By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
Ellis County commissioners Butch Schlyer and Joe Leroux took part in their final meeting as commissioners Tuesday.
Schlyer chose not to seek re-election after winning the First District seat in 2018 and Leroux was defeated in the Republican primary for the Third District seat in August.
Tuesday, Schlyer said that his goal when he was elected was to restore Ellis County because it was “in bad shape.”
“I didn't realize how bad a shape it was in until administrator Phil (Smith-Hanes) set me down and showed me the financials, and things were bad,” Schlyer said.
Schlyer celebrated the turnaround that he has seen in the county and getting back on track over the last four years. He praised the previous commissioners for their work.
“I was surrounded with Commissioner Joe (Leroux), Commissioner Neal (Younger), Commissioner (Dean) Haselhorst (and) Commissioner (Dustin) Roths,” Schlyer said. “(They) all showed a commitment to Ellis County and support for the employees of Ellis County. They’re to be thanked.”
During his time as commissioner, Ellis County voters approved a pair of quarter-cent sales taxes to help fund health services and the county’s general fund.
Schlyer attributed the passage to the work of County Administrator Darin Myers, IT Director Mike Leiker and former Emergency Manager and Public Works Director Bill Ring.
“We were able to get our feet under us a little bit and then we got Darin (Myers) for an administrator, which was great,” Schlyer said. “We wouldn't have had that happen had department heads not spoken honestly with me about our past administrator. And when I heard what was going on, I was going to see to what we were going to change the error we had made, and we did.”
The commission hired J.D. Cox as county administrator in June 2020; he stepped down four months later.
Darin Myers was appointed interim county administrator and then in March 2021 he was appointed to fill the position permanently.
During his four years as county commissioner, Ellis County has expanded the landfill, merged environmental services with the landfill and opened new offices at the landfill, created a Human Resources Department, purchase land for a new public works location and added positions within the Information technology department and appraisers office.
“Things have really prospered in the last four years, we can see a lot of improvement,” Schlyer said.
He also noted that the commission voted to increase wages for county employees next year and included a cost of living increase.
“As I leave Ellis County government, I know I'm leaving it a whole lot better than it was when I started,” Schlyer said. “That's thanks to everyone involved, all the department heads, elected officials (and) the commissioners I worked with.”
Leroux was elected to the commission last January. He was picked from a large group of Republicans to fill the seat vacated by Dean Haselhorst after his family moved to Russell County.
He was defeated by Nathan Leiker in the August Republican primary election.
Leiker and First District commissioner-elect Michael Berges will be sworn in to their new seats next week prior to the commission meeting.
Leroux said after talking with both Berges and Leiker he knows they will “do great.”
“I look forward to seeing the things they accomplish with Neal (Younger) when the next board swears in and just wanted to thank everybody for letting me serve you for the past year,” Leroux said.” It's been a great pleasure.”
The commission's only action Tuesday was a vote to send a request to send a proposal to rezone property north of Hays back to the planning commission.
Schlyer wrapped up Tuesday’s meeting: “When the weather is warm and the wind is not blowing too hard, I'm going to be fishing.”