By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Hays Mayor James Meier is frustrated.
He’s also disappointed the incoming Kansas governor, Jeff Colyer, who visited his hometown of Hays Wednesday, did not meet with city officials.
“We do have something going on that does involve the governor’s office and that’s the R9 water project, which has been slow in getting regulatory approval,” Meier said Thursday evening during closing comments of the city commission work session.
“We filed the change applications with the Division of Water Resources (DWR) nearly three years ago.”
The cities of Hays and Russell are co-owners of the R9 Ranch in Edwards County, purchased in 1994 as a long-term solution to water needs for the towns. Hays owns 82% of the ranch; Russell owns 18%.
The change applications from agricultural use to municipal use were filed in June, 2015. The city began the regulatory process in February, 2014. The R9 Ranch, south of Kinsley and 78 miles from Hays, is being converted to native grass as agricultural irrigation water wells are shut down and equipment removed.
Meier acknowledged the state’s Water Transfer Act has never been triggered and Hays is the first entity to make such a request.
“In order to get to that point of discussion, the change applications have to be approved. I think DWR has had ample time to really fetter out this project. It started long before any of us were here.”
“We’ve looked everywhere (for a long term water supply) and this is the best option moving forward for the town. This is a project that needs to be supported for the local community and the region. It needs to be ushered through the bureaucratic process,” Meier stressed.
“The chief engineer at DWR works for the governor, indirectly. It’s become clear to me proper resources have not been allocated to our change application process at DWR.
“I personally was somewhat disappointed the governor came to Hays to kick off his governorship and we were given no opportunity to discuss R9 or our change application process with the governor.”
Meier said the city has “used its local lobbyist to try several times to set up a meeting with the governor and have been unsuccessful in doing so in order to discuss our needs and our challenges to get this through the bureaucratic process.”
Meier actually knows the DWR Chief Engineer, David Barfield, who lives in Lawrence. Meier attended the same church as Barfield when he was a student at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
“He’s a good guy,” Meier quickly noted. “While I’ve never met Governor Colyer, everything I’ve heard and seen about him says he’s a person of character. I believe they both want to do the right thing.
“But it needs to be pointed out that this is the right thing to do. The resources need to be allocated. This is a priority for the city of Hays and the region, and they need to be ushering this through the bureaucratic process sooner rather than later.
“More than two years is long enough, if you ask me. If we don’t have water we’re not going to grow.”
Meier added he hoped Colyer would “listen to local officials, the community, and to the needs that we have” as the new governor and as he campaigns for re-election.
In an email to Hays Post following the commission work session, Meier recalled a meeting last year in Washington, D.C., between city commissioners and federal representatives. Senators Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts, as well as Congressman Roger Marshall “personally met with us for the sole purpose of discussing the R9. They took time out of their very busy schedules to make us and the R9 project a priority.
“For over a month we’ve been unsuccessful in arranging a meeting with the then-Lt. Gov. to discuss the R9 regulatory delays, so I just find it troubling that he would come to Hays for a photo op and yet not find time to discuss an issue that will affect our community for the next 50 years.”
While in Hays Wednesday morning, Colyer attended Mass at TMP-Marian, his alma mater, held a roundtable discussion with team members at Westside Alternative School, and then ate lunch at Al’s Chickenette. He was back in Topeka for his swearing-in ceremony at 3 p.m.