As we celebrate Thanksgiving, we are often urged to contemplate the things we have to be thankful for.  This task is not challenging when you are a part of the Hoisington community.  The past year has helped us to realize gains on the business front as well as the housing front.  The City of Hoisington as an organization has been fairly insulated from some of the challenges facing our neighbors (i.e. loss of property values and population).  Our local school district is growing, our hospital is expanding and we have some incredible things to look forward to.  The coming year will bring some long-needed infrastructure enhancements, additional housing and the commencement of the new Lincoln School project.  Hoisington residents and the City's staff have so much to be thankful for.  Hopefully the holiday weekend was safe and enjoyable for our residents along with their family and friends. 

During the month of November, the City and its staff stayed busy working on projects to advance our community.  The City closed on the real estate that will help Housing Opportunities Incorporated bring 12 new rental units to Hoisington.  Habitat for Humanity and two different partnerships are hoping to build homes that will help Hoisington to grow and prosper.  A young entrepreneur has recently acquired the former Main Street Welcome Center building downtown and hopes to have it open in the near future.  Things are really hopping on the community development front but don't forget the City is staying focused on infrastructure enhancements while trying to improve the local business environment.  In late November, the City began work with a company to replace the west side lift station with a larger lift station to meet the growing needs of our community in the future.  Looking forward to 2016, the City will likely begin repaving Main Street between Sixth St. and Ninth St. in early 2016.  This will be funded with $600,000 in KDOT funds that will be leveraged with local funds.  The City is also working on a multi-million dollar wastewater treatment lagoon system enhancement that is being mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency.  The City is seeking grant funds to assist with this project but the expenses are going to be significant and will most likely result in an increase in rates at some point in 2016. 

During November, the City also met with representatives of the State of Kansas that are working with consultants to try and increase the accuracy of FEMA's flood plain map for the entire workship.  If some of the flood plain areas were eliminated, or, if the flood risk can be mitigated in some way this could enhance our community in many ways.  The City is also working to enhance our community through its code enforcement division. 

The City's new code enforcement officer is working diligently to clean up our community.  Dolores Kipper has been working to address nuisance vehicles and blighted properties over the past couple of months.  She has also been very involved with the City's Trap-Neuter-Return program which is a humane method to address community cats and strays.  Hoisington is the first community in Barton County to utilize this humane method for controlling pet population while increasing public safety.  The program involves capturing cats that are running at large without city tags, without rabies vaccinations and that are not spayed or neutered.  These cats are brought in, spayed or neutered and then given their rabies vaccinations.  Once the cats have received this care, they are released back into the community with clipped ears.  If you see a cat with a clipped ear, it most likely indicates the cat has received its rabies vaccination and is spayed or neutered.  If you have a colony of cats in your neighborhood, please do not feed them.  By feeding the stray cat, an individual is assuming ownership of this animal.  Many people have the misconception that feeding strays is a nice and helpful thing to do but the end results can be exactly the opposite of that.  Feeding cats that are not vaccinated or neutered can lead to overpopulation and may pose a risk to public health. Unvaccinated cats can carry diseases and create a public health risk to the community just as numerous other non-domesticated animals might. 

Please help us to address the issue of community cats in a humane manner.  This program will save our community money and will help to address the issue of cat overpopulation while enhancing the neighborhoods in our community.  Please contact Dolores Kipper at (620)653-4995 if you would like more information regarding this program. 

The City of Hoisington is here to serve you.  Thank you for your contributions to our community and thank you for making Hoisington such an incredible place to live.  The City and its staff hope you and your families had a great Thanksgiving and we are thankful for the opportunity to serve you.  

If you have any ideas on how the City can improve our community, please contact Jonathan Mitchell at (620)653-4125 or via email at [email protected]

In the interest of keeping the eBlasts and Newsletters manageable in size,

the Job Opportunities from our investment members will be listed on our website under the "About Hoisington" link under "Employment".