Two more budget requests for 2020 were presented to the Ellsworth County commissioners Monday during the weekly meeting at the county courthouse.

Pamela Hays of the Ellsworth County Conservation District, along with district board members Troy Soukup and Bernard Habiger, presented a $32,000 budget request for 2020.

Hays said the amount of the request is the same the district requested for 2019.

Michelle Brokes of the Ellsworth County Fair Association requested $18,000 for 2020 — $200 less than the $18,200 she requested for 2019. However, Brokes said the commissioners ended up giving the fair association only $16,200 for 2019.

“We’ll stretch it as far as we can,” said Commission chairman Steve Dlabal.

In other business:

• Following last week’s discussion, the commissioners approved the $100,424 purchase of a new Mohawk Scotch Marie boiler from American Boiler and Mechanical in Salina for the courthouse. The funds for the purchase will be taken out of the county’s equipment reserve fund.

• Stacie Schmidt of the Smoky Hill Development Corporation said thanks to a grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation through the North Central Regional Planning Commission in Beloit, up to eight new homeowners in Ellsworth County and also Lincoln Counties will be able to apply for up to $10,000 in down payment assistance at zero percent interest and up to $2,000 for closing costs.

“That’s really good stuff for our homeowners,” she said.

Schmidt also said Ellsworth County has been designated an E- Community. The designation allows entrepreneurship to be furthered in the county through gap funding. For example, the gap funding will pay the difference in the amount lent by financial institutions and the total amount needed for a project.

“We can carry up to 60 percent of the loan funding,” she said.

Schmidt also said under the E-Community program, businesses in Ellsworth County will be offered training in marketing and retention.

Third, Schmidt said Ellsworth is slated to receive 12 single family, low income rental homes with Kanopolis receiving two homes under a building project spearheaded by Pete Ramsel of the Pointe Royale development team.

Schmidt said the Ellsworth homes will be built in the Canren Addition near the Good Samaritan Society, Ellsworth Village.

• Rick Nondorf, county road and bridge superintendent, said his crew is preparing to start overlaying of county roads from Lorraine northward. As such, no other activities, such as the blading of roads, mowing, etc., will take place for at least two weeks.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth County commissioners will be at 9 a.m. Monday, June 17, at the county courthouse.