Kansas Municipal News
Where will the city find housing for thousands of new students in one area?
The new biomedical campus is on the way to downtown Wichita, and it will eventually bring up to 3,000 students and hundreds of faculty and staff to consolidate into one complex. It’s a collaboration between Wichita State University and the University of Kansas. While it’s being hailed as great for the ICT, some are asking where the housing will come from to meet the new demand. “Affordable housing is so important for just the stability and the quality of life of our community,” said Danielle Johnson, the Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity. Johnson says Wichita already needs up to an additional 50,000 housing units before the announcement of the new biomedical campus. “Many folks are excited about the number of folks that will help grow our population,” said Johnson. “With the biomedical center and all of the students, but that also just brings in a whole group of folks finding a place to live.” Johnson says different groups have been working to find and build affordable housing. The biomedical campus adds a new wrinkle to an already tight housing market. “First off, I’m excited for the opportunity and the collaboration between Wichita State and KU and Wichita Tech,” said Reverend Dr. Kevass Harding with Hope Builds Community. “I would love to collaborate, talk, and to help in that process for housing. Because there is a great need. There’s going to be a need. There’s already a shortage.” Dr. Harding says his Hope Builds Community group works to find good housing options for low to middle to moderate incomes. “Not just for low the moderate-income families but really for the workforce,” said Harding. “That’s going to be quite a few people coming to our community looking for housing.” Some former city council members say they have been looking to find new developers and find incentives for some time to build more housing, from single-family homes to apartments and duplexes. “This is something I’ve pushed all along,” said former city council member Jeff Blubaugh. “We’ve got all this great growth. We’ve got the biomedical center coming here. Everything is happening for Wichita except for the affordable housing. And it’s very unfortunate. We’re starting to see some more spur up, but it’s not going to be near enough for the students we are going to see bringing in to Wichita.” Some current city council members say they are having workshops to move on housing issues.
Source: KSN-TV
Kansas universities finding ways to bring in more nursing students
Wichita State University released a new rendering of the eight-story building that will house classrooms and labs for WSU and the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Many factors have fueled the shortage of nurses over the years, including burnout, people retiring, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Another contributor is the cost of nursing school. Debra Pile, Chair and Associate Dean of Nursing Practice, said this new facility will help bring more students to WSU. “Having one to meet the needs of pharmacists and nurses physicians, all of those entities involved in the biomedical center is really exciting,” said Pile. She hopes that the new facility will also help to retain faculty in the medical field. Another effort is to train more nurses coming from Fort Hays State University, which has partnered with 11 Kansas community colleges. FHSU is guaranteeing admission for community college nursing graduates. “We make our tours to our community colleges. We really try to emphasize that these courses are not overwhelming. It’s going to be a lot of reflection, a lot of group discussion, and we want to make sure that they don’t feel overwhelmed,” Assistant Department Chair of Nursing Tanya Smith said. The WSU downtown facility in should be completed by the end of 2026.
Source: KSN-TV
City water exceeds standard for HAAs
The city of Parsons sent out a public notice recently about haloacetic acids being found in drinking water samples at levels greater than the state allows. The water was sampled on Nov. 13 and tests showed that the water exceeded the Kansas Department of Health and Environment standard for the HAA5s, a group of five haloacetic acids. The standard for any one HAA is 60 ug/L. Results for samples the city collected showed that Parsons’ water plant exceeded the standard or maximum contaminant level (MCL) for HAA. Three of the samples were 72 ug/L, 79 ug/L, and 71 ug/L, respectively, according to the city notice. Derek Clevenger, director of utilities for Parsons, said this was the third notice about the city exceeding HAAs and likely will not be the last notification the city sends out on this issue. The city has been working with KDHE to resolve the matter. The city ordered a new carbon feeder, which KDHE believes will solve the problem. For now, city workers are manually feeding carbon into the water to try to reduce HAA5s, he said. When disinfection (such as the use of chlorine) is used in the treatment of drinking water, disinfectants combine with organic and inorganic matter in water to form compounds called disinfection byproducts (DBP). The U.S. EPA sets standards for controlling the levels of DBP in drinking water, including haloacetic acids (HAA). Compliance is based on the four-quarter average of sample results for each location where HAA samples are collected, called a locational running annual average (LRAA). Clevenger has updated city commissioners about the issue periodically and said he is working with KDHE to resolve it.
Source: Parsons Sun
Thousands of students in Kansas and Missouri have left public education. Here’s why
Thousands of students in Missouri and Kansas have left public school in the last four years, in line with a national trend of more families disengaging from public education. An analysis by the Associated Press, Big Local News and Stanford University economist Thomas Dee found enrollment in Missouri’s public schools dropped by 2% from the 2019-2020 school year to the 2022-2023 school year — making up nearly 18,000 students. Public school enrollment in Kansas is down about 16,000 students from its peak in 2015. Statewide enrollment numbers just released for 2023-2024 show 505,515 students in school this year, a 3% drop from the 2014-2015 school year. Nationally, the AP’s study found private schooling grew nearly 8% and homeschooling grew by nearly 27% during the same time period among more than 30 states with credible private, public or homeschool enrollment data. Collin Hitt, executive director of the PRiME Center, which studies education in Missouri, said it’s been an open question if that state’s homeschooling jump was temporary. “Given the fact that we’re seeing public K through 12 enrollments stay relatively flat, it probably suggests this is something that’s going to continue for some time, which is a major development,” Hitt said. Thousands of students across the country still haven’t returned to the classroom since the pandemic shut schools down for months. An estimated 230,0000 students were considered “missing” in fall 2021, meaning demographic changes or increases in private school or homeschooling couldn’t account for their disappearance from public education. Students have since slowly made their way back to varying forms of education or aged out of school, leaving only 50,000 kids unaccounted for. Missouri doesn’t track private school data and doesn’t legally require parents to notify when they homeschool their child. However, most parents will notify their public school district if they switch to homeschooling. Based on that limited data, Missouri has seen a 34% increase in homeschooling since 2019 — but that doesn’t include children who never attended public schools to begin with. Education leaders anticipated a drop in enrollment across the country because of declining birth rates. U.S. birth rates have been on the downswing for more than a decade, hitting a record low in 2020. The AP found there are 3,000 fewer school-aged children in Missouri compared to when the pandemic began.
Source: The Lawrence Times
Municipal Bond Trends for January 19, 2024
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.
When cold coal froze, wind farms helped Evergy power Kansas through winter weather
Evergy maintained “normal operating conditions for extreme weather,” despite coal freezing, thanks in part to high winds powering wind farms through the recent blustery conditions. “The bottom line is we had enough power over the last week or so and in particular through the weekend when we had the coldest weather to meet demands,” said Chuck Caisley, an Evergy executive, about the previous weekend. He added that with a midweek warming, “I think we are out of the biggest danger of not having adequate supplies.”
Source: CJonline
Law enforcement agencies across the state are encrypting their radio traffic
Law enforcement agencies across the state are encrypting their radio traffic so the public can no longer hear it, and Harvey County is doing it this week. The block on Harvey County’s law enforcement radio traffic comes after a change to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) security policy. The policy now says law enforcement agencies can’t pass sensitive information unencrypted across public networks.
Source: KSN
Girard Council discusses water leaks
With negative temperatures and water leaks, last week proved to be a wild one for City of Girard employees. At approximately 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10, the city notified residents on Facebook that a vehicular accident involving a hydrant left residents experiencing outages or low pressure, forcing city crews to work continually through the freezing temperatures along Buffalo Street on the western side of town. In an update on Thursday morning, Jan. 11, the city said its crews continued to work on multiple leaks caused by the accident. The account noted that the city engaged a third-party contractor to assist the City Electric Department, which was also assisting. “Some members of our Public Works crew put in 18-hour days yesterday (Wednesday, Jan. 10), working until the early morning hours today (Thursday, Jan. 11), and for those showing appreciation for their efforts, thank you,” the city said in its post. “It does wonders for morale. They were delivered hot food and drinks and ate their dinners at the leak.” Several hours following the post on Thursday morning, the city notified residents of a boil order, which served as an advisory due to the massive leak causing many customers to be without water for an extended period. The advisory was rescinded just after 4 p.m. on Friday.
Source: Morning Sun
Rural school district celebrates 1,000 adult graduates
USD 112 Central Plains recently celebrated its 1,000th adult diploma completion program graduate after just three years of offering a free, online high school program for Kansan adults. “As a small, rural school district, it has been exciting to see the impact the Central Plains Diploma Completion Program has had on the adult population in Kansas,” Central Plains Superintendent Bill Lowry said. “Education has no boundaries, and we’ve been able to serve students from all four corners of Kansas and everywhere in between.” Students who complete the program graduate with a standard high school diploma from USD 112 Central Plains. To date, 250 learners have also earned an employability skills certificate, further boosting their employability. “Sixty-five percent of our graduates have gotten a better job or raise within 9 months of graduation,” Lowry said. “Over a quarter of them have continued to post-secondary education, and we’re starting to see some college graduates now as well.” The program also allows students to finish high school faster than they would in a traditional school setting — courses, which can be started any business day, take less than a month to complete.
Source: Morning Sun
County renews sheriff’s office contract with Edgerton
The Johnson County Board of County Commissioners renewed a $538,858 contract last week for Edgerton to continue receiving law enforcement services from the sheriff’s office in 2024.The issue was discussed during the board’s Thursday meeting. Brian Seidler, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office budget director, said the county has held the agreement with Edgerton since 1996 since the city does not have its own police department. According to the agreement, the sheriff’s office patrols a district that includes the Johnson County line on the west and south, West 167th Street on the north and Gardner Road/Center Street on the east.
Source: Gardner News
GB seeing more growth in tourism
Tourism is a big deal for Barton County, an excited Great Bend Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Christina Hayes told the City Council Monday night. She had received the most recent Tourism Economic Impact Report from Kansas Tourism, and it contained promising information and helped solidify the importance of promoting the community to lure more visitors. “We paid for this as Barton county because Great Bend accounts for 95% of the tourism in Barton County,” she said. The report was costly enough, so by doing this, it saved the CVB about $3-4,000. Hayes said they don’t buy this report every year because it does cost so much. “But it’s interesting to see.” Kansas Tourism (which falls under the Kansas Department of Commerce) taps data from four sources for the report – the Kansas Department of Revenue; the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis; and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; and Smith Travel Research, a national measure of hotel demand and performance, and a tourism industry standard. Barton County sales and transient guest tax receipts are also included.
Source: Great Bend Tribune
City commissioners approve cemetery master plan
Manhattan city commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a master plan to implement infrastructure changes at Sunset and Sunrise cemeteries. The improvements — which will cost $6 million for Sunset Cemetery and $3 million for Sunrise Cemetery — will include a new building for equipment and a joint maintenance facility the Sunset Cemetery will share with Sunset Zoo. Sunrise Cemetery will receive a new office and maintenance shop, a remodel of the existing shop, and ongoing road maintenance and expansion as needed. The Cemetery Advisory Board voted unanimously to support the final draft master plan as presented on Nov. 9. Commissioner Karren McCulloh said she was surprised by the high price of these changes. “I do think as a commission we can accept this plan and work on it,” McCulloh said. “I think there is sticker shock. I’d like to see if we could do it a little less expensively. I’ve talked to some people in construction, and they felt that eight to nine million was pretty high.” Commissioner John Matta said he has trouble realistically picturing the fiscal impact this will have on the overall city budget. “It’s kind of hard to talk in the abstract without looking at the numbers,” Matta said. Commissioner Wynn Butler the first priority in this project should be figuring out what to do with the Sexton House. “I think we should immediately go through the process of figuring out how to unravel encumbrances on the Sexton House,” Butler said. “Because we talked about that in great detail.”
Source: themercury.com
Fed’s Raphael Bostic expects rate cuts to happen in the third quarter
Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic expects policymakers to start cutting rates in the third quarter of this year, saying Thursday that inflation is well on its way back to the central bank’s goal. Bostic, a voting member this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, asserted that the goal ahead is to calibrate policy to be not so restrictive as to choke off growth while still acting as a bulwark against persistently elevated prices. However, he said a “golden path” scenario of tamping down inflation while promoting solid growth and healthy employment is getting closer than many Fed officials had expected. “Because I’m data dependent, I have incorporated the unexpected progress on inflation and economic activity into my outlook, and thus moved up my projected time to begin normalizing the federal funds rate to the third quarter of this year from the fourth quarter,” Bostic said in prepared remarks for a speech to business leaders in Atlanta. While the remarks help illuminate a timeline for rate cuts, they also serve as a reminder that Fed officials and market participants have different expectations about policy easing. Current pricing in the fed funds futures market points to the first cut coming as soon as March, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch measure. The implied probability for a quarter percentage point reduction has decreased in recent days but still stood around 57% Thursday morning. Pricing further indicates a total of six cuts this year, or one at every FOMC meeting but one from March forward. Bostic said he’s not dead set against cutting earlier than the third quarter, implying a move in July at the earliest, but said the bar will be high.
Source: Economy
Grant to improve election security
To bolster election security in Barton County, the County Commission Tuesday morning accepted a $94,096.91 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Security Grant. County Clerk Bev Schmeidler said the funding, which requires a 10% local match, will help with election equipment storage, a new trailer to haul supplies to polling locations, rolling bags to haul gear and other needs. “We had the opportunity to go out for a grant offered through the Secretary of State’s office for federal HAVA funds,” Schmeidler said. Since the money can be used for anything to improve election security, “there is quite a list of things that we asked for.” Although the commission accepted the entire $94,096.91 Tuesday, they only authorized spending just over $74,000 of that this week. First, it Ok-ed a bid from Brentwood Builders of Great Bend for $59,700 to remodel the County Clerk’s Office in the Courthouse. This includes making the early voting room more secure, adding an area for secure storage, tamperproof doors and a cabinet to charge and store electronic voting pads. Second was the larger trailer at $12,200. “Ours is at capacity,” she said of the one they use now. Lastly were the rolling security bags at $2,820.15. These are used to transfer supplies to voting sites. As for the balance of the grant, Schmeidler said she will come back before the commission to seek approval for the purchase of secure locks, a server and other electronic items needed for the effort.
Source: Great Bend Tribune
City of Claflin hosting rabies clinic
The City of Claflin is hosting a rabies clinic from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 20. The clinic will be held at the city shop, 710 Front St. in Claflin. Services will be provided by Hoisington Vet Clinic staff. As a reminder, all dogs in the city limits must have current proof of rabies vaccination and must be licensed by March 1. A $5 penalty will be assessed to dog owners after the March 1 deadline. Cost of dog tags is $5 for spayed or neutered dogs and $7.50 for dogs not fixed.
Source: Great Bend Tribune
JoCo clears $500K to help tenants pay rent, avoid eviction
A new round of incentives for landlords aimed at preventing homelessness and evictions won approval Thursday from the Johnson County Commission. Commissioners voted to expand pilot programs on eviction mediation and housing choice vouchers — both programs that have seen success in getting low-income renters into stable housing. The commission voted to add $500,000 to the eviction mediation project. But this time, the money will go to direct aid to tenants in arrears rather than mediators. Eviction mediation began in September in district court and will run through December of this year. Commissioners last year authorized $146,000 to pay court-certified mediators $250 for each Friday eviction court trial date.
Source: Johnson County Post
Municipal Bond Trends for January 18, 2024
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.
Johnson County police scanners will soon go silent. What will that mean for transparency?
For 13 Johnson County police agencies and hundreds of listeners to police radio scanners and phone apps, Jan. 23 will be “Encryption Day.” Law enforcement officials see it as the day they take back control over how much of their operations — including sensitive private information on the people they encounter — will go out over airwaves to be noted by anyone with the right technology. Scanner listeners, including some local crime journalists, see it differently. To them, “Encryption Day” will be the day the lights dim over police transparency, the day their desktop scanners become expensive paperweights and phone apps all but useless in finding out what’s going in real time with local law enforcement. “Once encryption happens, there is no expectation of accountability to the public about any agency’s action. At least not in any meaningful way,” wrote Cartherine Kost, administrator of the Johnson County KS Community and Police Scanner Group, in an email to the Post. “The public has the right to know what is happening in their communities. We have the right to have oversight of our governmental affairs. Encryption is one less way that we as citizens will be able to observe agencies and demand accountability,” she added. Encryption — which blocks listeners from hearing what police and dispatchers say over the radio — is nothing new. Most local agencies already use some encryption on certain tactical channels. The primary channels on which initial calls go out, however, have remained audible for members of the general public to hear if they have scanners. That’s what’s about to change. Lenexa’s police department recently announced over the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that 13 agencies will begin encrypting their primary channels. Those agencies include Blue Valley School District Police, Shawnee Mission School District Police, and the city police departments of Olathe, Overland Park, Shawnee, Lenexa, Leawood, Merriam, Fairway, Prairie Village, Roeland Park, Mission and Westwood.
Source: KCUR News
Johnson County allocates additional funds to SLFRF-backed pilot programs
The Landlord Incentive Pilot Program provides financial incentives when landlords rent to a family with a federally funded voucher for available units. Three county programs developed with federal Coronavirus funds received an additional boost in funding to help qualified community members with affordable housing, child care licensing and rental assistance. On Thursday, Jan. 18, the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners approved $950,000 in allocations from the interest accrued on the county’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. The United States Department of the Treasury, directed by the U.S. Congress, distributed these funds to cities, counties and other governmental bodies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds were intended to offset economic losses from the pandemic and to invest in community infrastructure. “These federal dollars have allowed our organization to pilot new and innovative ways to support those in our community who can benefit from some additional assistance,” said BOCC Chairman Mike Kelly. “At the same time we have been good stewards of these resources, ensuring they are being used strategically to improve the quality of life for our constituents.” The BOCC authorized the following: $200,000 to the Landlord Housing Voucher Incentive Program; $250,000 for childcare licensing fees; $500,000 to create a Rental Assistance Program as Phase 2 of the Eviction Mediation Program.
Source: Johnson County Kansas
Wichita selling more public housing units, holding open houses
If you are looking for a fixer-upper, the City of Wichita is selling off more of its public housing units. You can see the homes during open houses this Sunday, Jan. 21, and next Tuesday, Jan. 23. The open houses are from 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 21, and from 3-5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 23. The homes are part of a group of 37 homes scattered throughout Wichita that were recently approved for sale by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Anyone can bid on the properties. Questions may be directed to city staff at HousingDevelopment@wichita.gov. The city has reserved dates in February for more potential open houses, but the list of houses available may change. Any changes to the schedule, such as for bad weather, will be posted on the city’s Public Housing website.
Source: KSN-TV