Kansas Municipal News
Downtown district dominates Larned council meeting
The city’s downtown business district received the lion’s share of discussion at Monday’s meeting of the Larned City Council. Beginning with public perception of the pros and cons of the drive down Larned’s Broadway street, discussion in the three-hour session segued into ideas of what it could look like and what it would take to get there.
Source: Great Bend Tribune
Burrton discusses four-day school week
On Feb. 2, there was a special meeting open to the public in the library where Matt Goetz provided 15 pages of findings from two months of research on the subject of a four-day school week verses a five-day school week. There was a handful of audience along with the Burrton Board of Education in attendance…. “The reason why we are approaching a four day school week is our enrollment,” Goetz said. “Ever since I have been here the enrollment has declined. We ran some numbers a couple days ago, where enrollment September 2021 to where we are currently at is down 19 percent. We are in a prime location where that shouldn’t be a problem. So our thought here is how can we fix this problem?”
Source: Harvey County Now
Newton BOE weighs consolidation
The USD-373 Board of Education held a frank discussion about cost-cutting for more than two hours Feb. 1 as it looks for a solution for losing nearly 500 students in enrollment. Potential solutions included closing the Walton Rural Life Center or reducing it from two sections to one. The district also discussed the possibility of expanding alternative schooling options for students in seventh and eighth grades by next year.
Source: Harvey County Now
USD 439 board discusses the district’s future
For the last three weeks, community members, school board members, school administration, and students have met to consider the state of the district and discuss priorities to guide the board of education’s vision for the next five years. The final piece of that brainstorming came at last week’s special Board of Education meeting where Sue Givens with the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) led the board members through a series of discussions to help focus on areas of agreement and disagreement and what their priorities are from the community discussions.
Source: Harvey County Now
New hospital in Caldwell boosts healthcare options in Sumner County
Doctors and patients are settling in at the brand-new Caldwell Regional Medical Center. The new building is a major upgrade over the old hospital on the other side of town. Marion Metzinger, he’s already noticing changes when he comes in for a check-up. “I’ve had to travel to other towns to have the treatment and this facility can handle all of the new treatments that we had to go out of town for.” Plans to build the new hospital building started in 2019 and it was needed. The new place is twice the size of the old hospital and with the upgrade, Caldwell Regional is able to offer many more services to patients.
Source: KAKE – News
Legislation challenges Kansas law allowing city zoning 3 miles into unincorporated area of county
The House Local Government Committee began examination Wednesday of House Bill 2150. It would repeal the three-mile law available to city councils and grant zoning and planning authority within that territory to county commissions. The bill was endorsed by two dozen House Republicans and one House Democrat. Opposition came from representatives of more than a dozen cities, including Wichita, Manhattan, Clay Center, Moundridge, Overland Park, McLouth, Derby, Lawrence, Topeka, Scott City and Maize. Spencer Duncan, governmental affairs director of the League of Kansas Municipalities, said amendment of state law could undermine municipal utility agreements, projects financed through bonding, state or federal regulatory practices, metropolitan or regional planning commissions and joint city and county infrastructure collaboration…. Bradley Pendergast, city administrator in Scott City, said he opposed the House bill because his growing community in southwest Kansas had an interest in making certain areas beyond the current boundary were regulated in a way that didn’t compromise infrastructure expansion if later annexed into the city. … Angel Cushing, of Allen, said she supported the House bill repealing the three-mile zone because current state law essentially made county government subservent to city government.
Source: Kansas Reflector
Emporia’s new chicken ownership policy appears to have been well received by residents
Since going into effect at the start of the year, the City of Emporia’s new residential chicken ordinance seems to be favorable to residents. According to City Manager Trey Cocking, the city allowed the residential ownership of chickens dating back to 1998 until a moratorium was placed on the matter in 2013. The Emporia City Commission took up the conversation and eventually approved a new policy this past fall. Cocking says the ordinance comes with several requirements all of which help chicken owners be considerate to their neighbors.
Source: KVOE Emporia Radio
Overland Park to introduce new housing pilot program idea
Overland Park is looking to introduce a new pilot program that will provide financial assistance to residents repairing their homes. … Unallocated funds from the city’s Community Development Block Grant program will cover costs for the pilot program. The city grants funds from the CDBG program to various nonprofits and groups that support low- and moderate-income households, so anything leftover from that fund will be redirected toward the new housing pilot program.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Wilson: Technology bolsters life in rural areas of Kansas
Marysville Chamber & Main Street’s LOVE Marysville event drew a crowd to the Lee Dam Center for Fine Art Saturday to celebrate local business and hear ideas on rural development. Speaker Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute on Rural Development, told a crowd of about 80 people about his organization’s effort to boost small-town businesses across the state. “The mission of the Huck Boyd Institute is to help rural people help themselves. So it’s a rural development office at Kansas State University with an interest in supporting rural Kansas, not top down but grassroots up. How can we help rural people help themselves in their community?”
Source: The Marysville Advocate
Fed’s Powell warns of lengthy inflation fight
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the labor market’s surprising strength underscores why bringing inflation down will take longer and require higher interest rates than many investors have been anticipating. A government report Friday that showed hiring accelerated in January was “certainly strong—stronger than anyone I know expected,” Mr. Powell said Tuesday during a moderated discussion before the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. “It kind of shows you why we think this will be a process that takes a significant period of time.” Mr. Powell didn’t say whether advance knowledge about Friday’s report would have changed the outcome of officials’ decision earlier in the week to slow rate increases for a second time in as many meetings. They approved lifting the benchmark federal-funds rate by a quarter-percentage point to a range between 4.5% and 4.75%. They raised it by a half point in December and 0.75 point in November.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Voters in Kechi approve sales tax toward funding arts and business district
Unofficial results are in for a vote in Kechi on a proposed 1% sales tax to fund a special arts and business district. With 156 people voting “yes,” and 121 voting “no,” the question appears to have passed. Results become official once they’re canvassed by the Sedgwick County Commission. Assuming results stand in favor of the sales tax moving forward, the additional funding source will pay for improvements to sidewalks, parking, lighting and landscaping in the planned district near 61st Street North and Oliver.
Source: KWCH
Plans for Valley Center rec center near completion
More than two-years after voters approved a sales tax to help pay for it, the new Valley Center Aquatics and Fitness Center came into clearer focus last week as architects released updated drawings of what the facility would look like and what it may contain. Also becoming clearer is where it will be located. “We want to keep this train moving forward on the track,” City Administrator Brent Clark said during a pool and recreation center steering committee meeting Jan. 25 at City Hall.
Source: Ark Valley News
City manager brings stability to Abilene: Marsh reflects on first 20 months
When Ron Marsh accepted the position of Abilene’s city manager, he brought stability to a revolving door. Soon after starting he learned he was the fourth of fifth city manager in about seven years, he said. “Which is crazy,” he said. “If you don’t have consistency or if you don’t have stability in this position, it’s hard to get anything done because you’re constantly changing direction on where you’re going.” Beyond stability, everything else accomplished in the 20 months that he’s been at the helm, has been a team effort.
Source: Abilene Reflector Chronicle
Racist language persists in some Kansas property records. Could these bills end that?
Racist language that for decades has lingered in some Kansas property records and homes association documents would be easier to remove under bills proposed by two Johnson County lawmakers. The legislation would authorize any city, county or the Kansas Human Rights Commission to eliminate a racially restrictive covenant by redacting it from the plat description or HOA governing document. Under current law, that language — though unenforceable — can only be removed by a homeowners association. “These documents plainly refer to a historical blight that emanates from the origins of our communities,” Roeland Park City Administrator Keith Moody wrote in a letter to lawmakers last week urging them to support the measure.
Source: KC Star
Maintenance base for passenger airline likely coming to Salina Airport
The prospect of additional passenger flights in and out of Salina Regional Airport is greater than ever after the city and county commissions approved funding to support a maintenance base at the facility this week. SkyWest Airlines, which currently operates flights in Salina to and from Denver and Chicago, is looking at the airport as a site that would perform overnight maintenance and safety checks. “(This kind of base) is a tool to use to improve air service and one that is very unique to communities,” said Tim Rogers, the executive director of the Salina Airport Authority. He said having a maintenance base in a community can allow for multiple flights to and from that community at frequencies that exceed what the market justifies.
Source: Salina Journal
Consultant to be hired to help Topeka help homeless
The process is to last from February through September of this year, the document said. It added, “At the conclusion of the work scope, the city of Topeka will have identified a portfolio of solutions for addressing the challenge of homelessness in the Topeka community; prototyped and tested two of those solutions with members of their community; and developed an impact measurement and next step implementation plan for two solutions of the team’s portfolio of ideas.”
Source: CJonline
City hires lifelong Topekan to run information technology department
Lifelong Topekan Randi Stahl has been hired as chief information officer to oversee the information technology department for Topeka’s city government., the city announced Tuesday. Stahl has served in various leadership roles in the community, including technology-based experience, risk management and project management, the city said in a news release.
Source: CJonline
Lawrence aims to provide around-the-clock staffing at homeless camp
The city of Lawrence is looking to hire more people to work at a city-operated campsite for the homeless so that the North Lawrence camp can have 24-hour per day, seven-day per week staffing. City Manager Craig Owens told commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting that finding staffing has been a challenge, but the city was bettering its salary offers to try to attract individuals with specific qualifications in the field of serving the homeless. “We have tried to hire employees who are trained in that and who have knowledge in this space that we just frankly don’t have,” Owens said. “This is new for us.” Owens in his briefing didn’t provide details on those salary ranges or how much the city expects to spend on providing staffing at the site, which is located on city-owned property between Johnny’s Tavern and the Kansas River levee in North Lawrence.
Source: LJWorld
Lawrence city leaders hear about new survey in which majority of businesses say the city isn’t business friendly
Lawrence has an official goal to be the “most business-friendly community in the region,” but a new survey found that less than half of the city’s business community currently finds the city friendly. City commissioners at their meeting Tuesday evening received the results of the community’s first business satisfaction survey, which included responses from 308 business representatives in the community. A headline finding of the survey was that 51% of all respondents did not find the City of Lawrence to be business friendly. “Lawrence has developed a bad reputation,” one of several hundred anonymous comments left as part of the scientific survey read. “Developers and businesses do not want to come here because they make it so difficult.” But the survey also suggested that many of those businesses have learned to live with it. Despite a majority of residents saying the city was not business friendly, 59% of respondents said they were satisfied or very satisfied as a place to do business.
Source: LJWorld
Municipal Bond Trends for February 7, 2023
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, Beth Warren and Henry Schmidt.