Unexpected costs related to Lyon County Area Transportation’s recent upgrade were resolved as part of the Lyon County Commission’s weekly action meeting Thursday.
During the other business portion of the meeting, commissioners approved a new invoice from Mountain Commercial Graphics for bus wraps at a total of $36,188. This is a slight increase from an original resolution approved back on Jan. 27 for an invoice of $35,813.
According to LCAT Director Shane Brunner, the increase came due to an unexpected shipping cost of $375.04 after the original resolution was approved back in January. Brunner says thanks to a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation, the county will only be liable for a net cost of $9,676.04 due to just over $26,000 in reimbursement from KDOT.
Recently there was some public confusion that led many to believe the county was originally planning to pay just over $9,300 for the work and the cost suddenly escalated to over $36,000. Brunner explains that was not the case.
In other business, North Central Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging Director Julie Govert Walter presented the agency’s regular update to the commission. According to Govert-Walter, between Jan. 1 and Mar. 31 the agency provided 1,622 informational, referral and assistance contacts to 348 unique customers and 108 Senior Health Insurance Counseling (SHICK) contacts to 64 unique customers.
Additionally, RSVP volunteers provided 6,900 hours of service in 2021 which was a major uptick to the 4,000 hours of service reported in 2020. The agency has also provided a total of 224 commodity box distributions thus far.
Govert-Walter says COVID may have impacted the agency’s ability to serve the community over the past two years, however, it did not slow down demand.
Govert-Walter also announced the agency has entered into an agreement with ECKAN to provide more housing services to local senior citizens and submitted a request to the City of Emporia seeking funding for updates to the Emporia Friendship Center.
Separately, Community Corrections Director Steve Willis provided an update on the organization’s operations and submitted a trio of forms for approval. All three requests were approved unanimously.
Lyon County District Court Administrator Ruth Wheeler also submitted a technology fund request for the purchase of new I-pads. Commissioners approved that request 3-0.
Commissioners spent the remainder of Thursday’s meeting in executive session. County commissioners will reconvene for their weekly action meeting next Thursday at 9 am inside the Lyon County Courthouse Commission Chambers.
