Montgomery County Commissioners voted to partner with the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission to develop, distribute and tabulate a low- to moderate-income survey as a first step toward applying for a regional water Community Development Block Grant.

The partnership, approved by motion, directs the regional planning commission to create a master list of recipients, distribute the LMI survey and return tabulated results at no cost to Montgomery County; county costs would be limited to postage and any local incentives to encourage survey responses. Jonathan Bu, who presented the item to the commission, said Southeast Kansas Regional Planning will “develop a master list of people that they intend on sending a survey to” and will “tabulate the survey results and determine if LMI has been met so we can proceed with the next portion, which is the water study.”

Why it matters: meeting the LMI threshold is required under the CDBG process before Montgomery County may apply for grant funding for a regional water plant or distribution project. Bu told commissioners that state statistics list the county’s LMI at 48.8% and that the commonly cited target for eligibility is 51%, leaving a margin of roughly 2.3 percentage points that a survey could confirm or refute. Bu also emphasized the county will not pay for the planning work performed by the regional commission.

Discussion points included whether the survey will cover all rural water districts, how the regional planning commission constructs its mailing list, and how many responses will be needed for statistical validity. Commissioner questions produced no firm sample-size number in the meeting; Bu said he would follow up with the regional commission about the exact count and methodology. Bu also noted the only potential county costs would be postage and any incentive (for example, a prize drawing) to raise response rates.

The motion approved the county’s participation and authorized the partnership with Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission to conduct the LMI process; no formal funding for a water study or project was approved at this meeting. Commissioners voted in favor of the motion.