Pittsburg’s hospital is putting the brakes on some procedures as coronavirus cases continue to climb steadily statewide and the positivity rate tops 17%.<
Randy Cason, President of Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, said this week that the plan to pause elective and non-emergent procedures allows leaders to reallocate staff to help care for an influx of patients.
Source: The Iola Register
COVID-19 is threatening the way Kansas schools do their work. Randy Watson, state education commissioner, told members of the Kansas Association of School Boards recently that the way schools deliver education currently is “not sustainable.” Although 1A to small 4A schools are returning to traditional five-day-a-week on-site classes because they can keep class sizes to fewer than 15 and require masks and social distancing, most larger schools are obliged to operate differently. They are using all online, remote or hybrid models where students alternate attending on-site for part of the week and study remotely the remainder of the week.
Source: The Iola Register
Rice County residents and law enforcement spent Saturday reflecting on yesterday’s officer-involved shooting in Lyons that hurt two people. 17 agencies across the state responded to the shooting, including several smaller agencies in central Kansas. "When you got a five man agency and one of your guys is shot its devastating," Sterling Police Chief Derrick Ploutz said.
Source: KSN-TV
Once again, beef leads the pack in sales and jobs for Kansas’ agricultural businesses.Contributing more than $8.7 billion to the Kansas economy, the beef cattle ranching and farming sector, which includes feedlots, is the state agricultural leader in jobs as well, with just shy of 39,000 employed in this market, according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s latest reports. Economic contributions of agriculture in Kansas totals more than $70 billion…
Source: Local – The Hutchinson News
By the summer of 2021, people who live and work near Old Town Lenexa should be hearing less noise from passing trains. That’s when — thanks to an extra infusion of city money — wayside horns will be installed at two BNSF Railway crossings: Pflumm Road and Noland Road. “Noise from passing trains has long been an issue for the 1,200 residents and businesses who live within a half-mile of these crossings,” the city said in a news release.
Source: Joco 913 News
The City of Topeka, Kansas will be introducing a new way to pay for parking with the Passport Parking mobile app. The app, which will be the first mobile pay solution for parking in the City, will offer drivers a contactless option for paying for and managing parking and can be used at over 1,200 metered spaces. With the Passport Parking app, users can pay to park quickly and remotely from their smartphones. Additionally, users can receive alerts when their parking sessions are ending, get email receipts and view their parking history from one place.
Source: Derby Informer | News
It’s a tiny park between pre-existing buildings — a new way towns and cities around the country are adding life to their communities. This started off as inspiration from a group of friends. Rod Landrum, SEK Point of Pride, said they would go out and they would travel, they would bring ideas back and implement them in our town. Then, that inspiration hit Rod Landrum and his wife as they were traveling to the East coast. “We thought, here’s an idea.” Once they returned to Parsons, they introduced the idea to Southeast Kansas Point of Pride. The city of Parsons is getting — what they call a Pocket Park — on Main Street. It all started with just one donation.
Source: KSNF/KODE
Light shovel work and bipartisan speeches marked launch of a $24 million public and private partnership to significantly expand the bioscience and technology business innovation center at the University of Kansas that has been at maximum capacity for a couple years. The administrations of President Donald Trump and Gov. Laura Kelly celebrated awarding of a $7.8 million federal grant to reinforce city, county, state, university and private funding for the 66,000 square foot building that could eventually create 225 jobs and generate $140 million in private investment. The federal aid emerged from an economic development law adopted in 2019 in response to a series of natural disasters that included flooding, tornadoes, wildfires and hurricanes.
Source: Kansas Reflector
Douglas County issued a statement Thursday in support of an embattled health order that, among other things, limits the hours that bars can be open amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In addition, attorneys John Bullock and Bradley Finkeldei, of the law firm Stevens & Brand, filed a legal brief on the county’s behalf in response to one of two lawsuits that question the health order. The order mandates that any restaurants and bars that hold liquor licenses must stop serving at 11 p.m. and close at midnight; however, establishments that do not hold liquor licenses face no hour restrictions.
Source: LJWorld.com.
Though obviously not planned when the process first began two years ago, the city’s master plan for the downtown will now account for how the COVID-19 pandemic and related changes affect the future of downtown. … So far, the consultants are on the sixth of seven steps in the process, which have included community input, a market and demographic analysis, and creation of goals and a vision for downtown. Consultants began the process of drafting the plan at the beginning of this year, but will now reopen community input due to the pandemic.
Source: LJWorld.com.
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