Kansas Municipal News
NLC Releases New Report: How Cities are Using APRA’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds After Two Years
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) delivered $65.1 billion of direct federal aid to cities, towns and villages across the country through the Coronavirus State and Local Government Fiscal Relief Funds (SLFRF) program. This funding has helped local governments make up for lost revenue, respond to COVID-19, and support residents and communities in need as they continue to recover from the pandemic. This new report by the National League of Cities (NLC) finds that SLFRF helped stabilize local governments and their communities and positively support residents through direct engagement. Additionally, SLFRF did not lead to excessive municipal spending or cause global or national inflation. This report examines how ARPA and the SLFRF program:
- Stabilized municipal budgets to maintain resident service delivery by analyzing local government revenue and expenditure data over a five-year period.
- Promoted local investments into communities and residents by examining projects municipalities supported with these funds.
- Guided small localities as they learned how to manage federal grants and how the Treasury engaged grantees throughout the process.
- Relied on data to ensure the communities that were in the most need received equitable funding to address their needs.
USD 232 De Soto poised to select next superintendent this week
USD 232 may soon name its next superintendent. The board of education has scheduled a series of closed-door sessions early this week, after which they’re expected to announce their pick. A final decision is expected on or around Wednesday, according to a recent district update. Current superintendent Frank Harwood is retiring at the end of June after serving in the post for seven years. The search for his replacement began in the fall.
Source: Prairie Village Post
A deep dive into how Harvey County stores its records
Former register of deeds Margaret Hermstein said she made the decision more than 20 years ago to have the county’s records stored in the underground salt mines, both for security and preservation purposes. The climate-controlled environment operated by Underground Vault & Storage is perfect for preserving microfilm records of the county’s land records dating back to the county’s founding in 1872. “It’s a wonderful place to tour,” she said. “It’s very inviting. It’s a very safe place. … I encouraged all of our commissioners when I was register of deeds to take a tour.”
Source: Harvey County Now
Osawatomie firefighters go ‘old school’ to rescue kitty from tree
Pet owners might be surprised to know some fire departments still rescue cats from trees. Jade Cripe is one pet owner who is thankful the Osawatomie Volunteer Fire Department still provides that service. So is her cat Guinevere. “I was very pleasantly surprised they were willing to help,” Cripe said. “You see the movies where the fire department is called to save a cat in the tree, but you don’t think something crazy like that would ever happen to you until it does.” The fire department received a call from dispatch at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, March 16, that a cat was stuck in a tree in the 400 block of Pacific Avenue.
Source: Local News | republic-online.com
City and St. Benedict’s Abbey negotiate Memorandum of Understanding
In September of 2022, the Planning Commission reviewed and recommended to the city commission for approval of the re-zoning of the property, formerly the Youth Center, acquired by St. Benedict’s Abbey through a tax sale. The rezone requests the property be rezoned from A-1, General Agriculture, and R-3, Multiple Family Residential, to P-D, Planned Development. The city staff worked with representatives of St. Benedict’s Abbey to negotiate a permanent easement for access to utilities, in orders to allow the city access to the city’s water tower, water lines, and other utilities. Out of the meetings the representatives presented a Memorandum of Understanding memorializing the understanding between the city of Atchison and St. Benedict’s Abbey that the utility easement indicated on the final plat, running north and south on the east side of the plat, is believed to contain a private sewer line within that easement and that the city is not responsible to maintain, repair, replace, or service that sewer line.
Source: News | atchisonglobenow.com
This Shawnee Mission school has a new climbing wall thanks to local neighborhood group
Roesland Elementary students can now enjoy a new way to get active in gym class: a climbing wall. The brainchild of physical education teacher Blair Bodermann, the climbing wall was made possible with the help of Neighbors for a Better Roeland Park. The citizen-led group, which originally formed out of the 2015 effort to pass the city’s non-discrimination ordinance, used donations from free summer concerts in 2022 to pay for a majority of the $5,000 cost of the climbing wall, which is now installed and being used in the school’s gymnasium.
Source: Prairie Village Post
What should Overland Park residents do with ash trees in their yards?
Overland Park is ramping up efforts to remove thousands of ash trees in public right-of-ways in an attempt to thwart the spread of the emerald ash borer pest. But how should homeowners handle potentially infested ash trees on their private property? The city has some recommendations for what residents can do with ash trees in their yards they believe are infested by the invasive beetle species, which lays larva that cuts off the passage of nutrients and water from the tree’s roots to its canopy.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Change in direction: Converting downtown Wichita’s one-way streets to two way
Once designed to get people in and out as efficiently as possible, downtown city centers have seen a change in direction in recent decades. “If you look at communities across the country, there was this mass exodus out of the downtowns and suburbia was growing,” said Gary Janzen, who is director of public works for the city of Wichita, “but there’s a real energy now in most cities our size, and we’ve seen it in Wichita. “There’s a lot of dynamic things happening with retail, with business, with commercial, with living — we’ve got a lot of residential living downtown now, and there’s a lot of demand for that to continue.”
Source: Wichita Business Journal
Wichita rental market stays hot to begin 2023
According to a new national report, finding an apartment or other rental unit in the Wichita market is not getting any easier. On Monday, apartment search website RentCafe.com released a study that listed the city as having the ninth-hottest small-sized rental market in the U.S. based on competitive score. Wichita’s score of 106 was tied to several metrics, as of the close of 2022’s fourth quarter, including average vacant days (23 in Wichita, according to RentCafe), occupancy (96.5%), prospective renters per vacant unit (seven), lease renewal rate (65.1%) and share of new apartments completed during Q4 2022 (0%).
Source: Wichita Business Journal
Overland Park is the most pickleball obsessed city in U.S., study finds
A Johnson County city has an obsession with pickleball, according to a new ranking. Betting and online casino guide website, Offers.bet, says Overland Park is the top pickleball-obsessed city in the country. The game started becoming wildly popular during the pandemic. Offers.bet said 83% of current pickleball players started playing in 2020 or later. While the popularity of pickleball is skyrocketing, one of the problems is that there aren’t enough courts, even with public courts and the opening of businesses like SERV and Chicken ‘n Pickle. Some fans have turned to playing pickleball on tennis courts, and have even added courts to their yards. That doesn’t always go over well with neighbors because of the noise pickleball makes.
Source: fox4kc
State lawmakers eye local limits: Bills would prevent plastic bag bans, vacant home fees and more
Several bills in the Kansas Statehouse are designed to take away local control from local governments. In one, legislators from across Kansas could roll back pieces of Topeka’s registry of vacant properties, as well as those in other communities. As introduced, House Bill 2083 would have banned cities from creating vacant property registries. It was later amended to allow those registries — but if passed would ban local governments from imposing fees on owners of vacant properties. … Lawmakers are considering legislation proposed by the Kansas Chamber, House Bill 2446, that would block local governments from banning, regulating or taxing “auxiliary containers.” … Pushed primarily by the Kansas Chamber, HB 2447 would ban cities and counties from banning the sale of products that are otherwise legal under state law. The original version of the bill also applied to services.
Source: Hutch News
Rural grocery stores are dying off. Here’s what some communities are doing to save them
in many small towns, a grocery store is a thing of the past. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 76 counties nationwide are without a single grocery store, and 34 of those counties are in the Midwest and Great Plains. Rural communities have been losing population for decades making it harder for businesses to stay afloat, said Rial Carver, program leader for the Rural Grocery Initiative at Kansas State University. “So as small towns get smaller, that means fewer sales coming in the door for our grocery store,” Carver said. Big box stores and grocery consolidation have added even more pressure on local grocers. A recent USDA report shows the percentage of grocery sales from the nation’s top 20 retailers more than doubled from 1990 to 2020, while the consolidation was more pronounced in rural areas. The Rural Grocery Initiative was created in 2006 to help establish and sustain grocery stores in rural communities throughout Kansas. Carver said innovation can help keep stores in small towns.
Source: KCUR News
Municipal Bond Trends for March 24, 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, Beth Warren or Henry Schmidt.
Home rule again on chopping block
Kansas is officially a Home Rule state. It has been since 1961, when an amendment to the Kansas state constitution officially declared that Kansas cities are “empowered to determine their local affairs…except when” such actions are “limited or prohibited” by an act of the state legislature. That’s an important acknowledgement of local democracy—or at least potentially so. In my observation over the years, though, our elected representatives in Topeka tend to pay far more attention to the “except when” clause, thus leading the principle of Home Rule to be observed more often in the breach than in fact.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler
County to apply for grant on behalf of SCK Health
Cowley County commissioners agreed Tuesday to apply for a grant on behalf of SCK Health that, if awarded, could help the provider transition to the Rural Emergency Hospital designation. The State of Kansas has set aside $10 million for the Rural Hospital Innovation Grant program to help hospitals convert to the new REH designation in the next two years, according to a letter from SCK Health trustees. The grant requires counties to apply on behalf of the hospitals seeking funds, and is open to all rural counties in Kansas. The program is a 2:1 matching grant. SCK Health is requesting $1 million in grant funds from the state, and plans to raise another $2 million through the SCK Health Foundation.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler
AC hospital takes steps toward scaled down facility
The SCK Health Board of Trustees in Arkansas City took a step toward becoming a Rural Emergency Hospital on Thursday, and also moved to officially close its obstetrics department. CEO Jeff Bowman said that after discussion about converting to a Rural Emergency Hospital, which provides more funding opportunities to the hospital, but limits hospital stays to 24 hours on average, more than half of the OB department resigned in that one week.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler
Gimme shelter: In wake of bank fail fallout, municipal bonds in demand
Municipals finished out a nerve-wracking week on a strong note, with yields falling by as much as nine basis points on the short end while U.S. Treasuries strengthened and equities came under pressure. As holders of bank stocks headed for the exits and muni investors looked on nervously from the sidelines as the Federal Open Market Committee met this week, bonds have seen renewed interest as the idea of safety suddenly became uppermost in eyes of buyers one again. The muni market started off the week on a quiet note, with action subdued in both the primary and secondary ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. After the Fed raised rates once again, the market remained calm.
Source: The Bond Buyer
Ruined beauty of Kansas: Ghost towns and buildings splinter under weight of time
We first stopped by the unincorporated community of Miller, in Lyon County. Its post office had closed 65 years ago. On the main drag, a new fire department building sat on one side of the road, while an abandoned and overgrown former fire department building sat on the other side, a block away. My son and I, of course, looked over the abandoned one. On this March day, the gray undergrowth and blue sky lent the brick structure an austere kind of beauty. To the side of the building, you could glimpse this decayed sign, which suggested better times in the past. We poked around town some more, but we didn’t see much else that excited my son (or me, for that matter). Like many of the tiny Kansas settlements listed on “ghost town” websites, Miller isn’t totally abandoned. A few houses still obviously had residents, and gargantuan long-haul trucks parked in driveways suggested their occupations.
Source: Kansas Reflector
How small rural towns can access Inflation Reduction Act funding
Rural towns and utilities could get funding for all kinds of projects through the federal Inflation Reduction Act — but experts say it will take dedicated community members stepping up to help make that happen. The act, passed in August, has money for rural development and energy infrastructure, as well as electric vehicle infrastructure and incentives. There are incentives for homeowners to make energy efficient improvements to their houses. Communities with coal plants or natural gas plants can repurpose those into cleaner energy sources.
Source: KCUR News
Contentious Olathe apartment plan on Lenexa city line wins key approval
The Woodland Forest apartment project near K-10 and Woodland Road near Olathe’s border with Lenexa is one step closer to reality. Earlier this week, a divided Olathe City Council voted 4-3 to approve a preliminary site development plan and attached rezoning request that will bring multifamily housing to the last leg of the Woodland Corridor area in that city. That area of Olathe, annexed in the late 1990s, was identified for conventional single-family neighborhoods and green space development in line with the Woodland Corridor Plan.
Source: Prairie Village Post