info, Author at Ranson Financial Group LLC

Iola raises pay 5.9%

info2021-10-27T06:59:41-05:00October 27th, 2021|

Christmas came early for Iola city employees Monday night. Council members approved a 5.9% cost of living adjustment to employee paychecks next year, mirroring the same increases Social Security recipients will receive next year. The city traditionally has tied its COLA to the Social Security Index. Next year’s raise is the largest in the past 20 years. The last time COLAs were north of 5% was in 2009, when raises were 5.8%. While the raises are above what the Council planned when setting the 2022 budget earlier this year, with insurance premiums rising only about 1.3% next year, the city should [...]

How a meatpacking plant changed one Kansas town 40 years ago and left a Colorado community behind

info2021-10-27T07:01:14-05:00October 27th, 2021|

Garden City and Lamar share the same river, the same highway, the same railroad line and the same Dust Bowl past. And through the 1960s, they were roughly the same size. But the population of Finney County — home to Garden City — has doubled since 1970. It’s now over 38,000. The number of people living in Prowers County — home to Lamar — has slowly slipped under 12,000. Larry Jones has watched the transformation of western Kansas’ largest city from his farm and cattle company that sits just outside of town. “If you’d been here 20 years ago and looked [...]

Andover voters to decide on proposed sales tax

info2021-10-27T00:24:13-05:00October 27th, 2021|

A question for a one cent sales tax will be on the Nov. 2 ballot for Andover voters. The sales tax will sunset in no later than eight years. The proceeds of the sales tax will pay for the purchase of a second fire station, a remodel of the existing fire station, and a complete teardown and renovation of the 13th Street Sports Park. A fire station south of US54 is important as the city continues to grow and especially as the expansion of US54 comes nearer, the city said in a release. The park reconstruction will add an additional baseball/softball [...]

Ordinance approved to address homeless living downtown

info2021-10-27T00:19:48-05:00October 27th, 2021|

City commissioners on Oct. 19 approved a nuisance ordinance, which, according to the mayor, gives the city authority to take action against homeless people camping and blocking downtown businesses. Source: Fort Scott Tribune

Barton County Commission wants to get tough with state

info2021-10-27T07:06:32-05:00October 27th, 2021|

In recapping last week’s Kansas Association Of Counties annual meeting, Barton County officials who attended returned with a handful of key takeaways, and the review of these led to passionate discussion amongst county commissioners when they met Tuesday morning at the courthouse.... In addition to the educational workshops and vendor exhibits, the KAC’s Legislative Policy Statement was finalized. It was the soft-handed tone of this statement that sparked frustrations for commissioners. “The KAC needs to be tougher on the state,” said District 3 Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson, who was Barton County’s voting delegate and attended along with District 2 Commissioner Barb Esfeld. [...]

Parents took a fight against masks in schools to the Kansas Supreme Court, and an entire law is at stake

info2021-10-27T07:07:00-05:00October 27th, 2021|

Parents took a fight over school masks in the Shawnee Mission School District to the Kansas Supreme Court Tuesday, and a controversial law limiting state and local pandemic responses is hanging in the balance. Oral arguments over the constitutionality of Senate Bill 40 focused on due process, the timeliness of the challenge and whether a district court ruling calling the law unconstitutional should be overturned. At the heart of the lawsuit is a bill fueled by Republican dissatisfaction with Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The GOP had been pushing back against Kelly’s actions, like closing businesses early [...]

‘Reframing Topeka’ meetings discuss ways to improve the city

info2021-10-27T07:07:15-05:00October 27th, 2021|

A project called "Reframing Topeka" is looking to make the city a better place. It's a series of open conversations and anyone is welcome to attend. Leaders from the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library guide the discussions. Their goal is to spark real conversations about practical solutions to make Topeka better. People who attend the event are placed into small groups. Within those groups, they discuss the issues they see throughout the Topeka community and share ideas and suggestions. The talks are broken up into categories such as how to make Topeka safer, fairer, more successful or more fun. "When [...]

Pops of color on the street helping your drinking water

info2021-10-27T07:07:38-05:00October 27th, 2021|

The Topeka Zoo and the city have teamed up to create the "Waterways Protection Project." This new project is centered around the creation of colorful, painted storm drains that will help raise awareness of the pollution going down them. Storm drains in Topeka lead out to the Kansas River, which eventually leads to the Mississippi River, which then goes out to the ocean. This means that if the number of pollution going into storm drain's in Topeka drops, so will the amount of pollution going into the ocean. According to Dennis Dinwiddie, the Director of Conservation and Education at Topeka Zoo, [...]

Shawnee considers giving property tax relief to low-income residents — here’s how it would work

info2021-10-27T07:08:05-05:00October 27th, 2021|

Shawnee is planning to create a new property tax rebate program for low-income residents. Funding for the pilot program would come from roughly $98,000 that comprises the remaining balance in the 10 Quivira Community Improvement District Fund. The Shawnee City Council on Monday had an extensive discussion about the rebate pilot program, driven mainly by comments in favor of helping out low-income residents as much as possible. Still, no official action was taken, and the city council unanimously agreed to consider enacting the program at a future city meeting. The 10 Quivira CID, also called Ten Quivira Plaza, is the shopping [...]

Supreme Court digs into emergency management law

info2021-10-27T07:08:16-05:00October 27th, 2021|

Who went too far? A Johnson County district judge who found the state’s new emergency management law unconstitutional. Or the Legislature that authored the law? The Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday grappled with those issues as it tried to decide the fate of the new emergency management law passed last session. The bill – known as SB 40 – gave Kansans new legal recourse if they believed they’ve been aggrieved by a health order issued by the state and local governments, including school districts. The law came about in response to complaints that health officers across the state had over-asserted their [...]

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