Shawnee County needs a consistent, long-term source to meet the $20 million worth of deferred maintenance needs existing in its parks and recreation department, a Topeka businessman told Shawnee County commissioners Monday. Joseph Ledbetter, a Topeka lawyer, asked Commissioners Kevin Cook, Shelly Buhler and Bob Archer to help arrange for the county to accomplish that by teaming up with Topeka’s city government to turn its citywide half-cent sales tax into a countywide tax, while extending it for 10 years. The tax would raise an estimated $17.5 million annually, of which $14.5 million would continue to finance street-related purposes while $3 million [...]

Shawnee County commissioners made the best decision they could under the circumstances last month when they agreed to let Forensic Medical Holdings provide coroner’s services until January 2020, says county counselor Jim Crowl. Crowl clarified in an interview last week how the county responded to the firing of three coroner’s office employees who sounded alarms about the company’s quality of service. He also said commissioners learned in mid-April that county coroner Charles Glenn, who has held the position since 2014, planned to sell his company to FMH. Commissioners Kevin Cook, Shelly Buhler and Bob Archer voted in 2015 to privatize coroner’s [...]

Responsibility has shifted from Topeka to Shawnee County for rebuilding a road that straddles city limits at an economic development park south of town. County Commissioners Kevin Cook, Shelly Buhler and Bob Archer voted 3-0 Monday to enter into a contract calling for the county to carry out bidding, construction and construction administration for the joint $1 million project to rebuild S.W. Gary Ormsby Drive between S.W. Innovation Parkway and the on-ramp to northbound US-75 highway. “I feel much more comfortable than I did when we first took up this topic,” Cook said. He was referring to how the agreement initially [...]

When Jim Richardson began taking photos in Cuba, Kansas, he started out photographing a town and ended up photographing a community. “I kind of expected when I started that I was documenting the decline and probable death of a small town, but it didn’t happen,” Richardson said. “They have kept the town alive and interesting.” Richardson, a former Topeka Capital-Journal photographer who now works for National Geographic magazine, has spent 40 years taking pictures of Cuba and the people who live there. The photos have been featured in National Geographic and on CBS Sunday Morning. Cuba will celebrate its 150th anniversary [...]