Kansas Municipal News
WFD firefighters will carry Narcan, Whipple says
A tweet from Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple says that firefighters with the Wichita Fire Department (WFD) will carry and distribute Narcan to victims of suspected opioid overdoses. “This policy change, combined with funding will save lives as we continue our fight against the fentanyl crisis,” reads the tweet. A town hall meeting hosted by the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office and Wichita Police Department last week highlighted some of the dangers of fentanyl in Wichita. The Sedgwick County Forensic Science Center says the number of fentanyl cases has grown exponentially.
Source: KSN-TV
New K-9s will serve in Saline County schools
Two new K-9s are joining the Saline County Sheriff’s Office to serve in public schools. The dogs are not the typical police dogs who assist officers in investigating crime. They are therapy dogs. Saline County Deputies Tyler Casteel and Braden Long recently traveled to Brevard County, Florida, where they trained with their new K-9 partners at the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Paws and Stripes College. The program uses rescued dogs who are then trained by inmates under the supervision of professional trainers to provide therapy dogs at no cost. Therapy dogs can provide a variety of assistance, including helping to keep people calm during a crisis and easing fear and anxiety for children and adults testifying in court or being interviewed.
Source: KSN-TV
Broadband access to improve in 15 Kansas counties, here’s where
More than $40 million has been awarded to service providers in Kansas to extend high-speed internet across several underserved counties. Cassie Nichols, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Governor, said a total of $44.5 million has been distributed to nine service providers to extend internet access to 18,468 locations in 15 counties. This will be the third and final award phase of the Kansas Capital Project Funds (CPF) Broadband Infrastructure Program. Nichols said the CPF program provides funding to make broadband connections in critical areas of the state that don’t have access to high-speed internet. The $83.5 million total CPF investment and $42 million in matching funds will result in more than 24,500 homes, businesses, schools, health care facilities and other public institutions being connected to faster, more reliable internet for the first time.
Source: KSN-TV
Sedgwick County commissioner joins meeting a day after giving birth to twins
It was out of the ordinary for Wednesday’s Sedgwick County Commission meeting. County Commission chairman Pete Meitzner welcomed Commissioner Sarah Lopez via Zoom before the meeting began, and Lopez announced she had given birth to twin girls on Tuesday. “I’m really just excited to share that our daughters are here, they’re healthy and I’m doing good,” Lopez said. “I couldn’t really ask for anything better.” The twin girls, Alejandra Marie and Ana Lucia, were born prematurely at 33 weeks but are doing well. The twins are in the neonatal intensive care unit but will be moved to a different unit soon, Lopez said.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Sedgwick County rolls out public alert system for emergencies, starting in these cities
Sedgwick County government has rolled out a voluntary public alert system — Civic Ready — that can send text messages, e-mails or voice alerts of emergencies or important news. City governments in Wichita and Mount Hope are also able to send out more targeted and localized alerts through the system. Other cities in Sedgwick County are expected to join the program later this year. To use it, residents have to sign up and select how they want to be notified — and what kind of alerts they would like to receive.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
McPherson Police Chief Mikel Golden graduates FBI National Academy
On Thursday, Dec. 8, McPherson Police Chief Mikel Golden graduated from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Golden began training at the FBI National Academy 10 weeks ago, in mid-October, and successfully completed the training this week. Golden’s training included classroom instruction, physical fitness, and more. Golden has dedicated over 15 years of law enforcement service to the McPherson community. He joined the McPherson Police Department in October 2006 as a patrol officer. While attending the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, his classmates voted him class president.
Source: McPherson Weekly News
Kansas teacher shortage prompts calls for higher salaries, paying student teachers
As Kansas faces the worst teacher shortage it’s ever known, one group says the state needs to raise teacher pay, elevate the profession and offer student teachers a paycheck. “Part of the problem is our salaries in education stink,” said Rick Ginsburg, dean of education at the University of Kansas. “Add to that working conditions that are challenging, a public that is rather critical. … So what you end up with is something that is awfully challenging.”
Source: Prairie Village Post
Governor Kelly Announces Nearly $45 Million to Connect Kansans to High-Speed Internet in 15 underserved counties
Governor Laura Kelly announced today that $44.5 million will be awarded to nine service providers to extend high-speed internet to 18,468 locations in 15 underserved counties across the state. This is the third and final award phase of the Kansas Capital Project Funds (CPF) Broadband Infrastructure Program. The CPF program provides funding to make broadband connections in critical areas of the state that lack access to high-speed internet. The $83.5 million total CPF investment, combined with almost $42 million in matching funds, will result in more than 24,500 homes, businesses, schools, health care facilities, and other public institutions being connected to fast, reliable internet for the first time.
Source: Kansas Department of Commerce
Days long ‘computer network disruption’ continues in Derby, under federal investigation
Federal law enforcement is investigating what the City of Derby is calling a “computer network disruption.” City Manager Kiel Mangus said IT staff discovered the problem on Saturday, Jan. 14. The city’s email network is down. “They’re evaluating our system to see, you know, what occurred, how it occurred, you know, when can we get things back,” Mangus said. The FBI is investigating the disruption, along with third-party computer specialists. Mangus said this is causing delays in utility bill payments in Derby.
Source: KAKE – News
Municipal Bond Trends for January 17, 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.
U.S. cities have been introducing tougher measures to address the growing problem of homelessness, prompting a number of court challenges that could set guideposts.
Cities across the U.S. have been introducing tougher measures to address the growing problem of homelessness, prompting a number of court challenges that could set guideposts on how far municipalities can go. Local governments have been experimenting with a range of homeless policies, such as involuntarily removing people from the streets when they appear to be mentally ill, confiscating belongings or evicting the homeless from public property. City officials say the measures are necessary to address situations that are threatening public safety and leaving homeless people themselves living in conditions that are unsafe and unsanitary.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Trees in Overland Park are in danger due to this pest. Here’s how the city is coping
It would seem the emerald ash borer is enjoying Johnson County, and the city of Overland Park is taking action to eradicate it in a new way. Later this year, the city will begin an ash tree clear-cutting program in some neighborhoods. Currently, the city estimates between 8,000 and 11,000 ash trees still stand in Overland Park. Until now, the procedure has been to remove trees as they become too damaged to safely stand, which means about 500 per year are taken out. That plan isn’t cutting it anymore, according to city forester Bailey Patterson. “(We’re) just physically incapable of keeping up with the pace that they’re declining,” Patterson said. The normal annual budget for removing these damaged trees has been about $250,000. This new program would increase those funds to $2 million over two years.
Source: KC Star Local News
Bill Fiander came to Topeka with a 2-year plan; 26 years later, here’s what makes him proud
Bill Fiander went above and beyond the call of duty by attending the 2002 funeral for Emogene Shepard, president of the Tennessee Town Neighborhood Improvement Association, said her grandson, Michael Bell. As an employee of the city of Topeka’s planning department, Fiander had worked with Shepard and shared her commitment to making a better place out of the violence-plagued central Topeka neighborhood where she lived…. Tennessee Town benefited from Fiander’s considerable skills and education, as well as his willingness to connect with residents on a personal level while realizing he was “helping living, breathing people,” Bell said. Fiander’s last day with the city was Friday. He retired at age 57 as director of planning and development to take a job teaching political science at Washburn University, where he already worked part-time as an adjunct professor.
Source: CJonline
New K-State initiative to bring ‘supercharged’ business support in all 105 Kansas counties
Business owners around the state will now have better access to advanced business support, research and expertise, thanks to a Kansas State University initiative to create more than 3,000 jobs and generate $3 billion in investment by 2030. Officials from the university and Network Kansas —a statewide network of nonprofit, business-building organizations and resources — on Tuesday morning announced a partnership between the two entities that will bring university-level resources, research and professionals to businesses in communities around the state.
Source: CJonline
Construction materials company wants planning commissions to reconsider their opposition to Eudora quarry project
A Topeka-based construction materials company is hoping to establish a new quarry in Eudora, and it wants the Eudora and Lawrence-Douglas County planning commissions to reconsider after they voted nearly unanimously to recommend against the project. At its meeting Wednesday, the Douglas County Commission will consider the request from Mid-States Materials to return the original conditional use permit application to the Lawrence-Douglas County and Eudora planning commissions for further discussion and an updated recommendation. The Douglas County Commission has to give its approval to revisit the application because back in November, the entire seven-member Eudora Planning Commission and all but two members of the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission recommended that it be denied.
Source: LJWorld
Lawrence leaders take another step toward protections for tenants who use housing vouchers, other government assistance
City commissioners Tuesday took another step to make Lawrence the first city in the state to prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to tenants who receive government assistance, such as Section 8 housing vouchers. After about two hours of divided public comment, city commissioners expressed support for an ordinance that would prohibit landlords from discriminating against potential tenants on the basis of their “source of income.” However, commissioners ultimately agreed to delay passage of the ordinance for a month to give the city’s legal staff more time to refine the ordinance, especially in understanding how the new regulation may impact not just rental properties but the sale of homes.
Source: LJWorld
Wichita water plant contractor fined by OSHA for ‘serious violation’ in worker’s death
Federal workplace safety regulators have fined a Wichita Water Partners subcontractor for a serious violation of workplace safety law in the death of a construction worker at the city’s new water treatment plant. Manuel Esparza, a 55-year-old project manager for Utility Contractors Inc., was killed last March while trying to move a large iron pipe at the Northwest Water Treatment Facility.
Source: Wichita Eagle
High aspirations: Former Kansas mayor’s tourism vision includes silos, dwarf goats
The Kyner grain elevator that towers over the main street in Wilson, Kansas, hasn’t been in service for well over half a century. Most passers by look at the silos and see a relic of the past. David Criswell sees mountains. Criswell, 60, is a former mayor of Wilson, a purveyor of raw Kansas honey and a passionate goat apologist — they’re “largely misunderstood” creatures, he says — and he has a vision for the defunct silos no less quirky than one might expect from a town of 836 whose claim to fame is the world’s largest painted Czech egg. Criswell wants to turn seven 40-foot-tall concrete silos into an attraction called the Mountains of the Prairie, outfitting them with scaffolding and introducing a herd of sure-footed Nigerian dwarf goats rebranded as “Kansas mountain goats.”
Source: Wichita Eagle
Leavenworth County farm winery blending litigation, politics in bitter property tax dispute
Farm winery owners Bryan Zesiger and Gina Montalbano stirred up a hornet’s nest of property tax controversy by challenging Leavenworth County’s decision to classify a wine tasting room and 1.1 acres at the vineyard as commercial rather than agricultural property. The issue surfaced when owners of Z&M Twisted Vines learned the Leavenworth County appraiser had decided 85.2 acres of the winery would be classified agricultural in 2022. An 1,860-square-foot implement building with space for wine processing and storage, a tasting room for wine and hard cider sales and an event space would be classified as commercial by the county for tax purposes.
Source: www.chanute.com
Kansas legislators renew efforts to save Ogallala Aquifer
Saving the Ogallala Aquifer could mean economic trade-offs in the short-term, the chairman of the Kansas House Water Committee said Tuesday. But the state can make progress and still maintain the farming economy of western Kansas, said Rep. Jim Minnix, R-Scott City. “If I were a banker … looking at the value of agriculture in western Kansas, it makes all kinds of sense to me to try to preserve the aquifer to maintain the economy up there for as many years as possible,” Minnix said. Minnix, a farmer and livestock producer, is the newly minted chairman of the House Water Committee, which, last year, fell short of passing a sweeping bill overhauling the way Kansas regulates water.
Source: Kansas Reflector