During their regular meeting this morning, Saline County Commissioners approved 2021 budgets and a plan for coronavirus funding. Prior to the meeting they also canvassed ballots from the Saline County 2020 primary election.
After conducting a public hearing, commissioners this morning approved multiple 2021 budgets, including the county budget, the Kipp Sewer District budget, and budgets for Rural Fire Districts 1-7. According to information from the county, expenditures for 2021 are budgeted to be $52,517,823 with the tax levy at approximately the same mill rate as 2020 and under the tax lid. Special districts would be authorized to expend $962,314, the county noted.
Commissioners also heard a presentation on the recommendations from the Coronavirus Funding Advisory Committee for the spending of $11,026,434 in federal Coronavirus Relief Fund money that was passed through the State of Kansas to counties. The requested expenditures are from governments and schools for reimbursement for already incurred expenses due to COVID-19, as well as applications that were submitted from non-profits, for-profits, schools, and government entities as part of the direct aid plan.
A breakdown of applications approved by the committee was presented to the commissioners for their review. County Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes told the commissioners that the breakdown was split relatively evenly with roughly a quarter of the total funds going to each of the different types of entities: non-profits, for-profits, schools, and government.
Additionally, the advisory committee recommended partnering with the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation and providing $2,721,719.79 in funds to establish a grant program for small businesses with all businesses in Saline County eligible to apply regardless of whether they are chamber members.
Saline County will require any entity that is to receive funds to sign an agreement with the county as any entity receiving funds must adhere to the federal guidelines or risk having to pay the money back, the county information noted. There is also a restrictive timeline for the expenditure of these funds as all approved expenditures must be completed by Dec. 30.
Commissioners acknowledged the amount of work that was put into the recommendation by the advisory committee and thanked the committee for its dedication before approving the recommendations and authorizing that the plan be submitted to the state no later than Saturday for state approval.
Additionally, commissioners heard a presentation from Jason Tiller, health department director, as part of the required two-week review of the Saline County resolution requiring face masks to be worn in public spaces. Tiller recommended that the mask mandate remain in place. He said that with colleges and schools beginning to resume classes soon, this is his most nervous time. Commissioners took no action, leaving the mask mandate in place for at least two more weeks.
Tiller also reviewed with the commissioners several of the rumors that the department has been hearing and set the record straight that Saline County’s case numbers are only counted once, no matter how many times they are tested. The other major rumor he addressed is one claiming that persons standing in line for testing, but leaving before testing is done, were later being notified of positive test results despite not being tested. Tiller assured the commissioners that he was 100 percent confident that all positive cases in Saline County had been tested.
As part of his presentation, he also talked about isolation and quarantine and how that is determined because it has been confusing for many. Isolation is for those people who are ill and quarantine is for those who are close contacts of those who are ill, he said.
Other commission business included the following.
Commissioners approved a contract for the Department of Senior Services to provide meal service to Sunflower Adult Day Services through July 31, 2021.
Smith-Hanes updated the commission on the emergency radio communications project. Commissioners met in a special meeting last week with Salina city commissioners to hear the recommendations from the consultant, TUSA, and the 911 Advisory Committee for the next steps after the evaluation of the request for proposals that were received. After grading the proposals and oral presentations from the vendors, it was recommended that the county enter into negotiations with both Motorola and L3 Harris for a new radio system. Both city and county commissioners agreed with that recommendation. Next week, negotiations will begin and staff should have a final recommendation before commissioners soon after negotiations conclude, he said.
Commissioners began their day at 8 a.m. with the official canvassing of the primary election ballots. After the regular meeting, they received the final tabulation of provisional and partial ballots and voted to approve the canvas of the Saline County 2020 primary election.