From Kansas Agland:
FREDERICK - The few residents left in Kansas' second smallest town have not made a decision on its fate.
As far as Frederick City Clerk Melode Huggans knows, no one has even discussed it.
But Rice County Clerk Alicia Showalter said she had not received a budget from Frederick, which has a population of 10 on a good day. It was due Tuesday. The City Council was supposed to publish the budget in early August and have a public hearing by Aug. 15.
Frederick, however, doesn't have a City Council to even make budgetary decisions.
In the April election, no one ran for mayor or for any of the City Council seats. Not one resident wrote in a name, either. In fact, it appears no one even voted.
For the first time in nearly 130 years, Frederick has no leaders -- which is causing Rice County officials to deal with a unique situation for Kansas. Few towns have dissolved in the past few decades. Moreover, in Frederick's case, no one in town, it seems, cares enough to meet or make a decision.
"It’s a totally weird situation: There is nobody that can take action to do anything," Showalter said.
"They’ve made no attempt to visit with anybody," she added.
Letter goes unanswered
Showalter sent former Mayor Robert Root a letter in June asking him to schedule a meeting about the city's intentions ? whether it wanted to stay a third-class city and appoint a council or dissolve.
Root still hasn't responded, Showalter said Wednesday.
Robert Root didn't answer his cellphone or return calls after a couple of messages were left by The News this summer, nor did he return a call on Wednesday. But his wife, Judy, stood outside their Frederick home on an early July day, saying they didn't want to see the dissolution of Frederick.
She noted they received the letter from the county but her husband works for a farmer, and he had been too busy during wheat harvest to respond.
"He doesn't want it to go unincorporated," she said, adding they have lived here since the early 1990s and her husband does all the mowing around the city and runs the city's grader. She thought he'd be interested in serving as mayor.
Robert Root didn't vote in the April election, according to voting records. Judy, who works in Ellsworth, said she didn't make it to their Bushton polling location, either.
Rare situation
Many a Kansas city has become unincorporated over the years, but recent dissolving of cities is a bit unusual, said Eric Smith, an attorney for the Kansas League of Municipalities.
In fact, there is little information about the dissolution of towns, nor is there mention of many in the United States dissolving involuntarily in the past few decades. An article in a 2012 Yale Law Journal regarding municipal dissolution notes the subject has "occupied fewer scholarly pages than the number of years in a century" but adds that, in the post-World War II era, dissolution has been more often a voluntary decision by residents or councils that choose to eliminate their city government.
Dissolving a city involuntarily, it seems, is rare, Smith said.
One of the last cases in Kansas was the Cherokee County town of Treece, a polluted mining town that had 130-plus residents in 2010 but was abandoned by 2012 because of government buyouts.
But with no one left in town, the Kansas Legislature officially disincorporated the town through legislative action, said Smith during an interview in July.
In 1895, the Kansas Legislature vacated a number of Kansas cities that sprang up with settlement and then disappeared. That included the town of Cash City in Clark County, which at one time was reported to have 500 people but was empty by the time lawmakers took action, according to The News.
State statute, however, has these rules for a city that wants to unincorporate, Smith said last month. Residents must bring a petition to the City Council, which will call for a special election on the matter.
A decision must pass by a two-thirds vote, he said.
The only problem with Frederick is that there is no elected leadership.
Fifteen states have passive dissolution laws that would take effect when a town fails to elect or appoint officers or levy and collect taxes.
Kansas, however, isn't one of them.
Indecision
Frederick incorporated in 1887. It once had as many as 150 people, along with grocery stores, a lumberyard, blacksmiths and restaurants.
Today, however, almost every business on Frederick's main street, except the grain elevator, has disappeared -- with not even a foundation left behind.
Showalter said she is just waiting until she learns more about what can be done about the situation.
She said that, without a budget, Frederick officials will no longer be able to write checks legally after Jan. 1.
"I know our county counselor (Scott Bush) has been trying to get them to visit with somebody," Showalter said. "But we haven't heard a word."
Huggans doesn't know the answer. She serves as the Frederick city clerk but isn't sure the next time the former council will meet. Her husband is on the City Council. But their thoughts have been on other things. Melode has been battling breast cancer, diagnosed in April.
"We’re in a quandary," Showalter said. "But I’m trying to get guidance from the county counselor and guidance from the state."
She later added, "It may come down to legislative action to dissolve."
Kansas Agland Editor Amy Bickel is chronicling the "Dead Towns" of Kansas. To read her June story about the history of Frederick, visit http://hutch.news/frederick. If you have a suggestion for a town Amy should research, email her at abickel@hutchnews.com. For more information on Kansas Dead Towns, visit www.kansasagland.com 0000017a-0aaf-d3f2-ad7a-4ffff99c0000.
