Municipal News & Jobs

Kansas Municipal News

Fort Scott City Manager announces his resignation

The Fort Scott City Manager is resigning from his position. Brad Matkin posted a video on Facebook this morning announcing his resignation. He sent his letter to the City Commission Tuesday night. His resignation will be effective Jan. 3. Matkin says he’ll continue the duties of his role in addition to helping in the transition of finding a new city manager, continuing to close out ongoing projects and planning for next year.
Source: KOAM News

Dodge City in mourning, disbelief after deadly weekend shooting

Hours after gunfire ripped through the Central Station Bar & Grill, Dodge City is still in shock, with many saying they can’t believe something like this happened here. “There’s two mothers right now that aren’t going to be able to hug their children. So I just hugged her and we just talked,” resident Regina Heavener said. Shortly after 1 a.m., Heavener received a phone call that shook her to her core. Her daughter, Carlee, who is a bartender at Central Station, was feet away from where a gunman opened fire at a Halloween party at the bar. The shooting claimed the lives of two partygoers and injured two others. Carlee says she thought she heard the sounds of balloons popping before it became clear to her that this had turned into a tragic event. “It felt like time stood still. And then moments later, it was a round of fires. And I’m almost positive it was seven because I heard a ‘bop bop, bop, bop, bop, bop bop,'” Carlee said. Carlee says the bar cleared out fast after the series of shots rang out. She says she did what she could to protect people who were still in the bar taking cover.
Source: KAKE – News

Municipal Bond Trends for October 31, 2023

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. 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.

Municipal Bond Trends for October 30, 2023

Municipal Bond Trends for October 27, 2023

EPA will propose stiffer lead pipe rules

Decades after officials banned lead in gasoline for new cars and stopped the sale of lead paint – huge steps toward eliminating lead exposure to the public – there are still an estimated 500,000 U.S. children with levels of lead in their blood that are considered high, and experts say lead in drinking water is one important reason. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to further reduce lead levels in drinking water … President Joe Biden has already called for eliminating the country’s estimated 9.2 million lead pipes, lines that connect water mains under the street to homes and businesses and are responsible for most of the lead that gets into drinking water. But it’s costly to send out workers to dig up the pipe, lay new ones and replant damaged landscaping. In many cities, homeowners are expected to pay to deal with the pipe on their property.
Source: Hutch News

High-res imagery important to county, cities

Barton County Cartographer Bj Wooding describes the value of the ultra-high-resolution digital orthoimagery very simply. “It’s been used by several different departments and agencies, and I don’t know how they do their jobs without it, frankly,” she said, addressing the Barton County Commission Tuesday morning. Commissioners then approved the purchase of the imagery for the Mapping Department at a cost of $28,500. This will cover the four major cities in the county (Claflin, Ellinwood, Great Bend and Hoisington) for a total of 79 square miles. The county will pay half, with the balance split among the communities based on size.
Source: Great Bend Tribune

Shawnee bans short-term rentals like AirBnBs in residential areas

Shawnee will ban short-term rentals like AirBnB and VRBO in single-family neighborhoods. After its fourth meeting on short-term rental businesses, the Shawnee City Council on Monday decided to move forward with banning them entirely in residential areas. During the city council committee meeting, the city council asked city staff to draft an outline that will ban rental businesses like AirBnB and VRBO in R-1 (single-family residential) districts.
Source: Prairie Village Post

Stafford’s newest mural available in wearable version

A wearable version of Stafford’s mural project has been delivered and is available for purchase or pickup if pre-ordered. “We will have extras to sell,” said City Administrator Jami Downing, who noted that available colors and sizes will be posted soon. A $5 portion of the proceeds from each T-shirt or sweater purchased will be put into the city’s Community Development Fund, earmarked for future mural projects. “We’ve got a few ideas, it’s just going to depend upon what we go to next,” Downing said. “
Source: Great Bend Tribune

Ford County Commission approves 1.5-mile setback between turbines, airport

The Ford County Commission unanimously approved a reduction in the minimum distance a wind turbine must be set back away from private airports and air strips at its Oct. 16 meeting. The decision to reduce the required distance from three miles to 1.5 miles rejected the Ford County Planning and Zoning Board recommendation to adhere to the federal three-mile setback rule for all airports in the county for safety reasons. The 3-mile setback disqualified 12,000 acres of Bucklin area private property from receiving an estimated thirty-four turbines.
Source: Dodge City Daily Globe

Alma Cheese Curds wins 2023 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas contest

Alma Cheese Curds is the 2023 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas — People’s Choice, after six weeks of competition, the Kansas Manufacturing Council announced Tuesday. The winner was announced during the KMC Kansas Manufacturing Summit held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Wichita. “The KMC is excited to celebrate Alma Creamery ‘s cheese curds as the 2022 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas. Thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for their favorite Kansas-made products. It has been a fun competition,” said KMC Executive Director Brandie McPherson. “The manufacturing industry is an important part of the Kansas economy.”
Source: Emporia Gazette

De Soto EV battery Plant incentives helping people nearby

The $4 billion Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant in De Soto is already having a big impact outside the massive campus. New interchanges are already completed and lead to roads that are currently under construction south of K-10. The development agreement just announced this month lays out how the tax incentives will help cover the upgrades and leave a lasting impact on the surrounding area. “There is a lot of infrastructure improvements that will be needed,” De Soto City Administrator Mike Brungardt said. “It’ll cost a lot of money, and the development is going to largely fund that through the TIF incentives.” Much of that money goes to roads and other infrastructure, but one unique feature is a new fire station with a fire truck and the money to hire first responders to staff it, with Panasonic picking up the tab. Brungardt says it’s an example of how the incentives are helping the whole region. “It will serve not only the Panasonic building but also thousands of acres in Northwest Johnson County,” Brungardt said.
Source: KSN-TV

Reality of public service not always what Kansas officials expected

The adage “you get out what you put in” usually is attached to manual labor or building a business. It’s also applicable to elected officials, both novices and veterans, as they carry out the duties of their public roles. Kansans will go to the polls Nov. 7 to vote for their choices for city government, school boards and community college boards. These elections typically draw fewer voters than those for state and national offices, but the disruptions of the pandemic shifted the context of their roles. This year’s vote represents a return to normalcy of sorts. No longer do city councils and school boards find themselves at the center of pandemic-related debates over such topics as mask ordinances and in-person school attendance. But the divides over those issues linger, as does the lesson that local officials – many of whom are paid little, if anything, for their service – aren’t immune from the consequences of being in the eye of a storm.
Source: KLC Journal

Cell phone tower in Andover catches fire

The City of Andover says a cell phone tower at a local park caught on fire Wednesday afternoon but the cause is unknown. Hal Larcher said he was spending his day at Central Park in Andover getting pictures and video of some of the flooding happening there, when suddenly he turned around and saw a thick black smoke filling the sky. He says it was clearly coming from the cell phone tower in the middle of the park. “I was shocked for sure,” said Larcher. He says it’s unlike anything he’s ever seen before. Larcher explains when he was looking at it he thought the fire was coming from an antennae that was about halfway down the pole.
Source: KAKE – News

About the city of beautiful maples

Hiawatha’s beautiful maples have a rich history that makes the fall splendor of the town even more intriguing. This year, fall took its sweet time settling. An unusually dry late summer and early fall certainly took its toll on the maple trees. Their beautiful colors were a little late turning, and maybe not quite as bright as a wetter year would be, but the maples still were magnificent. After Monday’s rain, many leaves have fallen, but a walk around Hiawatha can truly be inspirational and full of so many colors of autumn. Hiawatha has long been known for its beautiful maples, which were first planted so many decades ago by Theodore H. Korthanke. Korthanke lived from 1860 to 1941 and was considered one of the founding fathers of Hiawatha, and certainly the founding father of the maple trees found nearly on every block.
Source: Local News | hiawathaworldonline.com

Kansas court system down nearly 2 weeks in ‘security incident’ that has hallmarks of ransomware

Kansas officials are calling a massive computer outage that’s kept most of the state’s courts offline for two weeks a “security incident” and, while they had not provided an explanation as of Wednesday, experts say it has all the hallmarks of a ransomware attack. The disruption has left attorneys unable to search online records and forced them to file motions the old fashioned way — on paper. Courts are limping along, although the growing piles of paper are a mess that will have to be sorted and scanned eventually. “It’s really just slowed the whole system down,” said Chris Joseph, a Lawrence-based criminal defense attorney. Since 2019, ransomware groups have targeted 18 state, city or municipal court systems, said analyst Allan Liska of the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. That includes one in Dallas, where some jury trials had to be canceled this year. But state-focused attacks have been much less frequent, and have not yet rivaled what is happening in Kansas.
Source: Western Kansas News

Johnson County’s rural towns are growing. Do they need new libraries?

Spring Hill Councilmember Wendy North has been on a mission to Johnson County Library officials this fall. Her message: Don’t spend $4 million next year to upgrade the tiny Spring Hill library branch. Save the money to build a new one four miles north and east, where more houses are likely to go up. North has told county commissioners and the library board that an informal offer from a developer of single-family homes would allow the city to acquire land near Spring Hill High on 199th Street that could eventually become a new municipal center with an adjacent library similar to what Lenexa has, and what’s being built in Merriam. It’s all in the talking stages, with nothing on the city planning books, North said, citing that as the reason she declined to name the developer. She acknowledged that she isn’t speaking for the city council, since that body has never openly talked about the idea.
Source: Prairie Village Post

Manhattan holds one of the highest ranking floodplain management programs in the state

The stormwater compliance engineer said the city’s floodplain management program is one of the highest rated programs in the state. During Tuesday’s Manhattan City Commission meeting, stormwater compliance engineer Bill Heatherman gave an update to fulfill an audit requirement. The program will have an audit on Nov. 8. The floodplain management program creates plans and projects that help the city improve the floodplains in the area. The city is a member of the National Flood Insurance Program. The city also adheres to the Community Rating System, an elevated set of requirements through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is a ranking system, with 10 being the worst and one being the best. Currently, the city has a rank of six. Because of this, residents get a 20% discount on their flood insurance. Heatherman said this is the highest ranking in Kansas. He said a few other areas have a six but nothing higher.
Source: themercury.com

Osawatomie power outage likely to continue into Saturday

Osawatomie officials are confident that a transformer acquired from Garden City, Kan., will fix the power outage problem that has been ongoing since the evening hours of Tuesday, Oct. 24, but it is not estimated to be online until the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 28. Meanwhile, an estimated 250 to 300 residents remain without power, according to city news release updates. A critical failure at the city of Osawatomie’s power plant substation caused the initial power outages in the overnight hours of Tuesday, Oct. 24, into Wednesday, Oct. 25. On Wednesday morning, power was restored to some neighborhoods through the city’s generators, but a secondary equipment failure impacting the generators triggered another outage, according to the city’s updates.
Source: Local News | republic-online.com

Overland Park to formally end old city staff pay structure

Overland Park is taking more steps to update its city employee salary structure and get rid of its old system. Last week, the Overland Park City Council Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee voted 6-0 to recommend the city council rescind a 2002 resolution that formalized the old compensation system. With the city manager shifting city employee pay into a new compensation structure, the old system was obsolete and no longer needed. The committee’s recommendation to get it off the books would make it official.
Source: Prairie Village Post

Clay Center debates lifting pit bull ban

The Clay Center City Council is asking for feedback on whether the city should lift its ban on pit pulls. Councilwoman Karla Sweet reported at last week’s council meeting that the council’s Administrative Committee is considering the change, but wants to hear more about it from the public. Sweet said she received an email about it, but hasn’t heard much from constituents. Over the course of about 50 minutes, council members also debated whether to add more breeds to the ordinance, whether to modify it by requiring DNA testing of a suspected pit bull and discussed what makes pit bull attacks particularly vicious.
Source: www.ccenterdispatch.com

Municipal Bond Trends for October 26, 2023

Municipal Bond Trends for October 25, 2023

Local business owners transforming historical building into event center for Halstead

Reba Lee, and her husband, Jeremy, are turning the former Harvey County Independent building, located at 220 Main Street, into an event center for the community to rent out. The Lees originally bought the building, intending it to be an office for Jeremy Lee, but after trying to host a birthday party for their children, they realized the town was missing an event center for community members to host parties. “I said, ‘Hey we just bought this building; let’s just have the kids’ birthday party up there,’” Reba Lee said. She said this led to the idea of using the space to rent out as an event center. The couple wants the building to be an alternative for community members hosting events they feel would be too crowded in their homes. Reba Lee owns a pop-up consignment shop that she currently hosts in Maize. She hopes to hold pop-up events in Halstead once the building is open for events. They hope to have it open by January.
Source: Harvey County Now

Halstead schools one of first in the state to get electric buses

The Halstead School District expects to replace half its diesel buses with electric buses within a couple of weeks. The district ordered three electric buses, and after the charging stations are finished, the electric buses will be added to the daily routes. Dr. Ron Barry, Halstead superintendent, ordered the electric buses after discovering a federal grant known as the Clean School Bus Program. The grant is being offered on a five-year rotation through the Environmental Protection Agency, as a way to reduce emissions from older buses that are larger pollutants. Barry said this aligned with the bus replacement program Halstead was already on. “I saw this as an opportunity for, one, being a part of our natural bus rotation but also a grant opportunity for reducing costs for us as a district,” Barry said. The district ordered the buses last winter, after receiving approval for the grant. Barry said it was one of five schools in the state to receive the grant.
Source: Harvey County Now

Wichita plans to spend $4.9M to change downtown streets, make them more walkable, bikeable

When voters approved a 1-cent sales tax in Sedgwick County, part of the money was supposed to go to relieve traffic congestion. Now, 38 years later, the city of Wichita wants to use local sales tax dollars to fund a plan that intends to slow down traffic. The Wichita City Council is set to vote Tuesday on whether to use $4.9 million in local sales tax to fund the Wichita Downtown Street Plan. The council approved the project concept in February and hired a design firm in August. The downtown street plan aims to decrease motor-vehicle lanes in downtown Wichita and increase lanes for bicycle traffic. It would also convert one-way streets to two-way streets. The goal is to make downtown more pedestrian-friendly and less car-centric. Proponents of so-called road diets say they make streets safer and improve quality of life in dense metropolitan areas. Detractors say they inconvenience drivers and needlessly slow traffic in areas that need it most, diverting people away from downtown businesses.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission delays action on proposed wind regulations after 8-hour meeting

Planning commissioners asked many questions but opted not to take any final action on proposed wind regulations at 2:37 a.m. Tuesday after hearing from 80 people and one peregrine falcon. The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission in January 2022 asked city staff members to review existing regulations for wind energy systems, particularly commercial ones, to better align them with recently adopted solar regulations. City staff members produced a draft of new regulations in January 2023. The planning commission voted in March to form an ad hoc committee to help revise that into a second draft. Get a look at the draft and how it compares to the initial draft at this link. Meetings on wind regulations have been long, tense and emotional for many members of the public who have spoken during them. A vast crowd spilled out of the Lawrence City Commission meeting room Monday evening.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Lawrence eyes changes to Mass Street from 14th to 23rd; community meeting coming up

The City of Lawrence is studying options to change a stretch of Massachusetts Street with a goal of better accommodating drivers, people on foot, wheelchair users, bicyclists and transit riders. The city is conducting a multimodal corridor study on Mass from 14th Street south to 23rd Street, according to a recent news release. The road is part of the priority bikeway network under the Lawrence Bikes Plan. The study will include “safety, efficiency, and equity considerations for all modes of transportation,” according to the release. “A roadway reconfiguration can improve safety, calm traffic, provide better mobility and access for all road users, and enhance overall quality of life,” according to the city website about the project. “A road reconfiguration typically involves converting an existing four-lane undivided roadway, like Massachusetts Street, to a three-lane roadway consisting of two through lanes and a center two-way left-turn lane (TWLTL).”
Source: The Lawrence Times

Douglas County to hold meeting on open space plan

Members of the Lawrence and Douglas County community are invited to learn about the county’s open space planning progress and share their feedback during an open house this week. … “It is an opportunity for community members to stop by and learn about the project team’s progress and to provide feedback,” according to a news release from the county. “There will be activities for children and a raffle entry for all attendees.” This open house will build on previous events held in May and June. Project team members will look to gather feedback on the focus areas and preliminary recommendations, according to the release. “A structure, tools and funding source are necessary to protect, restore, support and manage existing and potential future open space,” according to the release.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Child care options revitalized with $11.5M grant

To help remedy the state’s child care shortage, 27 organizations have been allocated $11.4 million to open up more child care slots across the state. Gov. Laura Kelly, in conjunction with the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, announced a second wave of funding for child care programs Thursday as part of an initiative meant to accelerate the development of more child care options statewide. “Building off the grants announced this summer, this funding will be transformational for families and communities across the state,” Kelly said. “Expanding access to high-quality, affordable child care will spur economic growth by allowing more families to participate in the workforce and support the healthy development of Kansas children.” The first round of funding went out in June, allocating $43 million for the creation of 4,211 child care slots. This round of funding will open up around 1,468 spots, creating a total of 5,655 in 67 communities.
Source: Garden City Telegram and Governor of the State of Kansas

Pittsburg State’s new division focuses on growing SEK economy

A new division at Pittsburg State is looking into ways to grow the economy in Southeast Kansas. The Economic Development and Community Engagement division hopes to use the resources of the university for partnerships and collaborations with businesses. Officials say the goal is to transform southeast Kansas into a place where students will want to live and work after they graduate. The division was previously known as University Strategic Initiatives, which renovated four historic buildings in Pittsburg and helped develop the Kansas Polymer Research Center into the National Institute for Materials Advancement. “Now we’re just sort of taking that to the next level in our planning, revising some of those strategic plans that we’ve done in the past. Working together with the city of Pittsburg to continue to help develop strong economic development policy. We also have the opportunity now with engaging on the research enterprise side off things and help build that out,” said Shawn Naccarato.
Source: KSNF/KODE

As more Kansas students miss school, districts look for ways to entice them back to class

Three years after the pandemic sent most Kansas kids home to learn, schools have a vexing new challenge: getting them to come back to class. Missing school has become a crisis statewide. More than one in four Kansas students were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year, which means they missed at least 10% of instruction time. That figure nearly doubled over the previous two years. State education leaders are still compiling data from last school year, but they expect the problem is getting worse. “Definitely a dramatic uptick … which is not what anybody would want to see,” said Robyn Kelso, who monitors attendance for the Kansas Department of Education. “At the same time, I don’t know that I’m necessarily surprised.” Many older students struggled with the transition to remote learning and then back to a normal school routine. Some saw their mental health suffer and lost the motivation to attend class.
Source: Garden City Telegram

‘Choose Topeka’ sees boost after Telemundo coverage

A local organization is seeing record interest for a program that aims to bring more people into the Capital City. Greater Topeka Partnership (GTP) team members are wrapping up the third year of “Choose Topeka” in big way. GTP told 27 News around 140 individuals and families have moved to the community through that program so far. For the past week, they’ve seen quite the large influx in interest outside of the state, thanks to coverage by Telemundo in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. The Choose Topeka team has received hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails from all over the world within the last week. The incentive program has been around since 2019, but the recent boost in eyes has workers excited about bringing even more people from all over into the city.
Source: KSNT 27 News

Heartland Flyer subject of virtual public meeting

Expansion of the Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to Newton will be the subject of a virtual public meeting being hosted by the Kansas Department of Transportation. KDOT is looking at providing rail service between Oklahoma City and Newton, where it would connect with Amtrak’s Southwest Chief. The Heartland Flyer currently provides daily service between Ft. Worth, Texas, and Oklahoma City. The Southwest Chief provides daily roundtrip service between Chicago and Los Angeles. It also has stops in Garden City, Dodge City, Hutchinson, Topeka, Lawrence, and Kansas City, Missouri, in addition to Newton. The virtual meeting is scheduled for Nov. 8, starting at 12 p.m. until 1 p.m. There will be a presentation, and then the public will have a chance to submit questions or comments for the project team.
Source: KSNT 27 News

Leawood plans to cap building heights to 4 stories along 135th

Concrete plans to cap building heights in Leawood, but only along 135th Street, are starting to take shape. The Leawood City Council on Oct. 16 considered creating specific rules for new office and mixed-use buildings on 135th Street. City leaders had initially proposed and discussed capping building heights on all new office and mixed-use developments citywide. The city council’s decision last week comes as the latest of extensive discussions in Leawood about amending the city’s development ordinance to keep future developments from creating too much density in the southern part of the city. The Leawood Planning Commission first saw the city council’s request to bring maximum building heights down from 90 feet to 55 feet this summer. At the time, the commission widely disapproved of the plan, voicing concerns that the move would stunt growth in Leawood too severely. The topic itself stemmed from concerns from city councilmembers who wanted to avoid a “canyon effect” along 135th Street with incoming projects like the East Village development.
Source: Prairie Village Post

Mulvane Fire Rescue gets new tools to increase efficiency for extrication

Mulvane Fire Rescue received a Firehouse Subs grant for over $24,000 to buy new extrication tools. One of those is more commonly known as the jaws of life. Extrication tools help get victims out of trapped vehicles, machinery, buildings or debris. The most common use is for car crashes. Mulvane Fire Rescue responds to roughly 150 crashes a year, using the extrication tools about once a month on average. Every second counts in an emergency and the new tools will make the extrication process quicker. “The ultimate goal is to get them out as quickly as possible because we have what we call the golden hour where from the time the incident happens till the time they get to a trauma center,” Mulvane Fire Captain Jason Mundell said. “So this helps us get them out quicker because we’re able to use multiple tools at one time. We can attack it from different angles and things like that and get them out quicker.” The new tools are replacing old ones that date back to 1998.
Source: KSN-TV

City of Pratt employee held at gunpoint; Wife listened on the phone

The man who led law enforcement on a multi-county chase on Monday pulled a gun on a City of Pratt employee. The victim’s wife was on the phone during the incident. Catelyn Shaw says she was at home when her friend messaged her about the police chase. Soon after, her husband called during his lunch break at Casey’s. She was shocked by what she heard on the phone. “He was like, ‘Oh my God, they just pulled into Casey’s.’ And I was like, ‘No way,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, they did,'” explained Shaw. The typical day took a turn as Shaw’s husband walked out of Casey’s and into the middle of a police chase. Shaw says he sought out safety inside of his work truck. “He was on the phone with me, and next thing I know, I hear another man’s voice in the background. And he was like, ‘Get out,’ and my husband was like ‘No,'” she explained. But the suspect pulled out a gun and told him to get out again, so her husband got out of his truck. Shaw’s phone then went silent.
Source: KSN-TV

Municipal Bond Trends for October 24, 2023

Municipal Bond Trends for October 23, 2023

Bond Rout Drives 10-Year Treasury Yield to 5%

A deepening selloff in the U.S. bond market drove the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note to 5% for the first time in 16 years, extending a rout that has rattled stocks, lifted mortgage rates and fueled persistent fears of an economic slowdown. A critical driver of U.S. borrowing costs, the 10-year yield rose to within a few thousandths of a percentage point of 5% last week following an unexpectedly strong retail-sales report and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that reinforced investor bets on stubbornly high short-term interest rates. The 5% barrier barely held then, but broke in an early Monday climb. The 10-year yield reached as high as 5.021%, according to Tradeweb, before falling back down to 4.867% in recent trading. That is up from roughly 3.8% at the start of the year.
Source: WSJ.com: Markets

Should Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County split after 25 years? Opinions vary

After nearly three decades, should the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, change its consolidated government structure? That will be a key question posed at neighborhood discussions in the coming weeks after the mayors of KCK, Edwardsville and Bonner Springs announced plans to create a task force to hear resident concerns, and solutions, about the UG. While no meetings have been set, current and former officials are divided on the region’s future, especially over the suggestion that KCK and county could break up. Mike Jacobi, who was a leader in the consolidation effort in the 1990s, considered the mayors’ plans an “attack on everything” he and others in that movement did. Since KCK and Wyandotte County’s governments unified in 1997, Jacobi said, the county went from being known for its political corruption to one with attractions like the Kansas Speedway in the Village West area.
Source: KC Star Local News

City staff members explain plans to reduce campsites around Lawrence

Within two days of announcing a new online form to report people living outside to Lawrence’s homeless programs team, the city had received more than four dozen responses regarding approximately 20 camps. City staff members are upping their efforts to discourage people from making new campsites in areas where the city has deemed it illegal. That includes parks, sidewalks, the public right of way, and on private property without the owner’s consent. Staff members are also formulating plans to make progress with residents of the longer-term campsites that are pretty well established and have larger populations. The city on Wednesday announced its new online form to report people living outside. It asks for the approximate address of the camp, a description of the people living there and when the campsite was first noticed. By Friday afternoon, the form had received 49 submissions regarding approximately 20 camps, Cori Wallace, a spokesperson for the city, said via email.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Community celebrates 150 years of Emporia Fire Department

Emporia Fire Chief Brandon Beck was more than pleased to welcome the community to the fire department’s 150th anniversary celebration Saturday. And he was even happier to see how many people turned out for the event. “We’ve had a great turnout today. It’s been just kind of a steady flow of people since 8 a.m. this morning,” he said as the celebration began winding down Saturday afternoon. Battalion Chief Tony Fuller told The Gazette last week that EFD recognizes every 25-year milestone. Beck, who joined the fire department as a volunteer in 1993, said it was exciting to be on hand for the sesquicentennial celebration. “It’s kind of exciting to be part of the department at this time,” Beck said. “I was here when we celebrated 125, so it’s kind of cool to see that. It’s just great to see all of the dedication.” Throughout the day, Beck said former firefighters and their families came out to see Fire Station No. 1, check out some of the new equipment and share memories of times long past.
Source: Emporia Gazette

Grant to improve 988 hotline capacity in Kansas

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly says the state will receive a federal grant that will help build local capacity for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and related crisis services. The grant of over $5.4 million is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It will be provided to the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services. Governor Kelly said the funds are critical to ensure that Kansas has the staff and resources to address the mental health crisis in the state. The funding will give Kansas the ability to recruit, hire and train additional staff to make sure state contact centers can collect and report monthly data on contacts that result in emergency rescue, suicide attempts in progress, and mobile crisis outreach referrals. A federal program will provide almost $1.9 million in the first year and nearly $1.8 million in each of the next two years to improve the response to 988 contacts – calls, chats and texts – originating in Kansas.
Source: 101.3 KFDI

New agreement with De Soto lays groundwork for Panasonic’s $4B battery plant

Panasonic has starting filling in details about hiring plans and how it will use tax incentives to build a $4 billion electric-vehicle battery plant in De Soto. On Thursday, the De Soto City Council approved a development agreement with Panasonic Energy of North America that outlines tax incentives for the company’s EV battery manufacturing plant. The agreement details the scope of the project and the company’s commitment to support community infrastructure needs and future employment quotas. “This is a hugely complex, impactful and important document for our city. It’s had our top priority and attention for the past several months,” City Administrator Mike Brungardt told the City Council. Last January, the City Council approved the creation of a tax increment financing district on the northern 6,000 acres of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant property, now known as Astra Enterprise Park.
Source: Kansas City Business Journal