Coffey County reviews year-end transfers and reserves; mental-wellness account to hold $230,000 as proposed

County finance staff presented potential year-end transfers and proposed allocations among reserve funds, telling commissioners the county must consider an approximately $1 million annual deposit for radio-system maintenance and other capital projects.

Staff explained proposed moves among capital improvement, equipment reserve and community improvement funds. They recommended earmarking roughly $1 million from capital outlay for the capital improvement reserve (cited as the usual deposit to cover radio tower system costs) and suggested splitting a community-improvement balance to bolster both a community-improvement reserve and the equipment reserve for unplanned needs.

Staff provided department-level breakdowns for equipment reserves, noting examples such as an appraiser contribution of $33,000 and an entry for GIS. Commissioners asked for more projection work from the treasurer and appraiser on tax collections to anticipate first-, second- and third-quarter revenues and to avoid future shortfalls.

The board also reviewed the status of mental-wellness funding. Staff said $230,000 currently sits in the general fund attributable to mental-wellness resources and recommended moving $230,000 to a designated mental-health account so the funds are available for the board and the local mental-health board to spend as approved. Commissioners discussed likely near-term requests for training, Narcan purchases and other programmatic costs and indicated they expected additional expenditure requests once the mental-wellness board is operational.

Staff said they would finalize numbers, prepare resolutions and have the routine year-end paperwork ready for the commission to sign at the next session.