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.

What exactly a mini-golf entertainment concept planned for near 95th Street and Metcalf Avenue will look like now is uncertain after an Overland Park committee declined to advance the developer’s application for public incentives. Bob Johnson, a Polsinelli attorney representing the owners behind Tap Ins at the Greenhouse, told the committee this week that some city support is necessary to ensure the full vision for the project comes to fruition. Notably, Johnson said escalating construction costs created by the Trump administration’s tariffs and uncertainty with labor costs in the construction workforce amid the White House’s immigration crackdowns are creating headwinds for the project.
Source: Johnson County Post

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction to a woman who sued the Gardner Edgerton School District after she was barred from district facilities following an incident in which she sent photos of signage on a teacher’s classroom to the prominent social media account Libs of TikTok. The judge’s order allows Carrie Schmidt, a mother of two children in the Gardner Edgerton district, to once again attend school events and set foot on school property without administrators’ express permission. Schmidt was banned from entering school facilities after an incident on Feb. 3 in which she took photos of a Gardner Edgerton High School teacher’s classroom outside of school hours, including an image of a sticker that said “Safe Space for All” and a flyer promoting the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance.
Source: Johnson County Post

The community of Eskridge in northeast Kansas worked to save a cat that had been stuck in a tree for hours on Wednesday. The Wabaunsee County Sheriff’s Office posted about the rescue on Facebook. They said the cat was 43 feet high and in the tree for 14 hours. The office and Eskride firefighters devised a plan, and Evergy sent a lineman, Mark Tomlinson, who used his truck to bring the feisty cat down.
Source: KSN-TV

The number of measles cases reported in Kansas more than doubled in the past week, and the outbreak may have a possible link to the outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico, a state health official spokesperson said Thursday. As of Wednesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is reporting 23 positive cases of measles, up from 10 they reported last Friday. The measles outbreak is concentrated in the southwestern part of Kansas, with the disease spreading to three additional counties this past week. It now includes cases in Grant, Gray, Haskel, Kiowa, Morton and Stevens counties.
Source: Wichita Kansas Local News, Crime & More |

USD 410 Director of Nutrition Services Jeanie Guhr and UDS 410 Superintendent Clint Corby grill burgers for students during a “Hometown Burger” barbecue event the district recently held to thank contributors for making it possible to use local beef for USD 410 lunches. While many jokes are often made about school lunches and whatever “mystery” meat they are made of, There is no question about what the meat is or where it comes from for the students of the USD 410 Durham-Hillsboro-Lehigh School District. This is because the district has started a program where they connect with local farmers to provide locally raised meat in their lunches.
Source: Hillsboro Free Press

The Rush County Sheriff’s Office said 54 animals were rescued from “poor living conditions” during an investigation this week into a report of a stolen firearm. Two people were arrested. While at the La Crosse home, deputies discovered poor conditions and numerous animals inside. They obtained a search warrant, and the animals were removed with the assistance of a veterinarian and three animal control officers from Hutchinson. They were then placed in the care of six separate facilities. Deputies also found the firearm that had been stolen from a home in La Crosse.
Source: KSNT 27 News

Topeka is rolling out a new communications tool to help locals find answers to their questions fast. The City of Topeka announced on Tuesday, March 25 that it has created a new hotline for people who have questions about city services. People will soon be able to call “311” for non-emergency needs. Callers will be sent directly to the city department best suited to answer the questions they have. City Manager Robert Perez said the 311 hotline should help streamline customer service.
Source: KSNT 27 News

LaHarpe residents gathered Tuesday evening for a community conversation hosted by Thrive Allen County. The discussion focused on improvements to infrastructure, roads, housing, economic development, and civic engagement.
Source: The Iola Register

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.

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.

Wichita is looking to cash in on its own waste. The city is moving forward with plans to sell off biogas, mainly methane, from one of its wastewater treatment plants. Waste that gets pumped into treatment plants creates biogas, which is known to be able to be converted into renewable natural gas, or RNG.
Source: Wichita Kansas Local News, Crime & More |

Amazon is expanding its footprint in Kansas with plans to build a 176,000-square-foot last-mile facility that will create roughly 100 jobs in Bel Aire. The city said Tuesday that the online retail giant has bought 20 acres in the Sunflower Commerce Park in Bel Aire to meet growing customer demand. This marks the company’s third facility in the Wichita metro area, a city of Bel Aire news release said.
Source: Homepage

Rep. Blake Carpenter (R-Derby) recently pitched a novel idea to lawmakers that he says could eliminate state property tax collections within eight years without cutting any services the state provides. In a nutshell, here’s how it works: The Legislature creates a board that is empowered to review and eliminate sales tax exemptions, boosting state revenues to the tune of $2 billion per year. That money flows into a Freedom From Taxes Fund, which grows until it reaches a point where annual interest is enough to fully offset the 21.5 mills the state assesses to fund public schools. Eventually, the fund could be large enough to offset income tax collections as well.
Source: www.derbyinformer.com – RSS Results in news/area_news of type article

Harvey County decided to move forward with a City of Newton partnership for road improvements along East First Street from Spencer to Oliver. The county first heard the request in mid-March, when city commissioners approached the county, asking for a partnership on the project. The city commissioners said this would be a show of unity between the two governing bodies and would be a good signal for developers considering the area.
Source: Harvey County Now

The Shawnee Mission school board could soon finalize new procedures aimed at addressing disparities in school-based donations. One goal of the move is to more closely scrutinize funds raised to pay for additional staff positions. To prevent inequity in donations that may allow some schools to gain educational advantages over others, the school board’s policy committee on Monday afternoon reviewed a draft of an updated district donation policy as well as a procedure for reviewing so-called community-funded staff positions.
Source: Johnson County Post

The idea to bring a single citywide trash hauler Merriam may soon come to fruition. The Merriam City Council during a Monday work session directed city staff to negotiate a single waste hauler contract with GFL Environmental Inc., a Canadian waste hauler that services several other northeast Johnson County cities. Out of four companies that offered bids, GFL came in as the lowest bidder at just more than $830,000 a year. That contract would translate to a monthly cost of about $23 per residence (about $3 more to cover administrative costs, as allowed in state statute).
Source: Johnson County Post

So far in 2025, Parsons police officers have responded to 190 animal-related cases and seven bite cases. In 2024, the department responded to 1,293 animal-related calls and recorded 24 animals bite cases. On Tuesday, March 25, Officers responded to a report of multiple people being bitten by dogs by Daylight Doughnuts. EMS provided care to the victims and authorities took the dogs to Parsons Pet Hospital for a required quarantine.
Source: www.koamnewsnow.com – RSS Results in news/local-news of type article

The head of Wichita’s water system says he hears many ideas about how to keep the city’s water supply from drying up. On Tuesday, he told city leaders why some of those ideas would not work and proposed some ideas the city has never considered. Gary Janzen is the director of Wichita Public Works and Utilities. He told the Wichita City Council that the city is still in Stage 2 of its drought response plan and will likely stay there for the rest of the year. People can only water lawns and flowers once a week. “This isn’t just so people can keep watering their grass,” he said. “This is about the future of our city and the ability for us to grow, to help with economic development.” The water level at Cheney Lake determines the drought stage. The snow and rain over the winter raised it a foot, but it is still down 7.5 feet from normal.
Source: KSN-TV

Ask for a ride and support your community, organizers say. A one-day drive aims to raise awareness of the need for more regional public transportation options, including same-day ride services.
“Drive to Thrive: A Ride Blitz” is set for Tuesday, April 2, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Cloud County. Organized by OCCK, Inc., rides are provided by OCCK Transportation, which serves north-central Kansas with accessible, affordable transit services.
Source: KSN-TV