Despite the continued presence of residents in opposition to Gov. Laura Kelly’s mask mandate, Allen County commissioner Bill King held fast to his commitment to follow the advice of health professionals in upholding the order.
At Tuesday’s commission meeting King shared an anecdote about a woman from Woodson County visiting with Dr. Brian Wolfe, who said she only wore a face mask while in Allen County but not Woodson County due to their differing face mask rules.
Without the face mask mandate, the woman figured Woodson County was free of the virus.
King pointed out that Bourbon County also has a face mask mandate, which means of the four counties covered by the Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Department, Anderson and Woodson have opted out, and Bourbon and Allen are in.
King said he was especially concerned about keeping elderly residents safe, some of whom might be confused about the mask order and other COVID-19 precautions.
“Our health professionals, we’re listening,” emphasized King.
The mask mandate passed with a 2-1 vote by Allen County commissioners, with Bill King and Bruce Symes voting in favor of it, and Jerry Daniels voting against it.
Daniels had expressed his dissenting vote silently during the previous commission meeting, though he said he “respected his colleagues’ decision.”
THRIVE CEO Lisse Regehr presented the commission with a contract to empower the nonprofit to organize a steering committee to oversee how $2.4 million in CARES Act funding will be spent throughout Allen County.
Faced with an Aug. 15 deadline to submit a plan — or else return the money to the state — the steering committee will begin meeting this week, with various county leaders and experts being tapped to look at how funds might best be spent.
One option for investing funds, Regehr said, would be to move forward with plans for and grants related to a county-wide transportation system.
Regehr also said that very few businesses had applied for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG-CV) funds, and said she suspected the low numbers were due to certain disqualifying factors, such as a business having already received EIDL monies.
The first round for applications closes this Friday, July 17, though there will be a second round of funding if money remains.
Regehr encouraged interested business owners to contact Thrive with questions, especially if they didn’t have the technological means to prepare an application.
JENNA Higginbotham of USD 257 briefly shared with commissioners a few details regarding where the school reopening situation stands.
“We don’t have a lot of details, but we’re having lots of meetings,” she said.
