Harvey County entities have been meeting to talk about a transportation planning grant. That’s what North Newton City Administrator Kyle Fiedler told North Newton City Council members during their regular Monday night meeting this week at City Hall. Those entities include North Newton, Newton, Harvey County, Bethel College, USD-373, NMC Health, Prairie View, United Way, Chamber of Commerce, housing authorities and several others. “The plan would help identify options for transportation in Newton and North Newton,” Fiedler said. “Options could include a fixed schedule route that a bus runs through both communities or an on-demand service, where a person requests a ride and the vehicle drives to their location to pick them up.” Following some discussion, the council voted 5-0 to move forward to apply for the grant. Fiedler told the council some Bethel College students have difficulty finding transportation options, and Bethel College thought they’d benefit from having a transportation service in the community. “I’ve kind of kept this in the back of my mind, saw this opportunity, reached out to Bethel, Newton, Harvey County and some other partners to potentially submit a grant for planning,” Fiedler said. No one really jumped at the opportunity, saying no one has the time to put in an extra five or 10 hours per week to coordinate the planning. Since Fiedler isn’t full time, he said he could pick up those 10 hours and that the grant would cover those additional hours.
Source: Harvey County Now

The Hesston City Council approved selling property it owns to BHF Grocery Store, LLC, owned by Beneficient Heartland Foundation Inc. At its Feb. 12 meeting, the city council voted 5-0 to sell 0.57 acres of property located at the corner of Old Highway 81 and North Lancaster Street to the company for $50,000. “The 50,000 offer for the property is well above our investment in the property,” City Administrator Gary Emry said, adding that the city had invested $42.000 to $44,000 in the property so far. “I think it’s a good offer.” Emry described the property as serving as a domino piece in Hesston’s downtown grocery store project. The long-discussed project is to be paid through funds from the state’s TEFFI law, which allows the Beneficient company, with an office in Hesston, to offer financial services in the state, requiring two and one-half percent of the value of transactions to be given to the State of Kansas for rural development or used for the benefit of Hesston. Beneficient Heartland Foundation, Inc., oversees the spending of the funds to benefit the City of Hesston. A City of Hesston memo stated that the property will be used for the purpose of building a one-story office deposit institution, the property’s future owner.
Source: Harvey County Now