The Warren County Commissioners have moved ahead with a proposal to explore the feasibility of resettling Ukrainian refugees in the county.

An agreement with MCM Consulting was approved during Wednesday’s meeting.

“From a public perception perspective, this is more of a community feasibility review,” Commissioner Tricia Durbin said, “to see what type of resources we have in the county, what type of services we would be lacking or have plenty of.”

She said there was no maximum amount listed in the contract for the work and suggested a capo of $3,000.

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said he has reached out to “some community members who I thought would be excellent liaison to help facilitate the conversation.”

Regardless of those requests, though, he said he “would like to have MCM basically do a risk analysis, come up with mitigation efforts in order to continue” work on the plan.

Durbin said she has “gotten a lot of positive feedback” from people, including people offering their services or their home and “all kinds of things to make this a success if it is feasible.”

Kafferlin said the Department of Homeland Security is this week opening a portal to start accepting refugee applications.

After the commissioners approved the agreement, Kafferlin took the opportunity to address a “misunderstanding” regarding the county’s role in this process.

“I really see the non-government organizations, the churches, individual organizations being the ones that truly do the work,” he said, arguing that county government is not “very well adept” to “love individual persons.”

“We really need to lean on organizations such as the churches,” he stressed. “They’re the ones willing to put up financial resources, housing, transportation.”

He said the county’s role is to “work together as a cohesive group” to have a bigger impact, especially working with the federal government.