info2024-04-09T08:03:09-05:00April 9th, 2024|
Before the meet and greet, the city council, mayor and a panel of community stakeholders, appointed by the mayor, interviewed each candidate. The panelists included Danielle Twemlow, Laura Burton, Keith Warta, Kerry Pancoast and Susan Duffy. City council member David Banks said he was pleased with the turnout at Monday's event. "It's just nice to see everybody here," Banks said. Source: CJonline
info2024-04-09T07:59:44-05:00April 9th, 2024|
There was a collective sigh of relief from members of the Barton County Planning Commission following a lengthy morning meeting March 14. They had just approved the final draft of new zoning regulations and a revised zoning map governing the development of large-scale and commercial solar energy conversion systems, rules that were OK’d Friday by the Barton County Commission during a special meeting. These actions capped an arduous 10 months of meetings, hearings and heartfelt testimony as county residents came to grips with the idea of having a solar installation in their backyards. Source: Kansas Reflector
info2024-04-09T07:56:31-05:00April 9th, 2024|
The City of North Newton will consider changing first-time possession of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor charge to an infraction. North Newton Police Chief Jim Bethards is submitting the proposal to the North Newton City Council. He said the change would save his department time and save the city money. “One distinction we want people to understand is it’s not decriminalization like Wichita or Lawrence has done,” he said. “It’s just a first-offense thing that moves the process a little quicker.” Source: Harvey County Now
info2024-04-09T07:55:57-05:00April 9th, 2024|
Land that has been in the hands of Olathe’s Hoff family since the Civil War is set to become the city’s latest neighborhood park. Construction starts on Pioneer Park later this year, with the goal of being done by next summer. The 16.7-acre piece of land where the park will sit is immediately north of College Boulevard and slightly west of Woodland Road and the Stone Pillar Winery. Marcie Hoff and her husband Tom Hoff had decided to will the land to the city back in 2005, but they later resolved to give it earlier. Source: Joco 913 News
info2024-04-09T07:54:18-05:00April 9th, 2024|
Two committed Crawford County residents are making progress on bringing back the days of a nostalgic old-fashioned general shop to the west side of Girard’s historic downtown square, complete with antiques, homemade ice cream, and candies. Jim and Kathi Cooper, of Farlington Lake, have worked endlessly since August in building the store, which has an anticipated completion date of August 2024. It all started when Kathi Cooper found herself in the Girard Public Library, researching the history of the town square. Source: Morning Sun
info2024-04-08T09:47:51-05:00April 8th, 2024|
Overland Park is taking steps to remove more dying and dead ash trees that line city streets. The Overland Park City Council Community Development Committee on Wednesday unanimously recommended for approval a bid tabulation for a second formal round of ash tree removal. This slate of removals, anticipated to cost just shy of $865,000, will be funded entirely from federal COVID-19 relief funds. Emerald ash borers, a type of insect that is not native to the U.S., have wreaked havoc on ash trees. A type of beetle, female ash borers lay eggs in ash trees and those offspring feed on the trees, damaging and [...]
info2024-04-08T09:45:28-05:00April 8th, 2024|
One evening early in Dan Oblinger’s career with the Wichita Police Department, he responded to a call he was unprepared for — a woman dangling over the guardrail on the top floor of the Bank of America parking garage downtown, intent on ending her life. She felt alone, without hope. He didn’t know what to do. He tried to tell her how she should feel and what she should do. That didn’t help. “That lasted probably 15 minutes, which doesn’t sound like a long time … but in that situation it feels like a lifetime,” the 42-year-old said, reflecting back on [...]
info2024-04-08T09:43:14-05:00April 8th, 2024|
The city of Wichita is poised to settle a lawsuit brought by Kansas Appleseed and the ACLU of Kansas that contended the Wichita Police Department’s gang list is unconstitutional. Last fall, a federal judge granted class-action status to the 5,245 people on the gang list. If City Council members approve the settlement Tuesday, Wichita will pay $550,000 in legal fees and costs. The mediated agreement would not require Wichita to destroy its gang list as plaintiffs initially called for. Instead, a judge would appoint a special master to oversee its ongoing use by the police department for three years at an [...]
info2024-04-08T09:42:14-05:00April 8th, 2024|
The most challenging part about running every square inch of Wichita? Loose dogs. Jason Niblack was chased by dozens of them, cornered multiple times, even had a driver cut in between him and a pack of aggressive dogs. He eventually started carrying pepper spray but never had to use it. The 48-year-old software engineering manager at NetApp also had a couple of interesting encounters with police en route to running Wichita’s 3,886 streets over 596 runs. He finished the feat Easter morning after a few years of what he called obsessive running once he found out about how to track running [...]
info2024-04-08T09:40:47-05:00April 8th, 2024|
The Goessel city council met on March 25 and discussed the flood control project. Mayor Evan Esau talked about concrete and debris that need to be removed from the creek that runs through town. Some trees also need to be removed, as well as a dam on private property. It was noted that some property owners in that area have already removed the trees on their property pointed out by Darin Neufeld of EBH Engineering. He had walked through the creek area with members of the council to show them specifically what needed to be removed for the water to flow [...]
