The Douglas County Commission approved a measure that provides more flexibility in restricting open burning in rural areas of the county.

In 2015, the commission approved a resolution allowing the county to forbid open burning on days deemed unsafe. The measure approved at Wednesday’s meeting amends the language of the 2015 resolution to do away with wind speeds as a specific criterion for daily bans. Wakarusa Township Fire Department Fire Chief Mike Baxter said the new language would provide more leniency and allow burning on wet days when predicted wind speeds would normally have forbidden it.

Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug said banning burns during wet conditions and in other safe situations undermined the credibility of the bans and could encourage rural residents to ignore them.

The new language will continue to ban opening burning on days in which the National Weather Service in Topeka lists the rangeland fire index as very high, extreme or red flag. The approved language gives Weinaug or a designee the authority to prohibit burning based on local conditions on days with a low, moderate or high index. Specifically, the county administrator or designee could forbid burning when sustained wind speeds of 20 mph were forecast for a moderate-risk day, or if 15 mph winds were predicted for a high-risk day.

Weinaug said he was still working to identify who would be designated to make the daily 6 a.m. decision to ban or allow open burning. He said that before the changes take effect, he would identify a county employee to work with Teri Smith, Douglas County Emergency Management director, to make that early-morning decision.

In other business, the commission:

• Heard a report on Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council grant funding from Jan Shupert-Arick, the council’s program coordinator.

Shupert-Arick said there would be $260,000 in grant funding available this year. She said 10 applications had been received, although five of the applicants had yet to give a formal presentation of their proposal before the council. Those applicants are scheduled to present on Thursday, she said.

In an email to the Journal-World, Shupert-Arick listed the proposals that had already been presented — a Douglas County Fairgrounds proposal for improvements to the Judge Hugh Means stone house; a University of Kansas proposal to identify potential natural and cultural resource project areas for protection; a Haskell University proposal centering on the 1926 Haskell Stadium and World War I Memorial Archway dedication; a proposal from the Eudora Community Museum for parking and plumbing improvements and lead/asbestos investigation; and a Baker University application to restore the Palmyra Post Office, the last known building from the Santa Fe Trail era in the county.

• Approved a conditional use permit for a borrow pit southwest of the North 1300 Road and East 1750 Road intersection. Last year, commissioners approved a temporary permit, which allowed the removal of earth from the site for construction purposes on the South Lawrence Trafficway. The conditional use permit allows the continued use of the borrow pit for 10 years with reviews every five years. The request includes a reclamation plan.

Commissioners told concerned neighbors at the meeting to report to county planning and zoning officials if trucks were traveling to and from the site on North 1300 Road, which is not on the designated truck route to the pit.