In January 2022, the Barton County Commission changed its meeting dates from Tuesdays to Wednesdays to accommodate County Counselor Patrick Hoffman, who had just also been named the Reno County counselor and they met on Tuesdays.

However, “yesterday, Reno County voted to move their meetings, starting in July, to Wednesday,” Hoffman said  Wednesday morning. “So you guys would have the option of going back to Tuesday.”

There was no action taken, and Hoffman’s announcement wasn’t even an agenda item, but there was interest among commissioners. He just brought it up so they were aware and could start pondering the idea.

“Really, I just want to say ‘thank you’ again for being flexible,” he said. “Thank you for accommodating my schedule and I’m really glad that we’ve got it all worked out.”

Commission Chairman Shawn Hutchinson, District 3, said if anything changes, it wouldn’t happen until after Reno County makes the switch this summer. 

As a side note, by that time, the Courthouse HVAC project will be in full swing, and the commission will meet in the former JC  Penney building at 1500 Kansas. This location, along with the building at 1709 Main, will house county offices for a year until the work is complete. 

When commissioners made the move to Wednesdays, it marked the second time in about five months meeting days were changed. They were moved from Mondays to Tuesdays in August 2021.

The meetings had been on Monday mornings for decades. But many of the commissioners had full-time jobs and were playing catch-up on Mondays, and many county department heads needed more time to prepare.

This prompted the switch to Tuesdays.

They would still meet at 9 a.m. in their Courthouse chambers, 1400 Main in Great Bend.