Kansas County Bows Out of Regional Planning Effort, Citing Federal Intrusion

United Nations goon squads won't be forcing drivers in Sumner County, Kansas, out of their cars any time soon, after county commissioners voted not to join as official partners in a five-county regional planning effort. Commissioner Dave Unruh of Sedgwick County, which joined the planning grant over the opposition of two commissioners, told the Witchita Eagle that the concerns were motivated by fear that the planning grant was part of an Agenda 21 plot.

"'They think they can connect to the dots to all that,' Unruh said of opponents' drawing parallels between the grant and Agenda 21. 'It's a difficult conversation. They have stimulated concern among the Farm Bureau that the government is going to come in and confiscate their farmland.'"

"A lot of folks get emotional, and they are just assuming this is the beginning of world-centralized government that is going to be oppressive," said Unruh.

He sees the grant simply as an "effort to make decisions about our future for us and our future generations that will save money, conserve resources and be the best solutions for all the folks in our region."

Sedgwick County Commissioner Richard Ranzau, who recently attended a National Association of Counties meeting in Pittsburgh to advocate for an anti-Agenda 21 resolution, said his intent was to kill the regional planning effort.

The grant, which comes from the "U.S. Department of Health [sic] and Urban Development," will move forward with four other counties as official partners. The vote to not officially join does not prevent Sumner County from participating in the effort.

Thanks to Rachel Proctor May