WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — If you look at Thursday’s Kansas Finance Council meeting agenda, it looks fairly routine.
The council, comprised of Governor Laura Kelly and members of both parties in the Kansas Legislature, falls under the Department of Administration, the department that basically handles all the day-to-day operations of the government.
On the agenda for this week is the approval of the sale of the former Department of Labor mail services center, approval of the sale of property owned by the Department for Aging and Disability Services in Woodson, and the sale of property owned by the Department for Children and Families, located at Lot 1012, Unit 1, Colorado City, Colorado.
Why does DCF own land in Colorado?
Colorado City is a small town of just over 2,000 people. It’s about a 30-minute drive southwest of Pueblo off Interstate 25, just east of the foot of the Rocky Mountains. It’s also home to Lake Beckwith. It’s closer to Taos, New Mexico, than it is to Topeka, so why exactly does the state own a plot of land there?
It turns out they didn’t know they owned it.
How it happened
Sometime in the late 1970’s, the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services acquired the land by court order over delinquent child support. According to Erin La Row, Deputy Director of Media Relations for Kansas DCF, the full history of the 6,800 square feet of land has been lost over time.
What the agency does know is that in 2011, the department began receiving tax notifications for the property from the state of Colorado. That is the year that Gov. Sam Brownback appointed Rob Siedlecki Secretary of SRS. The state decided not to do anything and had hoped that the state of Colorado would simply repossess the land. That never happened.
It was eventually decided to put the land up for auction, and the Department of Administration officially deemed the land surplus property in 2023. La Row says the property was recently appraised at $4,000 and received a bid of $1,925.00.
The Kansas Finance Council approved the sale during Thursday’s meeting. The funds will be used to pay the delinquent tax bill.
La Row says the remainder will be deposited in the Kansas Treasury per state law.
