A career in the insurance business gave Jolene Biggs insight into the commercial accounts she managed, from banking to the oilfield. That experience, in turn, helped Biggs make informed decisions when she was appointed to the Great Bend City Council back in 2017. She has since gone through several elections and continues to represent Ward 2 as a councilwoman to this day.

Biggs was appointed after councilman Wayne Henneke, who had served as the council president, resigned in the wake of an ongoing controversy involving the police chief at the time, Cliff Couch. The city council voted 5-3 that summer to suspend Couch with the potential for termination. He later resigned. 

The city was divided over the issue, with hundreds of residents attending a city council meeting after the suspension to say they wanted their police chief to stay. With that controversy raging on, people judged Biggs by what they perceived her position was.

“It wasn’t the greatest time to jump in,” Biggs recalls of her introduction to city government. “A lot of people took sides, so there are still people today that think I was on one side and hold it against me. I hadn’t really been involved, so I was just staying neutral.”

While Biggs was neutral on the Couch controversy, she’s not afraid to speak her mind.

“I’m not a very good politician; I don’t play politics,” she said. “My dilemma is that I always worked with business owners who are very dominant personalities. They’re very direct and that’s how I tend to operate. If you’re in politics, you can’t always just ‘get along.’ You’ve got to make some hard decisions sometimes. So, I’m not always the most popular person.”

A career in insurance

Years before her entry into public service, Biggs went to work for Insurance Unlimited in Great Bend.

“I started at the bottom,” she said, gaining experience in accounting, claims, personal and commercial lines and customer service. She later sold health and life insurance policies for Call Insurance Services and then became an account executive at Insurance Planning Inc., where she managed the Great Bend office.

“I really enjoyed working with the people,” she said, adding that was what she missed most after retiring at the end of 2019. “I always liked learning about businesses and how they worked. That was always interesting to me. I did that for 40 years and because I had started down at the bottom, I pretty much knew how to do the different jobs.”

A lifetime in Great Bend

Biggs grew up in Great Bend, attending St. Rose Catholic School through the eighth grade and then spending her freshman year at Roosevelt Junior High before going to Great Bend High School.

Growing up in a family with 13 children, Jolene was used to working. At age 16, she got a job at the South Dillons store, which was located at the corner of 11th and Main. When that closed, she worked at the Dillons store located in the Westgate Shopping Center.

“I did go to Barton (Community College) and graduated,” she said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to be, so I went to work in insurance.” Later she earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational management and leadership from Friends University. 

She met Craig, her husband of 44 years, in high school. “Craig sat behind me in English class as a senior,” she said. “And then he also worked at Westgate Dillons.”

Craig Biggs is an accountant for Duke Drilling. The couple have three children: daughter Amanda lives in Kansas City and works as an attorney for T-Mobile; daughter Lindsay lives in Manhattan where she does research and patenting of new inventions through Kansas State University; and son Brent is the baseball coach at Barton Community College. They have five grandchildren, ranging in age from 2 to 8 years old.

Organizations and leadership

Biggs is licensed with the Kansas Insurance Department for Property, Casualty, Life and Health; holds a Certified Insurance Counselor designation; and completed a two-year program with the Kansas Health Foundation Community Leadership Initiative. She is a graduate of Leadership Great Bend; served on the boards for the Family Crisis Center, St. Patrick’s School, Great Bend United Way and the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce; was a Great Bend Chamber Ambassador; is a past Great Bend Chamber of Commerce Youth Leadership chairperson; is a Great Bend High School Booster Club board member and past president; served on the Central Kansas Medical Center board of directors for nine years, and as finance committee chairperson for two years; served on the board of directors of the Independent Insurance Agents of Kansas from 2015-2018, receiving the Distinguished Service Award in 2018; served on the board of directors of Great Bend Economic Development for two years and is currently serving as chairman of the board of directors for the Barton Community College Foundation.

Great Bend’s future

Biggs can point to several positive things that have happened during her time on the Great Bend City Council, including updates at the airport and the new Justice Center being built to house the police department and municipal court. Great Bend Economic Development has several good projects in the works, she said.

“Great Bend has changed over the years,” Biggs said. “What I’d like to continue to see is a mindset change of what we could be here.” Forget about that secret group of “fathers” that supposedly run the city; it never existed. “The mindset has to change; it takes all of us. We all should be involved in economic development for the city. People can do that by saying good things about the city, inviting other people to come, getting involved with different community events. I think everyone should be involved with that. It isn’t just a select few; I feel strongly about that.”

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 who are active in the community that they would like to see featured in a future story. Send suggestions to news@gbtribune.com and explain their “community connections.”