As Newton’s Main Street rail crossing shut down for three days last week, residents began to ask, “Why doesn’t the city build an overpass?” It makes sense. If there were an overpass on Main Street, the work to replace a water main and train tracks would have been a non-issue for motorists. While the Main Street shutdown was unexpected, the crossing question wasn’t. It’s been asked for 126 years in Newton, predating the automobile. The answer remains the same, as well. “Anything is possible to build with enough money,” former City Engineer Suzanne Loomis concluded about the issue in 2023. “But [...]

City Manager Toby Dougherty told Commissioners last week he expects a review of the city’s economic development policy to be on the September 3 City Commission Work Session agenda. A review of the city’s current policy was requested by Commissioner David Vilaysing. Dougherty reported to Commissioners during the August 13, 2026 meeting that Assistant City Manager Jarrod Kuckelman has spearheaded the review. Dougherty noted that he as well as Deputy City Manager Colin Bielser have worked with Kuckelman to red-line the current policy with recommended changes. “Our changes are really non-substantive changes. It’s just clarifying and moving things around, to make [...]

Topeka city planners discussed a text amendment to the city’s zoning code that could affect where data centers, including large-scale “hyperscale” facilities, can be built. The proposed amendments were discussed Monday night as part of the city’s review of zoning regulations and requirements to include data centers and for other land uses. According to the city planning agenda, the current zoning code includes no land use category for “data center.” This comes after Compass Datacenters submitted a proposal in late July that Shawnee County staff later labeled incomplete. The changes would establish specific zoning and use standards for data centers, including [...]

A southeast Kansas fire department says they’re feeling the impact of a nationwide trend. Staff at the Hackberry Township Volunteer Fire Department say a lack of volunteer personnel make every call they respond to that much more challenging. Foster says it’s not just his department that’s having issues with staffing, and that across the nation, volunteerism is fading. Read more: KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com

The Sedgwick County Commission approved the Downtown Wichita Action Plan 2035 on Wednesday. The Wichita City Council also gave the plan the green light this week, so the nonprofit in charge of the plan, Downtown Wichita, can move ahead. The nearly 170-page document lays out — what Downtown Wichita said — is the public’s vision for the city’s core. Read more: KSN-TV

Valley Center is one of several towns scrambling to figure out fire services after Sedgwick County Fire District 1 (SCFD 1) planned to end mutual aid agreements. Tuesday’s meeting lasted hours, with people willing to stand the entire time. The motion carried out in Valley Center is to bolster its own fire department, decline the invite to join SCFD 1, and leave a sales tax regarding public safety to the November ballot. Over the last stretch of the meeting, confusion and disconnect spread across the room and among the council. The deadline for the fire budget in Valley Center was Tuesday [...]

City leaders in Emporia have voted in favor of seeking district court intervention into a citizen-organized petition against battery energy storage systems within city limits. The Emporia City Commission considered the issue at its regular meeting on Wednesday, which it held virtually. On July 14, the City of Emporia received two citizen petitions, one to prohibit certain data centers and the other to prohibit certain BESS within city limits. On Aug. 5, city officials voted in favor of seeking judicial intervention for the data center petition. During Wednesday’s virtual meeting, the commission took the same approach to the BESS petition. Read [...]

Growing concerns about the use of automated license plate readers, like Flock cameras, have prompted one Johnson County police department to discontinue its use of the controversial devices. On Monday, the Gardner City Council voted to immediately turn off four Flock cameras in use in the city and cancel the city’s roughly $13,000 contract with Flock, after several residents came forward with concerns over privacy and surveillance. Even though the topic was not on the meeting agenda, Gardner resident Eric Arnold used the public comment period to ask the city council to call the Flock contract forward for a vote. Read [...]

The city of Edgerton has filed a lawsuit in Johnson County District Court to block a citizen-led petition seeking to ban data centers in the small southern Johnson County community. On Aug. 4, the city filed the lawsuit against Kimberly Twente, Carrie Schmidt, the civic watchdog nonprofit group Twente recently incorporated, Public Trust Collective Inc., as well as other unnamed defendants, alleging their petition aimed at stopping data centers from being built in the city is “legally and factually deficient.” The petition proposes an ordinance classifying data centers as “industrial nuisances” that would have “substantial risks to the public health, welfare, [...]

No. Revenue from the city’s downtown parking plan has not exceeded initial investment costs or yearly maintenance fees as of August 2026.  As former assistant city manager Troy Anderson noted, the city paid Car Park $1,638,539 in management and capital investment fees between July 31, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Meanwhile, July 2025 revenues to the end of the year totaled $229,049.38. Revenues from January 2026 to the end of June totaled $412,416. This adds to revenues being about 40% short of initial investment so far. Read more: KLC Journal