By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

In an effort to determine what effects a change in the 3-mile zone surrounding the city of Hays will have, the Ellis County Commission tabled a discussion on purposed changes until later this month.

Officials with both the city and the county have been discussing possible changes to the extraterritorial jurisdiction and, last month, the joint Planning Commission presented its opinion on proposed changes submitted by the city.

But at Monday’s Ellis County Commission meeting, Commissioner Barb Wasinger said she does not believe the commission is “properly educated” on the issue.

“I don’t think we’ve discussed any kind of ramifications, any kind of guidelines that we want to follow before we start drawing pictures on a map,” Wasinger said.

She said they need to think about the effect the changes will have on the county zoning.

“We’ve proven that we’re not really quite sure how to do that,” she said.

Commissioner Marcy McClelland agreed with Wasinger that they needed more time to discuss the issue.

Dean Haselhorst, commission chairman, said he has already driven the boundary and believes he has a proposal.

The commission requested Planning and Zoning Administrator Karen Purvis be at the next meeting when they discuss the issue and present the potential impact at that meeting. It is scheduled for Dec. 19.

In other business, the commission held a public hearing on the proposed sale of the county building located at 209 W. 12th – known as the Tholen Building. After receiving no input from the audience, the commission voted to allow the commission chair to sign the contract to sell the building to Mark Ottley for $41,911.

The commission also approved the purchase of a new John Deere motor grader from Murphy Tractor for $237,219.51 with a trade in value of $50,000 on an older grader.