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The Wichita City Council has added five municipal crimes that city prosecutors can use to ban what police call “problem people” from the Old Town Entertainment District. The city can now ban from Old Town anyone caught in public — specifically, in Old Town — urinating, defecating, being nude, having sex or engaging in other sex acts, or exposing themselves without consent. The change imposes a $500 mandatory minimum fine for any of those crimes, if committed in Old Town. In addition, anyone caught in Old Town after being banned “shall be punished” by a maximum fine of $1,000 or by [...]

The Halstead school Board approved spending about $30,000 for the installation and implementation of the school safety alert system known as Centegix. With the continued concern for incidents like school shootings, school districts are starting to look for solutions that can help keep them safer. Superintendent Ron Barry said that after the board asked him to look into an alert system for the district, he considered several options before deciding on Centegix as his recommendation. Read more: Harvey County Now

On the edge of town next to the railroad tracks, the sound of pads crunch and whistles echo. A train chugs by toward the grain elevator that backdrops the football field that features only a handful of players. But it’s getting harder to field a football team year after year. More towns across western Kansas are adopting six-man football, a version of football with smaller teams to help keep the sport alive. Read more: Hays Daily News

In addition to helping private landowners conserve and protect natural havens for the public’s benefit, a Douglas County program could potentially branch into protecting some urban agricultural land in perpetuity. The pilot Douglas County Land Protection Program is the result of a partnership between the county and nonprofit organization Kansas Land Trust aimed at protecting biodiversity, supporting local farming and more. Read more: The Lawrence Times

Lawrence city commissioners directed the police chief Tuesday to work with community members to implement safeguards with the use of advanced surveillance camera integration and technology.  Commissioners heard from 42 people about the Axon Fusus program Tuesday evening, and 38 of them directly asked the commission to pause further integration of cameras around the city with police technology. The discussion lasted more than four hours. Dozens of residents have spoken out during public comment and in writing to the commission asking that the rollout of the program be paused so the public can discuss concerns. Read more: The Lawrence Times

The city of Wichita has launched a survey to get feedback from residents on priorities for the next city manager. It’s the first opportunity residents have to engage in the search process after the current manager, Robert Layton, announced his retirement earlier this year. “The survey will provide another qualitative snapshot into what residents’ priorities are for the next City Manager,” a release by the city said. Read more: Wichita Eagle

The Newton City Commission has adopted updates to the City’s building codes to bring them up-to-date and more closely match the City of Wichita, where most Newton contractors also do business. The updates included the 2024 editions of the International Building Code, the International Mechanical Code, and the International Existing Building Code, and the 2018 edition of the International Residential Code. The new code adoption followed multiple work sessions to solicit feedback from local contractors and building owners. It also followed adoption of the new International Fire Code earlier this year. Read more: Ad Astra Radio | Your Hometown Radio Stations [...]

On the heels of a particularly rainy week in early September, water conservation was a focal point of the Derby City Council’s Sept. 9 meeting. Following recent action taken by the city of Wichita — Derby’s water supplier — to impose permanent watering restrictions, the council was left to follow suit, adopting an ordinance enacting similar restrictions throughout Derby as of Sept. 15. Read more: www.derbyinformer.com - RSS Results in news,news/* of type article

The City of Lawrence is raising the tax it charges for hotel rooms and short term rentals. The Transient Guest Tax (TGT), now set at 6% and going up to 8%, could be a money maker next summer with hundreds of thousands of fans expected in the Kansas City-area for the World Cup. Lawrence plans to use money raised by the tax to fund events and improvements the city wants to make for the World Cup. Read more: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports

While being formally introduced to the Barton County Commissioners Tuesday morning by Administrator Matt Patzner, one adjective was used on several occasions to describe the new Assistant County Administrator / Human Resources Director Casey Hubbard. That word was “professional.” Hubbard officially took over his new role with the County on Monday, Sept. 8. Read more: Great Bend Tribune