John Worden, administrator of the University of Kansas Health System - Great Bend Campus, joined this week’s Great Bend City Council meeting to talk about the hospital’s economic impact. Health care can be a business driver and part of a strong economic base for a community, he said.
UKHS used a consulting group that looked at:
• direct impacts, such as salaries paid and construction spending;
• indirect impacts, which include services and goods that the hospital buys locally; and
• induced impacts, or all of the dollars spent by employees and construction companies.
Together, they create a ripple effect, he said. “Specifically for Barton County, we had a $150 million economic impact ... looking at calendar year 2023.”
UKHS employs 439 people who work in Barton County and 357 of them live in the county. The hospital spent $26 million for labor and a little over $1.1 million in direct construction spending.
Worden said one of the things he is proud of is the hospital's partnership with Barton Community College, which brings the total value to Barton County to almost $180 million. Putting it into perspective, he said, “Great Bend has almost as much value for the state as the NFL Draft was last year, so that’s pretty cool.”
The KC Chiefs’ economic impact is about $1 billion a year, he continued, “and then our Health System as a whole is a little over $7 billion with (approximately) 20,000 employees that are specifically for the Health System in Kansas right now.”
Vehicle purchases approved
Meeting at a glance
Here’s a quick look at action taken Monday by the Great Bend City Council.
• Norm Patel was appointed to the Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors by Mayor Cody Schmidt.
• The council approved the payroll register covering payroll ending Feb. 15 for $542,261.73.
• It also approved closing Main Street from 19th St. to Lakin Ave. from 11 a.m. to noon on May 3 for the Cinco de Mayo Parade.
• Property at 3118 18th St., owned by Ramirez Construction LLC, was abated. Junk and refuse will be removed and the cost assessed to the property owner.
• Public Lands Director Scott Keeler’s recommendation for a new park truck was approved. The council accepted the low bid of $43,795 for a Ford F-250 4x4 from Marmie Ford. The City will be trading in a 2008 F-150 with 122,836 miles and ongoing mechanical issues for $2,500. The larger truck is needed because it can pull a dump trailer, saving the cost of buying a dump truck.
• Airport Manager Martin Miller’s request to seek alternative funding for the crosswind runway reconstruction at the airport was approved. This project has been on the airport’s five-year plan for some time. Federal Aviation Administration funding was previously approved.
“What we’re lacking is a promise we’re going to get funded very soon,” Miller said. “What they’re giving us is a, ‘Hey, hang in there.’” The council approved his recommendation to authorize the mayor to sign an appropriation request through the Kansas Congressional delegation through Fiscal Year 26.
• Police Chief Steve Haulmark’s request to purchase four patrol vehicles was added to the agenda. Marmie Ford was selected as they had the lower quote of $48,000 per vehicle. Superior Emergency Response Vehicles (SERV) will be used for the updating at a cost of $5,787 per vehicle.
“The Police Department intends to either trade or sell the vehicles that are being replaced based on the current mileage,” Haulmark said.
• The council moved into an executive session for 15 minutes to privately discuss a personnel matter. When the public meeting resumed, City Attorney Allen Glendenning was asked to explain what they had discussed.
An employee that the city provided to assist him as city attorney has retired. “Under the city’s current contract with Watkins Calcara (Law Firm), you would be required to provide a person to assist me in that.” The city’s options were to hire another person in-house or to add that service into the Watkins Calcara contract and the firm would provide the legal assistant, which is what he proposed. The current contract is set to expire in November and the council approved then starting a three-year amended contract. The attorney services fee will increase from $14,000 a month to $15,000 a month. Anything “over and above the ordinary services” would be at a rate of $250 per hour. The city can still use its current bond council if desired. The new contract also includes appeals to the District Court on Municipal Court prosecutions as extra work, also for $250 per hour. “That’s common for those to be paid for extra because that can be much more involved than the prosecution in Municipal Court,” he said.
The contract is for another three years and will be reevaluated after one year.
Councilman Gary Parr commented, “Just so the taxpayers know, your rates are considerably less than what we could go anywhere else, from what you showed us. Is that correct?”
“I would say they’re in line with what you could get elsewhere. What I showed you specifically was Hays, and they’re at $300 an hour for the additional services, $200 an hour for the appeals, and I’ve just put $250 for both.”
The council approved the new contract.
