County Takes Care of Miscellany Before Conference

Saline County Commissioners are attending the Kansas Association of Counties Conference and Expo this week in Wichita. Before leaving, though, they met and addressed multiple issues.

They heard a request to vacate a portion of Sundgren Road and Dry Creek Road. The land owner, Chris Dauer, needs DSO to have extra easement land to put in power poles. According to Don Merriman, County Clerk, the usual road easement is 45 or sometimes 60 feet. This property has 80 foot wide easements. A hearing will be held on this matter at next week’s meeting.

The Commission signed a service contract with Axis Monitoring, LLC that will be used to monitor Community Corrections clients with ankle bracelets. Director Annie Grevas said that $13,000 was left in adult services’ budget that will be used to pay for this service if clients don’t have money. Additional, clients who have their own funds may choose to pay for this “close supervision” service.

Commissioner Monte Shadwick signed a license to renew malt liquor sales at the Expo Center. Last year, the matter was put to a vote and Commissioner John Price voted that the Commission not sign the re-newal, but Commissioners Randy Duncan and Jim Giles votes prevailed.

Commissioners named Greg Jones to serve on the Expo Committee. Jones is thought to live in Wichita but participates in some of the horse shows at the Expo Center. Commissioner Jim Gile will chair the committee looking at potential uses and improvements to the existing Expo Center grounds. Jones is joined by Rick Lamer, Carl Garten, Jon Blanchard, Jane Anderson, Joe Hay, Jr., and Chris Rost. At this time, Salina 2020 has not submitted the name of an individual who might serve on this committee.

The County collected $380,609 in sales tax revenues for October. This is slightly down from the $390,149 collected in September.

The Commission agreed to move $5,000 in Community Action for a Renewable Environment (CARE) grant funds to K-State to handle administrative matters surrounding the grant. Anyone living in Salina can pick up a free radon test kit. According to Planning and Zoning Director David Neal, if the test comes back with a high radon level, the resident is asked to repeat the test. If the second value is also high, the resident can then apply for mitigation services.

Further miscellany:
• The BOCC plans to tour Road and Bridge’s shop on November 17.
• Brett Melander is the Sheriff’s nominee to serve on the Jail Reduction Committee.
• When the Chamber of Commerce met with area State Legislators, they agreed to address the tax lid imposed on counties in the 2014 session.
• Commissioners are waiting to receive final paperwork on the Economic Development Council, which may arrive after November 9th.
• The Commission met from 8:30 AM -11:20 AM. All five Commissioners attended. There were two executive sessions. The Commission was adjourned from roughly 10:10 AM – 10:59 AM.

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Story by: Karen Shade for KSAL News