Almost three years into his position as Junction City Manager, Allen Dinkel, is feeling “at home”.
Originally from the Hays, Kansas area, Dinkel said that coming to Junction City was a “good fit” for him and his family.
“When I first got here – and I hear this still from a lot of people – that we’re a town of 24 to 26 thousand [people]…but [Junction City] has a small town feel in a bigger town, and I think that’s real important,” said Dinkel. “We have somewhat of a transient population, but you have a large part of the population that’s been here forever and I think people get to know each other and that’s what’s attractive [about Junction City] more than anything.”
While Dinkel said there isn’t a “typical day” as City Manager, the job isn’t without its challenges – notably, the ongoing debt issue.
“A lot of people will say ‘well you dwell on [debt]’, and [I say] you have to; we’re working on our 2018 budget now and about 42 to 43 percent of our tax dollars goes to debt,” said Dinkel.
Despite this, Dinkel said that the community as a whole is not in bad shape. “The debt payments for the bonds and interests are there every year; it’s trying to find that balance to do streets [and other projects],” said Dinkel. “[People] always say, ‘well our streets aren’t good enough’, and we’ve done a lot of work over the last couple of years.”
Dinkel noted that the previous City administration and staff was doing a good job in leveraging debt payments and infrastructure needs in the community.
“I’m not going to dwell on how [the debt] got there, but we have to deal with it, and it’s just a fact; unfortunately it’s going to be a big issue for the City for the next 10 to 15 years – but we’re making progress.”
Junction City was thrust into financial hardships under the leadership of former City administration during the early 2000s.
Rather than dwell on the cards dealt, Dinkel said that he and City administration are always looking at the positives in the potential for Junction City.
“The city has a great history, first with the ties to Fort Riley; and you hear that we depend too much on them, but it is who we are,” said Dinkel. “Should we diversify more – no doubt…the more diverse we are the better, and we will continue to work at that.”
Dinkel grew up on a farm where his family had cattle, hogs, corn, milo and wheat “that way if you had a tough year in something, you could make it through”; the same is true for City government.
In addition to his daily work as the “CEO” of Junction City, Dinkel manages to find time for a unique hobby.
“Growing up as a farm kid at the livestock sale barn at Hays all the time, I became enamored by auctioneers and when I was 20 years old I went to the Superior School of Auctioneering in Decatur, Illinois.”
Dinkel said that auctioneer school and auctioneering in general taught him a lot of skills that he would use throughout his life. “A lot of the things that I learned in auctioneer school about people have been applicable to work I do everyday; it’s how you treat people, how you get along with people and work with people and that’s what an auctioneer does.”
Dinkel still works as an auctioneer in his spare time, as well as volunteering his services for community benefits and functions.
With it’s fair share of challenges, and sometimes pessimism from others in the community, Dinkel loves Junction City – his home.
“I think this is a nice town, the people are friendly; we’ve seen instances in this community in this last month – one with the Stroda family and one with our City Commissioner Dr. Landes – how the community rallied,” said Dinkel. “That’s something that just doesn’t happen, and I haven’t seen that happen in smaller towns.”
Brandon Stroda lost a battle to cancer earlier this month; Landes had post-surgical complications, but has since recovered.
Dinkel has three daughters, the youngest of which just graduated from college. He and his wife Paula will celebrate 40 years of marriage this summer.