In July 2019, local businessman and longtime Topekan Kent Lammers sent a letter to Topeka's mayor and city council asking whether improvements were being planned for the southernmost stretch of S.W. Topeka Boulevard. "With several new and exciting attractions, such as the Heartland Stampede and the downtown Evergy Plaza, is there a plan to address the condition of the South Topeka Boulevard corridor?" he wrote. "As a main gateway to Topeka from Forbes and a major thoroughfare to and from Heartland Park and downtown, the first impression of Topeka when arriving from the south is not good." Source: CJonline.com.

There is a new, unique housing project coming to the city of McPherson, put together by the McPherson Housing Coalition over the course of the past several months. The coalition is looking to build several “tiny homes” under the banner of “Oak Harbor Cottages” on the corner of S. Oak and E. Skanke. The 10 homes — about 460 square feet each — will be there to help people get back on their feet after life changes render them homeless or near homeless. It is a response to the phone calls that come in too often — a family sleeping in [...]

“There is a lot of money on the sidelines going to work on new issues,” a New York municipal manager said. However, a lot of the demand is intermediate and long focused. “It’s still a challenge in the front of the market with the low yields. Once you get to below the 0.20% level you lose retail,” he said. ... And rates should not rise anytime soon, as inflation should remain “subdued” this year, although higher than it’s been in a while, according to Ned Davis Research Senior U.S. Economist Veneta Dimitrova. The firm expects inflation to rise about 2.2% this [...]

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.

Joey Bahr walks out to the front of his yard along a blacktop county road. He stops in a ditch and points to an orange-and-black sign that marks a buried fiberoptic cable. But for Bahr, the cable running beneath his feet is off-limits. It’s owned by a neighboring internet service provider and is merely passing through on its way to a nearby town. “It’s just maddening,” Bahr said. “We’re at the end of the line basically.” Bahr’s story illustrates just how out-of-reach broadband remains for tens of millions of people in rural America. Nearly 9% of Kansas households — roughly 130,000 [...]