Kansas Municipal News
Leavenworth welcomes Bird e-scooters this week
Electric scooters are gliding into Leavenworth this week. The city will eventually have between 50 and 75 of the electric scooters available for anyone over the age of 18 to use. But Kansas law prohibits electric scooter use on all highways, including Fourth Street, Spruce Street and Metropolitan Avenue. Riders need to download Bird’s mobile app. Once activated, a map in the app will show riders where scooters are located. The app also provides information about pricing and fees for users. Bird says it offers community pricing for low-income riders and free rides for healthcare workers and emergency personnel who apply for a specific program in the app.
Source: KSNT 27 News
Barton County Commission seeks ideas from taxing entities
In what officials have called a challenging budgeting year requiring creativity to balance spending with taxes, Barton County commissioners Monday night brought representatives from the myriad taxing entities in the county together for a brainstorming session as they launch the 2023 budget-planning season. “This is about getting the taxing entities under one roof and see how we can accomplish our goals in a collaborative way,” said County Operations Director Matt Patzner in his opening remarks. “How can we help each other do more?” In all, there are 54 taxing bodies that are entirely within the county or include a sliver of it, not all of which were represented at the gathering. These include the county, cities, school districts, hospital districts, libraries, fire districts, recreation commissions, townships, Barton Community College and others.
Source: Great Bend Tribune
$50 million allocated for businesses hurt by pandemic shutdowns
After a year of battling overcompensation for businesses forced to close during the pandemic, there’s a been a breakthrough in the new state budget. Tucked into the new state budget without much attention was $50 million for rebates to business that were ordered closed or had to restrict their business operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The money for the rebates – up to $5,000 per business – would come out of the state’s share of COVID relief money that it received from the federal government. Gov. Laura Kelly signed the bill with the rebate a year after she vetoed a bill providing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to small businesses that were hurt financially during the pandemic.
Source: Sunflower State Journal
Mobile homes are a unique piece to Salina’s housing crisis puzzle
As Salina continues to face housing issues, one type of unit, mobile and manufactured homes, is available now and more of these units are coming by the end of this year. Danny Huehl, an installer of manufactured homes in Kansas, said a few years ago people and investors started talking about updating existing lots and building new homes in mobile home parks around the city. “This wasn’t really blossoming like (we thought) it would,” Huehl said. “Then all of the sudden, with the housing crisis, everything kind of exploded, so our investors are taking off and seeing there’s a need for housing.” Huehl said he’s already put 30 new homes in north Salina off of 13th Street and is bringing in 20 more homes in the coming months there and around 75 units to three other existing developments in the city.
Source: Salina Journal
Wichita Public Library encourages residents to share their COVID stories
The Wichita Public Library wants you to help write history. No matter what your world looked like during the pandemic or maybe still looks like, they want to hear about it. The library hopes that by distributing coffee sleeves, you can tell your COVID story, documenting it for future generations. “Everyone has their own idea and own experience’s from the COVID-19 pandemic. There are a lot of people who think that the pandemic was fake or they didn’t believe in wearing masks and then we have the opposite side where people were really serious and took social distancing seriously, quarantined when they weren’t feeling well… wore masks,” said Sean Jones, Communications Specialist with the Wichita Public Library. “It’s fun to get everyone’s opinion. We want to know what your experience was during these last couple of years.”
Source: KAKE – News
Aftermath in Leoti, Kansas
Saturday’s storm causing a lot of damage for some residents in Leoti, Kansas. KSN News talked with a farm bureau agent who says the storm kept her busy. Berta Binns says as of yesterday morning she had more than 12 clients filling reports of damage. Residents were sending in pictures of golf size hail, showing their car and house windows broken and reporting farm damage. NWS confirms two tornadoes in western Kansas Binns says although she would like to say this is the first time, they’ve had to deal with a situation like this, these high winds and storms are always likely to cause a headache during this time of year. Now, the only thing Binns hopes is to be able and help residents in that area as soon as possible.
Source: KSN-TV
Strong winds cause damage in western Kansas, six possible tornadoes
WESTERN KANSAS (KSNW) — Wind, hail, severe weather, and multiple possible tornadoes went through the western part of Kansas overnight, causing damage across the Sunflower State. The severe weather started Friday evening, with hail ranging from ping pong ball to tennis ball size being reported in Leoti, Colby, Holcomb, Ulysses, Hugoton, and Garden City. As of Saturday morning around 11 a.m., KSN has seen reports of six possible tornadoes, ranging from Sharon Springs to one mile southwest of Oberlin. Sharon Springs sustained large amounts of damage to structures, but Sheriff Unruh says there are no reported injuries.
Source: KSN-TV
Strong storm rolls through Sharon Springs, tears roofs off buildings
National Weather Service officials were in western Kansas Saturday to assess damage from a strong storm and a possible tornado that damaged buildings in Sharon Springs and elsewhere, authorities said. Officials say the late Friday storm rolled through numerous Kansas cities, including Grainfield, Mingo and Winona. Photos of damage in Sharon Springs posted on social media sites show roofs that are caved in or gone and debris blown around city streets.
Source: www.joplinglobe.com
Municipal Bond Trends for April 22, 2022
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman and Beth Warren.
Fed’s Mester casts doubt on the need for ‘shock’ interest rate hikes ahead
Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said Friday she’s in favor of raising interest rates quickly to bring down inflation, but not so quickly as to disrupt the economic recovery. That means a strong likelihood of backing a 50 basis point rate hike at the next Fed meeting, and perhaps a few more after, but not going to 75 basis points, as St. Louis Fed President James Bullard suggested earlier this week. A basis point is 0.01 percentage points. “My own view is we don’t need to go there at this point,” Mester said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” when asked by host Sara Eisen about the 75 basis point move. “I’d rather be more deliberative and more intentional about what we’re planning to do.”
Source: CNBC – Bonds
KPERS weighs cutting anticipated investment return rate despite political pressure to delay
Trustees of the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System deferred Friday until at least next month a decision about lowering the assumed rate of return on pension investments below the current 7.75% target and dramatically inflating the system’s unfunded liability. Action by the KPERS board in response to soured market conditions would have practical implications in terms of dealing with the system’s long-term liability as well as political ramifications from state legislators opposed to the adjustment. Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson and Senate budget chairman Rick Billinger, both Republicans, advised trustees they weren’t “convinced about the wisdom” of plans to trim the baseline investment assumption. They argued a reduction of 0.25% would deepen the system’s unfunded liability by $600 million.
Source: The Lawrence Times
You should still call, but people can now text 911 in Douglas County
People in Douglas County now have the ability to text 911 in situations where they are unable to safely call, the sheriff’s office announced Friday. The Kansas 911 Coordinating Council began rolling out a Text-to-911 service in recent years. Tony Foster, director of the Douglas County Emergency Communications Center, said in a news release that because the county has a large college student population, it might have a higher utilization of the service. “The Douglas County Emergency Communications Center recognizes this is an important service to offer in our community for those in need of help, but we also want to emphasize calling 911 should be the first resort,” Foster said. “If someone can’t safely call 911 in an emergency, they do have the ability to text us, and we hope this can help more people experiencing dangerous circumstances.”
Source: The Lawrence Times
Fire board has questions for newly created position
Former Johnson County Fire District 2 Fire Chief Jim Francis was introduced at the Fire District April 12 board meeting as the new county fire service administrator. Francis said his new role was part of the county’s new restructuring of departments. “I am happy to be here and look forward to working with you in the future,” he said. Francis was a fire chief for 25 years and retired from District 2 after 35 years but said there was still work to be done for District 2. Francis said his new county role is to facilitate collaboration and enhance conversations. On October 21, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners authorized two separate agreements splitting and transferring Fire District 2 services to the City of Overland Park and Johnson County Fire District 1. The transition began on November 28.
Source: Gardner News
Marion County’s new EMS building is ready for business
EMS Director Travis Parmley informed the Marion County Board of Commissioners on Monday that the new building, located in Hillsboro, is completed, and they should be all moved in by the end of the day. Those on duty were able to sleep there that night. There is still landscaping to be done and some other small projects, but overall, the building is ready. The project has been in progress for months and the board and Parmley expressed appreciation that the building was complete. On other building news, Parmley and the board discussed the Annex remodel and various bids for work that is needed. Parmley explained that two main problems are lighting and paint. He also reported that the building needs carpet replaced, electrical work, some windows replaced and more.
Source: Hillsboro Free Press
Shawnee City Council will vote on prohibiting coliving housing
After neighborhood and city official resistance to two coliving homes in Shawnee, a revised ordinance will go before the City Council on Monday to approve new definitions in single-family residential districts. Last month, the Shawnee Planning Commission proposed that city staff could require unrelated tenants to be subject to one lease per household or to restrict subleases within single-family homes. Rather than discourage transiency by imposing a lease requirement, the staff suggested redefining a “single housekeeping unit” as no more than three unrelated tenants who share a kitchen, household activities or responsibilities, according to city documents.
Source: Kansas City Business Journal
Kansas law enforcement routinely produces error-filled reports on seized cash, property
A push three years ago for more accountability from Kansas law enforcement agencies that seize cash, cars and contraband — often without filing criminal charges against the owner — has generated a wealth of new information. On examination, however, the numbers often don’t add up. A review of nearly 2,000 reports filed so far found widespread inconsistencies in the way seizures are reported. More than half of the law enforcement agencies have failed to report some of their seizures as required and have done so with the blessing of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which is charged with gathering and posting the information on a publicly accessible website.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Manhattan to discuss replacing finance, administrative system
The Manhattan City Commission on Tuesday will discuss potentially replacing the government’s finance and administrative hardware and software. The work session starts at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. Since September, city administrators have been working with Government Finance Officers Association, a nonprofit membership association, to analyze the state of city’s financial system and its related business processes. The city has used its current system for more than 24 years, and Central Square, the company that produced the system, is phasing out support. According to agenda documents, the current system is outdated and lack the functionality and interconnectivity found in modern systems.
Source: themercury.com
Municipal Bond Trends for April 21, 2022
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman and Beth Warren.
Cowley County commits to better worker pay
Cowley County commissioners approved a new pay plan for county employees Tuesday night in front a packed meeting hall full of county employees. The pay plan was developed after a months-long process that involved a team led by county administrator Lukas Goff, county department heads and a study conducted by McGrath Human Resources Group. That study found 69 percent of the county’s pay scale was below average market pay rates, leading to a very high turnover in employees in every department over the past several years. The county’s goal now is to reach 50% of workers within the average market rate.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler
Big Kansas Road Trip offers ‘adventures a la carte’
Bourbon, Cherokee and Crawford in southeast Kansas will be the showcase counties for the Big Kansas Road Trip, May 5-8. Organized by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Kansas Sampler Foundation and local county leaders, the event is designed to provide the public first-hand experiences with what there is to see, do, hear, taste, buy, and learn in these rural communities. People will choose what they want to do and when. There is no organized caravan or a single itinerary. A Big Kansas Road Trip color guide will be available at information centers in the three counties or people can go online to find it. The bigkansasroadtrip.com website also provides a list of attractions, events, scenic drives and locally-owned restaurants and shops to enjoy during the four days.
Source: Morning Sun