News – Page 454 – Ranson Financial Group LLC

Cuts looming for city staff as Manhattan looks to increase its cash balance

info2024-07-02T10:00:19-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

Manhattan city commissioners are talking about laying off as many as 70 city employees as they consider cost-cutting measures to avert what they say is a potential budget crisis. City officials during Tuesday’s meeting weighed options to increase the general fund. The fund’s cash balance is expected to drop from $11 million to $6 million by the end of 2024. Officials have said they like to keep the cash reserve above $10 million. Commissioners have initially targeted a combination of staff reductions and tax increases. Personnel currently makes up around 70% of the general funds’ expenses. Commissioners are looking at cutting [...]

Fort Scott City Commission talks tax incentives for downtown buildings

info2024-07-02T09:53:36-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

Fort Scott City Commissioners on June 18 discussed Reinvestment Housing Incentive Districts. Bourbon County Regional Economic Development Director Robert Harrington said a RHID for the downtown area would fund “any upper-story living,” while the lower level must be commercial. The RHID would not pay for such items as appliances and furniture. A RHID is a program designed to aid developers in building housing within communities by assisting in the financing of public infrastructure improvements. RHID captures the incremental increase in property taxes created by a housing development project for up to 25 years. The revenue can be used for reimbursement for [...]

Political signs not allowed on right of way

info2024-07-02T09:52:25-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

It’s a sign of the season – political campaigning and the posting of campaign signs. The Kansas Department of Transportation reminds the public that all political campaign signs or billboards are prohibited from being placed on state highway right of way. By law, all right of way on state highways is exclusively for public highway purposes. Only regulatory, guide signs and warning signs placed by KDOT are allowed on the 9,500-mile state highway system. KDOT has jurisdiction over all interstate, Kansas and U.S. routes. When KDOT maintenance crews find political signs on state highway right of way, the signs will be [...]

Cities need citizen help in complying with KDHE regulations; How cities in Harvey County are meeting the requirements

info2024-07-02T09:51:21-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

All community and non-transient, non-community water systems must develop an inventory to identify the materials of service lines connected to the public water distribution system by Oct. 16, 2024, according to Jill Bronaugh, communications director of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). She said that the inventory must include all service lines connected to the public water supply distribution system, regardless of ownership status to the exterior structure wall and must be made available for public review. “The customer should voluntarily assist the water system in identifying line materials,” Bronaugh said. She said the state will compile the data [...]

Restrictive covenants can be released from county deeds

info2024-07-02T09:35:25-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

As of today, property owners in Johnson County can review their legal ownership documents to identify and release historic covenants that discriminated against race, religion and national origin. In April, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed House Bill 2562 into law, effective July 1. The law authorizes the release of discriminatory covenants from land records. Existing state and federal law already prohibited these restrictions as unlawful and unenforceable, yet the discriminatory wording remained as part of the official documents. The new law provides an avenue for property owners to determine whether their land records contain discriminatory language. If the documents do, owners [...]

New Shawnee traffic sculpture result of collaboration between rival high schools

info2024-07-02T09:32:50-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

A two-year art project brought two rival schools together for a common goal — to create and build a sculpture. The result of the collaboration between students at Mill Valley and De Soto High Schools, through USD 232’s Cedar Trails Exploration Center’s CAPS program, which provides career and technical education for students in the district, is the sculpture “Flight of Fluorescence.” The project has been a top-to-bottom student-driven work, from its inception now to its installation at a Shawnee traffic circle. “The kids got this cool, collaborative opportunity and (they’re) building friendships from what typically would have been rival high schools,” [...]

Prairie Village poised to move forward with plan to get city to net zero emissions by 2050

info2024-07-02T09:31:45-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

The city of Prairie Village plans to develop a community-wide climate action plan aimed at zeroing out the city’s net carbon emissions by 2050. After embarking last year on a climate action plan focused on municipal operations with Indianapolis-based consultants Keramida, Prairie Village is now poised to expand the effort to businesses and residents. This comes three years after the city committed to the “Cities Race to Zero,” an international campaign with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At that time, Prairie Village pledged to reach the commitment’s goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Source: Johnson County Post

Company wants OK for 62-mile transmission line route in western Kansas

info2024-07-02T09:27:53-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

A company that wants to transmit solar and wind energy from Kansas to other places in the Midwest is asking Kansas regulators for permission regarding the route of 62 miles of transmission lines in western Kansas. Grain Belt LLC wants to site two 345-kilovolt transmission lines. One line will run from Meade to Dodge City, and the other will run from Bucklin to Dodge City. The counties affected are Ford, Meade, and Gray. The Kansas Corporation Commission already approved the Alternating Current (AC) Collector System in 2011 as part of the Grain Belt Express project. In 2013, the route of the [...]

Fire departments across Kansas challenged to attract young volunteers

info2024-07-02T09:25:25-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

Fire departments across Kansas are feeling the heat. They are dealing with the challenges of attracting volunteers to fill their staff. Jason Mundell has been a volunteer with the Mulvane Fire Department for roughly 30 years. He said volunteerism has changed over his time giving back to the community. He said they’re struggling to recruit younger people to lend a hand. Mundell has been with the Wichita Fire Department for more than 25 years but gives time to volunteer in his hometown, Mulvane, on his off days. He said it’s difficult for the small community to recruit young volunteers. “Seventy percent [...]

New city manager highlights focal points in Topeka

info2024-07-02T09:20:56-05:00July 2nd, 2024|

Robert Perez is officially one week into his new job as Topeka city manager. Monday, 27 News sat down with Perez about what he looks forward to tackling in his first year on the job. Entering his second week on the job, Topeka City Manager Robert Perez is hitting the ground running in his new role. From finding a new police chief, to working on the homeless issue in the Capital city to the upcoming budget, Perez is getting input from the city on how they want things done. “Making sure that we have a sustainable budget for the coming years [...]