A change approved Thursday to John Welbourn’s job overseeing county weed control operations is not a demotion, Shawnee County commissioners were told Thursday.
Commissioners Kevin Cook, Shelly Buhler and Bob Archer subsequently voted 3-0 to approve a “repurposing” of the department’s organizational structure, which included reclassifying Welbourn’s position from “weed director” to “weed supervisor.” In response to Cook’s question as to whether the proposal involved would constitute a “demotion” for Welbourn, parks and recreation director John Knight said it would not.
The move would instead reclassify the job Welbourn holds from that of an appointed department head who serves at the pleasure of the commission to that of a classified parks and recreation department employee who is under the protection of the county’s personnel rules and regulations, Knight said.
He added that he thought the move would increase Welbourn’s hourly pay by 3 cents an hour.
The weed director’s job before Thursday had already been part of the parks and recreation department. The weed department is directly or indirectly responsible for the control of every noxious weed in Shawnee County, according to its website.
Two years after tax increment financing for Merriam Town Center expired, some retail stores are facing the prospect of higher rent — and city officials are keeping a close eye on potential business departures.
The announcement in July that Hen House was leaving the shopping center after two decades in business raised eyebrows among city officials, who are concerned about the associated drop in sales tax receipts that get directed to the city’s budget.
At Monday’s city council meeting, Merriam officials discussed what efforts the city could be taking to keep the center vibrant and prevent other tenants from leaving.
Chris Engel, city administrator, said several things have occurred in Town Center all at once that are probably contributing to the issue, “depending on who you ask.”
The City of Salina dedicated a historical marker Thursday in front of the Smoky Hill Museum to August Bondi, a local Jewish-American abolitionist who fought against slavery and for the American ideal of freedom.Jerry Klinger, President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, who initially proposed creating the marker, spoke about Bondi’s life during the ceremony.“The story of Mr. Bondi isn’t so much a Jewish story, it’s an American […]
A sign popped-up in east Wichita overnight advertising 400 tiny homes.
It’s by 143rd and 21st street.
That is miles north, but on the same road, as a tiny homes development that was just approved to move forward last week despite opposition from neighbors worried about their property values.
“This would be very bad and I would not want to see it at all,” said Dan Jablonski who lives in neighborhood.
Though they had been in town for only a short time, two visitors from sister city Wagga Wagga, Australia, said Thursday that they were impressed with Leavenworth.
Though they had been in town for only a short time, two visitors from sister city Wagga Wagga, Australia, said Thursday that they were impressed with Leavenworth.
“It’s beautiful,” said Maddie Smith.
Smith and Zoe Martin are visiting Leavenworth after competing in the Miss Wagga Wagga Quest.
Martin, who holds the title of Miss Wagga Wagga, described the Miss Wagga Wagga Quest as a personal development program that raises money for charities.
On a recent sunny day, a cat darted across Betty Nicholas’ yard in the 1400 block of Washington while another rested under a vehicle parked in front of her home. Before long a third cat ambled across the yard heading to a neighbor’s house.
It’s a frequent scene at Nicholas’ house, and sometimes up to a dozen cats congregate in her backyard, even though she doesn’t own a single cat. Albertini said feral cats are always a difficult problem with no easy solution, but he commended a local organization, Basic Animal Rights Council, for its efforts to control the feral cat population.
Just as is the case with dogs, it is illegal in Parsons for the owner of a cat to permit it to run at large at any time. Albertini said the owner of an animal is defined as “any person who feeds or shelters any unowned animal for 24 or more consecutive hours or who professes ownership of such animal.”
Albertini said feral cats, which are untamed animals that generally have little to no human contact, don’t have owners who would be responsible for confining them. A person feeding the cats could be considered an owner, but the city would have to prove a particular person is feeding the cats on a continuous basis. Neighbors may suspect a person is feeding the cats, but proving it in court is different, Albertini said.
Besides that, Albertini said, “Does anyone really want me prosecuting a little old lady for, in her mind, being nice to feral cats by feeding them?”
A stop Thursday night in downtown Chanute was planned long before the afternoon rainstorm. After riding for more than a month through sunshine, the damp weather was something the group of British bicyclists could handle.
“This is the first weather we’ve seen,” bicyclist and organizer Steve Wesson said. One rider, though, was stranded under a tree by the storm and had to be rescued.
The riders with the Bike Adventure commercial touring company stopped in Chanute as part of a trans-America ride.
The group included an Australian and couple of Irish, and the company has run bicycle tours through New Zealand, South Africa and Europe. The group started in Florence, Ore., on July 21 and will finish in Yorktown, Va., on Sept. 23.
They began Thursday’s ride in Eureka and will go as far as Pittsburg before taking a rest day.
The sign on the front of the squat, brick building near Harry and Woodlawn says “People’s 316 Association.” Police call it the Lion’s Den.
The building used to be a popular burger joint. Now, it’s been flagged as an after-hours establishment where a 2:30 a.m. shooting injured two people this summer.
At another after-hours party at different club, a 3 a.m. shooting left one man dead. Police now say the city needs to license and regulate after-hours clubs to make sure they’re safe. “These places are totally unregulated, which is problematic for us to address,” Police Chief Gordon Ramsay told City Council members at a workshop recently.
An after-hours establishment often looks like a bar or club but typically operates between midnight and 6 a.m., sometimes illegally serving alcohol and food along with a host of other problems, Ramsay said.
Unlike licensed bars and clubs, after-hours establishments do not have to allow police or city inspectors inside, and they often operate outside of fire codes and food and liquor regulations, Ramsay said. When police respond to incidents at the after-hours spots, no one takes responsibility for the activities, he said.
“This is a wonderful base, because below this, for 15 years we’ve put AB3 gravel and sand down to form a 6 to 8-inch base,” arboretum president Kenny Ervin said, as he snapped pictures of the workers Wednesday afternoon.
The concrete forms stretched from the edge of Wilson Street to an arbor and gardens just east of the entrance drive, and from there on further south.
“They poured 966-feet of concrete,” Ervin said. “This completes the paving of all the trails on the south side of the arboretum. It’s entirely handicap accessible now and maintenance free. I won’t be spraying it with Round-Up anymore.”
The total cost for this phase of the trail work was around $19,000.
“Parsons Arboretum paid for the concrete with grants and donations. We got a grant from the Parsons Area Community Foundation for $2,500. We got $2,000 from the Rotary Club and Roberta Whetzel gave us $4,600 in memory of her husband. She is the one that has the arbor behind the building,” Ervin said. “The city of Parsons paid for the labor.”
Earlier this year, [Corie] Brown wrote a story for The New Food Economy entitled “Rural Kansas is dying. I drove 1,800 miles to find out why.” Brown is from Kansas originally, and was aware of the state’s long, steady depopulation, but was struck by a report that rural Kansas had become a food desert: an area in which residents do not have adequate access to affordable and healthy food.
“How can this breadbasket be a food desert?” she asks: Kansas, after all, is a state that devotes an overwhelming percentage of its land to agriculture. And yet much of the state is dotted with towns that have lost one-third, half, or more of their population in the last generation. It’s to the point that basic amenities like fresh groceries can be hard to come by. “There are no people here. Not enough to justify a delivery truck.”
An architect’s drawing of the new Hard Rock Hotel development at Village South, 110th and I-70.
The Hard Rock Hotel is coming to Edwardsville, Kansas, according to officials at Monday night’s Edwardsville City Council meeting.
The 231-room hotel with a meeting space will be at the Village South development at 110th and I-70, said Jon Monson, a developer who is part of the ownership group. The hotel’s anticipated completion date is in 2020. Village South is just to the south of the Village West development.
The Edwardsville City Council on Monday unanimously passed a Community Improvement District for the new hotel and development, with a 1 percent sales tax in the district.
“I am really excited, this project will be a big asset to our community,” said Edwardsville Mayor John McTaggart.
Maps are historical references that are both interesting and informative. Besides the biennial State Transportation Map that is widely available, KDOT produces specialty maps for traffic counts, bicycles, aviation, rail, bridges, interchange designs, pavement condition, roadway functional classification, cities and counties, school districts and more. The KDOT website has such a large variety of maps that someone who enjoys reading them could spend hours traveling through the map list.
For instance, a great map to review is the 1918 Kansas State Roads map. It charts the Cannonball Highway, Rock Island Highway, the Bee Line, the Blue Line, the Golden Belt, Midland Trail and the King of Trails. The KDOT map website also includes the Kansas Memorial Highways, Bridges and Interchanges map, which shows highways that have been dedicated to the memory of an individual or group, like the Amelia Earhart Memorial Highway. This map also identifies the Submarine Veterans Memorial Highway, Home on the Range Highway, Turkey Wheat Trail Highway, Prairie Parkway, The Road to Oz and the Lewis & Clark Expedition Route.
Miami County officials are taking action to repair the deteriorating sidewalk in front of the Miami County Administration Building in Paola and create a safe way to cross Pearl Street.
County commissioners discussed the issue during a study session earlier this month and agreed to seek bids for the project.
The plan is to repair the sidewalk on the east side of Pearl Street in front of the administration building, as well as a concrete apron in the rear of the building. A crosswalk also would be created connecting the sidewalk on the east side to the sidewalk on the west side in front of the Miami County Courthouse.
The crosswalk will cause the county to lose two parking stalls on the east side and three on the west side, project manager Matt Oehlert said.
Oehlert said the cost estimate is $135,000, with the project starting in either late September or early October.
Once installed, the signs for the crosswalk will be maintained by the city of Paola.
After hearing Bucyrus residents raise concerns about large explosions caused by Tannerite, Miami County commissioners are taking action to try and find ways to regulate the binary explosive.
Monique Barnard and Steve Kerr of Bucyrus spoke during the public comment portion of the June 20 commission meeting, and they said their neighbor has been using Tannerite to set off loud explosions.
The explosions didn’t just recently start, either. Barnard and Kerr said the explosions began last year, and they continue, with the most recent being around 9 p.m. the Saturday before they spoke to the commission.
“Some shake our houses,” Barnard said. “It shook the pictures off of our neighbor’s wall.”
The Bucyrus residents said they have contacted the sheriff’s office, but they were told that Tannerite is legal in Kansas. They asked the commission to consider banning Tannerite in Miami County or at least require it to be used for its original intent — long-range target shooting — not creating bombs.
Miami County does not have a noise ordinance, and binary explosives like Tannerite are legal in Kansas, but county commissioners are turning to state legislators for assistance.
Administrator Shane Krull said Miami County can submit legislative platform suggestions to the Kansas Association of Counties for support, and the Miami County Commission agreed to do just that earlier this month.
County commission chairman Dianne Novak voiced support Monday for an increase in the number of commissioners. Just before Monday’s
“I have until Sept. 1 to put out a petition to get a question put on the ballot about taking the county commission board from a three-member to a five,” she said.
No motion was made because it was not a proposal. Novak was notifying the board and the audience of her intent.
A request to allow adult entertainment shops in Peabody brought 40 residents to voice their concerns at Monday’s city council meeting.
Mayor Larry Larsen laid out presentation rules that set the tone for the meeting.
After preliminary actions, Peabody resident Terry Tucker, who owns an online adult entertainment referral service, addressed the council asking if someone acting as an escort would need to have a license and if the city had any restrictions on this type of business.
County attorney Rob Lane said no license is necessary, and at this time, there is no ordinance that specifically addresses the issue.
On completion of her inquiry, community members asked many questions regarding the nature of the businesses she was proposing to bring to their town.
Tucker said shops she was proposing to bring to Peabody would include adult entertainment, escort services, topless dancing and a pop bar — which is a bar that does not serve alcohol and features nude dancing.
Army combat veteran and Newton police sergeant Michael Stinger said he has much experience dealing with these types of businesses and many objections.
They included the possibility of additional police services needed, human trafficking, and identity theft.
Kansas is taking a new approach to reducing sediment in the state’s reservoirs.
The state will pay landowners up to $50 a ton for the amount of sediment they keep out of the watershed leading to a state reservoir.
Kanopolis Reservoir, which has lost 39 percent of its water supply storage, is one of the four reservoirs included in the Kansas Reservoir Protection Initiative, as recommended by the Kansas Water Authority.
One stream in the Kanopolis Reservoir watershed, Oak Creek, which flows through the city of Ellsworth, is included in this initiative.
“This is a different project than we’ve done before,” said Pamela Hays, with the Ellsworth County Conservation District.
Previous projects have helped fund practices that prevent soil from entering the watershed, Hays said. This pays for projects that keep sediment from entering the stream.
At least $50,000 is targeted for the Oak Creek watershed, Hays said. The state has budgeted $900,000 for Kanopolis, Fall River, John Redmond and Tuttle Creek reservoirs. The first round of applications is due Friday, she said, but signups will be accepted throughout the year. Initial approvals are expected by the end of September.
The stench of trash wafted across the alley into the neighbor’s backyard.
Like yesterday’s garbage, concerns about people leaving trash to rot or illegally dumping it elsewhere is just one byproduct of a solid waste removal program being examined by the Osawatomie City Council.
In addition to the issue of illegal dumping, the council’s closer look includes determining who the city’s solid waste collection service provider will be, starting in 2019.
The City Council has set a public forum for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 5 at Memorial Hall to gather feedback from the community and to hear from representatives of the two companies bidding for the service.
The city’s contract with Waste Management is set to expire at year’s end. Harrisonville-based WCA is vying to pick up the contract for Osawatomie’s solid waste and recycling collection program.
Representatives from both companies attended the City Council’s meeting Thursday evening, but no one from the public asked to address the council.
“We only had two bidders, the two main players in the region – Waste Management and WCA,” City Manager Don Cawby said.
Concerns surfaced after Waste Management (formerly Louisburg-based L&K Services) took over billing several months ago.
Amidst fears that the first big development in the College and Metcalf corridor might wither without its help, the Overland Park City Council voted Monday to increase the sales tax on retail that eventually locates in the Galleria 115 project near 115th Street and Nall Avenue.
In doing so, they will increase the amount of tax revenue available to developers by about $13.5 million to turn the well-located but rocky piece of undeveloped land into a mixed-use multifamily housing, office and retail project.
The sales tax added for the area’s community improvement district will become 1.5 percent. That’s higher than the typical 1 percent the council has approved for most other projects. And it comes on the heels of a recent vote to allow a 2 percent sales tax add-on in the downtown Edison district – a move that council members warned would not become a precedent. “I was torn on this. I thought long and hard,” said Councilmember Chris Newlin. But Newlin said he was convinced College Boulevard needs something to draw people in. “This is a development that needs to get done.”
When they met Tuesday, Leavenworth city commissioners discussed the possibility of a licensing and inspection program for rental properties.
Mayor Mark Preisinger stressed that commissioners were not taking any action Tuesday.
“This is going to be a long process,” he said.
City Planner Julie Hurley said exploring a possible rental inspection program was a goal set this year by commissioners.
She said more than 50 percent of residential properties in the city are rental units. She said city staff believe about 6,100 addresses in the city are likely rental properties.
She said the city is contacted regarding complaints about rental units. She said the city contracts with the Welcome Central organization to manage a landlord-tenant mediation program. In 2009, the city initiated a rental registration program which required a one-time registration of rental properties. Hurley said inspections were not required for this program.
She said city staff have identified 13 other cities in Kansas that have enacted rental inspection programs.
“We looked at all 13 programs,” she said.
She said a common thread of the programs is a requirement for rental licenses. She said this allows cities to keep track of rental properties.
Mike Loveland has landed an anchor tenant for his Echo Hills development at the northwest corner of I-135 and 53rd Street North in Park City.
Atwoods is taking an 8-acre parcel in the middle of the 87-acre development where Arby’s has already opened and apartments are planned.
“It’ll be a brand-new facility for them, and it’ll be a real nice anchor for our development,” says Loveland, a member of Echo Hills Development. “I’ve got a lot of people that I’m talking to now that we’ve landed an anchor.”
Atwoods is relocating its ranch and home store from near 61st Street and Broadway in Park City to Echo Hills. “It’ll be a store similar in look and size as the one they have in Andover,” Loveland says.
Construction will start in two or three weeks.
“They want to be open in the spring.”
It’s not clear if the company is opening this store instead of the Atwoods it had hoped to open in Maize.
Robbie DeLong, interim chief of the Winfield Police Department, began his first day on the job Monday. He takes over from former chief Brett Stone, who retired Aug. 24 after about 16 months on the job.
DeLong began his career with the Winfield Police Department in 2004. In 2013 he left the department to teach at the state police training academy in Hutchinson before rejoining in 2015.
DeLong started out as a patrol officer before moving up to various roles in the patrol and investigative divisions. He also served on the drug task force and is a 12-year member of the regional SWAT team.
Even though the department has weathered a tough few months since a traffic stop video led to the firing of a Winfield police officer, DeLong said the morale is good. “We want to continue that,” he said.
DeLong said the department is headed in a good direction, and as interim chief, his approach will be to take the department where it needs to go. Things are “actively moving forward,” he said, and staff will make changes as needed.
The City of Olathe is reminding residents that painting fire hydrants is not allowed.
This comes after a yellow fire hydrant was painted red and given fake teeth and googly eyes. Although the fire hydrant is cute, the city says painting them can caused problems because the paint color tells firefighters which entity owns the hydrant. Crews will repaint the hydrant yellow in the coming months.
The Liberal City Commission will be wrapping up its summer during its next meeting this evening starting at 5:30.
Up first for the commission will be discussion of Resolution No. 2292, which concerns the Moderate Income Housing (MIH) grant.
“Pete Earles and I were approached some time ago by David Fields regarding a housing development,” a memo in the agenda information noted. “Mr. Fields proposes to build 14 homes in the Prairie Breeze addition and would like to apply for a Moderate Income Housing grant through the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation for part of the home construction on this project. He will also apply for the Rural Housing Incentive District program for the infrastructure at a later date. This grant is a pass through grant for cities to work with a developer on a project that will benefit the community by providing affordable housing and putting new homes on the tax rolls. The City has previously received two MIH grants – one was for the Village at the Plaza for $350,000 and the other was for the Jewell Street development for $150,000. Both of these projects have been successful in providing additional affordable housing in Liberal.”
The 46th annual Hays Oktoberfest will be Sept. 28 at Municipal Park in downtown Hays.
The event will begin at 7 a.m. with the German Market. The opening ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. and conclude with the tapping of the keg at 11:30.
Hays Oktoberfest promotes the heritage of the Volga German and Bukovina Germans who settled in Ellis County. Fort Hays State University Homecoming is the same weekend.
Entertainment will feature polka music of the Joe Dolezal Band and the Ron Werth Band. Hays Community Theater will provide historical re-enactors and skits throughout the day.
This is the seventh year the Volga German Society of Ellis and Rush County, the Sunflower Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, and the Ellis County Historical Society have partnered with the Oktoberfest committee.
The Reno County Health Department is investigating a possible outbreak of pertussis or whooping cough.
Currently, five cases have been reported and are still under investigation, with other possible cases are being investigated.
When Reno County last had an outbreak of pertussis in 2015, some 100 cases were confirmed in the county before that eight-month outbreak was ruled over, with more than 200 cases investigated.
That compares to last year, when Kansas recorded 179 cases statewide, according to data from the CDC. Those who are vaccinated can have symptoms that are milder and may seem like asthma or bronchitis.
Health officials advise anyone with symptoms, including a cough for two weeks, without other explanation, should contact your physician. There are medications to treat the infection and relieve the symptoms.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also urges individuals that suspect they have pertussis to limit contact with unvaccinated children and see a physician as soon as possible.
While they didn’t fill the public seating area, supporters of Vanesa Cowie nonetheless had an undeniable presence at the Salina City Commission meeting on Monday. The previous week, between 75-100 people filled the public seating area and overflowed into standing-room-only in both entryways. Most people were there to show support for Cowie, the much-beloved manager of Salina Animal Services who was put on paid administrative leave August 15 for reasons that are officially unknown to the public. Her hearing with interim City Manager Mike Schrage is scheduled for September 5. City officials have referred to the matter as a personnel issue and have declined to comment on specifics of the case. At Monday’s meeting, Bruce Moore, who said he volunteers 15-20 hours per week at the shelter, told the commissioners that this was not his first opportunity to volunteer and listed his numerous volunteer endeavors. Moore noted that when funding from the city was not made available, Cowie “secured over $400,000 in grant funding, paid for new floors, new kennels, new wall coverings in the city-owned shelter. You benefitted from her work. By the way, did you know that Vanessa and her team designed those kennels? These are not off the rack. She designed these kennels based upon years of experience.”
Moore told the commissioners of the new management software used by the shelter that Cowie helped develop. He also reminded the commissioners that Cowie is recognized by the Petco Foundation as one of the top 35 shelter professionals in the country.
“She’s a renowned and respected professional that Salina should be proud to claim and not kicked down the street,” Moore said.
She’s done more with less each year, handling more animals without additional staff, he added.
Overland Park police on Tuesday insisted that the city does not have a snake problem.
That was after officers, for the second time this month, responded to a situation with a large snake slithering around a resident’s home.
On Tuesday, the Police Department tweeted a photo of an officer holding a 4-foot snake in the basement of a home, two weeks after a large boa constrictor had been found wrapped around the mailbox at another house. No animal control officer was available, so police responded. An officer caught the snake, took it to a wooded area and released it. The family told the officer it was the second time they had found a snake in their basement. “We had a wild night with wild animals,” said Officer John Lacy. “It was a slow night, but we were dealing with animal calls all night long.”
However, Lacy insisted that Overland Park has not been overrun with reptiles.
“Again, we do NOT have a snake problem in OP, your kids are safe indoors,” Lacy wrote on Twitter.
A total of five community projects in Shawnee are projected to receive $285,302 in community development block grant funding for next year.
The Shawnee council in its Monday meeting conducted the first of two public hearings on the city’s 2019 community development block grant plan. The second public hearing will take place in September. The total amount of $285,302 is based on a Department of Housing and Urban Development formula that considers Shawnee’s population and socioeconomic status. The community development block grant (CDBG) program is designed to assist low- and moderate-income residents.
Shawnee received the same amount in 2018 in CDBG funding, so HUD has advised the city that it will receive a similar amount next year. Eligible projects include housing rehabilitation, stormwater and street and sidewalk improvements, subsistence payments to low-income Shawnee residents, and payments to subsidize childcare, according to an Aug. 27 city memo.
The city’s application requests allocating funds to human service providers that directly assist Shawnee residents, rehabilitate single-family homes and improve infrastructure in low- and moderate-income residents.
Topeka’s city government is not “going backwards,” city manager Brent Trout said Tuesday.
He took exception to comments Shawnee County Commission Chairman Kevin Cook made Monday that Trout thinks suggested that.
The city manager said that while “not everything’s been great in the past” for Topeka’s government,“We’re making good decisions now and I think that we have our house in order.”
Trout and Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla spoke about the importance of cooperation between the city and county governments during their monthly news conference held at City Hall, 215 S.E. 7th.
“I invite our friends across the street to just sit down with us whenever they need to,” De La Isla said Tuesday. ’I mean, we are here to collaborate. And in the end, we’re all working for the same thing. We’re all working to improve our communities.”
When it comes to downtown construction, there can be too much of a good thing, Overland Park leaders are finding out. The numerous building projects downtown – some of which are significantly behind schedule – have now begun to overlap each other, continuing a parking shortage that has irritated nearby residents.
The sheer number of ongoing projects has also caused a shortage of subcontractors, making it even more difficult for things to get completed on time, city council members said Monday.
The Overland Park City Council moved forward with what will be a small fix to the parking situation Monday when it accepted a bid to demolish the Dyna-Jet car wash at 7910 Marty Street in order to create about 24 more parking spaces. But the council also ended up extending construction deadlines on some other downtown work, even as the new Edison project is about to get up and running.
The Wichita City Council approved on Tuesday projects that will mean growth at Col. James Jabara Airport and at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport.
Among the items unanimously approved as part of the council’s consent agenda was an expanded lease agreement for Midwest Corporate Aviation at Jabara that will give the company the land needed to build two new 18,000-square-foot hangars at the northeast Wichita airport.
The estimated $2.8 million cost for construction of the new facilities will be privately financed.
Also approved Tuesday was an agreement with NAI Martens as a real estate broker partner to help market available land and buildings at Wichita Eisenhower National Airport.
The firm was selected from a group of six brokerage firms that responded to a request for proposal last fall.
The Wichita City Council also acts as the Wichita Airport Authority.
Chanute commissioners went ahead with a condemnation resolution Monday evening, but said they hoped someone would assist the occupant.
The issue continued discussion from the commission’s last meeting about properties at 918 and 922 S. Malcolm, owned by Brenda Neal, and whether they were in violation of city code. The commission voted to find the properties in violation, but also said they wanted to help Neal.
“I want you to go somewhere where you’re safe,” Commissioner Phil Chaney said.
He said he hoped people would reach out to Neal, and Community Services Director Ryan Follmer helped get a phone number so she could contact assistance.
A Utah man was hired on Monday as Belleville’s newest city manager.
Adam Anderson of Sandy City Utah was officially announced as the city manager at Monday’s meeting of the Belleville City Council. City leaders were unanimous in their hiring of Anderson.
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While this is Anderson’s first job as a city manager, he comes from an extensive background in municipality work, according to Belleville Mayor Kim Lapo.
“We’re very excited to have him here,” she told the Telescope.
“Adam has more than 10 years experience working in local government administration ,” Lapo said. “He has an emphasis on budget, policy and strategic planning.” Anderson comes to Belleville holding an MPA degree from the George W. Romney Institute of Brigham Young University. He has worked extensively under several city manager type governments, Lapo said. Anderson was one of 14 applicants for the vacant Belleville job.
Penny Postoak Ferguson, county manager, has appointed Maury Thompson as deputy county manager. He has served as the interim deputy county manager since January 2018. Prior to that, Thompson served as assistant county manager beginning in January 2013. The new position is effective Aug. 26.
“I am pleased to serve our organization in this capacity and look forward to continued work with our approximately 4,000 employees who strive daily to provide the highest quality programs and services to the residents of Johnson County,” said Thompson,.
Thompson began his career within the organization at Johnson County Developmental Supports (JCDS) in 1986, serving multiple roles. In 2001, he left to serve as executive director at Tri-Valley Developmental Services in Chanute, Kansas. There, he served as president of the Chanute Area Chamber of Commerce and Office of Tourism (2004), as a member of the Chanute City Commission (2005-06) and as mayor of Chanute (2006-07).
Craig Weinaug announced Thursday that he would retire Dec. 14 as Douglas County administrator after more than 26 years in the position.
“It’s time,” said Weinaug, who will be 67 in January. “The average length of time a city or county administrator or manager stays in one position is between six to eight years. I’ve served here longer than any Lawrence city manager, Lawrence school superintendent or Douglas County administrator in the history of Lawrence.”
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Douglas County commissioners said Weinaug has been a dedicated public servant, committed to finding solutions to the county’s problems and improving the lives of its residents. Douglas County Commission Chair Nancy Thellman said Weinaug’s dedication and commitment were reflected in the culture he instilled throughout county government.
“Craig Weinaug is the quintessential public servant, and I count it as a privilege and a joy to have worked with him the past 10 years,” she said. “He’s a teacher at heart, too, patiently helping new commissioners learn the ropes of elected leadership, generously sharing his knowledge with citizens whenever they called with a question or complaint.”
Some Lawrence police officers will soon begin testing body cameras in preparation for a department rollout.
A memo to the City Commission from earlier this summer stated that the anticipated body camera testing period would be September through November, and police department representatives say preparations to begin testing are underway. The body camera program will be fully implemented sometime next year, according to the memo.
Police Capt. Trent McKinley said in an email to the Journal-World Monday that though there is not a date yet for when testing will begin, the intention is to keep the schedule as close to the September to November time frame as possible. He said the department hoped to start testing as soon as possible.
“We are working on the logistical piece of that now and hope to conclude testing around the end of the year,” McKinley said.
Owners of land in a three-mile jurisdiction just outside Topeka city limits in unincorporated Shawnee County have no representation when the city’s governing body makes moves to regulate planning and zoning in that area, Shawnee County Commission Chairman Kevin Cook said Monday.
It’s important for the county to enact a comprehensive land use plan, because that would give those landowners representation by giving the county a say in those matters, he said.
Though all but one of the 13 members of the public who addressed the commission during a 70-minute discussion Monday spoke critically of the plan, Commissioners Cook, Shelly Buhler and Bob Archer indicated they were willing to try to hammer out a revised version of the proposed document that they could support. Commissioners will allow for two weeks of public deliberation about the proposed amendments and revisit the proposal on Sept. 10. It wasn’t clear whether final action would be taken that day.
The proposed 197-page 2037 Shawnee County Comprehensive Plan would guide decision-making about the physical development of the county’s unincorporated areas. It seeks to guide orderly growth that balances environmental values and reasonable development demand over the next 20 years.
Twenty-seven projects that will improve intersections and roads in Kansas cities have been selected for funding through the Kansas Department of Transportation’s City Connecting Link Improvement Program (CCLIP), which funds improvements to state highways that extend through cities.
The cities will receive a combined total of approximately $13.7 million in funding under the CCLIP for these 27 projects. This total includes $6.6 million in state fiscal year 2020 and $7.1 million in state fiscal year 2021.
Under the CCLIP, a city contributes up to 25 percent of the project cost based on its population. Cities under 2,500 in population aren’t required to provide a match. Projects in this program may fall into one of three different categories including Surface Preservation (SP), Pavement Restoration (PR) or Geometric Improvement (GI).
SP projects involve maintenance work such as resurfacing and are funded up to $300,000 per project. PR projects typically involve full-depth pavement replacement without changes to the overall geometric characteristics and may also address drainage issues. GI projects address geometric issues such as adding turn lanes, improving intersections or modifying the lane configuration to address capacity. The PR and GI categories are funded up to $1 million per project.
For the state fiscal year 2020, the city, category and amount awarded include:
The Douglas County Commission approved ballot language Wednesday for a referendum to be placed before voters in the November general election asking for approval of a quarter-cent sales tax that would fund construction of a behavioral health campus and programming.
It is the second referendum the county has advanced this year. Voters defeated Proposition 1 in May, which would have authorized the county to collect an additional half-cent sales tax to fund a $44 million jail expansion, an $11 million behavioral health campus and $5 million in behavioral health services. The campus would have included a behavioral health crisis center, a transitional group home and an eight- to 10-unit apartment complex available to those with behavioral health issues.
Twenty days after company officials told Johnson County residents technicians were “working around the clock” to identify the issue, Election Systems & Software said this morning that it had rewritten a portion of the software code that led to a massive delay in reporting primary election results earlier this month.
But it’s not a guarantee that the updated software will be approved for use in November’s elections. “The slow reporting of results was unacceptable, and we apologize,” said Tom Burt, president and CEO, ES&S. “We know the Election Office and other Johnson County Government leaders put their faith in us and we let down our valued partners. After exhaustive analysis to pinpoint the issue, we rewrote the portion of code that caused the issue, and initial tests of the optimized code were successful. We will continue testing, and we look forward to federal certification of the optimized software.” However, the company acknowledged it cannot be certain the updated software will be certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in time for it to be used in the November election.
Consequently, the company said it is working on a contingency plan.
The city of Lawrence is planning to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for public art as part of several large-scale building and renovation projects.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that a $5.3 million fire station renovation, $4.5 million new bus hub and $17 million new police headquarters building are in the works. A long-standing resolution allows the city to set aside up to 2 percent of a project’s budget for public art. That amounts to about $450,000 for the three projects.
Commissioner Leslie Soden has been a proponent of putting more art into public places, such as parks. She says, “Creative pursuits are really important in Lawrence, so I think it’s appropriate for city leaders to fashion creative engagement throughout our city with these public projects.”
Five of Lenexa’s neighborhood parks will get new playground equipment through an agreement between the city and Lenexa-based Athco LLC, unanimously approved by the City Council this week.
The city will pay nearly $550,000 through its capital improvement program to buy the equipment and have Athco install it at Gillette, Heritage Forest, John McNerney, Sar-Ko-Par Trails and Tamarisk parks, according to a Tuesday memo to the council from Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Logan Wagler.
Lenexa Parks Superintendent Danny Huntsinger said in an interview that playground equipment in the city’s neighborhood parks (the smaller of which have no parking and are also called pocket parks) “are past their useful life, and we’re going to bring in something fresh.” Neighborhood park playgrounds should last from 18 to 20 years, he said, and they provide meaningful benefits for the community.
“Parks are heavily used and a big draw,” Huntsinger said.
In anticipation of buying new electronic voting machines in 2019, the Barton County Clerks Office has begun the consolidation process of voting locations across the county. Barton County Commissioners Monday authorized the purchase of one electronic poll pad which improves the check in process at polling places. That will be needed since Barton County Clerk Donna Zimmerman says the number of polling locations in the November general election will go from 23 to 11. While making it easier to staff the voting locations with poll workers, the move is also being made to reduce the number of new voting machines that will be purchased next year. The county utilized 87 machines during the August 7th primary, machines that were purchased in 2005 with an anticipated shelf life of 10-years. With the high replacement cost and the fact that there will be no federal dollars available this time around from the “Help America Vote Act”, Zimmerman says the consolidation will cut down on the number of machines they will have to purchase.
