Kansas Municipal News
‘Choose Topeka’ expands to accept returning residents, military
City and county leaders are working together to ensure those who currently live outside Topeka see it as a place they might want to call home. The “Choose Topeka,” program offers financial incentives to people who relocate to Topeka. Since 2019, it’s helped bring almost 100 individuals and families to the Capital City. On Wednesday, the Topeka and Shawnee County Joint Economic Development Organization (JEDO) approved “Choose Topeka 2.0.” Members of JEDO approved almost $400,000 from the CarryFoward fund to fund the incentive. The program will now open its applicant pool to former Topeka residents want to return and exiting military personnel.
Source: KSNT 27 News
Return of passenger trains to Cowley County lurches forward
Kansans might be riding trains to Texas in the near future. The long overdue return of passenger rail service to south-central Kansas has a much better chance of happening within the next several years than it has had in decades. A big incentive to extend and improve passenger rail service is the availability of billions of dollars in federal funding to be distributed nationwide during the next five years, it was reported at a legislative caucus in Topeka last week. That’s good news to Cowley County passenger rail proponents, who have organized to advocate the return of Amtrak for well over 20 years. Cowley County lost Amtrak service in 1979, when the Chicago-Houston Lone Star line was discontinued.
Source: The Arkansas City Traveler
Communities talk rural health
The inaugural sessions of the Radcliff Lecture Series on Rural Health took place on Thursday at the Physicians Pavilion in Winfield and on Friday at Aunt B’s in Sedan. Hosted by William Newton Healthcare Foundation in conjunction with the Beats Go On community wellness initiative, Dr. Nancy W. Dickey, executive director of the Center for Optimizing Rural Health, spoke to more than 100 attendees on the importance of different entities working together to bolster access to health and wellness resources in rural areas. “If you’re not growing and changing, you’re dying,” emphasized Dickey during Thursday’s presentation.
Source: The Arkansas City Traveler
Fed Governor Christopher Waller warns that interest rates could go higher than expectations
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller on Wednesday talked tough on inflation, warning that the fight is not over and could result in higher interest rates than markets are anticipating. Speaking to an agribusiness conference in Arkansas, Waller said the January jobs report, showing nonfarm payroll growth of 517,000, indicated that the employment market is “robust” and could fuel consumer spending that would maintain upward pressure on inflation. Consequently, he said the Fed needs to maintain its current plan of action, which has seen eight interest rate hikes since March 2022. “We are seeing that effort begin to pay off, but we have farther to go,” Waller told the Arkansas State University Agribusiness Conference in prepared remarks. “And, it might be a long fight, with interest rates higher for longer than some are currently expecting. But I will not hesitate to do what is needed to get my job done.”
Source: CNBC
Washington’s Old City Hall is ‘for sale’
The old city hall building in Washington could be yours for free, but only if you have a plan for the building. At Monday night’s city council meeting, council members agreed to attempt to give the building away one more time. It was said that multiple previous attempts to give the building away have been unsuccessful. The council is now planning to demolish the building this year if someone doesn’t take the building. The council is preliminarily planning to allocate all of this year’s money for housing demolition to take down the old city hall building. Council member Theresa Herrs said she wanted to attempt to give the building away one more time before scheduling the wrecking ball.
Source: Backroads News
Sedgwick County commissioners approve spending plan for ARPA funds
Sedgwick County commissioners have voted to approve spending plans for 2023 and 2024 for federal funds provided through the American Rescue Plan Act, but commissioners want to have meetings later to make changes in some items. The largest item on this year’s spending plan is $25.9 million for district court to help with a backlog of cases. In addition, construction is underway to renovate spaces in the courthouse that were left vacant when several county departments left the building. The spaces will be turned into additional courtrooms. There will also be almost $3 million to go toward public health response efforts this year. Other funds will go toward COVID-19 protection efforts, employee recruitment and other areas.
Source: 101.3 KFDI
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