RENO COUNTY, Kan. — A divided Reno County Commission Wednesday voted to not pursue regulation of commercial and industrial solar systems in the unzoned areas of Reno County, which is basically most areas west of K-14 excluding areas surrounding Nickerson and South Hutchinson.
Commissioner Randy Parks, who made the motion to not expand solar regulations, said a lot of people wanted regulations because, “they didn’t want to have an intrusive thing on their property or next to their property.” Based on prior discussions, Parks said it was never an issue that he could find, that they wanted this for the overall protection of the County.
Commissioner Ron Hurst, whose district includes nearly all of the unzoned area of Reno County, said the vast majority of people he’s talked to backed at least some regulation of solar. “Of the phone calls and emails I’ve received, it’s 27 to 1 in favor of doing an overlay with putting regulations in place for commercial and industrial type solar.
Voting against solar regulations in the unzoned areas were the two Commissioners living in Hutchinson, Parks and Richard Winger, along with Ron Vincent. Hirst was joined in backing the idea of having the Planning Commission look at a solar overlay for unzoned areas by Commission chair Don Bogner.
With this, a moratorium on commercial and industrial solar projects in the unzoned areas expires as of midnight Wednesday night.
The Commission heard another round of budget presentations from outside agencies, including that of the Reno County Historical Society which is asking for a $60,000 increase in funding from Reno County for 2026. This funding comes from a property tax levy approved by voters in 1988. While up to four tenths of a mill can be levied, the county has never used the full authority.
Last year, then Commissioner John Whitesel made a successful push to cut their allocation by $45,000. While private fundraising was able to make up part of that, museum director of Operations Bronwyn Page told Commissioners their ability to raise much more than the $30,000 brought in is very limited in her view. “I don’t believe that we will ever be able to do much more than the 30,000 (dollar) mark. We will continue to try, but there is a lot of competition with TECH, the Cosmosphere, The Fox.”
This comes at a time when their facility needs to address major infrastructure issues and storage space for artifacts. It also has significantly cut staffing. In her written request, Page also took issue with a recent Downtown Master Plan that suggested the museum property at Avenue A and Walnut be turned into a parking lot. Without additional funding, Page added they would almost certainly have to look at their mission going forward.
Two other outside agencies presented funding requests to the Commission. Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System, which operates Reno County EMS, is asking for $1.839 million as the subsidy for 2026, which is a reduction of 2.3 percent from what it received for 2026. Within their budget is a capital expenditure for a new ambulance, which it may not receive until 2027 or 2028 due to manufacturing delays, and funding to replace five cardiac monitor/defibrillators
The Reno County Fair Association is seeking the same $20,000 allocation it’s received for the past three years.
Commissioners approved purchase of two vehicles for the sheriff’s office. Two bids were received from three dealers solicited, and Midwest Superstore of Hutchinson had the low bid on purchase of a Ford F150 Police Responder and one Ford Police Interceptor Explorer SUV. Midwest’s bid on the truck was just over $15 lower and on the SUV just under $7 under the other bid from Midway Motors.
In other actions, the Commission approved a one year contract extension for an assessment quality assurance and coaching contract for Community Corrections that is funded by the Kansas Department of Corrections, and approved a special event cereal beverage license for an event Saturday near Pretty Prairie It deferred action on a fence viewing matter in Huntsville Township as the landowners involved are closed to an agreement that would not require county involvement.
