Ellis County residents no longer need to quarantine after they return from any place on the quarantine list maintained by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which includes 23 counties in Colorado.
Without taking a vote, Ellis County Commissioners Dean Haselhorst, Butch Schlyer and Neal Younger voiced consensus support at their Monday evening meeting for no longer enforcing the quarantine requirement.
They made that move at the request of Jason Kennedy, director of Ellis County Health Services, who called the KDHE s travel quarantine list an unenforceable government mandate that just doesn t make sense for Ellis County.
Kennedy noted that the KDHE last week added the state of Colorado to the list, which it has in place as part of its efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Hays Daily News
Taxes for most Ellis County residents next year could be largely similar to this year s taxes as the county commission eyes a virtually flat budget.
At the commission s meeting Monday afternoon, county administrator Darin Myers gave the commissioners a first look at the proposed 2022 budget.
The budget includes an increase of $491,000 to $24.4 million in the county s general fund. The biggest chunk of that increase stems from an additional $410,000 as part of a new bridge fund requested by the commission and an increase of $81,000 in transfers to the county s highway fund. Each will be funded by their own one-mill levies.
Ellis County gets 500 COVID-19 vaccine doses this week
Another 500 people living or working in Ellis County will get their COVID-19 vaccinations this week.
That s how many doses arrived this week from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, according to Ellis County Health Services director Jason Kennedy. KDHE is distributing vaccine dispatched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The county vaccination clinic is held weekly at the former Gordmans in the Big Creek Crossing mall. The clinic started for the public in earnest on Jan. 26 with 300 doses from the CDC, funneled through the KDHE. That was followed last week by 400 doses. The shots are administered by appointment on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to those who have signed up and meet Gov. Laura Kelly s Phase 2 criteria.