Municipal News & Jobs

The City of Burden park has a new feature – a bench that will help families, specifically breastfeeding moms. In 2018, the Breastfeeding Advocates of Cowley County (BACC) received a grant from the Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition for the design, construction, and installation of a breastfeeding bench. The goal of this project is to provide a safe, comfortable and sheltered area to breastfeed and change a diaper. … The breastfeeding bench was constructed by Central of Burden High School Shop class. The bench features a shaded canopy and was installed near the playground equipment. This location helps caregivers sit and feed children without having to leave the park.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler

It’s spring, so residents of Greensburg are getting a little on edge. “You’re so excited for spring, the flowers and gardens,” said Greensburg resident Erica Goodman, owner of Where’Dya Find That Antiques on South Main Street. “Yet storms come with it.” Goodman’s home and business were among the hundreds destroyed 15 years ago Wednesday as a 1.7-mile wide wedge tornado tore through town. The devastating EF5 twister hit the south-central Kansas town at about 9:45 on a Friday night, killing 11 people, injuring 63 and destroying more than 90% of its structures. While residents have no formal plans to mark the anniversary on May 4, they can’t help but remember, several said, as also try to continue to build on the new Greensburg that has risen from it.
Source: Hutch News

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 and Beth Warren.

… Buffalo Dunes, Garden City’s municipal golf course, … is halfway through converting more than 20 acres of irrigated bluegrass to buffalo and other native grasses. The move is expected to save up to 20 million gallons of water a year and 16 to 18 hours of labor each week. … The project launched in 2019 and is planned for completion in time for the course’s 50th anniversary in 2026. What’s happening at Buffalo Dunes, roughly a 10-minute drive from Garden City, melds nicely with Lee Richardson Zoo and the town’s parks and recreation infrastructure. The city did away with an iconic public swimming pool and built a new one, complete with a water park that preserves water rather than letting it seep through century-old concrete. Leaders and residents have bought in to water conservation, said Fred Jones, Garden City’s water resources manager. He oversees the water and wastewater departments. “We’re focusing on conservation, ensuring the city has adequate water supplies,” Jones said. “We’re involved in the conversation regarding water in the region, paying attention to what’s going on legislatively and in the field.”
Source: High Plains Journal

It’s been a decade since a major tornado hit the Wichita area, and during that time, technology has advanced — to say the least. On Friday night, just after a tornado ravaged the Andover area, social media was suddenly flooded with high-quality photos and videos from citizen journalists who’d spotted the twister outside their houses or captured it from their cars.
Source: Wichita Eagle

In Olathe, Kansas, where the school system is cutting 140 jobs, Deputy Superintendent John Hutchison said the extra federal money merely put off the inevitable. Now it is trimming millions of dollars from its budgets because enrollment, having peaked at more than 30,000 students in fall 2019, fell by around 900 in the first full school year of the pandemic. Less than 100 of those students have returned. “Where did those kids go?” Hutchison asked during a recent public meeting. “Where are they? They didn’t come back this year. That’s what’s laying on that additional reduction in our funding.” Families opting for homeschooling, private schools and other options sent enrollment down sharply in the first full school year of the pandemic, and generally it has been slow to recover.
Source: Wichita Eagle

The Andover elementary school slammed by a tornado Friday night will not be used for the rest of the school year, the Andover school district said Saturday night. Prairie Creek Elementary School “suffered significant damage,” the district said in a Facebook post. “Some rooms were untouched, while others were heavily damaged.” Students who attended Prairie Creek will not have school this coming week while district leaders determine where they will attend for the rest of the school year.
Source: Wichita Eagle

Public school teacher pay in Kansas continues to improve in the years since the state Supreme Court ruled the Legislature was unconstitutionally underfunding education, according to a national ranking of teacher salaries. But teacher salaries in the Sunflower State still lag below the national average, as well as that of Kansas’ neighboring states.
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 and Beth Warren.

Here in the Arkansas Ozarks, a billionaire is never very far away. It is remarkable for one corner in an otherwise rural state to have not one, but rather a multitude of homegrown billionaires — courtesy of the Waltons of Walmart fame, the Hunts of J.B. Hunt Transport and the Tysons of their namesake poultry and protein empire. But perhaps more remarkable is what the region doesn’t have — if you believe the local line: Envy and jealousy. If a big, new electric vehicle manufacturer decides to locate its research and development facility in Bentonville, bringing 500 high-paying jobs to the city, leaders in Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale or any of the other neighboring towns don’t lament and seethe about how their community lost out to a neighbor and a rival. Instead, they celebrate.
Source: LJWorld

Topeka’s chronically vacant houses tend to be old. Twenty-seven of the 49 buildings on the vacant property registry the city maintains were built more than 100 years ago, Shawnee County Appraiser’s Office records say. Those houses also tend to have below-average appraisal values. Thirty-five of the 49 properties on the registry have appraisal values of less than $45,000. Twenty-four are valued at less than $20,000, and 13 at $10,000 or less. … The majority of the properties are located in in North and central Topeka.
Source: CJonline

A Reno County Sheriff’s Department drone and the expertise of area natural gas industry professionals both proved key in managing an explosive fire at a gas plant outside of Haven on April 14, the county’s emergency management director said. The fire at the Haven Midstream plant on Halstead Road, about a mile southwest of the town of Haven, was initially called in as a grass fire, Director Adam Weishaar advised the Reno County Commission. However, the fire was so intense the National Weather Service contacted him in response to the heat signal that popped up on the radar, and the Kansas Fire Marshal’s office reached out after hearing reports of explosions.
Source: Hutch News

Downtown Hutchinson gained more than 50 new businesses in the last five years, filling the storefronts that had been empty for decades. The growth exceeded the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce, downtown business owners and residents’ expectations — but there is still more than an estimated 140,000 square feet of open retail, restaurant and commercial space on Main Street. According to Reno County’s property records, the estimated value of these empty properties that are owned by private residents is $1.4 million. While businesses own another $1.6 million in empty storefronts.
Source: Hutch News