info, Author at Ranson Financial Group LLC

Water extension to bring RO water to more customers in Clay Center

info2018-09-17T06:52:06-05:00September 17th, 2018|

Work on the largest recent expansion of the city’s water system will continue into next year making RO water available to Prairie Meadows and the new housing addition east of town, Scott Glaves, PU superintendent told Rotarians Thursday noon. The three mile long, 6-inch extension starts near the flat mile on 19th Street, runs east to Ottawa Road, then south to US-24 looping through Prairie Meadows then back west to the Meadowbrook addition. In addition, the PUC will clean and repaint the blue east water tower inside and out. Glaves said the current paint job is 17 years old and has [...]

JoCo city’s top administrator resigns

info2018-09-17T06:49:56-05:00September 17th, 2018|

Cheryl Harrison-Lee, the top administrator for the city of Gardner, a fast-growing Johnson County suburb 30 miles south of Kansas City, has resigned, the city announced Friday. On Friday, the city issued a press release saying Harrison-Lee had resigned effective Sept. 10. The announcement went on to praise her contributions to the city since she was hired in 2012, especially in the areas of strategic planning and economic development. Gardner is one of Johnson County’s fastest growing cities, with a population of more than 21,000. It has recently attracted a new hotel and conference center, along with a multimillion-dollar manufacturing and [...]

Two Garden City videos win national awards

info2018-09-17T06:45:38-05:00September 17th, 2018|

The City of Garden City has won two national awards for videos produced by its IT & Communications Department. The awards were given by the City-County Communications & Marketing Association (3CMA). 3CMA is a national network of local government communicators. Each year during its annual conference, the organization hosts an awards competition called “The Savvy Awards” to recognize outstanding local government achievements in communications, marketing, engagement, and creativity. The City of Garden City received two awards at this year’s event, a Savvy for the video “Infinite Hope” and an Award of Excellence for the “IT Stormwater PSA.” (Read more: Greater Garden [...]

Hays IT Director: ‘Cybersecurity keeps me up at night’

info2018-09-17T08:27:51-05:00September 17th, 2018|

The city of Hays has a $2 million line of cyber liability in its commercial insurance policy with MPR (Midwest Public Risk), a group of public pooling entities across Missouri and Kansas. Cybersecurity insurance is being sought by an increasing number of U.S. cities, according to a survey by the Wall Street Journal. Hays has two main data centers located at city hall and at the police department, with 48 network routers and approximately 248 PCs and servers in 11 locations. The IT Department, which recently relocated from the downtown city hall to a larger space in the Hays Welcome Center, [...]

Hutchinson picks Riley County PD captain as city’s next police chief

info2018-09-17T06:42:39-05:00September 17th, 2018|

The Hutchinson Police Department Friday says following an extensive search process, the city selected its next police chief. The city says Jeffrey Hooper will take leadership of the Hutchinson Police Department on Oct. 22. Hooper replaces Chief Dick Heitschmidt who's retiring Monday after 26 years guiding the department. For the past 27 years, Hooper served with the Riley County Police Department where he currently serves as a captain, a position he's held for 14 years. His other roles with the RCPD included police officer, detective, sergeant and lieutenant. The City of Hutchinson says Hooper has a decree in sociology/criminal justice and [...]

Chief Heitschmidt takes his last call

info2018-09-17T06:41:52-05:00September 17th, 2018|

Responding to a police call a couple of years ago, Hutchinson Police Chief Dick Heitschmidt found himself the first officer on the scene – “with four or five young guys who were not behaving.” “It ran through my mind that these guys could take a 60-year-old pretty quick,” Heitschmidt said last week as a reminisced about his years of service with the department. He decided then perhaps it was time to cut back on the weekend night patrols, or at least arrive later. He still occasionally goes on calls – “I still feel capable of lending a hand if someone needs [...]

National Fireworks Association closes out convention in Andover

info2018-09-17T06:36:35-05:00September 17th, 2018|

“We’re really excited,” said Alaina Dudley and Quinn Hamilton, who came to watch the fireworks with their families. It’s all thanks to the National Fireworks Association. The annual convention has been in town all week shooting off fireworks and it finished off with a bang. “I didn’t even know there was a National Fireworks Association so to hear that they do this every year is really, really cool,” said Krista Gerlach, who brought her family to see the fireworks. As a thank you to the city, the association set off a huge public display on Friday night, featuring synchronized music. “Synchronized [...]

Licenses to grow industrial hemp in Kan. could be ready by spring

info2018-09-17T06:35:17-05:00September 17th, 2018|

The Kansas Department of Agriculture hopes to start issuing licenses for farmers to grow industrial hemp in time for next year’s spring planting season. Agency spokeswoman Heather Lansdowne said on Friday that proposed rules and regulations were submitted earlier in the week to the Department of Administration. That’s the first step in a long process required to establish an industrial hemp program in Kansas. The program will initially allow growing hemp only for research. But officials said in an economic impact statement that a successful research-based pilot program may lead to the eventual legalization of commercial industrial hemp. (Read more: The [...]

Neosho County continues to hear opinions on wind project

info2018-09-17T06:34:31-05:00September 17th, 2018|

Residents of southwest Neosho County continued discussion of the pros and cons of a wind generation project during Friday morning’s county commission meeting. Opponent Bryon Coover took issue with information presented at a town hall meeting in Galesburg and in letters to residents. Dale Jeffrey gave information about mutations and deformed animals near European wind generation areas because of low-level noise. Opponent Andrew Burnett encouraged distributing a map of the footprint of the proposed area, and said some land owners do not realize they will be inside it. He also discussed declines in grassland bird populations near wind generation sites. Leroy [...]

Technology council forming to help retain and attract talent to Wichita

info2018-09-17T06:28:53-05:00September 17th, 2018|

Few sectors are more coveted by any community working to grow its economy than the high-paying technology industry. And in Wichita, an important new initiative is coming together that its stakeholders believe will give the city a new edge in retraining and recruiting the kind of tech talent that will help fuel regional growth. A yet-to-be named technology council is in its formative stages that Dave Cunningham, CEO of Flint Hills Group and the board chairman of the planned council, says will provide the kind of overarching and unbiased connective resource that the industry has never had locally. A nine-person board [...]

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