Bourbon County will auction 104 properties at its tax sale on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 11 a.m. at Memorial Hall in Fort Scott. The map below shows where they are. Click any pin to see what the county lists for that property.

Open the map on its own page (easiest on a phone). The Full screen button in the map’s top corner fills your screen.

How to use the map

• Click a pin or a name in the list to see the tax ID, owner as shown on the tax rolls, legal description and address. Each property also has links to Google Maps, Street View, the county’s tax search and parcel map, and the page of the county’s list it is on.
• Search by address, owner, tax ID or any word in the legal description.
• Filter by town, or by addition or plat. The addition comes from the start of each legal description.
• Owners with 2+ parcels shows owners with more than one property on the list.
• Only what’s on the map limits the list to the area you are looking at. Zoom in on a neighborhood to see just those properties.
• Switch to Aerial with the layer button to see each lot from above. Numbered circles are groups of pins; click one to zoom in.
• Pin colours show the town. The county’s list does not include amounts owed, so the map cannot sort or colour by amount.
• Each property has its own link. Copy the address bar on the full-page map after clicking a pin to share that property.

How the properties were placed

The county’s list gives a street address for each property but no map coordinates. FortScott.biz looked up each address with the State of Kansas’s public address locator, which uses the county’s 911 address points. Only the street address and town were sent.

• 92 properties are pinned at their 911 address point.
• 1 (324 S GARRISON, Fort Scott) is placed approximately, along its street.
• 11 are not on the map because the county lists them with a house number of 0. They are below, and at the bottom of the map’s list, so nothing from the county’s list is left out.

A pin shows where the address is, not the property’s boundaries. Check the legal description and the county’s records before bidding.

Not on the map (11)

The full list of all 104 properties, in a table, is in our tax sale list story.

Sources: 2026 Bourbon County Tax Sale Property List and the Bourbon County Treasurer’s page, retrieved Oct. 30, 2026. Map: Leaflet; street map © OpenStreetMap contributors; aerial imagery from USGS The National Map; locations from the Kansas DASC address locator.

Bourbon County Commissioner Samuel Tran ended the Oct. 19 commission meeting by accusing three fellow commissioners of making up their minds together before they ever sat down.

“Clearly the decision was already made by the three of you before you came to the table,” Tran told Gregg Motley, Joe Allen and David Beerbower. “Can I prove it? No. But your action speaks louder than words.”

What set it off

Earlier that night, the commission voted 3-2 to hire a local human resources provider. Allen made the motion and Motley seconded. Motley, Allen and Beerbower voted yes. Tran and Commissioner Mika Milburn-Kee voted no.

In his closing comments, Tran said the three vote together on “every one of these votes” and that people had been calling him about it. “You three voted together offline,” he said. “You did it before, you did it again tonight. … One day you’re going to get caught.”

Motley, who chairs the commission, answered: “Everything Commissioner Tran just said is wrong.” He then adjourned the meeting.

As the meeting ended, Tran told Motley, “Grow a backbone, Gregg.” Beerbower, echoing Tran’s words, said, “The only thing I can say, Sam, is we didn’t get caught.” Tran answered, “I’m right here, David. I’ll be out in the parking lot.” Some people in the room told FortScott.biz they understood that Tran was issuing a challenge to fight Beerbower outside. As far as is known, it didn’t come to fisticuffs in the parking lot.

What the law says

Kansas has an open meetings law so that public business happens where the public can see it.

Bourbon County has five commissioners. Three is a majority. Under the law, when a majority of the commission discusses county business, that is a meeting, and it has to be open to the public (K.S.A. 75-4317a). That applies in person, by phone or through other back-and-forth messages.

The law also covers a chain of private conversations. If one commissioner talks to a second, and the second talks to a third, and any of them is trying to reach agreement on a vote, that chain has reached a majority and must be open too (K.S.A. 75-4318(f)).

Two commissioners talking privately is allowed, because two of five isn’t a majority, as long as it doesn’t become part of a chain that reaches a third.

What the commissioners say

Asked about Tran’s accusation that the three had worked out their votes outside the meeting, commissioners told FortScott.biz they never discussed their HR votes with one another.

“I would never talk to more than 1 other commissioner about a topic outside of a meeting,” Commissioner Joe Allen said. “On the topic of HR, I never spoke to another commissioner about their stance on HR submissions outside of a meeting. I wasn’t for sure I would even get a second last night or have the majority. It’s just what I thought was best for county.”

Tran said himself that he could not prove his accusation. His view seemed to be based on the assumption three commissioners wouldn’t independently decide to support the same motion without coordination. However, the commissioners say they reached their decisions on their own and had no idea how anyone else would vote until the actual vote.

Every year, Kansas checks each county’s property values. Bourbon County failed again.

Commissioners heard the results Oct. 19 from Mike Dallman of the state’s Property Valuation Division, by speakerphone. A 2016 law, K.S.A. 79-1404b, requires that conversation in an open meeting whenever a county fails.

How the check works

The county appraiser values every property, and landowners get a notice by March 1. For most property, Kansas law says that value should be what it would sell for. Farmland uses a separate formula. A home’s taxable value is 11.5% of its appraised value.

To test the values, the state looks at properties that actually sold. If a house sold for $100,000 and the county had it valued at $80,000, the ratio is 80%. The state lines up the ratios and takes the middle one, the median. The target is 90% to 110%.

It also checks whether similar properties are valued alike.

What the state found

The study used 112 home sales and 19 commercial and industrial sales from 2025.

• Homes: The median was 77.7%, about 78 cents on the dollar. Home values were consistent. “It’s just a matter that the values are low,” Dallman said.
• Businesses: The median was 66.5%, and similar properties were valued very differently. Dallman said commercial is hard statewide, with few sales to compare.

The county must also follow about a dozen procedures, such as reviewing a sixth of all properties yearly. It earned 47 of 50 points. Five more came off because the yearly market-trend notice wasn’t published at least 10 business days before value notices were mailed, as K.S.A. 79-1460a requires.

With 21.1 of 50 points from the sales test, the total was 63.1 out of 100. Passing is 75.

Why it matters

Property tax is supposed to be shared fairly. When some properties are valued closer to their real worth than others, their owners pay more than their share. State school-funding formulas also use local values.

Low values don’t automatically mean lower tax bills. Each taxing body sets its rate by spreading its budget across the value in its area. When taxing entities vote to exceed the “revenue neutral rate” it means they will be taking more in taxes than they did the year before. All else being equal, that determines whether the taxes go up or down.

Not new

State reviews found the county out of compliance every year from 2021 through 2024. In August 2025, then-appraiser Matt Quick put the home ratio at 72.8% and said the county was last in range around 2019 or 2020. State and county officials have blamed a statewide jump in sale prices after COVID.

What’s next

The state isn’t ordering values raised. “Whether you want to raise them or not, we leave that between the commission and the appraiser,” Dallman said. But mid-year 2026 medians for homes and businesses are “considerably lower,” he said, and “most likely I’ll be talking to you this time next year.” He added that the Statehouse has been asking more about counties out of compliance.

Quick resigned this August. Dallman praised new appraiser Danielle Louk and said the state gives a new appraiser a year of leeway on steps that aren’t required by law.

October 18th, 2026

FORT SCOTT — Bourbon County has finally had its courthouse inspected for asbestos, and a report is on the commission’s agenda for Monday night.

An environmental firm did the inspection Sept. 29, under a contract the commission capped at $5,000. The Oct. 19 agenda lists “Asbestos Report – Beerbower,” two days before the courthouse elevator goes out of service for renovation.

Long before anyone took a sample, the public was told the building was fine. In July, then-Chairman Samuel Tran said the state had given the courthouse “a clean bill of health” and that “for the general public, we’re fine.” In September, he said the asbestos issue only became a controversy because “somebody took it and broadcast it all over the news prior to coming to the board.”

Monday’s report should show whether the building is safe for the public and for county employees. Tran’s claim that there would have been no controversy if “somebody” had brought the issue to the board instead of to news outlets can be checked against the record now.

What Jackson reported, and what happened next

On Friday afternoon, May 29, courthouse maintenance employee William Jackson sent his supervisor, Laura Krom, executive assistant to the county commission, a text message with photos of crumbling pipe insulation in the courthouse basement and asked for permission to have it tested for asbestos, FortScott.biz reported in June. He also photographed dust he said was collecting on desks in the basement work area.

The next morning, the county’s contracted human resources consultant, Dr. Steven Cohen, told Jackson by phone that he was terminated. The termination memo, from Cohen and Krom to Jackson’s personnel file, says Cohen spoke with Jackson “after conversation with Ms. Laura Krom and consultation with two Bourbon County Commissioners.” It cites his probationary status and Kansas at-will employment. May 30 was his 90th day.

The memo does not name the two commissioners, but commissioners Gregg Motley, Joe Allen and David Beerbower all say they were not consulted about the firing. That leaves Commissioners Mika Milburn-Kee and Samuel Tran, who was chairman at the time.

“A clean bill of health”

In mid-June, a Kansas Department of Health and Environment representative walked the basement with county Emergency Manager Lou Howard. It was a visual look; no samples were taken. Howard told FortScott.biz the representative “did not see anything that was concerning,” but added: “He did say that if there was active construction going on at the time, then it would be a concern.”

FortScott.biz asked county officials about it the same day. Milburn-Kee said someone had given “a verbal” account and that “it wasn’t a negative report — like it wasn’t bad,” though she had nothing in writing and had not spoken with KDHE herself. Krom said she had not seen it but had “heard that the report is complete.”

Jackson came to the July 6 commission meeting to raise the same concerns he had communicated to his supervisor the day before being fired. “If there is no hazard, prove it,” he said. “Release the inspection records, show the testing, let the facts speak.” (video, 15:57)

Near the end of that meeting, Tran took up “the issue of health and wellness of the people within the building itself” (video, 1:55:38):

“KDHE did come through the building. They did tour the building. They did inspect the building. They gave us a clean bill of health.”

He said that did not mean the building was free of asbestos or lead, but that KDHE “did see it, they did annotate it, they gave us a clean bill of health. … So for the general public, we’re fine. As long as you don’t go eating it, licking it, crumbling it, and breathing it, you’ll be fine.”

Milburn-Kee replied: “Actually, I heard you could eat it, you just shouldn’t breathe it.” (video, 1:57:08)

There was no report, and no “clean bill of health” that could be verified. When the Bourbon County Monitor requested the documentation the county produced a single memo Krom wrote on July 8, two days after Tran spoke. Not only was there no KDHE “bill of health” attached, the memo specifically said KDHE would not issue anything in writing. Further it said that KDHE “only regulates asbestos in connection with construction or demolition, not deterioration alone.” This apparently put the deteriorating pipe insulation falling onto an employee’s desk outside KDHE’s purview.

“KDHE cannot give us a clean bill of health”

Four weeks later, Commissioner Gregg Motley contradicted Tran’s claim (video, 2:19:59):

“Asbestos is a federal EPA issue. KDHE cannot give us a clean bill of health. The only time the state’s involved is when there’s construction surrounding asbestos.”

“Some people are afraid to come in the courthouse, whether their fears are justified or not,” Motley said. Allen said some county employees “refuse to go down there now” (video, 2:20:46). When the board asked for a volunteer to take on the issue, Tran said, “I’m not volunteering” (video, 2:21:25). Motley took it.

On Aug. 31, Motley reported that asbestos expert Dr. Arthur Frank told him “we definitely need to have it tested” (video, 58:06). That night Milburn-Kee moved to have the entire courthouse tested; the motion failed. Two days later, she brought a testing firm to the board, and commissioners voted to hire it.

“Broadcast it all over the news”

On Sept. 21, Beerbower wanted to bring resident Michael Hoyt to the inspection. Milburn-Kee moved that the inspection be limited to “the employees, the elected official, the contractors,” and Tran seconded (video, 52:58). In the discussion that followed, Tran said (video, 54:04):

“This has been known in this building for a while, way before you became commissioner, way before I became commissioner, and it became a controversy because somebody took it and broadcast it all over the news prior to coming to the board with the results.”

“Yes, we have an issue, we’re trying to fix it,” he added. “But it didn’t need to be blown out of proportion.” The motion passed 3-1, with Beerbower opposed.

William Jackson was the one who raised the issue. According to his account, he had been fired for doing exactly what Tran said he had not done: raising the issue with the board first. He sent a written request with photos to the commission’s own executive assistant on Friday, May 29. Tran, Milburn-Kee, Krom and Cohen then decided to fire him, and he was told Saturday morning, less than a day after he sent the request.

Tran’s complaint points to a proper path: bring the concern to the board before going public. Jackson took that path, and within hours Tran was part of the decision to fire him. Tran did not say what Jackson should have done differently. Jackson’s photos reached the news only after he had raised the issue through his supervisor and been fired.

What Monday should answer

On Oct. 5, Beerbower told the board the inspection “did happen” but he had not received results (video, 1:16:11).

The report should say whether the material Jackson photographed contains asbestos and whether air samples in the building found fibers. If the insulation is asbestos, the crumbling pipes over the basement work area, and the dust on the desks below them, become a far more serious matter for the people in that area.

If the results are clean, they will support Tran’s July assurance that “we’re fine.” If they are not, residents will have the July 6 recording, the July 8 memo and the May 30 termination memo to set beside them.

The commission meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, at the courthouse, 210 S. National Ave.

FORT SCOTT — Bourbon County commissioners spent part of their Sept. 21 meeting trying to work out when they had agreed to shift money between funds in the 2027 budget. They never voted on it, and they did not agree about what their earlier discussions had settled. Meeting video and the county’s own minutes show how the idea moved forward over four meetings without a vote.

Aug. 24: a stated goal, no vote

Commissioner Mika Milburn-Kee described what she wanted from the budget: “keep everybody exactly where they’re at, revenue neutral, but us take the assessed valuation increase of that two mil and put it in the reserves in the general fund” (video, 52:45). She put that growth at “approximately $300,000, a little bit less.” The only vote on the 2027 budget that night authorized publishing the hearing notice. The minutes, approved Sept. 9, record the idea as “the Commission’s overall objective.”

Aug. 31: a new recommendation, with Tran absent

A week later, budget consultant Matt Lawn of Baker Tilly recommended “lowering that mill levy” for Road and Bridge “by about four mills and then essentially pushing those mills back into general fund and the employee benefit fund,” using one-time FEMA reimbursement money in the road fund (video, 23:20). He said the plan was based on “some requests that I’ve got from you guys.”

Commissioner Samuel Tran was absent. The commission took no vote on the recommendation. County Treasurer Jennifer Hawkins cautioned that part of the road fund’s balance predates the FEMA reimbursements and that some is needed to match bridge grants. The minutes say the commission directed that her reconciliation of those funds “be completed before any mill reallocation is finalized.”

Sept. 14: the shift shows up in the numbers

After the revenue-neutral rate hearing, Lawn walked through how mills had been moved between funds while the total levy stayed flat: up 2.313 mills in the employee benefit fund and down 1.134 mills in Road and Bridge, among other changes. He said the Road and Bridge cut was smaller than first proposed because some of the FEMA money was “already spoken for” and some had to stay in its special project fund, and that the changes were made “based on council priorities.” The commission voted 5-0 to exceed the revenue-neutral rate but did not adopt the budget. Later that night, all five commissioners, Tran among them, voted to approve the Aug. 31 minutes describing Lawn’s recommendation.

Sept. 21: “When and where do we change our mind?”

When Lawn described moving Road and Bridge money into the employee benefit fund, Tran objected. “That’s the last thing I remember the five of us talking about,” he said of the general fund plan. “We agreed to that, all of us, unanimously” (video, 12:26). “I just want to know when and where do we change our mind on this.”

Milburn-Kee said she was “fine with general.” Lawn said he was “merely saying what Commissioner [Milburn-Kee] asked me to consider” and was open to whatever the board wanted. Tran asked who had directed the change. “Projections. Nobody directed,” Milburn-Kee said, explaining that Lawn had projected what Road and Bridge would overspend in 2026 and carried that forward (video, 13:20).

About 25 minutes later, Commissioner David Beerbower said he did not remember that discussion at the table. “Did we vote?” he asked. “No,” Tran said. “We never voted because we weren’t voting at the time. It was just a consensus like, hey, that’s a good idea” (video, 37:42). He said two commissioners had liked the idea, “so I kept it in the back of my head.”

“To be fair for Matt, we’re throwing him all over the place because we haven’t voted on a single thing,” Milburn-Kee said.

Tran then told Lawn that direction should come only from the full board. “Any marching orders that you get should come from the table,” he said. “It should always come from the table where there’s a consensus. … We rule as a body, not as a single person” (video, 38:35).

“To be fair to him again, we haven’t made any motion here,” Milburn-Kee said of Lawn. “He’s just listened to all the conversations and tried to build something.”

What’s next

The allocation also bears on raises: the draft includes a 5% wage increase across departments, and Milburn-Kee pressed Lawn on whether it rests on one-time money. Lawn agreed to bring about four versions of the budget. The budget must be adopted by Sept. 30, and the commission’s next regular meeting is Sept. 28. Full coverage of the Sept. 21 meeting is also available.