In an effort to help make government more efficient in the county, a new Bourbon County Unified Services Committee was formed August 7, 2019.
“I have heard about it (unifying government) for three years,” Greg Motley, who was selected to be the vice-chairman of the group, said. “We have to look for ways to be more efficient.”
“We had one meeting to organize ourselves,” he said. “The purpose is ‘how can we make government more efficient: city, county, school districts, community college’.”
The unifying committee was launched by Bourbon County Economic Development Corporation, BEDCO.
They are in the first stage, which is researching the possibilities, Motley said.
“That will take a while,” he said.
“We have to plan for a reduced population,” Motley said. “The cost of government is going to increase. We have to think about ways…to do it (government) more effectively.”
Motley said Wyandotte County has unified in northeast Kansas and other sparsely populated counties are considering combining to unify resources.
So the group will study the issue to see if it can be done, and done well, he said.
Motley knows that if the public is not for the unification of government, it will not happen.
“People could say ‘even if it saves money on taxes, we don’t want it’ and that’s ok,” Motley said.
Bourbon County Unified Services Committee is comprised of Mark McCoy, chairman; Motley, vice chairman; Nancy Maze, secretary/treasurer; Greg Fess, Clayton Whitson, Larry Shead, David Foster, Larry Martin and Larry Jurgensen.
Motley can be reached at 620-768-2329 or cell 620-215-6411 or gmotley@banklandmark.com