Kansas Municipal News
Kansas to participate in program to expand free, reduced-price school meals
Governor Laura Kelly recently announced that Kansas has been selected as one of eight states to participate in a demonstration project utilizing Medicaid eligibility data to certify eligible students for free and reduced-price school meals. “This project will expand free, reduced-priced meals for some of our most vulnerable students,” Gov. Kelly said. “Our kids need reliable access to healthy foods to learn and grow, and this is great news for our state, students and families.” The Kansas State Department of Education is working in collaboration with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) on the project, said Cheryl Johnson, director of KSDE’s Child Nutrition and Wellness (CNW) team.
Source: Derby Informer
After doubling in size, De Soto could strike deal to remake former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant land
De Soto officials are laying the groundwork for Johnson County’s largest contiguously owned site to effectively house a new town. It will be a years-long challenge involving a defunct Army ammunition plant that has sat empty, and contaminated, for decades. Thursday evening, the De Soto City Council will consider establishing a tax increment financing district that includes 6,009 acres of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant, located southeast of a bend in Kansas Highway 10 in western Johnson County. The council voted in November to annex about 6,376 acres — the vast majority of them part of the 9,000-acre former ammo plant — and signed a predevelopment agreement with Sunflower Redevelopment Group. Managing members of Sunflower Redevelopment, to which the U.S. Army in 2005 transferred the former plant site, include Kessinger/Hunter & Co. LC of Kansas City; RESIGHT Holdings LLC of Littleton, Colorado; and Midland Properties Inc. of Mission Woods.
Source: Kansas City Business Journal
Treasury yield tops 1.70% as rates continue to spike to start 2022
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield ticked higher Wednesday after the Federal Reserve released a summary of its key December meeting. The 10-year traded at 1.7%, its high of the day, up about 3 basis points. The 2-year rate jumped by 5 basis points to 0.82%. … The minutes released Wednesday showed that Fed officials began plans to start reducing the amount of bonds it is holding on its balance sheet. Some officials even said that the balance-sheet reduction could start sometime after the Fed starts raising interest rates. The Fed is tapering its bond purchases now and has already indicated to the market that it will raise rates soon after it finishes that taper in March. But the market is awaiting indications from the Fed on what it would do with its balance sheet once it’s done increasing it. The minutes showed officials considering to shrink the balance sheet along with raising rates as another way to remove policy accommodation.
Source: CNBC – Bonds
Employee shortages have hit McPherson harder than Moundridge or Inman
Over a year ago, industries like fast food and entertainment reported a lack of employees, causing some businesses to alter hours, raise prices to accommodate higher salaries, or close down. Then the worker shortages spread, and now it seems that almost every employment sector faces challenges related to not having enough people available to do the necessary jobs. The Topeka Capital-Journal recently reported that the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a 4.7 percent drop in the number of public sector workers in Kansas translates into around 12,000 vacant jobs. While those numbers may not alarm most readers, showing their practical implications might.
Source: McPherson Weekly News » Feed
Growing pains: McPherson struggles to keep up as business booms
The numbers don’t lie, McPherson is continuing to grow, and grow. Its population spiked more than 7 percent to 14,082 total for the 2021 census. Mayor Tom Brown said the city’s competitively low electrical rates, courtesy of its municipally owned McPherson Board of Public Utilities, continues to draw businesses. “We are standing on the shoulders of our forefathers,” he said. That growth has created some stress on the housing market as developers and city leaders struggle to keep up with the needs of its growing population and those posed by temporary workers who may not want to sign a lease.
Source: McPherson Weekly News
Derby hires new deputy city manager
The city of Derby has hired Dan Bronson as its new deputy city manager effective Jan. 10. Bronson replaces Kiel Mangus, who became Derby’s fifth city manager on Dec. 10 after the retirement of Kathy Sexton. Bronson comes to Derby from Harvey County, where he has served as the assistant county administrator/director of finance since March 2017. In that role, he reports to the county administrator and helps provide leadership and administrative support to 21 department directors and elected officials and 216 staff. “I’m excited to join the city of Derby,” Bronson said. “Derby is a forward-thinking, growing community, and I am eager for the opportunities and challenges ahead of me.”
Source: Derby Informer
New library in Moundridge will provide more space and flexibility
The renovation of the new library building will be complete months before the Moundridge Public Library will be ready to use it. The building should be ready for use by the end of January, according to head librarian Betsy Davis, but the furniture is on backorder, so she’s looking at a spring move-in date, though she resists providing a prediction any more concisely than the three-month window. Davis said some of the furniture would arrive soon, but she expects the shelving to be the biggest holdup. The community room, one of the aspects of the new library that Davis is looking forward to the most, will be complete soon, but she didn’t know if they would try to use it before the rest of the library was open. … “With this grant [the ALA’s Libraries Transform Communities Grant], we were able to get portable cooktops and little toaster ovens and things like that, that we can actually have little cooking classes for our cooking for two initiatives that we learned about after we asked people what do they want,” Davis said.
Source: McPherson Weekly News
Couple converting Hutchinson’s historic Hoke Building into a boutique hotel
The Kansas City couple converting Hutchinson’s historic Hoke Building into a boutique hotel confirmed Monday that they’ve signed a purchase contract on the Landmark apartments building on North Main Street. Mark and Phoebe Davenport said they have been interested in the property at 501 N. Main St. since they drove by it on one of their first visits to the city some 18 months ago. “It got my attention immediately,” Mark said. “I did a double-take driving down Main, thinking, ‘What on earth is this building?’ It’s incredible.”
Source: Hutch News
New tool puts Lyon County 911 on faster tracking
If you’re thinking about pulling a “Crank Yanker” trick on Lyon County 911 operators, think again. The Lyon County Emergency Communications Center announced a new tool Sunday to track incoming calls. A Facebook statement said it can “possibly see your 911 call before it even rings into our center.“ The tool is from RapidSOS, a company based in New York. The LCECC says its mapping portal allows dispatchers to have “street view access to a majority of the Lyon County area.” The new tool also can tap into vehicles with Sirius XM technology, allowing operators to obtain data on crashes.
Source: Emporia Gazette
Cyber Vulnerabilities Could Impact Municipal Finance
While cybersecurity risk management has long been on the radar of government IT managers, it’s also attracting the attention of municipal finance organizations. In a Dec. 14 survey by Hilltop Securities, municipal bond credit analysts said they felt state and local governments were unprepared for cyberattacks. A full 63% said they thought governments were “hardly prepared” for cyberattacks, and 30% said they were “somewhat prepared.” Only 6% considered state and local governments “on the way to being prepared, with none of the analysts considering municipalities “very prepared” or even “prepared.” The growing number of ransomware attacks state and local governments are facing has municipal bond issuers on alert. The ransomware attack on Atlanta was a “watershed moment,” Omid Rahmani, associate director for U.S. public finance at Fitch Ratings, said in a Nov. 1 interview with Hilltop.
Source: Route Fifty – All Content
Labette County commission talked about wind project
Labette County commissioners on Friday shared thoughts and concerns on the wind project being considered for the western half of the county. No decisions resulted from the 30-minute discussion … RWE Renewables is looking to develop a wind farm in western Labette County, from south of Big Hill Lake to north of Edna and west of Altamont. The company has already leased 168 tracts of land totaling 21,571 acres, according to filings in the Register of Deeds Office. … Commissioner Lonie Addis said he would consider a moratorium on wind development to give the commission time to pursue zoning of wind turbines.
Source: Parsons Sun
Munis see largest rise in yields since November
Selling pressure picked up and municipals showed some weakness for the first time since November on Tuesday following two days of rising U.S. Treasuries, but the asset class still outperformed that market’s double-digit moves to higher yields. Triple-A benchmark yield curves saw two to three basis point cuts, the largest one-day move in either direction since Nov. 30. Secondary trading ticked up with some concessions seen on various high-grade credits, particularly outside of five years.
Source: The Bond Buyer
Emporia Main Street’s Public Improvement Auction set for Feb. 11
Looking for an event to attend for Valentines Day that also supports your local community? Well, you’re in luck. Emporia Main Street will be hosting their annual Public Improvement Auction on Feb. 11, which will include catering from Bobby D’s, three auctions, and a Dueling Pianos performance by Hi Fi Productions. They have been hosting the Public Improvement Auction for 16 or 17 years. The event is scheduled for 6 – 9 p.m. The three auctions include the silent, live and dessert auctions. The silent auction will be posted on the Emporia Main Street’s web site and Facebook page around a week before the event.
Source: Emporia Gazette
Emporia may oppose end to grocery tax
“Axe the tax” may be a hot phrase in Topeka. But that may not be the view of the Emporia City Commission. With the new state legislative session one week away, commissioners will vote at their Wednesday meeting on a list of goals for 2022. It takes issue with proposals to end the state sales tax on groceries, which is favored by both Gov. Laura Kelly and likely election challenger Derek Schmidt. One of the 13 points will “generally oppose any further exemption to the base of state and local sales taxes, including sales of food.” Instead, the commission would recommend any changes “be accomplished by a system of income tax credits or direct rebates.”
Source: Emporia Gazette
Rural areas continue to lose grocery stores, gain dollar stores
Rural residents have fewer options to buy food and have to rely more on dollar stores and long drives for groceries, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA released data last week that shows in rural areas across the country, there was a six-year period ending in 2015 that saw a 20% decrease in grocery, specialty food and convenience stores. There was modest growth in dollar stores and superstores like Walmart over that same time period. “The number of grocery stores has been declining in these (rural) counties, particularly after the Great Recession. These trends suggest that access to grocery stores has been declining over the last 25 years,” the report stated.
Source: KCUR News
City officials pass Master Food Plan to tackle food deserts in Wichita
Wichita City Council members voted on Tuesday in favor of a food master plan to address the nearly 100,000 Wichitans that live in a food desert. A food desert is an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. “I am going to enthusiastically make a motion that the city council adopts the City of Wichita Sedgwick County Food System Master Plan,” said city council member Becky Tuttle. “We have received seven votes, that motion does pass,” said Mayor Brandon Whipple. The unanimous vote brings the city one step closer to solving the 44 square miles of food deserts in Wichita.
Source: KSN-TV
Experts and ranchers react to Biden’s $1 billion plan for meatpackers
President Joe Biden announced Monday that the administration will make a $1 billion investment to help farmers and ranchers when it comes to processing their livestock, by giving them options other than giant companies. George Bachman is the owner of JB Ranch located southwest of Augusta. He says there are several issues ranchers like him are facing as we start the new year. “The increase in costs and fuel and especially labor. Labor is really hard to find right now. Besides fuel costs and labor costs, is really the bottleneck at the producer level.”
Source: KSNF/KODE
Prairie Village says new city mask mandates ‘not on the table’ but wants county to act
Prairie Village will not reimpose a citywide mask order, but city leaders are drafting a letter to send to the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners to urge proactive mitigation against renewed spread of COVID-19. Prairie Village was the first Johnson County city with a mask mandate this fall, but that order expired on Oct. 31. At a Monday meeting of the city council’s committee of the whole, several councilmembers said they were against the idea of bringing back a citywide mask mandate. Instead, a majority of the city council agreed that COVID-19 mitigation measures like a mask order should be coming from the county level.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Manhattan: Employees, but not public, have to wear masks inside city-operated buildings
A week after setting a mask mandate, the Manhattan city government reversed its decision on requiring the public to wear masks inside city-operated buildings. City officials announced Monday that employees still have to wear masks inside all city-operated facilities, but the public will no longer have to wear masks unless people are in staff-only areas. The policy applies to people two-years-old or older. Previously, city manager Ron Fehr had implemented mask requirements for city staff and the public in city-operated facilities on Dec. 27, citing recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Riley County Health Department and a surge of the omicron variant.
Source: themercury.com
UG plans to apply for FEMA grant reimbursement for COVID expenses
A proposal to apply for budget authorization for FEMA reimbursable expenses related to COVID-19 moved forward at Monday night’s Unified Government Economic Development and Finance Committee meeting. In November, the federal government extended the FEMA reimbursement period through April 1, according to UG officials. Previously, it had been set to expire in December.
Source: Wyandotte Daily