photo by: Journal-World

The west side of the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.

Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday will consider joining a regional emergency resource-sharing agreement designed to streamline aid across Kansas and Missouri counties during disasters.

The agreement the commission will consider joining is called the Kansas City Regional Resource Sharing Agreement, and it’s intended to improve the coordination of emergency resources, personnel and services from different jurisdictions in the Kansas City area. According to a memo in the commission’s meeting agenda, the Kansas City region has many mutual aid agreements for emergency services, but the Resource Sharing Agreement was meant to be more comprehensive and ensure faster, more effective support during disasters and emergencies.

The Resource Sharing Agreement serves as an “agreement of last resort” for emergencies in which no other existing agreement applies, the memo said. It covers the following counties in the KC area, on both sides of the state line: Platte, Clay, Ray, Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, Jackson, Miami and Cass. The agreement is voluntary, non-binding unless activated, and may be terminated at any time with notice.

The memo said the agreement improves regional emergency readiness by clarifying roles and responsibilities; enabling cross-state support without a disaster declaration; supplementing existing agreements; and allowing flexible sharing of both traditional and non-traditional resources, such as public information officers, logistics personnel and recovery planners.

County commissioners will also consider adopting a Mutual Aid Resolution that will allow them to send aid to other jurisdictions even before a formal emergency declaration has been made there.

In 2002, the county passed a resolution that permits it to provide assistance, but only if the jurisdiction requesting the assistance is under a formal emergency declaration. Douglas County Emergency Management now believes this requirement is too restrictive, as some emergencies need a faster response.

“Emergencies can evolve rapidly, and in some cases, assistance may be needed or provided prior to (when) a formal declaration is issued,” Robert Bieniecki, director of Douglas County Emergency Management, said in a memo to commissioners.

Both of these agenda items are included in the County Commission’s consent agenda, where all items can be approved in one motion.

In other business, county commissioners will:

• Consider authorizing the county administrator to sign a memorandum of understanding outlining how the county and Friends of the Senior Resource Center Inc. will work together to operate the Douglas County Senior Resource Center.

As the Journal-World has reported, county commissioners have approved a plan for the Senior Resource Center to transition from a nonprofit to a county department.

When Douglas County takes over the center’s operations, which is expected to happen on Sept. 29, the current Senior Resource Center nonprofit organization will take on a new role. It will take the name “Friends of the Senior Resource Center,” and it will engage in fundraising and other efforts to support the county-run department, which will actually provide the center’s services and programming. The agreement before the commission on Wednesday details how these two organizations will cooperate and what each one’s responsibilities will be.

The Senior Resource Center is currently at 745 Vermont St., and the county will try to assume the lease and provide office space there for the Friends organization. If it’s not able to do that, it will consider other options.

• Consider a request to rezone approximately 20.27 acres at North 1700 Road from AG-1 agricultural zoning to AG-2 transitional agriculture zoning. The proposed zoning would allow the property to be divided into two parcels, around 10 acres each. The applicant plans to sell one of the parcels for development of a residence, a memo in the agenda said.

• Consider approving the Douglas County Adult Community Corrections, Juvenile Community Corrections, Immediate Intervention Program and Juvenile Intake and Assessment year-end reports. These reports are sent to the Kansas Department of Corrections each year outlining each of the program’s progress, challenges and modifications.

• Consider approving an agreement with Catalis for Land Records Management Software upgrades from an on-premises system to a cloud-based platform hosted by the county’s existing provider. The agreement is for five years of support in the amount of $199,112.

The County Commission’s business meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Douglas County Commission meeting room at 1100 Massachusetts St. The meeting will also be available on Zoom.