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Economic development director outlines water options for semiconductor site, stalled trail grant and downtown signage program
Summary
The county’s economic development director told commissioners he’s working on water options for a semiconductor manufacturer, checking the status of a paused trail-planning grant, and assisting interest for a possible data center on a city-owned industrial parcel.
Coffey County's economic development director gave commissioners a broad update on recruitment and infrastructure work under way, including discussions with Secure Semiconductor Manufacturing (SSM) about water service, status of a countywide trail planning grant, interest from a company in a data center, and smaller programs to help downtown businesses.
Director's outreach and water options for SSM The director said he visited SSM's new facility and was told SSM is concerned about getting water service to the site. He reported conversations with Chris Withers from Rural Water District No. 3 and said the district offered an interim option to run water to the building so SSM can open soon. Withers has also suggested the county consider the longer-term option of running a more robust water main from Twentieth Road (U.S. Highway 75 and Twentieth Road) and will have an engineer estimate cost for that work.
Countywide trail planning grant The director said Coffey County was awarded a 2024 RAISE grant for countywide trail-system planning but that, according to his inquiry, the grant award was never executed. He is contacting the engineers who worked on the project and the Kansas office of the Federal Highway Administration to determine the award's current status; he said many federal grants are under review and that the award may still be resolved but is effectively paused at present.
Industrial property and data-center interest Staff said a company is interested in purchasing a city-owned industrial parcel on Burlington's south end to build a data center. The lead contact has specific utilities needs (large amounts of natural gas and energy). The economic director and city staff are coordinating utility-connection information and have reached out to the Kansas Department of Commerce as a potential resource for incentives.
407 Neosho Street building and downtown signage The director described county ownership of a building at 407 Neosho Street. The county is paying to repair the roof; commissioners discussed plans for sale and favored an open auction process with a minimum acceptable bid to get the property back on the tax rolls. He also described partnering with the local chamber director on a Kansas Department of Commerce SINES grant that provides modest funding for downtown storefront signage; four local businesses may participate.
Other items The director reported the county’s revolving loan fund balance was $521,810.92 as of 03/31/2025 and that three businesses have outstanding loans in good standing. He introduced Placer AI, a new subscription data product the office purchased to provide anonymized cell‑phone–based visitation and demographic reports to support business recruitment and downtown planning.
He said he will attend local city council and school leadership meetings to coordinate economic development efforts and will be out of the office one week in June for preplanned travel; staff coverage was identified in his briefing.
Commissioners asked questions about timelines and funding avenues; staff said they will return with cost estimates for water main options and more information on the RAISE grant status when available.
