Commissioners discuss goals for 2026
Staff writer
With 2026 a few weeks away, county commissioners talked Monday about goals for the upcoming year.
Commissioner Clarke Dirks spoke with the University of Kansas about its program for training employees on how to maintain roads.
Dirks said his constituents told him when the road and bridge department maintains a road it often is left in worse shape.
“Let’s be proactive and provide training,” Dirks said
Commissioner Kent Becker agreed.
“We need training every year,” Becker said. “We have goals when it comes to facilities.”
Becker also said a lot of county policies needed to be worked on.
“I think a quarterly update from each department would be helpful,” he said, adding the updates would be on a rotating basis.
“We put out too many fires,” he said. “There are issues with every department when looking into them.”
Commission chairman Jonah Gehring mentioned what had been told to commissioners earlier in the meeting — that dogs running loose at the lake without a leash.
Code enforcement appears to be lacking, he said.
When something happens at the lake, employees working there need to have some authority to at the very least write tickets, he said.
“It’s not a question if something is going to happen but when,” Becker said.
He said roads at the lake were uneven. When an inexperienced child is driving a golf cart, he said, the chances of a tragedy increase dramatically.
Such problems are happening all the time, he said.
One thing Gehring wants for 2026 is more road rebuilds.
Previously, the county was on a five-year plan for road maintenance.
Gehring said that having a plan didn’t mean that goals had to be met if there was some valid reason, like the weather, for coming up short.
A lot of it depends on the worker, commissioner Dave Crofoot said.
“If you can’t be proud of your work, don’t do it,” he said.