Municipal News & Jobs

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.

City officials are looking to turn Wichita into a regional destination for pickleball, a game that’s growing in popularity, by building a $3 million “Pickleplex” in south Wichita. The pickleball complex would host regional tournaments and draw new tourism dollars into Wichita, said Troy Houtman, director of parks and recreation. The proposed Pickleplex would be built at South Lakes Park, just north of Campus High School near 55th South and Meridian.
Source: Wichita Eagle

Daniel Friesen doesn’t want geography to be the determining factor of whether Kansas communities have access to high-quality broadband service. He started a company in Buhler dedicated to providing fiber-to-the-home internet and was prepared to leap when the COVID-19 pandemic exposed service gaps in education, commerce, health care and at home in Kansas. That’s when the federal government began pouring CARES Act relief money into states, and Kansas officials earmarked $50 million of that largess for broadband expansion.
Source: Wichita Eagle

Finding an equitable solution to what becomes of Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and its impact on the central Kansas water table is once again on the table. This week, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Audubon of Kansas to honor the senior water rights of the 22,000-acre refuge.
Source: Dodge Globe

The municipal bond market’s current dynamics — scarce supply, low rates, tight spreads and a stable credit landscape — means issuers are enjoying one of the strongest markets in modern history. … The level of demand is likely to remain as a wave of muni bonds are set to come due in the next five years, Fabian said. Roughly 22% of all outstanding tax-exempt debt will mature or be called by the end of 2024, he said. That’s roughly $800 billion of “reinvestment pressure.”
Source: Bond Buyer

The Reno County Planning Commission agreed Tuesday to set a Nov. 18 public hearing on proposed changes to both the county’s Comprehensive Plan and its zoning regulations to prohibit commercial wind development in the zoned portions of the county. Also to be taken up at that meeting will be a proposal to create an overlay district for the remaining non-zoned portions of the county that would enable the county to regulate wind in those un-zoned areas in the future. The specific regulations that would apply in those areas remain pending before the Reno County Commission.
Source: Hutch News

The seven-day clock to request a jury trial in municipal court appeals begins when a judge is appointed to preside over the case at trial. If an offense carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail or less, it is presumed that the defendant has no constitutional right to a jury trial.
Source: KS Court of Appeals.

The same energy firm proposing to build a 3,000-acre solar farm in southeast Douglas County also is exploring the feasibility of building a large wind turbine farm in southwest Douglas County, I’ve confirmed. Florida-based NextEra Energy has begun reaching out to large landowners in southwest Douglas County and northwest Franklin County about a project dubbed the Larksong Wind Energy Center.
Source: LJWorld.com.

The City of Lawrence is seeking feedback from residents on two options for a long-awaited redesign of the city’s bus routes, both of which include Uber-like “microtransit” options, though with different ideas for how that service would function. Both scenarios call for a traditional network of bus routes that is complemented by microtransit service, according to information in a city survey about the routes. The survey says microtransit is an app-based service that operates like Uber and Lyft but utilizes transit-specific vehicles and offers affordable and predictable fares. To be most productive, microtransit trips must be kept relatively short, and the city asks residents to provide feedback on two ways for structuring the service to accomplish that.
Source: LJWorld.com.

In the face of lower vaccination rates among Lawrence police officers when compared to other local first responders, the city’s police union says it respects officers’ right not to get vaccinated. As the Journal-World recently reported, though the City of Lawrence has seen a significant increase in the vaccination rates among employees since announcing a new testing and leave policy a month ago, numbers show there are notable differences among the vaccination rates of the community’s first responders.
Source: LJWorld.com.

Standing high about the skyline of downtown, “Mural at the Mill,” the latest piece in the Salina Kanvas Project is now complete. The mural, which was placed on the 100-foot tall H.D. Lee Flour Mill on North Santa Fe Avenue, was completed by Guido Van Helten of Australia, who has done similar, large-scale projects around the world. The Kanvas Project was the vision of Travis Young, CEO of Vortex Global. He said the hope is that the work done will be something to bring more murals and street art to the downtown area and to Salina as a whole. “We want Salina to be a destination versus a spot to fill up with gas along the interstate”, Young said on the project’s website. “This will help bolster business opportunities and support the amazing institutions we already have here in Salina.”
Source: Salina Journal.

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.