ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

The 2026 Five State Free Fair and Seward County PRCA Rodeo soon will be here, and the crew at the Seward County Fairgrounds spend all year preparing the grounds and buildings for those events and others.

Since last year’s fair and rodeo, Activity Center Director Linda Johnson said one major project has taken place in a shop at the fairgrounds.

“We worked on that wall,” she said. “We’ve got some cracks that have shown back up. We’re going to get those fixed, and we’ve been painting all the doors and all the windows that are like cinder blocks.”

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Audit time is coming up for local governing entities, and the Liberal City Commission had those discussions at its most recent meeting Tuesday evening.

Dustin Ormiston from Hay, Rice & Associates was on hand to give some of the details of the 2025 audit.

“As always, I’d like to start by thanking the City of Liberal staff, they’ve always been good to work with and very responsive to suggestions we make,” Ormiston said. “They’ve also been great about correcting any issues necessary and being diligent about their part in this process.”

Ormiston began by talking about the independent auditor’s report.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Economic development is important for every community, and Liberal Mayor Jeff Parsons said the city’s recent economic development efforts have yielded a lot of positive results.

“Making Liberal a place for opportunity has been another goal, and that includes a lot of economic development. Liberal has a strong economic base, it’s a diverse business community, and the city’s current state of economic development is strong,” Parsons said. “There are multiple things the city does directly, such as providing incentives for economic development like Tax Increment Financing and Community Improvement Districts and similar programs. We also have direct things that go to business owners like the Façade Program, which is a 50/50 match up to $10,000 so businesses can make improvements to the façade of their buildings and make things look better. There are also a lot of unseen parts of economic development, like tourism – the city’s involved with the tourism board funding things like the PRCA Rodeo and similar events. We’re constantly updating exhibits at Baker Arts Center and doing other work to keep bringing people into town. I also have to give a lot of praise to the Seward County Development Corporation, because they do so much work that doesn’t get talked about nearly as much as it should. They work directly with local businesses and area entrepreneurs and work them through how things would work here in town and help them maximize their planned operations. A lot of people have also noticed the work going on in the downtown area the past few weeks, and that’s been a pretty significant investment. We’ve also got a consulting group we’re working with to help with the downtown redevelopment plan which we’ll put into action in the future, and we’re really excited about all of that. A big project we’re excited about is Apogee Power setting up a facility in town, and they’re headquartered all the way in Taiwan, which is exciting for us, and there are a couple other companies looking to set up in the area that we’ll be able to talk about more in the near future.”

ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Monday, July 20, Seward County commissioners voted to approve a notice of intention to exceed the Revenue Neutral Rate for the county for Fiscal Year 2027.

That same night, the commission voted unanimously to approve a readjustment in the pay scale for the Seward County Treasurer’s office for the five positions the office employs.

Treasurer Mary Rose said the adjustment would have no impact to the county’s general fund, as wages in her department come from the treasurer’s fund which ultimately comes from the Kansas Department of Revenue.

“There are strict guidelines and regulations what can be used for that,” she said. “Compensation is one of those that can be used from that.”