The Gardner City Council has established a land bank in a renewed push to revitalize blighted parts of the city and give potential landowners a chance to purchase land without inheriting delinquent taxes on the properties. The council, during its Nov. 5 meeting created the land bank which will allow the city to acquire property sold at tax sale without having to pay the delinquent taxes. “If a city is a successful bidder at a tax sale, the city is required to pay delinquent taxes. In contrast, when a land bank acquires property, the county treasurer must remove from the tax [...]

Oct. 29, Johnson County became the first county in Kansas to proclaim its partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau for the 2020 Census. Ed Eilert , board of county commission chairman, presented a proclamation at today’s business session. Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution mandates a census take place every 10 years. The data collected determines a state’s number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and determines how billions of dollars in federal funds are dispersed to local communities. Alan E. Organ, M.D., PhD, Census Bureau Partnership Specialist accepted the proclamation today. He spoke about the importance of [...]

The Gardner City Council adopted changes to the city’s personnel policies and procedures, 2018 edition. The city amended section 4-108 of the manual by removing subsection 108.4 in its entirety. The subsection deals with the process through which an employee can appeal a negative performance review. The council amended section 7-108 to remove the following language from the manual: “In cases in which the employee directly reports to the city administrator, the employee can request a review of the disciplinary action directly to the governing body. In these cases, the governing body will assume responsibilities of the city administrator outlined in [...]

Laura Gourley, interim city administrator, told Gardner city council at the Oct. 1, 2018, meeting that there have been multiple inquiries about former administrator Cheryl Harrison-Lee’s payout. Randy Gregorcyk, councilman, asked for the expected cost of an interview team and a headhunter for the city administrator position. Alan Abramovitz, human resources manager, stated the charge for a search firm is typically 30 – 35 percent of the first year’s salary. (Read more: Gardner News)

Gardner has a new management team on board, with at least one familiar face to long-time Gardner residents. Laura Gourley was named as interim city administrator, effective Sept. 17, 2018. Gourley is the granddaughter of Melvin Argo, who was Gardner’s mayor from 1957-1959. One of Gourley’s first jobs was working as typesetter for The Gardner News while still in Gardner Edgerton High School. She recalls typing into a machine and the type printed out on long, white sheets that was pasted to the page. She and Ruth Lundy, formerly of the Gardner Police Department, would then proofread, she said. Gourley has [...]

Countdown for completion of Gardner’s new justice center is on track. Gardner voters approved a new justice center by about 71 percent and issued 13.75 million in bonds to construct the facility near 167th and Moonlight in August of 2017. It will house both the police department and municipal court. Originally scheduled to open in August, 2019, it may squeak up to July, according to Sgt. Steve Benz, public information officer for the Gardner Police Department. (Read more: Gardner News)

Gardner’s water woes dominated discussions during a city council meeting Oct. 1 with a consultant describing the current water situation in the city as urgent and fast approaching an emergency. Jeffrey Klein, a project manager at Burns and McDowell, an engineering firm with vast experience in water projects, told the council that the city is running out of time, and the city may experience frequent shortages in the near future. The company presented the city with several options to forestall shortages in the future including proposals to expand capacity from Hillsdale water reservoir, re-establishing Gardner Lake as a source and connecting [...]

Edgerton City Council approved a recommendation to renew an agreement with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department for the law enforcement services for fiscal year 2019. The agreement calls for the city to pay the sheriff’s department $310,459. a five percent increase from the $295,677 the city paid this year. The agreement, outlined during the Sept. 27 council meeting, states that the sheriff’s department will provide services at the same level as those provided for the unincorporated area of the county. A fully manned patrol car will be available for the city and additional cars and personnel shall be available as needed. [...]

The City of Gardner has named Laura Gourley as interim city administrator, effective Sept. 17, 2018. A unanimous vote appointing Gourley occurred during Monday night’s regularly scheduled city council meeting. Gourley has been a Gardner employee for nearly 30 years, spending the past 13 years as the finance department director. During her tenure, she has played an instrumental role on numerous projects and initiatives, including but not limited to, developing the annual budget and first biennial budget, evaluating incentive packages to support economic development projects, serving on strategic planning teams, and helping the city maintain an AA- bond investment rating through [...]

If words were actions, Gardner would have a KCI-type airport in place of the city’s municipal airport. Since taking Gardner Municipal Airport over in January 2016, untold hours have been spent discussing the airport’s future, although little action has been taken to improve or maintain the property. According to the Aug. 20 city council meeting minutes, a report document prepared for the council by “Lee Moore’s spouse,” provided a timeline of council input regarding GMA. The document was reviewed by the city council and obtained under the Kansas Open Records Act. According to the report, in Sept. 2015, Laura Gourley, finance [...]