Commission will hear environmental appeals
Published on -12/1/2009, 11:34 AM
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By GAYLE WEBER
In compliance with a previous request from county counsel, Ellis County commissioners appointed themselves Monday night to be the hearing officer for environmental issues.
Commissioners will go to work in that capacity next week after scheduling an environmental code hearing for Keith Pfannenstiel, who has filed a request for a waiver for the placement of a water well near Yocemento.
The county's environmental code was established in 1992, but no appeals have been filed in those 17 years. For that reason, commissioners said it wouldn't make sense to appoint someone who might never be called upon to preside over a hearing.
"It'd make more sense to appoint ourselves as the hearing officer," Commissioner Glenn Diehl said.
The hearing officer acts only after individuals do not agree with a decision from the county's environmentalist. After a meeting with the hearing officer, individuals can accept the decision or appeal it to the district court.
"I'd like to see it go through an elected body before it goes to district court," Diehl said. "I don't like the idea that you appoint someone, and the only recourse you have is district court after that."
With commissioners acting as the hearing officer, a majority vote will be required.
In other business:
* Commissioner Vernon Berens was absent.
* Commissioners approved submissions for the Kansas Department of Transportation's High Risk Rural Road program. Ellis County's three requests include road safety audits for Old U.S. Highway 40 from Ellis to Yocemento and the Ellis blacktop from Ellis to the Rooks County line and a culvert replacement northwest of Victoria.
* Public Works Administrator Mike Graf reported the results of a speed study in Prairie Acres in October and November.
The speed limit is posted at 30 mph, but residents had voiced concerns traffic was traveling faster. Graf said 95.3 percent of vehicles traveled no faster than 35 mph on the six roads surveyed during the three-week study.
* Commissioners approved the purchase of VMWare, a virtual server package, for $11,810.95.
