HOISINGTON — It’s possibly fitting, maybe relevant, that Santa Claus will be arriving in Hoisington for Friday’s holiday celebration on a tractor. 

“He could be saying he’s ready to roll up his sleeves and go to work,” joked Hoisington’s Jonathan Mitchell. “That’s something that he might want to do.”

As City Manager, Mitchell understands that being in charge doesn’t mean backing away from a project. “Just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing,” he said. 

Background

With his dad in the Air Force, the young Jonathan Mitchell moved around a lot. He was born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1979, moving to the lower 48 when he was 2. At his father’s retirement, the family moved to Milford in Geary County, Kansas, when he was 12.

“My dad retired from the Air Force in 1992 and that’s when we hit Kansas,” Mitchell said. “My mom’s family is from the Manhattan area and had some property there, so we moved to a little ranch outside of Milford to make a fresh start.”

He attended Junction City High School, graduating in 1998. In school, he was into baseball and wrestling. “Nothing to brag about there,” he said. “I was in the 145-pound weight class, but wrestled at 152 because the guy at 145 was a state champ. I was just fortunate to be on the varsity; it was fun.”

Mitchell got his first taste of community service when the United Way director asked him to be her intern. After graduation, he attended Kansas State University with a major in public relations, “because that was what she went to school for,” Mitchell recalled. Later as he was interning at United Way, he was approached by the Junction City city manager who asked what he thought about working with him.

“I didn’t think that sounded that cool,” he said. “But I realized how much of a difference you can make working for the city.” He worked in the Junction City city office for four years, then followed up with his master’s degree in public administration “because that was what the city manager there had.”

After his master’s, it was time to start looking for a job. That meant applications. 

“I applied for a bazillion jobs, and the first opportunity came with the City of Ellsworth.” He’d never been there. “In September 2005 I went there and interviewed and as I got there my wife at the time was in vet school, so we spent four years there.

“While I was in Ellsworth, I learned how small towns work,” he said. “I learned a little about water and wastewater. 

“The biggest thing that they don’t teach you in school is how to work with and manage teams and staff,” he said. “You think you can know how to get it from a book, but it’s not the same when you get out there. When I started in Ellsworth, I had my master’s degree; I was 25. I think I was the youngest staff member they ever had. I was 25, but I looked like I was 12,” he noted.

After his wife earned her DVM, the couple looked around for places that had need of both a veterinarian and a city manager. “That’s how we got to Hoisington on March 9, 2009,” he said.

First arrival

“To continue to learn, that’s a good thing,” Mitchell said. “I thought that because of Ellsworth I was good at budgeting. When I came to Hoisington, our utilities, enterprise funds, were supposed to be self-sufficient if you run ‘em like a business. They are supposed to be in the black. They were not. Two of our utilities were really struggling and one had a negative cash balance. If you think you’re a budget guru and when you come in and have no money, well ... That’s something to correct,” he noted.

Over time, there have been staffing and budget process changes.

“Right before I started, Hoisington had 41 employees; we have 27 today. When we needed equipment we would borrow money for lease-purchase; we started setting money back to pay cash.”

The “Great Recession” of 2007-09 was a factor as well.

“The economy wasn’t in great shape when I started,” he said. However, “there was a tremendous amount of government funds available. We were able to replace our primary well, we had funds for Main Street repair, redid our water plant. Those are big projects to just jump into. It wasn’t a bunch of fluffy, fun stuff,” Mitchell noted.

Most recently, the community revamped its municipal swimming pool, a $2.6 million project. It was the first replacement of the pool in Bicentennial Park since 1962.

“We’ve tried to be responsive to our community’s needs,” he said. “Sometimes it works out great, but sometimes it doesn’t.” Some years ago, the city tried a residential licensing program, but after pushback from landowners, the program was repealed. “Sometimes you get it wrong,” he said. “I am wrong a lot.”

Hometown Hoisington

Growing up moving place-to-place had an effect on Mitchell, he said. “I moved out of the house before I was 18, had to go to work, earn money, all that stuff,” he said. In Hoisington, however, Mitchell has found his “sense of place.”

Divorced and now remarried, he believes that the Hoisington community is the place for his family, which includes two boys, ages 12 and 10, and a girl, 2.

“We are anchored in the community, because the children are here,” he said. “We plan to be here a long time and see our kids graduate from Hoisington High School.

“I hope to make a career out of my time at Hoisington. Maybe that’s an uncommon thing nowadays.

“For some folks, people get bored in their jobs and they feel like it’s the same thing every day,” he said. “That is not the case in small town city work. There’s always a challenge; always something new and you get to work with different people.

“If that’s what making a difference feels like, I’d say that feels pretty good.”

Community Connections is a regular feature of the Great Bend Tribune, showcasing people who live in the Golden Belt. We welcome readers to submit names of individuals they would like to see featured in a future story. Send suggestions to news@gbtribune.com and explain their “community connections.”