Over a year ago, industries like fast food and entertainment reported a lack of employees, causing some businesses to alter hours, raise prices to accommodate higher salaries, or close down. Then the worker shortages spread, and now it seems that almost every employment sector faces challenges related to not having enough people available to do the necessary jobs. The Topeka Capital-Journal recently reported that the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a 4.7 percent drop in the number of public sector workers in Kansas translates into around 12,000 vacant jobs. While those numbers may not alarm most readers, showing their practical implications [...]

The numbers don’t lie, McPherson is continuing to grow, and grow. Its population spiked more than 7 percent to 14,082 total for the 2021 census. Mayor Tom Brown said the city’s competitively low electrical rates, courtesy of its municipally owned McPherson Board of Public Utilities, continues to draw businesses. “We are standing on the shoulders of our forefathers,” he said. That growth has created some stress on the housing market as developers and city leaders struggle to keep up with the needs of its growing population and those posed by temporary workers who may not want to sign a lease. Source: [...]

The renovation of the new library building will be complete months before the Moundridge Public Library will be ready to use it. The building should be ready for use by the end of January, according to head librarian Betsy Davis, but the furniture is on backorder, so she’s looking at a spring move-in date, though she resists providing a prediction any more concisely than the three-month window. Davis said some of the furniture would arrive soon, but she expects the shelving to be the biggest holdup. The community room, one of the aspects of the new library that Davis is looking [...]