Pact moves forward; City's lease with KDWP is proceeding

Following a brief executive session at Tuesday's Fort Scott City Commission meeting, Mayor Jim Adams announced that the city is moving forward on its lease with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to allow hunting on land it owns located in Bourbon County.

The announcement followed a closed-door gathering with commissioners, city officials and Bob Farmer, the city's attorney.

At its Sept. 18 meeting, the commission approved an agreement with KDWP to open up tracts of land in the in the areas of Rock Creek Lake, the very south part of Lake Fort Scott, Condensary Road by the wastewater treatment plant and the west side of Fort Scott Municipal Airport, among other locales to shotgun and bow hunting.

Under the contract with Kansas Department of Wildlife, City Manager Dave Martin has said the city will receive a lump sum of $54,810.

Residents around Lake Fort Scott residents have voiced concerns about the agreement and Pat Scott spoke at the close of Tuesday's meeting about the support people in that area offer the city. Scott said more than 40 percent of people on the lake live out there full time, not just on weekends. "We take pride in our residences out there," she said, adding that residents contributed to the revival of the Lake Patrol.

She asked how the city could agree to open land there for hunting without asking residents. Scott said she thought about writing a letter to City Manager Dave Martin telling him "safety is our No. 1 concern out there" and she wondered who to call if they see something going on.

"We honor you guys and I'm asking you to honor us," Scott said, and invited commissioners to visit the area and her home.

Martin said if Scott or other lake residents notice spot trouble, they can call him or District Wildlife Biologist Justin Harbit.

Adams said the city has been and will continue to proceed with the KDWP pact. All rules and regulations will be clearly posted and patrolled by KDWP and sheriff personnel, officials have said. Adams said the postings will be in place by next week. "This is how government works," Adams said. "You elect your representatives and they do their due diligence and we're proceeding as voted."

On a separate item, Economic Development Director Macy Cullison gave a few more details about jobs being added in Fort Scott. "Companies have been adding jobs like crazy," she said, "over 100 jobs since April."

Peerless Architectural Windows and Doors has added 46 positions; Carlisle Transportation, 25; medical claims processing firm Cobalt Medplans, 38 "and counting;" and Extrusions, three.

Cullison added Firstsource, a health insurance claims processing firm, has also added more staff, but she didn't specify how many.

A couple of prospects are considering Fort Scott as a place to move and new downtown businesses have opened such as Little Luxuries, Luke Cosens chiropractic office and a planned new coffee shop, Cullison said.

Progress is also being made on making affordable high-speed Internet available in Fort Scott with two new companies coming to town. Cullison said the firms lay cable and fiber and provide bandwidth to Internet providers. One of the firms, whose name she did not mention, will being installing fiber by the end of the year. "It's very exciting," she said. "We're really making some big steps forward."

In other business, commissioners:

* Approved a policy for industrial revenue bonds, which Cullison said are used to finance large economic development projects, like a new building at the industrial park, for example. "This policy will cover the whole process on how industrial revenue bonds work with Fort Scott," she said, adding the guidelines were modeled on those form other cities that fit here.

Assistant City Manager Susan Brown said this will offer a framework that had not been in place in the past.

Farmer said the best thing about it is "it's guidelines. They're structured to help guide us in the right direction."

In other business, commissioners:

* Approved a request from Brown to use Overland Park insurance consultant Cretcher-Heartland to assess the city's risk. She said the firm approached the city.

* Approved spending $89,000 for Ray Lindsey Co. of Belton, Mo., to rehabilitate a lift station in the industrial park, which would have cost $200,000 to replace. Officials said the money is budgeted.

* Recognized with a certificate Steve and Nancy Cliffman and Jason and Darlene Richerson for the work they do putting on the Fort Scott Country Music Show twice a month at Memorial Hall.

* Public Utilities Director Richard Cook said the city's wastewater treatment plant received top marks from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment after a surprise inspection. "I think we have a wastewater treatment plant the citizens can be proud of," Cook said.

* Received a gold star award from Kansas Municipal Insurance Trust.