Kansas Municipal News
Municipal Bond Trends for May 25, 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.
Treasury yields fall as inflation fears ease
U.S. Treasury yields fell on Tuesday morning, following recent comments from Federal Reserve officials, allaying fears around inflation. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.591% at 4:20 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond dipped to 2.283%. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles is due to speak before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
Source: CNBC – Bonds
Tornado touchdown in northwest Kansas
The Sheridan County Emergency Management confirmed a tornado touched ground in the town of Selden Monday around 6:30 p.m. The emergency manager reported buildings and trees down, homes damaged, an overturned semi and possibly one injury. There has also been a train overturned and a silo destroyed. “We have reports of injury crashes from semi-trucks that were blown over. We also have a train that is blown over,” said Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Tod Hileman. “We are checking on the residents of Selden to make sure that they are okay and the surrounding area.”
Source: KSNT News
Municipal Bond Trends for May 24, 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.
Lawrence leaders to review police department study and recommendations
Amid a nationwide reckoning with police brutality and the role of police in communities, city leaders will soon review the findings of a recently completed study of the Lawrence police department and recommended changes to its operations. As part of a special meeting Tuesday, consultants with Citygate Associates will present the findings of the police department study to the City Commission and the public. The commission called for the study and subsequent report following national and local protests against police killings of Black people and other people of color, and calls for reallocation of some police duties. The subsequent report includes 75 recommendations across various categories, including race-related issues and community engagement, handling of complaints against police, and alternative responses to policing.
Source: LJWorld.com.
Eskridge Lumber almost closed five years ago. These 31 residents put their money together to save it.
It was in 2016 that the former owners of Eskridge Lumber decided to retire. They either needed to sell the business or close its doors. That’s when community members stepped up. They wanted to purchase the business and run it as an LLC. “Most of us anyway didn’t really expect a return on our money,” said Beverly Clark, a retired school district employee. For the past five years, Eskridge Lumber has been under the ownership of 31 people who have invested time and money into the store.
Source: CJonline.com.
Abbyville Frontier Days PRCA Rodeo entertains
An award-winning rodeo clown came back home for the Abbyville Frontier Days PRCA Rodeo this weekend. Justin Rumford, who was born in Abbyville, won the PRCA Clown of the Year award, a record-breaking nine times – from 2012 through 2020. Rumford, who is in high demand throughout the country, was excited to come home to where he started his rodeo career by following his father, rodeo legend Bronc Rumford around the circuit. Rumford’s grandfather, Floyd Rumford along with his father Bronc, helped build the Abbyville Rodeo. It’s now in its 59th year.
Source: Hutch News.
Kansas contemplating $200-$250 million overhaul of law enforcement training facility
Proposed modernization of the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center in Hutchinson at a cost of $200 million to $250 million would adhere to curriculum and instructional reforms necessary to prepare a new generation of public-safety officers, officials said. Implementation of a campus master plan — the first since the center was authorized in 1968 — would require approval of the Kansas Legislature. The anticipated price tag could lead the state to embrace a private-public partnership in which the infrastructure was financed and built by a private company and leased to the state for a period leading to acquisition.
Source: Kansas Reflector
Kansas education funding hike, school choice eligibility expansion signed into law
Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday commended a new bipartisan education law increasing education spending that fully funds Kansas education for the third year in a row while also expanding eligibility for private school scholarships. House Bill 2134, the product of negotiations between House and Senate lawmakers and the governor’s office, funds the state’s 286 local public school districts at an annual rate of $5.2 billion for the budget year beginning July 1. It also places restrictions on public schools’ use of remote instruction and directs local school boards to use federal COVID-19 aid to give district employees a $500 bonus, among a bevy of policy changes.
Source: Kansas Reflector
WPD helps celebrate students moving on to middle school
Over the weekend, four Wichita police officers joined a group of kids in celebrating a big milestone, graduating from the fifth grade. “I will never forget this day,” said Kieamarion Burton, graduated from the fifth grade. The kids said they did not know the officers were going to be joining them. It was a pleasant surprise for all the grads. “I thought somebody was going to jail or something, but they said it was for our graduation,” said Burton.
Source: KSN-TV
Natoma residents and others in Osborne County must report flood damage by state’s June 8 deadline
The State of Kansas says there is a deadline for people in Natoma and the rest of Osborne County to report flood damage. The Kansas Division of Emergency Management wants to hear from residents by Tuesday, June 8, 2021. Officials will submit the information and a request for assistance to the Small Business Administration which will make an eligibility determination for low-interest disaster loans. Osborne County residents who have flood damage should call 785-646-2522 or e-mail ng.ks.ksarng.list.kdem-damage-collection@mail.mil.
Source: KSN-TV
McCue comes back to South Hutchinson
New South Hutchinson City Manager Joseph Turner announced Monday that former city clerk Denise McCue is returning to South Hutchinson and will resume that role once again. McCue held that position for 18 years before resigning last year. She replaces Kara Neilsen who resigned this spring. …Turner consulted with the governing body and devised a strategy to get McCue to come back. Under a new agreement the city clerk will no longer be an annual appointed position. Instead, McCue will now work under the terms of a three-year contract with severance package provisions and can only be terminated by the city administrator.
Source: Hutch Post.
Natoma residents continue cleanup after flooding
It’s been nearly a week since flooding devastated the town of Natoma in Osborne County. While residents have been cleaning up their homes since Monday, all of the damage from Sunday’s floods have turned places such as the local park into a dumping ground for everything that has been destroyed. “It was devastating, really,” Ronda Hitschman said, looking at her home. All of her salvageable belongings are in her front yard. “It’s overwhelming. It’s totally overwhelming.” Hitschman and her family have been cleaning up their home since Monday, as have other Natoma residents. The locals say that things have been “chaotic” and “eye-opening.” Much of the cleanup has been organized by the people in town, and while that shows how close-knit a community Natoma is, it’s also been very challenging.
Source: KAKE – News
New Wichita loan program aims to support minority-, women-owned businesses in District 1
The city of Wichita is rolling out a new program designed to bolster businesses in the city’s District 1 by providing short-term loans to minority- and women-owned businesses. The PROPEL program, which stands for Providing Resources & Opportunities for Proprietors, Entrepreneurs & Lenders, opens for applications Monday. The city will lend business owners up to $15,000 at 3% interest, and loans must be repaid within 36 months. The revolving fund will start as an $88,000 pool of money from District 1’s cut of the 2016 Hyatt Regency Wichita sale, when each district was awarded $1 million.
Source: Wichita Eagle
Municipal Bond Trends for May 21, 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.
Economist: Why rises in bond yields should be only modest
The COVID-19 pandemic made it abundantly clear that central banks had the tools, and were willing to use them, to counter a dramatic fall-off in global economic activity. That economies and financial markets were able to find their footing so quickly after a few downright scary months in 2020 was in no small part because of monetary policy that kept bond markets liquid and borrowing terms super-easy. Now, as newly vaccinated individuals unleash their pent-up demand for goods and services on supplies that may initially struggle to keep up, questions naturally arise about resurgent inflation and interest rates, and what central banks will do next. Vanguard’s global chief economist, Joe Davis, recently wrote how the coming rises in inflation are unlikely to spiral out of control and can support a more promising environment for long-term portfolio returns. Similarly, in forthcoming research on the unwinding of loose monetary policy, we find that central bank policy rates and interest rates more broadly are likely to rise, but only modestly, in the next several years.
Source: Vanguard
Fed’s Daly says inflation pressures likely to ease in 2022
Factors pushing U.S. inflation higher are likely to ebb at the start of 2022, said Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly. “There’s just going to be a sequence of these temporary factors that are going to persist probably through the end of the year,” Daly said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg News. “They will start to roll off at the beginning of next year. How many of them will roll off or whether other bottlenecks will emerge as we start to get the economy back into shape and get back into recovery is hard to say.” Daly, a voter this year on monetary policy, said she expects inflation to remain elevated through the end of 2021 and that a variety of pressures are adding to price increases right now, including supply-chain constraints in shipping and semiconductor manufacturing and the so-called base effect of comparing this year’s prices to last year’s pandemic-induced declines.
Source: The Bond Buyer
Archaeological field in Ark City coming in June
Wichita State University archaeologist Don Blakeslee will direct a month-long field school in Arkansas City for 20 college-level archaeological students starting June 1. They include 13 Kansas students from Wichita State and other state schools, and seven from out of state. Assisting Blakeslee with the students during the field school will be Cowley College social studies instructor Meredith Mahoney and Crystal Dozier, assistant professor of anthropology at WSU.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler
Kansas tourism industry ‘getting back on the horse’
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is highlighting the state’s tourism and hospitality industry, the ninth-largest industry in the state. The industry brought in more than $86 million per year for the state in pre-pandemic days. Dan Murray, Kansas state director of National Federation of Independent Business, told The Center Square there is no doubt the pandemic dramatically impacted the tourism industry and tourism-related retailers. “From gift shops in Lindsborg to bars and restaurants in Manhattan on a football Saturday, small businesses saw a steep drop in foot traffic,” Murray said. “Many retailers and venues tried to overcome the limitations imposed by the government by offering virtual experiences and increased online presence.”
Source: Derby Informer | News
City, county review Manhattan Development Code
Officials anticipate moving into the final stages of finishing the Manhattan Development Code in mid-July. Chad Bunger, assistant director of community development for the city government, updated Riley County commissioners Thursday on the progress of the Manhattan Development Code during a joint meeting with Manhattan city commissioners. The main goal is to put all the zoning and design information into one document and make it easier for the public to understand. Officials have been working with Manhattan city commissioners on this document for the past few months. Manhattan Mayor Wynn Butler encouraged the county commissioners to review the code more in-depth before the city officially adopts it later this year.
Source: themercury.com