The Fort Scott LandBank members will meet at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23, at City Hall, 123 Main, in the City Commission meeting room to discuss a grant project with another local entity and also a request for bids for the Eagle Block building at 10-12 N. National Avenue.
There will be an update on the Eagle Block Building, FS Landbank Manager AllysonTurvey, said. “This discussion will include a request to go out for a Request For Proposal for the interior demo work.”
“A request for proposal is a written request asking contractors to submit specifications and prices that fit the customer’s requirements”, according to Request for Proposal Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc.
Also at this meeting, the members will have a presentation from the Healthy Bourbon County Action Team, which has budgeted $4,000 for LandBank projects that tie in with HBCAT initiatives, according to Turvey.
“The HBCAT Board decided to include Landbank’s package in our Neighborhood and Physical Environment Pathway,” Jody Hoener, leader of the HBCAT, said. “We have allocated $4000 of our Blue Cross Blue Shield Pathways to Healthy Kansas Grant Funds towards it.”
Hoener provided the following information from Pathways to Healthy Kansas:
“LAND BANK Focus Area & Pathway:
“Activity Summary: Land banks acquire, hold, manage, and develop problem properties (e.g., vacant lots, abandoned buildings, tax-foreclosed) property and transition them to productive uses such as affordable housing developments, community-focused commercial buildings, community gardens or green spaces.
“Land banks can also demolish abandoned or unsafe buildings.
“State and local governments can support land banks by allowing low or no-cost purchases of tax foreclosured property, clearing titles and/or forgiving back taxes, holding land tax-free, or negotiating property transfers that address community needs.
“Land banks are generally governmental entities created and managed at the local or regional level.
“Land banks policies can be adapted to prioritize projects of nutrition, physical activity and other health promoting activities.
“Activities could include building support for a policy, exploring options necessary to pass policy changes or further expanding land bank policy to include health and equity priority goals related to the health focus areas. Local governments would be required to implement one of the following tracks:
1) pass a new policy
2) improve or expand existing policy
3) enforce an existing policy.”
Although there will be a majority of the city commissioners present, no city commission business will be conducted, according to a press release from the City of Fort Scott.
The meeting will be made available via the city’s Youtube channel at the City of Fort Scott.
Fort Scott City Commissioners are a part of the Landbank members and include Josh Jones, Kevin Allen, Pete Allen, Randy Nichols, and Lindsay Watts. Additional members are Jim Harris-a Bourbon County Commissioner, who was selected to be Vice-Chairperson of the group; Turvey-who is also the Fort Scott Tourism and Community Development Manager and Susan Bancroft-Fort Scott Finance Director, who is the treasurer of the Landbank, and Gregg Motley-Director of the Bourbon County Economic Development Board, Inc.
Josh Jones was selected to be the chairperson of the group.