Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Are you ladies comfortable?

I just turned the AC down a little bit.

It was hot in here. Oh, good grief. Amy was just talking about how she had to bring her beer in.

All right, good morning, commissioners. Courtney Gilbert, Gary Town and Clark special board here for our campus today, led by Joe Osborne, who's our supervising judge. And before you, in front of you, we have a breakdown of our provisional ballots. So we will go through that together. We had a total of 68 provisional ballots. So we're going to go through the ones that we would recommend to fully count first. We have 23 registered voters that move anywhere in the county and voted at new precincts. So essentially they did not update their address before election day. We are gonna recommend that those ballots count. We had one registered voter whose name was found by the county election office somewhere else in the poll book. So this is a voter that was checking in and the board workers could not find them by date of birth, name or anything. When that ballot came back to us, we were able to locate it. We are gonna recommend that that count. We had four registered voters that had a different name other than what the poll book said, and they just failed to update their name on our voter registration record. Before election day, we're going to recommend that those count. We had two voters that were registered but voted in the wrong precinct. So these are two voters that showed up at a polling place where they're not supposed to vote. They did not want to go to their correct polling place, so they went ahead and voted there, and we are going to recommend that those count. We have two registered voters that requested an advanced ballot by mail, did not receive the ballot, and then voted at the polling place. We are going to recommend that those count because we did not receive their mail ballot back. We have one voter that requested an advanced ballot by mail, forgot to sign the envelope, and then they came in and signed it prior to the canvas. So that voter fixed their ballot, essentially. We have, okay, this one's a little difficult, but we had seven voters who were unaffiliated, declared a party, and the board worker made them provisional. So some information on this, because this was a partisan primary, unaffiliated voters had the opportunity to declare right then and there at the poll pad when they checked in. They can say, I want to affiliate as a Republican, or I want to affiliate as a Democrat, right there on the poll pad, sign it, and then receive that party's ballot. This specific polling place, It was isolated to one polling place, but for some reason they felt that it had to be provisional. It did not have to be provisional. So we are going to recommend that those seven fully count. Are there any questions on the 40 that we recommend to count?

Okay.

We have three that we're gonna recommend as a partial count. So this is where in a primary election, the registered voter requested and received a different party's ballot than what the poll book says. So if I swear up and down I'm a registered Republican, but the poll book says I'm a Democrat or a Libertarian, and I don't want to vote those ballots, I can vote provisionally. However, it has to match what the poll book says. So we're only going to recommend that the constitutional amendment question be counted on these three ballots. Any question on that? We have 25 that we're going to recommend to not count. The first 18, they were not registered prior to election day. They will be registered now, but they were not registered as of election day. We have five registered voters that moved out of county but within the state. So essentially, these five voters moved to Gary County from a different county and did not update their voter registration record. We have one voter that failed to provide a valid photo ID. We would recommend that not count. And then we have one voter that requested an advance ballot by mail. He was concerned that the ballot was lost by the U.S. Postal Service. Our office reissued him a new ballot. The original ballot came back to our office after we had already received and accepted the reissue. So technically this voter voted twice, but We only accepted the first ballot that we received, so we're going to recommend that the other ballot not count. I have 25 that we recommend to not count. So as a summary, out of 68 total provisional ballots, 40 we're going to recommend to count, 3 as a recommended partial count, and 25 recommended to not count. Do you have any questions on any of those?

No. OK.

And I went over this with the special, with the canvas board before we came in here. So if you ladies are good to go and they will unseal the 40 that are recommended to count and the three partial.

I said I had already last week done with my appointment. Oh.

Thank you.

So I called her. Yeah. And I told her, she said, well, let me talk to her and see. Yeah.

so now we will recess and let the board go across the hall and tabulate oh you want to open your three partials sorry we're going to open three partials really quick we do have to keep those separate because we have to manually enter those into the election wear software because if it runs through the tabulator it's not going to know that it should be a partial

Now we will recess.

I will bring you back

the final results, and we'll go over it then. I will also bring you the write-in results for township and precinct committee man and women.

Thank you. Thank you.

They started me back up last Monday and I did this afternoon. So they stopped. So how do they put some pretzels on my breakfast?

I get shots every Monday, like this afternoon. Normally I'm at 2.30 every Monday in Manhattan. So they scheduled me for 2.30 today, and I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. You got something later. Well, she said, We got one in the morning and I said, I like it.

Anyway, that's what we get when we have a later time. Hmm.

Guess what, Keith? Trish is cleaning her desk up over there. Is it going to incentivize you, Keith? I'm here an hour early.

I don't know what to do if I have a full desk.

It might take me three months to clean my desk, so that's why I'm starting out. I do. You're desperate to have stuff like this. Yeah. I keep saying I don't want to do that.

I might get shots every three months in my sacrileg joint.

What does that do?

It's your joint between your hip and your trailing joint. It's right, it's in between. I mean, he showed me before, you know, I mean, it's just a little sliver between your... Is that for your bones? No, just, and that was weird when I had my, when I fell and fractured my pelvis, I didn't have any pain at all in that. Oh, this is since you've been there? No, before I had that, I was getting shots, and after, when I fell and I told the doctor, this is the weirdest thing that I've done. Now that I've got this issue, I said, I don't have it. Is this right? It's on this right side here and on the elbow or something.

That's good.

To that pain management place. Do you have somebody drive this? Oh, you do? Well, to drive back. I usually walk out with her and then drive. But it works. I don't, like I tell the gal, I said, it must be working. I said, because I could, without even thinking about looking at the calendar when I, and especially at night when I roll over and get it or something, it's like, good grief, it really. It must be for a shot.

Yeah, yeah. It must be for a shot.

Yeah, it's like surgery. You go into the surgical room, and you've got a drape over there, and nurses in there, and they get that camera out and take a CT scan of where it is and where it goes. I used to go to Dr. Svoboda in Manhattan.

sort of like they've done that.

Well, they put that bedded, whatever that stuff is, and then they give me a shot first, and then I feel like they must put a, what do I call it, a thing when you get a hole in the wall, an anchor, they put an anchor in there.

I didn't see them. And I've been in here lots of times.

They feel it go, and they feel them twisting it in there. And then they say, well, it'll be just a minute. And then you can feel the pressure pushing. You can feel it. Is it wet, Nancy?

Oh, no, not at all.

It's almost amazing.

Yeah.

And then

Then you go in and then you go sit in the recovery room for like 20 minutes.

She checks your blood pressure and everything.

You got to stand up.

Yeah. Yeah.

I hope so.

I should Google it and see what it is. You could just feel it when they come in.

I think I'm between a recess, you know, between 1230 and. Oh, yeah.

Lisa, can you make a note to put that we need to do or I need to do next week in September? I didn't know if you could do it that far.

I just got it on a deal. I'm going to stick it on my calendar here. Get that little dumpster. There's a trash can here. What did you say? He needs a wheelbarrow.

Yeah.

It picks up a lot of stuff in there. That's why we should. Amy and Tom, if they heard that.

Yeah.

That's funny. How's your knee doing? Good. Really good. You still rehabbing, right?

Yeah, I've got, well, at least, because I've only been going two times a last. With the other one I went three times, but he said I just needed two. So I got this week, and then we're going to talk about it. And then I got another doctor's appointment next Wednesday for him to fully release me, so I'm about done.

You've really done good. I have been...

Yeah, that was in mine, too. I don't know why it was a blank sheet. I don't know. I had one. Yeah. It smells good in here. Yeah.

I was watching it must have come in my reals of county in Michigan that get grief that everyone, because I kind of scrolled through them, and everyone there yelling and screaming and the mayor, yeah.

watched the Emporia one? I was going to just say that. They went all virtual.

They weren't going to let anybody in there. I wondered too, you know, with the Pot County, you know, Gary Winster didn't win. Was he a pro data center? I saw him at the convention thing and I asked him about that and he said, well, you know, You could have a data center as big as a refrigerator, as big as this room. And I said, well, I haven't yet been good about any of them. And I said, we're far from ever thinking about that, you know, whatever. Anyway, he got beat. Yeah. Yeah, because people just, you know, they don't want him. They're pretty passionate about him.

Well, maybe more. is that because of the drought in certain parts you know they're having to do water restrictions whatever and all you hear about is how much water those things take then why did you want that I mean you need water to live on not for a data center I saved that one where they said Thank you. Do you see where ATA bus already, this school year, extension of the red route to middle school and high school is no longer going to be? No idea. Well, I figured that. Yeah.

Yeah.

I haven't talked to a couple of people over the weekend. I need to see board. I haven't talked to Acer yet.

What do you think about Dina? She's thinking about sending this to me just now for her time. And then this is from Betsy.

And I'll be good with him. She just emailed it to me and asked to give it to you.

He's kind of grumpy sometimes.

Oh my.

Thank you.

two inches that one day oh my god that night oh i'm sure it did really it was there it was very traumatic like just traumatic for me too because i had to get it out and then i had to make sure to put it where bosh couldn't find it but that cat got my little bunnies it is traumatic the kids next door over there in eddie torres's yard a cat got a little bunny and the kids were So I was being dramatized by that. He said the little bunny was squealing. I said, oh, don't tell me that. I said, I would have went over and got the darn cat and tossed him over.

No wonder the creek came up then. Oh, yeah. And it rained really hard and really fast.

This isn't coming up on here. It takes like 20 seconds. It's a delay. It's on.

It's recording because it says live.

Okay, well, we'll go ahead and get started this Monday morning. Start with the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, and indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

We have a week in between.

It seems like a long time. I didn't really have a whole lot ahead of Connie. We had the RERC board.

I was on Zoom and just had some updates about that. I did want to ask you all about appointments to the EDC board. I think that we had talked about having anybody that has shown interest. And I have talked to a couple people. I have reached out to them. But I didn't know if anybody had actually, I don't know if they are necessarily aware because we've said that amongst ourselves. Should we put it out there that we, you know, want to serve on the EDC board to come forward and, you know, like contact the commissioner or something? Because otherwise I haven't had anybody say.

Well, I think we should do applications like the city did.

We don't have any applications. You kind of, okay.

So I thought you added something and I thought it was good to go. So I think if we want to tell people who are interested to pick up a location from the clerk's office or where do you want them to go?

Yes, I would say that would probably be the most central place to do so. Put it on the website too maybe.

I was going to say, what do you want to put it on Facebook and the county website?

Yes, yeah. Or they could just do it and then email it to

I see that. Otherwise, I had a, so that out there, Teresa, for the, on those media places for if anybody is interested to contact one of the commissioners, even then, you know, stop by the office and pick up an application. But otherwise, then, we had our regular board meeting, which, for Pawnee Mental Health, and, you know, they, you know, Basically, we're just giving some updates and, you know, some notifications of, you know, cuts that others had seen with school funding and whatever else.

They did also a special event coming up next month, I believe.

and September, September 10th. And so they were wanting, if commissioners wanted to sell tickets for $75 a piece for this little ATV.

Yeah.

Raffle?

Yeah.

So if you're interested in that or you want something to tool around the farm, Keith, let me know.

But otherwise, we didn't have a whole lot of others. We've got the election board back, so we will proceed on with the county clerk.

Yes, the campus board is done tabulating the provincial ballots. So our total ballot cast went up by 43 votes, which is what we should expect to see. I have the official results now broken down. I have a summary altogether, and then I have a report by precinct that we both need to be certified by the board. And then I also would like to go over the write-ins with you all first. So we have two people that were elected by write-in. Our first person is Jerome Thomas. He was elected as Grandview Plaza committee man, and he received five votes. And then we have Jerry Vasquez of Wingfield Township Clerks, and he received four to win that township office. So I have three reports that I need signed by you three. If you don't have any questions for us or the board, I'll pass that around. Our final voter turnout was 18.72%. I didn't say this beforehand, but if you saw it on Facebook, our audit was last Thursday, and that was approved by the Secretary of State's office. There was no discrepancy. The election went very smooth, as expected. Any questions? So the breakdown by precinct is 250 pages long. So I'm just going to pass around the top page, if that's OK, unless you want to look through that. So I have precinct summary, write-in, and group detail.

make a motion that we accept the group detail from the primary election as presented.

It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye.

And then make a motion to accept the precinct results as presented for the primary election.

Seconded. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

motion to accept the write-in results for the primary write-in once second it all those in favor say aye aye motion

So that will conclude the Canvas for the primary 2026 election. Thank you, Canvas Board.

Thank you.

And then on the clerk side, I did want us to let you know that the R&R letters are hitting mailboxes today. We've already had a few calls.

So you should expect, I'm sure, to hear

stuff about that, so. I'm just fair warning.

Thank you. You're welcome.

I kind of like that podium at that angle that way you can see maybe closer.

It might be too close for Betsy. Okay. And so that's pretty much all for me on the Fundamental Health Board. Like I said, we just had pretty much updates on that. Inspiring hope and help. will be September 10th.

So if anybody wants to buy tickets, then those are available.

Either.

I didn't really have much. I didn't have any meetings. I really didn't attend any events. The only thing is that it was a project at the fair. I met with the young lady yesterday and her parents in here and so I got a new ribbon this year. Real nice young lady and she's involved in a lot of stuff.

I had a CVB meeting and things are going really well. Rose is going to be giving an update later on today but she's coordinating with a bike trail event with Council Grove because there's a bike trail between here and Council Grove and then they're having a big event that's actually statewide and so she's doing stuff to you know bring people to our community between the two during the event so I think it might be something if it's successful that continues so I'm excited to hear about that um we did have the rarc um basically that was just an update of them putting together the presentation and i think that's going to be really good for our community i think that it's important for us to implement a program like that because you know the recreation outside recreation that we have is very unique to our state you know where a lot of people don't have a lot of things that we do have and i don't i think that that's been ignored um throughout the years and uh i do think that this is something that you know we should be able to implement um and then speaking of a plan that we had our comp plan um kickoff meeting and basically what we're doing is putting together a survey which i'm going to send out going to get as much input from the community on the survey so we can proceed with the plan. Our goal is to hopefully get around 400 responses at least for our community to our size. So I'll be sending that out as soon as it's done. But I think they wanted them to add a section for young adults, juveniles, teenagers, because they're the ones that are going to be leading our community. So we want to get their input. And then Jamie had asked about the Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program. They're going to be here September 4th, and normally a commissioner agrees with them. So I know normally it's the chair, so I just wanted to bring that up.

September 4th? September 4th.

It's around 830 in the mornings when they come.

And is it just information from the chair, or do you have any of the... Is there anybody given?

No, it's usually around 10 or 15 minutes apiece. It's not very long. They'll have somebody there from the city also, and then they go to actually different places after they... And it's at the municipal court. I don't remember I'm coming here. I don't know if they come to the county building or not.

Oh, OK.

So, OK. You said it was .

Do you want to do that, Kathy?

Yeah, I would do it.

And then I just real quick wanted to talk about, I know we did the resolution about the accounts payable, I mean, not accounts payable, but the appropriations. and, um, us making sure that, you know, people are not behind on their taxes or, or any other, um, uh, agencies that they have in the County. Um, I, I did want to talk about, you know, maybe I feel that we also need to do members of their board too and check. Um, so they're not just, you know, saying, oh, well, you're not behind on your taxes. We'll put your name on this application. Is it on there? Okay. But I wanted to add, um, You know, I know we talked about possibly doing a different one for accounts payable. And then also, if we're going to be appointing people to the board, to different boards, can we do one to add to that? Like people we appoint for boards that represent us, yes. You know, just so we're fair to everybody. I mean, if they're representing us, up on their taxes.

All right.

We'll move on to registered deeds.

Jackie.

Thank you, guys, for your registered deeds. I wanted to come and have a discussion with you all hours with the change that we made effective June 1st. My office is still open on Fridays 8 to 5, and I have been keeping track. We mark morning, what our difference was from 8 to 8.30 if we have people come in, and then Friday afternoons we also keep track of our traffic just to kind of see where our numbers are. It don't want to say it's not beneficial for us to be open from 12 30 to 5 while the rest of the building is closed but a lot of people don't know we're open um i originally i fully take the blame for not blame but responsibility for our office being open past 12 30. um i had gotten somebody who kind of pushed back when i put feelers out there when we were originally having that discussion And I thought it is my duty to record documents when they are done or when they are ready to be recorded. I have since consulted with Betsy to see there is a statute that states that we shall record immediately upon receiving documents. Betsy checked for an AG opinion, and it's AG opinion 97-94 that states that the county commission sets the business hours for the offices, even if they are elected offices. So I wanted to get your guys' feedback about switching my hours on Friday from 8 to 12.30 as is most of the rest of the building.

I don't see a problem with that. I think if people know, especially the realtors, the companies, they know that those are the hours, then those are the hours. I think during the trial period, I think is the best time to try that. go 8 to 12.

It would be 8 to 1230. So we're 8 to 5 Monday through Thursday, as I think all the other offices are. But then Friday, we would just be 8 to 1230 as well. So we had done it where we had a split office. So two of us ideally would be in the morning and two in the afternoon. Part of that, too, is time that I had already approved to be off. But it has worked out that two of us are pretty much here every Friday all day. And so it just makes it a little bit harder. We would be able to work it out no matter what, but I think it just would be easier on us and the taxpayers knowing that we have one, like we're here till 1230 and that's it. So.

I commend you for your efforts. You know, what I've heard from outside folks, you know, they, and, you know, of course it was historically, that's the way it's been is that, you know, they, office building opened earlier right now that otherwise this uh friday afternoon not being open a lot of people have uh not been happy with that because you know for the treasurer's office is uh mondays and fridays there's uh most of the traffic so i think that that's a good um and you know again i commend you for trying it and um it up so that it works better for you and the taxpayers. So, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, thank you.

I appreciate that. It would be effective. I want to make sure I'm not leaving any title companies in the lurch. I think the most people that are even aware that we're here are either researchers that we have to let in the door or title companies that know we're open. But we just don't get a lot of traffic. And so I know that that'll be my responsibility to reach out to those people and make sure they're on the same page. I did reach out to Tammy last week. I just had this idea randomly popping in my head about having posters made because we see Friday afternoons a lot of people pull up, get out of their car, come and try the door, have to read the sign and find the hours. So I actually did a really simple design on a 24 by 18. I have extra yard signs from 2024 and had them printed and laminated to put out on the corner and then when you pull in over here on Franklin and then I think We're going to do another one on that corner over there, like on Crystal's side of the building, just to kind of get everybody's attention that just says the county building hours, Monday through Thursday, 8 to 5, Friday, 8 to 1230. So hopefully that'll get people's attention and they don't have to go to the trouble of getting out of their cars and doing all of that if they see it. So those are ready to be picked up and done. But just to maybe try to grab their attention a little bit before they have to come all the way up and I know one of my staff members had to deal with someone who was not very happy on a Friday afternoon and that was kind of part of it too when I was looking at staying open is the safety of it of making sure if we do have somebody come in that we also walk them out to make sure nobody else comes into the building and then dealing with somebody who's not very happy when we were letting somebody out and not understanding all of those dynamics.

times and then leaving if I pick up a packet and I, you know, like you see cars out there and you get, you know, do they get to the door and it's like, what? Look at the door and you know, dang it.

Yeah. And I've had to explain to a couple of people when I've been letting people out and they seem to be really understanding. I think it's more about people just getting used to what the change is and kind of being mindful of that.

So hopefully it'll be. Fridays are just bad, again, just because a lot of people get paid on Fridays, too.

So, again, that's where they're going to get their business and stuff.

And whether, you know, it's their last day or their first day, you know, it just is, yeah.

All right. Well, I appreciate your feedback. And I think that's all I have for you. Thank you. Thank you.

HR director, Crystal.

Try to go quick so we can get this and the executive session done within my time slot. Crystal Malchow's HR director special projects. First, I have a couple department head out of office notifications. Did you add your executive session? I don't have it on this agenda.

When was it on the agenda?

It's on the agenda. It's part of my time.

It's not a separate line.

It's the same. It's on the same line.

I don't mind that.

I was telling you. I was excited.

And then I must have printed another one or something. I'm telling you, it's not fair.

And this is just a notice that I was appointed to a committee for NACO, the Rural Action Caucus. I've already talked with Tammy. She's aware it shouldn't require too much from me besides attending Zoom meetings. or the president of the committee, just a voice for rural communities. We're not big enough, of course, to be a big, huge metro, but we're also not the itty-bitty ones, and we're not even the medium-sized ones. So there's a rural one that they created to fall in there so that we also have a voice going to D.C. and telling them what we need as a county in a rural area. They do have a couple meetings in D.C. Well, one in D.C. and one in Savannah, Georgia. I'm not asking for the okay to go to those. I'm just making sure that you guys are okay with me being on this NACO committee.

What time frame does that entail?

It's over the next year.

Yeah, but just how many?

I believe they only meet once a month, they haven't said. Yeah, but that's because they have, they're just now making these appointments. Where is it? The meeting? It's a new meeting. Oh. Yeah. Because it's nationwide, so it's not just Kansas. It's nationwide.

Did you apply for this?

No, I did not. I was recommended, referred.

I don't necessarily have a problem with the time if you, you know, I think it's good to have, you know, if you were

recognized to you know be part of a committee and stuff have obviously that you've been vocal enough to know that you're out there i know how that works so um yeah i don't have a problem i will listen to the zoom meetings bring to you and to tammy especially anything budget or finance related get your feedback and take it back to them so they'll know what our stance is and i can keep you updated as to what they're looking at at the national level as well

Yeah, I'm glad that you are doing that, because sometimes I think that when, you know, I went to some NACO meetings and some of the things they have brought up, and I've thought, gosh, you know, that is too bad you don't hear a lot of that, and people probably don't hear a lot of voice from this area, so that is good that, you know, there's, you know.

I was honored to be appointed to this based on recommendations and referrals, so. Okay. Next, this Wednesday is the employee task force meeting. I have on my calendar that it's Keith's turn. Are you going to make it?

Keith or I will be there. Okay. I supposedly might have very duty on this.

Okay. Well, just when I set out the agenda, just a heads up, it's at 8.30, not 8, because that's the first day of school for a lot of the members, and I want them to be able to go with their kids, do whatever they do for their first day of school. Good time frame, better. So it's at 8.30. It's at 8.30, still in emergency management. So we just wanted to make sure you were aware of that.

Tuesday night, see if they're still going through.

Go ahead. Is the reason why this task force means would they be any more productive or whatever. You know, sometimes I don't think there's a lot of stuff that goes on there, but would they be any more productive if they were like, you know, 11.30 or 1.30 or something like that?

We chose first thing in the morning so that it's not disruptive to the day. So that's why we chose that. It was a general consensus that that way you don't have to worry about department heads saying, oh, that's right, you've got to leave now. Somebody at the treasurer's office doesn't have a citizen with them at the time and they can't go. That's why first thing in the morning was select. I just received this notice over the weekend, but tomorrow is selfie day for that. We did that last year. We all went out front, took pictures and everything. So I was wondering if after the budget session this afternoon, if you guys would be willing to go outside so we could do a selfie. picture and invite all department heads or county employees that want to to meet out by there. Did that picture ever show up? I never saw it. The one that we took last year as far was the little video we did was played at the conference. The picture was just put on their website as part of KAC's selfie day thing. So it's on their Facebook and their website.

Put it in our newsletter or something.

We could definitely do that. So are you guys willing to do that? And I would send out an email and just say, hey, after the budget meeting, meet us out front. We'll get a picture taken. Okay, just two more things, and then executive session. I'll talk back. It's just now 10.30, though, so I'm not too early. There was an issue brought up, kind of like what Jackie mentioned, about people not understanding the hours and things like that. So it was brought to Tammy's attention, and she shared it, and it will be brought up at our task force as well. But we're reminding people that when people come in, if they complain about long waits, a reminder that the Treasurer's Office takes appointments. So, if they don't want to come in and wait for 30 minutes, an hour, whatever it is, just a reminder that our Treasurer's Office does take appointments. Friday mornings are appointment only, but they can still schedule appointments earlier in the week based on their availability. So, we're happy to work with them. and be there for the citizens. We just want to make them aware, again, of what our hours are, but also that they can make an appointment, and that will greatly decrease their requirements.

Well, again, you know, that's good and well for your general citizens, but a lot of times I think we need to be cognizant, stay cognizant of the fact, and I know Riley County, it may work in Riley County. It may be an instance that it's not what works there. It's not necessarily going to work here. take care of a lot more military personnel than Riley County does. And they start early, and whether they delay their business or whatever, they're needing, a lot of times, what they've done, it's done past time. So that's why the urgency is there. So, I mean, that's just, you know, you might hear, well, you know, procrastination on your part isn't necessary. But on the other hand, that's not always the case.

What we could do and what I would recommend then, especially since the CVB goes out post-weekly for the most part, we could work with them to get the word out to the soldiers and stuff, hey, if you're going to get your tags done in junction hears their hours and make sure that they're spreading the word about what our hours are as well. Whether it'll fix it or not, I don't know, but at least we're taking that extra step to make sure.

You only go in and get your tags once a year, so people are going to forget. time ago we had met with that those you know when they first come in when they're coming into Junction City that information was put into their packets too so maybe a reinforcement that they're continuing to do that the reminder that yeah happy to visit in process you know because we said that we're you know the people we didn't know how to to communicate better with them because this problem's going on forever, so it's not going to necessarily change. So it is.

We'll do what we can to make sure that they're continuing to remind them or let soldiers know and update their information and reiterate that because we don't want anybody to be put out and let them know that there are opportunities for them to schedule something. and what our enhanced hours are.

Appointments are wonderful if you're doing that for your renewal next month. They're not good if you need to have it yesterday. And that's what the case is, I'm sure, with those that are upset about it.

And then they'll have to walk in and change things.

So then having to stand there and change with the schedule. So it's, I mean, They either have been doing it for several years and come in and still choose to wait before they can create an appointment.

That's the nature of the beast as well for your general people.

But the thing that I think is important for people to understand, that's not a change with our schedule change. The only thing that's changed is that Fridays are appointments only the rest of the week. is still the same. Maybe in that information that's being given out, I'd like to know, is that a military person or is that just your, is this what's not? And she's not military. I've got no complaints from anybody that's been military.

Neither have I. I've actually received lots of people going, hey, you guys have streamlined it, thanks.

Good, good.

A lot of them didn't realize they could make appointments, so now they do. The last thing I have for open session is, Part of the budget process and ADA accessibility, we have discussed the requirement for us to have a system on our website where it will make our documents readable to people with difficulties accessing it, so to make it ADA compatible. It was originally quoted to us at over $10,000, and it's part of the budget process. We've been working back and forth with our salesperson at Civet Plus, and we're able to get a discount, if we can get it signed off by tomorrow, to only be $9,500 for the first year. And then, of course, they do have their built-in 5% ups for every year, but they do that on all of our, I believe, all of our contracts. Tammy's been involved. She asked a lot of questions. I think she understands now what the discounts are, how they work.

The only thing that I would say with this is we still do not have to be in compliance with this until 2020.

My understanding is still 2027.

It's 2028. So we do it in 2027. We'll be paying for it here when we need to.

I'm not sure if we can get it to less than $10,000 if we start it any way. We're spending $9,500 next year and then $10,000 the year after.

We're spending $9,500. We don't need to. I'm positive.

Yeah, I don't want to spend money necessarily.

That's the consensus that I will just put that aside and visit with them again prior to budget season in 2027 for 2028.

I mean, we do need to understand how long it's going to take them to implement because I think it's March of 28 that it has to be in effect.

I believe they could get it done in less than 60 days, but I'll verify that. So if we had it going to affect January 1, it would be up and running by March 1st. Crystal, I see...

You're attending the CIC user group. Are you the only one?

I'm the only one that I know of that's going. Yeah, and Tammy's going for part of it, not the whole thing.

Driving there and back. But all the other offices. I just did. Well, you signed the leave thing for user group.

I just was wondering. I hope that more is attending so that they take advantage of the.

I saw that each day there's something, payroll or administration or whatever that could be done. So having that networking, sit around sometimes. With both Jenny and Tiffany being gone for a while and refreshing myself with it, I thought it would be a good idea to go and get a refresher firsthand.

Is the appraiser or treasurer gone?

Does anybody know? There's a couple from the appraiser's office. There's three from our office, and I don't know. I don't know how many from the Treasury.

I hope so because we talked about that a year ago that we hope that people go to be able to sit right across the table from them and complain or whatever about what's going on.

So with that, I'm done with that part and I would ask that we can go into our executive session and then the section on there was part of the other agenda. whatever the statute is.

I make a motion to go into Executive Session for non-elected personnel, KSA 754319B1.

Second.

Seconded. All those in favor to go into Executive Session, 15 minutes, is that going to include the counselor?

Yes.

Counselor, HR, and Finance? All those in favor? Are you on the agenda too?

I should be able to catch you guys back up. Mine's not long at all.

Yeah, see, this one's got Charles. I don't have Charles on there, so.

Okay, we're just waiting for it to come back.

Yeah. Is that my packet? Because I look to see how many there is. If Tammy or Public Works has a lot, then I'll come and pick it up. If not, I'll print it at home, so.

It says Jeremy on there.

That's the packet and everything. Pick it up. I was looking at the two that were on here, and they're the ones from Tom and Teresa. So I don't know. Tom, Teresa.

Yeah.

Maybe it's not 530. Can I?

Because I'm going to go have dinner. Oh.

First.

Yeah. Karine and I have dinner.

Jeremy's on the agenda today.

Oh, so yeah.

OK, we're live, but we lost Trish.

I have the financial reports for July.

So this first one that is on the screen.

is the cash next report is the composition of cash balance and investments inside the cic banking has that same number 39 956 853 22. And then the last one is the fund status report, which is within the GL. And that also reflects that 39.5322. So we are balanced for the month of July. The next report is the facilities cash flow analysis. As of the end of July, we're at 58.33% into the year. And we did have a reimbursement come in for $8,036. And we spent 10,346 for the month of July. We've spent 37.16 of our budget overall for the first seven months. And you can see on the bottom left-hand side, the cash reconciliation box shows the unencumbered cash at 482,726.58. We do have that boiler room door out there. I think Jeremy's working on that project, but with that being taken into account, we have $470,726.58 available for additional costs within our facility funds. Are there any questions on that one?

So the money that's in there, when we get You do report, like Jamie will send us the interest on that. Is that from the CD, the interest on, so that's just?

That's just from our checking account.

Okay, I was just curious on that.

So then the CD interest is booked when it enters, and then when we renew into another CD, we book that interest.

Okay, just curious, thank you.

Okay, the next one is the CIP cash flow. And again, 58.33% into the year. We had 7,422.47 cents that we received in interest income, and that's also from the checking account. And there was nothing spent from the CIP fund in July. At this point in time, 9.82% of our overall budget has been spent for those first seven months. On the bottom left-hand side, you can see the cash reconciliation. That reflects ending unencumbered cash at just over 1.4%. We have approved projects out there of 624, 545, and then when you take into account the reserve funds which are underneath that cash reconciliation box, we have just over 2.6 million available for additional projects. This second page shows you the projects that have been approved. The ones in blue are the ones that have been completed.

and the rest remain outstanding at this point in time. Are there any questions?

Okay, the next one is the sales tax. Again, 58.33% into the year. At the end of July, in comparison to 2025, we actually are down on our sales tax, 14,584 in the general fund and 8,083 in the hospital debt fund. We did get a little bit of money come back in on that acorn. As well, we have some carryover taxes from previous years still running through there. Overall for the year on the county tax by $53,677 and in the hospital debt fund $25,338. We have collected 76.33% of our budget. in the general fund and 62.85% of our hospital debt fund. Are there any questions? Okay, the last report we have here is, well, are the financial reports of expenditures and revenues. This first one is the expenditure budget activity, 58.33% into the year. The ones in blue are the ones that have exceeded that. As we've noted in the past, the library and the economic development are based on the timing of when those expenditures go out. As we move through the year, you'll see those even out, and I do not expect to have any issues in needing to amend those two budgets. Are there any questions on any of those? Okay, the second page, we don't have any blue. So they're all within that 58.33%. The next one is just the general fund by department. The ones in blue have exceeded that 58.33%. District court, and again, just as a reminder with district court, they have IT reimbursement costs that they spent in the month of March. of $154,968 was the total that went out that month. And then on the general services appropriation and transfers have a large effect on this line item. And as you know, we just sent our second half out in July. So again, that will even out as we flow towards the end of the year, but right now it looks a little high. GIS and planning, they have pictometry costs that go out in April that's affecting them. And they do have a little bit higher work comp as well. The other thing to keep in mind is that this is based off of 26 periods. And that's where we're at is 58.33. But in January and in July, we had three pay periods both of those months. So with the payroll going out and knowing that, especially in GIS planning, that they are primarily made up of salaries that also has a small effect on their number being above that 58.33. When you look at this year to date budget activity for all the funds, you can see in January for the departments that have payroll and also for July that their numbers are increased from what they are the rest of the year and that again is because of those three pay periods and those two months. Are there any questions on any of those? This last one is the year-to-date revenue budget activity and you can see we have 88.17% of our general fund collected from what we budgeted. There are certain times throughout the year that distributions are made from the treasurer's office and so we have one in january we have one in march we have one in may and then i believe there will still be one in september and october so the majority of the money has already been distributed and that's why you see that at that 88.17 percent a couple of things i did want to note on the revenue because i do want you to keep this in mind but When you're looking at economic development, likely you will need to do a budget amendment because we transferred funds in from the CDB to economic development for those appropriations, and that was not in our original budget that we did. So I have it on my list that the intention is to do an amendment for economic development. Also, when you look at convention and tourism, you can see that originally Previous director wanted to increase our revenue, thinking that the World Cup might have an impact on it, and she thought more revenue would be generated. Right now, we're at 402, 426, and that's with three payments already made, so we only have one more to come through, so we're not going to meet that 770. There's no possible way. I'm hopeful that we'll get to about 550,000, but we'll see with this last one, because we do have 2% coming in with this last one. But I do want you to know that we do not expect to hit that $770,100. So likewise, when you're looking at the transfers that are going into Sports Complex, they're not going to be looking at that full $125,000 that we had budgeted. Fund 52. We're at $77,615 right now. And so again, I would not expect that we're going to have another 50,000 go through there. If you go back to CIP, you can see that our number is high, that we've actually collected more than we had budgeted, significantly more. And also want to note with that, that is due to grant money that we got in and also reimbursements and purple wave sales. So just so you understand that that number is greater, but those are things that we can't budget for because we can't expect to necessarily get those things. County facilities, they had a little bit more come in than what we expected, again, also because we have reimbursements come back through there from insurance, and that does increase what we originally budgeted. Again, that's something we can account for because we have no idea if we're going to have a claim or not and whether it would be reimbursable. Auto special. I did talk to Sherry because I wasn't sure if she would come in specifically to report on this, but because we started this in July, I wanted to let you know On Auto Special Fund 400, you can see we're at $170,654 in our revenue. And that's up about $17,000 from last year at this point in time. So in July last year, it was $153,289. And just for the month of July and 25 last year, it was 24,500. And this year in July 26, it was 39,900. So that's 15,000 of that 17 total that were up. And that's due to that $5 increase that we put in place. So just thought I would share those numbers with you as we're moving through and looking at that and what that impact is. Are there any questions on any of that? That's all I have for you at this point, and I will be back with the budget work session next week.

I don't know if we have to go into the Board of Health for this. It's not. No, it's just grant stuff. I'm Charles Martinez. I'm the director at the Gary County Health Department. Today I just need to get approval to sign this contract for one of our grants. It has not changed in the last 15 years. It's just a renewal. Normally we would have it done before July. But the state system is not working the way it should right now. Keeping Commissioner Tremont in on the loop. But the system is bad. They're working on it, but every repair makes the problem worse. So we're signing it now. Hopefully they get that fixed soon. It was a report that for state formula we submitted on time back in July. We got it back and it's showing negative numbers on their side. which shouldn't even be physically possible in the system. And it's statewide. It's not just our system. So, hopefully, they fix it. They'll let us go back to turning it in on paper copies. That was more effective than what we're doing right now. Female Speaker 1 You just need us to sign that then? Male Speaker 2 I'm allowed to sign it. I just wanted to make sure that it

Hey, thank you.

I'll keep you updated.

I'm going to call them today and see if they've made any comments.

I'm the sheriff and sheriff. We're out of town at a training event where one of our an award, so I'm stepping in for them. I'm the administrative major for the Gary County Sheriff's Department. I'm giving a two-week update from July 22nd to August 4th. Our average daily population in the jail has been 107. We've worked 11 accidents, 61 assist outside agencies, zero batteries or assaults, one at 69 citations, 201 civil process papers served. We have had two domestic incidences, two drug investigations, zero DUIs, zero motor vehicle thefts. We've had five prisoner transports, zero sexual offenses. We've had zero shots fired. We've had zero thefts. We've had 243 traffic stops at zero weapons violations. We've had 26 arrests. We've had a total of 621 primary incidents calls for service with an additional 22 calls for service where we assist other agencies for a total of 743 calls for service in the last two weeks.

So this question, um, The transports, where do they go mostly?

So our transports, if it's not a prisoner extradition, we're bringing them back in for a warrant that they were arrested on outside of town. It's a lot of hospital transports, doctors visits. We have one that has physical therapy, so we're having to transport him to physical therapy. And if they come in and they have scheduled doctor's appointments or if they come in and A nurse checks them, and it's deemed that they need to go for an actual doctor's visit. Then we're transporting them out to doctor's visits, dentist appointments, things of that nature when they're in our care for long term.

So it's wide-ranging.

It could be wide-ranging. And it can range from here locally to Topeka for the most part, sometimes Wichita, but usually between here and Topeka.

Did we take care of the issue of juvenile detention?

Which issue?

I told the underserved to call you, Kathy, because he called weeks ago about not being able to, they weren't going to take one of our juvenile prisoners.

Yes, we've worked it out with the local agencies and stuff as far as the arresting. agency being the one to transport.

I don't feel that we are paying them almost $300,000. We should not be transporting. We should not. If we do, we need to send the juvenile detention center a bill.

what i feel i know that's not well and i and i know at the time we were discussing it with the county attorney as well we would transport based upon the emergent the emergency action that we needed to get somebody somewhere and then we would build them later and it's i think it's still something that's being looked at they need to the juvenile detention center needs to be built because i don't feel just because they have half of that is secure care

and that's the reason why they can't take our our arrestees and i i just feel like we're double dipping on the taxpayers by having to do that at some point we might get some reform that might kind of change that a little bit but it seems like everybody every juvenile that we've arrested recently has been transported outside of gary county when we house a state facility here for that yes and after that state doesn't have anywhere to put the secure care kits And now it's, it's double taxing our taxpayers. I know that's not, it's scary. It's irritating me for years.

It irritates us too, because we're running all over the state for, you know, and then we'll have somebody arrested in another jurisdiction on one of our warrants and we'll have to go and pick them up and transport them halfway across the state to a place that has holding for them as opposed to just bringing them back here to Garrett County. So.

No, they didn't because that was,

Was it Crawford County?

He called from here.

And I think it was like two and a half or three hours away. Justin and David were over here asking for some paperwork. Justin says, well, I'm going to call Trish because we talked about this.

So he called from here. And it's very frustrating. Well, and I even asked her in the budget thing, are you guys transporting? And she said yes. Yeah.

You better leave notes when you leave all these things before I text you and, you know.

I remember specifically saying, you are the ones.

Get them for a first appearance.

Yeah, that's going to cost a lot of money to our taxpayers, and that's unacceptable.

Secure care on that side, then we can't, they won't take our kids, which is wrong.

Secure care was supposed to be a money maker.

It is a money maker.

That's why they don't want to get rid of it.

You want to go ahead and step on up there, Rose. We are early and we are ready for you.

All right, I'll get hooked up because I do have a...

Betsy, those vouchers aren't anything that we need to sign, are they?

Oh, yeah, I saw that we were all done those last week.

We can wait.

That's why I was the only one that had to sign those.

Pre-meeting. Pre-meeting. Pre-meeting. Pre-meeting. Pre-meeting. Pre-meeting. Pre-meeting.

Yes, hopefully I've got it plugged in. I think for the travel magazine and then the next packet is basically screenshots of the presentation. So you have it right in front of you. and then some data as well that kind of comes up in the presentation, but that way you can see like the full data set that comes from the Travel Kansas website. Sometimes my laptop is so picky when I've unplugged it and then plugged back into something.

Is your presentation the same as this?

There's another packet in there. It is the same exact thing. Maybe while we're figuring that part out, we can go ahead and do the Kansas travel part because that's not in the presentation. So I guess we had committed to doing the full page inside back cover as part of Kansas Tourism's state travel guide. And so that total rate I believe is 8,149 total for that.

I believe we've done that the previous two to three years.

And so, I'm coming forward to ask for that for this year. What I think we'll do differently this year is have a QR code and a special landing page. That way then we know as people are looking at this magazine, whether it's in print or digital, we can see are people looking at that and actually navigating to us or not. It's kind of at this point we can't tell. Exactly. Because it is a prime spot in the magazine. So if we don't take it, we lose it. Somebody else gets it and then they can just keep it for however long since we've had it for several years. In the event that it was bringing a lot of attraction, I don't want to lose that. But I want to be able to collect that data so that we know next year, okay, that was great for us. Oh, no, that was not great for us. And then I can't figure something else out.

Yes.

And then to give context, I think, for the scale at which they print. So as part of that Kansas media kit, it tells you like how many they hand out. But it's 275,000 print copies that they give out to travel centers. They're giving those out at trade shows. They're one of the things that I also hand out when I go to like the victory welcomes. People really enjoy seeing that. We are in that in north central Kansas with other destinations. And then they also do an additional 75,000 that they print that go to subscribers of people like Midwest Living Magazine and Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.

Well, yay, thank you.

And so... So that's a lot of guides. And in comparison, I think in the past we've printed anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000. So advertising is more in this, but they are also printing on a pretty large scale. So that is the piece on the ad. So I would like to be able to advertise again this upcoming guide.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it. So now I'm going to move on to my presentation. So I'm always open for feedback. So if this is kind of not what you're looking for, please let me know what you would like to see. My direction I've gone with this is to give you a very high level overview of kind of what we've been up to. And then of course, if you have questions about anything that I'm talking about during this time, please ask me questions. So since starting in mid-June, one of my biggest priorities has been looking at how we can strengthen our role as a destination marketing organization. That's not looking at just how we advertise Gary County, but also how we support visitor experiences. build partnerships, pursue meetings and events, and improve our visitor information, and better track that impact of tourism. So these initial weeks have involved laying that foundation, and so we're starting to see some of that move into active projects. So one of the first areas we've been working on is how we're presented to potential visitors and how easily people can find information once they're here. So the community marketing campaign's moving forward. We're making improvements to the website. We've continued updating RFP and directory platforms. So those are things like Cvent, which is for meeting planners. If they're looking for a destination for a meeting, they can see a page that is Gary County, they can see Junction City, Milford, Grandview Plaza, they can see all of that. So those platforms have been needing updates. There's another one is Sports Tourism Index, which is specifically for sports RFPs. So we are represented on there, but they definitely need lots of updates and love. So that's some of what we're doing. We started work on a refreshed 2027 visitor guide, and we're looking for additional ways to make visitor information more accessible. which includes visitor guide stations in high traffic areas and then fixing the Milford Lake kiosk. We also have gotten underway some refreshing and fixes at Freedom Park so we can clean up the trail and address the static displays. So as we move forward, we're trying to keep long term maintenance in mind so that our improvements will hold up over time and keep the site looking good year after year. Yes.

Like kiosks did. And we have an Eagle Scout who was looking for a project and they have agreed to take that on so he's gone to his

scout group to get the official permission to move forward on that but we're kind of working on what that might look like um they kind of do the project management of it and then we help oversee that so you know he's not going to go just do whatever he feels like doing we're going to it's a collaborative process but we're really excited to get that updated with new information So another area we're focused on is conferences, group travel, and sports tourism. So we've been building a prospecting list, reconnecting with past conference and group travel contacts, improving how we're represented on platforms used by meeting planners and sports organizations. We've also created a more consistent RFP process so that when a planner's considering Gary County, we can help gather that information they need and make it easier to compare local options. So we recently had a state convention. It was like, hey, we think we wanna come to the area, and kind of got some, just a little bit of information from them about it. So we're like, okay, how do we send this out to our hotels? How can we get that back? And then how can we compile this information So it's easy for the meeting planner. So instead of sending him a bunch of stuff like, oh, hey, here's all the different contacts and their prices, you can kind of work with them. We compiled a report to say, here's what we have that is both meeting space and hotels. Here's what we have that's just hotel space and what we have that's just event space. And then it's all compiled into an Excel sheet on that graph for them so he can compare side by side Here's the space. They include Wi-Fi, so on and so forth. So it's really easy for them to see, here's my range. Here's what I'm looking at. OK, I can now figure out who I want to talk to next. So that was a part of that process. That way, we just take all of that legwork on for them to make it really easy for them to choose here versus somewhere else who might tell them, here's a list of places you can call them and figure it out.

How do they know to come to you, because I know When I was doing that and just following the others however it goes, we're presented with the previous hotels wherever we were. And so that was the starting point. How is that going to direct you to you first instead of the hotel?

So of course, people are welcome to reach out to hotels directly if they want to. They have their own RFP systems that they belong to. So they are also looking at things. Yes. So part of it too is being able to build those relationships with the hotels. So I already have a few where we're working really closely on some items and then getting to know others so they can also get to know me. So that way then when they have places come, they can say, hey, we might need name badges or we might see some assistance. Can you help them plan some pre-meeting events or during meeting events? Or they're looking for a speaker. Can you maybe help somebody? So that is also something we're working on too so that we can also act as a resource and not just this lead sales. And then outdoor recreation has become one of our strongest areas of opportunity that we're working on. So we've been developing partnerships around trails, cycling, river access, paddling, other outdoor experiences that can appeal both to our residents and to visitors. We're using the RERC process to identify projects that don't necessarily need to wait for the final plan before we begin making progress. So like one of the items was, okay, promoting our existing trails. I can do that without a final RERC plan. Or we have the... river access to the Kansas River is at Grant Avenue. So that's something that we're building on so we can start utilizing that and don't need a formal plan for it. But it is nice to see that that is a part of the focus and how that can be formalized as well as part of this. The next one. It kind of blends together a little bit, but one of the things I am doing is working regionally with some others in the area. So one of them is Destination Council Grove and we are looking at how we can create an event that can help support our shared trail. So we have a trail. It's currently called the Flint Hills Connector Trail. And it's a gravel cycling route. It's about 53 miles that connects us directly to Council Grove. And so we're exploring what does that look like? How can we co-promote this to the cycle gravel group it's a very interesting group i'm also learning a lot from some of our regional partners about gravel cycling because i myself am not a cyclist but i also enjoy hiking so i'm kind of familiar but being able to then partner with those people which i think is part of my next slide and learning more about that is helping us kind of try to define who are we going to reach. So with the gravel cycling with up to 10 miles, it's kind of family friendly. So any path that's under 10 miles, families could go on cycle together. That's great. Between 10 to 20 is kind of your more moderate cyclist. They kind of got to be a little serious, but they're not too serious. Anything above 20 miles is a very dedicated person who's super interested in that. So this trail is a more advanced trail because of its distance that it crosses. So it's a very specific group that we're reaching, but it is a group that really enjoys these types of routes. As they're traveling to destinations like to Colorado, they are stopping in between to do what they call like active rest rides. And so then they'll ride our smaller trails that are like under 20 miles in between their trips from here to there. So with Council Grove, we are looking at trying to launch during the American Discovery Relay where they're doing horseback or biking the Declaration of Independence or a copy of it from coast to coast. So they're coming through Council Grove in September. So we're trying to see what can we do regionally to A, get people here, stay the night, and then travel on to meet up with the relay. The challenge with that part of it that we're trying to work through is the timing of the day of week. So it would be on a Sunday here and then the relay arrives in Council Grove on a Monday. So that's kind of what we're battling with this niche group and the timing of the week. trying to figure out, okay, is that timing going to work out because the event is so close? Or do we maybe need to pivot to a different way to promote the training and do a kickoff for that? So that's kind of what we're currently exploring with that. And just an example of one of the many things we're trying to do without the regulation and having it support overnights in Gary County as well. So partnership building has been a major part of my work over the last several weeks and will continue to be a focus. We're trying to identify organizations that have the expertise, resources, audiences, or programming that can complement what we're trying to accomplish. Like for example, Friends of the Kaw, they have beginner paddling classes that they do. They're mostly at the end segment of the river. And so what can we do to get people on the starting point of the river here? So we're working with them to find some dates where we can start getting people out and doing some beginner classes out at the river. locally we're working with organizations like judge city arts council and dorothy bramlage public library so we can support programming that would create additional visitor experiences it also benefits our residents that are here a great thing about for example trying to do some libby at the lake or an audiobook hiking group would be that people who live here are going to be out on the trails exploring what we have to offer. They're going to be able to give really great feedback about the condition of the trails and what they like about it, what maybe changes we could make to it. And then those things will help out visitors who come and want to explore our trails as well. So everybody gets to benefit from that. We are also trying to coordinate a working visit with the Noto Arts District to learn more about arts-based economic development and creative placemaking. And that is with the group for the destination boot camp that went to Colorado. So that group, we're working on coordinating a date for that. Community outreach is also part of how we connect with potential visitors and new residents with Gary County. So we've continued participating in victory welcome events at Fort Riley. So we provide a visitor guide. We talk about our local resources and introduce people who are new in the area to things. And then as of the 17th of June, we've begun tracking the number of visitor guides that we hand out that we're handing out at each of these. So I wrote down, so year to date, we've reached about 2,696 new soldiers and their families at the victory welcomes. And then in quarter three, um, there were 486 people and we gave out 267 guides so far. quarter two, I don't think there was any tracking happening for how many visitor guides were being given out, but in the couple of weeks towards the end, we gave out 154, and in that quarter reached like 1,065 people. So we're going to try to also keep track of that so we can see who we're reaching, who we're able to talk to right out the gate. We also want to improve how we're measuring impact at a local level. we're making sure that we update our visitor data in datafi and that is our program that helps show when visitors come and their impact that they have here um we're improving our logging reporting and building a more consistent process for estimating the impact of individual events so we can understand which activities are generating visitation spending and overnight stays um So I also have a slide for the newest 2025 data that just came out that shows that visitors to Gary County spent about 96.2 million in Gary County, and that was across lodging, food and beverage, retail, recreation, and transportation. That activity generated about 7.42 million in state and local tax revenue. So each household in Gary County would need to be taxed an additional $524.20 to replace the visitor-generated taxes received. during that year. 2025 data also shows a negative 6% growth rate. And that just gives us a benchmark to look at and see where there are opportunities to strengthen our visitation and understand what's driving our tourism performance. There are also some broad statewide trends to pay attention to. So Kansas is seeing a growth in day trippers, but not necessarily in overnights. And food and beverage leads spending growth statewide, followed by recreation. So all of our work in RERC kind of helps support that. And then those trends will give us additional context as we think about the types of visitor experiences and opportunities that we want to develop here. So going forward, my priorities are really centered around turning a lot of the foundation that we've been building into tangible results. Conventions and events are our major focus, including continued prospecting and pursuing some sports opportunities. We've also continued to move our visitor-facing projects forward. marketing campaign the visitor guide website improvements and then projects that will make visitor information more accessible and outdoor recreation will of course be a major focus particularly with cycling and then finalizing our fall programming and continuing to develop opportunities around the trails and rivers so please any questions you have i would like to answer they can't hear us

And this is to include the lake and some brigade baseball, and that's a big deal. I know you can't pinpoint everything, but just to make sure that the lake, again, is a big draw. And our marina's out there. And you don't hear a whole lot from them, but I was talking to a guy from State Park Marina, and he was talking about the traffic out there and everything. you know, again, you know, even at Thunderbird, too, that, you know, people say that, you know, where is these, does anybody from Junction City, because they're all, it seemed like Nebraska people, that, you know, how do we get our community folks something out, you know, there, and I know, you know, back in the 70s, and that's a long time ago, but gosh, you know, the lake used to be, you know, I mean, it just, yeah, they just had so many things that... But how can we, again, go with focusing on our biggest asset?

I think our ERC thing is really going to help. I really do. It's going to give us a plan and shits on how to capitalize on our outdoor recreation.

You know, our golf courses. I didn't realize, I guess, I'm not a golfer, but man, there's a lot of golf. How can you, you know, bring stuff to where, you know, gosh, how many usually are in a tournament if they have a four-man team and how many teams usually?

60 maybe?

Every day when we went to a bird dog and it was so crowded, I'd see what's going on. But anyway, well, you had to park across the street over at the community college. But when I was parking, I was seeing Leavenworth and Shawnee County. And so there's a lot of people. I was just like, I didn't realize, too, that I was thinking, did somebody get married? Or what was going on? And I saw a lot of guys. So I thought, well, . Last weekend. Yeah, it was last weekend. There was one, I think, this weekend, too, but last weekend.

Oh, it was, I think, bird dogs.

And there was a lot of cars from out of the county, you know, that I didn't realize that. I know golf, like I said, I know golf is a big deal, so I know guys will do that. But, you know, again, we have to just go after them when they're, they're out there because a lot, I can't say a lot, you know, they were eating, that little food trailer right there gets an awful lot of business because you could go order and they bring the food over to you. But yeah, but you know, you think, but that's where they have to get their stuff from. You'd think, you know, we'd have something else around that area or something. I mean,

You've got bus tours on there, obviously, but you know, like the falls out at Erie State Lake. Now that's a, I know that's a seasonal thing, but if there was some way you could promote that.

It's still, even when the water's not rolling, it is still beautiful. Yeah, right.

And I didn't know, When I've seen bus tours out there and they're parked, are they going to Family Buffet or are they just parking and going across the street? Because I thought, gosh, you'd never hear anything about Family Buffet, but I've seen several times buses out there that, you know, I didn't even know they were open, I guess, so I was just surprised at how that works. Yeah, well, I did some time ago and then they were having some issues, but Nonetheless, there was a few times this summer that there had been a tour bus that's parked. That's great.

So we have a lot of restaurants and stuff that are easy access right there for bus groups to come in and then eat and then move on to their hotel. A lot of times we're just like a stop along the way to their final destination. I mean, yeah, that's also an opportunity to try to get them here. Can we get them to see some other things while they're here? I think there are some unique tours, like depending on what they're going to go see, could make a stop here. So like with Ray Thirt Stadium, for instance, I had a conversation with a guy over the weekend where he was talking about how him and his dad like to travel to different baseball stadiums. And so they're going to go and they're traveling to somebody's spring game a couple states away. I can't exactly remember. But I was like, hey, FYI, if you're into this route because you're mainly looking at your major league baseball stadiums, by the way, did you know about Raythorne? Oh, what's that? Oh, did you know who played? I'm like, gosh, I had no idea. Oh, it's really great. You know what? Brigade, they play in the summer. They're really great athletes. They were just at their World Series, and they got third. Like, it's so cool. Oh, my gosh, I had no idea. I didn't even know there was baseball there. So him and his dad were like, oh, we need to, like, plan to come and see that because we like to tour and see all the different stadiums. And so just thinking about what other kinds of, like, targeted themed tours might be coming through, that that could be a stop that they make. stay here and then continue on. So those are kind of some of the details that we're trying to think of versus like a, Oh, if you're on a bus, just come here and stay. Like, can we give them a purpose and a why versus just saying, Oh, we might be the cheapest along the way. And then you're at a race to the bottom with your rates and whatnot. So how can we get quality stays that, you know, if they're doing the same, let's say it's like a baseball tour group that's coming through. okay, could that be now a regular stop for them so every time they do one of those, they're always stopping here versus like a one-off.

Maybe in some ways with the brigade, you could work out a package or something to give some tickets away or something like that.

They do. They have them at the hotels. They have brigade tickets at the hotels.

Yep. Yep. So we're trying to help encourage Our hotel partners will be able to hand those out, so then guests will come. So being able to, again, work closely with everybody to help support them and all their goals is something that we're really excited and looking forward to. And then how can we use some of our spaces in more non-traditional ways to get people in, especially in our off season? So when I went to the Kansas Trail Congress, we got to listen to Thrive Allen County talk about how they developed their trails. for economic impact in their community and what they did. So as they developed their trails, they ended up getting a lot of doctors moving into their county. And they're like, what's happening? Why all of a sudden are all these people here? And they're like, hey, your outdoor recreation opportunities in these trails are why we moved here. They're beautiful. I love getting outdoors and being active. And that's how I stay healthy. And so that's why I'm choosing to live here and then commute to where I work. because that gives me that type of lifestyle. So that was kind of really exciting to listen to for that.

I know they have a bike race that they it is an actual bike. It's huge.

It's like the premier race. They're just in that area. It's a really long race. Yeah. And it has an incredible impact on their community. I cannot remember the figure, but they just did like a documentary on the race itself. And then they reported like in the millions for impact because of the race. And it took a really long time. I mean, it's like a 20-year race. So it's really long. And now it's called, I think, Unbound Gravel. And it's part of a series. So yeah, I think there are some opportunities there for us in our county.

I think what you presented was excellent. And I love, you know, not just spouting out stuff, just, you know, you're giving us a plan, showing us how you're going to show us how what we're investing in is going to have a return on our investment. I love that you're, you know, we're finally using our marketing branding that we paid a lot of money for.

That's the goal to try to tie it all together. Same with the marketing campaign. That's something that we've provided to the group that we're designing our assets for that so that they can keep that in mind as they're creating things for us so that it all stays consistent. That was another thing.

We initially invested $20,000, but if we can show that this is going to really help, I think we'd be open to putting more towards this. So thank you. You're doing a great job.

She did. And then we're also hosting the business during hours. with the chamber that was something that we had committed to and so we're doing that at the Jersey City Arts Council so we can get people in there seeing what they're doing and some of the events and things that they have so if people are coming to that we would love to have you there that is I believe the 20th and during the lunch hour so Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. So some of it appears in that slide that was the 2025 numbers. So that first section shows us for 2025 how our county did in comparison to other counties. So like you can see Riley County on here and kind of what they did in lodging and food and beverage and what their growth rate is. And then the second chart is the north central region. And it shows year over year what our totals were. And then I can pull the reports from the previous year so we could see the lodging, food and beverage, retail, et cetera, for each year that we did in Gary County. Because they have that data. But that's what those two are. Just so if you wanted to see kind of where I got those numbers from for 2025, this is where that came from. And there's just not enough data in these reports to say exactly why there would be a negative growth rate or anything like that. But then you can kind of see there are also a lot of other counties who are also kind of experiencing that decline as well. And then it's probably worth noting over time, just seeing some of these counties who are seeing a positive growth rate, maybe looking and seeing what's happening in their communities.

When you say growth rate population?

It's their, it's what we're. Activity. It's what the total that we are getting in like money from that. Yeah, so we're like.

Yeah, I was assuming that was there. We have the problem.

So that's just our total activity and the millions of current dollars. So that's just saying that we're kind of seeing less revenue each year. Hopefully all of the data that we're collecting and moving forward can help paint a picture of maybe why that was like that.

Yeah.

So I'm really excited for them. There is, and it looks really good. So on the inside, they're still doing a ton of renovations. They have to finish their first floor before they can officially open. Um, but they are making progress moving forward. GM is very great. So we swap contact information that way. Then when they're open, we can kind of help celebrate that for them. Uh, so that's really exciting. And then the Best Western is also doing renovations, and those are looking really great, too. So I'm excited to see what their rooms look like when those are finished. So it's really nice to see that people are able to do that and invest in their properties because they're beautiful. Yeah. Nice. Good. It's not going to be a Motel 6. Mm-mm. I believe a Bema. So it looks like they're doing really great work in there and they're working really hard to get that finish and open. So they're putting a lot of care into that, which is nice. know that they have after i do not know that i can look it up though or ask them about it but

We've got some energy.

It's been a long time when we've been out to that one. She talks gravel. That's not like gravel. That's like a pole vault pit runway thing, that chalky stuff, isn't it? I'd wipe out if it was just regular gravel.

Yeah, that's gravel.

Gary and I are supposed to do something in, I think, April, to where we go to ride bikes around. Yeah, she was talking about the new year. I own one. Actually, that's one I fell off of. I'll have to say, if you've ever ridden an electric bike, what you step over is not like a, you know, for a women's bike, it's a lot higher than That is true. And they're a lot heavier. Yeah, they are. Actually, I think Beth fell off her twice, too. Oh, what happened here?

Jeremy's going to take care of it. We'll release this, but it might be a leak because it was wet. It must have happened this weekend.

Oh, I just...

I reported this morning.

I didn't even see it.

Well, it wasn't there on Friday.

I walked in right before the campus, so then I just sent him a text and he said,

Record that. We didn't get any beds.

We had a notice of real estate by sealed bids and bids were to be turned into the clerk's office by noon Friday. Did the clerk's office receive any bids? sealed bids to open. Three times according to statute in the daily. So at this point, since we haven't received any sealed bids, I would like the commission's permission to start scheduling a a land bank transfer so we'll have to have a public hearing for the land bank transfer but most of the properties in the sealed bid sale that were offered are not going to receive bids because they have specials that are associated with them that only the city

Oh no, I can count the bets. I didn't know if you knew off the top of my head.

I don't know off the top of my head. It's everything that was left over from the sale we had in November. We didn't receive a bid. We still have a couple parcels that we've offered for sale at two different tax sales now and this is the second sale.

So you need We need our blessing to go ahead and proceed to plan.

And start scheduling a land bank hearing and transfer. So we'll coordinate that with the city, but it's going to, we have to publish it and then we have to have a hearing and they have to accept them. So moved.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye.

Thanks, Courtney. I appreciate it.

Nice try, Kathy.

I don't have a change order in my packet. Trish did you? Minutes from the 27th, which is when Trish was out. He had a little change during his report. I was talking about salary. I had to change the year to start in 2021. And that was all for Keith. Kathy, did you hear me? I got minutes for the 27th.

I think a motion to approve the change order.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Gary?

That's all I got.

If you press on the metal, it's going to split.

over the weekend it did not so I would say that might be

air conditioning.

That big rain? Yeah, I think so.

We got a lot of rain.

Still on?

Yes, because she hasn't adjourned yet. No, because she hasn't adjourned yet.

Well, having no information that we need to go through, we will adjourn the meeting until our budget session at 2.