Municipal News & Jobs

Wichita State University Environmental Finance Center’s Community Sustainability Tool is a user-friendly planning resource that helps municipalities, states, and other organizations assess if their community’s water/wastewater rates can potentially support infrastructure investments into the future. Learn more about WSU’s Community Sustainability Tool by visiting www.wichita.edu/communitysustainabilitytool.

Many communities throughout the country are faced with difficult decisions about updating or replacing their aging drinking water and wastewater utility infrastructure to continue to provide their customers with compliant, safe drinking water and sewage treatment processes. These investments are expensive and take careful planning by community decision makers.

WSU’s Community Sustainability Tool uses a combination of user data and program-generated forecasts to broadly predict the future average water bill needed to sustain utility investments. The tool also shows the ability to sustain infrastructure investments in relation to the community’s forecasted median household income. The tool can be used as a decision-making guide for further investigation into a community’s proposed water utility infrastructure investments.

“The Community Sustainability Tool is a planning resource for community leaders, mayors, public works directors and even citizens. When it is time to upgrade or improve water or wastewater infrastructure, this tool can help communities understand their ability to pay for these large investments over time.” said Tonya Bronleewe, Director of the Environmental Finance Center.  “One of the biggest benefits of this tool is that the calculations are targeted to each community, since no two communities are the same.”

The free, interactive tool is currently released for communities in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. Users can access the Community Sustainability Tool online, or the Microsoft Excel version of the tool may be downloaded, which allows users to operate the tool offline and save different scenarios.

Top Amtrak officials have endorsed a plan that would bring back passenger rail service to Cowley County. The plan is to extend the existing Heartland Flyer route linking Fort Worth and Oklahoma City to the north, to Wichita and Newton, with a stop in Arkansas City. The expanded line would include stops in Edmond, Guthrie, Perry and Ponca City in Oklahoma; and Arkansas City and Wichita in Kansas. “There is a lot of excitement surrounding passenger rail and its impact on our community,” Ark City Mayor Scott Rogers said in an email on Monday. “Our community and citizens would have direct connections to bigger metropolitan areas such as Dallas, Oklahoma City, and up north to KC.”
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler.

Apprentice programs, business partnerships and hiring incentives could help increase employment in Cowley County and fill jobs, according to a study presented Monday in Winfield at Baden Square community center to about 35 business people. The study was conducted by Next Move Group, based in St. Louis, Mo., who was hired by Cowley First to analyze skill gaps by industry and learn how to better equip workers for the county’s workforce, then explore best practices from around the United States.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler.

More than 300 bicyclists arrived in Arkansas City Saturday, completing a journey that began last week in Vernon, Texas. The participants of the 42nd annual Oklahoma Freewheel cross-country bicycle trip were welcomed by representatives from Visit Ark City and the local police department Saturday morning as they crossed the finish line on West Central Avenue.

Visit Ark City CEO Pam Crain said that the riders came from all across the nation to participate in the event. She said she had visited with people from Tennessee, Wyoming, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, South Carolina, Montana, New York, Nebraska and even several riders from England.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler.

City leaders will soon consider permanently allowing more types of businesses to sell alcohol as a secondary aspect of their overall sales. As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider adopting a code change that would permanently allow businesses other than restaurants in the downtown and other commercial areas to have an accessory bar. The commission adopted a temporary resolution that allowed the secondary sale of alcohol in May 2020, and that resolution will expire at the end of this month without further action from the commission.
Source: LJWorld.com.

City leaders will soon consider how to move forward following a community task force recommendation that the city consider a system with a directly elected mayor and a six-member commission elected by districts. As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will receive the recommendation of the City Government Study Task Force and decide whether to proceed with a process to engage the public on the issue ahead of potentially putting the recommended changes to a public vote.
Source: LJWorld.com.

Flexibility to conduct public meetings remotely could be thrust into uncertainty if Kansas lawmakers opt to end the state’s COVID-19 emergency declaration, posing a conundrum for the handful of local government bodies that aren’t yet allowing the public to attend their hearings in person. As the pandemic began last March, Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office issued new rules granting governmental bodies leeway in how they complied with the Kansas Open Meetings Act. Meetings had to remain public, but that could be achieved by allowing citizens to join a Zoom stream or conference call. Other efforts must be made to make the process as legible to the public as possible.
Source: Dodge City Daily Globe.

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.

A labor union representing the Lawrence school district’s paraeducators grew to include all classified staff on Monday. The Lawrence school board unanimously approved recognizing PAL-CWA as the union representing the staff category that includes custodians, office and cafeteria staff and other employees who aren’t licensed teachers. As a recognized union, the members will bargain with the district administration over wages, benefits and various workplace issues.
Source: LJWorld.com.

Completing internships before stepping into the workforce full time can be crucial for students, as such opportunities offer hands-on experience and help them determine whether a career is a good fit. That has been the case for Allison Montague, a rising senior at Topeka High School. This past school year, Montague completed a paid internship at Stormont Vail Hospital, where she served as a patient safety monitor and helped Stormont nurses with some of their daily tasks.
Source: CJonline.com.

After three years of negotiations, Starbucks will be bringing its coffee to Dodge City. The coffee store will be joined adjacently with T-Mobile on 14th Avenue near Soule Street in front of Sutherlands. The building will be a similar setup to that of recent retail development along 14th Avenue. “Similar size three-plex, (with) still a spot open for rent in the center,” said Dodge City/Ford County Economic Development Corporation executive director Joann Knight. “Starbucks will have a drive-thru.”
Source: Dodge City Daily Globe.

The KANcycle bike-sharing program is celebrating two years of existence with birthday parties this week. Launched by OCCK Transportation in June 2019, the program has 80 bikes and 16 stations across north central Kansas. … “KANcycle has been a great program for north central Kansas,” said Michelle Griffin, mobility manager. “We have brought a new and popular transportation option to smaller communities with this unique program. We are so excited to celebrate KANcycle’s second birthday.”
Source: Salina Journal.

Visitors were delighted Saturday upon seeing the several great performances and demonstrations during the Midsummer’s Festival, which was held on Main Street for the first time in 20 years. The event featured performances from the Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers, Lindsborg’s Community Jazz Band and the Glomesdal Vikings of Oklahoma. Mayor Becky Anderson welcomed people to the city, spoke about the upcoming growth to come in the form of new projects and events and the importance of community involvement and celebrating Lindsborg’s heritage. Marika Peterson, a Swedish folk dancer, performed the blowing of the birch horn to open the festivities, becoming the first woman to do so at the festival.
Source: Salina Journal.

Topeka city manager Brent Trout said the city council urges through its resolution the U.S. Congress to invest in rail. The Kansas congressional delegation appears to be in support of the rail recommendations.
Trout said he has heard complaints about Amtrak’s access in Topeka. Trips to some major cities, like Chicago, only leave the city at 4:40 a.m. Proposed changes wouldn’t add a new line to Topeka, though more Amtrak connectivity in Kansas could bring more people to the city. Trout said he hopes the proposed changes also lead to more frequent changes coming to Topeka. Jim Parrish, president and CEO of Parrish Hotel Corp., which manages the downtown Ramada, said the Ramada is across the street from Topeka’s Amtrak station. He said travelers staying overnight used to be a “pretty nice little piece” of business until ridership numbers dropped. Parrish said that is likely due in part to the pandemic, but he said expanded service has an economic impact as well.
Source: CJonline.com.

A study being conducted by researchers at the University of Kansas aims to rectify what the project’s lead researcher describes as a “terrible” lack of data about broadband access in the sunflower state. “The (Federal Communications Commission) data on broadband is terrible. There’s no other word to describe it,” said KU economics professor Donna Ginther. “It’s inaccurate. It’s incomplete. So one of our first steps was to try to get a handle on actual access and speed and affordability.” Ginther, who serves as lead on the project and director of KU’s Institute for Policy & Social Research, said getting to the bottom of those questions about internet access is why researchers are conducting the study now. The main piece of the study is a statewide survey that includes an internet speed test.
Source: Dodge City Daily Globe.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced he will intervene in a challenge to a Johnson County mask mandate.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt said Thursday in a legal filing that his office will seek to intervene in a challenge to a Johnson County mask mandate — a case which has burgeoned into a threat to the constitutionality of a sweeping set of reforms to the state’s emergency management law. Senate Bill 40 … included a sweeping provision allowing individuals to demand a hearing or file a civil suit challenging COVID-19-related orders from a local governmental body, school board or public health officer, with strict time limits on when a hearing must be held and a verdict rendered.
Source: Dodge City Daily Globe.

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.

Residents of Pierceville Township spoke against the development a sand quarry run by Huber Sand in Pierceville at the June 7 Finney County Commission meeting. A Board of Zoning Appeals meeting is being held on June 16 at 9 a.m. at Garden City Hall in Commission Chambers as Huber Sand has filed an application for a conditional use permit to run a sand gravel quarry in Pierceville. The land is currently zoned as “A” Agricultural and is generally located at South Main Street and East Avenue D. The property straddles the Finney County and Gray County line. Pierceville resident Dionisio Garcia expressed concern about a quarry being developed there, one reason being an increase in traffic, making it unsafe for his children, and that the sand trucks would be driving on city streets.
Source: GC Telegram.

Portions of an expansive new Kansas emergency management law that opened the door to lawsuits challenging local COVID-19 precautions could become invalid after a Johnson County judge said this week they hold “significant constitutional problems.” In an order Tuesday, Johnson County District Judge David Hauber asked Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who helped draft the law and is running for governor, to appear in court as he considers ruling portions of it unconstitutional. The request came in Hauber’s ruling on a lawsuit parents filed against the Shawnee Mission School District seeking to force an end to the district’s mask mandate. The suit used procedures established by Senate Bill 40, passed in March by the Legislature in response to a backlash against state and local measures to combat the pandemic.
Source: KC Star.

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.

If Angelus were still a prosperous farm town and had more children than chickens, then maybe the two-story brick schoolhouse would still be a school and not a chicken coop. But it isn’t and it doesn’t. So instead of students, the ground floor of the century-old building is occupied by poultry, goats cavort on the muddy front lawn and there are reports—unconfirmed—of pigs in the gym.
The situation is raising hackles among the 28 residents of Angelus, as well as former students and history buffs elsewhere in northwest Kansas. “It saddens you every time you go by there,” said Bill Bixenman, 89, whose eighth-grade class in Angelus had 13 pupils. “But it is what it is.” The school’s owner, Josh Rumback, acknowledges that his decision to convert school to barn has left some locals “butt sore.” He built a wall that somewhat blocks the view from the gravel road that runs through the center of Angelus. … Local tension over the school’s decay reflects a larger truth: America’s small towns have been shrinking, sometimes into nothingness.
Source: Wall Street Journal.

Maria DeGeer was a woman out of step with her time. She defied the female stereotypes of the late 1800s as a very opinionated person, pursuing causes that further advanced women in society and choosing to take control of her own life. It was those characteristics which brought her to Western Kansas where she founded Scott City and it was those same attributes which saw her leave less than a year later when shoved out of her rightful place by male members of the newly organized town company. It was because of DeGeer’s outspoken nature that she refused to let her role in history be forgotten. One hundred and thirty-five years later, she has been further memorialized with a statue on the very spot where she erected the first cabin that would eventually become Scott City.
Source: Scott County Record.