The Geary County Commission has adopted a new employee residency policy.

In the past the employees have been required to live within 30 miles of the work site.  That will no longer the case.

Commission Chair Ben Bennett explained the change is due to the “difficulty in finding qualified people for qualified positions, and the fact that nobody else is doing it now. Everybody is moving away from that.”

A check with eight other counties in Kansas revealed no one with the 30-mile requirement, except for Riley County, who requires members of the police department to live within 30 miles, and Seward County, who requires Sheriff’s Department employees to live within 30 miles.

In the future the new policy for Geary County said that if two candidates are equally qualified, preference will be given to Geary County residents. Also, certain positions may be subject to response time restrictions. In those cases employees shall be notified by their department head of the requirement. The employee will be required then, to comply with the requirement within 90 days after notification.