The Saline County Commission has a busy agenda for its Tuesday meeting.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday in room 107 of the City-County Building, 300 West Ash Street. A time for public comment is scheduled near the beginning of the meeting.
Commissioners are being asked to consider a request from the Tri-Rivers Fair Board for the county to donate all rodeo equipment, bleachers, and fixtures to the board so it can secure a lease with the City of Salina to continue fair activities at Tri-Rivers Stadium. As of Dec. 31 of this year, the county will no longer operate or hold a lease on the stadium. County staff is recommending that the commissioners approve the fair board's request.
Additionally, commissioners are being asked to accept a $133,500 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity, COVID-19 Expanded Testing grant. These funds would be used to support additional community testing as the COVID-19 pandemic wears on.
Commissioners also are scheduled to consider two resolutions related to the upgrade of the county's public safety communications system:
●A resolution to create a Saline County, Kansas Public Building Commission (PBC) that would issue debt financing for the project.
●A resolution to request that the PBC issues up to $6.5 million in bonds with a lease or lease-purchase arrangement to provide for repayment of those bonds.
Other items on the county agenda for Tuesday include the following.
●Commissioners are being asked to approve an agreement with Uptrust Services to provide customized software that will allow communication with clients via customized text messages. The Uptrust app can be downloaded by clients at no cost to them, and community corrections will pay Uptrust $5 per client per month for use of the service. Uptrust will provide training and 24-7 customer support. The application will also track client attendance and technical violation statistics. The software will also be used by CKF Addiction Treatment, with the ability to expand to additional providers in the future to facilitate communication between service providers.
●Saline County Computer Technology seeks commission approval to purchase 28 Lenovo E15 laptop computers for $19,669.16. The laptops were requested through the Corona Virus Relief Fund and will be used by various county departments to enable remote connectivity to the Saline County network. The district court requested 20, the county Clerk requested two, the Road and Bridge Department requested two, and the Health Department requested four to be used in a learning lab for children.
●Commissioners are being asked to approve the annual contract of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) grant. Total amount of the grant is $264,269 for the period of Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021. This grant covers the cost of the program and there are not any anticipated new costs. This has been an ongoing grant yearly for many years. The purpose of the grant is for the administration and operation of the WIC program in Saline County.
●Commissioners are being asked to designate an elected or appointed official as a voting delegate and two alternate delegates to represent the county at the Kansas Association of Counties annual conference.
●Commissioners also are being asked to consider three right-of-way vacations on Niles Road, West Schilling Road, and South Ninth Street.
●Additionally, commissioners will hear County Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes's weekly update.
To view the entire Saline County Commission meeting packet (a 66-page pdf), click here.