By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

Members of county commissions from across the state were in Hays on Thursday and Friday for the Kansas Association of Counties meeting hosted by Ellis County.

On Thursday, the group attended a forum at the Hays Arts Council, featuring local business and community leaders to discuss what the organization and county governments can do to help expand the region.

The overwhelming theme was the need for everyone to work together.

Hays Medical Center President and CEO Dr. John Jeter said Kansans’ drive to be independent can have a negative effect.

“One of the biggest threats really to Kansas and other rural states, which is also one of the biggest attributes that we have, is our sort of obsession with being independent,” Jeter said. “That independence sometimes gets in the way of making smart business decisions, smart public policy decisions.”

Fort Hays State University President Mirta Martin agreed, saying, “That is part of the pioneer work ethic that is prevalent throughout the state.”

“We do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do but we don’t tell about it because that’s considered to be boasting,” she added.

Midwest Energy President Earnie Lehman said, “I worry that we suffer collectively from low self-esteem.”

“It gets us into playing defense, it’s how do we protect, hang on to what we have,” Lehman said. “We absolutely have to keep our focus on growing the pie.”

Martin added Hays and the surrounding communities in western Kansas benefit from each other’s success.

“We’re one community connected together,” Martin said. “What’s good for the town is good for the university and what’s good for the university is good for the town.”

Martin said cooperation between communities and higher education to help create and establish the workforce of the future.

Martin said, “It’s incumbent upon all of us to help those students graduate.”

She said part of that is on the communities in helping students become a part of the community.

“They come to the university, they don’t find a job, they don’t find a place (and) they don’t find community,” Martin said.

She said at FHSU 70-percent of the students are first-generation students and, if they do not find what they are looking for here, they will go back to their farms — many of them without the advanced education they need to be a part of the workforce of the future.

Eagle Communications President and CEO Gary Shorman said, for businesses in the state to be successful, they need a local government that will work with businesses that are being overburdened by state and federal regulations.

“If we’re going to be successful here or in our other areas,” Shorman said, “we have to have a government that works with us.”

He said sometimes governments are not always “here to help.”

“Having local elected officials that help us work and grow and find ways to facilitate growth makes a big difference,” Shorman said.

He said, “So many business will look at, whether it’s our area or somebody else’s area, of how friendly is their government and the government agencies there to make things happen.”

“That ability to work together and say, ‘Hey, I’m pro-business, I want to make things happen is important,’ ” Shorman said.

Jeter said from his perspective, in the healthcare industry, “It is amazingly difficult to get people to work together in this state, unfortunately.”

Lehman said one of the advantages utility companies have are having their employees live in the communities they serve.

“Utilities are positioned to be a partner to the community from the beginning,” Lehman said.

He also said having an elected board of directors helps balance their focus throughout the region.

The group also pointed to the Hays community as a great example of cooperation between local businesses and government.

“Our employees are embedded deeply with each other in support of community institutions like Fort Hays, Downtown Hays, ect.,” said Lehman.

Claire Gustin, Vice President for Member Services and External Affairs of Sunflower Electric, served as the moderator of the event.

Once a year, the KAC holds a meeting outside of Topeka. The group also had meetings Friday at the new Ellis County Emergency Services Building.