BY KEITH LIPPOLDT

klippoldt@gbtribune.com

In an effort to “improve its media outreach, civic engagement and visibility of County services, policies and public engagement opportunities,” the Barton County Commissioners selected two individuals to tackle the role of Media Consultant.

County Administrator Matt Patzner explained the expected role of the two consultants that have been offered contracts.

“(This role) will involve communication with various internal and external audiences encompassing areas such as public relations, media relations and communication needs to build and maintain a positive reputation,” Patzner explained. “Barton County is committed to increasing transparency and communication with its citizens, local businesses and other government agencies and the communications consultant will play a critical role in ensuring the county’s initiatives are effectively communicated. Work was to center on media services, public information campaigns, press releases, graphic design, videographer and photography, as well as social media consultation with the quotes submitted. The commission has interviewed two candidates, and today we ask you to consider how to proceed.”

Commission Chair Tricia Schlessiger replied, “I went back and found my very first original notes when we went to our very first county commissioner conference, and one of the things that I had written in here after attending a meeting was that culture starts at the top. And what I wrote on here was culture of transparency, and underlined it and put it in quotes. And I think this is part of my vision, or our vision, for how to be more transparent. I want the public to be engaged, and I want them to know what we’re doing here every week. I just think that the more information we get out there to the public, the better. And I think that goes not just for what we do here, but also what all the departments do.”

After a motion by Commissioner Barb Esfeld and a second by Commissioner Duane Reif, the Commissioners voted 4-0, with Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson recusing, to offer contracts to Dale Hogg, former managing editor of the Great Bend Tribune, as well as Elle Hutchinson, daughter of Shawn Hutchinson. The contracts, which will run through Dec. 31, 2025 will be paid at $36 per hour. The pair cannot clock more than a combined 20 hours per week.

Esfeld said she did some work on this too and had this to offer. “One of the things I wanted each department to know is we’re going to try this temporarily to the end of the year, but this money will not come from employee benefits,” she said. “It’s not going to take away from our county employees. I wanted to make sure that was true, and then I got to thinking not only will it benefit the departments, for instance, when you can say, these are the areas we’re working in. There’s so many things that they can access with this, but I feel like it will will be a bonus to us. I had to ask myself, whose job is economic development? This ties into economic development, Whose job is it? Is it just economic development, just the city of Great Bend, just Barton County? It’s all of us, if it works. So I feel like this would be maybe our piece to that puzzle as well.”

Here is a look at what else the Commissioners did:

• Heard from Adessa Prosser, a representative of the Cotton, Potting and Rice (CPR) Horse team, a local group that qualified for 2026 National Horse Quiz Bowl in Denver, Colo. in Jan., 2026.

Prosser and the CPR team have organized a Celebrity 4-H/Horse Quiz Bowl that will match local celebrities against the CPR intermediate horse team. This fundraising event will take place Thursday, June 26 at 7:30 a.m. at Expo 2 at the Barton County Fairgrounds. This event is in conjunction with the Barton County Fair. A sausage and pancake breakfast will be served. 

Cash donations are suggested as all proceeds go to send the team to Nationals.

CPR Coach Samantha Rathbun is proud of the accomplishments of these girls.

“It’s only four girls in the whole state of Kansas that we took this year,” she said. “A lot of them have been prepping for this since they were nine years old. And this is the first time in our County’s history that they have actually made it to the National team as a 4H Panoramic Hipology team. So it’s a big accomplishment for all of them. For two girls, it’s their last year to compete, so they’ve been studying nine years to get ready for this test. So any support you guys can provide for them would be greatly appreciated, even just showing up to the breakfast so you can see what it is that they actually do.”

• Tabled Resolution 2025-10: the Appointment of Wendy Prosser as Interim County Appraiser until the June 24 Commission meeting.

• Tabled the updated employment agreement with Prosser until the June 24 Commission meeting.

• Tabled the Commission appreciation for Chad Ehrlich until the June 17 Commission meeting.