Meeting at a glance
Here’s a quick look at Tuesday’s Barton County Commissioner’s meeting:
• Heard a report from Environmental Manager Judy Goreham on the Zoning Amendment and Conditional Land Use Permit granted to Larry and Sheree Marshall, dba Marshall Towing, in March of 2022. The property is located at 514 SW 20 Road, near the airport.
“As you know, sometimes our conditional uses have a long list,” she said. “This one did. He had six months to get everything on the list, which he did. And then once a year, I come before you to ask you to renew his resolution for another year. So this year is like the ones in the past. He had to provide proof that he has his three licenses, which he did, and he has to provide proof that his bond is current, which he did. And then we do a physical inspection to make sure that everything is like it should be. And Mark did go last week, and when he came back, he said it looks better than it’s ever looked. So that was good. No one’s had any complaints.”
Commissioner Barb Esfeld made a motion to accept the annual review which was seconded by Shawn Hutchinson. The motion passed 5-0.
• County Engineer Barry McManaman presented details for the upcoming 2025 Highway Striping Project in southwest Barton County. Work includes centerline and edge line striping for the aprroximately 96 miles of county roadway.
McManaman said the County received two bids for the project. The winning bid was presented by Straight-Line Striping from Grand Island, NE in the amount of $134,510.04. The other bid was received from Heartland Traffic Services from Kansas City for $254,625.20. The project will begin later in the year.
Commissioner Duane Reif motioned to accept the low bid. It was seconded by Hutchinson and passed 5-0.
• Approved the yearly agreement with Computer Information Concepts in the amount of $46,775. This is a commercial software package that includes tax administration, budgetary and fund accounting, indexing and imaging, payroll, personnel and time, as well as attendance. Portals for the Treasurer and theAppraiser have been added.
Esfeld made the motion to continue the agreement. It was seconded by Hutchinson and passed 5-0.
• Approved a bid for $7,500 from Haynes Electric to provide the 100’ cables needed to run the generator in the Courthouse when needed. This was an update to the electrical panel during the HVAC Improvement Project.
Hutchinson’s motion was seconded by Commissioner Donna Zimmerman and passed 5-0.
• Announced a Facade Improvement Grant (FIG) meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, March 6 in Ellinwood. The Commission invited representatives from Great Bend, Hoisington, Claflin and Ellinwood to discuss the new funding plan. The cities will have the opportunity to tailor the FIG specifications to their cities.
• Tabled the 2025 Cold Mix Asphalt Contract discussion until a later meeting.
BY KEITH LIPPOLDT
klippoldt@gbtribune.com
The Barton County Commissioners met for their regular agenda meeting Tuesday morning with several items on the docket.
Juvenile Services Director Marissa Woodmansee addressed the commissioners asking their approval to submit the fiscal year 2026 Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) State Block Grant and Evidence Based Programs Grant funds for her department’s State Block Grant, Total grant funding from the KDOC is $1,417,263.32, broken down into three separate grants as follows: general funding for prevention and graduated sanctions - $839,854.94; evidence based strategy programs - $320,782.38; and reinvestment funds - $256,626.
According to the agenda, this funding is used to improve outcomes for Kansas youth, families and communities involved in the judicial system.
“For our state block grant, just as a reminder, that looks at our programs such as assessments, immediate intervention, juvenile and intensive supervised probation and case management and just a small amount of funding for prevention,” woodmansee said. “Those are all statutorily required programs that we have to operate. To give you an idea, as far as our intake and assessment, the 20th District operates about 500 intakes a year. This year was 536. The bulk of those are with Barton County, in the range of 300. We also look and take into consideration with intake and assessment those youth that are required to go to detention. We have a tool, but because there is no detention in our community, we always try to be good stewards of of our county’s monies and who is going to detention. And so for those that went to detention, it was a total of 15. Nine of those were for technical violations, for those that were unsupervised probation, and then the rest were based on new crimes and meeting the criteria to go for immediate intervention.
“We had 103 youth that were under supervision for the last fiscal year with a success rate of 85%. So of those 103 youth, 85% did not re-enter into the justice system. And then for our intensive supervised probation for those youth, we were at a 74% success rate. When you dip under that 75% success rate, I’ve got Kids Department Corrections in the back of my head saying, ‘gotta be at 75. You gotta be at 75.’ So dipping under that, I’ll be honest. It makes me a little anxious. Being a flat-funded entity for the last eight years, it’s like, is that something that I need to be cognizant of future years of cutting? Or what can we do as an agency and a team to try to make that number just a little bit over 74%?”
Woodmansee explained the grant breakdown and how each grant is determined. The Juvenile Corrections Advisory funds are derived from a report they do every October that goes to the legislators. It is looking at barriers and deficits as to what needs to be done to improve outcomes for youth in our community. With that funding, things such as the Day School Program for kids that are being suspended or expelled, and need to have a on-site location to be able to go to school and to continue their education.
“We also have life skills,” she said. “We finished a project installing a washer and dryer. We find that sometimes kids don’t have that soft skill of adding a soap, turning the buttons. And so we have a stackable washer and dryer now at Juvenile Services, and we can give those little lessons and whatnot. Just things like that to help get the kids in the best possible position for their futures. Just to give you an idea of FY 2024 numbers, we had 139 youth served with an 88% success rate not re-entering.”
The other piece is the Reinvestment Grant. She explained that it’s basically the same premise of enhancing the opportunities and outcomes for youth and families. This one focuses more with the family, and that’s through the County’s Family Engagement person, Casey Rowland, who facilitates the Parent Project curriculum.
“We just started our 21st class last Tuesday, and it’ll go for the next 10 weeks,” Woodmansee said. “Knowing that I was coming here this morning, I went ahead and took a look at those numbers. They are equally impressive with the success rate. For FY 2024, we had 114 participants with an 87% success rate. I feel confident, like with those evidence based strategies grants, we are doing what they intended us to do with those funds. Obviously, with our state block grant and the intensive probation as a team, we need to take a bigger look at that, but I’m confident that we can do it.”
After some discussion, Commissioner Donna Zimmerman made a motion to approve the submission for the grant. Commissioner Duane Reif seconded the motion. It passed 5-0.
