Barton County officials will offer their support for an effort to get state funding to improve a local transportation service.
This week the Barton County Commission approved offering a letter of support to the Kansas Department of Transportation for Sunflower Diversified Services.
According to Sarah Krom, Sunflower, the local agency is seeing more than $311,000 from KDOT to fund the operation of the General Public Transportation System.
Krom told commissioners that the local service provided more than 51,000 rides in 2011.
The agency has kept the rates at their current level since 2008 and they have considered either raising rates or reducing services, if funding isn’t available.
Currently, she added, Sunflower makes up more than $60,000 in service costs for the year.
The support from the county did not involve county funding, it was noted.
In an unrelated issue, the commissioners also approved the annual designation of official depositories for county funds.
Financial Officer Janet Crane explained that the county has more than $32 million in deposits and it utilizes seven local banks.
Crane works with County Treasurer Kevin Wondra on the deposit provisions.
Included in the depositories are American State Bank, Community Bank of the Midwest, First Kansas Bank, Sunflower Bank, Farmers Bank and Trust, Landmark National Bank, and Wilson State Bank in Hoisington.