Municipal News & Jobs

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman, Beth Warren and Henry Schmidt.

About 4% of Shawnee County curbside recycling customers have opted out of that service rather than pay $3.50 a month to keep it, county solid waste department director Bill Sutton told county commissioners Monday. “Four percent is a very good number,” Sutton told The Capital-Journal. “That means the community is very interested in recycling and is willing to pay for the service.”
Source: CJonline

Mayor Fongu Cletus Tanwe is the Mayor of the English-speaking region of the country of Cameroon. He is Mayor of Bamenda III Council, NKWEN region. A meeting with City of Hays Mayor Mason Ruder and Mayor Fongu Cletus Tanwe was held Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. at City Hall. It was agreed that they would sign a friendship resolution on Friday before Mayor Fongu departs. Mayor Fongu met Cindy Elliott and Mehran Shahidi through Sister Cities International (SCI) about 10 years ago, when he attended one of SCI’s annual meetings in Virginia Beach. He attended subsequent meetings in Aurora, CO and Houston, TX and in Houston, he signed a Memorandum of Intent to recruit students to come to FHSU.
Source: Hays Daily News

The Creighton University Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI), that was released on Thursday, climbed above the growth neutral threshold, 50.0, for a second consecutive month, according to the monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of a 10-state region dependent on agriculture and/or energy. Economist Ernie Goss said that the ag sector has actually done fairly well lately. … Farmers generally are doing pretty well cash wise, which is good news for them, but not necessarily for the bankers that the survey covers, but as conditions soften, Goss sees use of credit by farmers as more likely soon. “That’s going to probably turn upward in the weeks and months ahead, probably as input prices do increase a bit,” Goss said. “Some of the agricultural commodity prices will likely come down somewhat. That will be prices of corn, soybeans and others. We are seeing an opening up of China, which is good, more of an opening up. That’s a good market for agricultural commodities from this part of the country.” The expiring farm bill and how its renewal shakes out could mean a lot to rural main street by year’s end.
Source: Hays Post

Though voters will have to wait nearly two more years to fill the two vacant seats on the newly expanded five-seat Douglas County Commission, at least one nearby county has completed the same process in recent years and could provide some clues about what’s to come here. Douglas County voters approved a ballot measure that expanded the commission from three seats to five in November, and since then county leaders have crafted a new map of commission districts and have decided when the two new commissioners should be elected. Based on the commission’s recommendation, Gov. Laura Kelly gave her approval last month for those new commissioners to be chosen during the next general election in 2024. Of the 105 counties in Kansas, just 18 of them now have a five-member commission following the November general election, according to data from the Kansas Association of Counties.
Source: LJWorld

As Kansas schools struggle to hire teachers from a much more limited pool of candidates, one Kansas Board of Regents task force is working on ways to get more Kansas high school students into the state’s teacher preparation programs. Earlier in the fall, the Kansas State Department of Education’s estimated more than 1,600 empty teaching positions around the state, a sharp uptick from the prior year. The state department has been working on several of its own initiatives to address teacher vacancies, particularly from a licensure standpoint. At the same time, the Kansas Board of Regents appointed an Educator Work Force Task Force, made up of deans and representatives from the state’s teacher preparation programs, that has worked in parallel to the state education department to determine how Kansas’ higher education system could help reduce vacancies and supply more teachers to K-12 schools.
Source: CJonline

Federal Reserve officials are preparing to slow interest-rate increases for the second straight meeting and debate how much higher to raise them after gaining more confidence inflation will ease further this year. They could begin deliberating at the Jan. 31-Feb. 1 gathering how much more softening in labor demand, spending and inflation they would need to see before pausing rate rises this spring. In recent public statements and interviews, Fed officials have said slowing the pace of rate increases to a more traditional quarter percentage point would give them more time to assess the impact of their increases so far as they determine where to stop.
Source: Wall Street Journal

What could Ella Day, Brooklyn Rupp and Colter Beam tell the world about Silver Lake, Kansas? The Silver Lake Jr./Sr. High School juniors had been students in the district since kindergarten, and they understood the small, rural community well. So when elementary school librarian Carrie Podlena asked high school art teacher Michaela Conley for help with a project to tell the story of Silver Lake Grade School, the art teacher knew exactly who could help.
Source: CJonline

For Rep. Jim Minnix, the state’s increasingly acute water problem is not a theoretical matter of public policy. In addition to his duties in the Kansas Legislature, Minnix is a fourth-generation farmer and stockman. And while he and his colleagues in the Statehouse debate what policies to implement to encourage conservation in Kansas, the Scott City Republican said he has taken steps to decrease water use on his own property. While efforts to scale up conservation efforts could impact the pocketbooks of farmers like him and his 27-year-old son, Minnix said the long-term impact on the state of Kansas was paramount.
Source: CJonline

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman, Beth Warren and Henry Schmidt.

Mayor Mason Ruder likes to point out he was four years old in 1995 when the city of Hays purchased the R9 Ranch in Edwards County as a long-term water supply. Now, 28 years later, the project is finally picking up speed, especially in the past year. “Every day is now an R9 Ranch Day,” Ruder declared with a smile during last week’s city commission meeting. City Manager Toby Dougherty updated commissioners on the R9 water transfer process. It started in February 2014 when the then-city commission voted to apply to the state to change the water use from agricultural irrigation to municipal, and begin the approval process.
Source: Hays Post

The Kansas State Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament Saturday and Sunday in Hutchinson could bring in some big business to the Salt City, said Richard Gadbury, who will run the tournament…. Gadbury, owner of the Reno County Boxing Academy, said the Golden Gloves state tournament will draw boxers and their families from all over Kansas. “We are hoping to see 300-500 friends, family and fans attend the event,” Gadbury said. “We went the extra mile this year as far as advertising, and we were also able to get some awesome sponsorship opportunities from local businesses. “In our area, the State Golden Gloves shows consistently brings in a crown of around 500 fans, and 15-20 tournament entries. However, by all metrics, those numbers are on the rise. In the next couple of years, KO Golden Gloves is hoping to double the amount of tournament entries out of Kansas. Local gyms such RCBA, Alley Boxing. KO Boxing, Villa Boxing and Hernandez Boxing each have a strong stable of competitors that will be turning 18, therefore opening the door for more participants.”
Source: Hutch News

The size of the applicant pool for Topeka firefighter’s jobs has dwindled in recent years, to the point where fire Chief Randy Phillips said only 20 to 25 people applied each time testing was offered. But a move made last week may have sparked a turnaround. Phillips announced Jan. 11 that the department, which has historically hired only certified emergency medical technicians, was doing away with that requirement. Applicants who lack EMT certification — and are subsequently hired — will instead receive that training once they start work, he said. “This is another way for us to attract the best and the brightest, and we see this change as a way to remove a potential barrier for those who have interest in joining our ranks,” Phillips said.
Source: CJonline

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman, Beth Warren and Henry Schmidt.