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Conflict over urban expansion into rural areas of Johnson County has inspired an effort in the Kansas Legislature to restrict city annexation authority elsewhere, including for Topeka, at a time when the capital city is looking to grow. Source: CJonline

The Federal Reserve in a closely watched decision Wednesday held the line on benchmark interest rates though still indicated that reductions are likely later in the year. Faced with pressing concerns over the impact tariffs will have on a slowing economy, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee kept its key borrowing rate targeted in a range between 4.25%-4.5%, where it has been since December. Markets had been pricing in virtually zero chance of a move at this week's two-day policy meeting. Along with the decision, officials updated their rate and economic projections for this year and through 2027 and altered the [...]

Wichita took steps this week to protect its public drinking water supply in case of a catastrophic failure at its new $574 million water treatment plant. The new plant — Wichita Water Works — is expected to be certified and permitted for safe operation within the next few months. It would replace the city’s Main Water Treatment Plant as the sole provider of drinking water for about 500,000 residents. Demolishing or mothballing the old plant would have undercut a major reason the city built the new plant: to address concerns that its water plant is a single point of failure, meaning [...]

After much back and forth, the Wichita City Council has approved a law that allows golf carts to be driven on some city streets. In January, the council passed a more restrictive ordinance, then withdrew it and sought feedback from residents at district advisory board meetings. “This will save police time. It’ll legalize golf carts so police don’t have to go out when somebody calls and says ‘somebody’s riding a golf cart,’” councilmember J.V. Johnston said. State law prohibits the use of golf carts on city streets unless a city passes its own ordinance regulating golf cart use. The new ordinance [...]

After months of pushing back and forth between Peabody Main Street Association and Kansas Department of Commerce, the two have resolved their differences and Main Street will get the second half of a grant awarded in 2023. Lt. Gov. David Toland announced last week that Commerce would pay out the second half of Main Street’s $1.5 million COVID-19-era Building a Stronger Economy grant. The grant came into dispute after Commerce learned the grant was being administered by a former Commerce employee and convicted felon still on probation in Pennsylvania for forgery, theft, and attempted theft. The former employee, Jonathan Clayton, still [...]

If there were any qualms about support for rebuilding a local nursing home destroyed in a Friday fire, those were answered emphatically when more than 70 locals crammed into the fire station for a special Yates Center City Council meeting. Yates Center Health and Rehab was destroyed after a nearby grass fire, fueled by wind gusts in excess of 50 mph, quickly consumed the facility. All 38 residents were safely evacuated, and transported to other nursing homes in the area. Monday’s meeting, as much as anything, served as a rallying cry for the community, and for a brainstorming session as to [...]

Experiences of local tenants prompted Lawrence city commissioners to pursue creation of a tenant bill of rights, and to explore what it would take to ensure tenants can have legal counsel. Those discussions — among other possible actions — are still in early stages, but the first step came with a presentation to the commission Tuesday evening. Lea Roselyn, the city’s affordable housing administrator; Christina Holt, assistant director of KU’s Center for Community Health and Development; and Vince Munoz, of Lawrence Tenants, presented results of a Lawrence and Douglas County tenant survey. The survey is the work of LiveWell Douglas County’s Sexual Violence [...]

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday voted to change occupancy limits to allow a maximum of four unrelated adults per household in the least dense areas of town, and a maximum of five in the rest of town. The city’s new land development code was created over a two-plus-year process, with a 14-member steering committee and several public meetings. Commissioners approved it in November, and it’s set to go into effect in April. The code aims, among other things, to improve affordability and availability of housing. One way it intended to do that was by increasing the occupancy limit in some neighborhoods from [...]

The Kansas Senate Committee on Assessment and Taxation restored the revenue-neutral transparency protections to a bill passed by the Kansas House of Representatives by a vote of 115-6. The bill would have rewarded local governments for raising taxes while stripping those provisions from property tax increases. House Bill 2396 removed the “Truth in Taxation” bill’s revenue-neutral requirements — which require county clerks to send notices to taxpayers of every taxing subdivision notifying them of a proposed increase and the time and date of a hearing at which the entire tax increase would be voted upon. HB2396 instead would have replaced those [...]

Sunflower Electric Power Corporation announces the construction of its newest renewable energy resource, the Sunflower Electric Solar @ Russell facility, is complete. The commissioning process and initial synchronization to the electric grid are now underway, marking a significant step forward in Sunflower’s commitment to supplying reliable, cost-effective energy to its member utilities. Source: Homepage