Community center tops Schneider’s mayoral agenda

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN LAURA CAMPBELL
For nearly 39 years, David Schneider of Lincolnville was able to do two of his favorite things-solve problems and help people-as a serviceman for Westar Energy.

Now the self-described “people person” hopes to spend the next four years doing similarly helpful problem-solving as mayor.

“When I was working for the company, they always said I was a very good troubleshooter,” Schneider said. “If we had a problem, then I’d always try to figure out what was the best solution.”

It isn’t Schneider’s first time to perform such a service for the Lincolnville community.

He also served as mayor from 1995 to 2001 while still doing electrical work for Westar Energy, formerly Kansas Power and Light Co.

Since then, he has retired and finds himself busier than ever in the first few months of his term.

“Back then, there wasn’t near as much stuff going on,” Schneider said of previous terms as mayor. “Now it seems like I could come down here every day, and back then, once a week was enough.”

The project taking most of his time now is the town’s new community center, started last July under previous mayor Victor Burns when Schneider was serving on city council, he said.

“Most of my time is spent at the community center right now,” Schneider said. “It’s a pretty big project, and we’re trying to keep things going.”

Schneider acknowledges that volunteer work decreases during the summer when the weather is hot and residents go on vacation.

But he’s not worried about the town meeting its July 2006 deadline for finishing the center, which he said is about 80 percent complete already.

“We’ve still got not quite a year, and I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” he said. “It’s really coming together.

“We’re looking at trying to have it done by Christmas,” he added.

Funded by the KanSTEP program, the community center will feature a large meeting room to fit approximately 200 people, a full-service kitchen with a serving window and roll-away serving table, two bathrooms and a safe room for emergency shelter.

“Basically, it’s for people that are having reunions, birthday parties, wedding receptions, things like that,” Schneider said. “If you have something like that, it brings people in town, and they can see what you have to offer.”

Schneider said a few more improvements and additions would give Lincolnville even more to offer both residents and visitors.

“There is a grant available, if we qualify, for revitalization of Main Street, which entails new sidewalks, new curb and guttering, new post lamps, little settee chairs, store fronts,” he said.

“I would like to see us apply for that, and hopefully get approved for that, just to make downtown look better than what it is.”

And Schneider expressed gratefulness for the town’s grocery store- “We’re pretty fortunate there, because it’s pretty tough to keep on going in a small town”-he added that he’d also like for the town to add a convenience store and filling station.

But for now, the focus is on streamlining the budget for this next year, Schneider said, a daunting task for many involved.

“That budget process is so confusing to common, ordinary people,” he said. “And I don’t understand it probably the way I should, except that I’ve been through it several times.

“I know what has to be done.”

One way Schneider has worked to stretch the town’s dollar is by seeking grants.

“As long as I’m around here, I’m going to keep trying to get them,” he said. “If I have to drive to Topeka and beg ’em, that’s what I’ll do.

“And we have made lots of trips to Topeka and become pretty familiar with some of the faces in the department of commerce,” he added. “I don’t think it’s been futile. We’re going to have a very nice building when we get done.”

Schneider is convinced that the town’s teamwork mentality will help them get what they want.

“I think if we’d keep the interest in the volunteer work that we’re doing here, some of the grants would become available,” he said.

The more they can get money from the state, the less they have to raise taxes for such improvements.

And that’s something Lincolnville is known for seldom doing, Schneider said.

“I think one of the most unique things about our town is that we haven’t had to raise the mill levy for years and years and years,” he said. “We’ve been able to do things by budgeting the money.”

That may have to change soon, Schneider said, as a result of budgeting choices in recent years.

But he said he’ll be there to help educate his council, especially new members, on more sound money management.

“I just want to try to pass on knowledge to a few of them,” he said, “be a mentor to them, if possible, if they’d let me.”

A 37-year resident of Lincolnville, Schneider brings to the table even more years of experience in customer service.

“I worked as a serviceman for the general public for all those years (with Westar),” said the former Abilene resident. “And even before that, when I was in high school, I worked in a grocery store and a filling station.

“So I like to think of myself as a people person, being able to communicate.”

Schneider not only offers his services as the mayor, he also enjoys lending a helping hand just about everywhere else he can.

“I always tell people that I’d like to be remembered as a good Samaritan and a humanitarian,” he said.

“I’m very easy and that gets me in trouble sometimes,” he added with a laugh. “People have taken advantage of me.”

When not at the community center or at city hall working with city clerk Jane Pigorsch, Schneider can often be found out and about doing odd jobs on the side-sometimes for pay and sometimes not.

“I’m kind of a handyman-a jack of all trades and a master of none,” he said. “I don’t do near as much as I did, but it’s starting to pick up again.

“I don’t want to do it every day of the week, 12-hour days,” he added. “So I take the small things that I can do.”

But once the community center is finished, he’d like to get his hands back onto his own home.

“I want to spruce up my house a little bit, because it needs some attention,” he said.

A recent fishing trip with his son has also given Schneider back a “fishing fever,” he said.

“I’ve always been in love with fishing, but I don’t have time to do it,” he said. “When things slow down and it cools off, I’ll probably get to go fishing more than what I do now.”

Not just fishing but family and faith are also important to Schneider, who has two daughters in Canton and Galva- one with two kids of her own-and a position as elder at St. John’s Lutheran Church.

“I’ve always been active in the church,” he said. “That’s from my father-he made sure everyone was in church Sunday morning.

“My daddy always said if you didn’t go to church on Sunday morning, the rest of the week didn’t go good,” he added. “And I have a tendency to agree with him.”

Neither will sitting around waiting for a problem to fix itself make for a good week, Schneider said, nor for a good term as mayor.

“If you’ve got a problem, you’ve got to take care of it now,” he said.

“Instead of just saying it’s going to work itself out, I like to get to the bottom of it and try to find out what would make it work out.”

And that’s why Schneider enjoys finding ways to help people more than anything else, he said.

“I love doing volunteer work where I know that it’s helping somebody or a bunch of people,” Schneider said.

“Like the community center,” he added. “That’s going to help a whole bunch of people.”

More from article archives
4-H Club News
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN STAFF The South Cottonwood 4-H Club met at 7 p.m.,...
Read More