Kansas Municipal News
Jantzen retiring after 39-year career with Moundridge
When Terry Jantzen started working for the City of Moundridge, Elm Street was at the northern edge of town, and the eastern extremity was just east of the high school. The longtime city employee will be clocking in for the last time next week after 39 years of service. A reception is being held in his honor from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10. “Thirty-nine years is a long time for somebody to be in one place,” Moundridge City Manager Murray McGee said. “There’s a wealth of knowledge there. He’s told us we can call him any time.” Jantzen was just looking for something different than working on the family farm with his father when he began working for the city in March 1982. He said Norm Unruh took a chance on hiring a 25-year-old on a temporary basis.
Source: McPherson Weekly News
Local Law Enforcement Explains What Happens To Seized Firearms
… the Newton Police Department and the Harvey County Sheriff’s Department … both do business a little bit differently. Newton, for instance, trades in seized firearms acquired through civil forfeiture with their equipment dealer when purchasing new equipment for the department. “We have these things sitting here, and whatever value we get for them is money the taxpayer doesn’t have to spend,” Newton Police Lt. Mike Yoder said. They work through a company, GT Distributors, based out of Kansas City and trade the seized firearms as well as old department service firearms to lower the cost of purchasing new equipment… The sheriff’s department can follow a similar procedure, according to information provided by County Public Information Officer Kyle McCaskey. “The firearm can be sent to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to be destroyed, can be used for department use, or it could be used to trade for equipment needs,” he said. “For example, the firearm can be traded to a licensed firearm dealer, and in turn, that funding could be used for equipment the sheriff’s office needs. In turn, the licensed firearm dealer can resell it, pending background checks, etc.”
Source: Harvey County Now
USD 439 bond passes easily with two-thirds support
Shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday, the Harvey County Elections website posted the unofficial results from the USD 439 Special Bond Election. The bond passed with two-thirds of the votes, 319-159. According to the website, registered voters numbered 1,415, which means the 478 ballots cast results in a 33.78% turnout. The bond, which is not-to-exceed $13.8 million, is the first bond passed for USD 439 since the late 1990s. The successful vote authorizes USD 439 to complete several major construction projects that include connecting the elementary and secondary buildings with a secure entrance and a new library/media center, building a new gym with an indoor track, weight room, and storm shelter, and elevating the football field and adding a new 8-lane polyurethane track.
Source: Harvey County Now
Pittsburg to buy 192 acres for industrial park
The Pittsburg City Commission this week approved purchasing approximately 192 acres located north of Atkinson and west of Free King Highway for $1.2 million and annexing it into the city for use as a future industrial park. “We only have so much industrial park space in the city,” said City Manager Daron Hall. “We’re very fortunate that we’ve got a lot of growth in the businesses that are in our industrial parks, and the few acres that we have unallocated are currently being sought after. What we don’t have is a very large, new, undeveloped industrial park with rail access, next to a highway, which this is.”
Source: Morning Sun
Municipal Bond Trends for August 31, 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.
Audit report says STAR bonds are not boosting Kansas tourism
A new state audit found that few projects financed with STAR bonds are meeting requirements for bringing visitors and money into Kansas. The audit from the Legislature’s auditing arm was released Monday. Auditors found that only three of the 16 attractions they reviewed met tourism goals by bringing in a significant percentage of visitors from other states. STAR bonds allow municipalities to issue bonds to finance major developments, which are paid through sales tax revenue generated by the project. Among the projects not meeting the benchmarks is the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, including the soccer stadium, strip mall, water park and business complex that surrounds it.
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI
Cherokee County panel adopts 1-year wind farm moratorium
Cherokee County Commission members on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution that establishes a one-year moratorium on wind energy development inside of county limits, saying they want additional information on such operations. “I believe we, as a commission, deserve the time and the right to fact-find,” said Commissioner Lorie Johnson, of District 2. The resolution establishes a moratorium and suspends certain types of improvements regarding wind energy on any land within the limits of Cherokee County for one year, officials said. The wind farm moratorium was approved after Thursday’s special meeting at which commissioners met with representatives from RWE Renewables Americas, of Texas, for the first time to discuss how the county was chosen as a potential site for an industrial wind farm. Garrett Ketchen, wind development manager with RWE, said the project would benefit local landowners who lease the air above their land and could create 10 to 15 local jobs. He added if the project was approved, it would be installed in three to five years.
Source: www.joplinglobe.com
Rural advocates pinpoint holes in Kansas mental health, multilingual services
Rural health and education advocates say increased access to mental health care and improved cultural or linguistic services would go a long way toward addressing disparities between communities of color and their white counterparts in rural Kansas. Francisca Jimenez, a parenting coach and home visitor for Russell Child Development Center, said a lack of cultural competency training or limited language comprehension leaves some Latino families isolated from consistent health resources. Families she and fellow home visitors work with can be uneasy about saying what ails them, especially in a foreign language, she said.
Source: Kansas Reflector
Legislative audit places Kansas’ lonely reliance on STAR bonds under harsh spotlight
The state’s $1.1 billion investment in special economic development bonds supporting museums, racetracks and other attractions produced only three outside of the mega-development at Village West in Wyandotte County that fulfilled the Kansas Department of Commerce’s primary objective of elevating tourism among long-distance or out-of-state visitors. Analysis by the Kansas Legislature’s auditors, who responded to lawmakers’ skepticism that the STAR bond program didn’t work as advertised, indicated the Kansas Speedway and Topeka Heartland Park track attracted 20% of visitors from outside the state and 30% of visitors from more than 100 miles away in 2018 and 2019. The Hutchinson Underground Salt Mine met both metrics in 2019. This study looked at 16 projects benefitting from Garden City to Derby and Atchison to Dodge City that host developments supported by diverting sales tax revenue to pay off the development bonds.
Source: Kansas Reflector
September will bring new badge for Hutchinson Police
The Hutchinson Police Department will begin wearing a brand-new badge starting on September 1st, 2021, in honor of the department’s sesquicentennial anniversary. Captain Thad Pickard, Captain of Professional Standards, designed the new badge. Pickard wished to create a badge that would represent the entire 150-year history of the police department, including the iconic Salt Hawk, a ring to describe the history of policing and a two-tone design to represent the different officers, patrol and ranked. ‘The shield is silver, giving honor to the true workforce of our department, the patrol officers, the banners are gold to honor the officers that hold rank,’ said Pickard.
Source: Hutch News
Audit: Projects using hotly debated Kansas economic development tool not hitting key benchmarks
Few projects financed using STAR bonds met benchmarks for bringing visitors and spending to the state, a new report from the Legislature’s non-partisan auditing arm revealed Monday. Moreover, a sampling of three projects using the tool found it will take decades, even upward of a century, for revenues from out-of-state visitors to reach the point where the state had made back the tax revenue it gave up for those enterprises. STAR bonds, short for Sales Tax and Revenue Bonds, are an economic development tool designed to boost tourism and business activity in Kansas. They have existed in the state for decades. They allow municipalities to issue bonds to finance major commercial, entertainment and tourism developments and are paid off through sales tax revenue generated by the project.
Source: CJonline
When will Kansas recoup taxes from STAR bonds projects? May be next century, auditors say
Kansas may spend decades — or even more than a century — recouping the sales tax revenue it gave up developing large attractions under a controversial incentive program, state auditors estimate. The Prairiefire museum in Overland Park? It’s sales tax break-even year may not come until 2104. The Wichita Sports Forum? It could be as late as 2076. The Hutchinson Underground Salt Museum? Your great-grandchildren will be around in 2132. Auditors for the Kansas Legislature released a critical evaluation of the state’s Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) bonds program Monday that is certain to fuel calls for further reform of the incentive. Some lawmakers view the program as a revenue giveaway to entice business growth that would have happened anyway.Source: Parsons Sun
New machine will help Winfield add walking paths
City of Winfield workers assisted by Daniels Ready Mix recently tested a new slipform paver acquired by the city to help put down concrete paths. According to City Manager Taggart Wall, the new technology allows to city to lay paths much more efficiently than traditional forming methods. The slipform paver places, compacts and finishes the concrete as it is pulled behind a tractor or concrete truck. “We were able to work together with the management at Daniels Ready Mix to find the right mix design to help us be successful,” Wall said.
Source: The Arkansas City Traveler
Municipal Bond Trends for August 30, 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.
McManaman named interim Barton County administrator
Barton County Engineer Barry McManaman can now at interim county administrator to his job title after action by the County Commission Monday morning. According to the employment agreement, the appointment went into effect Monday and McManaman will continue as engineer. … Included in the session along with commissioners were McManaman, County Clerk Donna Zimmerman and County Counselor Patrick Hoffman. It was also noted Monday morning that Zimmerman will continue in the assistant administrator role. McManaman has been county engineer at the end of 2015, coming to the county from the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Great Bend office.
Source: Great Bend Tribune
Experts weigh in on how creating new Miami County town could affect Hillsdale Lake
In an effort to prevent warehouse development from crossing the Johnson County/Miami County border, homeowners in rural Miami County have petitioned to form a new city. In June, the county commission heard public feedback on the potential incorporation of the City of Golden. Now the commission is hosting a series of study sessions to get expert testimony about how creating a new city could affect the county overall. On Wednesday, the Miami County Board of Commissioners heard from water quality experts from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) about how incorporation could affect water quality within the Hillsdale Lake Watershed.
Source: fox4kc.com | FOX 4 – WDAF
Legislative auditors revise Kansas unemployment fraud tally upward to nearly $700 million
The state of Kansas paid an estimated $700 million in state and federal unemployment benefits to illegitimate claimants during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic while blocking $2 billion in potentially fraudulent jobless claims from people attempting to rip off the system, auditors said Monday. The Kansas Department of Labor and the Kansas Legislature’s audit division both had high confidence $380 million was sent to fraudsters impersonating others from January 2020 to February during the coronavirus health emergency. There is less compelling evidence in hands of labor department investigators and legislative auditors regarding $306 million in red-flagged payments requiring further analysis. The auditors’ total of $686 million in potential loss — a number rounded to $700 million in the report — was divided evenly between the federal unemployment fund and the state’s unemployment trust fund.
Source: Kansas Reflector
Kansas Supreme Court stays Johnson County judge’s ruling in SMSD mask case
In a sharply worded opinion, the Kansas Supreme Court last week stayed a Johnson County judge’s ruling that a pandemic emergency powers law is unconstitutional. Why it matters: The ruling temporarily puts a hold on Judge David Hauber’s ruling that the law, known as SB 40, violated the separation of powers and the due process rights of the Shawnee Mission School District. But SMSD officials say the stay will have no immediate impact on the district’s COVID-19 mitigation measures currently in place, including a universal mask rule in all schools.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Fund aims to help tenants get housing by incentivizing Lawrence, Douglas County landlords
A new fund from the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority aims to reduce high barriers for people to get housing by spurring landlords to loosen some screening requirements and agree to lease their units. The Landlord Risk Reduction Fund aims to help individuals and families who are either experiencing homeless or at immediate risk of becoming homeless, according to information from LDCHA. In order to do so, the fund will provide financial incentives to landlords in Lawrence and Douglas County: A lease up bonus will pay double the amount of rent upon successfully leasing to an LDCHA-referred tenant. That is a per-unit incentive, so more units can mean more funding. A damage reduction fund will offer damage claims beyond the initial security deposit. “Landlords will receive one month’s rent funded to cover any damage that may occur, guaranteed. If security deposit and initial incentive coverage is used and there are still damages, landlords can request additional funding up to two month’s rent (not to exceed 3x month’s rent).”
Source: The Lawrence Times
Cities sell criminal weapons per Legislature mandate
Six years after the state Legislature mandated that nearly all guns used in Kansas crimes be sold back to the public, the city of Wichita has become a substantial gun dealer, selling an average of about 400 firearms a year online — but receiving less than half of the proceeds. More than 2,000 firearms have been sold by City Hall since 2015, when it held its first gun sales in compliance with the state law that was passed a year earlier. The guns, seized from robberies, drive-by shootings, drug deals and myriad other offenses and investigations, are sold through an online auction site. Supporters say selling the guns is no different from disposing of any other surplus city property and safeguards are in place to ensure they’re only sold to law-abiding citizens through a licensed dealer. Opponents say local government shouldn’t be in the weapons business at all and that there’s no guarantee the guns won’t find their way back to the criminal element through private person-to-person sales and “straw purchases,” where potential buyers who can’t pass a background check enlist a friend with a cleaner record to take delivery.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle