McPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — McPherson County Commissioners said at Monday’s meeting they see no problems with a zoning fee schedule representatives from Prairie Land Realtors raised at the January 12th meeting. While the Planning Commission recommended repeal of the fees adopted last year, Commissioner Tom Kueser said in his view things are fine as is. “As far as the things we are feeing for, I don’t understand that, as far as the stacking mentioned last week, I don’t agree with that,” Kueser said.
Objections to the schedule include lack of grandfather clauses, issues related to historical farmstead splits, and what was described as “fee stacking.” It was noted the current fees are less than what are charged elsewhere.
Planning and Zoning Administrator Jon Kinsey said Prairie Land representatives will meet with the Planning Commission February 9th to look at fees. He said the Realtor Group got together late last week to develop talking points to bring to that meeting. Depending on what comes out of that, a hearing on fee revisions could happen at the March Planning Commissions meeting, with that recommendation to the Commission in April or May.
Commissioners directed drafting of resolutions extending on moratoriums for data centers and battery energy and hydrogen energy storage systems. Moratoriums on battery and Hydrogen energy storage facilities are currently set to expire in March, and for data centers later this year.
The Planning Commission recommended extending the moratoriums at their January meeting, unanimously on battery and energy storage systems and on a 3-2 vote on data centers, with two members saying they don’t want to completely foreclose that in the unincorporated areas of McPherson County and one supporting a total ban. This moratorium does not apply to cities in the in the county.
Commissioners approved replacement of both HVAC serving the second floor of the Health Department building. Maintenance supervisor Josh Pimentel told Commissioners a heat exchanger one of those two units was found to have a hole in it. Commissioners opted to replace both units, which were installed at the same time, with the two local bids within less than $250 of each other. The low bid from Jim’s Plumbing was accepted at a cost of $19,754.
A resolution was adopted authorizing the sale of what’s known as the McKids Building at 1106 Hospital Drive. Prairie View is paying $300,000 for the building and the about 4.2 acres it sets on.
A bid for milling of three county roads being resurfacing in 2026 was approved. Two options for this work were put out for bid and two responded, Commissioners accepted a bid from Weber Road Solutions at $300,643. The price was the same for doing it all at once of the county’s preferred option to do it in segments over a three-month period as work begins on the sections of 5th, 17th and 21st Avenues. The other bid submitted had a higher price for phasing the work.
Public Works Director David Bohnenblust also gave an update on snow removal work from over the weekend, noting the only mechanical issue encountered was failure of a diesel exhaust fluid injector on one truck.
Commissioners also approved the purchase of six computers and renewal and replacement of firewalls through two vendors at a combined cost of just over $20,000.
