Kansas Municipal News
Overland Park considers using federal pandemic relief funds for environmental projects, like bike trails and tree planting
Environmental projects like tree planting, bike and sidewalk infrastructure may become a part of spending on an upcoming batch of federal COVID-19 relief money coming to Overland Park. Members of the City Council’s Community Development Committee said Wednesday they’d be open to an idea of putting some of an upcoming $9 million disbursement of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act into such projects, as long as they meet the federal government’s rules for how the money is spent. The money is half of another $18 million of federal relief money headed Overland Park’s way from the U.S. Treasury.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Mayors urge Johnson County Commission to take action as Omicron spreads
Ahead of Thursday’s regular Board of County Commissioners meeting, a group of nine Johnson County mayors is urging commissioners to take countywide action to help tamp spread of the Omicron variant. In a letter addressed to the commission Wednesday, the mayors say that though cities have taken their own steps to try to mitigate spread, “additional prompt action is needed by the [county] to assist our cities in weathering this latest and strongest COVID surge.”
Source: Prairie Village Post
Erie library participating in seed program
The Erie City Public Library is part of a growing movement of seed libraries and has shelves stocked full of seed as well as books to help gardeners with tips. “A seed library is a place where community members can get seeds for free and is run for the public benefit,” said Julie Coover Kent, library director. “Helping people to start gardens for their families is the goal of our library.” The idea is for people to take a packet of seed and leave a packet of seed or bring one in later to help perpetuate the seed library into the future. You may have a packet of bush bean seeds and want a packet of green pepper seeds so you can switch them out.
Source: Parsons Sun
Single and looking to rent? The top city for an apartment is in Kansas, study says
Wichita is the most affordable U.S. city for a single person to rent an apartment, an analysis of 1.2 million studio apartment listings has concluded. The RentHop Singles Index ranks cities based on the median cost of a studio apartment relative to the average salary of single people who live there. Researchers for the apartment rental service determined that single Wichitans spend less of their annual income on rent than their counterparts in any of the nation’s 50 largest cities.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Pickleball growing big following in Iola
Pickleball, a relatively new sport, is gaining followers across the country and in Iola. Lyle Kern is the pioneer of the game in the area and the game is gaining a robust following in Iola and LaHarpe. Pickleball is growing in popularity across America, and here in Iola. A mix of different sports, pickleball has a dedicated following in Iola. So what exactly is Pickleball? Lyle Kern, one of the more seasoned pickleball players in the area, tells it best. “I tell people it’s like if you could stand on a ping-pong table and play ping-pong,” Kern said. “You have a paddle made of wood and a ball that’s more like a wiffleball instead of a tennis ball. It doesn’t bounce nearly as high. You can get four pickleball courts in one tennis court. Some of the rules like how to serve and volley are similar to tennis.”
Source: The Iola Register
Plan for faster COVID-19 testing being worked on in Sedgwick County
The surge in COVID-19 cases leads to a rise in testing. First, there is an issue of people getting an appointment. Many testing slots are booked in just an hour after opening, and if you make it to a testing site, some people are waiting in line for hours. Commissioners are looking to open an emergency testing site.
Source: KSN-TV
Kelly issues executive order to ease hospital burden
Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday declared a new short-term emergency, signing executive orders aimed at relieving hospitals and nursing homes struggling with staffing shortages as COVID-19 rages again with the spread of a new variant. Kelly declared a 15-day emergency, clearing the way for executive orders that will give hospitals and nursing homes more flexibility to use staffers to treat and test Kansans who are coming down with COVID-19 in increasing numbers. “Our hospitals have sounded the alarm of the impact this surge is having on the facilities, their staff and their patients,” Kelly said. “We needed to do this and we needed to do this as soon as we possibly could to alleviate the shortage,” she said.
Source: Sunflower State Journal
City of Pittsburg businesses prosper, lead to housing and future job market
Over the past year one southeast Kansas community has been seeing its hard work pay off — improving its quality of life and laying the groundwork for the years ahead. “It’s going to be business as usual,” said Daron Hall, Pittsburg City Manager. The usual for Pittsburg is pretty impressive. The city has seen some big advancements over the past year. Many local businesses say its seen some of their best sales in 2021. “We’ve been very fortunate, our sales tax is up 11.5%, which is unprecedented, but it’s constantly a struggle to keep amenities and things that draw people to your community, and so when you see the sales taxes up that high, it means that people are in town, they are shopping,” said Hall.
Source: KSNF/KODE
A Kansas small town crime is creating big problems
A vandalism incident is creating a lot of headaches for people living in and around Reading, Kansas. That’s not because of the damage that needs cleaned up, but because of the long term implications that could come from it. Reading’s downtown consists of a café, a Church, a bank, the Fire Department, and the Post Office. … On Monday, someone vandalized the lobby area of the Post Office, where individual mail boxes, posters, and package boxes are located. … Basic vandalism, with a big impact for people trying to send or receive mail.
Source: KSNT News
Topeka Metro reducing services due to COVID-19 related staff shortages
The Topeka Metro is hosting a series of public meetings in January to educate residents about proposed system-wide reductions in the metro system due to workforce shortages. The meetings will be held on Jan. 12, 13 and 18 according to a press release from Director of Marketing and Communications Keri Renner with the Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority. “Over the last several years it has become increasingly more difficult to recruit and maintain bus operators,” Renner said. “This has been the experience both regionally and nationally.”
Source: KSNT News
Hawkish Fed signals it may have to raise rates sooner to fight inflation
A “very tight” job market and unabated inflation might require the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner than expected and begin reducing its overall asset holdings as a second brake on the economy, U.S. central bank policymakers said in their meeting last month. In a document released on Wednesday that markets took as decidedly hawkish, the minutes from the Dec. 14-15 policy meeting showed Fed officials uniformly concerned about the pace of price increases that promised to persist, alongside global supply bottlenecks “well into” 2022. … The language showed the depth of the consensus that has emerged at the Fed in recent weeks over the need to move against high inflation – not just by raising borrowing costs but by acting with a second lever and reducing the central bank’s holdings of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. The probability that the Fed would lift interest rates in March for the first time since the pandemic’s onset rose to greater than 70%, as tracked by CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Source: Reuters
Support expressed for looking locally for firm to help Topeka find city manager
Though out-of-state firms helped Topeka’s city government find its last three permanent city managers, the mayor and council members voiced support Tuesday for looking locally this time for a company to help conduct that search. “I really don’t feel we need a national search firm,” said Councilman Neil Dobler. Mayor Mike Padilla and most other members of the nine-person council joined Dobler in voicing support for hiring a search firm that’s local, or at least regional, to help find a replacement for former city manager Brent Trout.
Source: CJonline
Municipal Bond Trends for January 5, 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.
Sedgwick County in worst COVID crisis since pandemic began, health officer Minns says
Sedgwick County and Kansas are in the worst shape they’ve been since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, with hospitals being overwhelmed, vaccination rates stagnating, and residents and businesses almost universally ignoring recommendations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and its variants, the county’s health officer said Wednesday. “I want you to know we are at the point we had all hoped would never occur,” Dr. Garold Minns told county commissioners on Wednesday morning. “Ever since this pandemic started we were hoping to avoid this situation, but we are at a crisis. “We had all hoped by two years this thing would be over. It’s not over. It’s just beginning.”
Source: Wichita Eagle
City approves ordinance regarding mail, elections
The Gardner City Council adopted an ordinance regulating mailed ballot solicitations during a 15 minute meeting Dec. 20. Sec. 7.5. Distribution of Unattributed Applications for Advance Voting Ballots regulates font size on mail labels, addressing and how much of an advance voting application may be completed prior to mailing. Those found to be in violation of the ordinance are found guilty of a class C nonperson violation. … Questions regarding how Gardner officials would inspect mail, regulate label font size, organization’s executive officer or return addresses were not clear.
Source: Gardner News
Douglas County implements emergency mask mandate, effective Friday
Douglas County officials have implemented an emergency mask mandate to curb the spread of COVID-19 as numbers have reached record highs in the past week. Dr. Thomas Marcellino, the Douglas County health officer, and Douglas County Commission Chair Shannon Portillo announced the order Wednesday, to go into effect Friday, Jan. 7. It will require all people ages 2 and up to wear masks inside any public spaces in the county…. The county commission will discuss extending the order during a meeting Jan. 12.
Source: The Lawrence Times
‘Who gets care and who does not’: KS hospital officials ask for emergency declaration
Wesley and Ascension Via Christi hospital executives are calling for a statewide emergency declaration that would allow hospitals to house more than their licensed number of patients, as surging COVID-19 cases perpetuate dire conditions in Wichita’s overcrowded ERs. Dr. Kimberly Megow, chief regional medical officer of Wesley’s parent company, HCA, spoke about the life and death treatment decisions being made during a video conference with hospital officials from across Kansas on Wednesday morning. “We continue to run well over 100% capacity in all of our ERs. Some of them are 200 or 300% capacity,” Megow said, referring to a metric based on the number of staffed ER and overflow beds available.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Will Kansas eliminate sales tax on all food, or limit relief to healthy food only?
As Gov. Laura Kelly campaigns to eliminate Kansas’ sales taxes on food, a movement is brewing to limit the tax relief to healthy foods only. The idea of limited food tax relief surfaced during a public forum of the South Central Kansas legislative delegation Tuesday night. It was suggested by Jane Byrnes, a health and fitness advocate who serves on Wichita’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board. “If you remove the tax from healthful foods for Kansans, you’d be educating Kansans,” Byrnes said. “Most folks don’t know the difference between evidence-based healthful foods and the extras, the heavily marketed snacks and sugary drinks that do not support health.”
Source: Wichita Eagle
A fighter for low interest rates, Minneapolis Fed chair says U.S. needs two rate increases in 2022
Even Neel Kashkari thinks it’s time to raise interest rates. Since he became president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in 2016, Kashkari has consistently opposed rate increases and became known for holding the most dovish views of the central bank’s policymakers. But amid some of the highest inflation in decades, Kashkari on Tuesday said he supports raising rates this year — but twice, not the three times the Fed signaled on Dec. 15.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Fire departments win 27th annual Wichita/Sedgwick County Battle of the Badges
Wichita and Sedgwick County firefighters won the 27th annual Battle of the Badges. It’s the third straight year the fire departments have lifted the trophy, beating out law enforcement and EMS in the competition. With first responders’ efforts and donors’ generosity, the Red Cross of South Central and Southeast Kansas collected more than 1,400 donations from Dec. 13 through Jan. 2, 120% of its goal for the blood drive. “Every 2 seconds someone in the United States needs blood. That’s a staggering statistic that impacts our lives every single day,” said Wichita Fire Capt. Chris Fleming, who is also a member of the Battle of the Badges committee. “Without the work of the Red Cross and volunteer donors across Kansas, blood would not be available when it is needed most.”
Source: KSN-TV