Clarence Arndt could have kept busy enough running Arndt Equipment Co., and farming and enjoying his family. Instead, the lifetime Lyon Countian chose to become involved in his community.
Arndt, who died on Sunday, often served the community during times of change and, sometimes, controversy.
He was a member of the Valley Star rural school board of education when Valley Star was consolidated with the Emporia school district.
As a Lyon County commissioner, he was involved in reappraisal, and served on the three-member group when it heard appeals of the new appraisals that had been done on each piece of property in the county.
He often took a leadership role when he served. He was on the board of directors for the Lyon County Livestock Association, was president of the Northeast Kansas Highway Officials organization and was a committee member for the Neosho Basin Development Company, among a long list of community involvements.
Arndt sat on the county commission as it considered a new law enforcement building and jail, changes at the city-county landfill, and the Prairie Street overpass to span the rail yards of the then-Santa Fe Railway. He also was part of the commission when it voted to purchase the old Haynes Hardware building at 618 Commercial St. to use as a county Extension office.
He first ran and won the commission’s third district seat in 1984.
“I’ve got no axes to grind,” Arndt said in an interview at the time. His concern was keeping county government as efficient as possible.
He said he also wanted to hold down property taxes and favored a sales tax as a better way to increase county revenue.
Former county commissioner Virgil Morris, who served with Arndt on the commission, described Arndt as level-headed and open to listening to other people’s opinions and explanations if they disagreed with his own.
“We went through and explored everything, you just kind of worked through it,” Morris said. “Somebody was always questioning what you done, you know. ... You couldn’t please 100 percent of them.”
And, while Arndt could be swayed if the evidence was strong enough to warrant a change in opinion, he also took time to explain what factors had entered into his own decisions.
“Clarence always tried pretty much to explain to them what was going on and get them to understand,” Morris said.
Fair board secretary Shelia Price described Arndt as a man who took time for people and “always had the fair board in mind.”
“I think he believed in it,” Price said. “He believed in the cause for the kids and everything.”
Chris Phillips knew Arndt both as a commissioner and as a fair board member, whose children and grandchildren were involved in 4-H.
“He was always involved,” Phillips said. “He was a very good supporter of the fair and the 4-H clubs and that type of thing.”
Arndt, though the years, volunteered his labor and his equipment to make improvements at the fairgrounds.
“He was always there to help,” Phillips said. “If you needed something, he would do his darndest to try and help.”
Phillips described Arndt as a man who would listen and work to accomplish what needed to be done.
“I think he would do anything to help anybody that needed help,” Phillips said. “He was just there in case you needed him. Super nice guy.”
Arndt’s obituary is published on Page 2 of today’s Gazette.
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Posted by GaryLukert (anonymous) on March 24, 2009 at 6:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am sorry to hear of the passing of Clarence. As an ad salesman in Emporia, Clarence was one of my accounts.
He always treated me with respect.
My sympathies are with his family.
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