By Lucky Kidd
McPHERSON, Kan. — The city of McPherson has a new Fire Chief. City Commissioners this morning approved the hiring of Chad Mayberry effective April 29th.
New Chief Mayberry comes from the Winfield Fire Department, where he’s been for the past 23 years, currently as Fire Marshall, and has 30 years of experience in the fire service. He and his wife Nancy have two children, one of whom is graduating from high school in May and will attend Oklahoma State University in the fall.
Mayberry, who succeeds TJ Wyssmann, whose retirement resignation officially took effect last month, told Commissioners after his appointment was approved that he’s looking forward to serving the people of McPherson.
“McPherson has a great department, and (I’m) looking forward to working with the team there and seeing what we can do to make it better,” Mayberry said.
In another public safety personnel matter, the Commission approved the promotion of Lieutenant Ryan Bauer to the rank of Operations Captain, effective next Monday. Chief Michael Golden said Bauer has excelled in his time with the department including overseeing many community events. Bauer’s wife and daughter were on hand for his formal pinning ceremony.
The city is also looking for a new city clerk – again. Commissioners accepted the resignation of Jennifer Bliss, who had just recently taken the position. Lisa Faust was designated interim City Clerk while the process to hire a replacement takes place. Commissioners also approved conditional job offers for two street operators in training, both pending completion of pre-employment testing,
Payment for training of three Public Works employees was approved. This involved sending a new engineering technician to a CIS training class in Omaha next month and for two employees to take a CDL class to obtain a passenger endorsement, which would allow them to be substitute drivers for the CVB Trolley, which CVB is covering half of the training cost.
Commissioners approved purchase of a couple of inverter pump motors for Turkey Creek Golf Course. The existing pumps were recently taken off line for service, and ended up being out of balance due to a wobble in pump shafts, along with not having a reverse ratchet on either one, which may have happened when they were rebuilt in 2018, and along with other issues could cause a catastrophic failure.
The Commission also approved payment for crushing of 1460 tons of rubble, purchase of a new snow plow and salt spreader for a recently purchased truck, correction of a bid approved two weeks ago for this year’s sign replacement program to list the correct low bidder for sign posts and hardware, final Phase 2 design payment to Hutton on the new Fire Station 2 on North Main, and reimbursement to the McPherson Housing Coalition for February expenditures from an Emerging Solutions Grant awarded last fall from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation.
