Kansas Municipal News
Federal probe into Kansas City, Kansas, Police is looking at officer misconduct, decades of homicides
A federal grand jury has demanded that the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department hand over records covering two decades of homicide cases, internal affairs reports and informant files as part of what appears to be a wide-ranging investigation. The nine subpoenas obtained by KCUR through a Kansas Open Records request reveal a search for information on homicide cases that cover the years Roger Golubski worked as a KCKPD detective, through 2010, the year he retired from the department. KCKPD and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas confirmed in October that since 2019 they were cooperating with a federal grand jury looking into allegations against Golubski.
Source: KCUR News
Lawrence considers closing schools amid funding cuts, enrollment decline
Lawrence Public Schools is considering closing schools to keep up with funding cuts due in part to declining enrollment. District leaders say four scenarios are on the table for the Board of Education to deal with this. All involve closing schools and/or shuffling students to other schools in the district. “I want to reiterate again, these are only scenarios, starting points,” said Dr. Larry Englebrick, the district’s interim chief operations officer. “No decisions have been made; no recommendations have been made.” Englebrick made the comments at a Boundary Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday.
Source: KSN-TV
Kansas abandons efforts to trace contacts for COVID-19 infections
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced Tuesday it would stop contact tracing for COVID-19 at the end of the month because of a lack of cooperation and a surge in new cases. Janet Stanek, the agency’s acting secretary, also told lawmakers during a Senate panel meeting that the agency no longer requires schools to track the source of infections. The agency will stop contact tracing Feb. 1 and instead ask individuals who test positive to let their close contacts know about potential exposure to the deadly disease.
Source: The Lawrence Times
Sedgwick County Reaches Record Number of COVID-19 Hospitalizations
New data released by Sedgwick County on Monday, Jan. 17th, shows 277 patients are currently hospitalized with the virus. Of that amount, 80 are patients with COVID-19 in the Intensive Care Unit. The number of hospitalized patients marks a new record since the pandemic began. In addition, the latest data shows a rolling 14-day average positive test rate of 22.1%–another record high, surpassing the previous percentage from November 2020.
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI
“Axe the Food Tax” Bill Formally Introduced on Friday
Kansas House Democrats and Republicans formally introduced the #AxeTheFoodTax bill on Friday, Jan. 14th. The bill cuts the state sales tax on food purchased at Kansas grocery stores and farmers’ markets from 6.5% to 0%. It’s estimated that this would save the average Kansas family roughly $500 per year. Governor Kelly said that if passed, the new tax law could go into effect as soon as July 1, 2022.
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI
Record COVID surge closes some schools, invokes mask mandate at others
An unprecedented surge in new COVID-19 cases has canceled classes at Peabody and Goessel and added Marion and Peabody schools to nine others identified as COVID “clusters” statewide. Local school and health officials did not announce the surge to media. It was discovered via routine checking of state data and social media feeds for parents and students. According to state data, the county recorded a record 34 new cases Tuesday — 9 more than the previous single-day record, set the Monday after Thanksgiving this year.
Source: HILLSBORO Star-Journal
Billions are at stake in how the government defines a place as rural
A town of 1,000 people feels like a rural place to someone from Chicago. To a person living in a town of 200 people, that population of 1,000 feels almost urban. But what the government defines as rural determines tens of billions of dollars a year in spending aimed at propping up America’s small or remote places. Houston, Missouri, a town of 2,500 tucked into the hills of the Ozarks near the Arkansas border, takes pride as the hometown of famous clown Emmett Kelly. It holds an annual festival named in his memory. The residents pride themselves on a small-town, rural lifestyle with easy access to wide-open, outdoor spaces. But for some federal grants, Houston is not rural.
Source: KCUR News
COVID Relief funds used for new internet antenna in Pittsburg
The City of Pittsburg will soon be expanding internet access for local students. City commissioners approved the varience of a new antenna for the DragonNet system. The program went into operation last year in January to provide internet for students in Pittsburg community schools. The new antenna will be located at the USD 250 School Board office, and will be one of three new sites throughout Pittsburg to help areas with limited coverage after the initial rollout. “Almost all of the work that students are doing requires some level of internet access these days. It puts them on an equal footing. It’s really an equality thing, we want to make sure that no students are negatively impacted by the fact that they have difficulty getting broadband internet,” said Jay Byers, Pittsburg Deputy City Manager.
Source: KSNF/KODE
Louisburg extends FLIP program through 2022
The Louisburg City Council at its Dec. 6 meeting approved continuing the Faces of Louisburg Improvement Program (FLIP) for commercial and residential properties through 2022. Business owners and residents can apply to the city when making improvements to the front of their businesses or homes. The council doubled the amount of money that can be reimbursed for a residential project, from $500 to $1,000. A staff report noted almost half of the residential projects made improvements of more than $2,000, with six of those projects making upgrades of more than $3,000 in the past two years.
Source: Local News | republic-online.com
Lenexa will prioritize certain homes for popular exterior grant program reimbursing improvements
The city of Lenexa is revising its increasingly popular exterior grant program to prioritize home projects most in need of improvements. After expanding the city’s exterior grant program from a few select neighborhoods to citywide, Lenexa is now revising the program in order to reduce the number of eligible applicants and focus program funding on older homes and those with lower appraised values in order to make the biggest impacts on neighborhoods. In 2021, the city funded 11 of the 356 exterior grant applications it received, according to a city memo. In turn, the program generated more than $100,000 in investment in single-family homes.
Source: Prairie Village Post
‘Take action’: Mayors urge Johnson County to mandate masks during record COVID surge
Several Johnson County mayors want rules that require face masks in public spaces extended to the entire county after municipal leaders approved similar mandates in four cities this week. The new rules come as COVID-19 cases soar to record highs on the back of the highly contagious omicron variant, which is pushing already strained area hospitals and even morgues to the brink. This week the city councils of Roeland Park, Mission, Prairie Village and Fairway each voted to implement a requirement that anyone visiting public spaces wear face masks or pay a $25 fine. Those rules take effect Jan. 18 and extend through mid-February.
Source: Joco 913 News
The story behind the renaissance of Humboldt, Kansas
It might not be growing in population, but Humboldt, Kansas is one town that has defied the odds in other ways. Drive around town and there is a coffee shop, a frame shop, a working 19th century cabinet shop that makes high-end furniture, a shaved ice shop, a candy shop and four restaurants. As 2020 dawned, a family restaurant with a microbrewery and a new grocery store were in the offing, along with more building and construction, more businesses coming to town. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a force that’s been devastating to small businesses across the country. City offices and retail shops closed. Restaurants adapted to delivery and carryout orders. A cruise night – where town residents piled into cars and cruised streets – boosted morale. Yet the good times in Humboldt have seemingly continued to roll. In January, the community was named one of “52 Places” to visit in 2022 by travel desk of The New York Times, alongside such destinations as Monaco, Greenland, and Marrakesh, Morocco. Back in the summer of 2020, when The Journal first published this extensive profile of the community, the future wasn’t so clear because the pandemic was clouding the future for lots of small businesses everywhere.
Source: KLC Journal
Slow return to normal: Employees still needed in Salina, despite drop in unemployment
In Salina, businesses and employers across several industries are looking for workers and many are offering incentives to new hires. The November 2021 labor force and unemployment report, which is the latest available from the Kansas Department of Labor, showed Saline County with an unemployment rate of 2.5%. This rate is a significant drop from the highest during the pandemic, April 2020, which saw the county’s unemployment rate reach 10.7%. For comparison, the report from November 2019 showed a 2.7% unemployment rate. Salina and the north-central Kansas region are doing well with employment compared to other places in the state … Despite this noticeable drop in unemployment rates, employees are still needed throughout the community.
Source: Salina Journal
Kansas schools close amid COVID surge and staffing crisis; educators hope for time to get healthy
The coronavirus pandemic continues to surge in Kansas, forcing more than a dozen schools to cancel classes as state regulators loosened education requirements to become a substitute teacher. With Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, educators expressed hope the closures combined with the three-day holiday weekend will stem the wave of sickness from COVID-19, influenza and other illnesses. At least one district is moving to remote learning, and another has said it may also. The school disruptions come as the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports rising case rates and 26 active school clusters. Hospital leaders say they are overwhelmed with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients amid a staffing emergency.
Source: CJonline
Traffic, housing, sports: Six projects that will change life in Johnson County in 2022
Tina Tribble is surprised when she runs into other Overland Park residents who still do not know about U.S. 69. Starting this year, the highway will undergo a $400 million expansion with two new electronic toll lanes. … It’s one of a half-dozen major developments set to change daily life in every corner of Johnson County. Also in the works are mixed-use projects, hundreds of apartments and new sports facilities. For some, it means a booming local economy — an injection of millions of dollars and new jobs. For others, a fear that their communities are changing too fast in an uncertain time.
Source: KC Star
A year after a historic cold front slammed the state, how prepared is Kansas for another deep freeze?
Residents are unlikely to forget February 2021 anytime soon. If the blistering cold temperatures that slammed Kansas weren’t memorable enough, rolling blackouts were instituted twice in a 48-hour span in a bid to conserve energy use. A series of factors pushed natural gas prices through the roof, leaving utilities, municipalities and businesses with bills they are, in some cases, still trying to pay off — with residents picking up the tab for years. All this has legislators interested in ensuring the state is prepared if a similar event hits Kansas this winter — or in years to come.
Source: Hutch News
Reno County’s labor force is changing
Reno County’s demographics are changing. According to Jeremy Hill, the director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University, Reno County’s population will continue to decline. As for the people in their 60s and higher, this demographic should not start to decline until around 2030. “So it’s an expanding aging market for the next eight years,” Hill said. “Then it’s going to level off and then start shrinking.” Because the working-age population has migrated out of the area a little bit, Hill said, there are fewer younger kids. So the 18 and under demographic is shrinking. And the working-age population, which the county is dependent on right now, is also shrinking, he noted.
Source: Hutch News
Municipal Bond Trends for January 14, 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.
Former Belvue City employee sentenced for embezzling thousands in public funds
A former City of Belvue treasurer arrested in June 2021 has been sent to jail for taking thousands of dollars in public funds over several years. … Judge Elder said in court Thursday he was imposing the 60 day jail sentence to send a message that if you steal from a city municipality you won’t just get a slap on the wrist. A criminal complaint filed last June alleged the amount of public funds unlawfully converted actually may have topped $100,000.
Source: 1350 KMAN
Municipal Bond Trends for January 13, 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.