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By
NICK GOSNELL
Hutch
Post
HUTCHINSON,
Kan. —&nbsp;Reno County Emergency Management Director Adam Weishaar knows the job of his office is to anticipate what might happen with the COVID-19 pandemic in regard to supply chain, both in the short and the long term."We know it's not going to end," Weishaar said Monday. "We're being told its 12 to 18 months is what we need to prepare for. It's completely different. We're trying to put plans in place now for the fall. We are also trying to get a lot of personal protective equipment, not only for county employees, but all of our health care professionals, so that's the clinic, that's the hospital and then our first responders, as well."The concern is that the state, which has been able to provide resources to the county, may not be able to do so as readily in the coming months."It's really hard to forecast it, but what we try to do is we try to order enough from the state to get us, at our current burn rate, for approximately 60 days and we stock that. As agencies request that, it comes out of our stock and we fulfill those requests. When we get to under 15 days, that's when we'll make a new request from the state."The county, for the most part, has been able to get their PPE via the state, but they're pretty sure that's not going to continue indefinitely, so they're looking to put money aside for when they have to purchase themselves."We've requested some of the CARES funding that's come to the county," Weishaar said. "We've requested some of that money to be able to purchase a 30 day stock of that personal protective equipment at current burn rates. That way, we can get it out to all the agencies."The County Commission will look at those CARES funding requests as part of their meeting agenda Tuesday.

Emergency management office still trying to keep PPE pipeline full