The City of Topeka said Monday it has been a potential victim of a cyberattack and has identified up to 10,000 customers who may have been affected by the data breach.
City spokeswoman Molly Hadfield said Monday the city was notified of the incident by its utility billing payment system software vendor, Central Square, on Friday afternoon.
The potential data breach hasn’t been confirmed at this time, Hadfield said.
The breach occurred between Oct. 31 and Dec. 7 and would affect any city utilities customer who made a one-time payment or set up autopay during that time. E-checks and customers who set up autopay before Oct. 31 won’t be affected, the city said.
Central Square has turned over the information to a forensics investigator to confirm the potential breach. The staff worked with the software vendor on Friday to transition the current online payment system to a more secure platform, as advised by the vendor. On Saturday, the city’s information technology staff went through the data breach system and didn’t find any malicious activity.
The third Wednesday of each month is a busy day for Anna Wolf. That’s the only day the Tonganoxie Municipal Court is in session.
Wolf is the Tonganoxie city prosecutor.
“Everything depends on that one day, and you need to have everything ready,” said Wolf, L’12. “Otherwise, you’re going to go a whole other month before you get another opportunity. It puts a lot of pressure on that one day.”
The Kansas Department of Commerce has recently announced a grant program that could pay for 50% of a new swimming pool in Kansas communities. There will be several requirements (which aren’t set in stone yet), including:
communities must be be 500 and 25,000 in population (it’s possible the population minimum could be lower)
must meet the LMI (low-to-moderate income) objective
maximum grant would be $1,000,000
this is for a fairly basic pool (NO lazy rivers, slides, splash pads, etc. – although you can design to add those later)
grants will likely be due by the end of March, so applicants will need to act fairly quickly
$20 million may be available statewide to help many Kansas communities!
The ACLU filed a motion Friday opposing the dismissal of its voting rights case against Ford County Clerk Deborah Cox.
The legal action requests additional polling places in Dodge City.
“We aren’t asking for the moon,” said ACLU of Kansas legal director Lauren Bonds. “Our plaintiffs need, deserve and are legally entitled to an accessible polling place, in town. That’s more than reasonable.” The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit in October accusing Cox of disenfranchising voters, particularly those in the Hispanic community, and asking a judge to halt the use of the site located on the outskirts of Dodge City.
Although there are a lot of unknowns with funding and a new Kansas Governor to take office in January, Great Bend Chamber of Commerce CEO Jan Peters is confident the road construction project along K-96 Highway from Nickerson to Lyons will be reconsidered. The Kansas Transportation Task Force is finalizing their pitch to the Legislature for a new transportation comprehensive plan in 2020.
Peters says the Task Force heard a lot of input for their plan. Peters went with four other area representatives to testify in front of the Task Force in October to promote the completion of the K-96 project or “Northwest Passage” that was delayed a few years ago because of funding being raided from K-DOT to balance the state budget. The new stretch of highway would connect Hutchinson to north of Sterling.
Blowing or raking leaves onto city streets is prohibited in both Winfield and Ark City, but that doesn’t stop people from doing it.
Area resident Jim Bossi called the CourierTraveler recently about the problem.
Bossi, of Ark City, said he’s seen a lot of residents rake leaves off the curb into the street.
“I think a lot of people just don’t realize it clogs up the city sewer system,” he said. City Manager Nick Hernandez said this this week that the city does have a rule against pushing leaves into the street. Winfield does, too.
But the cities don’t strongly enforce that law, preferring to encourage people to comply rather than issue fines.
“It’s a worldwide issue, no community is exempt,” said
For almost a year, Kansas City, Kan., Police Chief Terry Zeigler has lived in a house owned by Wyandotte County. County residents, open government advocates and a Unified Government commissioner point to the fact that no written lease was in place for almost eight months after Zeigler moved into the house.
Zeigler pays little or no rent on a monthly basis because of credits granted for expenses to make improvements on the house. Officials put the lease in writing after a citizen inquired about it. Although the lease was retroactive to the beginning of the year, Zeigler has yet to make a rent payment. Under the agreement, he is credited for expenses, labor and mileage he’s incurred while working on the house.
Because of the credits, Zeigler owes less than $1,300 in rent. From Dec. 29, 2017, through July 26, he has claimed more than $18,530 in expenses, including $672.53 in mileage and $5,765 in labor costs by him and others.
“I paid the rent in advance by doing the work and spending my own personal money on fixing it up,” Zeigler said. “So now when that credit runs out, I got to write a check to them by the end of the year. I’ll get them the last bit and I’m done for 2019. And in 2020, I have to start paying them $1,000 a month.”
For more than a quarter of a century, Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug has looked out on South Park from his second-floor office in the southwest corner of the Douglas County Courthouse.
He has not tired of the view from his desk, nor has he lost his passion for the work he does at it.
“I have loved this job,” he said. “I won’t say I’ve loved every minute of it, but I have loved this job for a very long time, and I love this community and county government.”
Despite his love for the work, Weinaug said it’s time for him to hand the reins of county government to a younger generation. He will retire Friday from the job he accepted in 1992. An avid bicyclist, he looks forward to riding more and spending more time with his four grandchildren, for whom he has already picked out bikes.
There’s also a professional factor, Weinaug said. Public administrators have expiration dates, he said. It’s a point when citizens and community leaders don’t turn to them for advice or welcome phone calls. He reached that point on May 15 when county voters rejected Proposition 1, which would have funded a $44 million expansion of the county jail, as well as an $11 million behavioral health campus.
The Reno County Commission’s decision against a moratorium on the proposed wind farm in the county was good news for the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce, which works to bring new industry to Kansas.
Marcy Kauffman, director of membership, represented the chamber at the meeting this past Tuesday. She says the chamber was against the moratorium and explains why:
The city’s governing body, consisting of the nine council members and Mayor Michelle De La Isla, plans to discuss but not act regarding proposed changes it plans to consider Dec. 18 to its rules and procedures.
Those include increasing — to five minutes from four — the length of time members of the public are given to make public comments while doing away with the current practice of enabling the governing body to give speakers extensions. Discussion with governing body members would not count as part of a speaker’s five minutes.
The Geary County Public Health Department has been notified about the award of an Opioid Overdose Crisis Response Cooperative Agreement from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. This project will augment Central Kansas Foundation efforts in substance abuse treatment by adding emphasis to policy and Geary County agencies and providers.
Health Department representative Dani Holliday stated the grant will total $62,155. ” It is predominantly to assist with the development of policies and protocols that will aid our local health system in responding to opioid overdoses and underlying substance abuse problems. ”
The project will include with community partners including Geary Community Hospital, Central Kansas Foundation, USD 475, Fort Riley and Irwin Army Community Hospital and the Geary Community Healthcare Foundation.
To err is human. To really louse things up requires a computer.
Neosho County Commissioners met Friday morning with the county clerk, treasurer and appraiser over errors in hundreds of tax statements sent out at the end of November.
Commissioner David Bideau initially said 1,800 statements had errors, but Appraiser Bob McElroy said up to 8,000 were flagged with issues that could be errors. The commission spoke with a representative of the county’s software supplier by conference call, and other department heads were present for other items on the agenda.
County offices have been in a lengthy process of training and conversion from the old software to a new program supplied by CIC. At one point Bideau said his voice was raised to be heard on the conference call with Joe Morris of CIC, but his displeasure was also evident.
“You need to send a team of about 10 people to Neosho County to get this fixed,” Bideau told Morris. “What time will they be here this afternoon?”
Some changes have been made to a proposed improvement project at the Fort Scott Municipal Airport.
The Fort Scott City Commission on Tuesday approved measures that will revise the layout plan for the airport as well as an environmental assessment for a project that would extend and widen the current airport runway.
The runway is currently 4,400 feet by 75 feet. The city had planned to expand the runway to 6,100 feet by 100 feet. The change would add 1,100 feet to the runway length, making it 5,500 feet by 100 feet.
A Wichita real estate company says the Starlite Drive-In on the city’s south side has a new owner, saving the beloved theater that was thought to have closed for good in October.
Landmark Commercial Real Estate announced Friday that Tulsa drive-in theater owner Blake Smith has agreed to take over the Starlite in south Wichita from current owner Chuck Bucinski. It will reopen under the same name next spring. A news release says all sides are calling it “the right deal, at the right time, with the absolute right thing to do for Wichita.”
A system designed to detect gunfire in city neighborhoods will be deployed in a pilot program starting next week, Wichita officials announced Friday.
The system will work by using state-of-the-art sound sensors that can pick up and triangulate gunshots, so police can be guided to the site faster and more accurately, said Mayor Jeff Longwell.
“The council’s goal is to have a safer city, period,” Longwell said.
The pilot project to test the system will be deployed in areas of the community with a history of gunfire and residents’ requests to do something about it.
The city of Salina is interested in hearing from residents, commuters and interested persons on what should be done to slow traffic on North Ninth Street to make it safer for pedestrians.
The Ninth Street corridor is a major gateway into the city of Salina. Recent efforts to improve this corridor include overlaying the street, removing trees, replacing sidewalks, landscaping yards and repairing homes.
Reducing traffic speeds is a concern expressed by several North Salina residents because of the residential character of the neighborhood, and the need for pedestrians to cross Ninth Street to access the bus stop, the convenience stores and the library.
The existing four-lane street was striped as a two-lane roadway this summer in hopes of reducing traffic speeds. The city performed traffic speed studies as a four-lane street before Ninth Street was overlaid with asphalt and performed speed studies after the roadway was overlaid and re-striped as a two-lane roadway.
Topeka City Councilman Tony Emerson said this past week he admires the job general manager Susan Duffy has done with Topeka Metro, the city’s bus service, which won the 2018 Transit of the Year award from the Kansas Public Transit Association.
Still, Emerson suggested at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that because “we already tax people so much,” he felt reluctant to support Duffy’s request that the city raise the property tax mill levy assessed by the Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees Topeka Metro.
The TMTA’s request was a “hard sell,” Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla acknowledged at that same meeting.
Still, she said, increasing the TMTA’s levy would be an investment in the families here who depend on Topeka Metro to access the resources they need.
For the eighth year in a row, Prairie Village’s Police Department and the Prairie Village Foundation have teamed up to help ease the burden on some families facing that situation.
Through the Shop with a Cop program, Prairie Village police officers escorted 10 local kids on a shopping trip to the Target in Mission Thursday. With funds provided by the Prairie Village Foundation, each kid got $200 to spend on gifts for themselves as well as members of their family.
A dilapidated and vacant house in the 4800 block of West 50th Street in Roeland Park was a topic of discussion this week, with the city exploring several options for how it could proceed to remedy the unfit structure—including demolishing the house or turning it over to Johnson County.
A sinking front porch and peeling paint are among the code violations at the structure. Photo via the neighborhood group.
A group of Roeland Park residents, organized by Eric Carson, petitioned the city to address the home commenting that it “poses an imminent threat to the health and safety of the public, particularly the many children that live within walking distance – including the grade school two blocks away.”
In the wake of a dead-end board election for Terry township, Finney County commissioners discussed Monday the option to dissolve and merge the area with a neighboring township, a new action for Finney County that potentially could pave the way for other townships looking to do the same.
Terry, a township in the northwest corner of the county and home to Friend, has long struggled with filling its township board, a three-member committee that sets the area’s budget.
Holcomb resident Mary Chandler has served as the township treasurer and the board’s lone member for several years. In November, the race for the board’s clerk garnered one write-in vote and did not secure a candidate. Now that Chandler wants to exit her position, the board soon will sit empty unless the county can appoint any volunteers.
The Shawnee County Courthouse’s snack bar has a revamped look that reflects the professionalism of the county, Shawnee County Commissioner Shelly Buhler said during the space’s unveiling Thursday.
County officials began considering the renovation last year, and in December 2017, Schwerdt Design Group signed onto the project.
“We walk past this space every day, and every day I was reminded that it needed a little attention,” Buhler said. “They worked their magic.”
Greg Schwerdt, president of Schwerdt Design Group, said the eatery had looked dated and that “there were some pretty obnoxious colors.”
Schwerdt and interior designer Melea Stone worked on freshening up the snack bar.
“We just tried to open up the space, make it a lighter, brighter, kind of fun and entertaining space where they can have a different variety of options for seating,” Stone said.
District Judge Mark Braun said he remembered spending time in the eatery as a law student and young lawyer when it had a grill. It was a space where a lot of lawyer work got done, he said, adding that he thinks with the new look, activity may shift back to the snack bar, which is located in the courthouse basement.
Cowley County commissioners had a request list for state Sen. Larry Alley, R-Winfield, when he stopped by the commission meeting Tuesday morning.
Alley said he has been visiting all the county commissions in Senate District 32 that includes parts of seven counties: Cowley, Barber, Comanche, Harper, Sumner, Kingman and Sedgwick. He is collecting information on what counties want him to focus on in the next legislative session that starts Jan. 14.
The No. 1 issue facing the county is money, Cowley County Commission chair Alan Groom said.
Following up on the need for money, commissioner Wayne Wilt said the county would like help applying for a grant that would pair the county with another so that each could get a bridge built. Cowley County has many bridges that need to be replaced, but does not have the resources at hand to do the job.
Counselor Mark Krusor said the county would like the state to look at giving counties the same power cities have to require nuisance properties to be cleaned up. Wilt said the chief opponents of such legislation — the Farm Bureau and the cattlemen’s association — are afraid such legislation would lead to zoning. Krusor said the county is not looking for zoning but for remedy in certain nuisance cases that they do not currently have.
Four police cars will be receiving mounted camera system upgrades. Council approved the request for the purchase of wi-fi adapters, software, and a video storage server from Watch Guard in the amount of $8,040.
The department uses in-car video recording systems in marked units to provide documentation of traffic stops, prisoner transports and other enforcement related activities. the camera systems are vital in evidence documentation and for investigating complaints of officer misconduct.
The Prairie Village governing body this week denied a resident’s appeal of the city’s decision to invest heavily in accessible playground equipment at Franklin and Harmon Parks, a move he said denied kids with disabilities the chance to be incorporated in play at other neighborhood parks.
James Olenick, the father of a now-adult son with disabilities, challenged the public works department’s planned investment of nearly $120,000 in new play equipment at Franklin Park in the coming months. The city also has tentative plans to invest around $575,000 in a complete revamp of the playground at Harmon Park that would feature a large amount of play equipment accessible to kids with disabilities, though that new inclusive play area has yet to be designed. While Olenick conceded that the equipment the city had planned for Franklin Park met the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, he said that the concentration of accessible equipment in a couple of parks put families who didn’t live near those parks at a disadvantage.
Lenexa will undertake an extensive review and planning process for the former city hall facility on 87th Street as leaders look to ensure the city has the space to house its public safety needs — from the police department to municipal court — for years to come. The council unanimously agreed on Tuesday to hire PGAV Architects Inc. for $204,600 to review the current and future space needs of the Lenexa Public Safety Complex and then develop a comprehensive master plan for the current facility.
The proposed study would provide recommendations on facility size, location and cost to accommodate the Lenexa Police Department, municipal court and other city departments, according to deputy city administrator Todd Pelham.
A new operating agreement between the Derby Recreation Commission and the city of Derby for Rock River Rapids was approved by the City Council at its
Nov. 27 meeting.
The contract was due to expire on Dec. 31 and the new agreement is for two years. The DRC manages the water park, which is at 1900 E. James, and the city owns it.
The new agreement includes annual 2.5 percent increases in the management fee for a total of $107,919 in 2019 and $110,616 in 2020.
Given cost increases in salaries and health insurance, the amount is reasonable, said Zahra Ehtisham, assistant to the city manager and who prepared and presented the report to the council.
There were a few proposed changes to the fee schedule for the 2019 season, which are intended to increase attendance.
Marion assistant police chief Clinton Jeffrey will take over as chief of police effective immediately after Monday’s city council meeting.
Jeffrey comes to the position with 11 years’ experience in law enforcement. He comes to the role with support and affirmation of many Marion County law enforcement and judicial communities.
Jeffrey was sworn in Monday after a statewide search. An interview panel comprised of community members unanimously recommended his appointment, Mayor Todd Heitschmidt said.
Even though there is still some work to be completed, Ellis County officials, along with those from the recently formed Cottonwood Extension District, celebrated the completion of the last of three building renovations.
“We’re so excited because we’re done!” Ellis County Administrator and project manager Phillip Smith-Hanes told the crowd gathered in the lobby and an adjacent conference room for a Hays Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting at the offices of the Extension district, formed in 2017 by a merger of the Ellis and Barton county Kansas State University Research and Extension programs.
You’ve heard the phrase– “location, location, location!”– and that’s certainly key for a Kansas store near the Nebraska state line.
Even though it’s in the small town of Belleville, shoppers come from all around the Midwest.
“Our business began in 1947,” said Lynette Beam, assistant manager of The Feathered Nest. It started as a traditional furniture store, but now, is an example of modern-day marketing.
“It was about 11-12 years ago, we decided we really need to make a change, diversify, become a destination shop for women,” said Beam.
The Feathered Nest now offers an endless variety– 10,000 square feet– of virtually everything for the home, family, fashion, and food.
“We turned this space from rows of furniture to a coffee lounge,” said Beam, pointing to one section of the store.
The gourmet espresso bar, plus fresh baked scones and cookies, convinced two customers to drive here from Hebron, Nebraska!
Sedgwick County Manager Michael Scholes agreed recently to resign. It will cost the county a lump sum of $205,427. The agreement also states the now former county manager will not sue the county.
“That was an important piece in the agreement,” said county commissioner Richard Ranzau.
But Ranzau also says the cost to the county, along with the release agreement of county counsel Eric Yost, could go up to half a million. “I am really pleased we were able to get this settled before my term expired and I left the commission,” said Commissioner Dave Unruh, who did not run for office again and leaves at the end of the year. “I think this concludes a chapter in Sedgwick County history that has significantly eroded and degraded the stature and the influence of the county government in our community.”
Unruh says he hopes the commission can focus on the business of running the county and put some of the legal issues in the past.
Ranzau, who will no longer be on the commission after the end of his term, says he has the same hopes.
The Topeka Police Department is getting rid of the tactical vehicle it quietly bought two years ago for more than $425,000, saying it experiences frequent mechanical failures that are costly to fix.
“The sale will save the city thousands of dollars in warranty and repair costs,” Molly Hadfield, the city’s media relations coordinator, said Thursday.
She confirmed the city plans to auction the truck at www.govdeals.com.
“City Manager (Brent) Trout and Chief (Bill) Cochran have decided that it is in the city’s best interest to sell the mobile command incident vehicle that was purchased under different city leadership in 2016,” Hadfield said.
The search for a new Winfield police chief is on hold until a new city manager is hired, interim city manager Brenda Peters said Wednesday.
Because the police chief is hired by the city manager, a search cannot commence until a permanent manager arrives, Peters said.
The closing date for applications in the city manager search is next week. Since the city commission still has to review applications, interview candidates and make an offer, the police chief search isn’t expected to get under way until next year, Peters said.
Advertisements for the police chief job have not been placed yet, Peters said.
Osawatomie will soon join the list of area communities that require their residents to use city trash services.
Osawatomie City Council members unanimously approved an ordinance establishing mandatory trash service using the city’s contracted service provider at their meeting Nov. 29.
The ordinance goes into effect Jan. 1, 2019, and requires every occupied premises or premises with city utilities in Osawatomie to set up the service and “use the solid waste pickup and collection service operated or contracted by the City of Osawatomie,” according to the ordinance’s language.
The Manhattan City Commission unanimously approved phase 2 of the Aggieville Infrastructure Report at their meeting Tuesday.
The plan lays out possible features for the business district’s future, incorporating community input that came in the form of surveys as well as focus groups. It included multiple options, ranging from various street and parking designs down Moro and Laramie, a potential pedestrian mall on 12th Street stretching from Laramie to Moro, alley improvements, publicly available WiFi as well as a parking garage at the intersection of Manhattan Avenue and Laramie. None of the features were specifically chosen for approval, the report just laid out possibilities and all options could be tweaked and updated when the commission begins to look more seriously at any of them.
The Olathe Fire Department is moving forward with plans to build a $4 million training center that will not only serve the department’s own firefighters but also attract fire departments and rescue agencies throughout the region.
Fire Chief Jeff DeGraffenreid on Tuesday laid out plans for the center to the City Council, who still must approve the design and spending on the project.
DeGraffenreid said the facility would allow Olathe personnel to train locally while still being able to respond to emergencies nearby. Currently, he said the department has to travel to training facilities in Overland Park and Platte County, Mo. “It is an exciting opportunity for us to provide some much-needed training space here in our community,” DeGraffenreid said.
The 17th Street project, north of the Dollar Tree store in east Wellington has been pretty well resolved, according to city officials at its meeting Tuesday.
Wellington Public Works Director Jeremy Jones told the council he has been in touch with the developers and contractors, and have worked out an agreement for the correction. All but 29 feet of the project will have to be repaved and brought to city specifications. At Tuesday’s meeting, Ryan Kiser, a developer for Ridge Investment Group of Wichita, apologized to the council for paving the road too early, and said:
“We didn’t educate each other about the details of the project. We want to do what we say, and do the right thing.” Kiser also said RIG owns several other properties in Wellington and there is a lot of opportunity in Wellington.
“I am looking forward to us doing more development in Wellington,” he said.
The city of Osawatomie’s new electric shop and storage building is taking shape on Ninth Street.
“We hope to have it buttoned up soon,” Osawatomie City Manager Don Cawby said.
The building will serve multiple functions. “It is the new electric shop, but will also house some of our water equipment,” Cawby said. “Water (department) used to operate out of the sewer plant until the bridge was closed in 2011. We have crammed them in since then.”
The new structure also will free up space in the existing building for the fire department’s use, he said.
“The primary reason was to get out of the current building because the fire department needs much more space,” Cawby said. “They are already storing equipment in the electric side. Also, public works and utilities will be consolidated in one location to be more efficient and easier to manage.” The project is being funded through electric bonds, Cawby said.
The Brown County Commission voted Monday morning to suspend the emergency vehicle permit for a local EMT.
The matter came before the commission at the Nov. 19 meeting as EMT Jeremy Stover spoke and asked the county to reconsider keeping his permit. They tabled the decision for a week, noting they had not reviewed the citation issued to Stover.
At this week’s meeting, Brown County Attorney Kevin Hill said he had reviewed a Hiawatha Police Department report on the Oct. 31 incident involving Stover. Hiawatha Police Chief John Defore joined the meeting via telephone and informed the commissioners that Stover had been issued a citation by Hiawatha Police for allegedly activating emergency lights and sirens on his private vehicle when he was not responding an emergency call. He indicated the situation had to do with barricades following the Halloween Parade.
The commissioners voted to review the permit in 6 months and determine at that time if it should be reinstated. In the meantime, Stover was requested to take a lights and sirens class.
Sedgwick County has reached a settlement ending the controversial tenure of County Manager Michael Scholes.
On Wednesday, the County Commission approved an agreement paying Scholes $205,427 to leave.
In exchange, he’s agreed to drop any claims against the county related to his departure.
Scholes is the second top county official forced out by commission action in the past month. On Nov. 19, the commission settled out Counselor Eric Yost for a $77,000 payment.
The City of Gardner announced today that the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) granted funding for improvements to the interchange at I-35 and Gardner Road.
The funding will cover the first and second phase of the project. KDOT will provide $3.925M for phase 1, which consists of the realignment of 191st Street west of Gardner Road and signalization of the intersection ramps. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2019. An additional $6M will be granted for phase 2 for the replacement of the existing Gardner Road bridge over I-35 with construction starting in 2022.
KDOT is currently designing a diverging diamond interchange for this area, an emerging concept in roadway design that aims to eliminate left-hand turns into oncoming traffic and thereby increase safety. An engineering analysis, as well as input from the public, helped determine this direction.
A Leavenworth County commissioner made a motion Tuesday to not spend any more money on a lawsuit that challenged the contract of a former employee. No vote was taken on the motion.
Commissioner Bob Holland made the motion after Kansas Senior Judge Edward Bouker issued a ruling in which he declared the employment contract of former Human Resources Director Tamara Copeland invalid.
“Given the judge has made the final ruling, the bleeding needs to stop,” Holland said.
Bouker issued a written decision over the weekend. He ruled that Copeland’s employment contract with the county “was an attempt to improperly bind future boards in matters involving their own administration and responsibilities, thus violating public policy. The contract is thus invalid.”
Since she was a little girl, Kimberly Klein wanted to be a police officer. Now that dream is coming true. Klein is spending three weeks as an intern with the Derby Police Department, but when she’s done, she won’t be staying here, but taking her newly found knowledge back home near Frankfurt, Germany, some 4,888 miles from Derby.
Klein is enjoying her stint in America.
“It’s great here, she said. “I really like the culture and all the Americans are always so nice to me.” The 24-year-old is not a total stranger to the U.S. or the Derby area as in 2010-2011 Klein stayed with the local family of Eldora and Randy Brock while an exchange student at Rose Hill High School, where she graduated. She is staying with them again.
One major difference between policing in the two countries is the amount of training.
In Germany, officers have to undergo three years of training, including three internships, before going out on the streets full time. It’s much shorter in the U.S., although officers often have military police or other security backgrounds.
Another big difference, she said, is that Derby’s police usually drive solo in their patrol vehicles, whereas in Germany, they always go as a pair. And while the German police are armed, civilians usually aren’t, as their gun control laws are much stricter.
The city will be opening its trash and recycling contract to qualified companies next year.
That was a change to the City Council’s list of priorities approved at the Nov. 27 council meeting. Derby has a 10-year contract with Waste Connections that is due to expire Dec. 1, 2019.
“We need to issue an RFP (request for proposals) soon to ensure other companies have an opportunity to compete,” Sexton said.
The objective is to have a contract in place by May, City Manager Kathy Sexton said.
The early lead time is necessary because of the equipment required to provide service to Derby residential customers. There are about 10,000 household customers and that would mean providing 20,000 carts.
There will likely be two or three companies bidding on it, Sexton said, including the major trash operators.
The city previously had multiple trash services to choose from, which is the system its northern neighbor, Wichita, operates under.
Now, there’s just one, which Sexton said allows residents to get lower rates. She said residents are getting trash and recycling for less than what they paid for just trash before.
Virtually every day, Charlene Gonzalez gets outside and goes for a walk, usually for four to five miles, so she knows what walking in Derby is all about.
That’s why an open house on the city’s Walkable Development Plan was of particular interest to her.
But there are issues, including safety, she said at the gathering, which took place from 4 to 6 p.m. Nov. 28 at Madison Avenue Central Park. Gonzalez’s comments and input are just what planners from an outside agency, RDG, were looking for at the workshop.
“We’re pleased with it,” said project manager Charlie Cowell of the reaction.
There wasn’t an overwhelming crowd present, but a steady flow of people during the two-hour period had a lot of good points to make, he said. Around the room, large photo poster boards were placed and attendees were asked to rate different designs on how they felt about them.
There’s a lot that can be done from the design aspect to help cities such as Derby, he said.
While the city already has a solid foundation of walking and bike paths – some 25 miles worth – its major challenge now is connectivity.
Forty-five seconds of silence following a motion to impose a moratorium on commercial wind development perhaps resounded louder than two hours of an open mic before the Reno County Commission Tuesday morning.
Commissioner Ron Hirst’s motion to impose a six-month moratorium died for lack of a second. No other motion followed.
NextEra Energy is now free to file its application for a conditional use permit, which will go before the Reno County Planning Commission. The company previously indicated it planned to do so by mid-December.
The planning commission could propose additional restrictions or requirements for NextEra’s Pretty Prairie Wind Farm outside of existing zoning regulations, according to county commissioners and NextEra officials.
Any restrictions, however, must be set soon if NextEra is going to meet its timeline of getting the wind farm operable before the end of 2019 — a deadline required to qualify for federal tax breaks and meet energy delivery obligations.
