In a relatively short meeting, the Wayne County Board of Commissioners listened to a request for funding from the Wayne County Ag Society and met the Chief Probation Officer for District Seven.
Merlin Felt, a member of the Wayne County Ag Society, spoke to the commissioners and shared information from the recently concluded Wayne County Fair. He also talked about additions to the fairgrounds, including new lighting behind the grandstand and cement work in front of the grandstand. The majority of the costs of these projects was donated.
Felt talked about some of the major expenses facing the Ag Society. Among those are work on the Leland Herman Building, the cost of hiring a carnival for the fair and payments on the land that was purchased west of the fairgrounds several years ago.
In terms of the building, Felt said a decision would need to be made on whether to repair the current building or build a new one.
He also said he would like to get other activities to take place at the fairground throughout the year and said that because of work that has been done to improve the fairgrounds, "people like to come to our fair."
He told the commissioners that the Ag Society is asking for $200,000 for the coming fiscal year. This is up from the $160,000 requested this year.
Crystal Hestekind, Chief Probation Officer, spoke to the commissioners and highlighted some budget items for her office. She told the commissioners the office has a staff of 41, which includes both the juvenile office and adult office. Both are located in Norfolk.
She talked about the services provided through the office and said the probation office is able to provide "lots of programming for those we serve."
In regard to statistics for the last year, the Probation Office provided services to 1,820 adult and youth individuals. These included services such as presentence investigations, probation supervision, pre-dispositional services (for youth), programming and post-release supervision.
District 7 is made up of Antelope, Cuming, Knox, Madison, Pierce, Stanton and Wayne counties.
Commissioners approved a three-year maintenance agreement with Trane for courthouse maintenance.
Pat Brentlinger told the commissioners that representatives of the firm visit the courthouse quarterly for HVAC inspections and are available to answer his questions when needed.
The three-year agreement is for $9,961 for the first year; $10,225 for the second year and $10,786 for the third year.
Following the morning portion of the meeting, the commissioners recessed until early afternoon when they conducted a budget workshop with Mike Pommer. Because of the scheduled workshop, commissioners took no action on resolutions involving the Wayne County Ag Society, Carroll Rural Fire Protection, Wayne Rural Fire Protection, Hoskins Rural Fire District, Winside Rural Fire District, Wakefield Rural Fire District and Wayne County Library Association.
The Board will meet next on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 9 a.m.
