info, Author at Ranson Financial Group LLC

Kansas City area schools dropped COVID mask rules. Here’s why they’re required anyway

info2022-01-11T07:03:28-06:00January 11th, 2022|

Though many Kansas City area districts have moved away from mandates on masks, this week students in several schools are required to wear them anyway as COVID-19 cases surge. These districts still require masks temporarily if a certain percentage of students and staff in a school building either test positive for COVID-19 or were exposed to the virus. In the Shawnee Mission district, for example, the mask mandate ended in secondary schools last week as students returned from winter break. Yet as of Monday, all 11 of the district’s middle and high schools were requiring everyone to wear masks again, spokesman [...]

Legislators, governor agree to allocate $154 million in federal stimulus funding

info2022-01-11T07:02:54-06:00January 11th, 2022|

Gov. Laura Kelly and legislative leaders unanimously agreed Monday to dedicate $154 million in federal stimulus funding to support economic development with construction of commercial buildings and to improve resources available to low-income students struggling in school. Members of the State Finance Council, which includes Republicans and Democrats from the Senate and House, adopted a recommendation to set aside $100 million for expansion of structures needed to expand or attract businesses and jobs. The council also directed $50 million at a new program of $1,000 per-child grants to be used by families in the way most useful to students struggling through [...]

FCC latest funding will give over $5 million to 19 Kansas school districts

info2022-01-11T07:01:50-06:00January 11th, 2022|

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Monday, Jan. 10, that it is committing $361,037,156.16 in their latest wave of Emergency Connectivity Fund (EFC) Program support to schools, libraries and consortia. Out of the 859 facilities that will be receiving this current wave of funding, 19 of them are in Kansas and will receive a total of $5,520,334.64. The EFC is a $7.17 billion program that will help schools and libraries provide the tools and services their communities need to support remote learning during the COVID-19 emergency period. The EFT will help provide relief to millions of students, staff, and library [...]

Emporia hospital experiences ventilator shortage, county declares emergency

info2022-01-11T07:01:10-06:00January 11th, 2022|

Hospitals across Kansas are feeling the strain not just on staffing but on supplies as well. One hospital, in particular, ran out of ventilators on Friday as the state continued to report a surge in COVID-19 cases. On Friday, Jan. 7, a local emergency was declared for the Newman Regional Health hospital in Emporia by the Lyons County Board when they ran short of ventilators. This declaration will help the hospital receive two additional ventilators from the state. "The hospital had used all the ventilators that they had, and they were in need of some more," said Rollie Martin, chairman of [...]

Suburban multifamly boom creates a complex issue

info2022-01-11T07:00:26-06:00January 11th, 2022|

Multifamily development in Johnson County has exploded in the past decade. Lenexa alone added roughly 3,000 apartments between 2011 and 2020, and Overland Park picked up 7,000 apartment and senior-living units in that same period, with 1,355 completed just in 2021. Projects have played important roles in the county economy: helping attract residents, providing a more affordable option as house prices have increased, and complementing retail and office growth in areas such as Lenexa City Center and downtown Overland Park. But apartment growth also has come with resistance and became an issue in the Overland Park mayoral race. Source: Kansas City [...]

Dodge City public transportation fees return in February

info2022-01-11T06:59:33-06:00January 11th, 2022|

Effective Feb. 1, 2022, Dodge City will be reinstating all passenger fees for their public transportation services. Public transportation fees have been waived since June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, due to funding received from the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). According to Nick Hernandez, the City Manager of Dodge City, the ability to waive fees was made possible by the funds available through the State's Public Transportation program to help local governments and other agencies to match aid under the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Source: KSN-TV

Topeka’s new loan forgiveness program encourages investment in lower-income neighborhoods

info2022-01-10T07:31:49-06:00January 10th, 2022|

A lifetime of memories exists in the house where Kristin Miller grew up in southeast Topeka's Hi-Crest West neighborhood.... in late 2017, Miller found herself facing home repair costs she couldn't afford to cover. Fortunately, she said, she was accepted into a program through which the city's housing services division loans money to homeowners in lower-income neighborhoods to have needed work done. Source: CJonline

‘Nonrenewable resource’: As western Kansas dries up, Legislature revisits water policy

info2022-01-10T07:21:40-06:00January 10th, 2022|

For the better part of a decade, the drinking water supply for a small southwest Kansas town was almost constantly contaminated with unsafe levels of radium, a radioactive element that can cause cancer. The city of Lakin found unsafe levels of uranium in its water in 2007, said Mike Heinitz, the city’s administrator. For years, it sent quarterly notices telling residents they could be consuming high levels of uranium before opening a multimillion dollar treatment facility in 2015. Now, Lakin’s water meets federal standards. But neighboring Deerfield, downstream on the Arkansas River, might have to pipe in water from Lakin for [...]

Johnson County says close contact tracing of COVID-19 in schools ‘no longer feasible’

info2022-01-10T07:12:23-06:00January 10th, 2022|

Amid a record surge in COVID-19 cases, the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment has told local school districts that “intensive contact tracing within schools is no longer feasible.” The flood of new cases, fueled in part by the highly contagious Omicron variant, has made it practically impossible for JCDHE officials and school nurses to keep up with the often time-consuming task of tracking down who an infected person may have been in contact with. JCDHE says, instead, priority should now be given to identifying positive cases and isolating them. Source: Shawnee Mission Post

Four-lane expressway project begins in Cherokee County

info2022-01-10T07:06:07-06:00January 9th, 2022|

Road expansion is underway in Cherokee County. The Kansas Department of Transportation is creating a four-lane expressway along U-S 166. The project will be constructed between the highways junctions with U-S 400 and K-26. There will also be interchanges constructed at each of the junctions. Traffic is not expected to be impacted during the early phase of the project, which includes equipment staging, clearing and bridgework. KDOT will provide traffic updates over the course of the project which is anticipated to be completed by May 2024. Source: KSNF/KODE

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