Municipal News & Jobs

County Attorney Heather Figger recently informed commissioners that she plans to transition the county’s case management system to Guardify, due to its artificial intelligence capabilities, which enable searching files with specific direction. Figger said the issue is the amount of digital storage the county is accumulating and the time its current system, Prosecutor by Karpel (PBK), takes to manage data. She said in June, they had around three terabytes of digital evidence, are now at five terabytes, and expect to be at seven next summer.
Read more: Harvey County Now

Earlier this year, the Holton City Commission approved an updated dog and cat ordinance that would limit Holton residents to three dogs and three cats each, outside of per­mits for additional pets that were “grandfathered in” at the time of the ordinance’s approval. Starting Thursday, Jan. 1, the city will enforce that limit on the number of pets that may be kept, according to Holton City Manager Teresa Riley.
Read more: The Holton Recorder

The city of Overland Park is lending its voice to an effort aimed at limiting homeowners associations’ power to ban residential solar panels. As part of its annual state legislative platform, the city is supporting state law changes that would remove HOAs’ ability to ban solar panels on homes within their jurisdictions. Instead, HOAs would be able to have rules governing things like their appearance, location and installation, but could not prohibit them outright.
Read more: Johnson County Post

Pioneer Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Pioneer Electric) announced its intent to acquire electrical distribution service territory owned by the City of Hugoton. Pioneer expects the transition to take effect late summer 2026. “We are humbled by the trust expressed by the city in this decision,” said Lindsay Campbell, Pioneer Electric CEO. “Our hope is that this opportunity acts as a benefit for both the community of Hugoton and Pioneer Electric. We appreciate the opportunity to grow the cooperative and, in return, serve as a community partner by providing safe, reliable, and affordable electrical service.” Pioneer Electric currently serves members in 10 counties in southwest Kansas, including portions of rural Stevens County and the town of Moscow.
Read more: Hugoton Hermes News

A Prairie Village woman is able to keep her 15-month-old spider monkey but must meet a laundry list of conditions to do so. The Prairie Village City Council in a 7-4 vote on Monday approved a conditional license that allows Toni Skelton, a longtime resident of the city, to keep her spider monkey, Oakley. Councilmembers Betsy Lawrence, Terry O’Toole, Nick Reddell and Jim Sellers cast the dissenting votes. The license comes with 12 conditions, including that the monkey is prohibited from public spaces and that Skelton must provide the city with documentation on where Oakley originates from and the monkey’s birth date. Skelton told reporters following Monday’s meeting that she doesn’t believe the city council knows what they voted on, and if so, “I think they’re in for a rude awakening because my legal team is already on it right now.”
Read more: Johnson County Post

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday approved a change to temporarily remove the limit on how many short-term rental units — such as AirBnBs — property owners may hold.  The change, which city staff members said will help ensure there are enough accommodations for thousands of visitors anticipated to come to town for the World Cup, will go into effect May 25. Commissioners asked staff to start the process to add to city codes that the change will sunset July 26 and to increase penalties for violations. 
Read more: The Lawrence Times

Anderson County commissioners have established new regulations governing the placement of solar farms. The regulations were approved after a two-year moratorium on all industrial solar projects, the Anderson County Review reported. Under the new regulations, commercial solar projects of up to 160 acres are allowed only through a special use permit in agricultural and industrial zoning districts, the newspaper reported. Utility scale projects exceeding 160 acres are restricted to industrial zoning districts and also require a special use permit.
Read more: The Iola Register

It looks like the Royals won’t be joining the Chiefs in moving to the Kansas side of the metro, at least not with the help of special state incentives designed to entice the professional sports teams to the state. Earlier this week, Topeka-based news stations KSNT and WIBW both reported Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins affirmed that the opportunity for the Royals to use the special stadium incentive package offered in Kansas had passed. Hawkins chairs the Legislative Coordinating Council, the bipartisan group of Kansas legislative leaders from both chambers tasked with approving state stadium incentives. Though the stadium incentive law passed in 2024 is active through June 2026, the LCC voted to impose a deadline of Dec. 31, 2025, for teams to submit plans. That date passed without a formal request from the Royals, Hawkins said.
Read more: Johnson County Post

Garden City’s newest mayor is just 22 years old, and he says his appointment shows the confidence the community has in its young people. The city commission appoints one of its elected commissioners to the role each year, and this week, members selected Tom Nguyen. Despite his age, Nguyen is no stranger to local politics. He was elected to the commission in 2023 and says he is honored that Garden City residents value his ideas more than his age.
Read more: KSN-TV

Derby’s Rock Regional Hospital is permanently closed. The hospital on social media posted that there is “NO emergency care available at this location.” The post went on to add that “if you are experiencing a medical emergency, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.” Court records show that a bankruptcy judge lifted a stay that had delayed the hospital from being evicted. According to documents, the landlord gave the hospital notice back on Nov. 5 that it would enforce the eviction no later than Dec. 10.
Read more: KSN-TV

People in Hays will need to keep an eye on their plumbing over the next month. This week, a city contractor is starting to inspect and clean sewer lines in the southern part of the city. The Water Resources Department said work will begin on the north side of the area and continue south. It should be finished within a month, depending on the weather.
Read more: KSN-TV

Galena City Council discussed proposals for dealing with the city’s growing landfill issue, including constructing a new cell with a gas burn-off system, and has adjusted its approach to focus on air monitoring and data collection.
Read more: KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com

Marion residents wanting to own pit bulls or a Rottweiler may soon be able to. Current policy states that dogs are not allowed in the city if they have 51% of one of the breeds. Such dogs running at large cannot be returned to the owner.
Read more: Marion County RECORD

The $574 million project was originally scheduled to be complete in September 2024. The Wichita Water Works plant, near the Sedgwick County Zoo, doesn’t work because of a design flaw related to the water treatment facility’s clarifiers, Gary Janzen, director of public works and utilities, told the council. Multiple contractors have been hired to identify the root cause, he said, and the city’s waiting for their findings to provide further details on the new plant.
Read more: Wichita Eagle

The city — taking its cue from state law — has a policy that allows any city employee to legally carry a concealed weapon while on duty for the city, as long as the employee follows a host of regulations. Such employees would be carrying a weapon in their individual capacity, and not as part of their city job duties.
Read more: LJWorld

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. 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.

Zook will continue to serve in her current role as community development director while assuming these additional responsibilities. The deputy city manager position was created to strengthen organizational continuity and leadership depth.
Read more: Abilene RC

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. 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.

Residents said they felt a sense of victory over snatching an NFL team and had concerns about game day traffic and noise.
Read more: KC Star

After two years of negotiations under a nondisclosure agreement, Olathe residents are learning about the Kansas City Chiefs’ move to town.
Read more: KC Star

An armed city employee shot and killed an alleged intruder Monday at Lawrence City Hall, according to police. Details provided were vague, but Lawrence Police Chief Rich Lockhart said the man had gone up a stairwell to the fourth floor and broken a window. City employees “encountered” the man, a fight ensued, and an armed city employee shot and killed the man.
Read more: The Lawrence Times

It’s the biggest Kansas City professional sports franchise move in more than five decades. The Chiefs are moving to Kansas. The team and state made the major announcement Monday in Topeka, and on SportsBeat KC, the sports podcast of The Star and KCUR, columnist Sam McDowell breaks down why the decision to relocate was made and what it means to the team and metropolitan area.
Read more: Kansas City Star

Groundwater in western Kansas is a precious commodity. Hays and Russell are back in court to defend a plan to transfer water from a ranch in another county. Western Kansas towns see the writing on the walls. Water is growing more scarce in the region, and for some of the people who live and work there, it’s a problem that needs to be addressed today. Communities are already pouring resources into it, like water transfer projects, water recycling and aquifer recharge attempts. But, as some towns have learned, water is a hard thing to share in the semi-arid area, and courts are struggling to balance precedents and statues.
Read more: The Iola Register

When Matt Rehder arrived in Iola in 2021, he inherited a daunting to-do list and nearly five years later, the city administrator is steadily checking it off. Matt Rehder likely doesn’t need a crystal ball when it comes to 2026. That’s because when Rehder began as Iola city administrator in 2021, the position came with a to-do list. Develop more housing. Rebuild U.S. 54. Replace aging infrastructure. Bring in more business. Rehder laughs. Kind of. After all, that’s a pretty tall order. But in his almost five years in the position, he’s earned some notches in his belt.
Read more: The Iola Register

Governor Laura Kelly today announced that $6.7 million has been awarded to five Internet Service Providers through the latest round of the Broadband Acceleration Grant program. These awards will be matched with an additional $6.7 million in private and local investment, resulting in $13.4 million to expand high-speed internet access across eight rural Kansas counties. Together, these projects will deliver reliable service to approximately 1,068 households and businesses, many located in some of the state’s most underserved and hardest-to-reach areas.  
Read more: Press Releases Archives – Kansas Department of Commerce

Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland today announced the Office of Rural Prosperity at the Department of Commerce has awarded $337,833 in Strategic Economic Expansion and Development (SEED) grants, supporting 15 quality-of-life projects across Kansas. The awards leveraged more than $744,186 in local contributions, bringing the total investment available for the projects to almost $1.1 million. “Our small towns in Kansas are the heart of this state — they have character, history and most importantly, they have passion for growth,” Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland said. “Investing in these projects provides opportunities for smaller, rural communities to make themselves more appealing to their current and future residents as well as attract potential new businesses.”
Read more: Kansas Department of Commerce

Gov. Laura Kelly and the Kansas City Chiefs today announced that an agreement has been reached to build a domed stadium and a mixed-use entertainment district, as well as a new team headquarters, training facility and mixed-use development in Kansas. The project will be a massive economic win for the state, with the construction phase alone creating over 20,000 jobs and $4.4 billion in economic impact for Kansas. From there, the stadium will bring over $1 billion in annual impact. The agreement includes two distinct parts: (1) a $3 billion stadium in Wyandotte County, which will open at the start of the 2031 NFL season; and (2) a new Chiefs headquarters and training facility in the City of Olathe in Johnson County. Both sites will have mixed-use developments that could include sports, entertainment, dining, shopping, office, hotel and residential properties.
Read more: Press Releases Archives – Kansas Department of Commerce

This past March, a wildfire caused by high winds and a smoldering brush pile tore through 130 acres in Yates Center, consuming the Yates Center Health and Rehabilitation Center, a senior living facility, and causing nearly $5 million in damage. All residents were safely evacuated, but their home burned to the ground. Dense stands of eastern red cedar trees near the building provided ample kindling for the blaze. “The fire jumped the road and got into the cedars,” Yates Center Fire Chief Brandon Gaulding told KOAM News. “It went through the cedars so fast that by the time we got to the nursing home, we tried to do everything we could to save it, but the wind was too much.” The highly flammable trees are everywhere in Kansas, including places they never used to grow.
Read more: The Iola Register

While much of the headlines have been toward the news the Kansas City Chiefs are coming to Kansas in 2031, a theme park based on Mattel products like Barbie and Hot Wheels also is in the works in Wyandotte County. A theme park spotlighting famous toys including the Barbie brand and Hot Wheels is slated to come to Kansas powered by the state’s sales tax incentive for major developments. Bonner Springs officials in October approved a large tax incentive package to help the $540 million development of Mattel Adventure Park in Wyandotte County. The park will be built near an entertainment district in Kansas City, Kansas. That area already features shopping and sports venues, and it will likely be the new home of the Kansas City Chiefs new $3 billion stadium.
Read more: The Iola Register

Crawford County IT Director Brandon Spaur presented the commissioners with the annual VMware maintenance renewal with a substantial increase in cost. In past years, the annual cost for cyber protection was $1,000 — this year, it skyrocketed to $13,680. Spaur said that one reason for the increase was the purchase of VMware by a larger corporation, BroadCloud, that requires a minimum core count purchase of 190. The county has only required 32. Core count is the amount of processing cores in a CPU and is an indication of how many tasks the CPU can handle simultaneously.
Read more: -Morning Sun

The $4 billion development anchored by a Kansas City Chiefs stadium will be made possible by a mammoth incentive district that spans two counties and will divert new sales tax revenue generated there for years to come. A preliminary version of the Sales Tax and Revenue, or STAR bond, district published by the Kansas Department of Commerce shows that essentially all of Wyandotte County and a broad swath of Johnson County will be included.
Read more: Wichita Eagle

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. 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 lawmakers and the Kansas City Chiefs announced an agreement Monday to move the football team’s facilities to the Sunflower State using a controversial funding mechanism called STAR bonds. The Kansas City, Kansas, stadium; Olathe headquarters and practice facility; and other development are expected to cost at least $4 billion. Wyandotte and Johnson county taxpayers, as well as visitors to the facilities, can expect their sales tax dollars to go toward these projects for decades to come.
Read more: Wichita Eagle

Two separate fires on Sunday night and Monday morning left five Kansas City, Kansas, firefighters hospitalized with injuries. Tuesday, the last two who had remained hospitalized were released. The firefighters all sustained serious injuries after the Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department responded to two separate second alarm structure fires within 12 hours, according to a news release from the department, including one in which three firefighters were hurt when the floor beneath them collapsed.
Read more: Kansas City Star

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday will hold a work session on an updated draft affordable housing incentive policy that aims to increase development to meet the community’s needs and clarify the process, requirements and more for developers seeking city funds. Some projects receive funding through the city’s affordable housing trust fund, which comes from a special city sales tax. Lawrence voters in November 2024 approved doubling the affordable housing sales tax to one penny for every $20 spent in town. The funds have supported numerous projects over the past several years.
Read more: The Lawrence Times

Newton residents are far more satisfied with their City than their regional and national peers. Yet they also have a lower opinion of their city.
That’s according to the results of a city-wide survey conducted by Olsson Associates as part of Newton’s project to create a new comprehensive plan (Newton Next).
Read more: Harvey County Now

On Dec. 26, at approx. 1:30 p.m., Bentley Police Chief Tim Bryan was flagged down by an area resident, who related that there was an injured owl on his property. The man stated that the large owl could still fly a small distance and that hawks were beginning to attack it, sensing its ill health. The Bentley Police Department helped a resident with an injured owl and transported it to safety. The owl was located at the edge of a field near 16100 W 109th St. N. As the closest available game warden was in Sumner County, Bryan captured the bird, identifying it as a great horned owl, and observed it to have an eye and wing injury. The owl was then placed into a plastic pet carrier and transported to the Hutchinson Zoo for care. The Cargill WildCare Center at the Hutchinson Zoo is a certified rehabilitation center, with over 900 orphaned and injured Kansas animals taken there in 2025. They are also well-versed in raptor care and recognized across the area as a licensed partner in this effort.
Read more: Harvey County Now

As the chapter closes on an installment of local politics, David Kauffman feels honored and blessed to have been involved in the city government of Hesston. After 16 years as mayor, Kauffman did not run for re-election for the next term, opening the door for Susan Swartzendruber to take up the mantle. The mayoral position in Hesston does not have voting power, unless a tie needs to be broken; rather, it’s a position that stresses the procedural aspects of the monthly meetings. Before being mayor, Kauffman was elected to the city council.
Read more: Harvey County Now

This year marks the sesquicentennial-plus-four years birthday—or the 154th—of Newton. With that in mind, local organizations decided to celebrate the town’s birthday, possibly every year from now on—if this year’s event is successful. Those entities include the City of Newton and the Newton Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Read more: Harvey County Now

The temporary closure of a small jail in north-central Kansas highlights problems facing counties across the state, officials say. Cloud County Sheriff Ken Davis blamed a lack of competitive pay and the sudden resignation of three employees for the closure. But officials in other, larger counties said those problems aren’t exclusive to Cloud County.
Read more: KSN-TV

A new housing development will be built in Liberal. The City of Liberal is hosting a groundbreaking celebration in partnership with French Construction on Jan. 8 at 2 p.m. The new Doll Housing Addition will have 66 single-family homes. The homes will be built on East Hickory Street near Griffith Avenue.
Read more: KSN-TV

The City of Newton said two water towers will be getting a new look next year. At a recent meeting, city commissioners approved new designs for the towers on Spencer Road and West 17 Street. One tower will feature the City of Newton’s logo, and the other will feature the flag. The City of Newton said the paint project will help protect the towers against rust and extend their life.
Read more: KSN-TV

Sumner County has rejected a conditional use permit for a battery storage facility near Oxford. After hours of public comment on Tuesday, the Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 to deny the permit for an energy storage facility near Webb Road and Highway 160. Close to a hundred people were present to protest the project, and over two dozen people spoke in opposition, raising environmental concerns.
Read more: KSN-TV

A Garden City veteran lost a leg and his will to live after an accident with a train last summer. Thanks to the town’s fire marshal, he is now embracing life and trying to get back home. It’s been a long half-year of recovery for 88-year-old Garden City veteran Raymond Stroup, who lost a leg last summer after his car was hit by a train. “I’ve had a lot of discouraging thoughts,” Stroup said. After experiencing such a traumatic injury in his late 80s, Stroup was ready to give up on life, but Garden City Fire Marshal Gene Robertson, who met Stroup through the accident, wouldn’t accept that line of thinking from a hero.
Read more: KSN-TV

A metal swarm of eyes in the sky could soon by crowding the air in Wichita’s Old Town and downtown. The city council approved a $600,000 donation from QuikTrip to allow the Wichita Police Department to host a ‘drone hive’ on the roof of its Washington and Douglas location. WPD says the location is a hub for street racing downtown. They aim to improve response time and deter crime in the area, as it is densely populated and a ‘no chase’ zone, making drones ideal for following suspects without the same risks.
Read more: KSN-TV