TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) House and Senate budget negotiators say they have agreed to provide funding for a financially struggling ranch for troubled boys in Sedgwick County.
County officials have said they would consider closing the Judge James V. Riddel Boys Ranch a Lake Afton if it did not receive some state funding. They said Thursday that assurances the state would appropriate $750,000 to the ranch would keep the facility open.
Lawmakers still have to finalize the budget. But The Wichita Eagle reports chairmen of both House and Senate committees guaranteed that the money for the ranch will be in the final spending plan.
The state appropriation will be about 27 percent of the annual operating budget for the Boys Ranch, which provides life-skills training, education and counseling for troubled boys.
