“It’s amazing,” said Dunn, a 1981 graduate of Leavenworth High School and, as of last week, the county’s new planning and zoning director. “This isn’t the Leavenworth County of 1980.”

On Thursday, June 16, Dunn’s tenure working for his hometown county government began. He replaces former planning and zoning director John Zoellner, who resigned in April.

Dunn, 42, has served previous stints in planning and zoning. He is a former county planner in Ford County and a former tribal planner for the Kickapoo Indian tribe. He said he enjoyed his tenure with the Kickapoo tribe, but that working in government is “traditionally more of what I want to do.”

“It was a really interesting job and I really enjoyed working with the people,” he said. But, “Of all the jobs I’ve had, I enjoyed being a county planner most.”

Dunn compared Leaven-worth County to his former employer in Ford County, where the county seat is Dodge City.

“Leavenworth County seems to be much more advanced in their processes,” he said. “The support system and the infrastructure seem to be much more sophisticated.”

Dunn said his top priorities will be providing frontline support of the planning and zoning department, getting “good, accurate” information to those interested in zoning changes and building permits and heavily emphasizing customer service.

Dunn said he’s impressed with the development in southern Leavenworth County.

“It’s amazing,” Dunn said. “I was really impressed with all the construction going on. …

I would say it’s exciting because we’re really going to be busy working on the stuff I love to work on.”