BasehorInfo.com

The Leavenworth County Board of Commissioners received a round of applause after giving county museums the funding requests they had asked for.

On Thursday, representatives from the museums spoke on behalf of their organizations to ask the commissioners to divide the $71,250 in money available in 2009 for cultural grants.

Commissioner Dean Oroke made a motion to divide the grant money by percentage with 60 percent going to the Leavenworth County Museum Group and the rest being split among the other museums. The motion failed for lack of a second.

Instead, a motion made by Commissioner J.C. Tellefson to fulfill almost all of the requested money by the groups passed, 2-0, with Oroke abstaining.

Under Tellefson’s motion, $5,300 would go to the Basehor Historical Society Museum, $4,500 for the Carnegie Arts Center, $1,258 to the Lansing Historical Museum, $13,871 to the Leavenworth County Historical Society, $9,580 to the Richard Allen Cultural center, $4,000 for the Tonganoxie Community Historical Society and the remaining going to the Leavenworth Historical Museum Group.

“We are supporting all of these groups, and I would encourage them to go back to their local (governments) and say, ‘the county thinks that we’re this important, and we were funded to this level,’” Tellefson said. “It’s time for all you cities to pony up.”

In other business, the commission:

• Unanimously passed a motion to pursue a finance agreement between the Kansas Turnpike Authority and the county for the cost of improving County Road 1. The $9,250,000 in financing is in addition to the $2 million already committed by the KTA for the project. The commission also voted, 2–1, to pay Oppenhiemer and Co. Inc, $34,600 for work done to secure general obligation bonds that the county will not be pursing for the financing. Oroke was the dissenting vote.

• Heard the quarterly reports from the Leavenworth County Solid Waste Director Jason Auvil and the county Emergency Management Director Chuck Magaha.

• Discussed in length with Auvil why electric scales at the Leavenworth County Transfer Station have not been repaired despite the commission having asked Auvil to repair the scales earlier this year.