Joan Strickler, observer
Commissioners Kearns, Johnson and McCulloh present, Kearns presiding.
It was noted that Sen. Brownlee had called expressing concern about the slowness of an ambulance response to a 911 call in Manhattan. Apparently her daughter had called for an ambulance when one of her sorority sisters was experiencing problems. It seems the driver of the ambulance went, at first, to the wrong address.
A hearing is scheduled for Monday, March 16 in the Commission hearing room in regard to proposed day care regulations. It seems the new requirements currently would affect only two providers of child day care in Riley County.
Commissioner McCulloh reported on a conversation with Mandy Semple, director of the Manhattan shelter serving homeless individuals. In addition to difficulties in obtaining services for some clients through the health department, it seems mental health needs are often not available. Due to severe funding cuts, Pawnee Mental Health has had to limit services. Also, the center now charges all clients at least a small fee for services. Persons served by the shelter usually have no money to pay even minimal charges.
County Attorney Barry Wilkerson said it is now being considered that courts be closed on Thursdays and Fridays instead of being furloughed for longer periods at a time. He is concerned that this will be disruptive to juries as well as attorneys in that it could require some cases to be heard over an extended two week period rather than one. While crimes appear to be down, the jail inmate population is up. He attributes this to more serious offenses and the result of DUI’s now being considered felony offenses, particularly when there are multiple offense cases involved.
County Counselor Clancy Holeman reported HB 2445, the military encroachment bill, was amended in the House. One of the amendments would require all affected jurisdictions to, effectively, have all their local zoning regulations and plans match with the other jurisdictions. This is seen as unrealistic and efforts will be made to have the amendment removed in the Senate. SB 346, which would provide for the State to send prisoners back to local jurisdictions for the last 10 days of the sentence, has also been amended. The basic issue is, if the prisoners are sent back to local jails, who pays the cost? Counties see this bill as an effort by the State to dump responsibility and costs on local governments.
No comments:
Post a Comment