Lance Rains of Gallatin has been hired as city administrator for Gallatin, having been selected from a field of six applicants who hailed from as far away as New York.
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“I plan to make Gallatin a better place,” says Lance.
Lance graduated from Gallatin High School in 1987, and the University of Missouri in 1992. He has a general agriculture major and minors in agriculture economics, food science nutrition, animal science, and hotel and restaurant management.
After graduating, Lance was employed with Green Hills Regional Planning Commission (GHRPC) in 1993 and has been there ever since, serving 26 years.
Starting on Oct. 3 during the Great Flood of 1993, he was flood coordinator for our 11-county area. His first four projects involved two levees and two demolitions at Brunswick and Dalton. Lance wrote the application for the City of Pattonsburg buyout, which originally began with $18 million. In the end state and federal emergency management agencies and other government agencies agreed to $12 million, after taking out the school, city buildings and churches.
Since taking the planner position at Green Hills RPC Lance has assisted with over 200 applications to the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program which provided over $74 million dollars worth of CDBG Grant funds. Those funds were leveraged with funds from other sources to provide over $250 million dollars worth of improvements to the GHRPC 11-county area. Those projects included water improvements, wastewater improvements, bridge replacements, street upgrades, economic development projects, housing rehabilitation projects, and demolitions, to name a few.
Lance was not only in charge of writing the grant applications but his responsibilities also included the administration of the projects as well as project management, bidding, payroll compliance, and environmental assessments creation. His job also included working with MoDOT, MoDNR, FEMA, SEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, Homeland Security, and Hazard Mitigation. Each of those organizations provided much needed bridge gap financing to complete the projects throughout the GHRPC area.
Lance and his wife Beth have two children. Jarod turns 20 at the end of this month, and Jenna, 15, has a birthday in May. Jarod is attending MU in the field of electrical engineering. He is in his second year in college but he has enough hours to be considered a junior. Jarod is also a member of the MU Engineering Student Council and an officer of Alpha Gamma Rho. Jenna is a sophomore at Gallatin R-5 and is very active in FFA, FBLA, FCCLA, band, Student Council, and golf. Lance’s wife Beth works for the Department of Corrections.
Lance has been involved with the Gallatin Theater League since 1999. He’s been in 20 spring plays, a dozen Chautauqua plays, and two fall plays. He’s been a member of the Gallatin Men’s Club since 1995 and is a member of the Gallatin Christian Church.
Lance likes to hunt mushrooms and is a member of Missouri Mushroom Association, which doesn’t truly have a membership, only a website with updates on mushroom finds in the State of Missouri. He likes to hunt, fish, go to swine shows with his Show Family, and spend time with family and friends.
In his spare time he works with his family on their farming operations on the outskirts of Gallatin.
Lance says his first and foremost goal is to create a comprehensive plan for the City of Gallatin. This plan would cover water, sewer, streets, park, sidewalks, and the electrical grid.
“I want Gallatin to be more proactive in the updating of our infrastructure, which means I’m going to need public comments on the most important needs of the community,” he says. “We will have public hearings to discuss what the public feels are the biggest needs. The plan will be in five-year increments with a long term plan for the future. That way we have a road map for all the public to see what’s next on the list.”
The comprehensive plan will help Gallatin receive grant funding. For instance, the sidewalks grant through MoDOT awards an extra 10 points for just having a plan, which can make the difference between whether a project is funded or not. The same advantage can be said about water, sewer and street grants.
Another thing the residents of Gallatin have spoken to Lance about for years has been performing a demolition project.
“A demolition project would also be part of a Public Hearing process from the public,” he says. “To make sure it’s really one of the top needs.”
One of the major sources for grant funding, as shown by Gallatin’s recent sewer and water projects, is the Community Development Block Grant. Lance has 26 years of experience with CDBG.
Lance sees a problem with the fact that Gallatin is not considered in the “low to moderate income” category. According to the 2010 Census Gallatin has an LMI rating of 44.48% and that percentage needs to be above 51%. That means that Gallatin needs to perform a “low to moderate income survey” to become eligible for grant funding.
“When we send out a survey to residents, we need them back to make us eligible to save money on projects,” he says. An 80% return rate is needed to make the survey valid.
Looking toward the future and challenges that may be faced by the City of Gallatin, Lance says he’d like to bring broadband to the City of Gallatin, which would be linked by a trunk line.
“We could then entice younger professionals back to town,” he says. “They could live here and have the availability of high speed communications at their fingertips. It could help our town get younger and at the same time be at the cutting edge of technology.”
Lance will begin his job as city administrator on Feb. 19.
“My door is always open for anyone who wants to come in and visit,” he says. “I’m very excited, and a little nervous. It’s going to be a new experience for me. But I’m excited for that and ready to go.”