Sedgwick County commissioners have voted to approve a lease agreement for a building in downtown Wichita for a three-year-period.   The Ruffin Building at Douglas and Broadway will be used for the commission offices, the County Manager, the Clerk, the Treasurer, the Register of Deeds, the County Counselor, and the communications department. The move will free space in the courthouse for an expansion of courthouse space and the creation of more space for the District Attorney.  The expansion project is expected to begin later this year and would be finished in the spring of 2023.   It will allow the District Court to address a backlog of cases and provide space for a veterans’ court, a mental health court, and the addition of two judges and a magistrate judge.
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI

A study on litter from Wichita State’s Environment Finance Center suggests there is room for improvement. The study was put together after people in the community voiced concern about the number of plastic bags seen floating around. People involved in this study looked at 12 city parks across Wichita, which came out to two parks per city council district. Study leaders say their findings were close to what was expected. “Wichita is a unique place, but our litter certainly is not unique,” said Michelle DeHaven, program manager at the EFC. “When we compare it to other litter studies, our study showed that Wichita’s litter is similar to what communities are experiencing across the country.” Of all the trash collected during pickup events, 47% was single-use plastics. “The majority of the plastic that we found was food and beverage containers — water bottles, Gatorade-type drinks, soda bottles, alcohol bottles, chip bags and wrappers that come off convenience foods at gas stations,” DeHaven said. “A second runner up was cigarette butts. We found cigarette butts all over the place.”
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI

Many Kansas legislators want to make sure that counties don’t change the longstanding tradition of electing sheriffs by enshrining the policy in the state constitution. The Republican-controlled state House gave first-round approval Tuesday to a proposal to add language to the Kansas Constitution’s short article on county government to ensure that sheriffs are elected to four-year terms. A final vote was expected Wednesday. Only Riley County out of the state’s 105 counties doesn’t elect a sheriff. However, a commission in the state’s most populous county of Johnson County reviewed a proposal to appoint their sheriff, but ultimately decided against the change.
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI