Work briefly continued on the 2020 budget Monday during the weekly meeting of the Ellsworth County commissioners.

Sheriff Murray Marston stopped in to see how much the sheriff ’s office would receive.

Commissioner Kermit Rush said Marston can expect an extra $50,000.

“That’s the best we can do,” Rush said.

He said when Marston took over the sheriff ’s office several years ago from Sheriff Tracy Ploutz, he inherited an $800,000 budget. Now that budget is $1.3 million.

“You’re over $400,000 from what you started with,” Rush told.

Marston said he still has four employees in the jail and he currently has 13 inmates. He also needs to pick up an inmate in Oregon and transport him back to Ellsworth. Marston said he is working on the details of the move.

Commissioners plan to conduct a public hearing on the 2020 budget at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 12, at the county courthouse. The budget will be published in the Aug. 1 Ellsworth County Independent-Reporter.

In other business:

• A $1,500 bid from Griffith Tree Service to remove two trees at the Ellsworth County courthouse was approved.

• Commissioner Dennis Rolfs left the meeting early to attend a funeral.

• Andrew Bair, chief executive officer of the Ellsworth County Medical Center, said Lynnette Dick, who supervises the information technology and computer systems at the hospital, is leaving ECMC to help abused young women in Manhattan get a restart in life.

Bair said Ryan Lahey, a new physician assistant at ECMC, will begin working at the Rural Health Clinics in Ellsworth, Holyrood and Lucas.

Bair said the hospital has also hired a new director of business operations. Ronald Christenson, who has been the chief financial officer at the hospital in Council Grove for 13 years, will begin his duties at ECMC in late August.

Bair said ECMC is running $1.5 million better in gross revenue this year compared to last year and is currently under budget for the year by $700,000.

Bair said the hospital plans to purchase a dual generator system (one diesel, one natural gas) from Hammeke Electric in Great Bend for $296,000. The current generator, which isn’t strong enough to meet the growing demands of the hospital, will be installed in the administration building. Bair said the hospital received a $115,000 grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation and is applying for another $25,000 grant to help pay for the generators.

Bair said the new pain relief clinic should be up and operating at ECMC by September. Jason Werth out of Manhattan will be running the clinic starting one day a week.