Kurt Hassler hired as Washington City Administrator

The Washington City Council approved hiring Kurt Hassler, McPherson, as the new Washington City Administrator during a noon meeting today. Hassler is a 1990 graduate of Washington High School and is currently the Director of Public Works for the City of McPherson. He is married with children and the Washington City Council said Hassler will likely start in the Washington position in about 30 days. A full profile is being planned for next week's Washington County News.

Another special mtg tomorrow at noon

There will be another Washington City Council special meeting Thursday at noon. I'll be there to see what they discuss.

Owen files for county commission

Brad Owen filed for Washington County Commission, District 2, on Monday. A write-up can be found in this week's Washington County News. I'm pretty excited about him filing and not just because the position formerly had no filers. It sounds like he has some good ideas, especially for an effort to put a hold on increasing the budget and taxes. At the Washington Chamber of Commerce meeting yesterday, the group got into a pretty intense discussion about valuations and the local tax situation. It is no fun, in my opinion, to find out Kansas has a heavier tax burden in certain areas than compared to California. We'll have to put a focus on this and see if we can change things.

Washington City Council in exec session

The Washington City Council is in the midst of a special meeting and they are in executive session to discuss non-elected personnel. They said they didn't think there would be any announcements as a result of the meeting. I am wondering if they are getting closer to announcing a new city administrator. If they do, I will post it here and then give a fuller story in the next edition of the Washington County News.
Sorry I've been quiet with posts lately. I've taken an at-home vacation and just been generally busy here. There are a lot of great new things in the works for the Washington County News and once I start to unveil them, I'm betting my readers will be as excited as I am!