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Mayor Brown to Not Seek Re-Election in 2026; Other Commission Meeting Highlights

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McPHERSON, Kan. — McPherson Mayor Tom Brown announced at the start of Tuesday’s City Commission meeting he will not seek re-election. When his present term ends in January 2026, Brown will have completed 16 years of service as Mayor, one of the longest tenures if not the longest in city history. Jim Loving declared his candidacy for mayor over the weekend. The filing deadline for the position, the only City Commission seat up this year, is June 1st at noon.

A bid for the second phase of the Northview 10-foot sidewalk project was accepted. The low bid of six received came from Barkley Construction of Wichita at just under $1.26 million, of which the city’s share is $309,000. The bid came in under the latest engineer’s estimate by more than $300,000.

A contract was approved for design work on a sewer main replacement in the Tulip alley between Avenue A and Skancke, to be done by Earles Engineering for $12,300. On this main there are two known breaks and one dip in the main.

It also approved a promissory note agreement with the person who damaged a street pole in a crash, which will be paid over 38 months at two percent interest.

Commissioners approved purchase of a server box with two virtual machines for the Police Department. The city will no longer be able to access county servers which are being replaced at this time. The purchase from Reach Solutions will cost just under 14 thousand dollars, less than budgeted. The Commission also approved the renewal payment for the software programs used for training, performance and intervention management used by the Police Department,

The Commission approved the replacement of a mini excavator through Bobcat of Salina. This is part of a program where the city is able to replace this unit every two years, at a much lower cost than purchase, rental or lease.

It approved purchase of mower and sweeper bucket attachments for a skid steer, also through Bobcat of Salina off state contract at just over 20 thousand dollars, and authorization to pay for the rewiring of the traffic signals at 1st and Maxwell out of 2025 funds.

The city’s hay operation for 2025 at this point is showing a loss. This involves the land used by the city for biosolid land application from the Wastewater Treatment Plant and farmed for it by Dennis Friesen. Gross sales for 2024 came to just over $30,000 and after expenses showed a loss of $84.

The amount of bales produced were 428, but it was noted 142 bales were held over for sale this year. Both the number of bales and profit are well below the average of the past 15 years. Related to this, Commissioners approved payment of the farm management fees to Friesen totaling just over $1,400.

A payment was approved to Reach Solutions of just over $21,000 for a network security and firewall appliance along with various software subscriptions.

It also approved reimbursement requests from the McPherson Housing Coalition off a CDBG housing rehabilitation grant. One payment involved work on a home on South Chestnut including that for the contractor and various inspection, administration and other expenses totaling just under $33,500. The other involved similar payments for another home on South Chestnut and one on South Walnut, totaling just over $40,000.