ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Seward County’s facility fee waiver policy has been revised for events hosted by non-profit agencies.
Monday, commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a flat fee rate of $300 for the Ag Building and $600 for the Activity Center at the fairgrounds.
The move came after qualified applicants were permitted in past years to submit a facility fee waiver, which eliminated all fees for events. Recently, county officials received requests to revise the waiver to allow applicants to instead pay a reduced fee.
The implementation of a fee schedule for non-profit organizations will discontinue the use of the waiver, and applicants will need to meet specific criteria to qualify for the reduced rate.
Landfill Supervisor Brock Theiner worked up several options for commissioners for rates for use of county facilities, and those choices included calculating costs based on total number of hours worked in a year and the total number of actual hours in a year.
Likewise, those numbers included the county’s total proposed budget for the fairgrounds for Fiscal Year 2026 and costs with and without labor and benefits. The last two options called for the flat fees, and initially, those were set at $250 and $500 before commissioners opted to increase them.
Theiner said the new fees will be added to a list of fees charged to use fairground facilities, and agency officials could pick up a form at the Administration Building. That form would allow county officials to verify a non-profit’s status and guideline qualifications.
With other buildings and facilities at the fairgrounds, Theiner said calculating a cost per building proved to be a difficult task.
“We had to think about how you put your labor to per building,” he said. “They do have set fees in their fee schedule already for tear down, cleanup, setup, so you could also do it that way.”
Commissioners liked the idea of the flat fee, and Commissioner Presephoni Fuller said the rate allows non-profits to know exactly what they are paying. She said any additional costs would be paid by the agencies themselves.
“We are almost meeting them halfway, 50/50,” she said. “Last year, our budget was almost $84,000 in waivers, and we’re still in budget session talking about raising mill levies. We’ve got to find ways to save and still have the community want to have events, but still make it affordable. Although there’s a flat fee, it doesn’t stop citizens from coming up to the plate and saying ‘We’ll cover the rest,’ but at least there’s some skin in the game.”
Chairman Scott Carr also liked the flat fee, but he suggested raising the price to $300 for the Ag Building and $600 for the Activity Center.
Vice Chairman Steve Helm said costs for setup, tear down, cleanup, damage and kitchen use needed to be kept separate from the flat fee.
“If we’re going to give it to them at almost the cost of utilities, we shouldn’t be tasked with setup, tear down, cleanup, use of the kitchen and damages,” he said. “Somehow, we need something to recoup any damages we might have.”
Administrator April Warden said non-profits were not charged these fees in the past, but the contract signed by agency officials does include payment for cleaning and damages.
“They do a walkthrough with them in the beginning for them to go through everything, and they’re able to know if anything is not cleaned when they rent it or if they feel something was damaged, it should be noted on that and not afterwards that it became damaged,” she said. “That is part of the contract. They still sign a contract, and they still supply us with liability insurance as well.”
Theiner said he feels a flat fee would keep things cleaner.
“We’ve already got so many fees out there as it is,” he said. “Keep it simple, and use those fees plus a flat fee.”
Helm said the fees would be mainly to cover utilities and insurance for the county.
“We’re really not covering any labor, just utilities and insurance,” he said. “As part of that, that would exclude any setup, tear down, cleaning fees, damages, kitchen equipment and would exclude any event in which alcohol is present, not necessarily served, but is in the building.”
Theiner said these policies would be put in the form filled out by event organizers. Carr said commissioners earlier had agreed waivers would not be given for events where alcohol is present.
Warden said no formal action had been taken in a previous commission meeting, but commissioners did agree to it in a prior strategic planning session. Carr said Monday’s vote would take care of that policy.
Commissioner Tammy Sutherland-Abbott, who made the motion, said costs were raised to help the county from possibly raising the mill levy for the upcoming fiscal year.
The motion approved by commissioners put in the policy the exclusion of alcohol at events, as well as the exclusion of cleaning, setup, tear down and kitchen usage fees.
“That will all be separate as per the schedule,” Sutherland-Abbott said.
Forms for non-profits will be updated to include rates for those charges, and fees will likewise increase to normal levels if alcohol is found at the event.
Fuller emphasized the need for paperwork showing an event is for a non-profit agency.
“I just did something with the City of Liberal, and I had to give them my 501(c)3 paper to make sure I was a non-profit,” she said. “People just dovetail off that. When you run a non-profit, it’s a struggle talking to people, getting their buy-in, so we don’t want to just say you are a non-profit without you verifying you actually are a non-profit.”
Theiner said this is the reasoning behind the new form.
“That’s why we’re going to do the form and have it up here so we can do the fact check on that,” he said.
