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.

Miami County businesses will soon be able to apply for grants to help companies that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Small Business Working Capital (SBWC) grants are available for Kansas businesses with fewer than 500 employees, according to a news release posted on the state Department of Commerce website. The funds can be used to pay working capital expenses such as payroll, rent, mortgage insurance, utilities, inventory and other expenses, according to the release. Grants are to be awarded on a rolling (first-come, first-serve) basis until the funds are depleted, according to the state. Grant applications will be accepted beginning at noon Wednesday, Aug. 19, according to the release.

via The Miami County Republic

A new office is beginning to feel like home. That’s the case for Zach McHatton, who serves as economic development director for the City of Haysville. McHatton is finishing the chore of moving his office into the historic Vickers service station in downtown Haysville. The move is part of a shuffle that also saw the Haysville Chamber of Commerce move out of the building and into the historic bank building near the Haysville Community Library.
via Times-Sentinel Newspapers

Rural communities surrounding the south side of Wichita may one day find it easier to travel from one side of town to the other. An update on the ARC 95 plan was presented to the Clearwater City Council at the July 14 meeting. ARC 95 is a plan to construct a south Sedgwick County highway from Kellogg and Greenwich to 95th Street South, across 95th Street South to 119th Street West and back up …
via Times-Sentinel Newspapers

With plans for the Hoisington Labor Day celebration greatly scaled back this year due to concerns over COVID-19, the Hoisington Chamber of Commerce sent out a letter to donor friends this past week asking for their continued support this year and next through sponsorship of the 2021 celebration. In light of the Chamber’s importance to the city’s ongoing economic development, City Manager Jonathan Mitchell asked council members Monday night to consider increasing the usual financial support the city has routinely provided each year. “Giving $5,000 sets a really good example for our other businesses and organizations that are maybe wondering what to do with the chamber,” he said. “The chamber still needs the public’s help to remain viable.” The amount, Mitchell said, is significant but not so much so that others might put off giving as well.
via Great Bend Tribune

Even with coronavirus losses weighing heavily on state and city coffers, investors are piling back into municipal debt, hungry for yield and seeking more safety than the stock market can provide. Investors have put about $28 billion back into muni mutual funds since the end of April, according to Refinitiv Lipper, nearly 60% of the amount pulled during the height of the pandemic. Inflows have continued even as defaults rise. Universities, convention centers, student housing and senior living facilities are confronting significant disruptions to revenue, sending some into insolvency. As of July 31, there were a total of 50 municipal defaults, according to Municipal Market Analytics—the most since 2011. Public officials meanwhile have been hesitant toward taking on debt during economic uncertainty. New muni issuance is down nearly 2% this year, according to Refinitiv, even when including taxable bonds. Many borrowers are responding to the coronavirus hit by either cutting spending or coming to market to refinance existing debt at near-zero interest rates for savings.
Read more: Wall Street Journal.

“I love it. It speaks so much volume, complexity and community,” said Larry Alexander, who watched at large Rubik’s Cube being installed in the city park by the Newton train station at Fifth and Main. It drew attention Friday as a group of volunteers put in the public art installation that was supposed to be displayed at the Sand Creek Summer Daze — a festival originally scheduled for this weekend by canceled due to Pandemic COVID-19.
via Newton Kansan

Riley County Police have issued the first citation at a commercial business for violating the Manhattan mask ordinance. In a letter to the community Friday, RCPD Director Dennis Butler announced the violation was issued Thursday for failure to comply with the July 7 ordinance after education and voluntary compliance requests were ignored. Butler says nearly a dozen businesses were visited in Manhattan Thursday, with only the one citation issued.
via 1350 KMAN

As part of the county’s ongoing COVID-19 Recovery Plan, the Unified Government Commissioners approved an emergency resolution and ordinance on July 30 that allows food trucks, farmer’s markets, and mobile markets countywide with certain standards. Specifically, the ordinance allows mobile vending (such as food trucks, pushcarts, and mobile markets) and farmer’s markets in all zone districts with additional and specific standards.
via Wyandotte Daily

The saga over what to do with Century II and Wichita’s former downtown library continues. After asking staff to prepare policy language that could authorize a public vote on the issue, the City Council on Tuesday is expected to decide whether to move forward with an election, which could help determine the public’s opinion on the future of two prominent buildings. But at the time, there were still questions regarding whether that public vote would be binding.
via Wichita Business Journal

Chanute city commissioners have named the interim city manager to the permanent position. Commissioners voted unanimously Monday evening after an executive session to name Todd Newman as city manager under the existing contract with a review in 90 days. Newman took over as interim in May after Jeff Cantrell left to take a position in Hutchinson. Newman was previously Parks Director and Interim Recreation Commission Director.
via The Chanute Tribune

Shawnee Mayor Michelle Distler has asked the city council to revisit discussions about Tidy Town, the city’s bulky item pickup program. City staff earlier this month presented some potential revisions to the program that would have put more control in the hands of the trash haulers and would have essentially removed the city as the “middle man” in the process. Representatives of two licensed trash haulers raised concerns that their companies lacked the manpower and equipment to complete Tidy Town pickups during the program’s timeframe, which in previous years has been spread out over three spring weekends. 
via Shawnee Mission Post

Columbus school district Superintendent Brian Smith has spent the week hauling furniture out of classrooms to make more space for social distancing as students prepare to return next week after a five-month COVID-19 imposed break. “It is almost like you are preparing for war,” Smith said. “And there is so much that can go wrong and so many unknowns.” His 950-student district is among several dozen mostly rural Kansas school systems to resume classes next week after a handful tested the waters this week.
via Derby Informer

Roxy Callison grew up on a farm in Mayfield, and though she’s lived in Winfield many years, she loves open spaces and the wide skies of the prairie. The west side of her home on East Eighth Avenue is probably big enough to be another house lot. But to keep the area open and to satisfy her love of prairie, she is turning the area into what she calls a “prairie garden.” “I’ve wanted to do it since I lived here,” Callison said. She said she’s often thought she is “without purpose,” and developing the prairie garden is providing that purpose.
via Cowley CourierTraveler

A small town in Texas is going up against streaming giants Netflix and Hulu with a class-action lawsuit over utility fees. New Boston, Texas says the streamers use broadband infrastructure to reach their residents, and should in turn pay the town 5% of the revenue generated from those residents as a fee. “When a Netflix subscriber wants to view Netflix programming, the subscriber’s Internet service provider will connect the subscriber to the closest Netflix Open Connect server offering the fastest speeds and best video quality,” writes attorney Austin Tighe in the complaint. “According to Netflix, that means that most of its subscribers receive Netflix’s video programming from servers either inside of, or directly connected to, the subscriber’s Internet service provider’s network within their local region.” New Boston’s argument is based on the state law that video service providers are required to get certified with an application to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and that neither Hulu nor Netflix has filed the application. Failing to file doesn’t mean they are exempt from paying the quarterly franchise fee to the cities in which they operate.
via Cord Cutters News

Governor Laura Kelly has announced businesses will soon be able to apply for a total of more than $130 million in grants to serve those most affected by the pandemic and for companies that can expand broadband access in the state. Information on SPARK economic development and connectivity grant programs can now be found online at kansascommerce.gov/covidrelief. Grant applications will be accepted beginning at 12:00 p.m. Wed., Aug. 19, 2020. “These funds will both provide necessary immediate relief to businesses and contribute to a more strategic, competitive Kansas economy in the future,” said Governor Laura Kelly. “I want to thank the SPARK Taskforce for recommending these strategic investments and the State Finance Council for approving the use of these funds.”
In addition to providing financial relief, grants will be available to businesses whose products and services will be needed in greater volume to help combat the virus and its effects. Funding is also being made available to expand broadband access both through infrastructure improvements and by partnerships with internet service providers to serve low-income households. These grants are funded through the Coronavirus Relief Fund of the federal CARES Act.
via Kansas Department of Commerce

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.