This is the July 2024 radio show Focus on Stafford County. This month’s show covers a variety of topics including an introduction of the new Stafford County Economic Development office administrator, Sarah Hampton. Other subjects covered are childcare updates and Rural Champion funding; new housing, prices and availability; a grant for a historic district survey in Stafford; nominations for historic register designation; Hudson’s Easter egg hunt and Christmas celebrations; a grant for getting quality internet broadband services in Hudson; an update on St. John’s Pickleboard Court. and status of Gray Studio renovation.
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Communication is everything! We saw your comments. Made us realize we probably should explain the housing project a bit. That’s on us. You also are free to ask questions at any time directly to me, Ryan by phone 620-314-5561 or by e-mail [email protected] . I’m happy to answer any questions or concerns you might have about any project that we have. I believe in freedom of expression and speech and want to hear ideas as well. I think it’s a positive thing when the public engages in discourse and conveys their concerns, ideas, and not least their confirmation we might be doing something right.
Back to the houses. The project you are seeing being built is a combination of a Stafford County, City of Stafford, City of St. John, State of Kansas and Stafford County Economic Development funded project. It is a moderate-income project where we can sell the houses. If they don’t sell, we will rent them out. They will not have the low-income restrictions as this is not a low-income housing project. I repeat, it is not low-income housing. We are building 9 houses with 5 in St. John and 4 in Stafford. These have a mixture of options because of the budget. The first two houses that you’ve seen posted are 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and the same design. The next 7 houses that are about to be started are a completely different design than the first 2. We will have an open house once the first 2 houses are finished. The overall project is $2.6 million for 9 houses, and we are going to come under that budget for all 9. The range of the cost of the houses will be between $190,000 to $270,000. Housing Opportunities Inc. is our General Contractor with all our sub-contractors doing to work being from Stafford County. Mansel Construction, Loya Construction, Meyer Electric, and Stafford Lumber are all part of building these houses. We did an open bidding process and I personally reached out to almost all the local contractors to make sure they had a chance to bid on the project. It was also posted publicly with clear deadlines for bid submissions.
If you understand the housing market for building new, you will understand that the cost to build is very high right now. We are building these as we have a housing shortage and need to build more houses as quickly as possible. We will continue to build more houses after this 9 depending on available funding.
Here are the properties we are planning to build on and what will be built on those properties.
214 S. Pearl, St. John – 3 bedroom/2 bath/Basement/ with a Garage
218 S. Pearl, St. John – 3 bedroom/2 bath/ on a Slab/ with 2 Garages
413 W. 2nd, St. John – 3 bedroom/2 bath/ on a Slab (almost complete)
424 W. 2nd, St. John – 3 bedroom/2 bath/ on a Slab/ with a Garage (about to pour concrete)
430 W. 2nd, St. John – 3 bedroom/2 bath/ on a Slab/ with a Garage (about to pour concrete)
227 S. Buffalo, Stafford – 3 bedroom/2 bath/ on a Slab/ with a Garage
303 W. Morrell, Stafford – 3 bedroom/2 bath/ on a Slab (almost completed)
743 W. Broadway, Stafford – 3 bedroom/2 bath/ on a Slab/ with 2 Garages
745 W. Broadway, Stafford, KS 67578 – 3 bedroom/2 bath/Basement/ with a Garage
Thanks again for your engagement and we would love to hear from you anytime. Contact me, Ryan anytime, 620-314-5561 or [email protected] if you have any questions.
This is the audio from our monthly radio show: Focus on Stafford County. The show aired in February, 2024. Topics include an upcoming Lunch & Learn book discussion of “Thirteen Ways to Kill your Community;” updates on Stafford County’s commercial kitchen, childcare; Gray Photo Studio grant, art auction and renovation; EPIC grant projects in Stafford County and the Sttafford train depot.
This is the audio from our monthly radio show: Focus on Stafford County. This show aired live Thursday, Jan. 25. Topics included a $50,000 HEAL grant that was awarded to the W.R. Gray Studio in St. John and a $50,000 loan from SJN Bank for the studio’s renovation. Other subjects included the Stafford County Port Authority, updates on the upcoming Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge; the county’s commercial kitchen, childcare, the Community Fair Building and new housing construction.
Stafford County Economic Development has been working hard the last 2 years to complete 10 houses that are in St. John, Stafford, Hudson, and Macksville respectively. These houses have government requirements for income and age and meet the need of a critical group in our community. We are now looking for a lucky person or family to move into the last house in Macksville. The 412 W. Halveson house has a large yard and has 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. The other houses in the county are now called for. The house on First and Monroe in St. John was recently filled and the house in Hudson has someone moving into it starting in November. If you or someone you know needs housing in Macksville please contact Housing Opportunities Incorporated (HOI) our partner who manages the houses. Reach out to HOI by phone (620) 792-3299.
The new rental houses completed earlier this year in St. John and the currently under construction in Macksville are part of the nine house county-wide rental housing Stafford County Economic Development (EcoDevo) started building in September 2021. The first house was built in Hudson and completed in February 2022. Three houses in Stafford were completed in June 2022. The three houses in St. John were completed in January 2023. And the final two houses in Macksville should be completed by August 2023.
For updates on Stafford County housing, childcare, the Port Authority and more.
EcoDevo is having to slow down its plan for a New Housing Development Program that would have built 10 more houses. Its fall 2022 application for a Moderate Income Housing Grant was not awarded funding. The Kansas Housing Resource Corporation received around $19 million in Moderate Income Housing grant requests in its fall grant cycle and was only able to award about $5 million in funding.
Stafford County Economic Development has engaged Housing Opportunities Inc (HOI) a nonprofit in Great Bend to take over property management of their rental properties effective March 1. Stafford EcoDevo’s rental portfolio has grown from three units to eleven in just over a year with two more houses still under construction.
Our VISTA’s service year has come to an end! Over the past year, Falon Runnebaum’s work has focused on housing and childcare which are crucial for developing a strong and robust workforce.
