Kansas Municipal News
Beyond big cities, independent pharmacies ‘begging’ for vaccine
Dared and Renee Price are husband-and-wife pharmacists in south-central Kansas, and have spent tens of thousands of dollars and several months getting their six independent outlets in five small towns ready to deliver the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. They’ve had to buy freezers, temperature monitors and a mobile refrigerator. They’d like to break even. At first, they received just 100 doses through the federal retail pharmacy program, though they’ve since gotten more. It’s unlikely to be a big money-maker — in Kansas, they’ll be reimbursed about $24 for fully vaccinating someone with two doses — yet they see it as part of the service they provide to customers who live far from big hospitals and mass immunization sites. “We were just begging for vaccine,” said Dared Price. “Because we’ve done all this preparation, we had all the processes in place. Our waiting list was thousands of people long.”
Source: Wichita News
Innovative building provides new housing in rural Kansas
The Net Positive Studio was started in 2018 by Michael Gibson, a licensed architect and associate professor of architecture at Kansas State University, who teaches students to design and build homes for demonstration and partners with nonprofits to help fund the projects and get them built. “K-state is not gonna build 50 houses a year, but what we can do is we can show a different approach to doing this,” Gibson said. “We can show a type of house and the type of construction that you don’t see very much in Kansas.” In the U.S., median home prices have risen four times the rate of household incomes, and part of the reason is that the average size of houses has gotten larger and larger.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Despite rising inflation, experts say the Fed won’t budge on rates
The U.S. Federal Reserve won’t step in to temper rising inflation any time soon, market watchers have said, despite surging yields that have roiled global stock markets. Stocks have been tethered over the past week to rising Treasury yields and the possibility that the Fed will tighten monetary policy to tackle an expected rise in inflation. On Thursday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged that “some upward pressure on prices” could occur as the economy reopens, noting that he expects the central bank to be “patient” on policy action even if the economy sees “transitory increases in inflation.”
Source: CNBC
Wamego’s Columbian Theater celebrates 125 years
Growing up in Wamego, Clint Stueve saw how a group of people rallied around an old, crumbling theater to save the community landmark for future generations. It’s that kind of passion Stueve is relying on to get the theater through its next 125 years. Officially, The Columbian Theater turned 125 in 2020. But in a year marred by cancelled public gatherings and anxiety over the coronavirus, the theater’s plans to celebrate the milestone were tamped down. Some of them have even been postponed to the next notable year, the theater’s 130th anniversary in 2025.
Source: CJonline.com.
Application process is now open for the City Utility Low-Interest Loan Program
The City Utility Low-Interest Loan Program became law on March 4, 2021 after the publication of House Substitute for Senate Bill 88 in the Kansas Register. This program grants the State Treasurer’s Office the ability to issue loans to the cities in Kansas who have incurred extraordinary electric and/or natural gas costs during the extreme weather event of February, 2021. These loans will be issued at a rate that is 2.00% below the market rate as provided in K.S.A. 75-4237 with a minimum interest rate of 0.25%.
The State Treasurer has opened the application process. Cities can learn more and apply for loans using the application available here.
Municipal Bond Trends for March 4, 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.
Kansas House passes property tax transparency bill
The Kansas House passed Thursday a property tax transparency bill approved in a hurry by the Senate within the first week of the 2021 legislative session. Senate Bill 13 would repeal the property tax lid on yearly mill levy increases and instead establish a “revenue-neutral rate” which adjusts the effective tax rate to account for increases in assessed property value. It also establishes a requirement of notice and public hearing for municipalities seeking to collect property taxes exceeding their revenue-neutral rate.
Source: Kansas Reflector
City of Edgerton offers low cost pet clinic
Edgerton residents with pets need to update licenses by the end of the month. A current rabies vaccination is required. For those who can’t make their usual veterinarian appointments can be made at the low-cost animal vaccine clinic which returns to Edgerton City Hall in 2021 on March 20 from 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Residents must sign up for a 15 minute timeslot to have their pets vaccinated. Reservations are accepted through petclinic.eventbrite.com or by calling city hall at 913.893.6231. Up to four pets are allowed per resident, per appointment. The clinic will offer low cost rabies and distemper vaccines, as well as microchips.
Source: Gardner News
Kansas River path has merit
There’s a lot to like about the concept of a bike trail along the Kansas River, from Junction City to Wamego. There are also some major bumps on the path forward, if you’ll pardon the wordplay. The concept surfaced this week in public meetings; among other things, the Riley County Commission agreed to support the concept, without committing any money. The idea is to build a trail along the river, the origin of which is at Junction City. (History lesson: The reason for that city’s name is that it’s the location of the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers. Those two merge to form the Kansas River.)
Source: The Iola Register
Roeland Park bans smoking in public parks, violators could be fined $100
Roeland Park is the latest Johnson County city to ban smoking and all tobacco products in its public parks and other recreational facilities. The city council this week voted 5-2 to approve the ban, which will take effect no sooner than March 31. The ban also pertains to the community and aquatic centers, the sports dome, athletic fields, tennis courts, walking trails, restrooms, spectator and concession areas, and their public grounds, according to council documents.
Source: Shawnee Mission Post
Racist deed restrictions remain in northeast Johnson County but erasing them has proven difficult
Two northeast Johnson County cities appear to have come to a standstill in their efforts to eradicate racist deed restrictions implemented decades ago by developer J.C. Nichols. Nothing more can be easily done, they say, and residents have mixed feelings about what should happen next. The U.S. Supreme Court has found racially restrictive housing covenants — instituted primarily in suburban communities across the U.S. in the middle part of last century — to be unenforceable. In recent years, Roeland Park and Prairie Village have made moves to try to erase language that excludes Blacks, Jews and other racial and ethnic minorities from homes associations’ deeds within their boundaries.
Source: Shawnee Mission Post
Mulberry files lawsuit accusing BP Energy of price gouging during extreme cold
A small Kansas town is fighting natural gas prices charged by BP Energy during last month’s extreme cold, accusing the multinational oil and gas giant of “unconscionable profiteering” under state statute. A lawsuit filed Tuesday by the city of Mulberry says BP inflated prices for natural gas from $2.98 per mmbtu on Feb. 9 to $329.615 from Feb. 13-16. The city is asking for bills to be recalculated at a reasonable rate. Jim Zakoura, an attorney involved in the city of Mulberry’s legal fight over high natural gas prices, says BP Energy illegally profited during from a disaster.
Source: Kansas Reflector
Vaccines, mask compliance, weather credited with better Kansas COVID trends in February
Public health workers and medical doctors have several theories for why coronavirus pandemic indicators improved significantly in Kansas in February. Despite the improvement, officials say COVID-19 continues to pose a serious public health threat, and it is too soon to stop wearing face masks. “I’m afraid that we could be lulled into complacency and end up allowing this to plateau off when we could continue to drive the numbers down,” Dr. Lee Norman, the state’s health secretary, said during a Tuesday media briefing hosted by The University of Kansas Health System.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Lenexa on verge of changing city code to allow for more homeless shelters
Lenexa is making progress on new city codes that would regulate homeless shelters in the city. The Lenexa Planning Commission on Monday night considered city staff’s proposed regulations that govern the operations of such shelters. Central to the conversation was finding a balance between accommodating the unique circumstances of Project 1020, the only cold weather shelter in Johnson County that serves single adult men, and building new codes that would fit for any future shelters in Lenexa. Project 1020 is located at Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Geary County to hold mass-vaccination site in Junction City
Geary County has announced that it will hold a mass-vaccination site in Junction City this Saturday. Geary County Emergency Management is coordinating with KDHE, Hy-Vee and USD 475 to distribute a total of 1,000 COVID-19 vaccines this Saturday to those eligible during Phase 2 of the state’s vaccine distribution plan. The event will take place at Junction City High School, which is located at 900 North Eisenhower Drive, from 8 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Source: 1350 KMAN
Gov. Kelly Unveils Plan To Vaccinate Kansas Meatpacking Plant Workers
Governor Laura Kelly announced on Thursday her administration’s plan to vaccine meatpacking plant workers across the state. She says that any worker who wants to be vaccinated will be able to receive their first dose within the next 2 weeks. Counties with meatpacking plants will be receiving additional vaccine doses that will be set aside specifically for meatpacking workers. These will be in addition to the doses that counties receive already from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The KDHE is coordinating directly with meatpacking plants as well as local health departments.
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI
Sedgwick County partnership targets underserved communities and COVID-19 vaccine
More than 1,800 people in Sedgwick County are being vaccinated everyday. Now, people living in disadvantaged neighborhoods will have better access to the shot. On Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., people living in east Wichita will have the opportunity to get the vaccine at the St. James Missionary Baptist Church. You can sign up online through the church or call the parish directly. Carl Stovall is the trustee chairman at St. James Church. He says the building is already used for testing, so it’s easy to transition to a vaccination site. “It means a lot to this community because a lot of people can’t maybe get out and go downtown and do all that, but we’re getting people from right in this immediate zip code.”
Source: KAKE – News
Kansas Deputy Secretary of Business Development visits Scott City
Bill Murphy, Deputy Secretary of Business Development for the Kansas Department of Commerce made a stop in Scott City Wednesday morning as part of his tour around western Kansas. Murphy met with Katie Eisenhour, Exective Director of the Scott City Development Committe, and with Scott City Area Chamber of Commerce Director Lindsay Singley for about an hour to discuss items that effect Scott County and western Kansas. To conclude their visit to Scott City, Murphy then toured Nu Life Market on the east edge of Scott City. Nu Life Market produces flours that are GMO free and gluten free.
Source: Western Kansas News
Messaging is part of the formula for eco-devo success in rural Kansas
When it comes to investing in its future, Katie Eisenhour never lets an opportunity slip by without pointing out that Scott City takes a backseat to no one. “We take our future into our own hands here,” Eisenhour told representatives with the Kansas Department of Commerce who included Scott City on their swing through Western Kansas. The director of the Scott County Development Committee noted that over the past 18 years, taxpayers and private entities had invested about $124 million into the local infrastructure. “But every now and then we need assistance. I think it’s important for you to know that when you help us you’re going to get a good return on that investment,” Eisenhour said. Eisenhour’s audience included Bill Murphy, deputy secretary of the Kansas Department of Commerce, and Craig VanWey, superintendent of in-state business development. “The goal of the department is to complement the work that is already being done in Western Kansas,” said Murphy, whose two-hour stop also included a tour of Nu-Life Market.
Source: Scott County Record.
Airbnb requirements and other short-term rentals in Topeka just got stricter
One Topeka resident could lose about $1,000 a month in missed business after the Topeka City council approved changes to an ordinance governing short-term rentals. Suzy Loy, an Airbnb operator, says she will need to rethink her rental strategy or lose the monthly revenue. …The updated ordinance requires short-term rentals to include one parking space for the primary resident with one space for every two guest bedrooms. Up to three on-street spaces can be replaced with a minimum of 22 feet of “unobstructed street frontage per space,” which Loy isn’t able to do.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal