Garnett City Commissioners have pushed ahead with two new appointments to the Garnett Housing Authority Board they hope will press for a more proactive approach toward developing housing opportunities in the city. Ike Burns, CEO of Auburn Pharmacies in Garnett, and his Garnett store pharmacist Casey Smith, filled two vacancies on the five-member board. Those appointments, as well as recent discussions about the pursuit for local housing needs, resulted in the county’s Economic Development Committee being granted $10,000 by the Throckmorton-Riser Foundation to pay for a Community Housing Study. It’s a project City Commissioners had pressed the former Housing Board to undertake over much of the past two years, but had not been approached. Housing Authority Director Karlyn Hulett told commissioners, in a tense exchange at last week’s Garnett Commission Meeting, that her board favored an expansion, but wanted to wait until the Housing Authority’s existing debt of more than $500,000 had been retired.
