Lyon County’s disaster declaration continues.
During their regular action session Thursday morning, Lyon County Commissioners unanimously approved a 28-day extension of the declaration. This comes a week after Commission Legal Counsel Marc Goodman posed the question as to when the declaration will no longer be needed.
At that time, Lyon County Public Health Incident Commander Renee Hively stated there is no magic answer to that question. County Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fell stated Thursday morning that the declaration’s continuation is dependant on the resources needed to complete the immediate task.
He says at this time, the main focus is on vaccinations.
The declaration will now continue through Jul. 1.
In other business, commissioners also fielded the latest round of budget requests from county libraries. Emporia Public Library Director Robin Newell submitted a request of $169,000 which has been flat since 2019.
Newell says there is a possibility the request could increase in the coming years, however, she says the library first wants to “prove that they need the extra money.”
Additional requests came from Anita Westcott of the Americus Township Library for $41,269, Nikki Plankinton of Lyon County Library District 1 in Allen for $19,326 and Karina Correa of Elmendaro Township Library in Hartford for $40,000.
The Americus and Allen requests were both flat from the previous year, however, the Elmendaro request was actually smaller than 2021’s allocation by roughly $3,000 according to Correa.
Separately Thursday, commissioners approved appropriation payments of $250,000 to Emporia State University and $60,000 to Flint Hills Technical College. The appropriation to ESU will go to providing scholarships for students while the FHTC appropriation will be used for capital improvement expenditures.
A request for Lyon County Emergency Communications Director Roxanne Van Gundy to attend the national NENA conference in Columbus, OH, Jul. 25-29 also gained approval. Commissioners also received an update on the work of the Lyon County Food and Farm Council by Program Director Teressa Briggs.
The Lyon County Commission will reconvene for their weekly action session next Thursday at 9 am inside the Lyon County Courthouse.
