Municipal News & Jobs

Kansas Municipal News

Olathe educators says district’s new cellphone rules have been ‘non-issue’

Olathe Public Schools’ new cellphone policy is going well four months after its approval, three administrators said Thursday. Principals representing the elementary, middle and high school levels addressed the Olathe Board of Education at its last meeting of the semester Dec. 4, providing an update on the personal electronic device policy that was approved in August. “Overall, it’s really been a non-issue,” said Olathe Northwest High School Principal Chris Zuck. “It’s probably not the kids’ favorite policy that we’ve ever put in place, but the strengths — or maybe some of the successes — have included some more instructional time and engagement in classrooms.” Under the policy, students of any age can have their cellphones in their bags, in their locker or kept “on their person” provided they “are not visible during the school day.”
Source: Johnson County Post

City commission approves contract for extra solar energy

The City of Holton gets its electric power from a variety of sources, and following action by the Holton City Commission, the city will add a solar energy source to its power portfolio, starting in 2027.
Source: Holton Recorder

Governor Kelly Announces More than $8M Toward Closing the Digital Divide

Governor Laura Kelly announced Thursday that the Kansas Office of Broadband Development will begin accepting applications on Feb. 3, 2025, for funding from the National Telecommunications Information and Administration (NTIA) Digital Equity Capacity Grant program. There will be a total of $8.2 million available in funding. The program promotes partnerships to enhance digital opportunity efforts and expand workforce skills, education, and other resources.
Source: Kansas Department of Commerce

Riley County considers policy for incentivizing ‘affordable’ housing

Riley County’s budget and planning committee on Monday presented a policy for incentives intended to entice developers build affordable housing. The committee members proposed Reinvestment Housing Incentive District policy. The RHID captures the increase in property taxes created by the development for up to 25 years. Brittany Phillips, county budget and finance officer, presented an overview of the RHID policy at Thursday’s county commission meeting. The county commissioners did not take votes on the matter Monday, as it was their first time looking at the proposal.
Source: 1350 KMAN

Governor Kelly Announces Flora Food Group Investing $90M, Creating 100 New Jobs in Hugoton

Governor Laura Kelly announced Wednesday that Flora Food Group, a global food company, has purchased a manufacturing facility in Hugoton. This capital investment of around $90 million and the expected creation of approximately 100 new jobs over the next several years will elevate the workforce in Stevens County. The facility will be the hub for Flora Food Group’s creams and cream cheese products for the United States, Canada, and the rest of the Americas region over time. Its existing New Century facility will continue to serve as the U.S. hub for Flora Food Group’s butters and spreads products. The intention is to bring back a fully operational facility and jobs to the Hugoton community.
Source: Kansas Department of Commerce

Sedgwick County asking four cities to take over road maintenance

Sedgwick County Commissioners have passed several resolutions asking the cities of Wichita, Kechi, Park City and Goddard to annex rights-of-way along certain roadways and take over maintenance of the roads. Commissioner David Dennis said there has been situations where cities have annexed land, but they haven’t annexed adjacent roads, so county taxpayers are having to pay for maintenance of roads that should be handled by the cities.
Source: 101.3 KFDI

Tourism grant helping turn old schoolhouse into a vacation rental

Kansas Tourism last week presented property owner Clay Graber with a $25,000 check to go toward the revitalization project. Graber estimates the total renovation cost to be $150,000. The Wabaunsee County District No. 1 Primary School at 38130 Elm St. in Wamego was built of limestone in 1879 and saw the education of hundreds of school children. Graber owns and operates Our Little Schoolhouse LLC and has been leading the restoration project since September. He sees the old schoolhouse as a space “where locals and out-of-towners alike can come get away from the busyness of everyday life, enjoy small-town living and learn about the history behind this 150-year-old educational institution.”
Source: 1350 KMAN

Passenger rail could come to Wichita in the next several years. Here’s what’s happening

A rail line connecting the Southwest Chief route in Newton to the Heartland Flyer in Oklahoma City could be fully operational by 2029, the Kansas Department of Transportation says. The connection would include a stop in Wichita, at Union Station, which hasn’t had passenger rail service since the 1970s. For Wichitans, the nearest passenger rail station now is 25 miles north in Newton, and the only pickup time is at 2:45 a.m. Amtrak provides a bus between Newton and Oklahoma City, with a stop in Wichita, in lieu of rail service.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

US electric vehicle infrastructure has tripled in 5 years. Here’s how Kansas compares.

Car buyers who are weary of electric vehicles often share the same concern: “What if I run out of juice and there’s nowhere to charge my car?” That was a fair question in 2007. At the time, there were only 139 public EV charging stations. But in the years since, public and private entities have invested billions into building out charging infrastructure to make EVs a more practical option. In 2023, 0.6% of cars on the road in Kansas were electric or plug-in hybrid. As of November 2024, there were 655 charging stations available. In the last three years, the federal government has allocated $35.3 million in grants toward clean transportation, or about $12 per person.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

County solves grant matching problem

At their Tuesday morning meeting, Allen County Commissioners discussed ways to help Your Community Foundation meet a $70,000 matching grant, without affecting the management of the county’s environmental fund. With the help of County Counsel Bob Johnson, the commission arrived at a solution.
Source: The Iola Register

Leffler named ACC President

Allen Community College trustees announced Tuesday evening that Dr. Lyvier Leffler has been selected as the next president of the college. Leffler’s career includes 11 years at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, where she served as dean of academic services and director of counseling services.
Source: The Iola Register

Kansas’ smallest school district to dissolve following voter, state board approval

Two students are enrolled this year at the Healy Public Schools district in western Kansas, a decrease from 20 students the previous year. Steadily declining enrollment led area voters in November to favor dissolution, and the Kansas State Board of Education affirmed the vote Tuesday. Healy’s neighboring district, Scott County Schools, will absorb its territory and property, and eventually collect taxes that would have typically gone toward the Healy district.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Lawrence city commissioners approve street design with separated bike lanes for section of Mass Street

Community members asked the commission in April to push for the stretch of road, which was already set for a redesign, to include protected bike lanes. City staff members looked at street designs with protected bike lanes in several cities to help evaluate options. The design includes one lane of vehicle traffic in each direction, a center lane for turns, and 5-foot-wide bike lanes separated from the street by a 3-foot-wide median. Residents along the stretch could put their trash carts in the median zone, and solid waste workers could complete trash pickup from the lanes of traffic.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Why all of Kansas would feel loss of Ogallala Aquifer

Depletion of the water supply would be a critical blow to major farming and beef industries, which would send reverberations across the state. Simply living farther east in places like Wichita, Topeka or the Kansas City area won’t make you immune to the effects of lost jobs and tax revenue.
Source: Hutch News

Federal government to study water supply and depletion of Ogallala Aquifer

The U.S. House passed the Water Resources Development Act 399-18 on Tuesday. … A section of the 624-page bill authorizes a federal study in coordination with other federal and state agencies. The comprehensive study will assess “water supply, availability, drought resilience, aquifer recharge, and causes of aquifer depletion, for those regions overlying the Ogallala Aquifer.”
Source: CJonline

Municipal Bond Trends for December 11, 2024

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

Salina Schools superintendent to retire in May

Salina Public Schools Superintendent Linn Exline is set to retire at the end of this school year after spending entire 33-year career in the district.
Source: Salina Journal

Municipal Bond Trends for December 10, 2024

Six in one; half-dozen in the other

In a four-hour session with nearly 40 people in attendance, the Crawford County Commission discussed extending the moratorium on green energy development in the county.
EDF Project Developer Alan Blaesser and Community Engagement Manager Leif Clark spoke directly to the commission expressing their company’s concerns about a 12-month extension, saying that such an action would be a serious threat to the project. In May, EDF asked to be excluded from the moratorium but were denied. As it stands now, according to Clark, the company is extremely concerned about a long extension. EDF has already spent millions of dollars in developing the project and cannot afford to invest in what Clark called an “ambiguous community.”
Source: Morning Sun

USDA Invests $6.3 Billion to Strengthen Rural Infrastructure and Create Good-Paying Jobs in 44 States

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA is investing $6.3 billion in rural and Tribal communities across 44 states to expand access to a clean and reliable electric grid, provide safe drinking water and create good-paying jobs. More than 200 projects are being financed to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure in rural places, growing the American economy from the middle out and bottom up. These projects will help ensure everyone in rural America has access to reliable electricity to increase economic opportunity and improve quality of life. Funding will benefit Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Source: USDA – Latest News Releases

Wichita’s mayor tried to turn down a pay raise. This was the City Council’s response

The Wichita City Council blocked Wichita Mayor Lily Wu from fulfilling one of her campaign promises — not accepting any pay raises. The council’s and mayor’s salaries are bundled with other non-union city employees’ annual salaries, although the city’s agenda report did not explicitly say that the mayor and council members would be voting on their own raises, or what their salaries are. They were all set to receive a 4% raise starting next year. As the council complimented city staff on their roles in running the city and prepared to approve the raises during a City Council meeting Tuesday afternoon, Wu stepped in. Wu — whose salary is $125,970 a year — moved to exclude the mayor’s salary from the wage increases. Her motion failed because no one on the council would second it — a requirement under the city’s rules for an item to be voted on.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Raises approved for Wichita police officers amid calls for contract delay

Wichita police officers will receive substantial raises in 2025 as part of a new Fraternal Order of Police contract approved by the City Council on Tuesday. The unanimous approval came over objections from multiple public speakers who called for a delay on the vote until the FOP and Wichita Police Department agree to address several recommendations from Jensen Hughes, a consultant hired in 2022 for $214,000 to develop a roadmap to restore public trust in police and improve the culture within the department.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

More routes or shorter waits? Officials discuss what would make JoCo’s bus system better

Given a hypothetical choice between shorter wait times at a bus stop and having a wider choice of places to go, county commissioners went with the shorter wait times as they considered how to build a better suburban transit system. The commission had a high-level discussion last week as they continued talks about what needs to be done to attract more riders. Previous work sessions have looked at adjusting fares and services on express routes and the microtransit service.
Source: Johnson County Post

Shawnee Mission finalizing new ‘age appropriate’ cellphone rules for students

A policy intended to clarify students’ use of cellphones and other electronic devices in Shawnee Mission schools was deemed not quite ready for approval at a board meeting Monday night. But the issue is scheduled to come up again at the board’s next meeting on Jan. 13, and board members said they hope to begin implementing it by February. The draft policy sets different rules for elementary, middle and high school students, in an effort to make it “age appropriate,” said Superintendent Michael Schumacher. “This is one of the hardest decisions I think we’ll make this year,” Schumacher said. “But if we can protect instructional time at the high school without fail, that is a huge step in the right direction.”
Source: Johnson County Post

Dodge City fire chief to retire

Dodge City’s fire chief is retiring. According to the City, Fire Chief Ken Spencer will step down on Dec. 20. Spencer started his career 28 years ago as a maintenance worker for Dodge City before becoming a firefighter a year later in 1997. He became a fire engineer in 2001 and a fire captain two years later. He was promoted to Deputy Fire Chief in 2015 and became Chief of the fire department in 2019.
Source: KSN-TV

Regulation change could be boom for hemp in Kansas

On Jan. 1, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture takes over regulating hemp grown in Kansas. “I think there’s a lot of potential to be opening up markets,” said Kelly Rippel, co-founder of Kansans For Hemp. “This change is a big deal.” The change Rippel is talking about is the Kansas Department of Agriculture essentially turning over control of hemp regulations to the feds. The USDA will now be the primary regulating agency over hemp production in the Sunflower State. For years, Rippel has worked with state lawmakers and other state leaders at the KDA to grow the hemp industry in Kansas.
Source: KSN-TV

This city in Kansas will pay you to move there

More than 20% of U.S. residents say they are more likely to move now that the election is over, and some cities are offering cold hard cash to attract newcomers. The pandemic-era rise of remote work made it possible for employees to work away from their company’s home base. Cities such as Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Columbus, Georgia, have tried to attract those workers with incentives worth thousands of dollars. Other initiatives, like the Choose Topeka program in Kansas, are available to workers who relocate to the area even if they don’t work remotely.
Source: KSN-TV

Abilene to again vote on tax for youth sports complex

Voters in Abilene will again be asked to vote to approve a sales tax to pay for new youth sports facilities in the community. In August, voters rejected a sales tax initiative to fund the project. The 0.35% sales tax, or .0035 of every cent spent in Abilene, would go towards funding the new facilities, which would include playing fields for youth baseball, softball, men’s and coed slow pitch, and pickleball, along with seating and support facilities.
Source: KSN-TV

Future of downtown Wichita being planned

The future of downtown Wichita is already being planned. The planning and design firm Sasaki is partnering with Downtown Wichita to develop an action plan for 2035. The executive director of Downtown Wichita says the firm is helping guide them in transforming the city’s core and focusing on attracting development. Housing is a key part of that growth. Sasaki will send a team to Wichita in the spring to hold community workshops, get input and create a plan to present to Downtown Wichita.
Source: KSN-TV

Kansas broadband internet disparities persist despite huge investments

It doesn’t take a lightning-quick internet connection to theorize income, education and geographic disparities underly Kansas’ digital divide. But the nonprofit and nonpartisan Kansas Health Institute’s latest research demonstrated with online county-by-county maps that broadband deficits and computer ownership gaps plaguing Kansas were intertwined with social and demographic influences. Thirty-one percent of low-income Kansas households making less than $20,000 annually didn’t have high-speed connections, KHI said. However, 4.5% of Kansas households earning more than $75,000 were in the same predicament in terms of broadband access.
Source: Kansas Reflector

A total phone ban for students: What Kansas is recommending to school districts

Kansas K-12 education officials are telling local districts that they should ban students from using phones in classrooms — and during the entire school day. The Kansas State Board of Education voted unanimously on Tuesday to formally accept the recommendations of a task force established earlier this year to study student screen time and cellphone use in schools. Local school districts aren’t required to follow the new recommendations.
Source: CJonline

Municipal Bond Trends for December 9, 2024

Wichita City Hall spent $3.4 million on police retention bonuses. Did they work?

At least 48 Wichita Police Department employees who received $5,000 retention bonuses last December left their jobs within a year, The Wichita Eagle has found. And they get to keep the money. The Wichita City Council reopened the city’s negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police last year to approve $3.4 million in unplanned spending for the bonuses in an effort to encourage officers to stay with the department in the wake of a mayoral election where police staffing was the dominant topic.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Lawrence City Commission to consider plan for separated bike lanes on section of Mass Street

Lawrence city staff members are recommending a design for the stretch of Massachusetts Street between 14th and 19th streets that includes 3-foot curbs to separate bike lanes from vehicle traffic. Community members asked the Lawrence City Commission in April to push for the stretch of road, which was already set for a redesign, to include protected bike lanes. City staff members looked at street designs with protected bike lanes in several cities to help evaluate options. The proposed design would include one lane of vehicle traffic in each direction, a center lane for turns, and 5-foot-wide bike lanes separated from the street by a 3-foot-wide median. Residents along the stretch could put their trash carts in the median zone, and solid waste workers could complete trash pickup from the lanes of traffic, according to the meeting agenda.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Cyber attack on plant detailed

The FBI and Homeland Security have completed their investigation of the cyberattack against the Arkansas City water treatment plant that occurred in late September. City Manager Randy Frazer gave a report of those findings to the city commission last week. He said that a detailed analysis by Homeland Security’s Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed that no data had been acquired during the attack. He said according to the report, files were accessed but no staging or transfer of data took place. “There was no personal information compromised,” he said. “None of the citizens information of the employee’s information, so we’ll be closing that investigation out.” But the attack was costly for the city. Frazer said the city carries insurance for such attacks that only covered the legal fees and investigation costs. He said those costs came to $58,550, of which all but the $10,000 deductible was reimbursed.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler

Commerce Launches New Quality of Place Grant for Rural Revitalization

Secretary of Commerce David Toland announced today the launch of the new Towns grant program. This program is an initiative designed to spur quality-of-place improvements in rural Kansas communities that have received no funding from the Kansas Department of Commerce in the past three years. This new opportunity will have $100,000 available for its first round of funding. The program provides grants that range from $1,000 to $10,000 to support small-scaled projects that will deliver meaningful results in rural communities, with a focus on increasing local capacity, fostering community and youth engagement, and mobilizing volunteers and local investment…. Grant applications open Monday, December 16, and will close February 28, 2025. Awardees will be announced mid-April 2025.
Source: Kansas Department of Commerce

Kansas Tourism Announces 13 Attraction Development Grant Awardees

Secretary of Commerce David Toland today announced that more than $400,000 has been awarded for projects that will boost tourism throughout the state. Funding from the Attraction Development Grant program, which focuses on assisting local communities in the development of sustainable travel experiences through new and existing tourism attractions, will be divided among 13 entities…. The grant program is an initiative designed to provide financial assistance to public, private and nonprofit entities to invest in enhancing tourism across the state. The initiative will create a positive economic impact through job creation, capital investment, higher revenue and increased visitation.
Source: Kansas Department of Commerce

Municipal Bond Trends for December 6, 2024

With potential for ‘storm of controversy’, Prairie Village again wades into revising neighborhood guidelines

After an unofficial hiatus of more than a year, Prairie Village is picking up the baton of tweaking neighborhood design guidelines. On Tuesday, after city staff suggested a few options to update the city’s guidelines that address single-family housing issues, the Prairie Village Planning Commission punted the conversation to the city council. Planning commissioners said they wanted to hear feedback from the city council before discussing any changes to the design guidelines. Neighborhood design guidelines — a topic that received significant attention in Prairie Village six years ago — dictate requirements for items such as lot size and lot coverage for new construction.
Source: Johnson County Post

Lenexa will ask residents to renew 3/8-cent sales tax in mail-in election

The Lenexa City Council has approved language for a special mail-in ballot measure asking residents to extend the city’s existing 3/8-cent sales tax. On Tuesday, the city council voted 6-0 to approve a resolution finalizing ballot language that will go before voters in spring 2025, asking whether the sales tax should be renewed or not. Councilmembers Joe Karlin and Craig Denny were absent. Originally approved by voters in 2008, the 3/8-cent tax has served as a key funding source for some of the city’s most visible projects over the past decade-and-a-half. Revenue generated by the tax has helped fund ongoing street maintenance projects, park improvements, city facility renovations and trail construction.
Source: Johnson County Post

How Kansas is spending federal infrastructure dollars

On the whole, U.S. infrastructure is ill-equipped for the demands of modern-day life. In response, the federal government has been pumping money into making repairs and improvements across the country through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021; the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which funds the domestic production of semiconductors and promotes various activities at science agencies; and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Through these, the federal government has announced $582.8 billion in funding toward public infrastructure, semiconductor development, and clean energy across the nation and its territories. The federal government has announced $3.7 billion in funds toward Kansas infrastructure projects. Most of these funds are going toward transportation projects, at 59.0%, which this analysis will cover more thoroughly in the next section.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Emporia puts new rec center project on pause after Tyson, Holiday Resort closures

The City of Emporia is slowing down its progress on building a new recreation center due to several business closure announcements this week. The Emporia Recreation Steering Committee and a city spokeswoman told 27 News on Friday, Dec. 6 that it has decided to take a step back on the new recreation center project because of the Tyson Fresh Meats and Holiday Resort closure announcements. The committee is waiting until the members “fully understand the implications”.
Source: KSNT 27 News

Riley County firefighters mourn loss of ‘pillar of our community’

A local fire agency is mourning the loss of one of its own who left a profound impact on the community he served for more than four decades. The Riley County Fire District #1 took to social media on Dec. 4 to share its memories of Ross Hauck who passed away on Nov. 30, 2024. Hauck died at the age of 76 and was still an active participant with the district at the time of his passing.
Source: KSNT 27 News

Emporia reassures community amid multiple business closures

Emporia leaders and stakeholders are working to support residents impacted by multiple business closures this week. A joint statement was released by the City of Emporia, Lyon County and stakeholders from multiple key organizations that are working together to find a way to help people impacted by the closures of Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. and Holiday Resort. These entities met on Wednesday, Dec. 4 to coordinate efforts to support the workers and families hit by these shut downs; meeting will continue regularly as the situation evolves, according to the release. The main focus is connecting impacted employees with local job opportunities and training programs.
Source: KSNT 27 News

County appraiser is a ‘tough’ job. JoCo is now looking for a new one.

A search for a new county appraiser began Thursday as county commissioners accepted the resignation letter of Appraiser Beau Boisvert. Boisvert, who has been appraiser for five years, will step down Jan. 24, 2025 due to health concerns. Commissioners regretfully accepted his retirement at Thursday’s meeting and praised him for his work with the county, which started when he was hired in 2019. Commission Chair Mike Kelly cited Boisvert’s professionalism in handling some difficult years, “not only in dealing with a market you didn’t create, dealing with state statues you didn’t create, having to deal with people who didn’t necessarily want to have to deal with the county.”
Source: Johnson County Post