Kansas Municipal News
City Commission establishes new downtown parking program
The Manhattan City Commission approved a resolution Tuesday night that establishes the Downtown Convention Parking Program for this year. Starting August 1st, the city will begin charging parking fees for the downtown garage. The action Tuesday will allocate transient guest tax, TGT, money to annually cover parking for conventions held in downtown Manhattan through the end of 2028. The approved resolution will allocate $115,000 to the Chamber’s Convention and Visitors Bureau and the commission has authority to change that amount every year. Although the resolution passed unanimously, some noted they want to meet with Chamber officials next month to possibly amend the program in the future. In order to qualify for TGT funds, conventions must be a minimum of two consecutive days in duration and booked a minimum of 30 rooms for at least one night at a Manhattan hotel. If a convention meets those requirements, then transient guest tax funds will be granted to Parking Services to pay for the parking costs.
Source: 1350 KMAN
Overland Park plans to make all of its operations sustainable — but how?
Overland Park is among a small group of cities selected to be in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Cities Local Government Leadership Program 2024 cohort. LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a green building rating standard that’s been used on thousands of structures in the U.S. in the public and private sectors, though some reports suggest the standard is imperfect. The building council also offers a certification program for judging jurisdictional sustainability beyond just physical structures, which is what Overland Park is currently undergoing this year. Previously, the LEED for Cities program was called the STAR Community Rating System. Lara Isch, sustainability manager for the city, said she expects the LEED for Cities program process to be a big focus of her division’s work over the next 12 or so months. Still, she said she’s “super excited” to see the city getting “this certification done.” The rating will help establish a “baseline assessment” for Overland Park’s current sustainability efforts across the community compared to peer communities, Isch said last month during a presentation to the Community Development Committee. It will also develop something of a “roadmap” to help the city stay on track with its goals in that area, Isch said.
Source: Johnson County Post
What is a STAR Bond, and could it really convince Chiefs to move to Kansas?
A big debate sparked in Wichita on Wednesday after Kansas legislatures sent a letter to the Kansas City Chiefs trying to convince the team to build a new stadium on the Kansas side of the state line. This comes after Jackson County, Missouri rejected a sales tax extension to help fix up Arrowhead Stadium. Marty Yeager and Jim Farthing are lifelong Chiefs fans, so it’s hard to find something about the team they disagree on, until now. “I think it’s a great idea. It’d be a huge benefit to the state,” said Yeager. “I really think they’re probably better served staying where they are,” said Farthing. They’re talking about a letter Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson and Speaker San Hawkins sent to Chiefs owner Clark Hunt trying to sell him on Kansas, saying the state would help pay for a brand new stadium with STAR Bonds. “I think it would be better if they did it on their own dime. The NFL and all of the owners have plenty of money,” said Farthing. “STAR Bonds are really good as long as they’re administered correctly. STAR Bonds are a great format to build a lot of finance, a lot of construction,” said Yeager. So, what is a STAR Bond? Emporia State University Political Science Professor Michael Smith says it’s important to understand that a STAR Bond isn’t a tax increase, it’s simply a loan. “The idea is then that the tax revenue collected at the site, so when people buy their tickets, and they pay taxes on them, or they buy their merchandise, or they buy a beer or whatever, and they pay taxes on it, those go to pay off the bonds,” said Smith.
Source: KAKE – News
With EMS response times lagging in west Wichita, county plans to build a new Post 1
After combining two EMS crews at one post, Sedgwick County saw emergency response times increase by roughly 7% in west Wichita. Now, the County Commission has approved the construction of a new EMS post to serve the area. The site of the new Post 1 has not yet been selected, but the commission approved $1,838,995 for land acquisition, design and construction at Wednesday’s meeting. Between 1975 and May 2023, Post 1 was located at 2622 W. Central, the site of the former Riverside Hospital complex, where the county was allowed to station ambulances without paying rent. The Post 1 crew is responsible for west Wichita and the near northwest side of the city, serving 33,500 residents and responding to more than 5,000 emergency calls annually. “Around May of 2023, utilities were partially working or not at all, which included water and partial electricity,” Assistant County Manager Tania Cole told commissioners. As a temporary solution, that crew was relocated to Post 20, south of Kellogg at Stillwell and Seneca. But that facility wasn’t built to support two crews, and it placed Post 1 outside of its service territory. As a result, emergency response times suffered.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Lawrence city commissioners vote to no longer broadcast public comment because of ‘performative’ public
The Lawrence City Commission voted 3-1 Tuesday to no longer broadcast the general public comment period and to move it to the very end of each meeting because of how some people have chosen to use the time. “I guess my concern is when people are using public comment to be performative, not to actually talk to us. And that’s what I think the purpose of public comment is, is to talk to us,” Commissioner Brad Finkeldei said. The commission last month approved several changes to procedures, including moving the general public comment period to the second-to-last agenda item and not broadcasting it live, but maintaining a recording. However, live broadcasts of public comment have continued. City staff members determined that they were unable to meet all three objectives — to stop broadcasting public comment, maintain a recording of it and hold it near the end of meetings but not at the very end. City Clerk Sherri Riedemann on Tuesday explained the technological challenges that prevented the city from doing all three. Commissioner Lisa Larsen said she thought the commission should keep public comment where it was, near the end of meetings, and continue broadcasting it. Four members of the public spoke to the commission about the issue.
Source: The Lawrence Times
Municipal Bond Trends for June 6, 2024
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.
Municipal Bond Trends for June 5, 2024
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.
Inspired to come to Topeka
New Topeka Zoo CEO Christina Castellano says her being a mother of two small children played a ‘huge’ role in her decision to move here and take that job. ”Speaking with staff and people in the community, I heard over and over again what a wonderful place this was to raise kids,” Castellano said Wednesday during her first news conference at the zoo, where she started Monday.
Source: CJonline
Municipal Bond Trends for June 4, 2024
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.
Kansas’ smallest school district prepares to close in warning sign for rural communities
Healy is an extreme example — one that caught lawmakers’ attention at the end of the legislation session — but it foreshadows the challenges that rural districts and state officials will have to confront in the near future as student populations dwindle. Eight other K-12 Kansas public school districts have fewer than 100 students. Another 28 districts have fewer than 200 students. The state has no blueprint for dealing with the declining student enrollment.
Source: KAKE – News
Shawnee is now home to the largest renewable gas plant of its kind in the U.S.
With a new modular plant in Shawnee, Johnson County is now home to a breakthrough in renewable energy solutions. In March, Archaea Energy launched its Archaea Modular Design renewable natural gas plant, a facility that turns landfill gas into renewable energy.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Osawatomie USD 367 prepares for leadership overhaul
There will be new faces in leadership roles at every school within Osawatomie USD 367 next school year. Superintendent Greg Clark confirmed that Swenson Early Childhood Education Center, Trojan Elementary, Osawatomie Middle School and Osawatomie High School will all have new principals next year. Clark said current Swenson principal Andrea Manes is retiring, Trojan principal Julie Samuels accepted a new position, Osawatomie Middle School principal Zachary Lopes accepted a new position, and Osawatomie High School principal Justin Young is exploring new opportunities. “I thank them for their exceptional service,” Clark said. Lopes and Young were just hired last year.
Source: Local News | republic-online.com
Mildred Store celebrates 10 years
Charley Pogue of Blue Mound frequently drives the 10 miles to The Mildred Store. When family members from Lawrence were visiting this weekend, he brought them to the store’s 10th anniversary celebration. They walked around the car show, enjoyed food and grocery specials, and played Bingo. Later that evening, the crowd danced to music and entertainment provided by fiddle players from Oklahoma and a former American Idol contestant. “They’re not used to the small-town life,” Pogue said of his relatives. “They’re having a blast.” That’s the goal for store owners Loren and Regena Lance. When they bought the store in 2014, their intent was not just to save the 100-plus year-old business. They wanted to preserve that old-fashioned ideal of “small-town life.” THE BROWN Brothers opened the store in 1915 selling hardware and as an auto repair shop as the town of Mildred boomed thanks to a cement factory on the edge of town. At the plant’s peak, as many as 375 men toiled at the Great Western Portland Cement Company and 2,000 residents called Mildred home. The town once boasted two hotels, two barbershops, elementary and high schools and a movie theatre. The cement plant in Mildred shut down temporarily in the late teens, then permanently in the 1920s. Business floundered. The last high school class graduated in 1944; the post office closed in 1973. The population dwindled and is now below 20. Through it all, the Browns’ store survived. After World War II, the second generation took over. Charles Brown came for a visit with his wife, Lucille, and acquired the store in partnership with his brother, Kenneth, from their father and uncle, according to Register archives. They sold more groceries, along with appliances and hardware. Charlie and Lucy ran Charlie Brown’s Store for several decades after Kenneth’s death. The store became known for its deli sandwiches, piled high with meat. The store also was known for its community Christmas parties, where Charlie and Lucy made sure every child got a sack of candy. A 1982 article published in The Register claimed, “Lucy never lets a child leave the store without getting some free candy.” When Charlie died in 2001, his grandson, Michael Becker, took over. Marilyn Colgin managed the store for him for many years. The store closed in March 2014. That’s when the Lances stepped in and purchased it on June 2, 2014.
Source: The Iola Register
KSN Road Trip visits Ashland, Kansas
ASHLAND, Kan. (KSNW) — Ashland is the fourth stop on the 2024 KSN Summer Road Trip. We visited the Ashland Library. KSN News broadcasted from the location at 5 and 6 p.m. There were cookies, water, and coffee. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and said hi! If you took a picture with the team, be sure to enter it in the KSN Summer Road Trip photo contest. KSN visited Ashland in 2022 for the Summer Road Trip and decided to come back because of the welcoming community. According to the U.S. Census, Ashland has a population of 783 with a median household income of $60,179. The town is the county seat of Clark County. The town is proud of its beautiful setting in Bear Creek Valley and on the fringe of the Red Hills. It is a perfect spot for hunters and anglers as it has a lot of deer and nearby Clark County State Lake.
Source: KSN-TV
Near tragedy guides Kansas firefighter to make fire trucks
Making things is a passion of Greg Blanchat. But instead of making art, he makes fire trucks. Blanchat turned a near tragedy into a passion to save lives. “When you suit up when you snap in, you really feel it. Like I say, ‘Fire is a living, breathing thing,’ and I really think it can think too,” said Blanchat. Roaring flames and billowing smoke were seen from miles around. “We were up on a hill, most of us watching it and looking down on it, and we backed up because it was incredibly hot,” said Stan May, a spectator and retired 30-year firefighter. It wasn’t a wildfire. It was an experiment. “It’s amazing he was able to put it out that fast dealing with that kind of heat,” said May. It was performed by Blanchat. “Paper tells you one thing, live tells you if it really works,” he said. Blanchat is an avid and successful inventor who got his start in farming equipment. “This plow was the very first thing I did, second year out of high school. It worked so well the neighbors next to me said, ‘Why don’t you do one for me?'” He said. An inventive spirit he carried with him into his career as a firefighter “Every time I went out and fought a fire, I came back and changed the trucks. I’ve gone to funerals; I’ve seen it happen,” said Blanchat. Further bolstered by a near-tragedy of his own in 1988. “I was flicked off the truck, and the truck damn near ran over the top of me – my daughter was only a month old when it happened, and I about orphaned her,” said Blanchat. Now he works to keep other firefighters out of harm’s way at Blanchat Manufacturing.
Source: KSN-TV
The ‘only architect in Liberal’ finds his entrepreneurial spirit
Tucked into southwestern Kansas stands the city of Liberal, a majority-Latino community where more residents speak Spanish than English. Many work at the nearby National Beef Packing Co., a common job for rural Kansans – including immigrant workers. Manuel Ortuño moved to Liberal from Chicago in pursuit of a lower cost of living. He quickly found a job at National Beef, which provided a good living but was extremely labor intensive. His son, Edgar, says that his father started building cabinets in his garage and taking night classes outside of his factory shift. Eventually, he found a carpentry job building displays at Beto Botas, a western apparel store in town. From there, his side hustle blossomed into a full-time career, evolving into Ortuño Cabinets in 2007. “I grew up seeing his hustle, seeking these jobs,” Edgar Ortuño says. “I watched the evolution of his business. He found new opportunities while being an immigrant with (imperfect) English and still receiving pretty good clientele. It was really inspiring to me.” Besides bearing witness to his father’s unwavering entrepreneurial spirit, Ortuño was especially attracted to carpentry and design when his father began building the home his parents live in now.
Source: KLC Journal
Peabody plans repertory theater
Christopher King, co-owner of CK Vintage in downtown Peabody, has a long background in performance. He started as an actor, then gravitated to director. He has been working with other Sunflower Repertory organizers for months getting things ready for the magic of a dinner theater in Peabody. The first production will be “I Do! I Do!” The show is a comedic look at the ups and downs of marriage.
Source: Marion County RECORD
Solar farming is taking land once used to grow food. Researchers are looking for ways to do both
When Scott Thellman looks at the bottom land near the Kaw River, he sees productive farmland. This area north of Lawrence, Kansas, just across the river from an old coal-fired power plant has fantastic soil, according to Thellman, who lives nearby and grows organic vegetables and row crops. “It’s absolutely the best our county, and frankly our region, has in terms of the water accessibility, the mineral glacial components of the soil,” Thellman said. “Plants are really able to thrive here.” It also makes a good place to locate a solar farm. It’s flat, with easy access to roads and high voltage power lines. This spring the Douglas County Commission approved a 1,105-acre solar farm. Utility-scale solar is the fastest growing power source in the U.S., more than doubling in the last three years. Power companies built more solar farms last year than ever before, and they’ll likely hit another record expansion this year. The increase in solar energy means solar farms and traditional farms are vying for some of the same acreage. The competition for land comes at a time when farmland is already losing one to two million acres a year. Now solar farms are a small but growing use for those fields. One answer is agrivoltaics – the idea that production agriculture can coexist with utility-scale solar power. Developers of the solar farm outside Lawrence, for instance, have promised to facilitate sheep grazing around and under solar panels. Farmer Scott Thellman said there’s better land for grazing nearby, that’s marginal for farming. “We’re looking at a field here that, you know, if built out would transition from very high-quality production to a solar array that currently has no actionable plan for agrivoltaics systems,” said Thellman.
Source: KCUR News
Rural roads get millions for upgrades
Ten Kansas counties stand to receive millions in federal funds to improve the safety and efficiency of local roads. Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday announced the $6.65 million in federal funds for 10 projects, selected out of 46 applications. Haskell, Linn, Ottawa, Phillips, Sedgwick, Seward and Shawnee counties have all been granted federal dollars for these rural road improvement projects. “Our rural roads are important to the local and state economy,” Kelly said. “Programs like this enable commerce to flow smoothly and improve safety for Kansas families as they travel our state.” Project funding is managed through the Kansas Department of Transportation’s High Risk Rural Roads Program. The state effort is funded through the Highway Safety Improvement Program, federal aid geared toward reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries on public roads. Over the past 13 years, KDOT HRRR funds have been geared toward reducing collisions with a fixed object — one of the most common types of fatal rural crashes. To that end, KDOT has prioritized projects geared toward low-cost prevention measures such as installing rumble strips, increasing signage, guardrails and other roadside barriers. Among other projects, Linn will receive $370,000 to install pavement markings, hazard markers and signs on a portion of Route 1095. Phillips has $525,000 to upgrade signing on 154 miles of country roads east of U.S. 183. Seward has $775,000 to extend four culverts and install road shoulders, among other improvements. Haskell has $270,000 to upgrade signage. “These funds assist our rural partners to increase roadway safety by using low-cost and proven countermeasures,” said Kansas Transportation Secretary Calvin Reed.
Source: The Iola Register
Kansas communities receiving grants for street projects
The funding, as part of the Safe Streets for All program, is combined with more than $1 million in matching funds from the Kansas Infrastructure Hub and Build Kansas Fund toward two of the projects and local matching dollars. “Leveraging federal dollars to supplement our state and local investments into critical infrastructure is vital to economic growth,” Governor Laura Kelly said. “The Safe Streets and Roads for All program ensures that our communities have the resources to build, operate, or maintain critical infrastructure. I appreciate the Legislature’s continued support of this initiative as it is a true bipartisan win for Kansas.” In this round of announcements, the City of Topeka was granted $4.3 million in federal SS4A funds, the third largest in the country. Matt Volz, executive director of the Kansas Infrastructure Hub, said the support provided through the Kansas Infrastructure Hub gives communities the tools necessary to maximize BIL funding opportunities.
Source: KAKE – News