Kansas Municipal 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
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 27, 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.
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