HUTCHINSON, Kan. — While the canvassing of provisional ballots across most of Kansas has decided the republican nomination for Governor, there is still one race in Reno County that is yet to be decided.

The Reno County canvass of votes will decide the 104th house seat, currently held by Steven Becker. Becker trails challenger Paul Waggoner by five votes after the primary, and the count of mail in ballots.

County Elections Clerk, Jenna Fager talks about what they look for when they canvass vote:

Fager gives some of the reasons provisional ballots are either accepted or rejected:

The County will go through 204 provisional ballots during the canvass Thursday morning, with 65 of those that could affect the 104th district race.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The future of the Hutchinson City Sculpture Walk program is still unknown and its future may exist only if changes to the program are made.

This comes after a proposal between the City and the Hutchinson Art Center of a take over was turned down. The art center stated that they simply had too many other things they needed to support to take on another project.

Assistant City Manager Meryl Dye, says a decision where the program goes from here could come during the city art design council in September.

One way the program could continue is to establish a sculpture loan program and have the Hutchinson Parks Department run it. Dye says a stipend to offset costs to the artist would be made available, and such sculptures would be on loan to the city for a period of one year.

Anyone interested in a piece of art could still purchase it, but that would be between the artist and the buyer. The stipend would cost far less than the incentive and cash awards program that was in place at the start of the program.

The arts program was spearheaded by Dye, starting in 2012 to bring artwork to the downtown area.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The appointment of Robin Jennison ends a long process of finding a replacement for Susan Sankey.

State Fair Board President Virginia Crossland-Macha, says the search came about from a closer look at what they wanted in a new GM:

The board approved the appointment of Jennison after interviewing three finalists, and then negotiating with their selection since last Thursday.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Despite the recent rain in the central part of Kansas, a wide area including Reno County is still under a drought emergency.

Reno County, along with McPherson, Harvey, Kingman and Pratt Counties are among 72 that remain under the emergency. The designation allows for those areas to continue to use water from certain state fishing lakes. Those counties also become eligible for water in some Federal reservoirs.

According to a release from the state, the Governor’s Drought Response Team will continue to watch the situation closely and work to minimize effects the drought has on Kansans.

While the rain has been off-and-on the past week in the area, the scattered nature of the weather has left some areas with far less moisture than others.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Commissioners with a light agenda to go over Tuesday.

The Board did some clean up work with Community Corrections on their policies. According to County Administrator Gary Meagher, some of the policies were outdated or no longer the operations of the department.

The Board also approved the contract with Miller Homebuilders for construction of a new maintenance building for the weed department at a cost of $46,472.

The Commission approved a date of September 18 for the canvas of votes for the Highlands’ special election. The new community needs to have an election to surpass the state’s tax lid, even though they’ve never had a budget before.

The election will be held Thursday, September 13.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The appointment of Robin Jennison to the General Managers position with the State Fair, means that Interim GM Bob Moeder will be stepping down after this years fair. Moeder took time to comment on his nearly 1-year-long run as GM:

While Moeder will be leading this year’s fair he says he is looking forward to some time off once the event is over:

Moeder credits the employees and staff of the fair for getting so many things accomplished over the past year. This including the new sales tax bill and the continued acquisition of better technology for the fair grounds.