Kansas Municipal News
COVID-19 cases increase, McPherson reconsiders mask ordinance
Cases of COVID-19 have increased in McPherson County, leading city commissioners to reconsider the mask ordinance. Just last week the city commission voted unanimously to allow the mask ordinance to expire. “I am less impacted by petitions and comments and more impacted by data,” Mayor Tom Brown said Monday morning. “And the data showed on Wednesday I believe that we had five cases per 100,000 seven day moving average. That is very low. Unfortunately, we had a spike of 25 to 30 positive cases. As of the last report I saw from the health department we had 40 active cases. We jumped all the way to 23 cases per 100,000 seven day moving average. That is only two cases away from being in the highest category.”
Source: McPherson Weekly News » Feed
Mission police officers who answered shooting call near Highlands Elementary among those honored at recent ceremony
Officer Jay Fleer (right) and Samantha Kunzler-Bryant (middle) receive the Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police Gold Award for Uncommon Valor in connection to their response to the March 2019 Highlands Elementary shooting incident. Photo submitted by Emily Randel. The city of Mission recently honored Officers Jay Fleer and Samantha Kunzler-Bryant for their response to the Highlands Elementary shooting incident in March 2019. Although Mission would typically present officer awards during city council meetings — which have turned virtual due to COVID-19 — the city held a socially-distanced officer award ceremony Friday to honor police going above and beyond. Fleer and Kunzler-Bryant were among awardees, and received the Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police Gold Award for Uncommon Valor in connection to the Highlands shooting.
Source: Shawnee Mission Post
The Fed could could still move markets Wednesday even with rates on hold for the foreseeable
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the January 28-29 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, in Washington, DC on January 29, 2020. While committed to keeping interest rates low for the next several years, the Federal Reserve still has plenty of work to do as it steers the U.S. economy through the pandemic. As central bank officials gather Tuesday and Wednesday for their policy meeting, a number of items are on the agenda, even as the mystery of where rates are headed has disappeared. The Federal Open Market Committee will provide its quarterly update on where it sees GDP, unemployment and inflation heading. It also will take up the issue of whether it should provide clearer guidance on what it will take to raise rates in the future, and it could switch its bond-buying strategy to go beyond supporting market functioning to one that backstops the broader economy as well.
Source: CNBC – Bonds
Topeka, KS offers $10K for remote workers to relocate
GO Topeka, an economic development group in the Topeka, KS area, is the latest to establish a remote work incentive program dubbed the Choose Topeka Relocation Initiative. The initiative will offer remote employees nationally up to $10,000 toward the purchase of a home in Topeka or Shawnee County or $5,000 toward a one-year lease in the region, in an effort to grow the Topeka-area community. The program is prepared to accept about 10 to 20 applicants, said Barbara Stapleton with the Greater Topeka Partnership. The effort is an expansion of a 2019 job relocation program that required candidates take a job with a Topeka-based company.
Source: Smart Cities Dive – Latest News
Wichita police issue tickets for violating city’s mask mandate
The Wichita Police Department is now issuing tickets for violations of the city’s mask ordinance that requires most people to wear protective face masks in public to fight the coronavirus. The ordinance passed July 3, but was not enforced until Saturday, when four tickets were issued at bars that were operating after the county’s 11 p.m. curfew. City officials say the tickets were issued only after education attempts failed and some bars and nightclubs across Wichita rebelled against COVID-19 restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Municipal Bond Trends for September 14, 2020
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.
Compliance with face mask and bar curfew order is no longer voluntary in Sedgwick County
Compliance with the coronavirus public health order on face masks and a bar curfew is no longer voluntary in Sedgwick County. Health officer Dr. Garold Minns signed a new emergency public health order on Monday, removing the phrase “voluntary compliance” from the existing COVID-19 order. The mandatory health order goes into effect first thing Tuesday morning and runs through the end of day Oct. 21. “Any persons or organizations within Sedgwick County must comply with the order,” county officials wrote in a news release. “Minns will continue to review and monitor COVID-19 trends in the community and will consider lifting restrictions as trends move in a positive direction.”
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Pretty Prairie wind farm lawsuit dismissed, allowing it to be appealed
The Pretty Prairie Wind lawsuit was dismissed by a Reno County judge on Monday after attorneys for the developer filed a motion asking to dismiss all claims in the suit except on an issue the district court already ruled on. The action effectively allows the corporation to appeal to a higher court an earlier ruling by District Judge Tim Chambers on a motion for summary judgment. It has 10 days to file a notice of appeal. Pretty Prairie Wind LLC, a subsidiary formed by NextEra Energy to develop an 82-turbine wind farm in the southeast quadrant of the county, filed the suit in July 2019 after it failed to obtain a conditional use permit to build the project. That after landowners in the development area who opposed the project successfully filed a protest petition which forced a unanimous county commission vote to grant the permit, but the vote was split 2-1 in favor of the permit.
Source: Local – The Hutchinson News
Manhattan City Commission looking at giving city staff power to raise Parks & Rec fees
The Manhattan City Commission is looking into giving city administrators the power to set Parks & Recreation fees without seeking commission approval first. Deputy City Manager Jason Hilgers said city staff already have the ability to do this with new Parks & Rec programs, but the laws are inconsistent. Hilgers said older programs, like youth baseball and basketball, are wrapped up in another city ordinance. “We’ll have administration evaluate these programs,” Hilgers said. “Look at the cost to bring the program to bear and then correspondently charge the participants basically a cost recovery rate to try to pay for that program.”
Source: KSNT News
“It will be drastic and very harmful,” Governor Kelly warns of possible budget cuts
The SPARK Task Force was assembled to distribute millions of dollars in federal CARES Act funding in three rounds. The task force is working to finalize and send out the final $290 million to communities. Governor Kelly said some of that final round money will go to additional testing in the state; including the testing of asymptomatic individuals. But that money was not permitted to be used to pay off state debt or backfill state revenue loss. Governor Kelly said the federal government must send additional funding to help the state’s work their way out of the economic impact of the virus. She said, without this help, Kansas will likely see major budget cuts in fiscal year 2022.
Source: KSNT News
Muni-Bond Downgrades Rare Even With Few Spared Pandemic’s Blows
Even as America’s states and cities brace for hundreds of billions of dollars tax collections to disappear, the two biggest credit-rating companies have been slow to downgrade municipal debt amid increasing risk for the $3.9 trillion market. Since the pandemic raced through the U.S., S&P Global Ratings Inc. and Moody’s Investors Service have downgraded about 1% of the municipal borrowers they rate, even as sports stadiums close, college towns and dormitories are emptied after some campuses canceled in-person classes, and the steep drop in travel batters airports and tourism-driven cities. Halfway through September, Moody’s has cut the ratings of about 125 of the approximately 12,000 public finance entities it tracks, 90 fewer than the second and third quarters of 2018, when the economy was eight years into a record expansion. S&P lowered those on 175 of about 20,000 borrowers since late March.
Source: Bloomberg.
Vandals have stolen one of the just-installed Keeper statues celebrating Wichita’s 150th
If you go out searching for the 13 Keeper statues that were just installed as a celebration of Wichita’s 150th birthday, you can mark one off the list — for now. Over the weekend, the new statue at Planeview Park was somehow knocked off its base and stolen. The 10-foot-tall fiberglass statue, which had been painted by artist Tereza Zardoz, had just been put in place near the park’s playground two weeks ago. It’s the first time since the Keeper project started in 2015 that a statue has been stolen, said Tessa Brungardt, the project manager. And only one other statue has ever been vandalized.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
Prairie Village councilmembers approve voluntary compost-collection service agreements
The Prairie Village city council last week voted to allow two local compost companies to provide curbside collection service for interested residents. The council’s Tuesday action follows its June 2021 budget discussion where the council decided not to proceed with a citywide curbside compost and glass collection program that would have been paid for from the solid waste assessment fee on property taxes, according to council documents.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Lawrence to consider additions to ordinance that provides protections for undocumented immigrants
City leaders will soon discuss additional provisions of a nondiscrimination ordinance meant to create transparency regarding how the police interact with undocumented immigrants. As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider adopting the ordinance on second reading following some changes the commission directed city staff to make in July. At that time, the commission approved the ordinance on first reading but requested that city staff draft language to incorporate one addition and further review another. Both additions were requested by the local immigrant advocacy group Sanctuary Alliance, which began the conversation last year by calling for the city to adopt sanctuary policies for undocumented immigrants.
Source: LJWorld.com.
Lawrence seeks residents’ views on systemic racism as part of reconsideration of police force’s role
The City of Lawrence will soon be starting a conversation about systemic racism to help inform potentially fundamental changes in policing and other city functions — with the city’s multimillion-dollar police budget in the balance. Following local and national protests this year over police killings of Black people and systemic racism, Mayor Jennifer Ananda in June called for the city to consider about a dozen reforms, including reallocation of some police funding for social services. The Lawrence City Commission later agreed to consider the changes and to create a process for residents to weigh in on the discussion.
Source: LJWorld.com.
USDA Expands Access to Broadband Infrastructure for Rural Businesses and Residents Under Select Rural Development Programs
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Bette Brand today announced that USDA released a final rule to allow the use of funds under select programs to help expand access to broadband services for America’s rural businesses and residents. Effective immediately, entities may be eligible to use up to 10 percent of a loan, grant or loan guarantee to build, improve or acquire rural broadband facilities and equipment in areas not served by a minimum acceptable level of broadband service which is 25 megabits downstream and 3 megabits upstream for both mobile and fixed service. Eligible programs are…
Read more: USDA.
Municipal Bond Trends for September 11, 2020
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 Department of Commerce official optimistic of state’s economic growth, opportunities
Bill Murphy, the new Deputy Secretary of Business Development for the Kansas Department of Commerce, shared his vision for economic development, business retention and staying competitive in the national talent pool, Thursday afternoon. Murphy, who took part in the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce’s virtual Day In Topeka, said he was excited by the “determination” he saw to rebuild the Department of Commerce prior to his coming on board. The goal, he said, is to capitalize on the strengths of the department and reenergize and renew its enthusiasm as funding sources returned. “What I’m seeing is, for the first time in seven years, the department has a full business recruitment team in place,” Murphy said. “That team is spread out across the country to attract businesses to the state of Kansas. Having worked in three other states, each state has a different approach to business recruitment.”
Source: Emporia Gazette
Anthony, KS memorial tells story of fallen firefighter to future generations
There’s a piece of Sept. 11, 2001 history in Kansas. The town of Anthony, Kansas is home to a September 11th memorial that has gained recognition from across the country. It highlights the connection between the town and a firefighter who gave his life in New York. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” says Donna Crowe, the now 9/11 Memorial Committee Chairperson of Anthony. The former mayor asked Crowe to do a difficult task. “He asked me to try to get ahold of somebody in New York City to see if we could adopt a fireman who had lost his life,” she says.
Source: KAKE – News
Kansas school bus equation complicated by virus, social distancing
Just northwest of Wichita, the small school district of Maize has a difficult time finding interested and qualified drivers in a normal year. Add in a couple of retirements and general challenges from COVID-19, and superintendent Chad Higgins said it’s even more difficult. “More buses and more bus routes really isn’t an option because it’s the drivers,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how many buses you have if you don’t have anyone to drive them.” Maize’s problem is threefold: It can’t add buses or routes, each bus carries fewer students and routes need to be as short as possible.
Source: Leavenworth Times