Kansas Municipal News
Johnson County advances some of the country’s most restrictive solar farm rules, leaving few happy
The Johnson County Planning Commission on Tuesday approved regulations that have been dubbed some of the most restrictive in the country for solar-generated electricity farms, pleasing just about none of the spectators at the two-hour meeting. Supporters of the proposed solar farm said the rules were a disappointment and “not our desired result,” while opponents expressed anger that any arrays of the photovoltaic panels would be allowed at all in the unincorporated western part of the county. “Have a good night as you destroy our rural part of our county,” said Sharmen McCollum of Gardner after being told the commission would not accept more comments on the solar farm regulations.
Source: KCUR News
Osawatomie establishes Healthy Rental Homes program
The Osawatomie community now has a licensing and regulation program to cover residential rental dwellings within the city. The City Council on Thursday, Dec. 9, approved an ordinance establishing the Healthy Rental Homes program. A Committee of Landlords and city staff collaborated on the initiative that has been more than a year in the making. City officials and landlord committee members agreed a licensing and external inspection program was a way the city can safeguard its interests in protecting the “life, safety, general welfare and health,” as well as help landlords protect residential properties and their appraised values.
Source: Local News | republic-online.com
More Kellogg construction on the horizon? Here’s where state plans to spend $166M on it
Gov. Laura Kelly’s new $750 million highway improvement plan calls for $166 million in upgrades to Kellogg freeway in east Wichita. Kelly announced the highway modernization and expansion Wednesday, less than a month after Kellogg construction ceased for the first time in 30 years. The next phase of Kellogg construction will address a bottleneck from the K-96 interchange to 159th Street east. At a press conference in Topeka, Kelly singled out the Kellogg improvements in her comments. “This is a pressing issue because by addressing the congestion at the north junction interchange, a significant bottleneck has been shifted to the new area,” she said.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Parsons planning commission talks tiny homes
Parsons is looking at integrating regulations relating to tiny homes in the city. Members of the Parsons Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals discussed tiny homes during their Tuesday meeting. The city does not have formal regulations on tiny homes. “Right now, I don’t have like a district for tiny homes,” said Laura Moore, community development director. “Right now, you can put one tiny home on a normal, traditional city lot.” “That’s an awful big lot for a tiny home,” she added. Verdunity Inc., based in Dallas, recently answered a question from Moore about the smaller structures. Moore asked Verdunity, the group that created the city’s new comprehensive plan, what Parsons could do regarding tiny homes and regulations.
Source: Parsons Sun
Derby’s housing concerns similar to others
Putting together a housing outlook for Kansas is a bit like placing jigsaw puzzle pieces together – and is sometimes the case, a few pieces are missing to make a successful picture. That was one of the points from a presentation by the Topeka-based Kansas Housing Resources Corporation’s statewide housing needs assessment study on Dec. 9 at the Derby Public Library. About 35 people attended the hour-long event, including several city officials. An aging housing stock, especially in rural areas, and affordable housing, especially for the senior market, were some of those needs cited by the study.
Source: The Miami County Republic
Former police chief, current city Chief of Staff Cochran to become Topeka’s interim city manager
A divided mayor and city council on Tuesday evening elected former police chief and current city Chief of Staff Bill Cochran to become Topeka’s interim city manager. … The measure approved Tuesday calls for Cochran to become interim city manager effective at 5:01 p.m. Dec. 31. He will oversee Topeka’s city government as the mayor and council conduct a search for a permanent city manager.
Source: CJonline
Reno County formally bans industrial wind in zoned areas
Reno County Commission voted unanimously to ban commercial wind development in all zoned areas of the county. A plan to create a new zoning overlay district that would regulate wind for the remaining unzoned areas of the county, however, was tabled until Jan. 11. A countywide moratorium on commercial wind development remains in place through mid-March. Tuesday’s vote prohibiting wind energy conversion systems or WECS in certain parts of the county came more than three years after a pair of residents first appeared before the Reno County Commission seeking a moratorium on wind development. That after NextEra Energy began buying up land leases for a proposed wind farm in the southeast quadrant of the county, near their homes.
Source: Hutch News
Kansas going big on broadband
With an influx of federal funding for broadband development, the governor’s office is championing a goal to have Kansas among the leaders in highspeed internet access by the end of the decade. “We’re being bold,” said Lt. Gov. and Commerce Secretary David Toland. “We’re being ambitious. We’re being aggressive. Because we understand how high the stakes are. We are in a race as a state against other states, and we want to win that race so that we can win new residents, we can win new businesses and we can retain the ones that we have.”
Source: Hutch News
Salina moves step closer to possible esports arena
After hearing in October about an opportunity to transform an older building into something new, the Salina City Commission voted to support a potential esports arena in the city. The commission voted 5-0 in favor of an expression of support to redevelop Memorial Hall into an arena and multipurpose facility…
Source: Salina Journal
Municipal Bond Trends for December 14, 2021
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.
The Federal Reserve is expected to take a very big step toward its first rate hike
The Federal Reserve is expected to announce a dramatic policy shift Wednesday that will clear the way for a first interest rate hike next year. Markets are anticipating the Fed will speed up the wind-down of its bond buying program, changing the end date to March from June. That would free the central bank to start raising interest rates from zero, and Fed officials are expected to release a new forecast showing two to three interest rate hikes in 2022 and another three to four in 2023. Previously, there had been no consensus for a rate hike in 2022, though half of the Fed officials expected at least one.
Source: CNBC – Bonds
Illness prompts Sedgwick schools to extend their Christmas break
USD 439 will start its Christmas break two days sooner than planned. With 92 students currently out of school due to influenza, COVID, and COVID quarantine, Superintendent Larry Roth recommended on behalf of the central office and school administration that the Board of Education cancel school and all school-related activities, including basketball practices, for Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 20-21. Those days were scheduled to be the final two days before the break. “We’d like to put an end to exposures as quickly as we can here at school,” Roth told the board at the regularly scheduled meeting last Monday night. “We recommend we not have school next Monday and Tuesday in hopes that getting everyone away from each other will let everyone go home and have a healthy and safe Christmas.”
Source: Harvey County Now
Appraiser’s Office property imaging project scheduled to begin
The Johnson County Appraiser’s Office will begin on Tuesday, Dec. 14, a state-mandated property-imaging project to help the county appraise property values. Kansas law requires counties to update property information every six years to maintain accurate data on every parcel in the jurisdiction. The Johnson County Appraiser’s Office has contracted with Tyler Technologies and Cyclomedia to take high-resolution street-level photos of the exterior of every property in Johnson County. The county will use these photos to create land record information used in the appraisal process. All images collected, where faces and license plates are visible, will be made unrecognizable by ‘blurring’.
Source: Johnson County Kansas |
What to know ahead of potential tornado-strength winds Wednesday
Evergy has crews on standby as power outages Wednesday are likely with such high winds expected, but there are several other potential dangers you might also want to consider. “In the past two decades, It’s only the second time that one has been issued as far east to include the city of Wichita,” said KAKE Meteorologist Jay Prater. Jay is talking about the Critically Extreme Fire Danger warning that’s been issued from western Kansas all the way east of Wichita on Wednesday.
Source: KAKE – News
Fire and power crews warn Kansans ahead of Wednesday’s high winds
“It’s our best defense against wind” says Evergy communications manager Kaley Bohlen. With gusts that strong, even the best prep can be overcome, that’s why Evergy has crews waiting on standby. “We monitored monitor weather conditions ahead of time and closely and then again, stop those crews accordingly. So we’re ready to respond quickly and safely”, said Bohlen. Power outages are not the only the only issue created by the high winds. According to the Chip Redmond of the Kansas Forest service, incredibly dry conditions throughout the state will make for a high fire danger.
Source: KAKE – News
Some school districts cancel classes Wednesday due to expected high wind gusts
On Wednesday extreme wind gusts ranging from 60-70 mph are expected across Kansas, leading some school districts to cancel classes.
Source: KAKE – News
A blue Christmas in Olathe? Manufacturing errors changed the colors of the street lights
Have you been feeling blue lately? Don’t worry, it’s not just you. The City of Olathe is feeling the same, as some street lights in the area have changed colors. City spokesperson Cody Kennedy said it’s the coding in the light that’s causing the issue. It’s a nationwide issue with a light model that was made between 2017 and 2019. To fix it, the city replaces the head of the light. It’s working on changing all of them.
Source: KC Star Local News
Lenexa formally establishes community advisory board to help oversee police department
Lenexa has formally established a Community Advisory Board to serve as a liaison between the Lenexa Police Department and residents. While the group has existed informally since the early 2000s, the Lenexa City Council’s unanimous move Dec. 7 to officially establish the board comes at a time police agencies in Johnson County and beyond are facing calls for more transparency and public engagement. The Community Advisory Board will advise the police department on a variety of prominent issues, including addressing potential bias in policing, use of force, responses to mental health crises and homelessness, among others.
Source: KCUR News
Altamont, Chetopa view KMEA lineman services
Managing director/electric operations Gerry Bieker and general manager Paul Mahlberg of Kansas Municipal Energy Agency (KMEA) visited with city council members from Chetopa and Altamont Saturday in Chetopa, proposing the cities contract with KMEA for full-time electrical line maintenance in their communities. Both cities still own their own public power utilities and are among the 82 members of KMEA, benefiting from the Joint Action Agency’s energy purchasing power from the market.
Source: Parsons Sun
Single-Family Homes Big in Kansas
Early on in the pandemic, many families in densely populated urban areas set out for more spacious homes in rural or suburban areas. As more workplaces adopted permanent work-from-home possibilities, some workers made the move permanent, preferring space and affordability over proximity to the workplace…and Kansas is in a good place for those folks. The website Construction Coverage notes that at ages 25 to 40, Millennials are currently in their peak years for starting or growing a family and are seeking more spacious homes to accommodate that. However, apartments and multi-family construction have been presented as more efficient, affordable, and sustainable options. As a result, the share of new single-family building permits dropped from nearly 80% in 2005 to less than 60% ten years later.
Source: WIBW News Now