Wichita State University Environmental Finance Center’s Community Sustainability Tool is a user-friendly planning resource that helps municipalities, states, and other organizations assess if their community's water/wastewater rates can potentially support infrastructure investments into the future. Learn more about WSU’s Community Sustainability Tool by visiting www.wichita.edu/communitysustainabilitytool. Many communities throughout the country are faced with difficult decisions about updating or replacing their aging drinking water and wastewater utility infrastructure to continue to provide their customers with compliant, safe drinking water and sewage treatment processes. These investments are expensive and take careful planning by community decision makers. WSU’s Community Sustainability Tool uses a combination [...]

Top Amtrak officials have endorsed a plan that would bring back passenger rail service to Cowley County. The plan is to extend the existing Heartland Flyer route linking Fort Worth and Oklahoma City to the north, to Wichita and Newton, with a stop in Arkansas City. The expanded line would include stops in Edmond, Guthrie, Perry and Ponca City in Oklahoma; and Arkansas City and Wichita in Kansas. “There is a lot of excitement surrounding passenger rail and its impact on our community,” Ark City Mayor Scott Rogers said in an email on Monday. “Our community and citizens would have direct [...]

Apprentice programs, business partnerships and hiring incentives could help increase employment in Cowley County and fill jobs, according to a study presented Monday in Winfield at Baden Square community center to about 35 business people. The study was conducted by Next Move Group, based in St. Louis, Mo., who was hired by Cowley First to analyze skill gaps by industry and learn how to better equip workers for the county’s workforce, then explore best practices from around the United States. Source: Cowley CourierTraveler.

More than 300 bicyclists arrived in Arkansas City Saturday, completing a journey that began last week in Vernon, Texas. The participants of the 42nd annual Oklahoma Freewheel cross-country bicycle trip were welcomed by representatives from Visit Ark City and the local police department Saturday morning as they crossed the finish line on West Central Avenue. Visit Ark City CEO Pam Crain said that the riders came from all across the nation to participate in the event. She said she had visited with people from Tennessee, Wyoming, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, South Carolina, Montana, New York, Nebraska and even several riders from England. [...]

City leaders will soon consider permanently allowing more types of businesses to sell alcohol as a secondary aspect of their overall sales. As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider adopting a code change that would permanently allow businesses other than restaurants in the downtown and other commercial areas to have an accessory bar. The commission adopted a temporary resolution that allowed the secondary sale of alcohol in May 2020, and that resolution will expire at the end of this month without further action from the commission. Source: LJWorld.com.

City leaders will soon consider how to move forward following a community task force recommendation that the city consider a system with a directly elected mayor and a six-member commission elected by districts. As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will receive the recommendation of the City Government Study Task Force and decide whether to proceed with a process to engage the public on the issue ahead of potentially putting the recommended changes to a public vote. Source: LJWorld.com.

Flexibility to conduct public meetings remotely could be thrust into uncertainty if Kansas lawmakers opt to end the state's COVID-19 emergency declaration, posing a conundrum for the handful of local government bodies that aren't yet allowing the public to attend their hearings in person. As the pandemic began last March, Attorney General Derek Schmidt's office issued new rules granting governmental bodies leeway in how they complied with the Kansas Open Meetings Act. Meetings had to remain public, but that could be achieved by allowing citizens to join a Zoom stream or conference call. Other efforts must be made to make the [...]

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.