Kansas Municipal News
Garden City hires new Parks & Rec chief
Ticia Herd, Executive Director of the Mulvane Recreation Commission for the past 15 years, has been named the new Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Garden City. “Ticia’s excitement about the growth and diversity of Garden City was evident throughout the search process. We look forward to her arrival in early August,” Matt Allen, Garden City City Manager, said. Herd replaces former director Aaron Stewart. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in recreation and a minor in psychology from Pittsburg State University, completed MBA coursework from Friends University, and is a Certified Park and Recreation Professional (CPRP).
Source: Greater Garden City » Feed
Temporary water treatment facility one of Kansas largest
A water treatment facility that would temporarily become the seventh largest in Kansas was built on site to treat water from the creek. The operation could treat 3,600 gallons of water per minute and put treated water back into the creek that exceeded the obligated water quality criteria.
Source: Backroads News
Governor Kelly Announces Nearly $43.6M in Grant Funding Creation of Over 4200 New Child Care Slots
Governor Laura Kelly and the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund announced funding awards to 52 statewide organizations for the purpose of creating new, sustainable, high-quality licensed child care slots across the state and accelerating capacity-building in support of families, businesses, and economic development. These grants are part of the Child Care Capacity Accelerator grant program, which was designed to advance the rapid development of additional child care slots statewide. The program will provide $43,593,294 in grant funding, which will create 4,211 new child care slots across the state.
Source: Governor of the State of Kansas
Wacky Wednesday returns in Crawford County
The Crawford County Historical Museum in Pittsburg, Kansas today hosted its Wacky Wednesday children’s series. This free and family-friendly event featured various themes tailored for children from preschool to 6th grade. Held from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the activities took place both on the museum grounds and inside the museum itself. Bart Taylor, an award-winning educator specializing in US History and Will Rogers, served as the event’s host. As the Creative Curator and Interpreter at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma, Bart brought his expertise and passion for history to engage and entertain the participants.
Source: KOAM News
Newton PD mourns loss of police service dog Bella
A retired police service dog in Newton has died. Bella was only nine years old. The Newton Police Department said she suffered a sudden medical emergency and died Tuesday. The department said Bella was successful at her job. She was a certified patrol and narcotics detection K-9 who joined the department in 2015. She served in the patrol division with Sgt. Tony Hawpe, her handler. After he transitioned to the investigations division, Bella retired in January.
Source: KSN-TV
Nuclear plant eyes Marion Reservoir
Evergy wants to buy 19% of Marion Reservoir’s conservation pool water to use for cooling basins at Wolf Creek nuclear power plant near Burlington. “That has never happened before,” Lisa Suderman, vice chairman of the Neosho Regional Advisory Committee, told county commissioners Monday. The state owns the water in the reservoir. That’s why the request was directed to the state, she said…. Suderman suggested that the county, cities, and Marion County residents who have a stake in Marion Reservoir water meet to discuss getting a retention agreement. A retention agreement applies not to drawing water out of the reservoir but to retaining water in the reservoir. Suderman suggested forming a delegation of every governing body in the county to talk to the water office about such an agreement.
Source: Marion County RECORD
Hillsboro says yes to fences no to animals
Hillsboro property owners who want privacy fences along their side yards can now have them, but people who own agricultural land annexed into the city can no longer claim an agricultural exemption to city regulations. Those changes to city ordinance were made Tuesday during Hillsboro’s city commission meeting.
Source: Marion County RECORD
Century-old bridge to be replaced
A bridge on East Barton County Road crossing Walnut Creek that was built about a 100 years ago will be replaced after the County Commission Wednesday morning approved the project. “It’s one that we’ve been in discussions with for quite a few years wanting to get it replaced because it’s a narrow bridge, 19 feet wide,” said County Engineer Barry McManaman. “Farm equipment has some trouble getting through, in fact, they can’t get through there.”
Source: Great Bend Tribune
Municipal Bond Trends for June 27, 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.
Seven new warehouses coming near Integra Technologies site in Bel Aire
Michael Le had been eyeing Bel Aire for warehouse development even before Integra Technologies chose to locate in the city. “I was going to build it regardless,” he said of what he’s calling his Bayside industrial development. He said tax incentives in Bel Aire make doing business there attractive. However, he said, the microchip manufacturing and testing plant’s decision to locate a 1-million-square-foot building at the southeast corner of Rock Road and K-254 gives him even more confidence to build close by — across from Wichita Hoops, which is near 53rd North and Webb Road.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Tornado siren failure being addressed by county
A recent spot of severe weather raised some concerns for Derby residents, as a number of outdoor tornado sirens failed to go off in the midst of a tornado warning issued on June 17. District 5 Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell, representing Derby, voiced some of his constituents’ concerns at the commission’s staff meeting on June 20. Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Julie Stimson confirmed her department is working to resolve the issue. Per a release from the Sedgwick County Emergency Management Department, following the issuance of three tornado warning polygons by the National Weather Service on June 17, multiple means of public warning were triggered including wireless emergency alerts (WEA) to cellphones, the emergency alert system (EAS) over radio/television, NOAA weather radios, billboards, Sedgwick County’s Civic Ready Alerts and the outdoor warning system.
Source: Derby Informer | News
Torline creates collection brick by brick
North Newton resident John Torline, all in all, just wants to put another brick in the wall. But he doesn’t want to do that to oppress people, as the Pink Floyd song implies. He just wants to do it for his brick collection. The wall on the back of the Torlines’ outdoor freestanding fireplace contains various bricks from different Kansas towns, all with writing on them. One says, “Don’t Spit on Sidewalk.” “When I was growing up, my oldest cousin built a fireplace in Wichita,” Torline said. “He used bricks from brick factories that were from Kansas. Just about every town in southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri—about every little town had brick factories.”
Source: Harvey County Now
70 years ago downtown KCK was a shopping entertainment hub. How has it changed?
Years ago, the “other” Kansas City — the one in Kansas — had its own busy downtown. Though less grand than its Missouri cousin, a stretch of Minnesota Avenue west of 7th Street was lined for decades with shops, banks, theaters and eateries. The addition of the towering Town House Hotel came in 1951, which attracted celebrities performing in the area like country singer Patsy Cline. She stayed there the night after her concert at Memorial Hall. Sadly, it was her last one. Cline died in a plane crash on the way back to Nashville A view of the same scene in 2023 shows some storefronts and the tall tower still standing in the background — it’s now a home for seniors.
Source: KC Star Local News
50,000 people will flood into small Kansas town of Wamego on Tuesday
In the Pyro Crew’s planning lair — location undisclosed for security reasons — Chris Hupe produced a layout of the launch site and spread it out across a long table. He stood over the map like a general, stabbing a thick finger at various white squares. “Each of these boxes by themselves could be a small fireworks show,” Hupe said. “We have 81 of them.” He rattled off some more stats: a 225,000-square-foot site, 12,000 pounds of fireworks, 2,051 electronically triggered events, 800 hand-lit shells, 25 “dragons” that throw columns of flames 30 feet in the air. … On Tuesday evening, it will add up to Boomtown, a free pyrotechnic extravaganza that rockets the population of Wamego — a town otherwise best known for its Oz Museum — from 5,000 to something like 50,000 every Independence Day. Families arrive not just from neighboring towns but neighboring states to witness a 30-minute Fourth of July fireworks show that’s among the largest and most ambitious in the Midwest.
Source: Kansas City Star
Newton approves U.S. Golf Adaptive Open
Newton’s Sand Creek Station Golf Course will host the U.S. Golf Association’s Adaptive Open Championship in the coming year. The event will feature 96 men and women, in eight different impairment categories, to compete in the event. “We are here because we have a good partnership here,” said Greg Sanfilippo, senior director of championships for the U.S. Golf Association. “We’ve been here; we’ve done this. We’ll have an awesome championship here, should we be able to do that here in 2024.” Newton hosted the USGA Amateur Links Championship in 2014. The adaptive championship will take place in the second week of July 2024.
Source: Harvey County Now
Municipal Bond Trends for June 26, 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.
Love of comics, cosplay marks 2023 Smallville Comic Con in Hutchinson
The Smallville Comic Con wrapped up another successful convention this past weekend for the 2023 gathering. This year marked the tenth anniversary of the convention, and many came to celebrate. …. “I think with (the con) being this far out west, it gives the chance for everybody around the community, the smaller towns, to actually be able to come in and enjoy the nerdy community,” [Wichita visitor] Ocelot said. “I always do a DC cosplay when I come here.”
Source: Hutch News
Hutchinson’s first Chalk the Town event will include activities, demonstrations
A Hutchinson artist and long-term substitute teacher has inspired a movement. Kara Vaughn, a local artist and long-term substitute teacher in Hutchinson Schools, is working in partnership with Downtown Hutch and the City of Hutchinson to launch the 2023 Chalk the Town event. Vaughn, who draws cartoonish chalk paintings on sidewalks, has garnered more than 30 million views on TikTok and around 400,000 followers. Vaughn had posted her drawings on TikTok (under Varakaughn).
Source: Hutch News
Eudora chooses interim city manager to take over top City Hall spot in growing community
As the city of Eudora gets ready to grow outward, it has looked inward to fill its top City Hall position. The Eudora City Commission on Monday agreed to hire Kevyn Gero as the community’s next city manager. Gero, a former city of Lawrence administrator, has been the assistant city manager in Eudora for about two years, and has been serving as Eudora’s interim city manager for the last six months. “Those six months in our interim role really cemented it for us,” Eudora Mayor Tim Reazin said in a brief interview with the Journal-World. … Prior to joining the Eudora city staff, Gero had worked for more than nine years in Lawrence City Hall. She had served as a management analyst in the city Municipal Services and Operations department, and also played a key role in obtaining accreditation for the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical department.
Source: LJWorld
Restoring history: Walton changing Stone Building into community center
Dean Davis has helped save buildings for much of his career with the Newton Fire/EMS Department and Walton Fire Department. Now he and Walton residents are working to save a building for the town in quite another way, although that building had a fire in it in 1958. Davis worked for the Newton Fire/EMS Department for 25 years, retiring as deputy fire chief, and also served 55 years with the Walton Fire Department. At Walton, Davis is on the fire board and does a lot of the fire department’s paperwork.
Source: Harvey County Now