By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Listen to the fire chiefs. When the Barton County Commission enacted a county-wide burn ban nearly a month ago, it was at the advice of those fire chiefs. Those same professionals were instructed to inform the commission as soon as it was safe to burn again. Tuesday morning, Barton County Administrator Matt Patzner asked that the ban be lifted.
“On March 31, due to dry weather conditions, the local fire chiefs asked the commission put in a county-wide burn ban,” Patzner said. “At this time, after receiving moisture throughout Barton County over the weekend, local fire chiefs have asked that the commission lift the current burn ban.”
Rain reports have varied throughout the county. A popular feature of 1590 KVGB/95.5 FM’s “AM Great Bend Show” with Steve Webster is the rain report. Don Mai north of Susank reported 1.40 inches of rain over the weekend. Jere Buehler reported 0.4 inches in Claflin, and rainfall totals around Great Bend hovered around 0.1 inches.
“I don’t think all the areas in Barton County received very much moisture, but I think the majority of it did,” said Commission Chair Duane Reif. “The northwest part of Barton County had over an inch of rain, but then you move on down to Ellinwood and it’s a little bit less. There are a lot of people anxious to get to burn some things. If this passes, I think extreme caution needs to be part of it. If all the fire chiefs are in favor of it, I think there’s really no reason why we shouldn’t do this.”
The National Weather Service in Wichita is predicting a 50 percent chance of rain for the Great Bend area on Thursday. NWS also predicts a round of showers and thunderstorms is possible early next week.