Southwest Kansas officials have long pushed a moonshot aqueduct project to send Missouri River water across the state to their region, where a $12.5 billion agricultural economy relies on a dwindling underground aquifer. While the effort has been dismissed as legally impossible and expensive, the persistence of the idea demonstrates how drought and a steadily shrinking water supply have created broad consensus that water policies need to be overhauled. In Kansas, where federal data shows that nearly every county was experiencing some level of drought at the end of 2022, water is among the most urgent issues facing the state legislature this year. “Water has a certain value,” said Clay Scott, a Ulysses, Kan., farmer and one of the aqueduct’s proponents. “Every year it just continues to climb.”
Source: Wall Street Journal

The Newton school board on Monday night voted 4-3 to begin the process to close the Walton Rural Life Center. The primary question now becomes where students in the K-4 charter school will attend following the closure after this year.
Source: KWCH

After hearing an hour and half of public comment, Lawrence school board leaders have voted to close Broken Arrow and Pinckney elementaries.
Source: LJWorld

Herington’s search for a new city manager has come to an end. Herington City Commissioners approved a contract for Thatcher Moddie, former assistant city manager in Goddard at the end of their Tuesday, March 21 meeting. Moddie’s official start date is April 10. Although this is Moddie’s first city manager position, he is no stranger to city management. He started with the city management team in Goddard in 2018. “I worked under one of the more qualified city managers in Kansas,” Moddie said. “I have gained enough experience over the past four years to navigate my way through anything. I am very involved in state and national city management organizations and I am very well connected across the state of Kansas.” Former city manager Brandon Dross, who left Herington in December 2022 for the city administrator position in Lafayette, Oregon, is familiar with Moddie and said he has confidence in his ability to take on the position.
Source: Abilene RC