News – Page 2282 – Ranson Financial Group LLC

El Dorado to consider task force on homelessness

info2018-11-30T06:54:50-06:00November 30th, 2018|

Concerned citizens, individuals from a number of community organizations and representatives from City, County, and State departments all gathered at the Civic Center Tuesday evening to discuss the issue of homelessness in El Dorado. The City Commission led a fact-finding conversation to address questions received from community members regarding homelessness. City Manager David Dillner facilitated the conversation which began following a welcome by Mayor Vince Haines who also thanked everyone in attendance for their interest and desire to make a difference. He expressed a sentiment felt by many in the room, “We do not have an answer, if we did we [...]

City Manager Matt Allen given award for excellence in public management

info2018-11-30T06:53:07-06:00November 30th, 2018|

Garden City City Manager Matt Allen recently was named the recipient of the Buford Watson Jr. Award for Excellence in Public Management by the Kansas Association of City/County Management during the association’s annual conference Nov. 14 through 16 in Pittsburg. Under the leadership of Allen, who has been city manager since 2008 after having served as the assistant city manager for six years, his team has received state and national recognition for innovation in areas of public participation, local government social media, fiscal transparency, embracing diversity and healthy community design for rural communities, according to a press release from the City [...]

Lenexa hosts training to teach first responders about signs, prevention of sex trafficking

info2018-11-30T06:50:21-06:00November 30th, 2018|

The Kansas City area has been identified as a hotbed for human traffickers with both victims in transit and as a destination, an expert told a group of law enforcement officers this month. And police officers are on the front lines of helping identify victims. Lenexa hosted Opal Singleton, president and chief executive officer of Million Kids, an anti-trafficking organization working to raise awareness in California and nationwide, to present a workshop on the signs of sex trafficking and how to prevent it. Singleton’s three-hour crash course in anti-trafficking came a month after a Minnesota man was charged in Johnson County [...]

Leavenworth renews agreement for K-7 corridor

info2018-11-30T06:49:36-06:00November 30th, 2018|

When they met Tuesday, Leavenworth city commissioners voted to renew a memorandum of understanding with the Kansas Department of Transportation regarding the management of a Kansas 7 Highway corridor. And Leavenworth Mayor Mark Preisinger expressed concern about the possibility of additional traffic lights or slower speed limits along K-7 in Wyandotte County. The memorandum of understanding was renewed Tuesday with the City Commission’s approval of a supplemental agreement to the earlier agreement. The memorandum of understanding between the city and KDOT was signed in 2007. But Leavenworth Public Works Director Mike McDonald said the agreement had expired and KDOT officials were [...]

Plan to colonize Wichita’s feral cats not quite ready to hunt

info2018-11-30T06:47:51-06:00November 30th, 2018|

A Wichita board has rejected — for now — a proposed ordinance to allow residents to keep colonies of up to eight feral cats in their yards. But the plan will come back after more fine-tuning in December or January. The proposal before the Wichita Animal Control Advisory Board would allow “community cat caregivers” to register with the city to establish outdoor colonies of feral felines. The idea is to try to reduce the stray cat population by trapping, neutering and releasing them to backyard cat colonies, where they could live out their lives but not produce more cats. A motion [...]

Dino park ironing out financial matters

info2018-11-30T06:44:29-06:00November 30th, 2018|

Field Station: Dinosaurs is working through financial issues that it has recently faced and is paying its bills, according to Executive Producer Guy Gsell of the recently opened attraction. “All the vendors from Field Station: Dinosaurs’ build-out, including Dondlinger, have been paid in full,” Gsell said in an email to The Informer. This fall, two liens were filed in Sedgwick County Court. Since the park is in a STAR bond district, it uses special financing vehicles, including a percentage of state sales tax revenue, for its development. The park recently received an infusion of $700,000 from the district. The money was [...]

Kansas City (Missouri) Suburb Headed Toward Default

info2018-11-30T09:23:57-06:00November 30th, 2018|

Platte County, Mo., home to Kansas City, may default as early as tomorrow if it fails to make a bond payment on a long-struggling shopping development. County officials are questioning the value of covering the $1 million shortfall that's due Dec. 1, noting that they are not legally obligated to help out the beleaguered Zona Rosa retail center. But that resistance has come at a cost. Credit agencies have already punished the county just for considering not stepping in, with multiple downgrades into junk bond status. At issue is the fact that the Zona Rosa was financed using bonds that were [...]

Man who led Wyandotte County unification effort says combining Lawrence, Douglas County governments ‘would take a generation’

info2018-11-29T08:20:09-06:00November 29th, 2018|

It “would take a generation” to unify the governments of Douglas County and the city of Lawrence, even if there were a general agreement to do so, a man who led the effort that created the Wyandotte County Unified Government told the Douglas County Commission on Wednesday. Douglas County commissioners invited Kevin Kelley, director of the Dwayne Peaslee Technical Training Center, to speak about his experience in Wyandotte County. There, Kelley was the president of a grassroots effort that successfully advocated for the unification of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., governments. He then served on the committee that worked out [...]

AG Opinion No. 2018-16: Placement of Political Signs during Election Period; Constitutionality

info2018-11-29T08:19:09-06:00November 29th, 2018|

K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 25-271 does not abridge the freedom of speech and, therefore, is not subject to scrutiny under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. ... to the extent the content-based analysis in [Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Ariz.] may apply, it would operate to invalidate an unconstitutional local ordinance or enforcement regime, not the state statute. Rather than restricting speech, K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 25-2711 seeks to protect political speech. It does not require that local jurisdictions treat other types of speech differently based on their content or otherwise. “[P]olitical speech in the course of elections [is] the speech [...]

Sedgwick County starts another investigation, this time of commissioners

info2018-11-29T07:53:21-06:00November 29th, 2018|

Sedgwick County commissioners are pressing forward with an investigation of their own conduct in office, despite a dispute over the validity of an outside counsel’s investigation of the county manager that was supposed to come first. Commission Chairman David Dennis said Wednesday that he’s ready to move forward with a probe examining commissioners’ actions and whether they’ve contributed to low morale and an exodus of top county employees. Commissioners originally agreed to do that on Oct. 24, but put it on hold until after they got a report on County Manager Michael Scholes. The county-ordered investigations are in addition to a [...]