The impact of Fort Riley on the social services that must be provided by Geary County drew attention during a County Commission meeting with the area legislative delegation on Monday.

During a discussion on juvenile care, Commissioner Florence Whitebread asked why isn’t Fort Riley funding some of those costs….adding it’s not fair. “Fort Riley brings us a lot of trade and a lot of business, but they also bring us a lot of social services. We have a lot of children in need of care, we have people in the jail, we have people in the juvenile center, we have wrecks. A lot of them are connected with service personnel. So naturally, we’re talking about the county attorney’s office, community corrections, the court service, all those departments, and it really ups our tax bill.”

Discussion with the legislators led to a consensus on their part to ask state legislative researchers to find out what other posts have done to address the problem.

The Commission was encouraged by State Senator Tom Hawk to collect data as well on the amount of funding that has to come from the Geary County taxpayers.