Ellsworth residents are being asked to voluntarily reduce water use as part of the water watch the Ellsworth City Council declared during its April 10 meeting.

“It’s voluntary conservation measures,” City Administrator Dustin Stambaugh said. “We’re trying to be ahead of the curve, get the conversation going. Right now, we’re trying to be smart, not disrupt people’s lives too much.”

Residents are asked to limit or eliminate non-essential water use, including watering lawns, shrubs, trees or golf courses, washing automobiles, use in swimming pools or fountains and evaporation air conditioning systems.

“We don’t have all of this figured out yet, but we’re trying to be good stewards of the water,” Stambaugh said. “We did make the decision to shut down the splash pad. We’re keeping the pool open because the people pay for that.”

Finding the right balance is delicate. “At first I wanted to do no watering of the ballfields,” Stambaugh said. “Ron (Tenbrink, Ellsworth Recreation Department director) told me they would spend more money.”

The added expense would come from re-seeding parched fields, an expense the city would not incur if it provided minimal water for the fields.

“I said to be smart about it, just a couple times a week,” Stambaugh said. “We

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need to set the example.”

The same goes for the trees downtown.

“We will water once a week just to keep them alive,” Stambaugh said. “I know the businesses paid a lot of money for the streetscape. We’re trying to balance city beautification with conserving water.”

The golf course will also receive minimal watering.

Over the weekend, storms passed through the central Kansas region, delivering a splash of water on Ellsworth.

Bill Evans said his house measured about a half an inch.

“I also had little bitty hail, about marble-sized,” he said.

Evans’ gauge had more rain than his next-door neighbor, who only saw about 30-hundredths of an inch.

“It was a very spotty shower,” Evans said.

Craig Dinkel, District crop production and horticulture extension agent for the K-State Research Extension Midway District, said he had minimal rain as well, at about 30-hundredths of an inch.

“It doesn’t go very far,” he said of the sprinkle. “Our deficits have kept growing. It’s been about six or seven months since we received a half inch of moisture. We’re sitting at nine months since we’ve received three-quarters of an inch of rain. We have been dry all winter. We were never in the area that caught any snow.”

In the last 365 days, Dinkel said Ellsworth is 12 inches below normal for moisture, and the previous year was also considered a dry one.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor website, Ellsworth County is in a drought, ranging from exceptional drought (the most severe classification) in the southwest corner of the county to moderate drought in the very northeast tip of the county.

“On the farming side, it’s not looking too great for our wheat crop,” Dinkel said. “We were lucky enough to have enough moisture in the fall to get the wheat established and growing and it came through the winter, but since we haven’t received any moisture, it’s stalled out and showing moisture stress. The outlook on the wheat crop is grim without any significant moisture in the forecast.”

It isn’t only the wheat farmers are concerned about.

“Since we have about a 12-inch deficit, even for our crops that will be planted — soybeans, sorghum and corn — the soil moisture profile isn’t there like it normally is,” Dinkel said. “We’ll be starting out dry for those crops. In my lifetime, this is the driest I’ve seen it.”