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Darrin Figgins has made an impact on Grant County over the past 30 years with his work on various county boards such as the Airport Board, Cemetery Board and the hospital board. But it’s more than just government boards - as a partner at Garnand Funeral Home in Ulysses, Johnson, Hugoton, and Elkhart, Figgins makes a positive difference for families across Southwest Kansas at some of the most difficult times of their lives.
Figgins was sworn in as Grant County Commissioner October 1, to fill in the spot left vacant by Marty Long’s election to the Kansas House of Representatives.
“I feel like this has kind of been in the works for a long time,” Figgins said.
Figgins was on the board of the Grant County Cemetery District for 23 years, has been on the Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees (now Common Spirit), as well as the Airport Board.
“I’ve worked with the commissioners quite a bit over the years on lots of different projects and things, besides living here and being interested in it,” Figgins said. “I’d say the other thing that motivated me (is) I had a group of people that came and encouraged me to apply and try to get appointed to that position.”
Figgins got right to work after being sworn in October 1.
“I thought it was interesting, I felt pretty good about it,” Figgins said. “We’ve lived here 30 years so I knew everybody sitting in the room. I’m on a lot of boards and have been for a long time so I understand how meetings run. There wasn’t anyone sitting there that didn’t know me, either.”
Figgins was born at Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital in Ulysses and grew up in Johnson, graduating from Stanton County High School. Figgins worked at the funeral home in Ulysses while he was in high school - foreshadowing his future career at Garnand Funeral Home. Following college, Figgins and his wife, Stacy, lived in Oklahoma City before returning to Ulysses 30 years ago.
His history in Grant County and the community’s familiarity with him makes being a Grant County Commissioner a perfect fit.
“That’s the interesting thing about having three commissioners, everybody somewhat has some specialty things and I think that just kind of gives another place for me to be able to maybe have some specialties to keep an eye on, as well,” Figgins said. “We’re fortunate here in this community, we have a lot of really nice things that the taxpayers have paid for over the years.”
Figgins said one of the challenges the county is facing now is oil and gas tax valuations being down. Valuations are down more than 50 percent.
“One of the challenges is with valuations being down and the tax base - all of those things, those are all concerns that we need to look at,” Figgins said. “We’re not going to fix all those overnight, that’s just the way things are.
“It comes and goes a little bit, that’ll change a little bit every year, we just have to figure out how to deal with it, and if that’s being more efficient or just looking at things that can be improved on.”
The county has to be careful with its budget, where and how it spends money and be accountable to the public,” Figgins added.
“But there’s still things that we need here,” Figgins said. “Healthcare is a major thing on my mind, as well as we need the airport, which largely comes back to healthcare because of all of the medical flights that come in and out of our area.”
Figgins also said the large number of county employees need to be taken care of.
“All those things are important that we need to keep an eye on and keep it working,” he said.
Figgins said there’s opportunities within the state to get additional funding, and we’ve utilized those in the past, especially at the airport,” Figgins said. “The Kansas Department of Transportation has a lot of programs that’s afforded the airport a lot of things over the years.”
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