info, Author at Ranson Financial Group LLC

Merriam approves one-time employee retention bonus amid staffing shortage

info2022-03-16T22:55:58-05:00March 16th, 2022|

The Merriam City Council on Monday approved a one-time, approximately $300,000 employee retention bonus. Why it matters: Merriam is experiencing staffing shortages — just like other cities, and even hospitals and school districts. The city is seeing fewer applicants to fill vacancies, particularly in the public works and police departments, according to city documents. City Administrator Chris Engel said the city traditionally faces competition from other local government agencies. Now, he said, it’s gotten to the point where the city is competing with Hy-Vee for police officers. Source: Prairie Village Post

Governor joins effort in asking for $50 million for rural housing

info2022-03-16T22:50:31-05:00March 16th, 2022|

Gov. Laura Kelly is getting behind efforts of a broad coalition of business and government interests to get the Legislature to approve $50 million to help solve a rural housing shortage. The governor announced a $50 million budget amendment on Tuesday that would be transferred to the State Housing Trust Fund administered by the Kansas Housing Resource Corp. Source: Sunflower State Journal

City to-do list has hefty price tag

info2022-03-16T22:49:04-05:00March 16th, 2022|

Iola city leaders crossed several big-ticket items off their to-do lists Monday, totaling more than $978,000. The first was a bid of $145,000 to PAR Electrical, Inc., out of Kansas City, Mo., to install three 69kV power poles. The PAR bid was the lowest of three for the laminated, cambered wood poles. The Council approved the pole purchase in November. Monday’s action was for installation. As an aside, the poles arrived Monday prior to the meeting, said Mike Phillips, power plant supervisor. NEXT up was a $543,500 expenditure to Peaker Services, Inc., out of Brighton, Miss., to upgrade the MED controls [...]

Humboldt gets to work on projects

info2022-03-16T22:47:37-05:00March 16th, 2022|

City leaders took official steps Monday night to get the ball rolling on two big projects. First, they approved a Community Development Block Grant for $700,000 for street improvements. The State of Kansas, through the Department of Commerce, will shoulder $492,086 of the expenses; Humboldt, $210,894. About 44 blocks of downtown Humboldt are slated for work. Bruce Boettcher of BG Consultants is overseeing the work. The planning of the project is complete, Boettcher said, with the design phase to be next. Council members also approved a public hearing for April 11 to discuss the funding of a $13 million upgrade to [...]

City hears ideas for improvement, transparancy

info2022-03-17T22:08:51-05:00March 16th, 2022|

Ideas to improve the appearance of the city of Marysville were brought to City Council Monday night by local residents Diane Schroller and Darlene Boss. The women, who are both former city council members, asked the council to improve education about basic provisions of the city code, help citizens understand how and by whom the code is enforced, give out more information about the city’s sidewalk replacement and removal of blighted property programs and to begin a program to monitor the condition of the city’s trees. Schroller and Boss said they would be willing to be part of a committee to [...]

Salina to purchase ‘Butterfly Tree’ sculpture, placed it near library

info2022-03-16T07:41:35-05:00March 16th, 2022|

A sculpture that was part of the 2021 Sculpture Tour in downtown Salina will have a new home by the Salina Public Library after it was selected as the People’s Choice. “Butterfly Tree,” by Reven Marie Swanson of Colorado, was the people’s selection and is set to be purchased by the City of Salina after approval by the City Commission Monday. Brad Anderson, director of the Salina Arts and Humanities Department, said the city has purchased the People’s Choice every year since 2011, making this the 12th piece bought by the city and added to its public collection for display. Source: [...]

Hutchinson’s shortage of hotel rooms causes economic loss

info2022-03-16T07:40:25-05:00March 16th, 2022|

... for a second consecutive year, more than a third of the teams in the [National Junior College men’s basketball] tournament are having to stay in hotels outside of Hutchinson because of not enough rooms locally. No studies have been done locally to determine the economic impact of the tournament on Hutchinson, but some from other sites hosting NJCAA tournaments for other sports estimate their impact at anywhere from $1.5 million to $4 million. Even at the low end, that means the impact of those teams not staying in Hutchinson is potentially a $500,000 to $750,000 loss for local businesses during [...]

Kansas schools are bringing people from outside the classroom to teach during staffing crunch

info2022-03-16T07:38:32-05:00March 16th, 2022|

Teaching wasn’t always the plan for Lindsey Kepka, the business teacher at Avenue A School in Hutchinson, but after 10 years into a business career, she decided to switch paths. She specialized in philanthropy and finance during her career, but after re-evaluating her impact on the community, she enrolled in the Transition to Teaching program at Fort Hays State University two years ago.... As Kansas schools address teacher shortages, more districts are looking to restricted license programs — university programs meant to train industry veterans like Kepka from outside the education industry to be teachers — to help staff high school [...]

Municipal Bond Trends for March 15, 2022

info2022-03-16T07:37:03-05:00March 16th, 2022|

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS "investment grade" yields. Every issuer's credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman and Beth Warren.

Forecasters see growing chance of a recession as Fed hikes rates this year to fight inflation

info2022-03-15T22:37:31-05:00March 15th, 2022|

Forecasters have raised their outlooks for a recession and boosted their inflation outlook as the Federal Reserve faces the quandary of fast-rising prices and greater uncertainty from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to the latest CNBC Fed Survey. The probability of recession in the US was raised to 33% in the next 12 months, up 10 percentage points from the Feb. 1 survey. The chance of a recession in Europe stands at 50%. Respondents debated whether the recent surge in commodity prices would prompt the Fed to raise rates faster because it adds to inflation or raise rates less because they [...]

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