Office of the City Manager
Mayor Frese and Members of the Tonganoxie City Council: It is my pleasure to present the City of Tonganoxie 2023 Adopted Budget, which was approved by the City Council on September 6, 2022 by a vote of 3-1. The Adopted B udget communicates the City’s immediate and long-term plan for continuing to deliver high-quality city services at a reasonable cost to Tonganoxie residents and visitors. Also, on September 6, 2022, but prior to the Budget Adoption, the City Council adhered to K.S.A. 79-2988, which also required public notice for a public hearing to consider exceeding the Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR), which would allow jurisdictions to levy more revenue from property tax than the year before. On a 4-0 vote, the City Council voted to exceed the RNR by maintaining a flat City mill levy and adopted Resolution 09-22- 01 indicating such intent. The development of the 2023 budget included numerous opportunities for policy direction from the Governing Body and input from residents of Tonganoxie. Dedicated public hearing opportunities were held to allow public input and staff also analyzed & presented the results of an online survey tool offered to utility customers. Following the Spring Retreat on March 19 th , the Governing Body held a Capital Maintenance & Improvement focused session on May 16 th , and completed six additional budget work sessions before final adoption. Strong Commercial and Residential Development Activity We are happy to see the construction progress made on the 400,000 sq ft Hill ’ s Pet Nutrition Manufacturing Plant at the Tonganoxie Business Park, a private investment approaching $350M. The project has hired for some and continues recruiting for the 80+ jobs with an average annual salary of $60,625; the plant is expected to be operational by Q3 of this year . Unilock, the Business Park’s first tenant, also has plans for constructing a concrete product manufacturing facility, which should begin by November 2023. Unilock’s building would represent an approximate $30M investment, and create up to 30 new jobs. Both of these projects were brought to fruition through a teamwork approach that included the Leavenworth County Development Corporation, State agencies and the original grant from Leavenworth County which allowed for site development work. There is continued interest in the Park, and approximately 25 acres of the developed 140 acres remain available; the City originally purchased approximately 240 acres in 2009, and the remaining acreage adjacent to the east is also available. We’ve also been fortunate to attract great businesses to the Urban Hess Business Center; which is owned by the Leavenworth County Port Authority and offers sites ranging from 1.5 to 4.5 acres. A recent addition to the Park was DL Granite & Design. Particularly exciting about this project is that the owner is local and chose to grow the business here. The City was pleased to see the new Dollar General Market open on a site that was former excess KDOT Right of Way (ROW). In 2018, the City completed acquisition of that ROW, and we were excited to see Dollar General have interest in an expanded format store, with offerings for fresh groceries, and worked to facilitate the sale of the site and approved plans for the new building. We’ve seen growth in our residential development as well, including introducing multi -family options after a nearly 25-year lag in new product availability. The West Village project is well underway, and has completed construction of the 21 single story villas and has begun construction on the garden style apartment building which will offer 36 units; this nearly $8M project is financed by a grant from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation Moderate Income Housing Grant and by the creation of a Rural Housing Incentive District through the Kansas Department of Commerce. We also continued strong growth by seeing additional phases of single-family development in Jackson heights and Stone Creek development areas; as well as continued multi family activity in McGee Meadows. New single family projects were approved for 27 additional homes in Timber Lake, adjacent to the existing Timber Hills subdivision, and 45 homes in the new Deer Creek subdivision located on Smiley Rd.
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