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Derby Planning Commission considering changes for accessory structure regulations

Following discussion among the Derby City Council and an official addition to its list of priorities earlier this year, changes to the city’s zoning regulations for accessory structures came to the Planning Commission for consideration in October. Presenting on the history of zoning regulations, City Planner Scott Knebel said none existed in regards to accessory structures for single-family or two-family dwellings prior to 2022. However, leading up to that, several large, agricultural-style metal garages/barns were constructed on single-family residential lots, which led to “a lot of complaints.” Starting Jan. 1, 2022, the zoning regulations were amended to state that any accessory structure over 120 sq. ft. at a single or two-family dwelling must “be consistent architecturally” with the principal structure on the property.
Source: Derby Informer | News

2023-11-03T13:35:38-05:00November 3, 2023|News|

Governor Kelly Announces $85M for Two New Water-Related Grant Programs

Governor Laura Kelly and the Kansas Water Office announced that $85 million over five years will go toward water projects with the launch of the Technical Assistance Fund Grants and Water Projects Fund Grants programs. Both grant programs provide funding for up-front technical assistance and on-the-ground actions needed to address water quantity and quality issues around the state. The grants were made possible when Governor Kelly signed Senate Substitute for HB 2302, a bipartisan bill from the 2023 legislative session that increased funding for the State Water Plan Fund and established these two grant programs. 
Source: Governor of the State of Kansas

2023-11-03T13:36:03-05:00November 3, 2023|News|

Mayor Mike Boehm: 32 years of celebrated service

Lenexa’s longest-serving mayor, Michael Boehm, will soon wrap up an exceptional career in service to our community. After five consecutive terms as mayor, he decided not to run for reelection in November. A lifelong resident of Lenexa, Boehm’s career in public service began on the Lenexa Planning Commission in 1991. He was then elected to the City Council in 1995 and became mayor in 2003. “It has been an honor to serve Lenexa as mayor for the past two decades, and I believe that now is the right time to step aside,” said Boehm. “What we have accomplished over the past twenty years was a team effort — not the work of any one individual….
Source: City of Lenexa

2023-11-01T12:54:33-05:00November 1, 2023|News|

Buhler USD opening up daycare in 2024 to help with childcare crisis

Deanna Herron has been teaching math at Buhler High School for 4 years. Its easy for her to take care of her students, but for a long time it was hard to find someone to watch after her own because there wasn’t a lot of daycare options. “Finding daycare that was reliable, that I could trust with my kids and just leaving them in general with anybody, you know, you always have that sense of anxiety with it.” Herron’s kids are now old enough to be in school but her experience is one still many people are dealing with across Kansas. That’s something her district recognized and so it bought a former church building just north of Hutchinson to turn it into a daycare.
Source: KAKE – News

2023-11-01T12:53:25-05:00November 1, 2023|News|

At the ‘UFO capital of Kansas,’ a celebration of the weird and wonderful

Welcome to Dimension G. Once you enter the Geneseo City Museum, it takes a few minutes to adjust to the high strangeness contained within. Never mind the creepy ventriloquist dolls in the corner staring at you with their dead eyes. What you’ll really want to concentrate on is the UFO Room, where you’ll find hair of a dog from Venus, spring water preferred by interplanetary travelers, and blueprint-like drawings from an entire fleet of craft from Venus, Mars and beyond. At least that’s what the man who collected these things believed, and the museum has done its best to preserve the imagination and personality of Elmer D. “Doc” Janzen. He was a chiropractor, minister, ventriloquist, inveterate collector and fervent believer that earth was visited frequently by interplanetary beings, who happened to look just like us.
Source: Kansas Reflector

2023-11-01T12:51:48-05:00November 1, 2023|News|

Osawatomie power outage was ‘worst-case scenario’

Power was restored to all Osawatomie residences and businesses shortly after midnight Saturday, Oct. 28, ending a three-day nightmare for 250 to 300 residents who were left in the dark. A critical failure at the city of Osawatomie’s power plant substation caused the initial power outages in the overnight hours of Tuesday, Oct. 24, into Wednesday, Oct. 25. On Wednesday morning, power was restored to some neighborhoods through the city’s generators, but a secondary equipment failure impacting the generators triggered another outage, according to the city’s updates.
Source: Local News | republic-online.com

2023-11-01T12:51:05-05:00November 1, 2023|News|

Southeast Kansas town is almost out of water, and signs of crisis are everywhere

It’s hardly a question of whether the water will run out for one town on the Kansas-Oklahoma border. It’s a matter of when. The stubborn drought that has hung over southeast Kansas for close to two years has brought Caney, a town of less than 2,000 people, within weeks of reaching the end of its water supply. Without rain, Caney could run dry by Christmas. “This is the worst it’s been since any of us have been alive,” said City Manager Kelley Zellner. Signs of the crisis are everywhere. At Eggbert’s, a diner at the edge of town, the price of bottled water is listed with the restaurant’s specials by the front door. Menus carry a notice that the staff can’t give out tap water. Cases of bottled water, donated by Walmart, sit in front of City Hall. There’s a portable bathroom trailer outside the junior and senior high school. And the town’s primary water source, the Little Caney River, is so low that the water that remains is stagnant.
Source: Kansas Reflector

2023-11-01T11:01:04-05:00November 1, 2023|News|

How Leawood plans to regulate pickleball noise in neighborhoods

Leawood residents looking to build private sports courts in their backyard have new requirements to keep in mind. At last week’s meeting, the Leawood Planning Commission approved an amendment to the city’s development ordinance adding new guidelines to the approval process for building new tennis or pickleball courts. The amendment follows multiple planning commission work sessions after residents began raising concerns about noise and bright lights coming from residential pickle ball courts last year. The city explored several ways of addressing the problem, such as cutting back permitted court lighting hours and raising the minimum distance from neighboring property lines. Before last week’s change, residential sports courts — both tennis and pickle ball — already required a special use permit if they had lighting. The amendment approved last week requires residents to notify any neighbors by mail within 200 feet that they want to build a sports court. It also requires the court to be screened from neighbors by evergreen landscaping.
Source: Prairie Village Post

2023-11-01T10:45:24-05:00November 1, 2023|News|

Protest petition blocks Hesston ordinance to home-rule out of printed legal notices

Harvey County Clerk Rick Piepho certified a successful protest petition that prevents a charter ordinance from the City of Hesston from going into effect, at least without a public vote. The ordinance, approved by the Hesston City Council in August, would have allowed the city to designate its website as its legal newspaper, removing state requirements to print various legal notices in an official print newspaper. Late Tuesday afternoon, Piepho certified that a protest petition against the measure had a sufficient number of valid signatures from registered Hesston voters. It took 73 verified signatures for a successful petition, 10 percent of the number of voters who participated in the last municipal election. The signatures had to belong to currently registered voters, and their addresses had to match their addresses on voter rolls. Hesston community members and Harvey County Now submitted a list of 97 signatures in anticipation of some being ruled ineligible. Piepho determined that at least 81 were valid.
Source: Harvey County Now

2023-11-01T10:43:53-05:00November 1, 2023|News|

Ottawa voters to determine whether to keep, eliminate food sale requirement on liquor by the drink

When Melody and Dusty Gentry opened Not Lost Brewing in downtown Ottawa a few years ago, they wanted to share their passion for brewing specially crafted beers one glass at a time. The idea for the hometown brew pub was to introduce locals to different varieties of beer beyond the common commercial domestic types with brews such as Blackberry Milkshake India Pale Ale or Blueberry Wheat. While they also wanted to feature a few menu options like hummus, charcuterie plates and sandwiches and chips that would pair well and complement the craft brews on tap, the focus was always on showcasing the beer. But under Kansas law, breweries and other drinking establishments like Not Lost that sell liquor by the drink must derive not less than 30 percent of their gross receipts from food sales during a 12-month period. And for the Gentrys, meeting that requirement was getting tougher and tougher. “We were not on track to meet the 30 percent food requirement last fall,” Melody said.
Source: The Ottawa Herald

2023-11-01T10:41:22-05:00November 1, 2023|News|
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