There were no changes to the vote totals from last week’s election following the canvassing of the votes Monday morning. Prior to its regular meeting Monday morning, the Barton County Commission met as the Board of Canvassers.
Elections were held last Tuesday for city council position in Ellinwood, Great Bend and Hoisington, and for Ellinwood District Hospital Board.
In other business, the commission named Toni Rice to a three-year, non-compensated term on the Barton County Planning Commission at the recommendation of Environmental Manager Judy Goreham. Rice’s term will expire in March 2015 and her appointment fills the last vacancy on the BCPC.
The planning commission deals with zoning issues as they pertain to public health, safety and welfare. There are nine members, and a majority must be from an unincorporated area of the county.
This week is National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, a time to honor 911 communications personnel, and county commissioners passed a resolution denoting such. “The 911 dispatchers serve a very important function in Barton County,” Administrator Richard Boeckman said.
He said the county has made numerous improvements to the communications center through the installation of upgraded technology. “But, with the dispatchers, it means nothing.”
The commission also heard a report form County Engineer Clark Rusco on the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning (Risk MAP) program. The program is in the discovery phase of tracking the Cow Creek Watershed, which includes several creeks and takes in all or part of three or four counties.
Over the course of the next several years, the goal will be to come up with plan to reduce the impact of flooding, Rusco said. There could be federal money available to cover at least part of cost for any work that is done.
There are a series of meetings planned for later this month to gather information. The first will be at 4 p.m. April 24 in the Hutchinson City Council chambers, the second at 10 a.m. April 25 at the Hoisington Activity Center and the final one will be at 4 p.m. April 25 at the Celebration Center in Lyons.