A trio of SRS officials appeared before the Kiowa County Commission Monday to make clear their agency plans to be back in Greensburg in a permanent setting, within the next 18 months if possible.
   Following the May 4, 2007 tornadic destruction of the former SRS office on North Main, directly across the street from the former Signal office, SRS services for the county have been directed out of a trailer on the grounds of the Iroquois Center for Human Development.  The government agency has permission to remain at that site until at least January of 2010.
   Operations Director David Kurt said the agency would be looking for a facility of “around 1,500 square feet.”  Kurt said SRS administration would be looking to contract with an entity to build a structure and then lease the space on a long-term basis.  “The State doesn’t generally buy buildings,” he commented.
   Regional Supervisor Shari Campbell said she’d met in May with Greensburg City Administrator Steve Hewitt about the matter, Hewitt having told her he “thought it would be good if we could be located in the downtown area.”
   Commission Chair Gene West said such a location would be his personal preference.
   Kansas House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney added, “They could rent space from a County facility if it were available,” prompting West to comment, “Our (rebuilding) plans for the County are already pretty far along.”  West later suggested the group “look into leasing a portion of the new Masonic Lodge that’s going up on the former Dillons site.”  Other possibilities suggested included SRS purchasing the county-owned land that formerly housed the county library, or the lot owned by Greensburg State Bank upon which the commission’s meeting module currently sits.
   West told Campbell that in the event of SRS contracting for a new structure, he’d like to “see it at least LEED Certified.”  Campbell replied “that’s a probability just because of the energy savings we’d have…We can set minimum standards for that when we specify what we want for a building.  Maybe even Silver or Gold would be possible.”
In other matters…
  *Local economic developer Jeanette Siemens dropped by, apologizing for not having been by since April because of a recent bout of battling cancer.  Siemens told commissioners she and the City had heard from “a number of businesses interested in locating” in Greensburg and Kiowa County.
   “We’re working with five or six viable businesses right now,” she said.  “Two are in manufacturing, and a couple more are in service and at least one is energy related.”  She went on to say she thought the commitment of both the City of Greensburg and County to “build green are playing a big role in all these businesses being interested in coming here.”  She also stressed her office is continuing to work with existing businesses in “being able to stay.  They are the backbone of the community.”
   Siemens also mentioned there have been more applicants for the business incubator than there is space for, and that she hopes the structure will be ready for occupancy by “the end of the year.”  She said she continues to “get a lot of calls from people interested in moving here, and I’m trying to connect them with possible jobs.”  She also thanked the commission for having passed a resolution of support for the coming economic development board, and that she’s hopeful members of that board can be appointed within the next two weeks.
   Commissioner Don Richards asked Siemens if she’d heard of Pamida, a chain of department stores located in the Midwest and Central Western U.S., having been interested in locating in Greensburg with a pharmacy.  Richards said a spokesman had recently spoken to him of the possibility and that they were concerned over the possibility of another business planning on locating a pharmacy in town.
   “Dillons says they’re 99.9 percent sure they won’t put in a pharmacy,” Siemens said.  “John Bays (Dillons President) has said he thinks he could get an assurance on that from corporate.  The sticking point is getting a pharmacist to commit to coming here for any length of time; they’re in such demand right now.  Economic Development would like to get a three to five year commitment from a pharmacist to make this work.”
   With over 200 stores currently, Pamida has five locations in Kansas—in Larned, Lyons, Norton, Seneca and Smith Center—each of which has a pharmacy.  Siemens said she’d follow up on the Pamida interest in Greensburg.
  *Road and Bridge Superintendent Doyle Conrad asked about the possibility of hiring an individual full time at $8.25 an hour to help at the south landfill.  He was directed by the commission to advertise for the position twice in The Signal before proceeding on the matter.
   *Kendal Lothman, long-term recovery assistant director, said the City of Greensburg had told him it would need stamped engineering drawings of the portable, stretched fabric building the County plans putting over the slab of the former Recycling Building as a winter shop for Road and Bridge in order to issue a permit, at a cost of around $2,000.  He went on to say MVP and PEC would “do them for us for nothing, so we should be good to go on that.”
   “So much for cooperation,” Commissioner Earl Liggett muttered in reference to
 the City being unwilling to waive the drawings requirement for the County.