The city of Abilene is creating a new comprehensive plan and master parks plan. The benefits of having the plans are to set long-term goals, give projects’ purpose and set direction for city staff and commission, said Ron Marsh, city manager. The city’s actions should relate back to the plan. “We want it to be useful for every citizen, and I’m not sure the current plan is,” Marsh said. “Things evolve and change overtime, and formats for comprehensive plans have changed over time.” The city is required by state law to have a comprehensive plan, Marsh said. The state does not [...]

After working at a pair of local car dealerships, Mary Rose knew more than a few things about the process of tagging a vehicle. With that in mind, Rose was hired about eight years ago by then Seward County Treasurer Kitty Romine to help motorists with registering and renewing the license plates on their automobiles. Rose had worked previously for local car dealerships Stu Emmert’s Automotive Center and Richard Rose Pontiac, giving her a significant background in vehicles and accounting. After Romine announced her retirement late last year, Rose was chosen by the Seward County Republican Party to fill the rest [...]

After seeing minimal expansions of its boundaries in recent years, the City of Lawrence could be poised to increase by as much as 300 acres in the next year. However, as those requests come up, so will questions about where and how the city grows. The city received four applications to annex land in 2022, totaling 295.05 acres altogether. Three of those applications were filed in the last half of the year. For comparison, there have been only six annexations into the city since 2015. Planning and Development Director Jeff Crick said the rise in annexation requests in recent months could [...]