HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Commissioner Ron Sellers did a 180 degree turn about and voted to lift the countywide burn ban that has been in place for the past four weeks.
The action came during Tuesday’s County Commission meeting. Sellers says that he realized that he voted the wrong way last week when the same topic drew significant discussion.
“I think I’m becoming more and more concerned about the viability of our ag economy,” Sellers said. “ Commodity prices are at an all-time low...the more I look at this, I think that we have a very thin window here to take care of these pastures.”
Commission Bob Bush who was still against the lifting of the ban said that doing so is putting emergency responders and firefighters in danger.
“When this was originally approved by the commission, it was based on the Kansas Department of Health as well as Emergency Management that this was a health issue, not an economic issue,” Bush said.
Questions were raised as to whether the rural fire districts had been consulted about lifting the ban. Emergency Management Director Adam Weishaar noted that after last week’s meeting he talked with all 12 Fire Chiefs in the county.
“Last week after the comments from the commission meeting, I did reach out to every single fire district,” Weishaar said. “Of those, there were three districts that did not support a burn ban and two districts that did not respond and then eight districts that supported the ban.”
The vote was 2-1 to approve the change. Lifting the ban means the county is back to its current guidelines in which any open burning must be called into Reno County dispatch at 694-2800 at least 30-minutes before the burn. The burn must also fall under weather guidelines and wind speeds.