In a split vote, Allen County commissioners decided late Tuesday morning to give Iola possession of the county ambulance station for the token sum of $1 a year. WHILE THE ambulance station issue was resolved, Iola’s request for the county to sign on to making all of the city a Neighborhood Revitalization Program zone failed once again.
Commissioners had requested Iola pay $250 a month to use the building.
The building will continue to hold ambulances and other equipment in the merged service.
“Let’s get this over with,” said Commissioner Jim Talkington, in making the motion to lease the building to Iola for $1 a year.
Commissioner Tom Williams said the $250 monthly rent “doesn’t amount to a hill of beans” before seconding Talkington’s motion, which ensured its passage. Dick Works voted “no,” maintaining the higher rent was fair.
City Attorney Robert Johnson compared the county ambulance station to Humboldt’s, which that city has made available to the county for $1 a year, and, Johnson said, will continue to be the case with Iola operating the service.
Putting the county building under Iola’s management completes all components of the merger.
Estimates of savings to the county with Iola operating the ambulance service range from $300,000 to $400,000 in the first year.
However, commissioners said they would revisit the issue at their Jan. 14 meeting, when they also may discuss putting all of the county in an NRP zone.
Shonda Jefferis, Iola code enforcement officer, said she was under the impression that Allen Community College was waiting for the county to decide what to do before embracing the whole-city zone.
“I think the school district (USD 257) is receptive,” she said.
Works said he saw opening the whole city as “giving away tax dollars” and also making the “playing field for businesses uneven.”
He noted that businesses now operating would be at disadvantage if a competitor expanded or built new and received property tax abatement under the NRP.
The program abates 95 percent of taxes for six years, with taxes being restored at the rate of 20 percent a year after that.
Works also contends that as cost of governing increases, having new and improved businesses and residences receive abatements would put more of a burden on those already on tax rolls.
The argument from the other side, which Talkington mentioned, is that abatements are of taxes that the county, and other governing bodies, haven’t had, but would in a few years.
Talkington made a motion to join in Iola’s plan, but it failed to draw a second.
Dr. Darrell Monfort, who recently opened his new Red Barn Veterinary Clinic just northwest of Iola, encouraged commissioners to look favorably on putting all of Allen County in a Neighborhood Revitalization Program. Neosho County is considering just that.
“You wouldn’t be losing tax money, just not gaining it as fast,” Monfort said. “There are businesses that would like to expand, and the tax abatement would make a difference.”
He also thinks some farmers would consider upgrading farmsteads if they were eligible for a tax break.
“It might be the trigger,” he said.
Monfort said large industries were important, but it often was many small businesses, with addition of employees, that made a difference and “if we don’t improve, we may not have our communities. Small employers keep Allen County going.”
Works allowed if the NRP were to become citywide in Iola, it would be logical to consider doing so countywide.
EMS rent issue solved – Revitalization area still under discussion
