A discussion of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program dominated the agenda at the May 24 meeting of the Ellsworth County commissioners.

Carl Miller, county appraiser, said the NRP, which has been in existence since 2008, is a refund of the property taxes to the property owner which would otherwise be payable on the actual value added to a property due to a qualified improvement made (be it new construction or rehabilitation of an existing structure).

The current NRP ends Dec. 31.

Miller plans to meet with the county and other participants — the Cities of Ellsworth, Kanopolis, Holyrood, Wilson and Lorraine, along with the Ellsworth-Kanopolis-Geneseo USD 327, the Central Plains USD 112 — to review the program and encourage discussion.

“It’s been a very good program,” Miller said to the commissioners. “I would like to see you renew it.”

The new five-year plan would begin Jan. 1, 2022 and run until Dec. 31, 2026.

Miller said once he has met with each one of the participants, he will bring the plan, along with any changes each entity might want to include, back to the commissioners for approval. The commissioners will then sign an interlocal agreement to initiate the new NRP.

In other business:

• Ron Etchison of the Ellsworth County Council on Aging said he sent a letter to the North Central Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging in Manhattan requesting the $7,491 paid by the county in 2021 as payment for a past balance be forgiven for the fiscal years 2016-20.

He also requested that sum, which pays for expenses associated with the Senior Care Act, be included in the Ellsworth County Council on Aging’s annual budget.

Etchison received a response indicating the $7,491 be taken out of Ellsworth County’s share of the American Recovery Plan Act funds. A second response Etchison received from the area agency proposed that the $7,491 be forgiven if the ECCA would pay $7,500 to cover COVID expenses.