The Douglas County Commission has formed a task force to help determine how to best spend the $350,000 the county has set aside for historic and open space preservation.

Over the next six months, the task force’s work will center on the makeup of a new board that will make recommendations to the county about which preservation projects to fund. In October, the task force also will hold meetings throughout Douglas County to gather feedback on what sites the public would like preserved.

On Wednesday, commissioners approved six voting members, two ex-officio members and one facilitator to serve on the task force.

Voting members are:

• John Bradley, a veterinarian who owns a farm south of Lawrence.

• Scott Campbell, associate director of public outreach and public service for the Kansas Biological Survey.

• Jamie Knabe, a county resident whose family has been farming in Douglas County for more than 100 years.

• Larry McElwain, a member of Douglas County ECO2.

• Sean Williams, a local real estate agent who is a regional history buff and serves on the Lawrence Historic Resources Commission.

• Sarah Martin, National Register coordinator for the Kansas State Historical Society.

Judy Billings, executive director of Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area, and Jason Fizell, executive director of the Kansas Land Trust, will be ex-officio members who will provide expertise but not vote.

Ken Grotewiel, a senior associate with the Great Plains Consensus Council at Bethel College, will facilitate the group.

“These folks make for a great start,” Douglas County Commission Chair Nancy Thellman said.

By next summer, Thellman would like the county to have the board in place that would review historic and land preservation projects submitted by Douglas County residents. By the end of that year, she hopes the commission will have selected which projects to fund.