City OKs sale of industrial park lots

The last three available lots at the Holton Industrial Park have a new owner.

At last night’s Holton City Commission meeting — held a day later than normal due to the Presidents Day holiday observance on Monday — commissioners approved the sale of three lots, totaling 8.7 acres, to J.R. and Christi Doney, owners of JC Ag Solutions, L.L.C., previously based in Meade, for $34,800.

The Doneys, who moved with their family to Holton in July of last year, have run their agriculture business, offering corn and soybean seed, natural biological fertilizers, soil sampling and crop scouting for 13 years. J.R. Doney said that as a native of Wathena, he and his family “took a leap of faith” and moved to northeastern Kansas.

“I really liked this community growing up,” Doney told commissioners. “We were looking for a place to relocate to, and we wanted to be a little closer to our girls when college started.”

After having “a lot of difficulty” finding a place to move their business to in this area, Doney said they looked at Holton Industrial Park as an ideal place to build a 7,200-square foot storage space, along with a 900-square foot office space and plans for the placement of soybean bins for bulk storage in the future.

The Doneys said they planned to “set permanent roots” in the Holton area with their business and eventually hire between three and 10 full-time and part-time employees in the future.

Holton Mayor Tim Morris said he was pleased to see that the industrial park would finally be “filled up.”

“It’s been a long trail,” Morris said. “It’s good that we’re looking at a business that’s purchasing it, and they’re telling us how they’re going to utilize it.”

The purchase of the three lots — a 1.7-acre lot, a 2.6-acre lot and a 4.4-acre lot — was approved on a 4-0 vote following a motion from Commissioner Marilyn Watkins, seconded by Commissioner Clara Lovvorn. Commissioner Eric Bjelland was not present for the meeting.