OSWEGO — Labette County commissioners on Monday discussed briefly budget issues and appointments to the board that oversees Great Plains Industrial Park.
Commissioners discussed budgets for the Labette County Conservation District, the Labette County Emergency Operations Center and the Labette County Health Department. They will discuss numbers more once they get into the budget process.
Elissa Robison, Jared Nash and Viri Costa discussed the conservation budget request of $30,000 from the county. The district is also going to be gearing conservation messages toward farmers in the coming year.
The district also is in the top five in the state for money obligated to conservation.
Commissioner Terry Weidert told the district staff that farming needs to keep going, even as older farmers are dying off and younger farmers aren’t moving in to replace them. He said farming is a lot of work, a lot of financial investment and not much payback.
“But we can’t let it die,” Weidert said. Commissioners also discussed the possibility of moving the Emergency Management budget into the county general fund. They also discussed briefly grants that fund the Health Department. Both agencies submitted budgets that reflected a 2% cost of living increase and one that did not.
Commissioners also discussed Great Plains board appointments that will be coming up for renewal later this year or into 2026. Commissioners have disagreed on reappointing three current board members, with Commissioner Vince Schibi supporting reappointment of Gary Beachner, Danny Manners and Linda Proehl and Weidert and Commissioner Tom Barrett opposing them. Beachner was later reappointed.
Weidert thinks commissioners should have more information about what’s going on at Great Plains.
Weidert said he thought appointing Marc Jones, who is chairman of the county zoning board, would be a good fit. Schibi thought Jones was fine where he was and that commissioners should consider the names that the Great Plains board members wanted to serve on their board.
Barrett said on Monday that GP board members are now talking to Schibi instead of him, even though Barrett is the commission’s representative to the GP board. He said he has good relationships with several board members but not once have any board members come to him and asked for his help. Instead, they are communicating with Schibi.
Schibi said he was not trying to take anything away from Barrett and his role with Great Plains. But he does answer the phone when they call.
After more discussion, Barrett suggested to Schibi that if he had any one he would like the commission to consider for the GP board, he should have resolutions drafted with those candidates’ names and bring them to the commission for a discussion and vote.
Schibi had three names for the commission to consider but needed more details before resolutions could be drafted.
