Municipal News & Jobs

A national arts group found Wichita’s nonprofit arts organizations are leaving a large economic footprint. Americans for the Arts conducted an Arts and Economic Prosperity Study to gauge the economic impact of the arts in Wichita and in more than 370 regions. In 2022, the arts generated more than $184 million in economic activity in Wichita, the report said. “There’s so much more money out there being generated,” said Lindsay Benacka, director of the Division of Arts and Cultural Services for the city of Wichita. “We’re just looking at this slice of nonprofit as a general admission.” Nonprofit arts organizations in Wichita support slightly less than 3,000 jobs, spend about $78 million and generate more than $106 million in audience revenue, according to the study that was released in the fall. Wichita’s tax revenue from the arts was about $4 million. The numbers top both Topeka and Johnson County. Topeka, whose nonprofit arts organizations spent $25 million last year, brought in $20 million in audience revenue. Johnson County’s arts organizations spent $15 million in 2022 and brought in $23 million in audience spending. Nonprofit arts organizations in Topeka generated 1,000 jobs and a little more than $1 million in tax revenue, while Johnson County’s arts organizations generated a little less than 700 jobs and about $900,000 in local, state and federal revenue. The study included about 70 Wichita public and nonprofit organizations. The list did not include music venues, comedy clubs, melodrama/dinner theaters or commercial art galleries.
Source: Wichita Business Journal

Firefighter Nathan Helten was tired of having wet gloves when heading out to a fire. He knew there had to be a solution, but he couldn’t find any — so he invented one. After more than a year in the preliminary stages, Helten took his startup to market. With the advice of fellow Sedgwick County firefighters and the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer at Wichita State University, the Handy Hook became a reality. “I knew there had to be a better way,” said Helten, who has worked as a firefighter for more than a decade. “I’ve always had that mentality.” Helten was in the middle of building a house in Garden Plain when the idea came to him. The Handy Hook not only keeps firefighter’s gloves dry between events, it helps them get ready for fires more quickly, Helten said. By allowing gloves to hang outside of the uniform instead of squashing wet gloves into pants pockets, they dry faster. In addition, Helten said, the clip minimizes glove-up time, helping to get the uniform on quicker with the hook. “I thought of an idea of being able to take your glove off by sticking something narrow down into a glove and pulling it off. So Christmas break, four years ago, I built this wicked little chunk of metal that I bolted to the side of my pants — I literally bolted it,” Helten said. From that U-shaped contraption, he continued to adapt the model, changing it more than 150 times. Finally, Helten realized he had discovered the ideal mechanism. That’s when he realized he needed help. A little more than a year ago, Helton visited the Tech Transfer and Commercialization department at Wichita State University and asked for advise on his new product.
Source: Wichita Business Journal

After more than a decade in the works, the Augusta Municipal Airport is getting ready to repave its runway. Because of disrepair and large bumps on the pavement, the runway will be fully shut down from Jan. 8 until mid-February, and then again in late March through October. As the airport has one runway, airplanes will not be able to take off or land during construction, which is an approximately $11-million effort. “The runway is in poor condition,” said Ray Self, Augusta Municipal Airport manager. “It has pretty decent-sized cracks. It’s pretty rough when you land on it.” Along with being narrower and shorter than many runways, the Augusta Airport, a taxpayer-funded public location, has a large hump in the middle of the runway, creating a line-of-sight problem. “So if you’re on one end of the runway, you cannot see the other end of the runway, which is pretty important if there’s an aircraft on the other end,” Self said. Because the airport is shifting the runway south by about 500 feet, the area will need extra work. The airport will close for preliminary dirt work on Jan. 8 and reopen at 8 a.m. Feb. 19. The final closure for repair work will begin at the end of March or early April and last through the first or second week of October, Self said. The Federal Aviation Administration is funding most of the $11-million project, but the other 10%, around $1 million, will require local funding. Because the runway is both shorter and slimmer than current standards, it will increase both its length and width, moving from 4,200 feet to 4,500 feet and widening from 60 feet to 75 feet, meeting current FAA standards. The increase in size will not only help smaller aircraft, but it will allow larger planes to utilize the Wichita-area airport.
Source: Wichita Business Journal

After 17 years in the role, Bel Aire city manager Ty Lasher has announced he will retire on March 29 — a move that comes while the Wichita-based manufacturer Integra Technologies is poised to build a new $1.8-billion semiconductor facility in Bel Aire. Lasher, who said he began discussion about his retirement in 2021, will be replaced by Ted Henry, Bel Aire’s assistant city manager for the last 3 years. “Bel Aire is in a great place with a bright future,” Lasher, a native of McLouth, said in an emailed statement. “I felt it was time to step aside and allow someone with new energy and ideas to lead the community into the future.” Since starting his career in 1988, Lasher has worked in government in Jefferson County, Hutchinson and Cheney before taking on the city administrator role in Bel Aire in 2007. Over the years, Lasher has served as a mentor to many master’s of public administration students from Wichita State University. “With the labor market tightening, finding professionals who want to work in local government is becoming more challenging,” he wrote. “Competition for private sector jobs with higher wages, more flexibility and less complaints makes hiring and retaining staff difficult. Those who are dedicated to public service are special people and individuals who I deeply respect.” During his tenure, Bel Aire has seen the development of Sunflower Commerce Park, an 800-acre business and industrial park, and 10 housing subdivisions in various phases of development.
Source: Wichita Business Journal