By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Commissioner Ron Sellers sees expanding the Board of County Commissioners from three to five members as a potential positive development.
"It was obvious to me soon after I went on to the commission that three people just doesn't seem to work quite as well," Sellers said. "There's more moving towards the middle with a larger group."
He said commissioners have been presented with a lot of options as to how to divide the county.
"IT people at the county have given us, I believe, 20 different maps to look at. I wish they would have refined that a little bit," Sellers said. "I'm not certain that a map or group of maps makes much difference. I think people will be represented. They have to divide the county into five equal groups. I think one of the things that I feel fairly strongly about is that since Hutchinson is over 60% of the population of the county, that we need to divide this so Hutchinson does have representation."
Sellers said all the maps seem to take that into account.
"The hard part about these maps is because Hutchinson is such a majority of the county, all five districts are probably going to have population within Hutchinson if we go that way," Sellers said.
That could make things interesting for the rest of the county if people from different parts of the city all decide to run for the county commission, but it depends on which map they choose. In addition, the map will have to be re-divided in 2022 after reapportionment thanks to the 2020 census.