Municipal News & Jobs

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

Pawnee County, Kansas, in partnership with neighboring Stafford County, is thrilled to announce that they have been awarded $20,255,000 from the BUILD Grant Program (Better Utilizing investments to Leverage Development) offered through the U.S. Department of Transportation. This generous funding, in conjunction with a $2 Million investment from the State of Kansas, will significantly improve infrastructure by strengthening and supporting the regional freight network and economic activity in Central Kansas.
Read more: Ad Astra Radio

The Pretty Prairie Rodeo, known for decades as Kansas’ Largest Night Rodeo, is in its 89th season this year. Pretty Prairie native Julie Graber has been involved with the rodeo her entire life. For the past 27 years, she has been a member of the Pretty Prairie Rodeo’s Booster Club Board of Directors and the booster club secretary for about 15 years. The rodeo was first held on Julie’s grandparents’ farm in 1934.
Read more: Ad Astra Radio

Chanute City Commissioners Monday approved an amended ordinance related to Food and Beverage vendors at the Santa Fe Sports Complex. Under a new policy that is part of this change, vendors shall receive permission to set up during sports events at the complexes from either Chanute Recreation Commission Director Monica Colborn or Sports Director Ryan Ortiz, who will submit the request on behalf of the vendor to the Commission. Set-up will be allowed on a first come, first served basis on one of four designate spots near the west side campground. The policy change also revises the per event charge to $50, which would cover two events instead of one as in the past. A reduced speed limit for West 7th from Arolyn Drive to Country Club Road was made permanent.
Read more: Ad Astra Radio

During the July 6 Mulvane City Council meeting, Public Safety Director Gorden Fell discussed the need for regulations on electric mobility devices (scooters, e-bikes, etc.) given their increasing usage. Proposed regulations included helmet requirements for anyone under 18, downtown sidewalk restrictions, setting a 10 mph maximum speed limit on sidewalks, etc. The council then unanimously approved a motion directing staff to research and create an ordinance and codebook modifications regarding the operation of electric/micromobility devices.
Read more: www.derbyinformer.com

The data center continues to be a hot topic in the Emporia area and it has now expanded out of Emporia into Lyon County as many residents oppose the data center coming into Emporia. The Americus City Council heard from the community and members of the Emporia Neighbors United about the impact of high-impact data centers. Over the past week, the Emporia Neighbors United gathered almost 1,850 signatures on a petition asking for no high-impact data centers or battery energy storage. At the Americus City Council meeting, they weren’t going to file a motion on the resolution, but they used it as an opportunity to hear the community’s voices.
Read more: www.emporiagazette.com

The Overland Park Police Department is increasing its enforcement efforts regarding e-bikes and e-motorcycles. This comes after a video raised concerns about two young riders on a busy roadway near 159th Street and Metcalf. The video shows two children, ages 10 and 11, riding electric motorcycles down the busy road when one of the bikes stalls The children in the video were unharmed, and their parents loaded the bikes into a vehicle to take them home. This incident highlights the need for parents to understand the key differences between e-motorcycles and e-bikes. Electric motorcycles, also known as e-motos, are high-performance vehicles that are not considered toys. These motorcycles can reach speeds of up to 65 mph and require a license, registration and insurance.
Read more: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV

The Newton Police Department will roll out 11 Flock cameras at entrance points within the city. Police Chief Craig Dunlavy stated the city will spend $33,000 annually on the cameras. The cameras record license plates into a searchable database and provide law enforcement with alerts of flagged plates. “Our focus is the City of Newton,” Dunlavy said. “This is our home. It’s no different than someone’s security camera, a Ring, or Nest. This is just a snapshot in time.” Dunlavy provided a list of camera locations, and all are at exits of major highways, except for one on U.S. 50. Dunlavy said the purpose of the camera was to know which vehicles entered the city on the highway.
Read more: Harvey County Now

Holton Community Hospital officials are welcoming news that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved Kansas’ application to allow Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Emergency Hospitals to receive enhanced Medicaid support through the state’s provider assessment program. This change is expected to generate more than $1 million in additional annual revenue for the hospital, it was reported. The approval will provide more than $72 million annually to Kansas Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Emergency Hospitals, it was reported. The approval allows more rural hospitals to participate in the state provider assessment program and receive increased Medicaid reimbursement for services provided.
Read more: The Holton Recorder

For Kansas Sen. TJ Rose, addressing Kansas’ widening housing shortage and growing housing unaffordability is a family matter. His son, Garrin, is a 24-year-old member of Gen Z who recently moved back to Johnson County. Rose worries that people in Garrin’s generation won’t ever be able to afford homeownership, something long considered a key tenet of the American dream. That fear isn’t totally unfounded. The median age of first-time homeowners in the U.S. has risen to 40 years old as the housing market squeezes more and more young people out entirely. At the same time, as construction trends move toward more high-dollar housing with large single-family homes and luxury apartment complexes, starter homes have all but disappeared from the market. Still, young adults like his son want to be homeowners, Rose said. Rose has also heard from constituents who are concerned that their adult children are finding fewer economic opportunities, like homeownership, available to them than their parents or grandparents had. All of that is what inspired Rose, a first-term Republican from Olathe, to pursue changes to Kansas state law to make it easier to build smaller single-family homes at a lower price point.
Read more: Johnson County Post

Prairie Village and nearby neighborhoods of Overland Park are buzzing over England’s rise through the standings to the World Cup semifinals. A group of fans waited outside the barrier surrounding the team’s hotel in Meadowbrook Park Monday afternoon, hoping to catch a glimpse of them as the team returned from practice in Kansas City, Missouri.
Read more: Johnson County Post

A year ago, Prairie Village and some of its residents were in the midst of a heated debate over whether the fate of a new $30 million city hall should be decided through a public vote. Now, months after voters endorsed the project by electing six city council candidates who backed it without a referendum, the city officially broke ground on Friday on the site of a former church that will be home to the brand new city hall on Mission Road. The current city hall, just to the north at 7700 Mission Road, will be renovated into an expanded municipal court and police department headquarters. Even at Friday’s celebratory groundbreaking, the memory of the contentious politics of the city hall debate simmered under the surface.
Read more: Johnson County Post

Concordia passed a new ordinance governing the utilization of e-bikes, e-trikes, and e-scooters, effective July 6. Chief of Police Brent Gering said the move was made due to a rise in reports concerning the vehicles. “The Concordia Police Department had begun receiving several complaints from the public regarding electric scooters [and] electric bikes on safety concerns from kids riding out in front of vehicles,” he said. “Then we were getting reports from the hospital of multiple injuries of younger people riding these scooters and having accidents.”  Riders can now only ride on sidewalks located in parks, residential areas, and along state and federal highways and only when they’re on the outside curb, the electric vehicle is going under seven miles an hour, and right-of-way is yielded to pedestrians at all times. The city is not just putting a new ordinance out and expecting residents to know about it. Chief Gering said the city will provide guidance.
Read more: KCLY Radio

Pittsburg is marking its 150th anniversary with a new exhibit that tells the story of the city’s industrial rise and the people who built it. “Blueprints of American Grit,” now on display at Miners Hall Museum, features a timeline of artifacts, documents, and photographs that chronicle Pittsburg’s progress from its founding through today. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Lacy O’Malley, chair of the history committee for Pittsburg 150, said the exhibit was designed to help visitors understand the scope of the city’s development over the past century and a half.
Read more: www.koamnewsnow.com

Members of the public showed up for the Andover City Council meeting on Tuesday night to voice opinions both against and in favor of a new facility that is set to open near Central and Andover Road on Thursday. The council is being asked to vote on a special use permit for LifeSpring Recovery, an addiction treatment center. Renovations for the project are complete, but owners need a new special use permit because the original contract for the property expired. But, Andover residents are voicing concerns that the facility is too close to schools and neighborhoods.
Read more: KSN-TV

The City of Clearwater is hosting a town hall meeting on July 21 to discuss the future of fire protection in the city after the Sedgwick County Commission voted to terminate mutual aid agreements. In May, the Sedgwick County Commission voted to terminate mutual aid agreements with Clearwater, Cheney, Mount Hope and Valley Center. The July 21 meeting will allow residents to learn about the current status of fire protection, hear about available options moving forward and provide feedback to the city. At the Segwick County Commission meeting in May, commissioners gave the communities 90 days to work with them to make new automatic and mutual aid agreements.
Read more: KSN-TV

The El Dorado City Commission voted on Monday to invalidate an ordinance petition that would have stopped certain types of facilities from being built in the city, but commissioners also voted to put a temporary ban on the approval of these types of projects. Commissioners heard concerns from the city attorney about a petition with over 700 citizen signatures asking the city to approve an ordinance that bans the construction of large data centers and industrial, commercial or utility-scale energy storage systems. The petition says that if an ordinance is not passed, the city should put it up for a public vote. City Attorney Ashlyn Lindskog said that, based on Kansas law, ordinance petitions cannot be applied to matters that require specialized training or experience. She said the reasoning for this is that the petition can contradict the city code.
Read more: KSN-TV

The Salina City Commission has unanimously approved the creation of a water rate relief program. On Monday, commissioners adopted Resolution No. 26‑8362, authorizing the city manager to develop, implement and administer a pilot program for customers affected by water quality issues. “In the state of Kansas, we talked to KDHE — [the] Kansas Department of Health and Environment — and there are no other communities that are doing a program like this in Kansas,” City Manager Jacob Wood said.
Read more: KSN-TV

Remediation steps to put out a smoldering fire at the Galena Landfill were successful, and the landfill operator will continue work to meet other state requirements, a health agency spokeswoman said Tuesday. The fire that has been alight at the landfill for weeks to months was still smoldering during a June 24 inspection, said Jill Bronaugh, Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokeswoman, in an email. But excavation work completed since then by landfill operator Jordan Disposal indicate the fire is out, she said. HOWEVER, Jordan wasn’t able to complete the required foot of soil cover over the area that KDHE asked for after the June inspection, as more time was needed for re-grading the area after the excavation, she said.
Read more: The Iola Register

City commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a two-year moratorium on large-scale data centers in Lawrence, extending an original one-year proposal, while city staff study longer-term code changes. The commission also initiated a text amendment to the city’s land development code related to data centers. The code currently would allow massive data centers to be developed in several zoning areas around town by right, without a public process through which residents could object. Planning and Development Services Director Jeff Crick told commissioners the temporary moratorium is intended to give staff time to study the issue and draft regulations. He said the work could require significant staff resources and could delay or suspend other long-range and special projects. 
Read more: The Lawrence Times