Kiowa's City Council held four special executive session meetings Oct. 15–21 in their search for a new city administrator. At the end of their meeting Monday night, upon return to open session, the council extended an offer to candidate Rusty Varnado who accepted the position.

On a brief phone call with the Newsgram Tuesday, Varnado said he retired from the army in December 2018. He then accepted a job as assistant city administrator at Junction City, Kansas. He came to Kiowa to interview and now he is starting almost immediately. He was familiarizing himself with the office Tuesday. Varnado a...