By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The Barton County Commission decided Wednesday to table the discussion
of allowing the Kansas Parole office to occupy a county office building rent
free.
Barton County Operations Director Matt Patzner said an agreement with the state
was established years ago to allow the State of Kansas Parole office to be
housed at 1208 Kansas Avenue in Great Bend.
A couple of the commissioners were unaware the parole office existed in the
building that also houses the 20th Judicial District’s community
corrections department and juvenile services.
County Counselor Patrick Hoffman said the county has no control over the state
agency’s operations.
"They deal with people that are under state crimes and have been in the penitentiary and are out in the community afterwards," said Hoffman. "They fall under a different jurisdiction of supervision then JJA (Juvenile Justice Authority) and community corrections. They're state employees."
Kansas Parole does reimburse Barton County for a portion of the building’s
utility costs. The proposed agreement with Kansas Parole is set to expire
Dec. 31.
Wanting to get more information on how much space the agency occupies, how many
employees work there and if other counties offer rent-free space to state
agencies, the commission agreed to table the discussion until the next week’s
meeting.
"I'm in favor of looking into this a little more because we have a lot of projects coming up where we need as much space as we can get," said Commission Chair Shawn Hutchinson. "I think it's important enough to look into."