Allyson Turvey, 30, is the new Fort Scott Community Development Manager, as of May 26, 2020.
Her office is in city hall, phone number 620-223-0550.
She was already performing duties as the Fort Scott Tourism Manager, and when Robert Uhler resigned as Community Development Manager at the end of May, Turvey was given then the additional role.
” My duties will be pretty widespread now that I’ve taken on community development as an additional role,” Turvey said.
“I will be responsible for working with the (Fort Scott)Tourism Advisory Board, Design Review Board, Planning Commission, and Zoning Board. I am also now a member of the Healthy Bourbon County Action Team. I’m now responsible for the LaRoche Complex and Memorial Hall. This includes oversight of each facility, assisting in booking of events, and continuing to market LaRoche (baseball stadium).”
“From a tourism standpoint, I will continue to market Fort Scott as a destination,” she said. “As well as continuing to attend trade shows in an effort to bring group tours, conventions, and meetings to our community. This doesn’t cover all of my duties, but the ultimate goals of the department are to bring more tourists to town in an effort to create an economic impact, and increase Tourism Guest Tax revenues.”
“From a Community Development standpoint, I will work to create a better community for our residents, which will ideally entice new residents along the way,” she said. “This is achieved through widespread collaboration, and continued research for funding opportunities.”
“While I have a wide array of open projects, my major project currently is the Smart Growth America planning and implementation,” Turvey said. “The Smart Growth team visited Fort Scott for a community workshop in February, and recently provided a next steps memo including short, and long term goals and action steps to create progress within our community.”
“Both positions require me to represent the city on a local, regional, statewide, and federal level in an effort to better collaborate, and ideally increase funding opportunities for our community, ” she said.
Turvey has been with the city for just over three years, she said.
” I started as an administrative assistant, where I worked between Fort ScottTourism, Community Development, and Economic Development,” Turvey said. “Last August I was promoted to tourism manager, and have continued to be heavily involved with other city departments, and projects.”
“I have also spent the last year representing the city on a local, regional, statewide, and federal level from both a tourism and community standpoint,” she said. “I’ve been working on alongside the community and economic development departments to meet Smart Growth objectives.
Turvey is originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, but has been living in Kansas for nearly eight years.
Her community involvement includes being the current president of the Young Professionals League and was invited to join PEO just before the start of the pandemic.
“I hope to be initiated as a member once meeting activities resume,” she said.
Allyson Turvey can be reached at 620-238-4919 or