A community garden in Derby is part of a growing Kansas effort to address food insecurity as rising grocery costs and shrinking aid programs strain families. Carefully walking between rows of sprouting plants, Donavan Lawrence gives a tour of the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church community garden in Derby, Kansas. The caretaker points out the spiral-shaped herb garden and elevated plots for people with mobility issues. He stops by a group of raised mounds where the church is using a technique called the three sisters. It’s an indigenous technique where corn, pole beans and squash sustain each other on one plot. “When [...]

Chanute police officers are looking into a reported sighting of a bear, and have advised residents to use caution if they encounter the animal. The Chanute Police Department posted the alert after a resident released a video on social media, purportedly of an apparent black bear sauntering down a city street. Anyone who sees the bear should not approach the animal, but instead report the sighting by calling (620) 432-5768. Residents also are reminded to keep a safe distance from wildlife and avoid attempting to feed, follow or otherwise interact with bears. Read more: The Iola Register

Chanute’s energy portfolio just got greener. A new 6-megawatt solar farm at 4302 S. Plummer is now online and producing energy. Evergy will own and operate the facility, while the City of Chanute has agreed to purchase power directly from the site for at least the next 30 years. The city has the option to purchase the facility after six years.  Read more: The Iola Register

Spring Hill, Kansas, is one of the fastest-growing cities in the Kansas City metro area, and a major driver in that growth is a housing boom. "It’s kind of an untapped resource, or it’s kind of a secret part of the metro area that has steadily been growing over the past few years," said Mike Mallon, Spring Hill's community development director. "It’s a prime position between Highway 169, Highway 69 over to the east, really trying to accommodate the growth that’s just naturally happening in southern Johnson County." Spring Hill is split between Miami and Johnson counties but a bulk of [...]

Olathe Public Schools has long been an attractive school district for families living in the Kansas City area — and its steadily growing enrollment numbers reflected that. But Superintendent Brent Yeager said that trend has changed in recent years, citing the rising cost to buy a home and declining birth rates for families. “Our incoming kindergarten classes are substantially smaller than our exiting senior classes,” Yeager said. “The first many, many, many years of our district from about 1965 to about 2019 it was just the opposite.” In Kansas, the amount of funding that school districts receive is tied to enrollment [...]

One year ago, the towns of Grinnell and Plevna were in clean up mode after tornadoes tore through. On Monday, KSN News went to Plevna and spoke with city leaders who say the burden of the storm is still weighing heavy. Read more: KSN-TV

The Kriss family was out of town and watching the storms on radar. What they returned home to was unexpected and severe. Read more: KSN-TV

Various tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued, but no injuries or deaths were noted on the website of the weather service's Topeka office. Read more: CJonline

Riley County’s six-month moratorium on data centers and battery energy storage centers has a scheduled end date. The Riley County Commission agreed last month to adopt a moratorium, but the implementation process didn’t start until commissioners signed a resolution Monday. The resolution will go into effect from the time it’s published in The Mercury until Nov. 12. Read more: News Radio KMAN

Arkansas City commissioners will consider a resolution tonight authorizing the purchase of radar-controlled traffic lights. If approved, the Radar Vision system will be installed by Gades Sales Co. Inc. to serve the intersection of US 77 and Summit Street, the last stoplight on South Summit Street, for an amount not to exceed $21,175. The city currently has three radar traffic systems in operation. Radar systems are able to function more reliably in bad weather and darkness than the current camera-controlled systems. Radar systems allow traffic lights to adjust in real time instead of using fixed timers to reduce waiting time and [...]