Lyon County Commissioners have taken the latest procedural step in the construction of a new shooting range.
As part of their regular action meeting Thursday morning, commissioners approved a zoning change for the property at 2985 West South Avenue, which will house a new state-of-the-art firing range for local law enforcement. The change will see the property go from heavy industrial to civic/public use, a move that Lyon County Zoning and Floodplain Manager Sam Seeley says was not done as a requirement of law or zoning policy, but rather for uniformity.
This action now sets the stage for significant work to begin on the facility, which must be completed by this coming spring to meet the terms of federal funding supporting the project. Seeley says to his knowledge the project is on course to meet that deadline, despite separate items related to the endeavor being held up on multiple occasions earlier this year due to a desire from commissioners for additional information on the scope of the range and related 911 dispatch facility set to be constructed on the same plot of land.
Speaking of the 911 facility, Seeley says Thursday’s action was not directly related to that aspect of the project, planning for which remains in the early phases at last word.
Speaking of 911, Lyon County Emergency Communications Manager Roxanne Van Gundy presented a request for approval to pay the city a third of a Motorola server migration and ArcGIS update at a cost of over $33,000. Van Gundy also updated commissioners on the Betty AI tool designed to answer certain non-emergency calls for the city, county and Emporia State University.
Van Gundy says since coming online at the start of the month, Betty has handled over 20 hours of communication or a little over 1,100 calls. Van Gundy will join KVOE’s Newsmaker segment at 7:20 am Friday to discuss Betty in greater depth.
In separate matters Thursday, commissioners approved a trio of requests from Lyon County Engineer Wayne Scritchfield, including a request to alter the weight limit restrictions on two bridges in the county. Scritchfield also gained approval for a $31,000 bid from Welborn Sales for bridge deck work and a $23,000 geotechnical engineering services proposal from Cook Flatt and Strobel Engineers.
Commissioners also held their annual staff recognition ceremony, celebrating employees for their years of service ranging from 5 to 35 years. Additional details from Thursday’s meeting are online with this story at KVOE.com.
Commissioners will reconvene for their regular weekly meeting on Christmas Eve at 9 am inside the Lyon County Courthouse Commission Chambers.
