At the end of the year, the county talked about some of their accomplishments over the past year. Commissioner Dan Deming says the city is having their state of the city address next month, so he wanted to talk about some things the county accomplished this year.

That included reducing health insurance premiums, nearing completion of an 18-month jail study, leading to the development of the final plan for the presentation for the April 2013 election to build a new jail.

They also managed to get state legislation to allow the county to purchase 10-acres of proprty belonging to Hutchinson Correctional Facility for the new jail, subject to voter approval to build a new jail.

They also accepted and restructured the former section of K-14 and K-61 highways into the county road system. Receiving 3.4-million for future road improvements.

Deming also noted that they maintained county services without increasing the county property tax levy for a second consecutive year.

As we have mentioned recently, they also approved applying for a K-DOT 80% grant to enable a bike lane to be constructed along the old K-61 Highway between 43rd and 82nd streets, linking the Dillon Nature Center, the Sand Hills State Park and a new north side Hutchinson city park.

They also resolved the issue of stray bullet concerns near Nickerson, Yoder, Haven and other locations along the Arkansas River by passing a prohibition against target shooting in the river bed.

And they also re-examined the county insurance cost resulting in a savings of more then 100-thousand dollars by a change in workers compensation carriers.

There are more things on the list and these are just a few of the highlights of things county officials are happy they accomplished.