LAHARPE — LaHarpe Mayor Mae Crowell remains optimistic the city will eventually receive grant funding to help pay for upgrades to the city’s electric system.
Crowell spoke Monday, less than a week after LaHarpe learned its application for a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant was unsuccessful.
The rejection came with comments from the Kansas Department of Commerce, which administers the federal funds, as well as a rating system to illustrate just how close the city came to being approved. The ratings consider everything from total need, whether local municipalities are willing to match the grant funding, and local efforts to assist with the project in question.
LaHarpe’s final score of 72.90 (on a scale of 1 to 100) was 1.88 points shy of the lowest winning score.
“We were that close,” Crowell said.
But in their comments KDOC officials questioned LaHarpe’s ability to maintain its own electric system.
KDOC had a concern that the city is too small to properly operate and maintain the system, Crowell said. “They want assured … it doesn’t fall into disrepair.”
One of KDOC’s pushes is for small towns such as LaHarpe to consider selling their electric system to an outside operator, such as Westar.
The department also noted LaHarpe’ past efforts to address the community’s needs were weak, according to Sandy Votaw of the KDOC.
“They want to see that a community has accomplished more projects,” Crowell said.
“If these concerns are addressed,” Votaw wrote, “It could be a worthy application.”
LaHarpe already has taken steps to answering those questions, Crowell responded, chiefly by the hiring of Kelly Rouse as the city superintendent.
Unlike her predecessors, Rouse is a certified electric linesman, Crowell said.
“We hadn’t hired Kelly when we applied for this grant,” Crowell said.
Thus, KDOC’s concerns that LaHarpe had only a single employee dedicated to maintaining its electric system was off base, Crowell said. (Actually, the city has two full-time employees, including Rouse, and a part-time worker.)
“We think hiring Kelly gives us a big boost in terms of having somebody qualified,” Crowell said.
