info, Author at Ranson Financial Group LLC

City and St. Benedict’s Abbey negotiate Memorandum of Understanding

info2023-03-27T23:17:12-05:00March 27th, 2023|

In September of 2022, the Planning Commission reviewed and recommended to the city commission for approval of the re-zoning of the property, formerly the Youth Center, acquired by St. Benedict’s Abbey through a tax sale. The rezone requests the property be rezoned from A-1, General Agriculture, and R-3, Multiple Family Residential, to P-D, Planned Development. The city staff worked with representatives of St. Benedict’s Abbey to negotiate a permanent easement for access to utilities, in orders to allow the city access to the city’s water tower, water lines, and other utilities. Out of the meetings the representatives presented a Memorandum of Understanding memorializing [...]

This Shawnee Mission school has a new climbing wall thanks to local neighborhood group

info2023-03-27T23:12:32-05:00March 27th, 2023|

Roesland Elementary students can now enjoy a new way to get active in gym class: a climbing wall. The brainchild of physical education teacher Blair Bodermann, the climbing wall was made possible with the help of Neighbors for a Better Roeland Park. The citizen-led group, which originally formed out of the 2015 effort to pass the city’s non-discrimination ordinance, used donations from free summer concerts in 2022 to pay for a majority of the $5,000 cost of the climbing wall, which is now installed and being used in the school’s gymnasium. Source: Prairie Village Post

What should Overland Park residents do with ash trees in their yards?

info2023-03-27T23:10:53-05:00March 27th, 2023|

Overland Park is ramping up efforts to remove thousands of ash trees in public right-of-ways in an attempt to thwart the spread of the emerald ash borer pest. But how should homeowners handle potentially infested ash trees on their private property? The city has some recommendations for what residents can do with ash trees in their yards they believe are infested by the invasive beetle species, which lays larva that cuts off the passage of nutrients and water from the tree’s roots to its canopy. Source: Prairie Village Post

Change in direction: Converting downtown Wichita’s one-way streets to two way

info2023-03-27T23:07:51-05:00March 27th, 2023|

Once designed to get people in and out as efficiently as possible, downtown city centers have seen a change in direction in recent decades. "If you look at communities across the country, there was this mass exodus out of the downtowns and suburbia was growing," said Gary Janzen, who is director of public works for the city of Wichita, "but there's a real energy now in most cities our size, and we've seen it in Wichita. "There's a lot of dynamic things happening with retail, with business, with commercial, with living — we've got a lot of residential living downtown now, and [...]

Wichita rental market stays hot to begin 2023

info2023-03-28T06:59:20-05:00March 27th, 2023|

According to a new national report, finding an apartment or other rental unit in the Wichita market is not getting any easier. On Monday, apartment search website RentCafe.com released a study that listed the city as having the ninth-hottest small-sized rental market in the U.S. based on competitive score. Wichita's score of 106 was tied to several metrics, as of the close of 2022's fourth quarter, including average vacant days (23 in Wichita, according to RentCafe), occupancy (96.5%), prospective renters per vacant unit (seven), lease renewal rate (65.1%) and share of new apartments completed during Q4 2022 (0%). Source: Wichita Business Journal

Overland Park is the most pickleball obsessed city in U.S., study finds

info2023-03-27T08:47:24-05:00March 27th, 2023|

A Johnson County city has an obsession with pickleball, according to a new ranking. Betting and online casino guide website, Offers.bet, says Overland Park is the top pickleball-obsessed city in the country. The game started becoming wildly popular during the pandemic. Offers.bet said 83% of current pickleball players started playing in 2020 or later. While the popularity of pickleball is skyrocketing, one of the problems is that there aren’t enough courts, even with public courts and the opening of businesses like SERV and Chicken ‘n Pickle. Some fans have turned to playing pickleball on tennis courts, and have even added courts [...]

State lawmakers eye local limits: Bills would prevent plastic bag bans, vacant home fees and more

info2023-03-27T08:41:40-05:00March 27th, 2023|

Several bills in the Kansas Statehouse are designed to take away local control from local governments. In one, legislators from across Kansas could roll back pieces of Topeka’s registry of vacant properties, as well as those in other communities. As introduced, House Bill 2083 would have banned cities from creating vacant property registries. It was later amended to allow those registries — but if passed would ban local governments from imposing fees on owners of vacant properties. ... Lawmakers are considering legislation proposed by the Kansas Chamber, House Bill 2446, that would block local governments from banning, regulating or taxing “auxiliary [...]

Rural grocery stores are dying off. Here’s what some communities are doing to save them

info2023-03-27T08:28:21-05:00March 27th, 2023|

in many small towns, a grocery store is a thing of the past. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 76 counties nationwide are without a single grocery store, and 34 of those counties are in the Midwest and Great Plains. Rural communities have been losing population for decades making it harder for businesses to stay afloat, said Rial Carver, program leader for the Rural Grocery Initiative at Kansas State University. “So as small towns get smaller, that means fewer sales coming in the door for our grocery store,” Carver said. Big box stores and grocery [...]

Home rule again on chopping block

info2023-03-27T06:55:09-05:00March 26th, 2023|

Kansas is officially a Home Rule state. It has been since 1961, when an amendment to the Kansas state constitution officially declared that Kansas cities are “empowered to determine their local affairs…except when” such actions are “limited or prohibited” by an act of the state legislature. That’s an important acknowledgement of local democracy—or at least potentially so. In my observation over the years, though, our elected representatives in Topeka tend to pay far more attention to the “except when” clause, thus leading the principle of Home Rule to be observed more often in the breach than in fact. Source: Cowley CourierTraveler

County to apply for grant on behalf of SCK Health

info2023-03-26T23:53:53-05:00March 26th, 2023|

Cowley County commissioners agreed Tuesday to apply for a grant on behalf of SCK Health that, if awarded, could help the provider transition to the Rural Emergency Hospital designation. The State of Kansas has set aside $10 million for the Rural Hospital Innovation Grant program to help hospitals convert to the new REH designation in the next two years, according to a letter from SCK Health trustees. The grant requires counties to apply on behalf of the hospitals seeking funds, and is open to all rural counties in Kansas. The program is a 2:1 matching grant. SCK Health is requesting $1 [...]

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