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Municipal News & Jobs

Municipal News & Jobs2018-08-05T16:28:50-05:00

Kansas Municipal News

Wyandotte County commissioners strip mayor of power to remove meeting agenda items

Wyandotte County Mayor Tyrone Garner will no longer be able to unilaterally stop an issue from landing on the agenda of the Unified Government’s full commission meetings, after a Thursday night vote. The move stripped the mayor of autonomy over the meeting agenda, a power that had been a long-held tradition for the local government. The decision came toward the end of Thursday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, when members voted 9-1 to change the government’s rules and procedures so that the mayor cannot add or remove proposals from the agenda without seeking further approval.
Source: KC Star Local News

New jobs coming to Topeka

Topeka and Shawnee County’s Joint Economic Development Organization voted Wednesday to award cash incentives totaling up to $368,000 in taxpayer dollars for two projects expected to create more than 50 new local jobs. JEDO board members voted to approve performance-based incentives that will provide as much as $268,000 to Topeka-based Torgeson Electric Company for an expansion project and as much as $100,000 to enable One-Source Distributing LLC to expand by establishing an operation in Topeka.
Source: CJonline

City of Emporia announces new skate park to move from Santa Fe to Whittier as project enters ‘input gathering’ phase through January

Plans have shifted somewhat over the past year, however, the City of Emporia is still moving forward with the construction of a new skate park. Original plans were to construct the half-million dollar skate park at Santa Fe Park, however, City Manager Trey Cocking says lease negotiations with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad gave city leaders pause in that endeavor. During discussions with BNSF, it was requested that all lease agreements be adjusted to one-year annual agreements, a departure from the current 99-year agreement in place. Cocking says after a review, the city found Whittier to be the best fit for the new skate park as they feel it is an underutilized property with a high level of potential.
Source: KVOE Emporia Radio

Without enough drivers, Olathe schools to cancel certain bus routes on ‘blackout’ days

Without enough bus drivers, the Olathe school district next month will begin eliminating routes on “blackout days,” requiring families to find alternative transportation on those days. The district has previously warned families that its bus driver shortage has reached an “all-time high.” Last week, officials said there is a “substantial waitlist of families unable to receive transportation, as well as several buses that regularly arrive up to 30 minutes late for pick up/drop off, impacting instructional time.” Now with an uptick in driver absences due to illness, district officials said in an email to families on Wednesday that it will begin implementing “rolling transportation blackouts” Jan. 5. Starting that day, the district will eliminate service for certain routes on specific days of the week.
Source: Joco 913 News

Argabright announces retirement from USD 252

Southern Lyon County USD 252 Superintendent Michael Argabright submitted his retirement Wednesday evening during a meeting with the USD 252 Board of Education. Argabright, who has put in more than three decades in education, has led the USD 252 Southern Lyon County District for the last 16 years. He was recently named the Kansas Superintendent of the Year. He will fulfill the rest of his contract, which ends June 30, 2023. “After 35 – 40 years working with kids and education, I just thought it was time, maybe, for some new energy in our district,” Argabright told The Gazette Thursday morning. “I think we’re in a good place and I look forward to doing something different.”
Source: Emporia Gazette

Lawrence to consider suspending enforcement of rules on downtown liquor sales

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday will vote on a resolution that would allow some small downtown establishments to derive up to 90% of their sales from liquor for the next few years. It stems from a request from John Brown’s Underground designed to skirt a long-standing city rule that requires many downtown establishments with liquor licenses to derive no more than 45% of their sales from liquor — the rest must come from food. The ordinance was originally passed to prevent downtown from becoming a problematic bar district.
Source: The Lawrence Times

‘It’s time to deal with this’: Kansas Water Authority wants to save Ogallala Aquifer

Kansas should scrap its de facto policy of draining the Ogallala Aquifer, a state board decided Wednesday. Instead, the board said, the Kansas government should take steps to stop the decline of the aquifer, which supplies water to one-sixth of the world’s grain supply, and save it for future generations. “It has taken decades for this to be said formally in writing by an official state body,” said Connie Owen, director of the Kansas Water Office. “… This is nothing less than historic.”
Source: The Lawrence Times

Governor Kelly Announces Over $23M to Expand Broadband in Rural Kansas

Governor Laura Kelly today announced that $23.1 million will be awarded to six service providers that will bring high-speed broadband service to nearly 4,200 homes, businesses, schools, health care facilities, and other institutions in unserved and rural areas of the state. This is the second of three rounds of awards from the Kansas Capital Project Funds (CPF) Grant Program. The goal of this funding is to solve the “last mile” of broadband need in critical areas. The targeted counties have as few as five locations per square mile, which until now has prevented companies from investing the resources to deliver a quality broadband option. The CPF Grant Program provides the funding needed to implement high-speed broadband in these areas of the state.
Source: Kansas Department of Commerce

Manhattan, KS Is One of America’s Fastest Growing Big Cities

The U.S. population grew by 2.7% over the past five years, from about 327 million in 2016 to almost 332 million people in 2021. But in recent years, urban populations in much of the country have swelled even more rapidly. Nearly two hundred U.S. metro areas reported population growth on pace with the national population change or faster. In any area, population change is the result of migration and natural change. Migration refers to the net change in people moving to and from an area, while natural change is the difference between births and deaths. Due to these factors, the Manhattan metro area in Kansas reported 38.1% population growth in the last five years, the second most among 381 U.S. metro areas with available data. The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey shows that Manhattan’s population grew to 133,932 from 97,004 in 2016.
Source: Derby Informer | News

North Newton City Council moving forward with recycling

The North Newton City Council wants to focus on providing the best recycling service for residents they can while at the same time letting the current recycler work efficiently. That’s partly how Councilman Kurt Friesen summed up the council’s recycling intent during its regular Monday night monthly meeting at city hall. Council members had before them the proposed recycling guidelines as presented by current recycler Steve Meyer. “Our ordinance requires that the city offer trash and recycling services,” City Administrator Kyle Fiedler said. “It does not require that residents recycle.”
Source: Harvey County Now

Federal lawsuit says Dodge City’s election system keeps Latino candidates out of office

A coalition of voting rights groups says Dodge City’s election system is designed to prevent the community’s Latino population from holding office on the city commission. In a complaint filed late Thursday in federal court, the coalition argues the “at-large” election system is unconstitutional and a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The lawsuit was filed by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, the national ACLU, and New York City-based law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton. The city uses an at-large election system, in which all city residents can vote for each of the five seats on the city commission.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Johnson County allocates additional $450K for community greenspace

Johnson County will now pay more to renovate greenspace outside the county courthouse. Thursday the Johnson County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) voted 4-3 to allocate an additional $450,000 to support the second phase of the Johnson County Square project. In August, the board partnered with the City of Olathe for a $2 million renovation project to upgrade the property between the Johnson County Administration building at the Johnson County District Courthouse. Johnson County Square enhancements include things like a memorial plaza, a multipurpose stage, a playground and various art installations.
Source: fox4kc.com | FOX 4 – WDAF

GCCC enters into energy savings agreement

Garden City Community College Board of Trustees entered into an energy savings agreement with C& C Group at its regular meeting Tuesday. … Ryan Ruda, GCCC president, said the agreement is a no-cost study with C& C Group for them to study and evaluate options regarding the GCCC’s HVAC system to be able to “automate and enhance our HVAC system. We’re really looking at cost efficiencies and where there could be energy savings.” … There is no upfront cost to GCCC for this project, but GCCC will pay C& C Group through energy savings a total project fee of $1,109,232 that will be billed quarterly at an amount not to exceed 80% of energy savings realized from the updates.
Source: GC Telegram

Local bitcoin mine hits zoning speedbump

The Harvey County Planning Commission denied Butler Rural Electric Cooperative’s rezoning request Dec. 6 by an 8-0 vote. The utility was seeking to rezone its property at 84th Street and East Lake Road from agriculture to utility use for Print Crypto Inc., which is a bitcoin mining operation. Planning and Zoning Director Karen Rothe said nearby residents complained about the noise, which affected their quality of life because it was no longer fun to sit outside. … Tim Wuthrich lives 635 feet directly west of the substation. He said the noise generated was not ear-piercing to the point where he has to wear headphones, but it’s constant. … “When I’m out in the yard with the family and grandkids […], this is a constant noise.” Wuthrich compared the sound to an 18-wheeler idling.
Source: Harvey County Now

Renovation planned for downtown Pittsburg

The Pittsburg City Commission … heard from “DVLP Redevelopment Projects,” who presented them with a $4.8 million plan to renovate three downtown buildings. … Plans call for the construction of 35-to-40 apartment projects, ranging from studio size to two bedroom. The residential units will be located in the upper floors of the buildings, while commercial space is planned for the ground levels. After hearing the presentation, the Commission voted to approve funding 10% of the project, or $480 thousand. … “We need housing. We need all kinds of housing, so to have some housing downtown is really complementary to the downtown business district, as well as the housing needs are getting met, which is nice,” said Pittsburg City Manager, Daron Hall.
Source: KSNF/KODE

The Fed projects raising rates as high as 5.1% before ending inflation battle

The Federal Reserve will hike interest rates as high as 5.1% in 2023 before the central bank ends its fight against runaway inflation, according to its median forecast released on Wednesday. The Fed announced a 50-basis-point rate hike Wednesday, taking the borrowing rate to a targeted range between 4.25% and 4.5%, the highest level in 15 years. The so-called dot-plot, which the Fed uses to signal its outlook for the path of interest rates, showed 17 of the 19 “dots” would take rates above 5% in 2023. Seven of the 19 committee members saw rates rising above 5.25% next year.
Source: CNBC

Marion County pushes ahead with administrator

Despite lengthy discussion of whether the public had had enough opportunity to weigh in on the subject, county commissioners cast a split vote Monday to create a county administrator position. … The resolution does not specify a salary. Compensation is to be set out in an employment contract. The county has for several years budgeted $125,000 for an administrator and office staff. … Commissioners don’t yet have a timeline for hiring an administrator. Mueller said the first step would be to decide how to conduct the search.
Source: HILLSBORO Star-Journal

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