Children met some of their community heroes during a special storytime event at the Frontenac Public Library on Thursday. Members of the Frontenac Police Department and Frontenac Fire Department visited the library, showing children their vehicles and talking about how they serve the community.
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Marquette Mayor Hank Kugelman said the day after severe storms brought a new challenge: cleaning up debris in the heat while dealing with the outage.
Read more: KSN-TV

A 10-megawatt data center has been operating in Pittsburg since January, bringing new revenue streams to the city while raising questions among some residents about future expansion and community input.
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Data centers are on the fast track in communities across the Midwest and Great Plains, but rising concerns over water, energy and noise leave lawmakers rushing to catch up. Plus: Supporters and opponents are debating a proposed data center in southwest Kansas.
Read more: KCUR News

Although some projects already have secured city approvals and land purchases, others face legal challenges and are working through planning with local governments.
Read more: Kansas City Business Journal

Data center regulations under discussion by the Pottawatomie County government would impose limits on noise, limit the height of the data center buildings, and prohibit any perceptible vibrations. Any data centers also would have to submit a plan to “mitigate the depletion of water,” document how much water they’re using, produce a plan to mitigate the impact of the development on plants and animals, and allow annual inspections by the county to assure compliance. And they would have to be located within 1,000 feet of an existing high-voltage power transmission line. Those are some of the highlights of a new nine-page set of draft regulations being considered by the county’s planning commission, a volunteer board that provides recommendations to the Pott County Commission on land-use issues.
Read more: News Radio KMAN

Emily Roush is all too familiar with the struggles facing rural grocery stores. Emily, an Iola native, and husband Kaden have stressed creativity and flexibility in keeping their own small grocery afloat in a community of 180 in rural Smith County. It’s why customers hungry for high-quality, locally produced meat, (and now a wide selection of gluten-free products) will travel from miles around to Main Street Mercantile, which aside from a local co-op station, is Lebanon’s sole business. The Roushes also have taken a novel approach to other issues most folks don’t think about, such as ensuring grocery orders are large enough to keep suppliers happy, but not too large for such a small population base. Others have taken notice.
Read more: The Iola Register

Galena residents say foul odors and smoke from a nearby landfill are harming their quality of life and raising health concerns. Residents of Galena, Kansas, are complaining about a smelly construction and demolition landfill outside of the city that they say is impacting their quality of life and could affect their health. They’ve been complaining about two odors — a rotten-egg smell that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment identified as hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S). The second odor is a smoky smell from a smoldering fire that started last year The smells are coming from different sides of the landfill, but the Kansas Department of Health and Environment believes the smoldering side is exacerbating the hydrogen sulfide gas emission. THE LANDFILL is operated by Jordan Disposal and started as an emergency dumping ground for debris from the devastating 2011 Joplin tornado.
Read more: The Iola Register