ALLEN COUNTY, Kan. — A topic that came up during last year’s County Commission elections was raised again during Tuesday’s Allen County Commission meeting. At that time the idea of expanding the Commission from three to five members was raised along with having commissioners serve without pay, and Arlyn Briggs asked if there had been any further discussion on expansion, which he supported. “When you have a situation where you have few members, sometimes an additional couple of people might make a broader based opinion,” Briggs said.
Robin Lohman, who was there to talk about another issue, also supported the idea, on the basis of increasing diversity. Lohman noted there are no females on the Commission, and they make up over half of Allen County’s population. She also said going to five members would help avoid situations where inadvertent violation of open meetings laws might occur if two commissioners were at the same location outside of meetings.
Lohman’s primary topic dealt with Tri-Ko serving both as a service provider and the Community Developmental Disability Organization for Allen County. A CDDO serves as a “gatekeeper” for delivery of services for the developmentally disabled. Over the past several years, many counties around Kansas have designated a separate organization to serve as the CDDO, and this is something the state encourages.
Allen County Sheriff Anthony Maness announced during the meeting Nate Jackson will become the new undersheriff in March. Maness told County Commissioners this morning Jackson was the recommendation of a three member outside committee he established to review candidates.
Jackson is currently with the Iola Police Department and has previously worked for the Allen and Anderson County Sheriff’s Offices.
Maness also reviewed training that his staff is now or has taken part in, and said one of his desires is to bring more of that training to the local area.
Public Works Director Mitch Garner told Commissioners there has been a change in policies of Heartland Electric Cooperative related to meter installation, which now has to be paid for in advance. This impacts getting electric service to new hangars at Allen County Airport, and an invoice for that will be coming through in the next back of bill payments for the county.
Garner also presented quotes for a compactor and the county’s annual noxious weed reports and action plan, action on which was deferred to next week due to the absence of Commissioner John Brocker. Presentations were also heard from two firms for administration of the county’s partially self-funded health insurance plan.
In his report, Road and Bridge Supervisor Jeremy Hopkins said KDOT is in the process of replacing signs along US 59 near Elsmore and Savonburg for the turn offs to those communities that will include signage designating the turn offs as “via county road,” which KDOT is standardizing. Hopkins also presented chip seal oil bids, and the Commission approved the low bid from Coastal Energy, which came in a little less than for 2024.
