Former county employee hopes to bring experience to commission

A lifelong Leavenworth County resident and long-time county employee has his sights set on the 1st District county commission seat.

A Democratic candidate in the Aug. 3 primary, Tim Goetz said he was encouraged to run for the seat, and has since been doing some door-to-door campaigning in order to get an idea of what the people in the district, which stretches from the northern border of the county and includes part of the city of Leavenworth, are concerned about.

“Some of the people are concerned because they don’t see a bright future,” Goetz said.

He said he’s also talked to some of the county’s own employees about the atmosphere in the courthouse.

Using his previous experience as the director of special buildings with the county, Goetz said if elected he plans to bring up and ease some of those concerns.
He said he grew up in rural Leavenworth and was educated in the city’s Catholic school system through high school, though he also attended Leavenworth High School for its welding program. For several years, Goetz said he worked for dairy farmers and local construction companies before attending Kansas State University and earning a degree in construction management.

In 1997, he said he was hired by the county in teh public works department to help on construction projects. Goetz’s first assignment in that capacity was for the county’s transfer station, although he said he was also put in charge of the construction of the Justice Center as project manager. The county then named him the director of special buildings.

After almost 10 years as the head of that department, Goetz said he left the county and is currently self-employed.

But he added that he has maintained many of the relationships he built throughout those years, which could give him an advantage as a commissioner.

As for the input he has received from residents, Goetz said some of the top issues seem to be the county’s administrator position and whether to proceed with a regional airport and business park at this time.

In both cases, he said he has found that there is a feeling that the voters in the county are not being listened to — they twice voted down a ballot measure asking about the administrator and more than 1,000 residents signed a petition requesting a vote on the airport before moving forward.

“Now they’re saying ‘do we even exist?,’” Goetz said.

He said he is not in favor of the county admininstrator and as of right now would not support the airport and business park either.

Within the county’s own departments, he said there are other issues.

“The biggest concern is with the cuts that have occured, some departments feel like they are not providing the services that are expected to the taxpayers,” Goetz said.

And he said he feels those cuts have only been temporary fixes to the financial problems facing the county. Instead, Goetz said he would try to emphasize economic development, both by retaining existing companies and working with the cities to attract new businesses and keep more of the county’s young people employed.

He said the county needs “open-minded” solutions to its problems and needs to be cautious in raising the mill levy or spending for capital investments until the economy improves.

And to do those things, Goetz said the commission, the residents and the county employees will have to be able to work with each other.

“I really believe that if you everybody together, it can happen,” he said.