Kansas Municipal News
At many banks, pandemic-era bond purchases are still tugging at profits
Banks’ pandemic-era bond investments are still hampering some lenders, dragging down the profitability of those that are saddled with low-yielding portfolios for months or even years to come. The concerns are far less severe than they were in March and April, when the failure of Silicon Valley Bank brought scrutiny of surviving banks whose large bond portfolios were also underwater. The question now is less about whether more banks are at risk of failing — and more about how much their profitability will be squeezed. The pressures aren’t universal since some banks held off on putting much cash into bonds during the pandemic, or chose shorter-term options that freed up their money more quickly. But those that did buy longer-term bonds before interest rates started rising in 2022 are facing more pain.
Source: The Bond Buyer
Wichita city council approves changes to short term rental rules
Inside the Wichita City Council chambers on Tuesday, Kelli Reid is sitting and listening to the council debate an issue that will impact her directly. They’re talking about new rules and regulations regarding short term rental properties. “When we first started out in 2018, there were there really was no policy per se,” Reid said about getting her Airbnb’s up and going. She added that she went “through the process of making phone calls to the city and to the county and to the state to find out how we go about doing this here in Kansas. It was cumbersome.” The city of Wichita has been working this policy since 2021 after a fatal shooting at a house party at an Airbnb.
Source: KAKE – News
Overland Park will require some new streets to be paved with concrete
Starting at the end of this year, Overland Park will require some new streets to be built with concrete instead of the traditional asphalt mix. The move is expected to cut down on the disturbance from regular street maintenance on these new roads and, overtime, reduce the city’s reliance on chip seal as a road resurfacing tool. Overland Park expects to eliminate about 220 lane miles from the future list of candidates for chip seal over the next 15 to 20 years. On Monday, the Overland Park City Council unanimously accepted the city staff’s plan to begin paving all new residential and collector streets with concrete.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Douglas County Commission to consider policy to pay people with lived experience
Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday will consider a new policy that would allow the county to pay people who have lived experience for their input on community issues and initiatives. County staff members want to seek input from people who are experiencing homelessness, in particular, and the new policy is in hopes of addressing barriers that prevent people from participating in listening sessions and work group meetings.
Source: The Lawrence Times
Municipal Bond Trends for September 12, 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.
Kansas schools brace for utility rate increases
It’s been five years since energy provider Evergy requested a rate increase for customers in the Wichita area. This year, the company has asked the Kansas Corporation Commission for a residential rate of just less than 10%. But the base rate increase for school customers starts at 25%. An Evergy spokesperson tells KSN this week the net increase for schools in rates could be between 11-12%. Some schools say they have budgeted for energy increases, but they are closely watching to see what gets approved by the KCC.
Source: KSN-TV
Great American Market draws crowds to downtown Emporia
With nearly 180 vendors this year, Commercial Street was lined with goodies from the 600 – 1100 blocks. Visitors found everything from plants and handcrafted jewelry to collectibles and antiques, resin art, crochet and knitted items, jams and jellies, food trucks and more. Thousands of people turned out for the Great American Market, as hundreds of vendors drew crowds of visitors to downtown Emporia Saturday for a day of shopping.
Source: Emporia Gazette
USD 216 Deerfield cancels school for second day due to storm damage
A school in western Kansas has canceled class for the second day in a row due to storm damage on Sunday, the district says. According to a release, USD 216 Deerfield will not have school on Tuesday as they work to clear storm damage and, “make the school safe for staff and students.” School was also canceled on Monday due to the damage. It is currently unknown when classes will resume.
Source: KAKE – News
Wichita water customers urged to get backflow tested, city threatens disconnections
In a September 5 news release, the City of Wichita states that residents with irrigation systems connected to the city’s water system are required to annually have their backflow tested. The due date for the annual backflow certification was May 30, and the city says multiple notices have gone out to accounts that have been non-compliant.
Source: KAKE – News
USDA invests nearly $50 million into water infrastructure in rural Kansas
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing more than $49 million for water and wastewater infrastructure repairs and upgrades in four towns and one county in rural Kansas. “Our rural communities in Kansas are in desperate need of investment and infrastructure. Water and sewer is no exception to that,” said Christy Davis, the state director of USDA Rural Development for Kansas. The cities of Girard, Humboldt, Mankato and Perry, as well as Neosho County will receive the funding. The money comes from the USDA’s Water and Waste Disposal Loan & Grant Program.
Source: KCUR News
Hutchinson firefighters participate in 9/11 stair climbs
Firefighters with the Hutchinson Fire Department participated in two 9/11 stair climbs over the weekend. Eleven firefighters participated in events in Wichita and Kansas City. Nine firefighters from Hutchinson climbed 110 flights of stairs at the Epic Center in Downtown Wichita on Saturday, while two firefighters climbed the same number of stairs at the Skyline Collection building located in Downtown Kansas City on Sunday. Each firefighter carried with them the name of a firefighter who died at the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There were 343 New York City Fire Department (FDNY) firefighters, paramedics, and one New York Fire patrolman who died that day, along with 23 New York Police Department and 37 Port Authority police officers.
Source: KSN-TV
Winfield fire holds 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb
The Winfield 9/11 Memorial Stair climb was held Monday on the 22nd anniversary of the attacks. The event took place at the 77 Steps of Southwestern College’s Christy Administration Building at 100 North College Ave. It was the sixth year Winfield Fire and EMS hosted the stair climb to honor the victims of that day. To commemorate the 110 stories the First Responders had to climb in the World Trade Towers, firefighters climbed the 77 stairs 27.5 times.
Source: KSN-TV
Goats on the move in Pittsburg park
Nearly 40 goats were released in Lincoln Park on Monday to help the Pittsburg Parks and Recreation Department control some overgrowth along the creek north of Lincoln Center. The goats belong to Robert Dutton, owner of Oscar-Mike Goat Rental. A 12-year veteran of the National Guard, Dutton chose the name Oscar-Mike, which is the phonetic pronunciation of the letters “O” and “M,” is military shorthand for “on the move” as a nod to his military background. “I figured the goat are always on the move, so it made perfect sense to me,” Dutton said. What he didn’t count on was his non-military friends not understanding the shorthand and asking who Oscar and Mike are. Dutton began renting out his goats last year to test the waters and see if a viable business would be practical. This year, Dutton decided to go all in and advertise his goats commercially.
Source: Morning Sun
Municipal Bond Trends for September 11, 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.
Downtown banners official in Newton
Collaboration, and school and town pride were the themes for the ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning celebrating the installation of Newton High School and Bethel College banners in downtown Newton. The event was at the Newton Train Station park. “A great day,” said Sal Lujano, who came up with the banner idea. “Everything is falling in line. The weather is great. I want just to kind of repeat the word collaboration because it has been a collaboration of many people coming together to reach this goal and lift our schools and our students and highlight them with pride in our downtown. I feel that this week’s theme is ‘We are in this together.’”
Source: Harvey County Now
Downtown’s new dawn: Major developments set to propel Wichita’s core
In just a few years, a $300-million biomedical campus is expected to rise in place of nondescript parking lots near Broadway and William streets and a neighboring city transit center destined for replacement. It’s a landmark endeavor in downtown Wichita’s history, and the project’s driving visionary says it couldn’t have happened without being audacious. “What all this has taught me is that you need to have big, bold ideas,” Wichita State University president Rick Muma said. “I think sometimes, in the Midwest, people are not prone to have those kinds of big ideas.” Muma says conversations and planning surrounding the project — on track to begin construction in 2024 and led by the KU School of Medicine-Wichita, Wichita State University and WSU Tech — started several years ago.
Source: Wichita Business Journal
Johnson County group fought to get contentious issue on ballot. Too late, official says
A contentious battle over whether Prairie Village residents will vote this fall on restructuring the city government reached a screeching halt Friday afternoon. As the city and a group of homeowners awaited clarification on a judge’s ruling over proposed ballot initiatives, the Johnson County election office said the fight is essentially over for now. Election Commissioner Fred Sherman said the deadline has passed for his office to have time to place new questions on the Nov. 7 ballot. But the group of homeowners behind the initiatives, PV United, hasn’t given up. In a letter to the election office shared with The Star, the group urged Sherman to place the issue on the ballot.
Source: Joco 913 News
Wichita to pay $262,500 after police stood outside as man stabbed roommate
The Wichita City Council is set to approve a six-figure payout related to a 2019 incident where police officers stood outside of a house as a man killed his roommate by stabbing her up to 50 times. The family of the victim, Devin Andrea Cook, had sued the city in state court over officers’ failure to intervene during the deadly assault. The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting includes the authorization of a $262,500 payment as “full settlement of all claims against the officers and the City of Wichita” arising from a domestic violence incident on Nov. 23, 2019. That’s the day that police responded to a phone call from Jason McCaleb, who wanted his roommate, 28-year-old Cook, to vacate their south Wichita residence. After speaking with both roommates, police determined that they could not make Cook leave immediately because she had “established residency” at the house, including keeping clothes there and having house keys.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
GCFD firefighters deployed to Alaska inform City Commission of experience
Members of the Garden City Fire Department shared information and their experience on a Wildland Team deployment in Tok, Alaska, with the Kansas Fire Module at the Garden City Commission’s regular meeting Tuesday. The Kansas Fire Module was comprised of members from the Kansas Forest Service, the GCFD and the Olathe Fire Department. The module spent 14 days, beginning on July 29, in the Tok area, in which the protection boundary is comprised of 8.5 million acres of land. Firefighter Raymond Hestikind spoke on the experience on behalf of firefighters Chris Talmage and Ljay Geist, who were unable to make the meeting as they had just been deployed again.
Source: Garden City Telegram
Kansas school districts look for ways to entice kids back to class
Three years after the pandemic sent most Kansas kids home to learn, schools have a vexing new challenge: getting them to come back to class. Missing school has become a crisis statewide. State education leaders are still compiling data from last school year, but they expect the problem is getting worse. “Definitely a dramatic uptick … which is not what anybody would want to see,” said Robyn Kelso, who monitors attendance for the Kansas Department of Education. “At the same time, I don’t know that I’m necessarily surprised.” Many older students struggled with the transition to remote learning and then back to a normal school routine. Some saw their mental health suffer and lost the motivation to attend class.
Source: Derby Informer | Area