Nick Gosnell: In studio with us this morning is Richard Winger. He is running for District 4 in the Reno County Commission race, as he's one of the Republicans running. John Whitesel is the incumbent. He will be with us later on this morning at 7:45. But you can vote in advance for whichever party that you are a part of at the Reno County Annex during regular business hours 8 to 5 Monday through Friday or 8 to noon on the day before the election. That's August the 5th. If you don't get there by then, you can vote at your regular polling place August 6th between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. That's as long as you've declared a party, they'll give you that party's ballot. So Richard, good morning. How are you?
Richard Winger: Good morning. Thanks for having me this morning. I appreciate it.
Nick Gosnell: No worries. So what is the experience that you believe makes you want to serve on the County Commission?
Richard Winger: Well, basically life experience. You hear people come in and tell you everything that they've done, and I've been a part of this community since 73. I worked at a job for 35 years and was a problem solver at that job. Somebody could say, hey, I have this issue. I would look at the issue, get answers for the issue and then take it to task and get it fixed. So I like to solve problems. If I see something that is not right, I like to take care of it. I also like to be approachable. I want to be that commissioner that if you see me walking down the road downtown or in the mall or in Dillons and you have a question, if you ask it of me, I will, if I don't have an answer right then, I will be definitely find the answer for you. We were talking earlier and you had a question and I would be one of those commissioners that would try and find that answer for you.
Nick Gosnell: Right. I have several questions that happen all the time, but that said, what is your top priority when you get into office, should you win?
Richard Winger: Well, I'd like to make one of the questions at the forum was what would make you, if somebody asked you about coming to this county and this city or this community, what would be one of your top priorities? And it would be to let people know that this community, this county is the land of opportunity. There's a lot of space available. There's a good infrastructure already in place. Does it need work? Yes. We can always fix things and make it more efficient, but I would like to be an encourager of people to come here and make this their home and be one of those commissioners that is open to suggestions and checking out solutions that way.
Nick Gosnell: All right. Budgeting is one of the main functions of the County commission. So what may be is something that the County is spending money on now that you say, well, we could put less emphasis on that area.
Richard Winger: Without seeing the budget line by line, everything can be streamlined. And if you're looking at different compartments or departments in the County, there's always some waste in every department. So my thing would be to go through the line item of each budget and just see if there's anything that can be maybe taken off of that budget to make it smaller.
Nick Gosnell: All right. What about what do you think maybe the County should spend some more dollars on if they can find them? Basically infrastructure. We were talking earlier about in the city, you see things that are going on and it's easy to see. In the county, most people don't realize maybe what's going on in the county. So I would encourage for road repairs and bridge repairs if there's a bridge at someplace that hasn't been looked at in a while that it would be looked at and taken care of.
Nick Gosnell: All right. What do you see the role of the County administrator as it relates to the County commission?
Richard Winger: Okay. The County administrator I look at as the day-to-day manager of the County and he would have the department heads come to him if they have an issue. And if it's a big enough issue that the County commissioners need to look at it, then it would be put on the agenda. But if I have a question as a commissioner, I could also go to Randy and ask him and then he could maybe point me in the right direction to get the answers I need.
Nick Gosnell: All right. And I talked with this with one of the other candidates, but the Reno County counselor back when Joe O'Sullivan was doing it, he was just Reno County's counselor. Now, Patrick Hoffman does this same function for both Reno and Barton County. What do you see the function of the County counselor, the County's lawyer as being? And have you been paying attention to what's happened since there's been that changeover?
Richard Winger: Yes. So the County counselor, of course, is an attorney, so he knows legal and there are some legal things that go on in the County that have to be done. Or if you're looking at doing something with property, he would have the legal knowledge to pass that on to the commissioners so that if we're looking at an issue, we don't make a decision that would get us in trouble.
Nick Gosnell: Well, and that's basically been his role since he got here. At least there was a specific issue at a Wednesday's meeting. I don't expect you to remember that, Richard, necessarily. But there was one where he said, well, let's just make sure we do the timing on this right, because I don't want to have to deal with a legal challenge based on something that we know in advance we can fix. And that's his job. His job is to say, you know, the idea sounds great, but because of the way the statute reads, we can't necessarily do it exactly that way. We need to pick from these other menu of choices.
Richard Winger: Exactly. And you want to make sure the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted, because if you make a decision now, it could come back to haunt the County because they could get sued. And then we're spending money on legal issues that we maybe wouldn't have had to at the beginning.
Nick Gosnell: This is just one seat, with the population things and so on. Now, having said that, Richard, what's interesting with you is you have heard a lot about what's going on at the county from a rather unique perspective. Your wife has worked for the county for a long time.
Richard Winger: Yes, she has. She works in the health department, which is a vital department for the county, takes care of a lot of women, infants and children in that department. But also you can come in and get your shots and other things that they do. I go in as I've aged. There's things that a person needs when they age and they have great departments there that help take care of me. I know we visited about it. I actually worked for the maintenance department for six months. I would probably still be there, but my body is just telling me it's time to slow down a little bit on some of the heavier stuff. And what I was being required to do was my body was just saying no. That being said, though, I got to be a part of the fifth floor remodel at the courthouse. And I've met a ton of people at all the different departments because maintenance goes to every part of the County and works on stuff that is needing to be fixed.
Nick Gosnell: Well, and what's cool about the way that Reno County has done things is that there are departments across the County that work together on things you would never expect them to work together on. Like as an example, the landfill folks helping out. Now, granted, it was kind of close in proximity, but helping with the Sheriff's shooting range and those kinds of things with some of the equipment that they already had because they do the digging of the cells and things like that for the landfill. And so they've been able to help with some of that. And there's just areas where people really kind of pull together. It doesn't matter what department you're in. If somebody needs help, the County has been pretty good at finding ways to cross purpose that. I presume you'd want to see even more of that just to save the taxpayers money.
Richard Winger: Exactly. If you can help out, like the maintenance helps out when the voting time comes around, they help set up the voting booths and stuff. So you don't have just the people in the voting office area there that are doing all of that by themselves. And like I said, I enjoyed working for maintenance. I got to meet a lot of people, DA's office, the building and construction, you know, all the different parts, the landfill, they do a great job and they use that land to the best of their abilities. And most people don't know it unless you're taking something out there, but they have areas set up now where they do more recycling. They do, you know, the mulch area and stuff like that. So, yeah, I would encourage all the departments if you can. And they do that when they have their picnic parties and stuff like that to recognize people and they get to people together.
Nick Gosnell: From your seat, Richard, as you look in at the County Commission, what do you say that maybe, you know, you'd like to see the Commission as a whole do better. And if you're a part of it, you can help with that.
Richard Winger: Exactly. So, one of the things I do like, and it's starting to get even better, is working with the City Council. My seat, if I get it, has pretty much the middle of Hutch. So, but that being said, I do represent the rest of the county also as one vote, but if I can work with Greg Fast and the rest of the City Council, if they have an idea that the county and the city can work on together, I would like to see that go forward because it helps both the city and the county.
Nick Gosnell: All right. So, one area that Reno County sometimes has issues with is just the sheer size. Reno County is like the fourth or fifth largest county by area, third largest in the state of Kansas. So, what are some of the challenges that come from that? Just the sheer size of the county?
Richard Winger: Exactly. I mean, it is a large landmass. There is some of it that's federally protected and you can only do so much with, but the parts that are not, I'd like to see people that would travel the property, if you see something that's going on and say it is in the far West corner or something, give us a call at the county and we'll send somebody out to have them look at the area and put it on the agenda if it needs to be and get it taken care of. Yeah, third largest county landmass. Now, not population wise, but landmass. So, we do have a big area that we do need to take care of. I would encourage, we were at the meeting for zoning and there was a lot of farmers and farmers know what goes on around their property. So, if you're a farmer out there and you have a concern, give us a call. You give me a text, give me a message and I'll take it to the rest of the commissioners and we'll go from there.
Nick Gosnell: All right. And the zoning, it sounded like from all of those that attended those meetings, that they, other than not wanting these large projects to come in, people kind of just say, there's a reason I live in the western part of the county, leave me alone.
Richard Winger: Yeah. Most of the farmers that were there and the farmers that I know, they know how to work their land. They know how to protect it. They know, you know, environmentally protections and stuff like that. And they just want to be left alone. They want to be able to work the farm, get the best money for per acre they can and live their lives the way they want to live them.