photo by: Journal-World

The Douglas County Commission will hold their Wednesday meeting at the Douglas County Public Works building, 3755 E 25th St.

Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday will consider authorizing an additional $36,000 of ongoing funding for Artists Helping the Homeless to help turn its part-time peer outreach position to a full-time position=.

The county, in its 2025 budget, had already allocated $412,686 for Artists Helping the Homeless — $376,686 for the operations of the nonprofit’s two supportive housing projects, and $36,000 for the part-time peer outreach worker. Originally, the County Commission assumed this position would start out part-time and the commission could later evaluate whether it was needed full-time.

However, “In reflecting on the last 7 months of the (city-county Homeless Response Team) serving the community,” the county administration now believes the position should be upgraded to full-time, according to a memo from Assistant County Administrator Jill Jolicoeur.

The full-time peer outreach position would be part of the Homeless Response Team, which engages directly with people experiencing homelessness to assess and address their immediate needs. According to the memo, some of the position’s duties include building relationships with unsheltered homeless people and helping them connect with housing opportunities and other services.

County staff is recommending that the $36,000 in additional funding come from the county’s substance use disorder treatment budget for 2025. If approved, the $36,000 in additional funding would increase Artists Helping the Homeless’ total allocation from the county to $448,686.

The funding request is part of the commission’s consent agenda, a group of items that can be approved in a single motion.

In other business, the commission will:

• Hold a public hearing and consider approving a stormwater and agrivoltaics plan for the Kansas Sky Energy Center project, which is a proposed 8 million-square-foot solar farm for the Midland Junction area north of North Lawrence.

At an open house for the stormwater plan in November, the plan proposed two large detention basins and acres of native grass as the main defenses against flooding in the area. The plan is intended to ensure that once the farm fields are developed with solar panels, the amount of water that escapes the land and flows to neighbors or into North Lawrence during a major storm is no greater in volume than what occurs today.

The agrivoltaics plan outlines practices for how hundreds of acres of land currently used for row crop agriculture could house solar panels but also still be used for some agricultural purposes. Among the plan’s key recommendations is that the land around and beneath the solar panels be planted with a mix of grasses hearty in Kansas, and that sheep be allowed to graze on parts of the property because their smaller size will allow them to access the land below the solar panels.

As the Journal-World reported, at least three entities – Grant Township, the Douglas County Food Policy Council and the Douglas County Kaw Drainage District – have either asked the commissioners to delay their vote for both plans or plan to before Wednesday.

A court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon after residents asked the Douglas County District Court for a temporary restraining order that would prevent county commissioners from voting on the plans this week. Depending on decisions by District Court Judge James McCabria, these items may or may not appear on the agenda for Wednesday’s business meeting.

• Consider approving the 2025 Natural and Cultural Heritage Grant Program – which supports community-led heritage conservation projects – guidelines, application and review rubric. According to a memo in the agenda, up to $210,000 is available for grant awards in 2025. This funding has been allocated by county commissioners and as a part of the county’s annual budget process.

• Consider approving a contract with George Butler Associates Inc. for engineering services on two bridge repair projects at a cost not to exceed $58,527.

The bridges are on the Wakarusa River — the first bridge is on North 1400 Road west of Eudora, and the second is on East 2200 Road north of Eudora. According to a memo in the agenda, some of the anticipated work will include abutment repair, girder painting, bridge joint replacement, deck patching, approach slab replacement and guardrail replacement.

The County Commission’s business meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Douglas County Public Works training room at 3755 E. 25th St. The meeting will also be available on Zoom.