MILDRED — As mayor of Mildred, Dennis Gardner fears his role is to usher in the town’s official demise.
“The town looks like hell,” Gardner said of the weary community where abandoned properties outnumber those occupied.
Of its five city commissioners, only one attends meetings, Gardner said, “And that’s my wife, Candice.”
Gardner addressed members of Thrive Allen County at Mildred’s United Methodist Church Monday night in a continued effort to reach out to the county’s towns, small and smaller.
The audience of about 35 were sympathetic to Mildred’s plight of fast becoming a ghost town in the far northeast corner of Allen County.
It has 14 citizens, a budget of less than $5,000 and has no way to enforce its ordinances.
“They’re lost,” said Gardner. Literally. “They disappeared years ago,” he said of the town’s official records that dictate rules of order.
Thus the discussion turned to the possibility of Mildred disbanding as a city and becoming unincorporated.
Alan Weber, legal counsel for Allen County, said the move would put Mildred under the directorship of the county and force its citizens to comply with county rules and regulations.
That was welcome news to the four Mildred citizens who were at the meeting.
Judy Brigham, city administrator of Iola, also offered assistance by connecting Gardner with the League of Kansas Municipalities which could help investigate the best course for the city.
In his almost 40 years in Mildred, Gardner has seen the town go from a bustling berg to its derelict state of today.
“When I came in 1973 we had a city celebration each year complete with a street dance and parade,” he said. At one time, a cement plant north of town was the main employer and helped support a motel, high school, post office, car dealership, three lumber yards and five gas stations. Today, those are all gone.
The town has never had a municipal sewer system. Water comes from a rural water district. It also lacks service to the Internet, “but we’re working on that,” Gardner said.
Its immediate need is a lawn mower, Gardner said, to maintain grass growing alongside the city streets.
Without ordinances, “our hands are tied,” to enforce citizens to maintain their own properties, Gardner said. The hordes of rats and muskrats that dwell in the abandoned properties are health hazards, a citizen ventured.
MARY ANN Arnott briefed members about the Hospital Facility Committee on which she serves. Nine citizens from across the county comprise the committee to study whether Allen County Hospital is in need of a remodel or a new facility.
“Our purpose is to listen to the people of Allen County,” Arnott said. “To those who use our hospital, those who don’t. We want to know people’s wants and needs for a health care facility, including what services they would like to see added.
“We need to know the good, the bad and the ugly,” Arnott said.
The invitation brought forth several concerns, including the absence of an urgent care center since the Hospital Corporation of America has assumed management of the hospital in 2003.
Such a center provides care for low-level emergencies when doctors’ offices are typically closed.
“You know it’s a minor thing — like a high fever or the need for an X-ray — but it can’t wait until Monday,” said Sunny Shreeve, Humboldt, of when an urgent care clinic fills a need.
Without such a service, “We’re taking up a bed in the emergency room that someone else might need,” Shreeve said.
Allen County Hospital is “our first choice,” said Connie McWhirter of Moran. That said, McWhirter said the hospital’s floor plan “is awkward” with services difficult to locate.
Randy Weber, Iola, said that prospective industries look first at a city’s hospital and its schools in determining whether the town is a good place to locate.
“Communities that think down the road are the ones that attract industries and meet the needs of new populations,” he said.
Moran citizen Bill LaPorte said building a new hospital is “more than the county can take on.”
He viewed the hospital as a “fine facility” which could adequately serve the area if it were remodeled.
LaPorte allowed he was “open to having my mind changed,” if evidence weighed a new facility would better serve the public.
IN OTHER news, Kathy Ward of Moran said the swim bus transportation program for this summer was “three-fourths funded.”
The program buses children from Moran, LaHarpe, Savonburg, Elsmore and if desired, those from Mildred, to the Iola Municipal Pool two afternoons a week for June and July.
Ward figured $1,500 is needed to provide the free service for area children. She has $1,100 in pocket.
She also needs one volunteer each day to accompany the children from 12:30 to 3:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
For those who can help, contact Ward at 620-237-4474.
