Municipal News & Jobs

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.

Joey Bahr walks out to the front of his yard along a blacktop county road. He stops in a ditch and points to an orange-and-black sign that marks a buried fiberoptic cable. But for Bahr, the cable running beneath his feet is off-limits. It’s owned by a neighboring internet service provider and is merely passing through on its way to a nearby town. “It’s just maddening,” Bahr said. “We’re at the end of the line basically.” Bahr’s story illustrates just how out-of-reach broadband remains for tens of millions of people in rural America. Nearly 9% of Kansas households — roughly 130,000 — still don’t have access to high-speed internet. Yet the promise of a future with broadband for all Kansans, no matter how remote, might rest in the wide-open skies over the Bahrs’ home — and a plan to send Wi-Fi to a future Mars colony.
Source: Hutch News.

Where does Scott City hope to see itself in the next five years, the next decade and beyond? Local residents will have an opportunity to provide their input during a Scott Community Vision meeting and workshop on Thurs., Feb. 11, from 5:30-9:00 p.m., at the Scott City Middle School commons area. This meeting had originally been planned a year ago, just prior to the pandemic, but the delay may have been the best thing that could have happened, says Scott County Development Committee director Katie Eisenhour.
Source: Scott County Record.

On two previous occasions in Scott City’s history, the city council has hired an administrator to assume more of the dayto-day as well as long-range planning for the city. The last time that position was created was in January of 1996 … A new time and increasing demands on elected officials have prompted the city council to hire a consultant and begin the search for an administrator. … [Mayor] Green said the recent decision by City Clerk Brenda Davis to retire on April 20 makes this a good time for this transition to an administrator.
Source: Scott County Record.

The city of Topeka is working to make the Oakland Wastewater Treatment Plant more environmentally friendly, and doing so could be fiscally beneficial as well. Material at waste facilities, which can include waste from flushing toilets, breaks down and creates biogas, said Braxton Copley, deputy director of the city’s Utility Department. That gas can be captured and sold, but Topeka is flaring off the gas until the project is completed. Copley said Topeka partnered with Bluesource to market the gas. He estimated biogas can bring in about $1.7 million in the first year. With the total cost of the project about $27.2 million, he hopes the pipeline can pay for itself in 16 years. About 10% of that revenue is generated from the gas while the rest is from tax credits, which are obtained in an “extremely complicatedprocess,” Hadfield said.
Source: CJonline.com.

Garden City’s face covering ordinance was extended again. The Garden City Commission approved another 30-day extension to its face covering ordinance at its regular commission meeting Tuesday. It was approved with by a 3-2 vote, with Commissioners Manny Ortiz and Roy Cessna dissenting. The ordinance was originally approved at the city’s Nov. 17 regular meeting and was designed to expire after 30 days unless extended by a majority vote of the commission prior to its expiration.
Source: GC Telegram.