By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
“There’s signs on the interstate that this truck stop is coming and I don’t have an update for the people. Do you have an update on it?” Vice-mayor Sean Musil asked Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty Thursday night at the end of their meeting. “I’d just like to know what’s going on.”
Dougherty had a few answers for city commissioners.
“We were contacted several months ago by an entity wishing to develop the property into a travel plaza, a hotel, restaurants, a rather large development,” Dougherty said.
The property, owned by Dan Hess of Hess Services, is at I-70 Exit 157 on the west side of Hays in the northwest corner. Hess Services is located north of the property on 230th Ave.
“We discussed with them what would be required for a formal application for economic incentives (from the city),” Dougherty said. “As the commission knows, that’s a process the developer needs to follow.”
According to Dougherty the developer has paid a $5,000 non-refundable deposit and signed a funding agreement with Grow Hays.
“That puts them in contact with our bond counsel Gilmore and Bell. Working with their counsel and our bond counsel, a term sheet is developed that outlays the specifics of the project – what’s the project going to look like, what’s the dollar amount, what’s the financial incentive asked for, what’s the time frame of this – and that transitions into the formal application for any of the incentives and then any incentive process would start.
Dougherty has had discussions with the developer he told the commission, “but we do not have the necessary information to put the term sheet together.”
“Right now, it’s in the developer’s hands. We’re just waiting for the developer to provide that information. We’d like to get a term sheet in front of you as quickly as possible so you can talk about the specifics and hopefully transition this into an actual (financial) incentive request.”
Musil said he’s had a lot of people asking him about the project and hadn’t heard anything about it for awhile.
“When you see billboards go up announcing it’s going to happen, you’re excited about it,” said Mayor Henry Schwaller.
“Absolutely,” agreed Musil. “I support that.”
“We are excited,” added Commissioner Sandy Jacob.
After the meeting, Musil and Commissioner Ron Mellick said they’ve both seen three billboards on I-70 between Salina and Hays that advertise a travel plaza opening in Hays in 2019.