Kansas Municipal News
Butler County voters to decide on ‘liquor by the drink’ in general election
While both businesses are owned by the same group, the two businesses operate under different rules when it comes to getting a liquor license. “This law was enacted in 1986 and each county had to opt in to one of three rules. They could either have a dry county, they could have a wet county or they did this hybrid where there are 30% of sales required to be food.”
Source: KAKE – News
Topeka Metro offers free rides on Election Day
Topeka residents will be able to use city transportation for free on Nov. 8 for the Kansas General Election. The Topeka Metro announced earlier this month that it would be making an additional effort to help residents exercise their civic duty to vote in the upcoming election. All of the Metro’s fixed bus routes will be free and paratransit passengers will receive two free rides on Nov. 8.
Source: KSNT 27 News
Wichita school board approves special transfer of Southeast High students at semester
The Wichita school board voted unanimously Monday to authorize the special transfer of up to 260 Southeast High School students to Heights High for the start of the spring semester in an effort to alleviate disruptive overcrowding. Current Southeast students will not be required to switch schools if they don’t want to, but the district boundary change approved by the BOE means future students from within the Adams, College Hill, Jackson and Price-Harris Elementary boundaries will now attend Heights instead of Southeast.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Working for Lenexa: Taking on new responsibilities at home and in the workplace
Getting engaged. Planning a wedding. Then suddenly having five kids. It’s been nearly two years since Lenexa Police Department Public Service Officer II Sarah Bell got married to her husband, Jeremy, and became a stepmom to their five children, ages 4 to 12. … Connecting a citizen with the appropriate county services. Handling record requests. Processing paperwork for a report. Sarah is typically the first person you see when you enter the police department lobby. “You need to have the ability to talk to all kinds of people and keep a calm attitude,” she said. “I could have three people waiting in the lobby. One needs fingerprints. One needs a report. One has a question.” Two internships — one with a local organization to counter sexual assault and another with the Lenexa Police Department — helped Sarah get more comfortable dealing with the public and handling situations.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Wichita State earns national designation for economic development efforts
Wichita State University has been designated as an Innovation & Economic Prosperity University, which recognizes public research universities and their work with public and private sector partners to support economic development. Wichita State is one of 80 higher education institutions to earn the national designation from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.
Source: Wichita Business Journal
Johnson County school board bans trans students from preferred bathrooms, sports teams
After months of tense debate, the Gardner Edgerton school board on Monday approved a policy prohibiting transgender children from using their preferred restrooms or participating on sports teams that align with their gender identity. The school board voted 5-2 to approve the policy, which has sparked ongoing controversy and student protests. It states that students must use the facilities, and participate on the athletic teams, that conform with their sex at birth. School board members Katie Williams, the lone liberal on the board, and Greg Chapman voted against it. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas argued that the policy violates federal law, plus isolates and harms transgender students.
Source: Joco 913 News
Jackson County Commission gathers input ahead of vote on 18-month solar farm moratorium
Terry Kaufman wears opposition on his shirt and his cap to development of a 2,000-acre solar energy facility on rolling hills in Jackson County. Kaufman, who handed out yellow “no solar” pins ahead of a public meeting Monday on the issue, said he supported imposition by the Jackson County Commission of an 18-month moratorium on consideration of applications for utility-grade solar. Commissioners listened to a couple dozen people eager to share clashing perspectives but didn’t vote on a pause that would give them time to study zoning regulations applicable to solar projects.
Source: Kansas Reflector
Cities approve agreement on future water rights
In a mega meeting, four different Harvey County cities came to an agreement about their shared water future. The governing bodies for Newton, North Newton, Halstead and Sedgwick all approved an agreement governing how the cities would share a possible 536 million gallons in annual water rights that the State of Kansas will soon consider granting. “I think we’ve accomplished what we needed to,” Newton City Engineer Suzanne Loomis said after all bodies approved the agreement. “This is just the beginning of a continued good relationship for neighbors.” Since 1997, the cities have been working together to perfect (secure) the water rights on six wells located in the Equus Beds. To do this, the cities formed the Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 17.
Source: Harvey County Now
Governor Announces Nearly $16M to Expand Broadband in Rural Kansas
Governor Laura Kelly announced today $15.7 million will be awarded to seven service providers that will bring high-speed broadband service to underserved, economically distressed, and low-population areas of the state. This is the first of three rounds of awards from the Kansas Capital Project Funds (CPF) Broadband Grant Program. This phase of funding will connect more than 1,900 homes, businesses, schools, healthcare facilities, and other public institutions to fast, reliable internet in the next 24 months. This funding aims to solve the “last mile” of broadband needed 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.
“By connecting nearly 2,000 more Kansas homes, businesses, and schools to high-speed internet, we’re continuing to deliver on our goal of giving every Kansan a connection to the world,” Governor Laura Kelly said. “We’ve made substantial progress throughout my administration, and this funding knocks down another barrier to ensuring communities across the entire state have broadband access.”
The new grant program results from the U.S. Department of Treasury’s approval of Kansas’ Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF) broadband infrastructure plan. The federal CPF program is a $10 billion initiative available to states, territories, and tribal governments under the American Rescue Plan Act to fund capital projects. Kansas was one of the first eight states in the country approved for funding under this program and was allocated $83.5 million. The CPF program opportunity resulted in 141 applications from providers requesting $693 million in funding support to build out broadband infrastructure across Kansas.
The service providers selected to deliver these last-mile connections will provide partial matching dollars, bringing the total project amount for the first round to $19,700,991. All 141 applications remain eligible for the next two rounds of funding.
“We are at 55,000 new households and businesses connected already in the Kelly Administration, and we will not stop until every Kansas resident has the connectivity needed to compete in the digital economy,” Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland.
“This is just the beginning of the work we’ll complete through the Capital Projects Fund,” said Jade Piros de Carvalho, Director of the Office of Broadband Development. “Providers across the state have stepped up to partner with our office and the communities they serve to meet the needs of residents and businesses.”
The first round of grant recipients include:
- Craw-Kan Telephone Cooperative (Anderson and Allen counties) – $4,584,590 to connect 385 premises
- Giant Communications (Jackson County) – $895,295 to connect 163 premises
- MT Networks LLC (Coffey County) – $2,581,932 to connect 326 premises
- Nex-Tech (Thomas County) – $541,320 to connect 64 premises
- Pioneer Communications (Hamilton County) – $202,484 to connect 54 premises
- S&A Telephone (Lyon County) – $3,746,870 to connect 421 premises
- Totah Communications (Montgomery and Chautauqua counties) – $3,244,793 to connect 500 premises
The post Governor Kelly Announces Nearly $16M to Expand Broadband in Rural Kansas appeared first on Kansas Department of Commerce.
Source: Kansas Department of Commerce
Overcrowding at Wichita high school spurs BOE to consider redrawing boundaries
As overcrowding strains Southeast High School, the Wichita school board will consider altering district boundaries to move some students to another high school. Southeast’s functional building capacity is 1,982 students. This year, the school enrolled 2,192 students, the second most of any Wichita high school behind East. “Building and classroom safety due to overcrowding at Southeast is a problem that will continue to harm students and faculty at Southeast until we do something about it,” debate teacher Michael Harris told the board of education last month.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Wichita moves to tighten access, increase oversight on secretive police surveillance program
Where are you going, where have you been — and where are you right now? If the answer is Wichita, and you got there by motor vehicle, it’s likely the Wichita Police Department already knows. Or it can find out with a reasonable degree of certainty using its Flock Safety license plate reader surveillance system, a high-powered database that has helped Wichita police rescue kidnapped children, arrest murder suspects and recover stolen vehicles. But the power of Flock — which has been used by Wichita police since 2020 — comes with privacy concerns.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Rural Sedgwick County residents mistakenly given ballots for city elections, official says
Roughly 200 voters in rural areas outside Colwich and Garden Plain were able to vote in city elections after a mistake by the Sedgwick County Election office didn’t provide them with a separate ballot. Election Commissioner Angela Caudillo said they learned about the mistake midday Friday when the Garden Plain city clerk emailed them that a voter said they lived outside of town but had city council races on their ballot. Caudillo said they looked into Colwich after that because that city also had a precinct that covers the city and rural area. They found the same problem there — that there should have been two separate ballots for the people who live in the rural area versus the city, but there was only one.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Parsons to consider raising court costs
Parsons city commissioners’ agenda for Monday’s meeting includes topics of drainage, a closure request for the upcoming Christmas parade and a potential increase to court costs. Commissioners will look at increasing court costs from $90 to $110. Officials said court costs haven’t been raised since 2019. Of the $110, $45 would be dedicated to a fund for jail medical bills, administrative expenses and training of officers. The reason for the increase is because of rising costs of prisoners’ medical care and the ongoing cost of housing prisoners at the county jail.
Source: Parsons Sun
Johnson County approves $5.5M to expand capacity at Leawood wastewater facility
Johnson County is expanding its wastewater treatment capabilities in Leawood, following a major overhaul of the Tomahawk Wastewater Treatment Facility in that city. At Thursday’s meeting, the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners approved more than $5.5 million for the addition of three pump stations and one force main in Leawood. Pump stations and force mains serve as collection chambers that store and distribute wastewater.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Manhattan to start planning future of cemeteries
Administrators will approach the Manhattan City Commission to talk about a master planning effort for both Sunset and Sunrise cemeteries. …each cemetery’s facilities, operation, and availability have shifted in the past few decades. The proposed plan would give an outlook for the next 20 to 30 years of services. City manager Ron Fehr said the master plan’s development would not begin until the first or second quarter of next year, and the city is looking to develop the plan in-house. Fehr said the cemeteries’ buildings are old, outdated and small, so some new equipment does not fit.
Source: themercury.com
Kansas independent colleges and universities drive $1.1 billion of economy
According to a recent economy contribution analysis, the 20 colleges and universities that comprise the Kansas Independent College Association contributed over $1.1 billion to the state’s economy in FY 2021. Analysis also concluded the economic activity of the system supported or sustained 8,271 jobs throughout the state. The study was conducted by Parker Philips, a nationally recognized consulting firm specializing in economic impact analysis. “The private, nonprofit colleges and universities of Kansas play an essential role in growing Kansas’ economy – through talent development and opening the doors of educational opportunity for the citizens of Kansas,” said Matt Lindsey, president of the Kansas Independent College Association. “It’s also important to note that through their annual operations and the impact of alumni after graduation, our colleges and universities have a significant impact on their local economies and the state as a whole.”
Source: Derby Informer | Area
McPherson College chases $500 million ‘double-match’ pledge from mystery donor
McPherson College confirmed Friday the commitment of up to $500 million from an anonymous benefactor for an extraordinary 2-for-1 matching initiative delivering resources to transform the central Kansas private liberal arts institution. If the 800-student college known for offering an undergraduate degree in automotive restoration were to make the most of the arrangement, it would need to raise $250 million by June. That would secure the full $500 million offered by the private donor. The pledge was described as the largest single commitment to a small liberal arts college in the United States.
Source: Atchison Globe Now
Pittsburg holds its annual Badges and Burgers event
The Pittsburg fire department and police department team up with their grilling skills and raise money for a good cause. This event raises money for the Children’s Advocacy Center. The advocacy center is a safe place for children to come and talk about sexual abuse that has occurred to them. All proceeds of the Badges and Burgers event goes the Children’s Advocacy Center.
Source: KOAMKOAM
Parsons voters will decide sales tax question
Parsons voters will decide if the current one-half percent public safety sales tax should go up by 0.5% to 1%. If voters approve it, the tax would generate $900,000 to $1,000,000 for the city per year, said Debbie Lamb, city manager. The sales tax rate is at 9.25% now in Parsons. If approved, this new tax will set the rate at 9.75%. The tax will be used like the original one that has been set for the previous nine years, said Lamb and Jim Zaleski, city economic development director. This tax has generated approximately $7.5 million since it began in January 2014, officials said.
Source: www.chanute.com
Salina making sure its parks are fully accessible
As the City of Salina looks to update and improve its parks, leaders are taking a look at requirements to make sure they are aware of how accessible the parks and recreation system is. Though not a part of the original act passed in 1990, the current Americans with Disabilities Act now mandates equal access to parks and recreation. For Salina, much of this increased access is being addressed as the city moves forward making improvements to parks and recreation. At this time, the city’s community relations division, which includes ADA compliance, hasn’t received many, if any complaints about accessibility within the parks system, but ADA coordinator Michelle Martin said she knows there is still much that can be done to improve access within the city.
Source: Salina Journal