photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

The Douglas County Commission took part in a work session ahead of their regular meeting Wednesday, focused on safety net programs for low-income senior citizens and other vulnerable aging populations in the county.

Douglas County leaders authorized extending an industrial development incentive program for another three years at Wednesday’s County Commission meeting.

With Commissioner Shannon Reid absent, fellow commissioners Shannon Portillo and Patrick Kelly voted to extend the Catalyst Incentive Program until April 1, 2025. The program was first adopted by the City of Lawrence in April 2017 and has since provided an assistance package offering expedited approval for new projects meeting certain criteria at Lawrence VenturePark and East Hills Business Park. Later, the program extended eligibility to any new building project of 25,000 square feet or larger on industrially zoned property within city limits.

Both the county and the City of Lawrence had to approve the extension. The Lawrence City Commission gave its approval at a meeting earlier this year.

Britt Crum-Cano, the city’s economic development director, told the commission the program has been “wildly successful” thus far.

“Since we started with this program, we have added $83 million in capital investment, supported over 500 new jobs and added almost a million square feet of industrial space,” Crum-Cano said.

In other business:

• Commissioners discussed how community agencies might work together to help address some challenges affecting low-income senior citizens and people age 60 and older with disabilities. Among the topics were use of emergency services and aging in place.

“… We have been experimenting with some very good intent to try to gather some information about how we can understand folks that are falling through the cracks, so to speak, that could perhaps be utilizing services in an inappropriate way, largely through our emergency services,” Assistant County Administrator Jill deVries Jolicoeur said.

One big issue the leaders discussed was that many residents were using county fire and medical services for non-emergency situations that could be better handled by other agencies. Kevin Joles, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical division chief, said that has contributed to a steady year-to-year increase in call volume — about 15% per year — that has been difficult to keep up with.

Kelly said that issue and the others discussed during the work session were complex. He said that although it could be seen as a “daunting task” to tackle, it would be worth continuing the conversation and working to address the problems.

• Commissioners extended an agreement between the county and Behavioral Health Partners related to the county’s new crisis center, the Treatment and Recovery Center of Douglas County. The agreement will help the center meet its staffing needs for when it begins operating in July.

Dr. George Thompson, the executive director and medical director of the center, presented some additional information to the commission about the center’s operating budget and anticipated challenges once it’s open. Thompson said there are a few significant unknowns, including its licensure as the first facility of its kind in the state, the number of patients the center will be seeing and what sources might combine to help the center fund its services.

“We should take some time and celebrate where we are at this point,” Kelly said. “I can understand everyone wanting to be thoughtful and conservative, and all those things are very good, but this is a real win for our community. This is something many people have worked a very long time for, and to hear that it’s opening is pretty exciting.”

• Commissioners approved a special event permit request from Garrett’s Entertainment LLC to allow an outdoor Halloween-themed festival to operate from Sept. 28 through Oct. 31 at a property located at 1387 East 1650 Road. That property is located on a “county island,” an unincorporated area completely surrounded by the City of Lawrence.

The festival, “Garrett’s Haunted Farm,” is set to consist of two portions: a children’s event during the day and a “zombie paintball hunt” during the evening. That latter portion would run on Thursdays through Saturdays and would involve a group of customers riding on a trailer attached to a tractor being pulled through different scenes, where they’ll shoot paintballs at actors dressed as zombies.

The permit was approved with the condition that the festival’s evening hours will cut off at 10 p.m. out of consideration for neighbors to the property, instead of 11:30 p.m. as the applicant requested.