Kansas Municipal News
Wichita school board votes to strongly recommend but not require masks as year begins
Children returning to Wichita Public Schools are strongly encouraged to wear masks indoors whether or not they have been vaccinated, although the Wichita Board of Education will not require masks for students or staff despite the increased threat posed by the COVID-19 delta variant. The school board voted 4-3 Monday evening to “strongly recommend” mask-wearing, overriding concerns that not implementing a mask mandate puts children who are too young to be vaccinated as well as immunocompromised family members at risk of contracting the virus. The board approved Superintendent Alicia Thompson’s recommendation to require masks for visitors to Wichita schools while only encouraging students and staff to use them as a safety measure to prevent the spread.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Municipal Bond Trends for August 9, 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.
This Johnson County city will hire 25 goats to clear off weeds in a popular park
Next time you’re picnicking in Lenexa’s Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park, you might spot some goats having lunch there as well. While park officials see honeysuckle and callery pear as a problem, goats see them as a delicious feast. The city of Lenexa is about to use a small herd of goats for a grazing project to get rid of unwanted plants that harm water quality in streams. It hired Goats on the Go, a company that provides goats for just such needs. The 25 to 30 goats will start grazing on 2.5 acres at the park in late August or early September. The contract costs the city $1,362.50, less than the cost of other methods, officials say.
Source: KC Star Local News
Lawrence now has an indoor mask mandate
The city of Lawrence and Douglas County are adding to the local mandates aimed at controlling the more contagious COVID-19 delta variant. They announced the mask requirements Friday. The rules take effect Monday and apply whether someone has been vaccinated against COVID-19 or not. Their announcements came the same day the University of Kansas imposed an indoor mask mandate at its main campus in Lawrence and a satellite campus in Johnson County. In Manhattan in northeast Kansas, both the city and Kansas State University are requiring masks inside their buildings.
Source: KSN-TV
First Electricity, Now Internet: Rural Areas Struggle To Gain Infrastructure
About 22% of Americans who live in rural areas that lack broadband, compared to 1.5% of those in cities, according to the Federal Communications Commission. “In rural areas, you can have less than 10 customers for every mile of fiber optics that you have,” says Hamid Vahdatipour, CEO of Lake Region Electric Cooperative. “In town, that number could go as high as 50 or 70 customers per mile, so it is difficult to provide this kind of service for rural America.” Vahdatipour says rural broadband faces the same basic challenge as electricity: for-profit companies don’t want to invest. The federal government fixed that issue by setting up cooperatives to help rural residents pay to install poles and lines. Now the same cooperatives that set up electricity want to add broadband to their list of services. But while the challenges are similar, bringing broadband to the countryside is more complicated.
Source: KCUR News
City of Manhattan profiting off of scooter use
Around the city of Manhattan you can find lime green scooters zooming around town, the scooters owned by Link have been in Manhattan since 2020. Those scooters have generated more than $30,000 for the city, according to recently released data. City commissioners last week also gave the green light to keep the scooters on the road for a few more years. “We extended the agreement with Link for another three years and they have the ability to put about 750 scooters throughout the city’s public right of way and the campus, throughout the community on any given day,” said assistant to the city manager Jared Wasinger. Wasinger also noted that the number of scooters on the road can vary on the time of the year, more in the early part of the fall, less in the winter, and less as well in the summer as K-State students head home.
Source: KSNT News
Roeland Park to pilot curbside glass recycling pickup, a service no other major NEJC city offers
Roeland Park last week approved a pilot program with Ripple Glass, a local glass recycling company, to offer curbside glass pickup to 600 households in the city. Erin Winn, assistant city administrator, said the city council approved a six-month pilot program that’s expected to begin Oct. 1. Roeland Park is working with Ripple Glass to finalize the scope and timeline, though which particular area of the city the pilot will be conducted has not been finalized.
Source: Prairie Village Post
City of Lawrence now taking donations for utility assistance program
The city is now accepting donations from residents to help their neighbors in need pay their utility bills, according to a news release Monday. Though there’s no set date for the city to restart utility shutoffs, customers who have a delinquent balance for more than 22 days could lose service once shutoffs do resume. Currently, that’s about 10% of the city’s residential customers, according to the release. “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated a problem with outstanding utility payments as it left some of our community members unable to keep up with bills due to lost employment, an inability to work, or other circumstances,” according to the release. “To assist these households, the City halted utility shut-offs during the pandemic.”
Source: The Lawrence Times
Wichita will use federal grant to help vulnerable communities in dealing with COVID-19
The city of Wichita will receive a $4 million federal grant that will be used to improve health literacy and expand education and outreach services to help racial and ethnic minority communities and vulnerable populations in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The grant is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through its Office of Minority Health. The OMH has awarded $250 million in grants to 73 local governments across the country as part of a new two-year initiative. The goal is to improve COVID-19 vaccination and other mitigation practices among underserved populations. The city will be working with the Wichita Black Alliance, Sedgwick County, the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, HealthCore Clinic, Hunter Health, GraceMed and other agencies.
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI
SHARP Recovery Grants available for urban and rural cultural nonprofits
The Humanities Kansas SHARP Recovery Grants are intended to reach a diverse network of urban and rural cultural nonprofits located in Kansas whose primary work involves the humanities. Funds are intended to help cultural nonprofit organizations recover from financial hardship resulting from the pandemic. Funds may be used to cover day-to-day expenses such as staff salaries, utilities, rent, and equipment and staffing needs related to transitioning post-pandemic. There are no cash match or cost share requirements.
Award amounts are divided into three categories based on an organization’s annual budget:
• Organizations with an annual budget of $100,000 or less may request up to $5,000.
• Organizations with an annual budget between $100,000 and $400,000 may request up to 5% of their budget ($5,000-$20,000).
• Organizations with an annual budget over $400,000 may request up to $20,000.
Learn more here.
Municipal benchmark yields rose by as much as 0.05% Friday, following a stronger-than-expected jobs report
Municipal benchmark yields rose by as much as five basis points Friday, following a stronger-than-expected jobs report, but the asset class outperformed the moves in Treasury bonds. An increase in supply next week may test current low levels. Continued strength in the economy was seen as nonfarm payrolls rose 943,000 and the jobless rate fell to 5.4% last month, the
Labor Department reported. “The dollar is surging following a better-than-expected nonfarm payroll report, which may have paved the way for the Fed to announce tapering if the economy delivers one more robust report in September,” said Ed Moya, senior market analyst for the Americas at OANDA.
Source: Bond Buyer.
Municipal Bond Trends for August 6, 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.
Small Kansas town is taking on Netflix, Hulu over franchise fees
On its surface, the notion that Fort Scott, Kansas, could stand up to Netflix and Hulu seems like a David and Goliath battle of the highest order. On one hand, you have an 8,000-person town in the state’s southeast corner, most famous for its U.S. Army garrison in the 19th century and its role in the Civil War during that timeframe. Facing them are a pair of giants in the media world, with the companies combining for almost $30 billion in profits in 2020. But the battle royale between the unlikely foes is set to play out, with Fort Scott filing suit against the streaming giants in Bourbon County District Court last month, the latest chess move amid the larger decline in the number of Americans subscribing to cable. This has left local governments in an awkward spot, as they receive a cut of profits from cable companies — but not firms like Netflix or Hulu. Nationally, this has led to a spate of lawsuits against the companies, as well as their counterparts like Disney+.
Source: Hutch News.
Managing Rights of Way from Top to Bottom
There’s more than one way to look at vegetation management. The work electric cooperatives and their contractors do to help keep electric lines and other equipment separated from plant overgrowth plays a major role in service reliability. From mowing and brush work at ground level to tree trimming near or above power lines, electric co-ops regularly inspect and manage the landscape in and around their equipment. Effective to prevent outages, minimize the threat of fire damage and maintain access and serviceability. Utility providers, including electric cooperatives, have worked with local, state and federal foresters to develop integrated vegetation management practices aimed at reducing the need for chemicals, costly manual and mechanical control measures and controlled burning.
Source: Sunflower Electric
City of Edgerton seeks residential developers
A lack of land for sale, and an untested market has limited Edgerton’s residential growth, according to a recent housing study commissioned by ElevateEdgerton! James Oltman, ElevateEdgerton! recently provided information at an Edgerton City council meeting regarding a housing study. The board of directors for ElevateEdgerton! completed a study based only on Edgerton. … He stated the final step in the process was the final report that showed the market analysis, overview of housing challenges and assets, directions for moving forward and a memo regarding the code review. According to the report, demolitions have outpaced construction in Edgerton with 23 houses lost and six constructed. He said 79 percent of Edgerton’s housing stock was constructed between 1970 and 2009 with 36 percent being in the 1970s and less than one percent being built in the last 10 years.
Source: Gardner News
Majority of Gardner residents want fireworks, survey says
The majority of Gardner residents have no issue with the current fireworks ordinance, according to survey results presented at the Aug. 2 city council meeting. According to Amy Nasta, deputy city administrator, the online survey had more than 3,300 responses and 52 percent had no concerns regarding the current ordinance. A survey was conducted thru Survey Monkey, an online software program. Nasta said the survey received the most responses from any city survey with 3,358 responses.
Source: Gardner News
Kansas firefighters sharpening their skills while helping fight fires out west
From California to Nevada and Idaho, wildfires are raging in the west. Crews from right here in Kansas are helping battle those blazes. A group from the Hutchinson Fire Department returned Thursday night to Hutchinson. The four-man crew said it’s a trip that helped them learn more about fighting fires — an education they believe will help them here in Kansas. Firefighter Cole Inghram and Brent Fisher were the eyes in the sky for the Stateline Complex Fire. “We were able to get up on a peak lookout tower that was at 64,000 feet and be able to look down on the fire behavior and watch weather, take observations, give them trends on what the fire had been doing and where it progressed to,” said Inghram. “We’re able to communicate with everybody on the ground and tell them what we were seeing, give them a heads up and give predictions as to what the fire might do.”
Source: KSN-TV
Winfield seeks feedback on backyard chickens
The City of Winfield wants to hear from the public about whether to increase the number of chickens residents are allowed to keep. The planning commission will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall to collect opinions on the keeping of chickens within the city limits. A local citizen has asked to change the current regulations that allows just one chicken to be kept for exhibit in 4-H or the county free fair, according to a press release issued by the city.
Source: The Arkansas City Traveler
Chanute Land Bank assists several local building projects
The Chanute Land Bank awarded the remainder of its moderate-income housing funds Wednesday morning and has one project lined up as soon as more money is available. The board approved requests for a historic downtown building, two home renovations and two new home construction projects under the Chanute Housing Improvement Program. They also tentatively approved a downtown project when more money is available. “I knew this would go quick and it did,” Kim Ewert with the land bank said. The funding brings a total of 15 new housing units to Chanute.
Source: The Chanute Tribune
Riley County gives final approval to 0.2% sales tax ballot question
Riley County commissioners on Thursday officially approved adding a question to the Nov. 2 election ballot asking whether voters would be in favor of a 0.2% sales tax for road and bridge projects. The current 0.5% countywide sales tax, which is shared by the city and county governments, comes to the end of its 10-year term on Dec. 31, 2022. If voters approve the proposed 0.2% rate, it would come with a shorter term of five years and take effect Jan. 1, 2023. If the question is approved by voters, all sales tax proceeds could only be used for road and bridge improvements, including maintenance and construction. These projects would be outside of the Manhattan city limits.
Source: themercury.com