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Haysville school district looking at $78 million bond issue

info2024-10-09T09:40:29-05:00October 9th, 2024|

USD 261 is preparing a $78 million bond to repair and improve existing buildings. The district says the bond will not increase the mill rate. “We have a lot of maintenance items that we have to kind of get back under control,” said Craig Ryan, assistant superintendent of finance and business operations. “We have roofs and HVAC units and parking lots and some of the not fun stuff to really do. But we’re also looking at the potential of maybe doing an extension with a CTE building and doing some things like that on the side to help students be successful [...]

New ‘iconic pedestrian bridge’ set to be installed over Kansas River in Topeka

info2024-10-09T09:39:08-05:00October 9th, 2024|

The Kansas River in Topeka is set to get a new bridge connecting the downtown area to the North Topeka Arts District (NOTO) in the near future. The Topeka Riverfront Advisory Council (RAC) is working to install a new “iconic pedestrian bridge” in the latest major announcement from the group and its vision for transforming the Capital City’s riverfront areas. The RAC made the announcement Tuesday, Oct. 8 at Townsite Tower. “I’m thrilled to see a strategic vision for our capital city’s riverfront come together following months of hard work and collaboration,” said Matt Pivarnik, CEO of the Greater Topeka Partnership [...]

Shawnee County using cameras and AI to help catch criminals

info2024-10-09T09:37:22-05:00October 9th, 2024|

Connect Shawnee County is a registry of 321 registered cameras and 855 integrated cameras that police and deputies use to canvass areas. The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office said the registry lets officers quickly find cameras in an area, saving officers time. “Officers generally have to walk or drive the area to determine if there are cameras available; this system reduces that time, allowing officers to be available for other policing activities,” Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Shayna Anderson said. Citizens of Shawnee County can participate in the program by registering their cameras with the sheriff’s office. Those who register their cameras [...]

NLC, Local Infrastructure Hub Help 1,000+ Cities Develop Competitive Federal Infrastructure Grant Applications

info2024-10-09T09:35:40-05:00October 9th, 2024|

The National League of Cities (NLC) announced today that more than 1,000 cities have utilized the Local Infrastructure Hub’s free grant-writing trainings designed to help communities develop competitive grant applications for federal funding available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. NLC runs a program within the Local Infrastructure Hub focused on helping small and mid-sized cities, towns and villages effectively pursue federal infrastructure funding. To date, participating cities have secured more than $315 million in federal infrastructure dollars for their communities. The Local Infrastructure Hub has designed resources to help cities craft competitive applications for specific federal [...]

OZtoberfest returns to Wamego

info2024-10-09T09:33:05-05:00October 9th, 2024|

The town on Saturday transformed into the land of Oz as people came from all over to partake in the OZtoberfest festivities. The city holds the annual event celebrating “The Wizard of Oz” on the first weekend of October each year. In addition to the costume contest, OZtoberfest included an outdoor market, car show and beer and wine garden along with other activities. Wamego Chamber of Commerce event and tourism coordinator Tegan Kreider said many groups came together to help the community deal with the influx of people. “There’s a lot of groups involved,” Kreider said. “The car show group, which [...]

Ribbon-cutting held for Wichita’s new water plant

info2024-10-07T09:56:21-05:00October 7th, 2024|

Wichita officials had a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday for the city’s new water treatment plant. Mayor Lily Wu said the plant won’t be commissioned until next year, but it has reached functional completion. She said it will serve about 20 percent of Kansas residents with clean and safe drinking water. Public Works Director Gary Janzen gave credit to previous director Alan King for his guidance and direction in starting the project. Janzen said the next steps will be to conduct performance testing, which has already begun. He said the facility will be pumping an average of 50 million gallons per day to [...]

City intents to issue new STAR Bonds for Sports of the World

info2024-10-07T09:55:07-05:00October 7th, 2024|

The Garden City Commission approved a resolution declaring the city’s intent to issue STAR Bonds for a Phase II of the Sports of the World project at its regular meeting Tuesday. Danielle Burke, Garden City Assistant City Manager, said the resolution came about after the project developers expressed interest in expanding the STAR Bond District to include a Phase II. “The project is anticipated to include four softball fields, four baseball fields and several areas for future development needs,” she said. “The fields can be used as soccer fields or flag football fields as well.” The bonds would be given in [...]

JoCo lifts cap on property tax refund pilot for low-income seniors

info2024-10-07T09:53:57-05:00October 7th, 2024|

Older, low-income residents and disabled veterans can apply next year to have the entire amount of their county property tax bill refunded under changes approved Thursday by the Johnson County Commission. Commissioners unanimously voted to continue a pilot program for 2025 that issues relief payments toward the part of their tax bill that goes toward the county taxing district. But they removed a $200 cap that is in place for the current year. The portion of the tax bill to which this applies is for the county operations only and does not include individual levies for county parks, libraries or schools [...]

Olathe set to get $2.4M from opioid settlement — Here’s how city wants to use it

info2024-10-07T09:53:06-05:00October 7th, 2024|

Olathe plans to use some of its opioid settlement funds to build on existing health programs and add to a growing coalition of city employees and contractors working to address substance abuse issues. That will include a brand new pilot program specifically focused on addressing barriers to substance abuse recovery for individuals and some new hires to aid in that effort. At least initially, all of these additions will be covered by settlement dollars. On Tuesday, representatives from the Olathe Fire and Police departments presented their plans for the new positions and program to the Olathe City Council. Source: Johnson County [...]

Big road project planned for Osborne County, open house planned

info2024-10-07T09:52:02-05:00October 7th, 2024|

A major road project is scheduled for more than three miles of U.S. Highway 281 in northern Kansas starting in January. The project is big enough that the Kansas Department of Transportation is holding a public open house about it on Oct. 21. The project will reconstruct over three miles of U.S. 281 and replace the North Fork Solomon River bridge south of Portis in Osborne County. KDOT’s open house about the project will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 21, at the Portis Community Center, 206 Market Street. During the open house, KDOT staff will provide a [...]

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