Kansas Municipal News
Municipal Bond Trends for June 26, 2024
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.
Municipal Bond Trends for June 25, 2024
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.
Bringing together families and nature is at the center of Andover’s recreational park revamp
Andover is expecting to see a large influx of population in the near future. Taking this into consideration, the city proposed a 1% sales tax increase to fund projects that will support the incoming population. One of those projects included the revitalization of the Andover 13th Street Sports Park. The park is heavily utilized each year by hundreds of youth baseball players, but often fell short in the ability to host the number of games needed. Other problems like drainage issues were common throughout the park, and the parking lot and spectator seating were in desperate need of expansion. All of those problems and many more are being addressed during the revamp that began May 2023.
Source: Andover American
Newton reviews land bank policies
The land bank also considered policies to standardize practices. The policies included goals, like transferring ownership of unclaimed blighted properties to a taxpayer, reducing properties under violation, supporting homeownership and expanding the tax base. The land bank said they would like to look at changing the goals to include nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity. Daniela Rivas, city manager, said that generally land banks were used for putting land back on the tax roll, but nonprofits could be included.
Source: Harvey County Now
Zoning changes could help Newton childcare shortage
With current childcare regulations, a person wanting to run a facility from their house must get permission from the city in many areas. … The commissioners said they would like to look into changing the zoning requirements in the future so childcare facilities can open in the heart of the city without opening the property up to other businesses if the current owner were to move.
Source: Harvey County Now
Fed Governor Bowman says she’s still open to raising rates if inflation doesn’t improve
Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said Tuesday the time is not right yet to start lowering interest rates, adding she would be open to raising if inflation doesn’t pull back. “Should the incoming data indicate that inflation is moving sustainably toward our 2 percent goal, it will eventually become appropriate to gradually lower the federal funds rate to prevent monetary policy from becoming overly restrictive,” Bowman said in prepared remarks for a speech in London. “However, we are still not yet at the point where it is appropriate to lower the policy rate.” Those comments reflect a prevailing sentiment at the central bank, in which most policymakers have said in recent weeks that, while they still expect inflation to get back to the Fed’s 2% target, they need more evidence. Recent readings have shown moderating inflation, with the Fed’s preferred indicator running just under 3%. However, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee noted after its last meeting that there has been only “modest further progress.”
Source: Economy
Cowley County’s first temporary homeless shelter welcomed its first guest last week
An emergency shelter is now open in Cowley County, and it has already housed its first temporary residents. The shelter has been in the works for years but now has the opportunity to change lives. In Cowley County, resources for housing are slim. The Cowley House of Hope shelter is meant to fill those gaps. The shelter’s been in the works since 2017 when thousands of dollars had to be raised to make it a reality. The shelter is built similarly to a duplex. It sleeps five people and has two rooms with several beds in each. Each room also has a small kitchen and bathroom. Winfield, the seat of Cowley County, doesn’t have enough resources to put into homeless infrastructure. So, the city and county turned to nonprofits to fill in the gaps. “A lot of shelters have staff, or they have more steady resources than what we do. We’re dependent mainly and mostly, entirely on donations, private donations,” said Bradley Gamber, the director of the Cowley House of Hope. Due to the lack of funding, the shelter is still small, but officials with Winfield said that at any given point in Cowley County, there are between 14 and 30 people struggling with housing.
Source: KLC Journal
‘It’s helped a lot’: Evergreen Recycle passed its fire inspection just weeks before massive blaze
Fire crews have been fighting a blaze at Evergreen Recycle in Park City for more than two days. During a similar fire in 2022, investigators said part of the challenge was that the owner wasn’t following fire code with the wood piles, and it took nine days to put out. “It’s a challenge. I don’t know that it’s a strain. We’ve got maybe 40% of our resources out here right now,” said Sedgwick County Fire Marshal Brad Crisp. “In 2022 when we were here, we put about 1,500,000 gallons of water on it.” In October of 2022, crews rushed to a similar fire at Evergreen to discover that owner Jeff Ralls wasn’t following fire code, which they say made it even more difficult to control. For example, Crisp says the piles of wood can’t legally be higher than 25 feet, but investigators said they were between 35 and 60 feet high in 2022. Crisp says another violation was the narrow roadways between the piles, which are supposed to be a minimum of 40 feet wide so firefighters have plenty of room to maneuver. Crews ended up battling the fire around the clock for nine days straight. But Crisp says this time, it’s a different story. “The property owners did a lot of work since that last fire to keep the piles smaller, lower, and more spread out,” said Crisp. Crisp says Ralls is now in full compliance.
Source: KAKE – News
New retail stores could boost Pittsburg’s economy
The city of Pittsburg approved a tax incentive for a new retail development featuring three major stores. The plan includes adding Ulta, Rack Room, and Five Below to the city’s shopping options, aiming to retain local shoppers and provide more variety. The agreement with a group representing the Pittsburg Town Center Shopping Complex redistributes the 1.5% local sales tax collected by three new retailers. 2/3 of it will go to the city. The other 1/3 will go to the developer to recoup construction costs, with a cap of $600,000 or 20 years of collections, whichever comes first. Officials expressed interest in the project after witnessing the success of Marshall’s, which was added to Pittsburg’s retail landscape in November 2022. “We’ve recently added Marshall’s, which has been extremely successful,” said Kim Froman, Director of Community Development and Housing. “We’ve seen a 23% increase in that shopping area since the addition of Marshall’s. So we’re really excited for that.” Froman believes that bringing in Ulta, Rack Room, and Five Below will enhance the local shopping experience and keep residents from traveling to nearby cities for their retail needs.
Source: KOAM News
Shawnee Mission task force looks to clarify district’s approach to accepting, allocating donations
Troubled by what they see as a perceived pattern that favors wealthier neighborhoods, some Shawnee Mission school board members have begun to discuss how the district should handle private donations, bequests and gifts. A three-member task force of board members Jessica Hembree, Jamie Borgman and David Westbrook met for the first time on the topic last week. Their aim is to better understand the existing policies on donations and find a way to clarify the district’s position on how that money should be spent. Almost every Shawnee Mission school board meeting includes at least one vote on whether to accept private donations and bequests. Often those votes are part of a consent agenda lumped in with various other non-controversial items. But some board members have been uncomfortable with the limited descriptions and discussion of those donations and have asked for a fuller explanation of the mechanics and rules.
Source: Johnson County Post
AGCO announces layoffs, citing ‘weakened demand’
AGCO has announced that around 6% of its workforce will be laid off due to “weakened demand in the agriculture industry.” It is not known exactly how many employees will be affected at their Hesston production facility, or the timing as to when the layoffs will take effect. In a statement, the company says the layoffs are not related to a shift in production to Mexico that was announced earlier this month. AGCO says that the Hesston facility will continue to manufacture Massey Ferguson windrowers, large square balers, combines and combine headers. The company has invested more than $28 million into the facility since 2021. Those investments have been focused on updating and modernizing systems and equipment. “By streamlining the Hesston portfolio, our goal is to secure a profitable future for the plant,” the company added.
Source: KAKE – News
Pittsburg approves purchase of garbage trucks for public trash service
The city of Pittsburg approved the purchase of two garbage trucks for a total of $489,996 to help operate a public trash service. They also approved the purchase of 500 96-gallon poly carts, 50 2-yard dumpsters, and 50 4-yard dumpsters for a total of $97,108. The city is investing in a publicly operated trash service in the wake of issues residents have been having with CARDS Recycling and Waste Management. Officials say the public service will be another option for residents. KOAM will continue following the progress and updates for residents concerning the City’s planned trash service.
Source: KOAM News
Fire departments speak out against proposed OSHA regulations
First responders like firefighters are known to be in dangerous jobs. But OSHA, the federal agency that set and enforces standards for workplace conditions is hoping to help make those work environments as safe as possible. According to OSHA, the “existing safety and health standards do not adequately protect the emergency response workforce from these hazards.” The federal agency has proposed a set of new regulations that would replace the current fire brigade standard implemented in 1980. “From what I can gather from OSHA is they’re wanting to combine a whole bunch of, like, 22 guidelines into one mandate. Mandate is a little scary,” says Kevin Theilen, Deputy Fire Chief of the Duenweg Fire Department. Fire departments and associations across the country are now speaking out against the proposed standards, including the National Volunteer Fire Council and the Firefighter Association of Missouri. “No one is discounting that there could be room for improved firefighter safety, and the National Fire Protection Association plus other standards are a valuable guide in getting there but not as a club which could and “WILL IN SOME CASES” cripple some departments and potentially close others in low populated areas due to extraordinary budget limitations,” wrote the Firefighter Association of Missouri in a response to the OSHA proposal.
Source: KOAM News
AGCO downsizing due to weakening demand in agriculture industry
AGCO states they are reducing their salaried workforce by about 6% due to weakening demand in the agriculture industry. The company is not saying what locations are being affected. AGCO is estimating that they will spend $150 million to $200 million, which includes severance payments and employee benefits. They expect that amount to be spent this year and in the first half of 2025. The company said the decision to reduce its workforce is not related to the shift in production to Mexico, which was announced earlier in June. “Hesston will continue to manufacture Massey Ferguson windrowers, large square balers, combines and combine headers using the more than $28 million in investments made in the Kansas facility since 2021,” said AGCO in a statement to KSN. “Those investments have focused on updating and modernizing Hesston’s systems and equipment. By streamlining the Hesston portfolio, our goal is to secure a profitable future for the plant.”
Source: KSN-TV
A Mammoth mitigation plan
Killing two birds with one stone. This was the idea behind Mammoth Sports Construction’s presentation at Monday evening’s joint meeting of the Iola City Council and school board. Riverside Park poses flooding issues for the city and USD 257 has a need for ballfields that can still be utilized following heavy rains. The solution? Synthetic turf fields, bigger holding ponds and larger pumps to mitigate and redirect flood waters, according to Mammoth. The scope of the $3.733 million project includes an artificial turf softball, baseball, and football field that will help store flood waters during a major storm event. The fields would operate as water detention areas from which water would be redirected north of the football field and west to a detention pond in a picnic area. From these locations, the water would then be pumped beyond the park’s levee to the north and west. The fields would include layers of sand and rock, with trenches. In times of heavy rains, the runoff would be stored in a perimeter drain that reroutes the water to a holding pond.
Source: The Iola Register
SE Kansas under drought watch, Galena enacts emergency measures
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly put all of Southeast Kansas under a “drought watch” on Monday. A water drought emergency ordinance continues in Galena. It came from the state through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and required the city to establish three stages of water conservation measures in case of an emergency. The city uses wells and is working on getting another one up and running. “I hope everybody, myself included, is conscious of their water usage – because I think we take a lot of things for granted – and at any time, something could turn on the dime,” said Ashley Qualls Groves, Galena Mayor. The city uses Missouri American Water as its backup source in the case of an emergency.
Source: KSNF/KODE
Sedgwick County regulators hold up giant solar farm on Wichita’s outskirts amid objections from neighbors
Sedgwick County appeared poised to follow its ban on wind farms with widely vetted regulations that would allow acre after acre of solar panels pumping renewable energy into the electrical grid. Instead, the county still has a moratorium on the construction of large-scale solar farms. “Boils down to a simple phrase: not in my backyard,” said Walt Chappell, a solar power booster and longtime critic of local government. The stall leaves the industry frustrated and some environmentalists upset that objections from neighbors who’d be near a proposed Chisholm Trail utility-scale solar project west of Maize may have blocked the project. Sedgwick County needed regulations for the relatively new form of industrial development — and it got high marks from the industry and federal agencies for what the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission drafted. But after the county was confronted with a specific solar farm proposed for the northwest suburbs of Wichita, local officials balked in March and extended the county’s moratorium for six months.
Source: KSN-TV
New expressway officially opens in SE Kansas
The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has officially opened the newly constructed U.S. 166/400 four-lane expressway, improving travel from Baxter Springs to the Kansas-Missouri border. This long-anticipated development is set to streamline traffic and enhance connectivity in the region. Currently, eastbound traffic on the new lanes is limited to a single lane until the final placement of pavement markings is completed. Motorists are advised to follow the signs and exercise caution as work continues. As construction activities are still ongoing in the project area, KDOT urges drivers to stay vigilant, obey traffic signs, and adhere to reduced speed limits to ensure safety for all.
Source: KSNF/KODE
Riley County firefighters host ‘forced entry’ training
Firefighters in Riley County came together to host a ‘forceful entry’ training session Tuesday evening. The firefighters were given a vacant home to use during the training. Workers filled the home with fake smoke to simulate an actual house fire, which firefighters forcefully entered to put out the source. Riley County Emergency Management Director and Fire Chief Russel Stukey told 27 News the two most important things firefighters need to remember when forcefully entering a burning building are safety and following procedure. “Do the least amount of damage as possible, but enough to get the job done, to get us in the building safely and have a safe way to get out,” Stukey said. “And then also to perform ventilation operations which is to get the heat and smoke out of the structure.” ‘Forceful entry’ training is just one of several training sessions firefighters in Riley County attend each month.
Source: KSNT 27 News
Per Federal compliance requirements, local law enforcement communication channels to become encrypted effective July 8
With identity theft and cybercrime becoming a more pressing concern almost daily, local law enforcement will be making major changes to radio traffic to help safeguard personal information. According to Lyon County Emergency Communications Center Director Roxanne Van Gundy, effective July 8 all radio transmissions for local law enforcement — Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, Emporia Police and Emporia State University Police and Safety — will become encrypted. Van Gundy says a significant amount of personal data is communicated over the airwaves when it comes to emergencies. She says many have access to these law enforcement channels whether through police scanners or apps and while the majority are likely just trying to stay informed, there are those with more sinister intentions. While speaking with KVOE News Tuesday, Van Gundy stressed this is not a local decision but rather a Federal compliance mandate that has been in place for several years. However; the Kansas Highway Patrol has recently moved to enforce this compliance across all digital radio users.
Source: KVOE Emporia Radio