Riley County Commission April 23, 2012

Joan Strickler, observer

All Commissioners present, Johnson presiding.

Shelly Williams, Community Corrections Director, presented her agency’s grant application to the Commission for approval.  The application is basically similar to the one filed last year which ranked first among similar applications received by the State.  Williams is proposing to outsource cognitive education training due to lack of funds to maintain the staff assigned to the program.  Overall funding remained level while increases in staff salaries resulted in fewer dollars for the services.

The Manhattan Mercury will be appearing in a new format as of May 1.  While the number of pages will remain the same, the width of the paper will be reduced by eliminating one column.

Tim Hegerty, with the Riley County Police Department, said burglaries occurred recently west of the High School, all while people were at home.  Property was taken, but nobody was hurt.  He said the Department anticipates increased calls next month as many students move out of houses and apartments.  K-18 work has not presented as many problems trafficwise as feared.

Kym Nies with the Health Department reported the recent Health Fair was a success.  Apparently 480 persons received health services, information and education, up from the number last year.

Doug Messer provided a first quarter report for Riley County Fire District #1.  The firefighters responded to 42 fire calls, 34 involving grass fires, 5 vehicle fires and 2 other calls.  There were 49 rescue calls.  He said 19 of the fire calls were false, but not intentional.  These often come from strangers unfamiliar with the need to burn pastures in this area.

An open house will be held at the historic Wolf House on April 29^th.

Commissioner Johnson announced the April 26^th meeting of the Commission will be held in Riley.

Ann Smith, director of mass transportation services, announced this was the first day for the fixed route public transportation system to get underway.  Fares are free for this inaugural week.  The system is operating with 14 busses and 1 mini van.  Some 500 riders were served last Saturday at the KSU open house.

Ron Trewyn, KSU Vice President for Research, provided an update on NBAF.  He said the reassessment committee that was formed to provide recommendations on the future of NBAF is meeting and expected to provide its report in June.  The three issues to be addressed are:  1) The size and scope of NBAF as designed.  2) Would it be advisable to look at something smaller?   3) Should Plum Island remain open and research farmed out to other countries when it cannot be done in that facility.

Trewyn said he is impressed with the expertise on the committee.  He believes the strong consensus is that, if the level 1V facility is to be built, it will be built in Manhattan.  He pointed out that Plum Island is not capable of meeting the level 1V biosecurity requirements and it would be costly and ineffective transporting work to and from other countries.  Since NBAF would be the only level 1V lab in the United States that deals with large animals, it would make sense to build it big enough to meet increasing demands.  He maintained that, if you can solve zoonotic diseases at that first level, you can control the threats to humans.