, but I think that we could be there. I’m not really in favor of having you call individual appraisers right now. But regarding the phone calls coming in, I feel like it’s minimal. Very minimal.”

“How long does it take to get a broker’s opinion?” asked Johnson. “Is a broker’s opinion legal in our ….?”

“No,” Paletta said. “I mean at this point you all have a resolution that says that you are going to get an appraised value in order to have a listing price. So you would either need to rescind that resolution or make a new resolution in order to be able to establish a price for a negotiated sale for those parcels.

“And so, while I hear what Alison is saying, the problem is that theses two things are related, because if you don’t have a price, the people are going to be frustrated when they call because there’s not a price to give them."

Hightower said he agreed with that statement.

“So we have to get a price and you all passed a resolution that said it would be by appraised value. So we need an appraiser to give us a value for those parcels, and yes,  it can say how long that appraisal is good for,” said Paletta.

Johnson suggested, “So we need to reach to some appraisers and see what their bid is to do all our appraised values.”

“I mean I’m happy to call three or whatever you all say to just get this done so there can be a price and then, you know, folks can call back in,” said Paletta. “The economic development position that you hired had a specific job description for a set price. This wasn’t part of it.”                                                                                                                                                              

“So that’s sort of another ….,” said Paletta.

Hightower finished her sentence with, “Non-starter.”

Hightower said he was fine with Paletta going out for three appraisals, three different appraisers.

“And get us bids on all of our properties,” said Johnson. “I’m good with that.”

“And once we get the appraised value, can we put it on our Facebook page? Post it wherever it’s at and then nobody has to make phone calls,” said Johnson.

“Still once you have it posted on the website or Facebook page, it should direct people how to make an offer,” said Paletta. “Or how to come see it if they want to come look at it or whatever. So you’re still going to need a contact person for them to be able to contact then go see it. And so, that’s where the question was, OK, well, do you ultimately want to have a Realtor®? Do you ultimately want to have a representative from the county that they can contact to go show them these parcels? What do you want to do about that?”

Johnson said, “So, first off we need to get our appraised values and get that set up and go from there.”

Hightower agreed.

“And phones are going to?” asked Hamilton.

“For the time being, I say they go to the clerks’ office to be emailed out to the commissioners,” Hightower said.

Ware agreed.

Johnson said, “To me, as long as if the chairman just gets the email, just the one, and then the chairman can bring it (to the meeting).”

Corporation renewal

“What is the deadline for the eCommunity decision?” asked Hamilton. “I see that you have here to renew the eCommunity for Linn County and we need to discuss if we are keeping it or not.”

“Is it we have to know by June 1 or June 15 would be the deadline to keep status I would like to add that back to the agenda I would like to see Ashlee kind of get her feet wet before. But it is due by the 15.”

Hightower said, “I’m just saying what’s the harm in renewing it through the Secretary of State?”

Hamilton answered, “Yes, I don’t see any harm if we’re all in favor of doing that. I don’t who has logged in the past into this.”

Ware agreed and said that the corporation report was actually done before she was economic development director because this is done in the even years, It was an odd year when she was director.

Hamilton asked her to bring back that information closer to the first week of June and then maybe the commission can move forward with a different position or more responsibilities for the economic development position.