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 of user data and program-generated forecasts to broadly predict the future average water bill needed to sustain utility investments. The tool also shows the ability to sustain infrastructure investments in relation to the community’s forecasted median household income. The tool can be used as a decision-making guide for further investigation into a community’s proposed water utility infrastructure investments.

“The Community Sustainability Tool is a planning resource for community leaders, mayors, public works directors and even citizens. When it is time to upgrade or improve water or wastewater infrastructure, this tool can help communities understand their ability to pay for these large investments over time.” said Tonya Bronleewe, Director of the Environmental Finance Center.  “One of the biggest benefits of this tool is that the calculations are targeted to each community, since no two communities are the same.”

The free, interactive tool is currently released for communities in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. Users can access the Community Sustainability Tool online, or the Microsoft Excel version of the tool may be downloaded, which allows users to operate the tool offline and save different scenarios.

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 connections to bigger metropolitan areas such as Dallas, Oklahoma City, and up north to KC.”
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler.

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.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler.