By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Commissioners are planning to do further work on how to spend the latest round of COVID relief dollars later this month.
"It looks like there's consensus amongst the commission to have a extended study session in two weeks related to ARPA recommendations," said Chairman Daniel Friesen. "If it's okay with you guys, I think we might just work through lunch and bring lunch in. Is that acceptable? We'll plan on having a study session after our regularly scheduled meeting."
The ARPA Task Force told the county commission last month it would like to see the bulk of the money spent solving child care issues in the county. However, the study on those needs will not be back until October. Commissioner Ron Hirst is already doing some research on the topic.
"Randy Partington gave me some really good information on Finney County and how they are handling the early learning network and the county childcare that I thought was very informative," Hirst said. "I've sent an email to them to look into that and discuss a little bit, because their coordination between the junior college and the city and the county to me is pretty impressive. To go along with that, our county counselor, Patrick gave me information on Lincoln County to contact them about theirs, so I'll be doing that."
Hutchinson City Administrator Jeff Cantrell suggested to his governing body that they go 50-50 on projects and the task force recommendations.
The County Commission has not said what their division of those resources should be. That will likely be one of the topics of the upcoming study session.