Municipal News & Jobs

McPherson USD 418 has opened an online survey to provide additional feedback on facility planning for the district. This follows up on the work of a facility study committee, open houses held in October, and a phone survey commissioned by the district. The survey, which is being managed by ExcellenceK12, a company which works with school districts on community research, and should take about 3-5 minutes to complete.
Read more: Ad Astra Radio | Your Hometown Radio Stations & Local News Source

Halstead City Council authorized city staff to sign paperwork and send $136,000 to the Kansas Department of Transportation for the city’s portion of the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) improvement project. The amount represents the city’s 20 percent match for the grant originally awarded by KDOT in July 2022. Anticipated costs for construction engineering, construction, and inspection costs per the accepted bids on the project are $678,227. City Manager Ethan Reimer said the next step will be to meet with the contractor and get anticipated construction dates. He said it will mostly be five-foot-wide sidewalks running on the north side of Sixth Street from Spruce to West and on Chestnut from the United Methodist Church south to Tenth Street. Also included in the project is changing Sixth Street from four lanes to two dedicated bike lanes, a middle turn lane, and two driving lanes. Crosswalks will be updated with signage. The crosswalks in front of the high school will be moved to Santa Fe, based on the traffic patterns of kids, according to Reimer.
Read more: Harvey County Now

Texas businessman Brad Heppner’s insistence on construction of a grandiose $20 million grocery store in Hesston proved too complicated for the project to get off the ground before the unsealing of an indictment alleging he orchestrated a $150 million financial fraud. Federal charges against Heppner, who was CEO of the Beneficient company in Dallas and a founder of the Beneficient Heartland Foundation in Hesston, were revealed days before an interim committee of the Kansas Legislature convened to review activities tied to Beneficient. The Legislature several years ago ordered state regulators to issue a unique bank charter to fuel Beneficient’s business catering to wealthy investors trying to unload illiquid assets. In exchange, Heppner promised to fund rural economic development in Kansas. The House-Senate oversight committee was keen to hear from Beneficient executives after Heppner’s indictment for purportedly pilfering $150 million from a now-defunct company. Officials say the cash was funneled through Beneficient into other business entities for Heppner’s personal use. The U.S. Department of Justice gave no indication the alleged malfeasance involved the Heartland Foundation. The bipartisan legislative committee also was eager for an update on the effort to deliver on Heppner’s 2022 promise to build a grocery store in Hesston, where he grew up. Hesston has 3,400 residents and has been without a grocery store since 2018. Financing for the downtown grocery store would be derived from the Heartland Foundation. It was established with an initial donation of about $6.5 million from Heppner and his wife, Aurelia. Cash or stock generated by Beneficient’s asset-management business would be sent to the foundation. Denise Goevert, chair of the board of directors of Beneficient Heartland Foundation, told state legislators that Heppner’s absence from the grocery store conversation in Hesston would allow community members to take the lead. It should clear the path for a more basic store costing less than $10 million, she said.
Read more: Kansas Reflector

North Newton now will have a parks and recreation committee. That’s after the North Newton City Council voted 4-0 in favor of establishing the group at its regular monthly meeting on Monday night. “The creation of a parks and recreation committee, which focuses on advising the city council on how to best utilize and improve the city’s parks, trails and open spaces, was identified as a productive way to fulfill some of the outcomes in our strategic plan,” City Administrator Brad Harris said at the meeting. “This ordinance will establish a group of four residents, selected by the mayor, and a council liaison member to engage in this work. The committee will meet regularly and serve in an advisory role, and its recommendations and findings will be presented to the city council for consideration.”
Read more: Harvey County Now

The room was packed and hot, both in temperature and in palpable anger. It was just a regular meeting of the Olathe Planning Commission in late 2024. But on this agenda, a Michigan-based developer called Magnus Capital Partners LLC wanted to rezone a 14-acre property west of 161st Street and Mur-Len Road for mixed-use development featuring what was referred to as “workforce housing.” The developer said the project, called HōM Flats, would be geared toward the young professional making between $50,000 and $85,000 annually, with 200 or so apartments proposed in all. Roughly a dozen neighbors spoke in opposition to the project during the public hearing. The reasons they gave ran the gamut: Fears about traffic, crime, property values, the degradation of the views from their property, etc. There was one common thread, though: HōM Flats wouldn’t be the right fit for the existing character of the neighborhood, one of the eight Golden Criteria based on a 1978 Kansas Supreme Court ruling.
Read more: Johnson County Post

The 12 pickleball courts at the Leawood’s City Park have been popular enough that additional courts may be in the offing. Leawood Park and Recreation Director Chris Claxton presented some data to city councilmembers last week along with the possibility of building eight more pickleball courts on a soccer field to the east of the existing courts. In a sampling taken by camera of three courts on the south side of the complex, pickleball court usage was about 11 hours a day, Claxton said. The existing courts do double duty, with striping for both pickleball and tennis play. Claxton said they get enough use that there are sometimes conflicts over who will play and when. The courts are used for lessons and rentals as well as free play.
Read more: Johnson County Post

Local officials, prospective homebuyers and industry experts largely agree that Johnson County doesn’t have enough housing, which often squeezes prospective homebuyers or puts renters in unsustainable living situations. Johnson County’s 2021 housing study painted a concerning picture of the situation, and in the intervening years, the county’s housing shortage has only gotten worse. The Post found that through 2024, there was a 3,500-unit deficit in new housing development across Johnson County, compared to the housing study’s goals. And, the process of getting new housing projects planned, approved and eventually built can be so cumbersome that such developments are functionally dead on arrival.
Read more: Johnson County Post

A new 14-bed center in Shawnee has opened to help people dealing with mental health issues get the care they need. On Friday, local officials cut the ribbon on Johnson County Mental Health’s Adult Crisis Stabilization Center at The Recovery Place in Shawnee. Located near Shawnee Mission Parkway and Nieman Road, the facility is a 24-hour crisis observation and stabilization program that provides care and treatment for adults in Johnson County experiencing a behavioral health crisis. Previously, the county has sent adults going through mental health crises to the RSI Crisis Center in Kansas City, Kansas.
Read more: Johnson County Post

Just one day prior to last week’s election, the Girard City Council considered a charter ordinance regarding elections, potentially changing its selection process from wards to an at-large vote. The council features four wards, each represented by a council member, including a mayor position as well. Prior to the election, however, numerous candidates dropped out as the council deliberated over whether to keep the election by ward or at-large by the most votes.
Read more: – Morning Sun

The Kansas Legislature’s auditors reported that Johnson, Labette and Gove counties spent $28.8 million to provide three state-mandated government services last year, but received one-third of that total in state, federal or user-fee funding to cover those administrative costs. The three counties were selected for the audit because they represented a range of populations, geographic locations and spending per capita among Kansas’ 105 counties. Under state law, auditors said, Kansas counties provided 18 distinct core services. The limited audit examined costs during the 2024 fiscal year for the three counties in terms of services for criminal prosecution, motor vehicle registration and the collection of ad valorem taxes.
Read more: The Lawrence Times

Kansas turned in a 60-page application last week in hopes of receiving a share of  $50 billion in federal money designed to transform rural health. Nearly one-third of Kansans live in rural communities, and the state’s Rural Health Transformation Plan aims to improve health in those areas. Federal government officials originally touted the $50 billion as support for rural hospitals that are set to lose billions of dollars after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut Medicaid and other federal health spending. But the program evolved into a more general focus on rural health.
Read more: The Lawrence Times

A handful of county-level officials who were involved in a small-town Kansas newspaper raid in 2023 will pay a cumulative $3 million to three journalists and a city councilor. In two of the four agreements, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office also crafted a statement admitting regret.
Read more: The Lawrence Times

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell wasn’t kidding a couple weeks ago when he said a December rate cut wasn’t in the bag. Recent remarks from Powell’s colleagues point to plenty of apprehension over whether the central bank should deliver its third consecutive easing of policy when it meets Dec. 9-10. As a result, markets have recalibrated their expectations. Whereas traders as recently as a few days ago were pricing in at least a 2-to-1 probability of a quarter percentage point cut, that’s now flipped to a coin toss, according to futures markets readings tabulated by the CME Group in its FedWatch tool.
Read more: CNBC

With standing-room-only, the Frontenac City Council voted unanimously to oppose the annexation of land north of the city by the City of Mulberry for use as a solar farm. Several concerned citizens, residents of Frontenac, Mulberry, and Crawford County at-large, urged the council to vote against supporting the annexation. Long-term opponents Judy Prince and Becky Willard repeated arguments against allowing the solar farm to be built, citing the fire hazard created by the storage batteries and Mulberry’s inability to respond and contain those fires in a timely manner, a fact even a pair of Mulberry residents agreed with. Moreover, residents argued that there is already development happening in that area as lots are sectioned off for sale and new construction. One resident said he chose to live in the area because of the natural scenery and didn’t want to look at solar arrays all around.
Read more: -Morning Sun

A national penny shortage has forced Barton County officials to examine how they will handle cash transactions, with County Treasurer Jim Jordan outlining two potential rounding methods during a County Commission study session Tuesday afternoon. “This isn’t a really big deal, but you will get calls,” Jordan said. Jordan presented the commission with information on “conventional rounding” and “bankers rounding” as the county anticipates a complete halt to penny circulation following a U.S. Mint directive in August to stop production. Conventional rounding, the more common method, would always round a number ending in $.05 up to the nearest dollar amount. And this is the direction Jordan said he plans to go since the Kansas Department of Revenue hasn’t offered any guidance.
Read more: Great Bend Tribune

The Jackson County Commissioners want to let TerraPower, LLC and Evergy leaders know that, as they seek a location for a new nuclear power plant in the state, Jackson County is open for business. At Monday’s Jackson County Commission meeting, the commissioners signed a resolution supporting the development of a Natrium reactor in the county and outlined the advantages of building a facility here. “We need to get it out there as soon as possible that Jackson County is open for business and we want to be considered for it,” Commissioner Mark Pruett said. In September, officials from TerraPower, a nuclear innovation company started by Bill Gates and others, Evergy and the Kansas Department of Commerce, announced they were working together to explore building a Natrium reactor and energy storage system in Kansas.
Read more: Holton Recorder

It was ripping hot out, and there wasn’t much shade offering respite from the sun that was blazing down. But still, volunteers were out braving the summery conditions, tools in hand, helping to build one of the 14 single-family homes Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City is building in southern Olathe as part of its Pathway at Heritage Park affordable neighborhood in partnership with Pathway Community Christian Church. This project, located around 159th Street and Black Bob Road, is one of Habitat KC’s biggest efforts to date in Johnson County. Aside from some infill projects “here and there,” said Lindsay Hicks, CEO for Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City, it was the first major construction project Habitat had embarked on in Johnson County. Now, construction is well underway. All of that comes as the nonprofit has started to put more focus on supporting homeownership and housing access in Johnson County, but there’s still more to be done.
Read more: Johnson County Post

On Tuesday, the City of Dodge City received a grant to help residents take steps toward achieving their “American Dream.” The city’s Cultural Relations Advisory Board received a grant from the Community Foundation of Southeast Kansas to provide financial assistance to Ford County residents working toward U.S. citizenship. Those who receive funds participate in a program called Engage Dodge, which teaches them about their local government. The city says the Naturalization Scholarships will help enhance the lives of those seeking citizenship and create unity within the community.
Read more: KSN-TV

The Wichita City Council on Monday announced three finalists for the city manager position. Eighty-nine people applied for the position, according to the city, and the council worked with a search committee and a search firm to narrow the field.
Read more: KSN-TV

Reno County Commissioners tabled discussion of increasing commissioner pay for a month Wednesday to gather more information and constituent input. Among Kansas counties with county administrators or managers, Reno County has the lowest commissioner pay at $11,340 per year, Human Resources Director Helen Foster said. She added that commissioner pay is low enough that it prompts questions from employees of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System about whether Reno County is reporting its full salary. Tabling it until December allows commissioners to track how many hours per week they spend on county business. Commissioner Ron Hirst said he has tracked the time he spends on county business since late September, and it has ranged from two to 20 hours in a week.
Read more: The Hutchinson Tribune