ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The Seward County Rural Fire District is now making it easier for residents to find information and news about the department.
At the county commission’s most recent town hall meeting March 20, Administrator April Warden said the fire district has done much updating on the county’s Web site at www.sewardcountyks.org.
“They have put acres burned. In 2021, there were 312 acres burned. In 2022, 399, and in 2023 and 2024, 72 and 67, and currently 26 acres,” she said. “They’ve done a great job of putting out the history.”
Warden added the site likewise much in the way of other information about the fire department as well.
“There’s been questions about the assets the county has,” she said. “They cover all of the stations, the trucks, the equipment we have. They have a lot of statistics, current information, past information. You can look at the previous years and financial information.”
The Rural Fire District serves as its own taxing entity, and Warden said there is a lot of confusion about that in the community, mainly pertaining to who pays for fire services and what services the department provides.
“That information is out there as well,” she said. “They also have all of their fire reports out there, public records, how you can submit a request. They have a gallery with some of their pictures.”
Seward County currently has two female firefighters, Joann Rivera, who has been with the department for three years, and Morgan West, who has been with the department less than a year. Warden said Rivera helped design a Facebook page for the district named Seward County Fire District and did a great job with it.
Warden then talked about a recent fire at Arkalon Park.
“It was on the very windy day, and there was some hesitation,” she said. “Our chief felt he had the fire under control with the staff we had there and the equipment we had stationed there.”
Warden added Fire Chief Andrew Barkley did have several people in the area offer to help with water tankers, including some from the nearby Arkalon Ethanol plant.
“We did not call for mutual aid because of the weather conditions outside,” Warden said. “He felt we had it completely under control, and he hated to pull anybody else out of their communities with the risk if they had something that started on fire.”
Warden said county officials felt by calling for mutual aid, it would have pulled workers away from other areas that could have easily had fires of their own to handle.
“We did have some concerns,” she said. “We did have commissioners who drove out there and took a look at things too without trying to disrupt him from fighting fire. We were trying to communicate with him to make sure he was comfortable with the decisions he was making.”
Commissioner Tammy Sutherland-Abbott praised Barkley’s work with the fire.
“He did a good job, and with the crew he has, there was never a doubt they had it taken care of,” she said.
Warden later discussed the remodel of the Seward County Courthouse, which is scheduled to be completed later this month.
“We do have landscaping that will be done with that as well,” she said. “Our Law Enforcement Center maintenance and weatherization building updates were done in conjunction with the remodel to the courthouse.”
As part of the commission’s strategic planning goals, Warden said the county too is working to do a better job with public relations, educating constituents and giving them the chance to ask questions and get answers.
“We’re trying to do a better job of keeping our Web site up to date, updating Facebook, doing the live streams, short reels, getting information out there better about what the county is doing,” she said.
One of the areas Warden said the county is trying to educate constituents about is in its implemented delinquent tax recovery program, namely making sure those taxes are kept up to date and regular tax sales are being done.
“You’ll see the publications,” she said. “That information is out on our Web site. It’s posted in the treasurer’s office. We try to do updates on that, but we get quite a few phone calls about tax sales and what properties and how all of that works. We’re happy to answer those for you as well.”
Warden then talked about the new kiosk building at Restlawn Cemetery that will soon be completed as well.
“Inside that building will be a digital directory,” she said. “We will also still have the maps that will be displayed in there as well, but there will be a kiosk in there where people can use the digital directory to locate things out of the Restlawn Cemetery and find information.”
Warden too said the county is in the final stages of its bleacher replacement project at the rodeo arena at the fairgrounds, and this is just the start of work at the facility.
“We also will be doing a roof replacement and concrete repair at the fairground grandstands this year,” she said. “We’ve been told they are going to get that project completed before the fair in August. You’ll see a new grandstand roof and some repairs to the concrete out there in the grandstand area.”
Warden said commissioners have also started a new budget committee process with the help of a new computer system.
“It’s called CIC,” she said. “We moved from the AS400 to a PC-based system, and we’re trying to enter the budget line item by line item now. We always entered the budget by your personnel costs. Then we entered contractual, and we entered commodities.”
Warden said line items are now being tracked to see specifically what is being spent in different areas of the budget, and county officials were looking to have that system by the end of March.
“We still track our budget as we always have, but this will be able to give us a bigger overall picture,” she said. “If the commissioners want to know exactly what each department has spent in fuel or specific information by department, we will be able to show that now instead of just looking at a total contractual commodities or personnel budget.”
Warden later talked about the progress made with the Five State Free Fair.
“We’ve always been a partner with the fair association and the fair board, but this year, they actually did receive 15 applications for the fair board, which was really exciting,” she said. “There are a lot of new faces to the fair board and a lot of people on the fair board who have been associated with 4-H in the past.”
Many people have been looking to return the fair to its past glory, but Warden said this often gives people false hope due to the today’s times.
“We just live in a different time now,” she said. “Life is very different now, but I do think they’re very excited. We have a couple of commissioners who have attended fair board meetings as a liaison to that board, and I think you’re going to see they’re trying to breathe some new life into it and see what they can do.”
Sutherland-Abbott said this year’s fair, scheduled for Aug. 4 though Aug. 10, has concerns due to a late start with planning.
“One of the things they’re a little concerned about is because they’re so far behind where they should be, people won’t understand how hard that is, but next year, it’ll be better,” she said.
One particular thing missing from recent Five State Free Fairs is a carnival, and Warden said this year’s and those in the near future will likely be lacking a carnival as well.
“A lot of people associate a fair with carnival, and it’s very difficult to get carnivals anymore, especially when the fairs are going on,” she said. “The few that are available are already booked at other fairs. To get one to come out during our fair is difficult.”
Commission Chairman Scott Carr said many carnivals went bankrupt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite everything, though, Sutherland-Abbott said optimism is still in the air for the fair.
“The energy level is very high though,” she said. “They’re very excited about being on the board.”
