About 200 jobs at the new Veterans Affairs account center in Leavenworth have gone to Leavenworth County residents so far, a development official said this week, though just a handful of those employees live in the southern part of the county.

At a Leavenworth County Development Corporation board meeting Thursday at Community National Bank in Basehor, LCDC executive director Steve Jack gave an update on the hiring process at the VA Consolidated Patient Account Center, which is set to finish hiring for its roughly 400 jobs by the end of the year.

The center has hired about 75 to 80 percent of those employees so far, Jack said, and VA officials have shared residential information about the center’s hirees with LCDC.

Altogether, 194 of the employees hired so far live in Leavenworth County, Jack said, including 55 who have moved into the county because of the jobs. The bulk of those employees, 138, live in Leavenworth, while another 36 live in Lansing, he said. Eight are living in Basehor and six in Tonganoxie, while three each live in Easton and on post at Fort Leavenworth.

About 90 other employees live elsewhere in Kansas, Jack said, while 58 live in Missouri.

Jack said the number of jobs that have gone to county residents was encouraging.

“It looks good,” he said.

Also at the LCDC board meeting Thursday:

• Jack said the group would have a decision to make soon about whether to send a delegation to Washingon, D.C., this winter to meet with members of Congress.

Though LCDC typically sends a group to Washington each February to request funding for transportation projects, it declined to do so in 2011 because legislators were unlikely to award any earmarked funds for infrastructure.

“Now we’ve sat out a year,” Jack said. “Now the question is, do we go back, and if we go back, do we go with a specific list?”

Ken Miller, public information officer for the city of Lansing and a member of a Mid-America Regional Council transportation lobbying group, said the county would be best served if business leaders could travel to request projects from members of Congress, rather than government officials.

“I’m paid by Lansing to do that kind of stuff,” Miller said. “They know that.”

• Jack said the probable arrival of a Country Place Senior Living assisted-living center next year in Basehor would end a process that began more than three years ago.

Country Place Living officials first contacted LCDC back in January 2008 about building a center in Basehor, Jack said.

• A former Kansas City Royals broadcaster may take control of an AM radio station based in Leavenworth, Jack said.

Fred White, who according to the team’s website was a Royals radio announcer from 1974 to 1998, has contacted the owners of Leavenworth’s KKLO about purchasing the station, Jack said.

The station is at 1410 on the AM dial and currently has a Christian format. Jack said White had expressed interest in changing it to a more general-interest station.

“Fred brings an awful lot of credibility to the table,” Jack said.