By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Emergency Management Director Adam Weishaar plans to have the Board of County Commissioners discuss extending the COVID-19 emergency declaration for the county soon. It's currently in effect until December 31.
"It opens up our state supply lines," Weishaar said. "Without that disaster declaration, I couldn't put in any sort of resource request or request assistance from the state. As it stands right now, I can get on what we call WebEOC and put in a resource request for what supplies we need and justify those and the state sends it."
Recently the state has sent everything from PPE to testing supplies to ventilators.
"The idea of putting it on the county commission meeting as a discussion item is to figure out what they are comfortable with," Weishaar said. "How long do they want to extend it? I wouldn't expect anything to have a signature on it until the meeting on December 29th."
With a new member in Daniel Friesen coming on to the commission after the first of the year, it could just be extended for a week until he gets on, or it could be longer. Weishaar said for the most part, they're doing okay for their PPE resources, as an example.
"I know gloves are still a challenge to get, but they are also a challenge for the state to get, as well," Weishaar said. "We've placed a large order of gloves with CARES money and we hope to see that by the end of December. Across the board, gloves are probably the hardest thing to get right now. Other than that, our three-ply masks, N95's, gowns, etc., the supply we have in the county right now should get us through for a while."
The Board of County Commissioners did not meet Tuesday the 8th because they did not have a quorum, but they plan to meet next week.