Eudora is getting closer to choosing its next city manager, the school district is moving forward with major construction plans following the May election and the library is considering its next steps for a new facility.

As election season begins, candidates also have filed for both City Commission and school board positions.

Here is a rundown of local government news.

The city manager search

The city is still working to interview candidates in the search for a city manager.The city and search firm have been conducting virtual interviews with a pool of applicants before selecting finalists to participate in in-person interviews June 16. 

About 60 people applied for the position, and eight were interviewed, Mayor Tim Reazin said during the Chamber meeting Tuesday. He said they want to have four candidates for the final round of interviewing.

Commissioner Alex Curnes said the process has been interesting, and he is happy to see people wanting to work in Eudora. 

“It’s a really exciting time to be in Eudora,” Curnes said. 

The city will not release who the final candidates are. 

Reazin said many of the applicants have not told their current employers they may be leaving and privacy keeps their pool of options larger. 

“It puts folks like that in kind of a hard position if it’s public,” Reazin said. “What we found through [search firm] Raftelis and other hiring companies is they get less applicants because of that, so that’s why we, based off their recommendation, the personnel, policy, privacy stuff, we’ve kept it that way because we wanted to keep our pool of applicants bigger.” 

The Eudora Times left multiple messages Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning for Raftelis that have not been returned. 

In other business, City Commission filings were due by June 1. Commissioners Alex Curnes, Roberta Lehmann and Tim Bruce plan to seek reelection. Brian Landon and James Kerby filed as new candidates. 

School board takes next steps on bond planning

Following the community’s vote to approve a nearly $40 million bond for the school district, Superintendent Stu Moeckel is grateful for the overall support and elated about what the bond means for the schools. 

“Just to feel [the community’s] support for the schools and what we do, as well as their dedication to our students and staff was so rewarding,” Moeckel said. “Obviously that’s reflective of the vote but more than anything that the decision didn’t become divisive, we didn’t feel like we were coming apart on either side.” 

The board is expected to approve a resolution Thursday to allow the bond to go for sale in partnership with the district’s financial partner, Stifel. 

Moeckel said HTK Architects and Newkirk Novak Construction Partners will have regular meetings to ensure plans are coinciding with material arrivals. 

Smaller construction projects may begin as soon as late winter or early spring, and may also depend on when materials can be delivered. The timeline of projects will rely heavily on the supply wait times, Moeckel said. Projects will most likely ramp up in January. 

“Throughout the course of this summer, we will meet biweekly and start to develop a plan of action as far as how we as a district, and our team, will actually put the pieces together and schedule some of these projects,” Moeckel said. 

For now, Moeckel will continue to meet with teachers and administrators from each school to hear their ideas and needs for specific construction and design plans.

In other business, two new candidates filed for the school board election. Zach Brooks and Kelley Woods were added to the list of candidates along with current board members up for reelection, Claire Harding, Lynn Reazin, Becky Plate and Mark Chrislip. The board will have four openings. Filings closed June 1. 

Library plans community survey

At the May library meeting, the board finalized a set of survey questions that will ask residents about their vote in the spring 2022 library election. 

The survey will ask residents if they voted and why they voted yes or no, as well as what patrons want to see out of their public library. The questions have been sent to a third-party vendor for a final look before they are mailed to the public. 

At the April meeting, board members decided to wait to send the survey out until after the results of the school bond were announced. Many agreed the results of the district bond could influence what questions were included in their own survey. 

“I don’t want to speak for the entire board, but I think I can safely say the consensus was and, in particular my opinion is, that if we want to pass a bond issue for a new library we are going to have to do it with a very minimal mill rate increase,” President Kenny Massey said. 

The school board’s successful bond taught the library to focus on conversations about residents’ property taxes and mill levy changes. 

“I truly believe what allowed the school bond issue to pass was that they really sold the factual information that there would be no mill rate increase,” Massey said.“I think that’s going to be the key component for us, finding a way to mitigate the mill rate increase or really get creative and come up with a way to not have a mill rate increase.”

Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected]