Members of the Ellsworth City Council will conduct a hearing at 5:15 p.m. Nov. 12 at Ellsworth City Hall on a plan to annex 1.8 acres of land on the northeast corner of Evans Street and Avenue JJ.

The annexation is part of a work project at the 8th Street/K-156 intersection.

The council also discussed setting a public hearing on the extension of the city’s tax increment financing (TIF) districts; however, a decision was postponed until city administrator Scott Moore and city attorney Patrick Hoffman talk with representatives from Ellsworth County and the Ellsworth-Kanopolis-Geneseo School District. They are to return to the city council’s Sept. 23 meeting with a draft resolution.

A TIF district is a public financing method that is used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other communityimprovement projects by collecting future property tax revenue increases from a defined area. Ellsworth has two TIFS — one in the First Bank Kansas development and another that covers the Carrico property.

Moore suggested 19 other areas with the highest possibility of development.

He said a recent state report found that 10 Kansas counties are growing and Ellsworth County is one of them. He said the city must continue to move forward by showing “we’re doing things to attract investment.”

The other topic at Monday’s city council meeting was the contract renewal of golf course consultant Neil DeWerff, who has provided guidance and consulting oversight to the city’s golf course superintendents since 2001. He also has 11 other courses under his direction.

At the August meeting of the golf course advisory board, members discussed the consultant contract and eventually voted to reallocate the $2,500 the city pays DeWerff. Mark Cunningham, a member of the advisory committee who attended Monday night’s council meeting with golf course superintendent Patrick Hammel, said DeWerff has done a good job, but Hammel has learned a lot since he started.

“He’s great, but he’s not a good fit here anymore,” Cunningham said of DeWerff, who also was at the meeting.

City staff has recommended the council extend DeWerff ’s consultant agreement, which expires at the end of the year.

“A decision not to renew the consultant agreement and maintain the proper maintenance protocols and operations of the golf course would be a detriment that courses in Barton County now face once their board of directors decided to not rely on consulting services and placed those responsibilities solely on the golf superintendent and staff,” Moore wrote in a memo to the council.

DeWerff said he wasn’t in Ellsworth “to beg for a job.” Instead, he warned city officials that the biggest mistake a nine-hole golf course can make is to start relying too much on a chemical salesman.

“You have a beautiful golf course and there’s no reason it shouldn’t stay that way,” he said.

No action was taken by the council.