Daily fare for Allen Countians who depend on congregate meals at the senior center and Meals on Wheels will be decided later this month.
County commissioners were told Tuesday morning Area Agency on Aging board members will consider what course to take for residents of Allen, Neosho and Woodson counties when they gather Tuesday.
Senior Services of Southeast Kansas learned some time ago it would lose its lease on the building housing a kitchen it has used in Chanute to prepare hot meals daily. The search to find another kitchen has met nothing but dead ends, commissioners were told.
A care home’s kitchen in Iola was considered, but it was not large enough to prepare 200 meals a day, the number generally distributed in the three counties. To refit a kitchen to the scale needed would cost $50,000 to $100,000, Cindy Lane, Agency director told commissioners.
Frozen meals have been mentioned as a substitute. Hot meals have been available on weekdays and supplemented by the frozen variety.
Meanwhile, the idea to prepare the meals from the kitchen in the county jail continues as a very real possibility.
To date, the county has paid $2.48 for each meal, with donations buffering the county’s cost by about 30 percent. Residents 60 and older may be eligible for the meals. Participants are not required to pay for meals, but are given opportunity to make a donation.
Sheriff Bryan Murphy thinks the meals — along with packaging and delivery vessels — would cost about $2.50 each.
County Clerk Sherrie Riebel, who has been involved in discussions and with past distribution, looks on meals prepared in the jail kitchen favorably — she pointed out that what the county spends from general fund revenue for meals would find its way into the jail fund. “It’d be the county paying the county,” she said.
Murphy said the jail kitchen staff could reboot to provide meals for Allen Countians in short order. “Starting Aug. 1 would be no problem,” he said.
An aside is that even if the county took on the meals program, frozen meals provided by the Area Agency on Aging could enter the mix. Murphy said a vehicle in his fleet could be used to deliver meals to Humboldt, Moran, and LaHarpe. Gas councilmen also have talked about adding the perk for their residents.
TUESDAY commissioners will consider bids for razing the old Allen County Hospital. County Counselor Alan Weber said he had fielded numerous calls from potential bidders, as well as had discussions with Iola contractor Dan Ware about how best to establish a disconnect between the hospital structure and adjacent Medical Arts Building, which will remain in use.
An auction of personal property — such things as office chairs, shelving and lockers — will occur later this month. Provided a demolition company is selected after bids are opened, Weber expects razing to begin about Sept. 1 and be completed by early December.
The next step will be for a local excavation contractor to prepare the site to meet criteria for construction of a G&W Foods grocery. Discussions also are ongoing with developers — two have surfaced — who may propose to build apartment buildings on the old hospital site.
Commissioners, on Weber’s recommendation, have agreed to sell G&W the land it needs for $29,000.
BILL KING, director of Public Works, told commissioners the new bridge over Owl Creek, two miles west of Humboldt, was opened to traffic on Monday, even though guardrails had not yet been installed. He said guardrails may not become a part of the structure until sometime in August, “too long to keep it closed to local traffic” with the primary bridge perfectly capable of handling traffic.
CHARDEL HASTINGS, administrator of the SEK Multi-County Health Department, asked commissioners to include $100,250 in its 2016 budget for the department. This year’s contribution, ad valorem taxes raised by 1 mill, was $96,000.
Hastings said Allen County would add Women, Infants and Children (WIC) assistance each Tuesday starting Oct. 1 from its office at 411 N. Washington Ave. For 25 years previously the service was available only through the health office in Pittsburg.
Women taking advantage of the service also will be advised of physicals, available on other days, and vaccinations, which may be administered the same day as WIC assistance is decided.
