Kansas Municipal News
Saline County residents are asked to take opioid survey
The Saline County Health Department is asking residents for help to tackle the opioid crisis. According to the department, the county’s Opioid Task Force decided the best way to address the issues is with a comprehensive needs assessment, which starts with a survey. All responses are anonymous. The survey takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete and is open to all residents of Saline County. The questionnaire is designed to help the task force better understand how the community views opioids and substance use disorders. The task force also wants to identify service gaps and develop targeted prevention and treatment strategies.
Source: KSN-TV
Topeka leaders approve $74 million lead pipe replacement plan
The Topeka City Council voted to allocate nearly $75,000,000 to fund a lead pipe replacement plan. At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Topeka leaders passed a resolution to amend the 2025-2034 Capital Improvement Plan and 2025-2027 Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) to include the Lead Service Line Replacement Project. This vote approved the total budget of the project for the amount of $74,280,000. The council also voted to consider applying for a $74,280,000 loan from the Kansas Public Water Supply Loan Fund by Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). The loan will have an estimated $37,585,680 in loan forgiveness with payments to occur over a 20-year period.
Source: KSNT 27 News
Lake Shawnee will soon see 7,000 pounds of trout
Lake Shawnee will be stocked with more trout later this month. Shawnee County Parks + Rec (SCP+R) announced on social media Tuesday that annual fall trout stocking is scheduled for later in November. Members of the community are invited to watch 7,000 pounds of rainbow trout get released into Lake Shawnee. To give the fish time to acclimate to the Lake Shawnee’s water temperature, fishing will be closed from Nov. 22-29. The Lake will reopen for fishing Saturday, Nov. 30 and trout season will start on Sunday, Dec. 1.
Source: KSNT 27 News
Riley County police increase enforcement to combat increasing traffic accidents
The Riley County Police Department (RCPD) is stepping up enforcement efforts as a way to stop the increase of traffic collisions. The RCPD said its officers responded to a “concerning increase in traffic collisions” last month. The department posted on social media that October of 2024 registered the highest amount of traffic accidents of any month over the last five years.
Source: KSNT 27 News
City staff take action after bad smells reported in the Oakland area
Staff at the Topeka wastewater treatment plant took action after locals complained of bad smells in the Oakland neighborhood this past weekend. Amanda Knowland with the City of Topeka told 27 News that city staff made some adjustments to the plant on the weekend of Nov. 9-10 following complaints from locals of strong odors in the Oakland area, possibly coming from the nearby wastewater treatment plant at 1115 Northeast Poplar Street. She said the source of the odors may be tied to multiple different factors. “First, there was a larger number of high-strength waste deliveries due to the holiday,” Knowland said. “When these trucks dispose of their waste at the plant, it can cause a periodic uptick in odors, but that is generally short-lived.”
Source: KSNT 27 News
Capital City works to empower small business owners
The City of Topeka is calling on small business owners to attend a workshop to grow their skills later this month. GO Topeka is working with city officials to host a Supplier Diversity Workshop, according to a news release from City of Topeka. This workshop will prepare small business owners with tools they might need to succeed, such as insight to work successfully with the government.
Source: KSNT 27 News
With eye on future projects, Merriam hashes out new incentives policy
The city of Merriam is looking to possible expand the types of public incentive it can offer developers. On Monday, the Merriam City Council discussed a new policy that would allow the city to consider applications for community improvement districts, or CIDs. This comes roughly a year after Kansas City-based real estate company R.H. Johnson Company requested a CID to refurbish Merriam Town Center, a shopping center near Antioch Road and Johnson Drive currently anchored by a Cinemark theaters and a Home Depot. Still, City Administrator Chris Engel told the city council on Monday that the policy is not being considered as a direct response to that request. A community improvement district is a type of public incentive (employed frequently by other Johnson County cities) that imposes an additional sales tax within a designated project area. The revenue raised by that sale tax goes towards helping finance the project, according to state statute.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Report: Broadband can transform a rural community
One of the biggest rural gaming events in the country, the GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo, is supporting young people to explore technology and all it offers in Bemidji, Minnesota.
“We had started to see nationally some very large events that were selling out quickly, all about eSports,” Gary Johnson, CEO of Paul Bunyan Communications, told the Daily Yonder in a Zoom interview. “And we thought, what a better way to deliver a new, exciting opportunity for our region and leverage the network that we have built and our members have invested in.” The eSports event was highlighted in a report from the Center on Rural Innovation about the benefits fiber broadband brings to rural communities. “For those communities that had high broadband utilization, they saw a tremendous difference, specifically with entrepreneurship,” Amanda Weinstein, director of Research at the Center on Rural Innovation, told the Daily Yonder in a Zoom interview. “We saw not just our businesses not closing, but new businesses opening. The difference was so stark that it was a 213% difference in the business growth rate.” Johnson said the Covid-19 pandemic changed things for many communities.
Source: Route Fifty – All Content
Lawrence City Commission approves land development code update, despite public outcry
Lawrence city commissioners heard from more than 50 community members Tuesday, most asking them to hit pause on the updated land development code. Ultimately, they voted to approve the update. The land development code regulates development in the city, including zoning regulations, residential occupancy limits and more. The document has wide-ranging implications for the growth and direction of the city. In the summer of 2022, the city started reviewing the code to make it simpler and aligned with goals like sustainability and housing. The commission created the Land Development Code Update Steering Committee to work on the process.
Source: The Lawrence Times
City to continue work on policies for housing incentive districts
Manhattan city commissioners at Tuesday’s work session will revisit policies on Reinvestment Housing Incentive Districts, or RHIDs. These districts are part of a state program meant to help developers build housing by assisting in the financing of infrastructure improvements. Specifically on Tuesday, commissioners will discuss RHID policies it recently adopted related to infill, which is housing projects that use existing infrastructure, and greenfield, which is housing on land that hasn’t yet been developed.
Source: themercury.com
How Topeka is dealing with affordable housing with need outpacing supply
A lack of affordable housing options in the capital city has been blamed for a growing number of unhoused Topekans. The Topeka Housing Authority is providing solutions by monopolizing on something the city has plenty of — vacant properties.
Source: CJonline
Municipal Bond Trends for November 8, 2024
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.
Overland Park setting up pilot to address late trash pickup
Overland Park is pursuing a pilot program to ensure that residents whose trash pickup is delinquent have another option as a backup. The pilot proposal follows county-wide trash pickup delays that have left some residents in recent years going weeks without trash removal in their neighborhoods.
Source: Johnson County Post
Is the grass greener? Many from county make long commute to Moundridge factory
Although the 350,000-square-foot manufacturing campus for Grasshopper Mowers lies in McPherson County, outside Moundridge, 10% of its 280 employees hail from Marion County, with many workers making the 40-minute commute each day. Michael Simmon, who works in marketing communications at Grasshopper (and who commutes 40 minutes himself from Sedgwick County), said Marion residents appreciated the pay, the work environment, and job stability.
Source: Marion County RECORD
Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by a quarter point
The Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark overnight borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point, or 25 basis points, to a target range of 4.50%-4.75%.
The vote was unanimous. Fed officials have justified the easing mode for policy as they view supporting employment becoming at least as much of a priority as arresting inflation.
Source: CNBC – Bonds
Municipal Bond Trends for November 7, 2024
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 crews get ready for winter snow operations
The City of Wichita is getting its crews and vehicles ready to handle snow events during the coming winter. Mayor Lily Wu held her weekly news conference at the Public Works Central Maintenance Facility at 1801 South McLean, with several plow trucks on display. The mayor said the city will have 8 brine trucks and more than 70 trucks with plows and spreaders. There will be three dispatch facilities to send the trucks out during winter storms. The city has 6,000 tons of a salt-sand mix that will be ready for use, and there is 10,000 tons of salt available to make an additional 20,000 tons of salt-sand mix for use on the streets. The city will have 153 operators, just above its minimum staffing level, and Mayor Wu said the city is looking for more drivers with a commercial drivers license who can help with snow and ice season.
Source: 101.3 KFDI
Sedgwick County Drug Court to hold graduation event
Sedgwick County’s Drug Court held a graduation ceremony Thursday for 24 people who have completed their work under the program. The graduates range in age from 29 to 69, and they have completed an 18-month program of intensive supervision, drug and alcohol treatment, drug testing, and comprehensive services as they work toward the goal of lifetime sobriety. The program is not mandated by Sedgwick County Community Corrections, so all of the graduates volunteered for the program. It helps promote change by reducing new crimes and ultimately reconnects clients to their families and to society.
Source: 101.3 KFDI
City approves MOU for entertainment multiplex project
A Memorandum of Understanding between the city of Garden City and Icon Cinemas was approved by the Garden City Commission Tuesday at its regular meeting. The MOU is for development of a property located at the 2800 block of East Highway 156 that is anticipated to house an entertainment multiplex. Danielle Burke, Assistant City Manager of Garden City, said the expected features of the project two Iconic Mega cinema screens, a beer and wine bar, a 14-lane duckpin bowling alley, an arcade area with arcade games and virtual reality elements and an outdoor theater and concert venue with a beer garden and related concession and kitchen areas.
Source: Garden City Telegram
Funding approved to continue anti-violence program in Wichita
The Wichita City Council has voted to provide additional funding to a program aimed at reducing gun violence in the community. The violence interrupter program began in 2021 when the city engaged Chicago-based Cure Violence Global to develop a program. Working through Wichita State University and a local organization called Destination Innovation, the program identified two areas in Wichita to begin its efforts. The program was set up in the area of 21st Street North and I-135 and in the area of Harry and Oliver. It uses trained professionals, case management and neighborhood-based services.
Source: 101.3 KFDI