With the filing deadline for seats on local city councils fast approaching — June 2 — it’s time to do some personal inventory.
“Do I have gifts that can be of service?” “What do I want for this town?” and “Am I willing to sacrifice the time necessary to do a good job?”
The overarching goal of a Council is to set the vision, a course that takes the city in a prosperous and healthy direction.
MATT REHDER, Iola Administrator, said he typically suggests a city revise its comprehensive plan every 10 years.
Iola’s was last done in 2014.
“It’s on the stove, but not the front burner,” Rehder said Wednesday.
A few things have provided him some wiggle room in pressing the matter.
Rehder said that Thrive Allen County’s annual community conversation helps inform the Council about locals’ needs and wants. Though not as thorough, formal (or costly) as hiring a professional facilitator, the brainstorming sessions keep them in the loop.
“From those conversations we know the top three concerns of Iolans,” which for the last several years have consistently been affordable housing, adequate childcare and better infrastructure.
“That just saved us six figures,” Rehder said jokingly, referring to the expense to hire a consultant and the time required for what can be a nine-month to one-year process.
Rehder also maintained a consultant, “would never recommend Iola take the lead in developing housing,” which after years and years of negligible housing starts by private developers, is exactly what the Iola Council did.
In 2022, Council members unanimously approved to extend sewer, water and electricity and install streets, curbing and guttering in the Cedarbrook subdivision in north Iola for a total of $1.7 million.
The gamble paid off.
In short order, Realtor Jennifer Chester and her son, Blake Boone, purchased the 22 lots, with an agreement to develop them in a timely fashion.
The first home has been completed and has sold, financing the prospect for more.
When all is said and done, Iola will have at least 16 new single-family homes and possibly another three larger homes or three duplexes.
Rehder commends Council members for the decision. “That took some vision — and courage.”
Rehder also lauded the Council’s decision in 2024 to pursue the Highway 54 rebuild, a must-have that members have “pushed back twice in the four years I’ve been here,” due to sticker shock.
