Commissioners - Regular Meeting

It was at the White House yesterday. He sent his regards to you.

Oh, yeah? How's that ballroom coming along? It's a whole new ground.

Going to work for software right now.

Yeah. I have a daughter that lives in Kansas City. She got her condo all spruced up to rent, thinking she was going to make a lot of money. She only rented it for one week.

Oh, wow.

She's adding that a lot of the hotels aren't full either.

Well, I was checking around. Somebody said that I was checking around for the hotels here, and they still had room for them. Oh, yeah.

Well, they were talking about how this is a pain in the mouth. I think this is the bus, the Midwest bus.

Big one, yeah.

Okay. Well, let's get off the flight, Brady.

Actually, I don't think the boat requires this either.

No, no.

I think that's for if you want to speak.

I don't know. She went just for a week.

You know, six weeks.

She thought she was going to have that whole time.

Well, that's what a lot of people had planned on this. I'd say I'll take that.

Yes, they hired a bunch of people for help. They paid businesses to go into the storefront and make drinks and stuff. I don't know if we are having a watch party, though. Do you have something in the agenda? Who is? The CDB. I don't know. I don't know. As soon as he gets everything out, I'll let you guys know. But we'll make a copy for you. That's not in the public packet. Those are... That's information. I did that already. Yep.

It's good stuff.

It's good stuff. I don't think it's been done for many years, but yes, it's probably more than that. It was probably in high school last time. Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with this.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with this.

I'm not sure what's going on with this. Has everybody signed in?

Oh well.

Had you dipped that in the pool before you did it?

Okay, thank you. Did you get anything?

There were some guys regrouping a couple houses down.

I looked out there when it started raining and they were trying to put tarp over and I thought they were going to blow off the roof. They were trying to get back up.

They must have stayed up there. I said that would have been a little slick.

Well, we'll go ahead and get started.

We'll do the Pledge of Allegiance.

Well, I appreciate you all coming. We've got some new faces in here. Thanks, Mr. Gerloff, Mr. Olds, Lisa Eichelt is here. So we appreciate you coming. They're the only ones not asking for money.

Yeah. Yes, let me think about it.

We want this to be an open forum and people be able to ask questions. So we appreciate you coming and taking your time. Okay, well, Angela, you're first on the chopping block.

All right, do you guys have a copy of our budget? Did it get sent out? Okay, so I'm Angela Hamilton. I know all of you, I think. Most of you, yeah. I'm with the Juvenile Detention Facility. So this year, we are requesting, it's fairly consistent from last year. Nothing has gone up. with the exception of if Gary County's use more days. The budget is based off of five year rolling average for beds. So this year, you guys are allotted the 2000, or excuse me, 1,274 beds, totaling monthly for Gary County, $20,607.67. So that is what we are requesting per month for the next fiscal year. With that, Gary County, I mean, their numbers so far are really good. So I don't anticipate as of right now, we're only in June, but as of right now, the numbers with juveniles for Gary County are pretty consistent. Other counties, not so much. Gary County, you guys have this year, 233 beds days so far. Um, and 651 electronic monitoring days. So that's from January one up until today. So with that, every quarter we do our quarter billing that $60,636 and 11 cents. Um, we got, we got good things going on, um, down there. Um, so it goes to, I mean, obviously basic care for juveniles, food, clothing, shelter staff. insurance, all the things. It helps with the cost. Everything is pretty consistent on the budget with the exception of salaries and wages. That goes up typically in insurance. So we try to remain fairly consistent across the board. Food program, consistent. Everything else, I mean, it fluctuates a little bit. You can never hit it spot on, but we try to maintain a pretty accurate, fair

budget so um any questions i need to study that a little bit more because you know i asked since i'm on the board you know about the funding part of it so there is a formula from the state that is set up not through the state it's through the board it's through the 15 interlocal the 15 counties agreed on it with their interlocal agreement it's the it's a fair way for everybody to kind of

stay consistent the formula formula formulate so it's based on the the number of beds we have licensed yep so we have 12 beds and 12 times however many kids we can hold for however many months um the available bed days for the year is the 4380 for the 15 counties So basically it is based off of, so like in 2021, let me look here. Sorry. Gary County used 2014 bed days out of that. So over half of the available bed days and then 2022, it went down to 1979 and then back up in 2023, back down in 2024, back up in 2025. So it just kind of fluctuates as to how much Gary County, how many juveniles are actually arrested in Gary County and detained for however long and that's why it's five years it's five year because if we just did it based on a year that's you're not going to get a clear picture because it's not going to be the same from year to year like this year like i said it's significantly lower 233 bed days that's not very much for anywhere in june so i don't know when it was but i just talked to christian and she said that they've had some problems having people having you guys having room for yeah but

well not for your kids kids in general so across the state this is not just an us problem this is a every juvenile worse oh i know bill now if there is no room say we our juvenile intake come to your juvenile center and there's no room for them you guys are responsible for correcting that okay

we find placement we i actually um have been we have all the directors with amongst the state we all do a meeting and we kind of tag team um as to where because we're not the only facility that's having to put kids i mean at other locations yeah we are looking at other options we are we are researching and have been working on that this week and i'm going to present that to our board when we have that this month um but yeah I don't know what is going on in Kansas right now because July it hasn't even taken effect yet and we've already um some counties have substantially doubled already even within the eighth a question I've never asked and I was on the board yeah here's go um let's say all the participating counties

they all budget this money and that's what gets paid.

Sure.

What if there is a, I mean, a shortfall or a windfall, I mean, let's say you have, you didn't use all the bed space that you wanted or asked for.

happens to that money so that goes into that goes into the rolling average um it it goes towards the care i mean it doesn't get necessarily sent back it goes towards the kids um and into that rolling average that's why we've been able to stay consistent on the amount that the county's paid because it just kind of sits there um so there's an escrow i guess you could call it yes lack of a better word yeah like that's but yeah escrow is a good word yeah any questions yeah we're trying like i said trying to stay as consistent because i know i mean everybody money's tight across the board you know so as consistent as we can be it didn't go up at all this year so yep yep well unfortunately it's necessary sometimes yeah sometimes it it happens to be right now so thank you yeah thank you well she didn't mention that she she's going to be the new director yeah yeah thank you yes thank you thank you i was trying to sneak out but yeah no yes no it's it's it's a lot but i love it so it's good learning lots of learning so very good thank you

Okay, we'll move on to Mr. Lindquist, Lindquist Regional Leadership Program.

Thank you. Permission to approach. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Jack Lindquist and I'm the executive director of the Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program. We're excited to bring this update to you because we're a little unique compared to a lot of the people that are coming in to give briefings. We're not asking for funds. We're welcoming your investment. And that's been going on since the firm was formed in 1992. So as a partner with the Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program, Gary County has been able to provide nominees or candidates to the program. And in return, we've trained people that are better employees for the county. And so that's why we like to refer to this not as a fundraising effort, but as an investment opportunity. Since the program was formed, we have 683 participants today. Under my direction with the program since 2016, we've had 253 graduates. And the program hasn't changed that much, but the content and delivery and the techniques have changed considerably from early in the program. Because the change that we've been going through is intensifying, technology is increasing multiple from what it was when the program was formed. And we have to keep not up with, but ahead of a lot of the trends that we see are coming. Most recently, our class graduates, as you'll see from the flyer that I shared with you at this past graduation, Jamie Coffey and Brian Zachary in particular, were two participants that were stellar members of the program. And we had 24 participants in addition to those two, 26 total. And each of the classes is generally 24 to 26. We'd like to shoot for that range. Although during COVID, we were scaled back or right-sized to 20 so that we can manage spaces better in transportation. The program itself, as you'll see on the schedule on the main sheet that you've got, has nine sessions and a graduation event. And those sessions cover topics from collaboration and inclusion, service to community, and listening to and celebrating differences, practicing humility, and solving problems through systems thinking. And that is a long-term vision development process. Unlike partisan or populist leadership styles that emphasize top-down control for short-term wins and loyalty-driven divisions, The Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program develops civic stewards, stewards who strengthen institutions, foster consensus, and unite diverse voices to create sustainable solutions for the region's future. So once we help them through that process, through those sessions, we help them find their purpose. Everybody's got to know why am I here? What can I do with what I have, the skills that I have, or the talents that I bring to the table? And our goal is to make sure that you've got members that are more engaged citizens, morally grounded, and are servant leaders. And so far we've been very successful in that process. So as you see, as you have worked through developing your nominees for the program, You know what our outcome is intended to be. We hope that you will put your heads together and come up with the candidates, maybe you have already, that you'd like to nominate for the next class. The application process is ongoing right now. It'll be open until July 15th. It's all online. They go to FHRLP.org. They will go through the application completion process. But in advance, we want to let them know as they are going through this process to go on our website, see what the dates are, lock those in into their calendars so that they know that they're going to be dedicating each one of their days on those sessions to that session. And so far, all of the employees have been very dedicated to making sure that that participant gets that as a workday because they are working towards the betterment of their jobs. As they go through the sessions, then lock those dates in. We also want them to pre-record a video introduction of themselves. So basically they just need to sit in front of someone with their iPhone or with a camera. record a one to three minute introduction of themselves, explaining who they are, what they do, what they hope to gain from the program, what they're going to return back to their host or their sponsor or the county as a whole, the region as a whole. And if you hadn't recalled, our program now includes Fort Riley, Garrett County, Raleigh County, Pottawatomie County, Waubonsie County, and we've added Morris County. So that's all the contiguous counties to you to make sure that we've got everybody that And that's gonna help you economically in the long run as well to have that kind of exposure to the participants that are from a regional perspective rather than just a local perspective. Our concept of community therefore has expanded to that many counties and many of them live outside of that area and transport or commute to work. And so this last class, for instance, they lived in a 75 mile radius of the center and they were from seven different counties. So it's a pretty sizable footprint. But then so is your economy. So I just wanted to make sure that you had an update as to where we were at this time. Thank you for your past investment of $1,000 each of the last years and the pledge that you would be able to do that for the next budgetary fiscal year. And then just find out if you have any questions in regard to the process or expectations.

The process, how do you...

how many applicants do you get and then narrow it down it's really interesting now it has gotten so competitive that rather than us accepting applications from scores of potential applicants most of the entities that are our co-sponsors the counties in particular have a pre-application process And they're applying and accepting applications that they then will endorse and encourage the finalists to be the finalists that we get. And so every class we are unfortunately having to provide deferral letters to those that aren't accepted, hoping that they'll apply in the future. in some cases that was their only windows we may not see them again but we've had several participants in the past class classes that applied two and three times to be able to get in and so they keep trying to come back and keep hoping that they get that indoor have a leg up but i like their consistency and their persistence to keep trying to get into the program knowing that they're going to gain tremendously from that experience so to answer your question we don't know for sure because we don't know how many are applying to junction city how many are applying to gary county and then being pre-screened and then we're getting their application finally online Yes, we're assuming that we're somewhere in the 50 plus range and accepting less than half of that.

Yes, everybody that has went through it.

Good to hear. Every time I put a post on social media, I'll see it shared by a graduate and they'll say, talk to me if you need encouragement, but I'm telling you, you need to do this.

Well, that's a testament of you as well.

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be focused on something like this that's actually doing good. Thank you.

Hello. Are you ready to press? Yes, you're ready. You're next on the list. I can stand too.

Hi. We're just here to do a budget for Gary County Extension, and then we'll do Care Board. But, I don't know, Bro, did you bring your notes?

You can go on. Okay.

Sounds good.

We, if you look at our budget, well, let's start, first of all, thanks, Bro, for your support in the past. We appreciate everything you guys do for us.

Would you introduce yourselves?

Yes, absolutely. Ginger Kofor, I'm the Gary County 4-H Extension Agent. I'm Renee Reedy, and I'm Family Consumer Science Extension Agent.

And, Bro, I'm Thayer.

So if we look at our budget, we tried to be really conservative as far as we could, but we did ask for a $4,000 increase. And you'll see the only thing we increased was in our salary and wages line item, just so we could hopefully be able to give our employees a cost of living kind of increase. But we did try to cut some of our other budget lines to make that happen as much as we could.

couldn't get it quite all the way down to no increase at all so that's uh that's what we're asking for this year and you know if you look at the line items kind of our challenge from the board is that uh 90 well 88 of the budget you know comes through geary county i mean it's really geary county's extension much of that it comes from you and then uh over the years we've looked at the line items but salary and then health insurance and the benefits is just slightly over 90 percent and so you know we try to keep raises within line with what the county is trying to do but if 90 of your budget is salary and benefits and you know i think everybody knows what health insurance keeps doing you know it doesn't go up by a merit raise amount or a budget amount it kind of goes leaps and bounds so you know we've we've looked at those items and and tried to be tight but we do want to keep and maintain all of our office professionals And right now we'll be searching for a new individual to replace Kyler. My background, I was 35 years in industry. And so I know that public service tends to not pay as much as industry, but we don't want to lose people to industry and higher salaries and things too. So any support that you can give us to help uh compensate our professionals and and keep the extension office viable we appreciate that's that's what we're asking about so we we tried to maintain the line item which we knew that was the request but we just don't have much when you only have 10 that's that's not your budget so anyway that's that's kind of where we're at and we you know as a board we want to support our people i think we've got you know good staff right now and and we're gonna we're gonna find somebody And we're going to find some people. We'll find somebody good for Kyler, too. And we just don't know who that is right now, but we'll find somebody good. I know that the number of people they reach and things is pretty fantastic.

I've said this before. I didn't realize how much extension did until I became a commissioner and how important your role is to our community.

and you are really truly the only outside entity that we are required by statute but a lot of people don't know that yeah well thank you very you know very much for that but we we know that the county wanted to keep things in line and we just we tried our best well we appreciate it so yeah we just we're just you know i think it ought to be pointed out for public though too that we supply you office space in the building yes

And that's part of the puzzle, I guess. Yes.

Sure.

Maybe we'll tell you the timeline for replacing Kyler in case you're curious about that. Oh, yeah.

We don't want to rush you right now. No. I'm sure this is a busy time for you. Yeah, I know. I wish you had it on board.

K-State's not real fast either. So we're thinking like mid-August we might be doing interviews. So it'll be towards the end of summer. Yeah.

We're going to go through that. Yeah.

We have a couple of interns this summer that actually are getting paid through Kansas 4-H. So that's really nice. We're paying for some supplies and things, but their salaries are coming through there. So they're going to help us get through fair too.

Renee, I appreciate your assistance on our child care task force. I know that's been a long, direct out process, but we're finally getting a little traction.

For sure. We just hope we can keep the momentum going, right?

Yes. Got to find the next grant. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, everyone. We'll move to Fair Board. Do you want me to step away? We'll trade you up for Amy then.

I'm Amy Blakowski. I'm the president of the Gary County Free Fair Board. Fair Board was able to just leave their budget flat from what you awarded them last year. We do want to thank you for your support there too, and a special maybe little thanks to Public Works. We've been having a lot of issues with our storage shed and just water running into the storage shed. It's been years that we've been fighting this problem. Well, they came in recently and put in a drain

it fixed it like i went in there after a big rain and it was completely dry and we were like a little again so best thing ever thanks to them for the work that they do on the fairgrounds because it really does make a big difference we do yeah well i like that we had that little mini session with the different entities so that they could hear i think that's it was a perfect opportunity for people to share information for them to know what's going on and just have those connections to feel a little bit more comfortable about calling and whatever and I know Courtney was a little uncomfortable there for a while, and I think she got more comfortable with knowing and being able to call and say, it's still not working or we need more room. We're trying to accommodate everybody with their needs. So I thought that was a neat opportunity. I wasn't sure what exactly.

was getting into but that was interesting and i thought it was very beneficial yeah i think we'll try that once every year or two for sure so yeah and this is the 100th year of the gary county fair so it's going to be a really important one this year for sure important to celebrate sure Josh Haynes is one of our extension board members. And I think that's all of our people. I mean, at least that's one of our volunteers.

Well, there's not any more.

I appreciate you coming on.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks. Are you ready? Yes. Alrighty.

good afternoon thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present to you today i'm ellie dillon the executive director of junction city opera house incorporated a 501c3 entity which manages the cl hoover opera house for the city of junction city you will see in the supporting documents that i previously submitted that the opera house budget for the fiscal year 2627 represents a slight decrease overall. So expenses have been adjusted across the board to reflect that decrease. Just trying to keep things flat and level and trying not to increase things with the way the world is right now. For fiscal year 25-26, it was our goal to increase private rentals, increase business sponsorships, along with increasing ticket sales and concessions. We had a great year. building our programs and presenting multi-ethnic and multi-generational shows for all i'm happy to report our facility rent increased by 10 for for private rentals our program income our ticket sales increased four percent we increased our sponsorships by four percent and our concessions stayed the same i guess they just didn't want to drink or eat popcorn very much all great um great things to report on successes that we had. Some adjustments for upcoming year for our expenses. Our salary or our staff is top-notch. We have one full-time employee, which is me, and four part-time employees, which put in about 20 hours a week. And then we have four theater arts academy instructors that put in relative time based on what we offer for the students. Um, we've kept those part-time hours, uh, to a minimum and, uh, also at a pace where we can still provide quality programming and also kept our contract work to a minimum to reduce those costs. Uh, education academy expenses were streamlined. Um, the, the salaries for those are. um stipends instead of hourly wages so that helped us streamline and make sure that our people were there for the for not just the money but for the children that was what we're there for utilities are extremely expensive in an old building so we are hoping to put some measures in place building wide to help with our electric and gas bills And then overall, some of our budget expenses, we just allocated a little differently this year. We just found out that more of our line items, specific operational things needed more money. So we just kind of moved along the line. So our IT support increased quite a bit, but we felt with as much cash flow as we have going through with ticket sales, we felt it was really important to have that IT support. Cost of shows has increased dramatically, even in a year. and then utilities to name a few. And this year we are not asking for an increase from the county. We know, and we appreciate the value of the county's contributions and we'll work diligently to be good stewards of those funds and utilize those appropriately. Now, just if I could highlight some great things that are happening at the Hoover. You may already know this, but 2.2% of Kansas economy is driven by the arts and creative industry. Last year, we estimated about 16,000 people walked through the doors of the opera house. While the majority of our patrons are residents of Gary County, we are confident we draw from surrounding communities in turn and in turn have an economic impact and draw from for Junction City and Gary County. Every time someone comes to a show, whether it be from the surrounding communities, they're buying gas, they're eating out, they're hitting a convenience store, some are staying the night because they don't want to drive. So you feel our economic input or economic impact is relevant for 26 27 season we'll focus on the aspects of the arts last year the city of junction city deemed west 7th street as the arts district so we're going to focus on that our theme for next year is going to be live on 7th where the arts take the stage we'll have a little bit of something for everyone we'll have music dancing painting storytelling magic comedy uh plus a lot more we are going to be partnering with jc uh jefferson city main street again for many events and we're excited to partner with dorothy bramish public library we'll be offering a great community event based around the nutcracker that we're hosting in december uh new for 26 27 we will be offering season ticket options for our patrons just another uh revenue for some income um Also, just to reflect on the variety of events that directly support Gary County, Junction City or CL Hooper Opera House hosts six main stage shows a year, along with our lobby series. We offer a theater arts academy program for area youth after school. We are a multi-use facility hosting weddings, class reunions, baby showers, wedding showers, company events and trainings. Gary County Sheriff's Office this year, I totaled up, I think they were in there about 30 to 35 times, which is awesome. And we love having those law enforcement people in the building. They did some great countywide trainings, incident debriefings, and just local emergency management meetings. We've hosted the Joint City, County, and USD 475 Commission meetings. Police department trainings, fire department trainings, hosting Main Street, CVB chamber events, also Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Martin Luther King events. And we also support in kind to Freedom Fest in Juneteenth, offering our facility for their performers to come in and use the dressing room or the stage to warm up. Also, a lot of people don't know that we have three interior agencies within the Opera House. We're all 501 companies living harmoniously under one big, huge roof. Jackson City Little Theater stages four main stage shows each year. They alone brought in 3,800 patrons. That's a lot of people watching shows. And if they do well, we do well. They also offer summer stage K through 12. And right now we have about 120 youth running throughout. They're not running because that's a new rule.

They can't run in the opera house.

But they are through the halls of the opera house and singing Lion King. Yes, they can dance, but they can't run.

And they can't yell only on stage as a character. We already clarified that. 120.

Yeah. And then Junction City Arts Council last year, it was our goal to make sure that we worked diligently to get all of their art classes back in the opera house. They are all back in the opera house and they had roughly 160 adults and youth take their art classes this year, as well as offering art seminars, art receptions, And they, along with JCLT and us, we've combined and worked in a lot of downtown events this year, doing things collaboratively. Last, Junction City Community Band offers free band concerts every Sunday in June. Last Sunday, they had 177 people in attendance. That's awesome. Last year, roughly about 150 patrons every concert. And then Roughly 70 to 80 musicians on the stage each Sunday. Or yeah, each Sunday. Serving as director for a little over a year now. Seems crazy that it's been such a short year, but I've seen nationwide that city, county support for a community venue is vital to keeping the quality of life moving forward and the doors open. It's my job to be good stewards for those contributions and support while continuing to move forward with preservation, quality programming, and a place for all to feel welcome. We are committed to supporting the arts, building community, and making an impact. So on behalf of the board of directors and our team at the Hoover, if you've not seen our new marketing, Justin Hoover really likes that. though has no nothing to do with them but um i want to extend our sincere appreciation for continuing support from the county quite simply we could not do what we do on a daily basis without your support and i'm leaving you with the new marketing packet which will show you our commitment to maintaining sponsorships to help offset our costs also included our rental information upcoming shows and information from all of our interior agencies I think that's all I have. Any questions you guys might have?

I love that you guys are collaborating with the library and Main Street.

I'd love to see that.

That Motown show was my favorite so far.

They're coming back for 145th anniversary. Yes, I already got them booked. But they're coming with a band this time, so it'll be a little different.

They were great.

i know i said uh 1200 but it seems like there's got to be 1200 kiddos that you're dealing with through different other programs so our after school program we serviced about 72 kids this year um we're just finding that after school is it's just a hard time it's a hard time for parents to get the kids to to us and then right now we're really mirroring and we have been the opera house has been mirroring what junction city little theater is doing which is not a bad thing, but at the same time it gets a little mundane. And so we're, we're looking at offering some different, we're getting ready to launch that here shortly, some different options for afterschool program. We're really excited about it. And so hopefully it'll feed into also what Junction State Little Theater is doing. And, and you know, you have to do what you can with what you have, where you are. And sometimes, because we don't have the facilities that Little Theatre has a huge building that they are able to make sets in and their costumes and their props and all of their stuff is over there. And we just don't have that. So we are really focusing on what we have and how we can utilize it and move forward. Johnson City Little Theatre has been wonderful this year, collaborating with us. And we're looking to do some stuff with the Arts Council, maybe having a

That connection, it seems like the two are one in that sense because you work so closely together.

It is great to be able to do that as you travel around the United States. There's 31 historic theaters in Kansas. I bet you all didn't know that, 31. A lot of them are ran by nonprofits owned by the municipalities. So each is a little different, but a lot of them are supported by the community. Anything else?

Great job, Ellie. Thank you.

You guys are up next.

Hello, hello.

We'll wait until Keith gets back. Here he is.

Good to go? All right. This year, America is celebrating 250 years worth of history. These celebrations are stretching across the nation, including within our own community. But Geary County prides itself on being a historic town every year, not just during landmark years. Historic sites within our community include St. Joseph's Historic Church, Spring Valley School, Historic Wetzel Cabin, and the Old Junction City High School. These structures and histories that the community are proud of, a history that is regularly used as a selling point for tourism and real estate. Our community brags about its history as the home to JJ Pennell, the home of the Buffalo Soldiers, the home of historic Fort Riley, the home of the first Lutheran church in the state, the home of the first territorial capital. This is a community that's proud of its history. The Geary County Historical Society is the organization that preserves this history. not just during landmark years, but every year and every day. Just one example of this historic preservation that happens at the Gary County Historical Society includes over 50,000 photographs preserved in our collection. These photographs have been used in advertisements for county tourism. They connect the community to the past through historic signs. They're shared photos on social media, and they're used by family researchers visiting the community to understand their own personal history. These photos include images of Junction City in 1855, before there were even 10 buildings sitting side by side. These photos include images of Daniel Lachelle's young wife receiving his Medal of Honor following his death in World War II. These photos require temperature controlled storage, archival safe boxes, a cataloging system, and trained staff to take care of them. Our community and this commission seems to understand the value of history and that it needs to be preserved. Following the news that the Fort Riley Museums face potential closure in 2025, we were inundated with statements of horror and upset that this history would be lost. We were asked questions like, can you take their collection if this happens? The answer was no, we couldn't. Because while the community and this commission understands the importance and value of history, there seems to be a disconnect with the understanding of the cost of preserving that history. We could not take on the preservation of the Fort Riley history because we are struggling to preserve our own history with the increasing cuts made to our organization year after year. if this pattern continues the community outcry won't be for fort riley history it will be for our county's history history has a cost and we need the county's help to continue this important work good evening thanks for having us um i'm on the board of directors for the historical society uh and uh

My responsibility at this particular season is with facilities. And we have some pretty old buildings that need constant attention. The only thing I want to say about that is, in terms of the museum, and I think it's unique, this particular museum, having been to a number of them in the state, is that it's the single largest repository of the history of this city and this county and the other communities in this county. And as a result, there's I think the I think it's over like 100,000 I mean, when you think about that and its relevance to the community, the support that we get from the county is much appreciated. And it helps us maintain and try to sustain that effort as we go forward. So in terms of the facilities, It's always a challenge. It's always something going wrong. It's old buildings, old problems. But again, we want to thank you for the support you've given in the past. We hope it continues for us.

Well, I appreciate you guys coming in. I've had conversations with both of you about the challenges we have as far as being a commission. And we give to a lot of organizations, and probably too many of them. But they're all important. So we have some hard decisions to make. I know we cut you guys pretty good, but we cut a lot of other organizations pretty good last year too.

No, I think you do a wonderful job. Yeah, like Chris said, it's tough. And we won't know until we start crunching numbers.

A lot of great programs for the kids and everything. I think that's always, you know, a good thing to have all of those. But yes, and your dinner theaters that you have are always fun too, so you're doing a good job there.

You need to have that pie on the face again for the commissioners so that Kathy gets a chance.

All right, we'll keep that in mind. September 26th, put it on your calendar.

I don't think that's fair.

Can we answer any other questions? No?

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, well, we are ready to proceed forward.

I think I was remiss. Teresa, do you want them to introduce themselves each time?

It's not included in the PDF.

It was a separate attachment. Do you have a stick? I don't.

Okay. That's okay. We had a PowerPoint, but that's okay. No worries. I'm Ann Smith. I'm the executive director of Clint Hills Out of Us. Thank you very much for the opportunity to come and visit with you this evening. I'll just kind of go through your packet here. I'll just kind of start with just a few introductory things. So this year is our 50th anniversary. Adabus is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We were founded in 1976 by a group of seniors who saw the need for public transportation clear back then. and we have been providing services in gary county injection city for 14 years now and so um this is actually my 25th anniversary with the company wow wow i know it does like it's goes time goes too fast and yes oh thank you very much um if you would go to the As just a very brief introduction, as you know, we provide fixed route services. We provide curb to curb ADA services and we provide services in the county outside of Junction City. And then we also and I'll talk about that more in a minute. we have implemented an extension of our K-18 Connect. And I'll have a slide for you on that. And we're really excited about that. Go ahead. So this fiscal year, we have seen fantastically a 26% increase in ridership overall. in Junction City and Gary County, that is a 16% increase in our fixed routes. And we've had a 2% increase in our demand response services. And I've been here the last couple of years telling you about the struggles we've had with hiring drivers. And this fiscal year, we have increased our staffing by 9%. We last year raised wages by $2 an hour for the drivers. And we have implemented a new CDL training program. And those things have made a big improvement in our hiring of drivers. So as you may also recall, several years ago, we were awarded funding to do a two-year pilot for the expansion of the K-18 Connect. So now that service runs from Walmart in Junction City to Walmart in Manhattan. We have stops along the way in Ogden, in the industrial park, along the airport, and then a couple of stops in Manhattan ending with Walmart in Manhattan. We implemented that in January of 2026. And we've seen a 113% increase in ridership. That's been just phenomenal. And so we're really excited about that. And that pilot will go for two years. This gives you a little bit of information from our transit study. We did surveys and asked our riders and why they're riding the bus and we held public meetings here in Junction City. 55% of folks are going to work or to school. 30% are going for shopping and recreational visits and 10% are going for medical and social service appointments. The current top stops in Our fixed route services are Walmart, Dillon's, the library, Pawnee mental health and the hospital. And then our curb to curb, I'm sorry, we didn't, I didn't have this year fiscal year numbers for you. So these numbers are lower than they are this year, but that gives you an idea of what the top of 10 stops were for demand response. As you can see, Ogden was the number one last year stop. And that was us taking people to go to Ogden to meet the K18 Connect there. I will tell you that in the transit study, the number one request that we had from folks here in Junction City was that expansion of the K18 Connector. So we have delivered on that. on that request. So there's things we'd like to be able to do with our transit study now completed. We would like to be able to, in a phased approach, look for service improvements. You have in your packet some picture, a screenshot from the map of the potential expansion for here in Junction City. it would be a pretty significant expansion. We're not looking to do that next year, but we have some really good data and some good improvements that we could implement. We also have, we finished phase one of our bus stop improvement plan. And so we're going to be starting phase two of that. And I've mentioned this to you before, but just as a reminder, we do have different challenges on the rural side, which is 5311. That's where we get our funding for services here, anywhere outside of Manhattan. And we do have some unique challenges because KDOT is very restrictive in how we're allowed to spend those dollars. And so we are working on a potential capital development where we might, we'll be able to campaign for some funds to make improvements here in Gary County, because currently right now I can't use any of our federal or state dollars for things like ADA improvements at bus stops or benches or shelters. We did last year, we were awarded funding to replace one of our older buses here and we've recently taken delivery of that vehicle. So we will be replacing one of our older buses with a brand new one in probably the next couple of months. And then one of our most significant modernizations has been with technology. It's been 10 years since we've had any new technology in our software. There've been times I've come to you and you've asked me questions and I've had to tell you, I can't get that information out of our current technology. Well, I'm happy to tell you that with Spare, we're going to be able to really get very granular into the data and give you answers to most, if not all, of the questions you may have about the services that we provide. And so we're really excited for that, but equally important is it's going to give the person riding the bus more options in how they access the service. There's actually, we're gonna have a demand response, the curb to curb app, and a rider will, if they choose, be able to schedule their own trip via the app. The dispatchers will always be there for them, but it will give them another way to interact and schedule the trip when they want it. This is not a new graphic for you, but it just as a reminder that we are a strategic investment in the communities that we serve. We come to the table, not empty handed, but we come to the table with 70% of the costs of our services already in hand. and we are looking only for a 30% local match for our funding. So what that equates to is that for every $1 invested in public transportation, we see a $5 return and economic input to the community. So if you would also turn to page eight of your packet if you have that available. I just wanna talk a little bit about our ask and the current state of our operations. I know last year you had to cut our budget and I'm asking you to consider restoring that. That may not be possible and I understand that, but I am asking the question. we've seen between that cut unfortunately usd 475 is no longer going to be able to provide funding for high school students and middle school students to ride the bus for free and we will no longer be able to have a stop at the high school so between that forty thousand dollar cut and the seventy one thousand five hundred and twenty eight dollars that we're losing from USD 475, we will not be able to continue our current services as they are without increases in funding. Last night I spoke to the Junction City City Commission and made a request also for an increase significantly from them as well. They asked me some questions and we'll be providing them with additional information. about our request in the coming week i will provide that to you as well and if you have questions that i can't answer for you this evening i'll be happy to have our team provide that for you and we will share that information again we know that our current services are not sufficient in 2023 we had to cut the services in half and ridership right along with it reduced literally by 50%.

That isn't where we want to be.

We have very good things that we want to do for the community. We know the need is out there and we know that we're not meeting it. We literally have given back to KDOT over the last two fiscal years nearly $300,000. because we did not have the local match. And so that is kind of a double whammy. We're not doing what we need to do, and we're giving back money on top of it. We are in a much better position now vis-a-vis our drivers. We want to be able to grow the service. Our technology now, we also are going to have an option to do a rideshare program. kind of an Uber-Lyft, if you will, program. And there was a great deal of discussion about piloting some of that here in Erie County. But those opportunities we cannot fulfill without the ability to meet that local match. So again, I understand that it is very challenging, but I would ask you to consider consider our request. If we don't have the local match, we are currently working on contingencies and what that will mean. I will tell you that for the purposes of the K-18 Connector, we are needing the local match right now out of our own reserves because we don't have any other way to fund that. And because that's an older grant, paid out one of that money spent. So because it's a 90%, we're able to do that. Because it's not a significant amount of money. But in the future, within the next two years, 18 months now, we will need to find a way to continue that. I just want to say thank you. This again is my 14th year coming before this commission, and I greatly appreciate the support that you have provided to us. And I know that this is, you know, it's challenging for all of us. As I've mentioned in the past, we've seen the cost of buses double. Now we're facing, you know, $4 a gallon gas. And so everybody is struggling. But our commitment to you is that we are good stewards of the tax dollars that are entrusted to us, and we value greatly the relationship that we have with the communities of Erie County. So I would take any questions that you might have.

There's two programs, aren't there? There's a 5011, and there's

There's some other ones in there too, but the two that we have, 5307 is the urban. So Manhattan is urban, just barely, but it's urban. And so there's a different funding stream for the urban program. And instead of going through KDOT, we receive that money directly from FTA. and they give us more latitude on how we can spend that money. On the 5311 side, the money goes through KDOT and they, I'll give you an example. In KDOT program, anything that's called capital is just a vehicle. As opposed to 5307, a bus shelter is capital. But KDOT won't let us spend money on anything but vehicles and capital. And so it's very frustrating for myself and other peers across the state because we're not maximizing the use of the dollars that are being awarded to us. And as I said, it's $260,000 that we've had to give back at the end of the fiscal year. If we could have raised money and spent that on shelters and benches and ADA improvements, I'd have much rather done that. But we don't have that choice.

So how do you deal with the legislature on that?

It's not so much the legislature, it's a KDOT policy. And one of the things that we have done, and we were talking this week, we're going to do it again this year, is we're going to present to KDOT you know, our argument that they need to give us more leverage in how we spend those dollars. The circular, the federal circular allows for these in both 5307 and 5311, but the circular gives the state the option to restrict how the money's spent.

So... No, 5307.

So the interesting thing, so the K18 Connect, it's one leg of the trip has to originate or terminate in the urbanized area. So K18 Connect is being funded half by 5307. and currently through a federal grant that's separate. But in the future, it would be a service that would be funded by both 5311 and 5307 because both have puts in and out of the urbanized area.

Am I correct? K-State dropped out on funding as well?

They are still funding us. It's a much reduced service. They've had their own budget challenges as well. But we do still have services on K-State's campus.

What about Fort Browning? That's always been a bugaboo.

It is. And almost two years ago, the commanding general who just left wanted meetings about transportation. And KDOT actually found some money that's being administered by the MPO for a late night, Friday and Saturday night program. And they can call Uber or Lyft, and they get, I believe it's two $30 passes a month, which gets them whatever the cost of the Uber or Lyft is. and they're coming to Junction City and to Manhattan. I saw a presentation today actually at the TAC meeting for the NPO and it's about 200 rides a night on Friday and Saturday night. I've been asked to continue the conversations with the new garrison and the new commanding general's office to continue conversations about services during the day. I think our new software is a huge opportunity for a micro transit service on post. And I have talked at length with people who live here in Junction City. Our mobility manager has had conversations, you know, people with disabilities who either work on post or live in Junction City and who have trouble navigating because we don't have enough service on post. There's no magic fix regarding the local match yet. but we're still working on it. And I think this most recent round of conversations really was eye-opening for a lot of people about the need for people on post to get off post and to have transportation on post as well. So yet again, it's an ongoing conversation.

Yes. Is the school district not participating because of

They told me it's because of their budgets that they're having to make cuts on.

How many kids did that impact? How many were riding?

I will provide that to you. I don't know off the top of my head, but I will find out and provide that information to you. Thank you. And they were allowed to ride the bus year-round anywhere, so they were not limited to... um they were not limited to the the stops at the high school and the middle school so uh i would add to you just as information we have moved our buses now from the library so they're gone and they are now being housed at the 12th Street Community Center. We've been working with the city. We also kind of try to help offset the impact for students that might be impacted by the loss of free rides. We're working with Parks and Rec to develop a pool pass program. So if you buy a pool pass, you'll be given an out-of-bus pass as well to ride the bus during the summer.

Thank you. All right.

Thank you very much.

We even brought a dog to persuade you. There you go.

Welcome to the Senior Citizen Center and please introduce yourselves and then we'll go ahead and get started.

Thank you. Good evening. Sally Jardine. I'm the treasurer slash bookkeeper for Gary County Senior Citizens. this is our brand new director of all of four days i believe it is this is amy osborne thank you and we're very delighted to have her you know finding directors is a really tough sell but we were able to persuade amy to move from her job as assistant director into the actual boss and you are i'm um

and I am the chair of the board.

And this is Ragnar, under the table.

Oh, what's his name? Ragnar.

Oh, Ragnar.

Yes, he's one of the Norsemen, I guess.

She brought treats. Yes. Have you got any cookies? We do, actually, in our office.

Okay. All right. Well, we are here one more time, and it's good to see you all again. I'd like to tell you that we are doing well at the Senior Center. We are stable. We've got all of our employee slots filled and with people that we feel are very good choices. Our goals, of course, are to improve the situation for those over 60 years old And we are concerned with their physical well-being. We're concerned with their mental health well-being. And we're concerned with their emotional and social well-being. And that's where our programs move toward. We have, as you've seen in there, we have assistance from KDOT. We get $10,000 a year from KDOT. We are a 5310. who did nonprofits for elderly and disabled. And so we missed it last year. We had a logistical problem there, but we have been awarded it for this year. So I'm feeling much better about that. We are asking for the same amount that you gave us last year. We'd like more, but you know, life doesn't work that way. I also was looking at bills today. and budgets. And I noticed that back in December, the gasoline that we got from Gary County Public Works was $2.01 a gallon. And in March, it turned to $3.79. And it's just a fact of life. So we are doing the best we can to find other ways to fund our efforts. And one of our other ways was through the Patterson Grant. This was Greater Gary County Foundation and Patterson's. They give us a grant, and that's very helpful. We've tried some others, Wells Fargo. Those types of things that are nationwide are very difficult. They say, oh, we're overwhelmed. Well, we know you're overwhelmed, but choose us. Why don't you? And they did not, of course. And so that in KDOT is what really sustained us, and of course yourselves. Our programs are for exercise. We have exercise every day of some sort, chair yoga or weight lift exercises. And now we're having the line dancing, aren't we? Yes. So there is a fun thing to do. You don't have to be elderly to come and do that. You can just come and join the class. I don't know when it is, though. It's Thursdays at one o'clock and we begin Tai Chi next week, Tuesdays at one o'clock. Indeed. So that sounds like a good time. And as far as food, we're still in partnership, of course, with North Central Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging. I have trouble with those three A's. And it's long term partnership there. And they, of course, provide the meals. They also support the salaries of our two cooks and they support the director's salary. They don't pay the whole thing, but they do support it. So that's another place where we get financial support other than the county. And of course, the building belongs to you. And so we are kind of your tenants there.

And I have to say I think I forgot. I don't know. I'll check my emails.

And that's the truth, isn't it? So but we noticed there's been an awful lot of good things happening for the building committee. They've been doing a lot of improvements. on that really old building, you know. And they have some things up their sleeve that I hope are gonna happen this coming summer, but we'll find out about that. What else is it that I need to talk to you about? You've got our budget there. You notice that the actual budget and the proposed budgets are always quite different, but the actual budget shows that we're always a little short, we generally run about $20,000 short. And that, luckily we have some reserves and we can handle that for a while. I keep telling the board some year we're gonna run out, so we're gonna have to prepare ourselves. But we are searching actively as a board for other types of things that might be bringing income into us. and we're working diligently on that part of it because um donations on match day of course is another support for us but i'd surely like it to be bigger than it is we've got about 8 000 there and i'd like to see that get a lot bigger that was what donations on match day okay because i was looking at your

interest income and you know 25 get eight hundred dollars and uh you had proposed for uh eight thousand and twenty six and then back down to sixty five hundred and that's comes from this comes from we have a uh we have of course the greater gary county foundation we've got our funds over there but you just can't count on

invested funds. You just never know how the year is going to be. And strangely enough, Kathy, if you look down in miscellaneous expenses, there's P&L down there, and that's why that expense is a plus instead of a minus, a plus expense. So there was indeed better interest received in that year than it looks like. I'm going to have to change those lines next time I do this because it kind of Did you want to tell them anything that you've learned in your four days?

Yes, I learned that per month, on average, we do mills, about 2,500 mills a month to the senior community.

And we have, on average, 30 that come to our different activities every day, though Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are higher than that. It just averages out about 30.

Are you going to continue with the garage sale type things?

Our next garage sale will be in September.

Those seem to be growing. I told Courtney, I hope you continue because you can't really gauge because that will probably be about the fourth worth one maybe. Sometimes people are just catching wind of it. And I like that your signage is more, I think there was some concern about the signage. So that always helps because I know when they were having the sale, Courtney said that people didn't know where the senior center was or drove by it and stuff like that. So I think that's a good thing.

We discussed with the building committee about that and luckily that

well happily that got taken care of and that's part of the new things in under their pocket that they're not telling you yet i said earlier that i appreciated the fact that they had the meeting where the four or five entities got together and kind of discussed little things with the building committee was there as well and you know rodeo and uh fair and you know discussed different things that needed to to be done with our public works. And I think that always helps to get some of that stuff done and that communication continuing. So that was great. Yes.

Partnering with them. I have to really compliment Public Works. You should give those guys a great big raise if you can. I mean, we give them cookies and stuff.

They like that, too. Wow, they're slowing down.

You have to stand there and chew up that. That's true. Well, I know he felt like it was really beneficial, the two of them that came to that meeting and, you know, again, with the communication with Courtney out there and stuff and just getting stuff situated to get it done in what order and what's most important. I think that's good. Right, right.

Ma'am, I just want to let you know what the Senior Center is doing for me. I retired from civil service here after I left the military. It allowed me an opportunity to take the skills I learned and be part of a new community. It allowed me to serve my fellow seniors. These are important things for us to be able to fit back into a new place and to be of service. there's a lot of people that the Senior Center provides an opportunity to serve their fellow senior. And that growth is important to this community. Thank you.

Yeah, appreciate that. Absolutely. Okay, is there any other?

No, just Amy, welcome aboard. Thank you.

Yeah, glad to be here. Run her along, I didn't hear this.

Yes, we're happy to have her. Yeah, good.

let us know if you need anything thank you i did notice that there's a lot of isolated seniors so i'm grateful for the bands that have been able to be provided to get them yes down to the senior center mobility seems to be a struggle for a lot of them are there still out towards milford in the world some some world yeah we have a rural route out there that's good yeah

And KDOT provided 80% of the cost of our van this last year, so that was very helpful. That's been in the works for all the six years I've been treasurer. That's been in the works, and finally I got one available for us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, the seniors I serve meals to,

Good morning

You know what, actually I think the paper copies will work for the commissioners.

Okay.

If that's okay.

It's fine.

All right, am I good to start?

Good evening.

Commissioners, thank you for having me. I'm Jared Tremblay with the Flint Hills Metropolitan Planning Organization. I think you're all familiar with who we are by now, but we do transportation planning in the region. And our 2027 local match request. I just want to talk a little bit on the first page of the thing I handed out. I know you all have some documents from earlier, but our funding is split up. 80% of it is consolidated planning grants, which are KDOT and federal funds. And then there's a 20% match. that 20% matches that, you know, that pink bar. And then that 20% match has been divided amongst the six jurisdictions based proportionally on the population of each within the MPO. So it's not all of Gary County's population. It's the amount of Gary County's population within the MPO minus junction city divided by the rest of the region. So with that, on the second page, You can see that our total budget for 2027 is estimated at three hundred eight thousand one hundred sixty eighty five. Of that, the local funds that are required, 20 percent match is fifty seven thousand eight hundred four dollars and twenty four cents. And then the bottom bracket bracket there, it's highlighted in the pink. Gary County makes up three point one percent of the population within the MPO. And so 3.1% of that $57,000 comes out to $1,791.93. That's our request for this coming year. And if you turn to the last page, you can see how this year's request compares to previous eight years, seven or eight years. And so there's a lot of up and down in our budget. whenever we have a specific project that requires a consultant that raises the budget year to year this coming year, we're not going to have any of that. And so it's, it's, um, just a touch, $11 higher than last year, but, um, $90 less than the year prior, uh, before. And you can see what it used to be in 2020. And before that it was much higher as well. So that's our request. A few products that are, we'll be working on this year that involve Riley County. Obviously it will be the tip to ensure that any projects with state or federal funds have the required documents and things move through. We're also working with Public Works with Jeremy Myers over there and we're looking to do, we've already started it on our end, pavement condition index, which basically we would be using our GIS data sets to survey the paved roads in the county and get a scoring system that would allow them to create a SCIP priority list, basically. So those are the two big ones. We work with ATA a lot. We do a lot of stuff in Junction City as well. That's what I had for you.

What year did Juan Miguel come on board?

2017 or 18. I believe it was 2017 or 2018. It's been quite a while.

Okay.

Yes, it's 2017. It's the last time we updated our boundary was 2017.

I don't have any questions. Okay.

Thank you. I really do appreciate your presence in the community. Of course, I saw you at the ERC and the community and all. Terry Dritton.

What is that?

Terry Dritton. Oh, no. I've been teasing her about that. She's not a person to give threats. But I think it's important

and stuff and all the things that are hopefully in the works it's gonna make gary canyon junction city a better place so i appreciate all those things he's also the chair of our atu board for the bus as well yeah and i will say that we do well over 1791 dollars worth of work in a year so it's it's uh i think good value we hope so and so then um i know our footprint and there have been talks about expanding that possibly not honestly not that i'm aware of from which direction from the state yeah so i didn't know what you that's news to me the last i had heard was last year with the um the economic development side of it manhattan was thinking of joining with topeka and lawrence that's the last i'd heard have you you've heard something since then it's something about like expanding more of gary county into into the mpo i i have not heard that i can ask kate about that okay and i'm whoever told me might not know all the facts okay uh yeah so just so you know the requirements on that or that it'd be the urban well first of all Junction City and Gary County don't have to be in the MPO. That was a choice that was made some time ago. But it's the urbanized area as defined by the census, which would be Junction City proper. And then anything that is within reasonable expansion or growth over the next 20 years. And so that's really where the limits have been set. And then it's kind of a little bit of fine art of what road and the river and things of that nature. That's what really has set it. I'll reach out to our liaison and see. That's news to me, but I don't know.

Did you drink that? I mean, I don't have an issue with it.

I just like to know. Well, yeah, especially if it's a part of your job.

All right.

Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Two weeks on the,

Okay, moving right along. Okay, we'll move on to the Circle A Club. Oh, is it Three Rivers?

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Three Rivers. I apologize for that.

So I had a typo in my budget request. I missed a digit from the total. And nobody caught it. Nobody caught it in my office.

Three people look at these things.

I was just looking at my submission today and notice it. So in my packet, I included our service delivery numbers so that you can see some of the increases in services that we've had in Gary County. And we're clipping along at a really good pace. would you introduce yourself? Oh, I'm sorry. I feel like I know you guys have been coming here for so long. It's on YouTube. Okay. I'm Erica Christie. I'm the executive director of Three Rivers. We're a center for independent living. We work with people with disabilities and the elderly, helping to keep people independent in the home and community. All right. So in my service delivery numbers, you'll notice we had an increase in services and an increase in the number of people that we were able to serve last year. The biggest increase of our service delivery was to youth, which is 14 to 24, which is how the federal government defines youth with disabilities. So that was a big increase. A lot of work-based learning classes. I think I sent you a success story with a picture of the students in their work-based learning and all the students are employed. So that's something like that. Um, couple bits of news is I started out, um, when we first started asking the commission for money, I had one employee in our junction city office and I have four now. So I'm very happy about that. We had to move to a bigger space. We, um, were able to find, um, an office space with the same amount. So no increase in cost and they were willing to lock us in for three years that we would not have an increase for three years. So that's, that provides good budget stability. um we have a new program this year for our youth it's called our forward focus academy and the junction city high school academy is the 6th to the 9th of june or july i'm sorry and they've also asked us to do follow-on training one day a week or one day a month for the whole school year to provide independent living skills to high school students transition skills to high school students and the extended school year, which is the 18th to 21 program. And then we also have work with students from HD Carnes. It just, the picture just keeps getting better and better every year. I get to come talk to you and I really wanted you to know how much your support matters for our gaps in funding. Intentionally, our federal grants are intended to be base funding at 80% of our programs. And we are to go do things like this and fundraising for the other 20%. So this helps me fill that 20%. And I definitely appreciate it. We also do match days. We do match days with the Manhattan Community Foundation and that goes into the big pot, not just to any certain county. We got some corporate sponsors for our disability mentoring day where we had high school, Jackson City High School students came to K-State Union and we had a day long of transition training and speakers and skills, skill building, team building. And that was that everybody was very happy with that day. So it's, it's a, it takes a lot of resources to do a disability mentoring bay, but it gives you a lot in rewards in the outcomes. How do you get your clients? What we did, we, we just connected with, for our youth clients, consumers, we connected with Bridget Oliver and Theresa Palmer at the high school. and started working with them and started getting some of our student referrals that way. We also are a contractor with the pre-employment transition services through Kansas Rehabilitation Services. We do, we call it Pre-ETS. So we get a Pre-ETS referral and we get a payment for each milestone that we help the student get to. So that goes into the 20% of the funding gap is the contracts, so.

What are your fundraising activities?

Just a match day. And then we do a corporate sponsor program where we try to get any events that we do kind of funded by corporate sponsor instead of coming out of our budget.

So what other entities do you receive funding from?

we we have it we have four other counties besides gary county and pottawatomie county asked me the same thing and i make sure to mention that gary county was a strong funder for many years just like pottawatomie and merle page said thank you so we have county funding um we have match days We have an administration on community living grant, which is a federal state grant to us, not through the state. And then we have our Kansas Rehabilitation Services grants, which are appropriated through the Rehab Act, Title 504, or Section 504 of the Rehab Act is required to fund centers for independent living. There's a center in every state, in every county, in every state in the United States. so and that's a federal requirement so we have to exist and we get funded at eighty percent but you have to exist so i go out and do the other twenty percent so what's the four counties um pottawatomie washington gary waubonsie nemaha is total five four others besides you so

Somebody had asked me about Riley County they don't give to. And the reason that was given to them was because Pawnee Mental Health offered the same services as June. I didn't think that that was true.

I was told Pawnee and Big Lakes offer a similar service and they already fund them at a high level, like $50,000, $60,000 level.

But I don't think that they do the same services. No.

No. So, um, we are broad based also all incomes, all ages, all disabilities we serve. There's no wrong answer. You don't have to prove your disability yourself disclosed. So if you, so Pawnee focuses on mental health and they can drill down deep into the mental health and then big lakes is on, uh, developmental disabilities and they can drill down and get a lot of, um, support in that direction where I'm across the board, a little bit of everything. And I make referrals to those two organizations, and they make referrals back to me. We work really in tandem, but you're missing a large segment of the population by not working with the Center for Independent Living.

So that's my question. That was going to be what services do. Do you provide that one of those other two don't or why?

They're disability focused. So they have one disability focus, which is good to have an organization that can really focus on one thing. And it's good to have an organization that can give a broad based service delivery.

So you just focus on counties and not cities.

Correct. I forgot to say another new development. Last year, I told you we were starting to work on our relationship with the Exceptional Family Member Program on Fort Riley. And we've had two referrals, active consumers, one looking for employment, one just needed some independent living skills. And they also want to host a parent listening night, which is something we've been doing with throughout the different counties is working with the schools and bring the parents in and let's see what challenges they have, what issues they're having, what questions they have. And they're gonna host a parent listening night. So it's working. I hope I don't ever get up here and promise something that the next year I can't go back. Because I remember last year when I promised you. So that was my promise last year. And that has come to fruition.

thank you okay all right thank you have a good night can i hear you say that the amount of requests is 15 yes 15 questions that's right okay we are ready for circle a club now so

LET'S START BY INTRODUCING YOURSELVES. THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.

I'M BECKY OSBORN. I'M THE TREASURER OF THE CIRCLE A CLUB.

GOOD EVENING, COMMISSIONERS. I'M CHARLES OSBORN. I'M THE PRESIDENT OF THE CIRCLE A CLUB.

GOOD EVENING. MY NAME IS TOM GRILL, AND I'M THE CHAIRMAN OF THE CIRCLE A CLUB.

THANK YOU.

DO YOU WANT THE CHAIR? OH, I'VE GOT MY OWN.

OKAY.

and we are here this evening to talk to you about our shortfall that we that we have every year and that we come to you and and see about obtaining it um i think you folks have a copy of this and uh just kind of wanted to see if you had any questions or anything that we could answer to to make this work

I saw that the city gave us some money for repairs.

For repairs, okay. So you didn't see that. And we did get the city to provide sanitation for us.

Oh, nice.

So they are providing that as an in-kind also. We made a request through the opioid funds through the city, and they were kind enough to be able to help us with that.

Have we ever used any of those for this, Tammy? Do you know of?

I do have a correction on here. I just realized as I'm looking at this. Oh, maybe I fixed it. Never mind. Never mind. It was about the garbage.

I took it off there. Okay.

You might notice that there was quite an increase in the insurance this time from Coryell. They raised it $1,300. And the reason that they said that they did that is because they didn't have the upstairs of the facility insured.

you can believe that it's an empty space it's never the doors locked on it it's only got one way in and years ago the fire department told us we without having an egress and we could not use that for anything I mean it's as big as our whole space I mean it is a mirror of what we have that but it's just one big open area

And because of the increase, I did do some shopping. I went to State Farm, and they said they could do the same for about seven grand, which is double what that is. And then I went to Cardinal, and they couldn't beat it either. So based on that, I guess it's probably what we're going to have to live with.

Maybe Main Street can help you with the upstairs.

Well, without two exits, I don't think the letter would be used.

I mean, there are grants out there for the upstairs living and stuff. I just don't know if they might know that that would be a cool place to have an apartment.

dances and stuff like that. I think that's what it was. It was a furniture store, I guess, years ago.

And the Salvation Army also was in that facility between the museum next door and our facility.

Appreciate your time.

I heard you. Chris Ann's here. I heard you. Sure he is gonna be here, right? He could have enjoyed that better. Did you hear me say that in Savannah, one of the highlights was they went to the furthest top of the stadium and he was throwing bananas down to where the draft stand by home plate. He just had like, you know, he'd order now. That would hurt. But you know, we were talking, how do you even get them over the net? They had a bunch of bananas. And they caught them all, I think, except one.

There she is. Yes. Oh, sorry. We're running a little early. Well, I was just doing some work down the hallway.

I was early.

Sherry Childs, Bexar County Treasurer. My budget didn't change a whole lot this time. I did raise publication and postage. Unfortunately, those are getting really, really high. Other than that, everything else, I tried to keep it the same.

You know, I was going to ask everybody, but it's so hard, but you fall under the, you know, what one gentleman had said that, you know, when your budget's 96%, your personnel budget's 96, you don't have... Oh, yeah, that would be me. Now, would the new fee structure help out?

I'm hoping so. It starts July 1st, and I did set a $5... $5, yeah. $5, yeah.

I commend you for keeping costs as they are, because I know it's hard, but when you're tied with some of your main expenses or publication costs, and then you're advertising this publication, your postage, and that serves therapy.

Yeah, they're the two items that I don't have a choice about.

You can't shop right off the bat.

No, no.

I still wish, because that could be somehow put online, that they'd probably find a way to charge you for doing it that way.

The publication part has really increased quite a bit just since 22. Some of the easier ones that we do, like the quarter report, it's almost doubled in price.

I don't have any questions, but Tammy and I

talk today at the landlord association and actually the two of the people there complimented your office or staff oh well that was sorry i don't ever get to hear the good stuff right so that's nice thank you anybody else have any questions We're trying and Friday we're going to do appointments only, so we'll see how that goes since that's our half a day. I'm not too sure it's going to go well, but we're hoping. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. not going to do that every day i'm just doing it on fridays because we've got the short day so i don't know how else to make that work so well thank you appreciate it we have other questions and we know where you are yeah thank you Sherry, I have to compliment you. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. I was in yesterday because I kind of maybe thought yesterday was this meeting. So anyway, but I had to stop down there, and she just bent over backwards. She's just amazing.

She's probably one of the few ones down there that's excited about Friday afternoons being off.

Well, she's late in that whole session. We want to keep employees like that happy, though.

Oh, for sure. For sure. She could de-escalate a mad person without them knowing that she's doing that. I know. She's amazing to me.

I'm looking at them, I know how to growl, and she just calmly talks to them and they're just okay. You're thanking her for the laws or whatever is there. She definitely is good. I appreciate her.

Yeah, yeah. You're the first person I've had to say that. Yeah, yeah. She just was talking too much. You know, and she wanted to get through there and get on. She had to stop there. I was like, well, I'm sorry.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so Angela, let's see. Nope, we need to do.

It says slow fluctuations next, but they're not here.

Yeah, Chris Ann should knock it out and Well, she had an appointment at the groomers today, so. Yes, to get her hair done. Does she like it?

Yeah, she doesn't have any problems doing.

Oh, really? She goes monthly to get her. Yeah. Chrisanne Phipps, Community Corrections. I am here requesting funding for the Gary County Recovery Court program. I'm requesting opioid dollars to be used on our recovery court program. I am not allowed to pay for defense attorneys out of my Kansas Department of Corrections allocations. Therefore, I have to rely on other funding sources. And for fiscal year 27, as I put in the request, that it is going to be extremely tight with my budget. Drug testing is expensive because we drug test our participants in recovery court a minimum of uh three to four times a week it's random and so there are some days they're called in uh five days a week that you just don't know and um and we test seven days a week i just spent 40 000 on drug testing um tests this past i just was last month between the recovery courts in dickinson county and gary county And that'll get me probably through maybe six months at that. So that has become a huge expense also. Anyone has any questions?

Kristen, so like your budget is on the state fiscal year versus... Correct. Correct. Recovery report is on the calendar, do you know?

It's... though so because i'm using my kdoc dollars for um isos that pays the salary of my probation officers um my my coordinator which is rana does that um my drug testing incentives those kinds of things i it'll start in July. I'm still using FY26. FY27 will start in July. In the past, for fiscal year 26, you all had approved for those funds to be used for the defense attorney, and so I'll use the funds that you have allocated for that. I pay that out of this current fiscal year, the county fiscal year for the defense attorney. So I kind of coordinate and balance between both.

That's confusing.

It's a puzzle and you just got to make it work. You just got to put all the pieces together to make things run.

You know, with what this does and then being on the Pawnee Mental Health Board and then sitting in with meetings with the sheriff with his concerns about the gap with funding for the people that go into the jail and then don't have services. This is another one of those programs that I don't know why they all kind of serve the same purpose. Why can it not be connected in some way? These people, when they leave jail, they have to find services for them elsewhere to follow up and stuff, and that doesn't involve you, but they're there because they broke the law, and so you're serving them then. They go to jail, they don't get services. Kenny has to pick it up. Then when they go out, somebody has to find where they can follow up on the services. I don't understand why the train don't go. The disconnect? Yes. You know, I just...

When they are with community corrections and sentenced to community corrections, we are able to kind of keep that connection flowing. In my office for one grant I have, it's my behavior health. I contract with Pawnee Mental Health Center to have a behavior health liaison in my office. That's Mariah Kalovich. I've had her for the past, since I've been here, eight years as a director. She's was here two years prior to that. So 10 years she's been with us. And so her main role is to, and she's part of our recovery court, um, is to make sure those services, um, that there is not a disconnect to plug them into Pawnee for medications.

And on the conversation as well, because it just seemed like they were spending time and. uh, these people were not finding the resources and, uh, feeling like that, you know, then their return, uh, then they returned back into the starts all like vicious cycle. And I just, I, you know, when you were talking, I was reading this last night, it's like, well, I just don't understand why you're saying there is a connect there. They may be, if they're with our office, when they get out, then that's, you know, they follow up and make sure that services are, that they're continuing with their services. And it just sounded to me like, for whatever reason, and maybe the complexity of getting help, those people weren't also getting the help they needed to keep them out of jail is what I was gathering from all of this. So that when you, you know, when I was reading this, it's like, well, why in the world? But I'm glad to hear that they're, they just need to make sure that they're.

And I have to give a shout out to the sheriff's office because actually they're on our team, they're on our recovery court team, but they're very supportive as far as they will do our weekend UAs for us. So our participants call into a number and it'll tell them whether they're to report or not. And since our office is closed on holidays and weekends, the sheriff has agreed and their jail staff, since they're staffed 24 seven, the participant will come in between specific hours. We have set time. and they will come in and do the UA and they'll observe the UA for us. So I really appreciate the support of the sheriff and the sheriff's office. And he has placed one of his detectives on our team as has the PD. And they have been supportive of our efforts. So we have our first graduation and you all will be receiving invitations in September. I'm very excited because when we started, it was a little rocky. But we have two that will be graduating in September. And we'll make sure that you all receive the invitation so you can come to the graduation to celebrate that success.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Well, thank you. I appreciate the information.

Thank you.

I think it's a great program. I appreciate you working on that here.

It is. The team will be attending training from All Rise in August. And it's going to be our foundation training. So I'm very excited for that. That's a national organization. I applied through a grant and we were accepted. And so everyone on that team will be participating in two or three day training for basically looking at best practices and making sure that we're doing what works for our participants. I'm very excited.

30,450 last year.

She didn't have it.

And so I reached out to Betsy.

No, I didn't. Well, I don't know if that helps. It's really, really good.

I'm trying to get the city to go back to doing that for the last five years. That's right.

So here you get healthy

Yeah, we almost came in, but I didn't because that lady didn't want to come in there.

I was choked. I couldn't get that. Yeah, I'm right. So then just didn't talk about that. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Are we first up? I thought so. We're up. I don't know about first up, but. Okay. Hi, how are you? 60. Oh, yeah.

You got an inch here?

see that we're very far from you.

I saw it was wet when I got home. Did you get your maps made?

It won't be long. We'll be back in true rain.

I think we still have a chance of rain, don't we?

During the night.

During lunch hour, I asked Alexa to run at me best for two Are we supposed to get rain today? She said, no, no rain today. I got back on. You need to update the graph.

You guys ready?

Yep, we're ready.

Well, the whole board's here. And did you have a chance to read through any of it?

Yes.

We're asking for a 3% increase due to everything going up. QuickBooks, the internet and all that. And then the one that doesn't sit well in the future, we may be asked to find part of the engineering or the technicians, which don't sit well. That's not, nothing's been ironed out yet. It's, I guess you could say we're kind of thinking it might come to that. Hopefully not.

the technician is shared now right they are um right now they're funded through an agreement where nrcs gives money through a series of transactions to the state and the state gives that money out to the districts which in essence gives nrcs an extra employee without them having to show an extra employee on their salary information, but that agreement hasn't been renewed. But NRCS is cutting budget everywhere and so we're not sure. If we lose those positions, we will have one NRCS technician for four counties to do all engineering stakeout check out all of that so it's pretty important for us other guys now remember last year weren't they trying to pass something where you guys were going to maybe get double what you had been getting so last year two years ago

Yeah, because I said we wouldn't ask for more money.

That was a couple years ago. We didn't ask for the next one.

We better make it. And that money was kind of earmarked to go toward employee retention. And so I got a little raise, which I very much appreciate.

And some of the counties were able to give new hires insurance. So that worked really well for us. It's kind of, we're holding it back in case we have to fund this technician position.

I just, I couldn't remember what the details were.

It's been a couple. I was getting nervous. The QuickBooks things don't sit well either. They should figure something out. Cause every county has got to have, and every county is paying the big fees.

So Angela, do you want to explain what you handed this?

I handed you, um, there's three different sheets, but they're basically two different things. One shows what every conservation districts in the state gets from their County or got from their County for 2026. We're kind of right there in the middle in a really good spot. The other one is our base allocations for our cost share. So we are getting just over $36,000 between the two programs for cost share in fiscal year 2027 for the state, which starts in July. So we're able to put that much money under contract for projects, it gets the 50 000 from the state pretty close um some of the counties out west um funding's been really tough from the county for them so the way it's set up with the state is a two-to-one match so if the county doesn't give you at least 25 000 they prorate yeah chase only gets your 4 000. chase but chase county uh a combined district with my county so they share a district manager in an office so um cherokee county i think is the one that's blank down there as well they're combined uh with crawford county and so each county gives part of it but they count it all as one twenty five thousand dollar so they can get the max amount from the state

Well, your budget is pretty much cut and dry. I always appreciate you guys all coming together.

I was talking to somebody.

Oh.

When we get the cameras.

I know last night they were complaining.

I could hear it and stuff like that, so I don't know why. Were you able to see it?

At the beginning, you couldn't hear anything. And then later on, you could. Yeah, because I want to make sure until... whenever that guy's family all of a sudden just left, that we don't wanna be going through that. Have you already had one? Because I got through to the guy. I had one on spare so I ate it for lunch. I hope she's having a good shirt. I know. next one is a five o'clock on monday too oh i have to add a third executive session to the agenda

Tammy and Lisa and Mr. Gerloff.

Mr. Olds, after we're done with these last two, if you want to stay for a few extra minutes and give us comments, or you could just email us. We'd appreciate any feedback. And Mr. Petty, too. I'm glad that we have at least a couple, because I've emailed several of them. At least we've tried to get people involved to come.

I was curious if you, as a commission, there's the core services that counties are required by statute or other things to provide. For those outside of the core services, have you talked about or will you at some point talk about kind of what your priorities are or you think the priorities for a community should be of these extra ones that are coming in?

because there was a discussion yeah we hope those you all are in on part of that conversation too as the community spokesperson you know with some of those others you know where those priorities should be is there a good organization absolutely and we can't just fund them all you know and so that's why I thought if there's you know I think probably the people need to

we all could use some civics tests or civics education to remind ourselves what, you know, city and county differences are. And, you know, counties have core services that we're required to give, others that we choose to give, and then some that we've given to in the past that have been in the budget for years and years and years that, like, community and economic development is not a core service of counties. And in fact, they encourage to be city services. But I'm not saying we shouldn't. I'm just saying, do people even realize that?

But we all pay county taxes, and when the city does well, the county does well. I realize that. And so I do feel we should be involved in that.

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying I don't think people understand, as an arm of the state, what we're required to do. Yeah. And that the cooperation that we see between the entities is a bonus i mean it's a good thing that we are able yeah and at some point if we can't i guess i'm trying to preserve a little bit of the county's reputation of you know what needs to be first is poor service right yes and that's what i i just i think it's also helpful to make sure that people understand when you do the funding

property taxes. It's important for people to understand, no, that's not your property tax. It's grants and guest taxes. It's opioid settlement money. And that civics thing that you hit on is spot on.

Spot on. When people are saying, you know, why can't, why doesn't the county improve our streets?

Yes, they don't understand.

It's that kind of basic understanding. And I know that some will not.

mean there are people who will just refuse to learn the difference just yeah well that's what I just like a good job of those packets which made if you want to take one of those packets as well that she put that information together kind of just overall property yeah but put that information together to kind of educate the public on you know where that funding is and where it came from and the importance of focusing on core services and i strongly believe that and it's not that i don't believe in the other services they're important but you know i i think and i think it's been generally um

suggested that you know more fundraising activities need to take place and they need to fund them better than count on county tax dollars you know i had another thought it's probably not allowed by statute but maybe they can fix that you know i get 25 tax statements every year and they come by mail now granted that's not a lot of money but when you look at the postage budget with the technology, why doesn't the state give the counties the option, if I give you my email address, to email it to me? You know what I mean? Because I know, I know I have to protect you.

How much does it cost us to do like R&R? Isn't it like $8,000 or something like that? Well, it's one up to about $10,000.

Well, I'm still trying to get the city to quit sending certified letters to me in addition to postal letters for violations. Just send me an email. written says, well, you can't do that because that's not what the statute says. And so I say, the statute doesn't prohibit you from notifying me first. And then if I don't take action, send me the letter.

No, I see what you're saying.

Just the efficiencies.

Well, the postage, like you said, also is aggravating. You send out the property tax statements, and then the number that you get back because they've been notified. So then we get them back, and we've notified them, and they have to go back out. So just the cost then of presenting them. Yeah, that's an interesting cost. Sure. Yeah, one of those you just think, great, there's got to be a different way. And as much as postage is... Just ridiculous. Mr. Butler, you are up to the plate.

Say again? Yes, Bob is, it's his night for bowling. I didn't think about it when I scheduled it. He's like, oh. He said, that's okay. I got one more. Bowling is more important than bowling. I got one more.

He takes that very seriously.

There you go. Good evening, Madam Chair and Commissioners. I'm Nate Butler. Bob Story couldn't be here. He usually likes to come and do these things, but he could not tonight. And the reason I'm here is to request funding for Freedom Fest 2027. So another year out and doing some of the things that we do. You know, the bottom line with Freedom Fest is we're here to plan, organize, and to execute community events for citizens of our, of our city and our county and then surrounding areas, which actually in the past has been Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado. And this year we actually have a family that I know already so far it's called, and it's coming out to spend the whole week from Pennsylvania. He was here as he was here in 20 and during desert storm and was going to come back. Reason said hey, they got this freedom. That's thing. We're gonna come out there. They called and asked about it. So they're setting up at the RV parking Randy Plaza It's a pretty excited about the know that it's out there and that that's what we're doing. We also Do fundraiser events that we think are very important to do that. We can show that we've got skin in the game We're not just asking for funds that we're actually developing in ways that we can raise funds And sometimes those are better than others and we've learned that over the years, but it is important to do it The goal of Freedom Fest is to plan an event to celebrate Independence Day of America. And it's also to provide an event that families will want to return to year after year and really to just make it kind of a pilgrimage that they want to come back to and experience. So let's get down to the fund request. I think that's what we're here for. So we can get through this. The amount requested for 2027 is the same as this year that we received was $25,000. I made an assumption. I don't like to make assumptions, but I did make an assumption that you're going to fund it the same way you did this year through CBB. And so that's why CBB is listed on there as well. So we're asking for $25,000 to do so. The estimated cost right now, and we work year to year on a working budget. So, I mean, it's a cash flow budget. We're expecting it's going to be somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000. Usually it's around $180,000. as what we usually spend for our events. Although this year, 2026, our estimated budget is $228,000. Because it's the 250th birthday, we expanded a whole lot of things. We've got three bands almost every night now. This year, we're bringing in a tiger show, which is going to be cool. You hear tigers down there roaring. We're bringing in a magician. We're bringing in the the Freedom Singings group that's going to come in and write songs for our veterans and our Gold Star family member this year. So a lot of things have added to that for this year. Our estimated expenses, I'm sorry, receipts are $228,000. Our estimated expenses or 198,000 this year, and that could fluctuate as well. We're still working a couple of contracts so that and that same thing will happen next year in 2027 because we just have to. Sometimes it's hard to work with some of the prima donna organizations out there that that are bands. And so but we also one of the things that's important for us is to have some kind of carry over for the next year. If we don't, we we struggle. We had that happen one year since we've been doing this. We're very, very low. We have to have that because we take a month off right at Freedom Fest. We take a month off. The rest of July and all of August off. In September, we immediately start right in. Sometimes we will contract the stage before he ever leaves. So we'll get on his book. So we have to pay out for that stage early on because it's about $30,000 to bring the stage in. And so this year it's a little more because we're bringing a big side screen that will do rolling advertisements. So kind of a different thing. So we do need that rollover funds. So the funds from Gary County, CBB, how we will use those is because you split it half and half. We get a first half and then we get a second half after the event is over. And so the first half that comes in, we will use that for our contracts and advertisement, uh, just because we need that money to do that. And then after the event, the second half we hold, and we use that to do the initial contracts on the stage, or if we find a band that we want and they need upfront money right away, then we'll use it for them. So that coming in that second half, actually, although sometimes we'd like to have it up front, it's with most people sometimes having the second, the second half coming later provides that funds that we can push forward. But there is an impact that Freedom Fest has on our communities. We are we average somewhere between 80 and 90 plus rooms that we contract with our local hotels every year. So that's that's a big tax that comes in. We expect our attendance to be somewhere around 50000 or more for the whole five days. And this year will be the sixth day because we're doing an event on that the 30th where we're going to meet and greet at Highwind for our songwriters that are coming in. Our guests out of town come in there again, they're providing Bed tax, the sales generation, the local restaurants, the gas stations, the food that they'll get is all those things we get sales tax from and then use here. And then the big thing is county exposure. It is huge. You know, we've got a great county in Gary County. We've got a great city. A lot of things are happening in our trajectory of Gary County is so focused, right. And moving forward that what people are seeing is changes as they come in year for year on that. So the exposure is, is I believe very important. Let's look at funding sources. You know, we, we do go out and we knock on doors. We come in and we do briefings. We ask the organizations such as the city and the county. and different entities to provide support for Freedom Fest. We go to private companies and individuals and ask them for support. They will in turn come along, such as Michelin. Michelin provides support and also groups that come out and help with the events. They have a lot of volunteers. We have the carryover from 2026 to 2027, and then our fundraiser events. So let's look at those. Fundraiser events are a big part of what we do. There's two days that we schedule every year. The Balloon Festival that we have, the Balloon Bands of Barbecue, And then we also do the Mud Log. The Balloons Festival is usually early second weekend of March in that timeframe. I'm sorry, May. Weather dependent. And so far for five years, we've been really good. This year we had a little wind. We couldn't do the tethered rides. But it's an opportunity for us to bring people out and just to have a let your hair down day. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200 to 1,500 people show up for that. And we average... I mean, I would just say we do very well on that fundraiser to help us off. I mean, so bottom line, our net from that is really good. And then our mud bog is this coming Saturday. And, you know, the mud bog is just a hoot. I mean, it's a redneck festival, I tell everybody. It's just a lot of fun to get out and let your hair down, wear shorts, get muddy, run through the mud, enjoy watching these big monster trucks run through there. The kids like it. um so we do that again on the mud bog we will raise a fair amount of money for for the event this year rad especially yeah just so the public knows since we're flat standing we're here out here Yeah, the Balloons, Bands, Barbecue, good question, Commissioner, is at the Freeman Airfield here in Jackson City. It's a great place for it. And then Mud Bog is on Grand Avenue just before you enter Fort Riley. It's on the, I don't know what side of the road that would be, the east side, I think, something like that, or north side. It's right there. You can't miss it. And we have parking on one side of the road, or they can park for free on the other side of the road and just walk in. this year we're doing something add-on we are going to do donkey ball donkey baseball i know that years ago they had donkey basketball and uh but we the school is a little hesitant to let us use our new gymnasium at the high school for donkeys even though the guy guarantees that insurers they said if anything happens he's gonna he's gonna take care of it but they've been hesitant about that so we're working in partnership with cecil askel and raythorne stadium we have we've uh partnered together to bring in donkey baseball It's going to be the 22nd of June. It's after the last game of the brigade and it's going to be fun. We're going to have, there'll be actually three ballgames that we know so far. So I think that's what it's going to be. So something like maybe the police against the fire department, you know, so guns and hoses, and then, so then celebrities, Gary County against Johnson city. I don't know. So we're just trying to figure those things up and maybe some Fort Raleigh folks. And then then after that, there, there will be a race, a donkey race. around the bases. And so people can place a friendly game of that and sponsorships for the donkey. And then we will have the final championship game and raise that money. So we hope that we have a really large crowd for that. I think that's an important one because we are partnering with another organization within the city that they will receive some of the funds of that as well, as will we. And so we think it's going to be a great turnout. We think it's going to be a lot of fun. And so I encourage you to get a team. And I think Keith would look good on the back of a donkey, hitting a baseball and running the bases. I think it would look good.

I have played donkey softball.

Oh, have you?

Yes. Well, we had the fire department and the police department, and I dislocated my shoulder. That may be not good. He was out, though.

So are you going to ride this here?

So it will be fun.

I was much younger then. We try to use these things to raise funds, but also awareness of the great things at Junction City, Garrett County. And so, you know, Freedom Fest looks forward to our continued partnership with Garrett County and the support that you provide us. We encourage you to come out if you want to volunteer with us and help us. We encourage you to do that as well. We have everything from working the tent, working the stage, working the beer tents, all those kind of things that we can do. So I'm open to your questions if you have any. i just say that was on june 22nd or june july uh july 22nd that's i may have said to you no i wrote down june and then it's like they're not done let's see what i said here i think i put down july i may have put down june but it's july okay any other questions no i i just want to thank you for your service to not only the state but our community

Thank you.

I'm going to sign Keith up early, though, Nate, to get him on one of those donkeys.

All right, then our last but not least, then we have our team.

Good evening Madam Chair and every one of the commissioners and everyone in attendance. My name is . I was supposed to be presenting with Mr. Bookshire. He has a family obligation. He can't make it tonight. I provided pretty much the same handwritten application with a little bit more detail. requesting counties backing for a state grant that they have. We're looking to reopen the Harmony Center and we're looking for a grant. They have a community, they have a blueprint to build and that grant is supposed to be for community centers and placemaking. And we wanted to leverage some support from the county to apply for that. And from my understanding, they would not, even if we are a nonprofit, they would not provide the grant if we don't have . And we wanted to see We wanted to request your support in that regard. And when I did the application, I forgot to mention Harmony Fest for next year. And we would like some support for Harmony Fest as well to promote the cultural diversity we have here in our county. In my opinion, I think that's what makes the the place even more unique having people from all over the world right here in our county due to Fort Riley and Kansas State University as well as the influx of family members that come to support either the students or the military or factory workers that come here from all over the state and all over the world. So we wanted to have a platform where we can showcase how diverse we are through food, through music, dance and games and everything cultural that we are able to provide. And earlier today, I had the opportunity to request some funding from the CVB for this year's Harmony Fest. to cover entertainment. And I want to veer from Harmony Fest to draw my attention back to the Harmony Center. I have the packet or annual report. I don't want it to be misleading when we say we generated 200, I believe it was 235, if I remember correctly. That is to deferred salaries. All of us who spent the year piloting the Harmony Center, nobody got paid. We work for free and we provided the service that we did. If we were to have, if we were to pay everyone, it would be around about 183 for the main staff. And then the participants on compensation would be about 3,700. and salary, so we deferred all of that to be able to move the mission forward without waiting for us to have the funds. And we quickly find out it's not the most efficient way to start programs. You may have the passion to do the program, If all the, everything is not into place financially, we are still going to make impact, but we will be more impactful if we have the proper funding and proper backing of the community, whether through volunteerism or donation or sponsorship of any kind. So we would like to bring the Harmony Center back because it has slowly become a staple, a testament to economic development and community integration as well as heritage preservation. So we wanted to not give up on that project because we encounter some roadblocks along the road. So we just want to point out some of the achievement we had last year. I forgot, did I have a time? I don't exceed my time. Okay. So in terms of the impact for the year of our pilot, well, I call it proof of concept. We have the idea for a multi-purpose, multi-cultural center, but the plan or initial plan was never to rent a space, to run our programs and services. We stumbled upon a spot on Grant Avenue and we took advantage of the opportunity. In the year, it served as a proof of concept for us to show that the community is interested in the kind of services we are wanting to provide and they are interested in having a place where people experience belonging and they can express their, they can showcase their heritage and still integrate in U.S. communities. So based on our sign-in sheets at the Harmony Center, we had about, we had about at the Harmony Center and other community events we hosted, we had about 1,276 people and meals and it's the same, it's based on events we hosted as well as foods that were given away doing Harmony Fest and we had a monthly cultural potluck called the 100 Flavors of Hope. Those often draw 10 to 15 people when we hosted, some months more than others. Through a combination of that, of the monthly potluck or cultural events we host at the Harmony Center, and then people who come for the Harmony Table, which we dedicated about 24 meals per week, which doesn't sound like a whole lot, but for the people we offered them to, they were appreciative. So combination over the year and a couple of months that we were there, 4,600 meals, we had 42 military connections. And those are people who sometimes they come, they want to volunteer or they want to come in and play, like have a game night. And also for all military connection night that we had, we also had that many people. We had one immigrant who was working as a security guard when we did the, temporary women's shelter at the Harmony Center. His salary was supposed to be 33,000. He also deferred his salary. And there's a global aspect to our cause. And we support some children in Haiti. This past year, we supported about 160 for Christmas. And we also provide transportation assistance and some temporary housing when immigrants come and they are in transition, they're trying to navigate their integration in the community. to stay for a little bit in my home until they find their own. So we had a total of 85 in and out. And so last year, the first quarter, we did some renovation to be able to open the Harmony Center. in the second quarter is when we started with the Harmony Table, where we had set aside food for people. Because we're selling food at the Harmony Center, but if somebody comes, they don't have the money to pay for their food, we set aside some food that they can just eat. And our festival gathered about over 800 people in 15 countries. And we had some, a couple stories we want to share about.

You had 10 minutes allotted, so you're probably should start summing it up a little bit so we could, yeah.

Yes. I'm just going to share this one story about our business incubation program. So you guys may, hopefully you can see some value in the Harmony Center. So we have, one of our Be My Love, which is business mentorship and low overhead venture program participant who always wanted to start their food business. They did not have the knowledge on where to go to get the licensing and what the requirements were. They were able to, through our business incubation, they were able to start showcasing their African cuisine at the Harmony Center. And we have other stories as well. We help about 13 families secure permanent housing. So in conclusion, the Harmony Center has become a brand for community togetherness, for belonging, for economic development, as well as self-sustainability and integration in the community. We would love for the county to come alongside us in any way they can, especially providing their blessing for the grant we want to pursue to purchase a pre-fire building to reopen this center.

How come you're not in the building?

So it was a contractual dispute. Can I share? Yeah. Okay. So I had a contract. My landlord initially, he led me to believe that after my first year of the rent, he would do a rental on so that the building would become ours. And that, um, because I got into a three-year contract because of that promise. And on top of that, he promised if I found another tenant that he would reduce the rent. I found him the other tenant. He did not reduce the rent. And when we got there, it was supposed to be an as is contract. when I realized it was gonna take more because we quite frankly did not have the money to do all the, what it was gonna require to be there. When I realized it was gonna cost more, I shared that with him. He said he would reimburse for the repairs and cleaning and pest control. Unfortunately, he did not hold his end of the bargain. The whole time I was trying to see if he would credit my account. for rent instead of refunding me for the repairs and cleaning. He kept dodging me when I asked about what is my new rate now that I bought you a new tenant. All those questions were dodged and we found ourselves with an eviction rather than him realizing that, yes, I did make the promise to credit you if you bring me another tenant. Yes, I did say I was going to reimburse you if you do the repair and cleaning. Yes, I did say that I was going to do a rental on after the first year. So none of the promises. So basically, contractual breach on my part because I fell behind on the rent, contractual breach on his part because he did not honor any of the promises that he made.

On your budget, I see that you've got two requests down here because you've got on your remarks, we are requesting event sponsorship of $5,000 to cover entertainment for Harmony Fest. So you're wanting that $5,000 for that and then $150,000, is that my understanding?

Yes, and that could be in the form of a pledge so that we can have the letter to have it as a part of our application for the grant so that we can.

How do you have money to say we have a building for you? How do you have money to run it? Where do you get that money?

Out of my pocket. That's kind of why I'm going to a divorce because I use, I prioritize this dream more than I prioritize. I'm not saying it to, you know, someone in any kind of way, but that has caused financial shame. because I'm trying to do this and there's no financial backing. We get financial backing when it comes to Harmony Fest, but we barely get any type of support for those programs. And we find that the people who are in the position we are helping, they're not in a financial position to really support.

So it takes other people. Have you went through any small business you know help from somebody to help you along because to me this isn't necessarily anything that's gonna sustain you or get you anywhere besides your I just don't think that it's anything that necessarily I mean this isn't a we're not an economic development stage to provide funding to get you started on your business and you know

You know, it's not the county's responsibility to help people start up. I mean, we help people that are already up and going and we're starting to cut back on that. My suggestion, and I will suggest it to the open door when they are, you know, fresh start when they come. I think you, Fresh Start, and Magnolia, the Magdalena project need to work together. You guys are doing the same exact thing, and you've got resources everywhere.

And so we are getting money for Fresh Start. And if you don't want to build or get started and build, then you go out when you've got yourself probably in more of a strategic position to do that, because I think what you're doing is awesome. You know, I commend you for that. I know that you've been, I wasn't there at the time that you've been to the city and the county, but you know, I don't think the resources necessarily are directed towards what you, you wanting, you know, because you know, $150,000 for a business is, you know, then for you to go out to use that money to, to get this 80, $850,000, that's a little bit of a, of a, uh, challenge to me but you know again I commend you for you know wanting to grab that challenge we're just not sure how and I know you've been told from others work whatever but I it just seems to me that this is the wrong place to be asking for this and maybe you know it's just you need help with somebody to point you in the right direction sit down with you to tell you what to do to build a small business is what I think because I think you're headed in the right direction you mean well but you know just like with Commissioner Giordano maybe your resources needed to be put together and as you build and if you see that you need to branch out because the Services are getting large enough to where your unique services are more needed then you could branch out on your own after you establish You know something in there is probably the way I'd look at I try to consolidate my efforts first and build on that Yes, but what I'll do is that my engine I have reached out to both entities I have been

other for collaboration. I think what happened is it's maybe the same attitude a lot of people have towards the fact that I'm starting and I'm not waiting for the money to be there to do the work. And a lot of people think me coming, asking for collaboration is just for me to benefit my own personal agenda. So that kind of, you know, kind of make people hesitant to help, but I promise, I promise I have skin in the game and I have been working for First Housing Members Club for the last four years and have been pouring my money into keeping it going and not really relying on outside funding to do what I feel is a gap that needs to be filled in the community. So I look at the long-term effect of this project, providing opportunity for people who otherwise would not have access to traditional means of starting a business, having a supportive environment to start their business. A lot of us will have dreams if we only had the opportunity

we had somebody and i commend you for that but i again you know that's not the county's necessarily role in to helping you establish your business it's like you know once you're established and then you know we're more of a supportive team not someone to you know fund you up front for you to start your business and you know again i think with your you know if you're by yourself it makes it all the harder and again i i appreciate what you're doing i just don't I don't think so.

I have a board. I mean, I have a completely working board, but I do have a board. Yeah.

I mean, you could accomplish more in numbers, I guess, and maybe your board needs to get out. And I think that just, and by the way, is your son out? He went someplace. He was sitting there. Is he out in the hallway? I guess so. I don't know. He got there and said, I don't know where he's going. But, you know, I guess that's where I'm at with that. I just want to make sure.

agree well we appreciate you coming in and giving your yeah presentation yeah did you have something to say sir no I just think that there's other evidence for professional guidance on your plan and their structure

Yeah, it's too bad because they've got that vet epic thing, you know, that helps vets and stuff, and that's nice. It's too bad there's not something out there that helps someone like yourself that, you know, can, you know, they're vets, so that opportunity is there for them. I'm a vet, too. Oh, well, then go to that vet epic thing. Did you see that on June 23rd?

I did not see that.

Well, you might check into that because whenever it is.

Suit the chamber.

Yeah. Yeah. Cause that, yeah. If you're a vet, then you might check into that. That is the chamber. Yeah. Yeah. Cause they're doing that and you know, making it, if you're a vet or whatever, you kind of, you know, pitch your, your sales and then they pick somebody to do that. They also have some, you know, monies there because resources. Yes. well megan and you know started their their therapy sessions um with that startup kind of money so you know you might check with that because like i said i think you're headed in the right direction you just need help but i don't think this is the right uh venue to find those resources you know for that unfortunately so my question would um would you guys be able to provide a letter of support to go after the grant even if it's not

even if you don't provide. Because I believe, like I said, they won't even consider our application if we don't have city or county backing, at the very least.

And I think you probably have to go through a municipality. And we're not prepared to do that right now. So I mean, if you get your match and you can put input, I would be more than happy to give you a letter. But we're not going to be able to sponsor your grant.

Well, thank you again for the opportunity to present. Oh, actually, sorry, sorry. Black question. About Harmony Fest next year, have you guys decided?

We're not deciding until, we're just getting all the presentations.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, we could have a few of those to hand out to . She said she didn't know you.

She said she needed to leave.

Okay, there's no one else. I guess we don't have any public comments. We will adjourn the work session.