Kansas Municipal News
County paves way for future Evergy construction
Lyon County Commissioners approved a minor plat application which would allow for future construction of Evergy facilities during an action session Wednesday morning.
City of Emporia Planning and Zoning Officer Joe Foster approached the board with details of the plat, saying it would be located at 1771 Road G just outside the city limits within the Metropolitan Planning Area. As part of the motion, commissioners also agreed to change the area from an agricultural designation to a light industrial designation.
“The Planning Commission did hear the minor plat application and made a change extending the right-of-way from 25 feet to 40 feet,” Foster said. “That will help meet future demands as Road 180 gets improved. The plat itself is an approximately 20-acre single plot that will meet the needs of Evergy/Westar as they are proposing to expand.”
(Read more: Emporia Gazette)
Zeeco seeks nine-year tax exemption
Kerri Fallettti, of Cowley County Economic Development, will address county commissioners Tuesday morning about a property tax exemption for Zeeco, Inc./Winfield Industrial Properties LLC.
The company purchased the land and building at 22695 D St., Strother Field and did a complete renovation of the building. The building is currently appraised at $2,268,040.
The building had been vacant for about 12 years; operations began in June 2018 after the renovations were done. About 20 employees work in that building.
Zeeco originally moved into the former Gorden-Piatt building.
The tax exemption, if approved, would be for nine years, 2020-2028. The exemption is projected to be $50,000 a year for a total of $450,000.
(Read more: The Arkansas City Traveler)
City receives grant toward Wilson Park splash pad
Arkansas City officials continue to work toward Wilson Park improvements outlined nearly three years ago.
The city was recently awarded a $300,000 grant to help build the splash pad and other phase one projects, City Manager Nick Hernandez said this week.
The city received $300,000 from the Land and Water conservation Fund and has two private funding partners to help fund the $777,192 project.
This part of the Phase One plan includes the addition of new restrooms and a splash pad. Hernandez said it will also include the pumping and filtering equipment for the splash pad, and the construction of structures to provide shade.
(Read more: The Arkansas City Traveler)
City of Winfield offering rebates for electric car chargers
The City of Winfield is now offering rebates for customers who install level 2 electric car charging stations at their homes or businesses.
Customers can earn a rebate up to $1,500 for installing a charging station, according to information provided by Winfield City Manager Taggart Wall.
The car charging stations are a new addition to other rebate programs offered by the city.
“We are pleased to be on the front end of this evolving change in the electric industry,” Wall said.
(Read more: The Arkansas City Traveler)
Great Bend pitches two new entrance sign ideas for approval
The City of Great Bend and Great Bend Convention & Visitors Bureau pitched the possibility of adding two new entrance signs along the highways coming into the city.
For starters, the Great Bend CVB chose the two entrances with the most traffic to potentially put the signs. According to traffic counts, Great Bend’s two most-traveled entrances are coming in from the east on US 56 Highway or east 10th Street and coming in from the north on US 281 or north Main Street.
CVB Director Christina Hayes says they narrowed down their sign selection for the two entrances.
“We asked Mark’s Custom Signs and B&B Metal Arts to throw some numbers and sign possibilities, and the CVB Board decided on the designs from Mark’s Custom Signs,” said Hayes.
(Read more: Great Bend Post)
Commissioners discuss bridge proposal
When they met this week, Leavenworth city commissioners considered a request for support for a project that could result in the construction of a new bridge across the Missouri River.
But city officials suggested following a process that would bring together various stakeholders and look at other transportation alternatives.
The issue was discussed Tuesday as city commissioners reviewed a letter sent from commissioners in the Leavenworth County government.
(Read more: Leavenworth Times)
Mayor, council to consider approving downtown TIF district
The school board for Topeka Unified School District 501 loomed last October as a potential threat to the creation of a tax-increment financing district to encourage development in downtown Topeka.
But that no longer appears to be the case as Topeka’s mayor and city council prepare Tuesday to consider establishing the Dynamic Core TIF District in an area bounded generally by S.W. Topeka Boulevard, S.W. 17th Street, S.E. Adams Street and the Kansas River.
The USD 501 board voted 6-1 on Nov. 21 to support creation of that district, provided the proposal involved is revised to include specific wording requested by the district. The dissenting vote was cast by board member Scott Mickelsen, who said he was philosophically opposed to TIF districts.
(Read more: Political – The Topeka Capital-Journal)
Topeka Metro bus service to reduce routes beginning Monday
The last trip of the day for Topeka Metro buses will come one hour earlier beginning Monday.
Those buses will finish their final runs between 6 and 7 p.m. instead of between 7 and 8 p.m., as they do now, Topeka Metro general manager Bob Nugent said Wednesday.
He acknowledged some people who currently use the day’s last bus to get to or from work will consequently no longer be able to do so.
(Read more: Political – The Topeka Capital-Journal)
Reno County will continue mosquito trapping in 2020 using local funding
State funding for mosquito monitoring won’t be available to Reno County next year, so the county health department plans to fund continued trapping of the insects from its budget.
Local health department officials, meanwhile – at the request of state health officials – plan to travel to Topeka during the upcoming session to make pitches to the governor and state lawmakers to add funding to the state’s fiscal 2021 budget to support mosquito monitoring and testing for mosquito-borne viruses.
(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)
New Beginnings Inc. building tiny houses to address big needs
In Hutchinson, it’s an economy house, not a tiny house.
“Tiny houses” conjures up images of the HGTV show and a house on wheels, according to Hutchinson associate planner Aaron Barlow.
“We use the term economy home,” he said.
The Hutchinson-based New Beginnings Inc., which addresses housing needs, envisions building three economy homes on a vacant lot at 15 W. 8th Ave. that it recently purchased from the Hutchinson Land Bank.
“We’re now in the design process,” said Shara Gonzales, president and CEO of New Beginnings. “We had to get the property first.”
(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)
Big settlement offered to wind farm foes
Expedition Wind, the company approved Nov. 15 to develop a wind farm in the southern portion of the county, has sent letters offering settlement to plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit opposing the project. The company offers various settlements, some as much as buying their property for 1½ times its value.
The offer would apply only to plaintiffs of a suit filed Aug. 14 in district court. The property purchase offer is only for those who live within the footprint of the wind farm.
Plaintiffs who live within a mile of the wind farm were offered an initial payment of $5,000 and annual payments of $2,000. Those who live up to five miles of the wind farm were offered a single payment of $2,500; and those more than 10 miles away a single payment of $1,000.
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(Read more: HILLSBORO Star-Journal)
Reno County in running for regional opioid response grant
Besides the CDC grant announced last week, the Reno County Health Department is also in the running for a $750,000 two-year multi-county grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
The grant would be used jointly by Reno, Harvey and Barton counties to address the opioid abuse crisis regionally, said Health Department Director Nick Baldetti.
“It’s not a sure thing, but we’ve got a legitimate shot at it,” Baldetti told the Reno County Commission on Tuesday.
That confidence comes from the fact the department was recently contacted by the federal agency to provide audited financials, to show it can manage a grant of that size, which is a vetting process beyond the initial application phase.
(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)
High-dollar art installations commissioned by the City of Lawrence begin to take shape
After a competitive process, artists have been selected to create some of the city’s highest-dollar public artwork in recent years.
The City of Lawrence has budgeted about $450,000, as part of its Percent for Art program, for three art installations at the newly renovated building that houses Fire Station No. 1 and the Senior Resource Center; the new police headquarters in northwestern Lawrence; and the new transit center on Bob Billings Parkway. Artists have been selected for the first two projects, and the selection process for the transit center is forthcoming.
The city has a long-standing resolution, enacted in 1986, that allows it to set aside up to 2% of a building project’s budget for public art, and the City Commission elected to allocate the funds as part of recent budgets.
Read more: LJWorld.com.
Infighting part of the founding of Chanute
The famed unification of four towns to create the city of Chanute is a well-known tale that is actually a little more complicated than most know, according to Chanute history expert Jim Whaley.
“I discovered in my research there are some differences in the stories told about the formation of Chanute,” Whaley said. “The facts stay the same, but the circumstances surrounding those facts are different.”
Whaley’s research yielded a different account of the four towns and how one of those, Alliance, came to be as a result of other infighting amongst the local communities competing for the chance to be the seat of Neosho County. In 1870, the towns of Tioga and New Chicago incorporated themselves within a day of each other, and a fierce rivalry began.
(Read more: The Chanute Tribune)
Aquatic center a part of DRC discussion heading into 2020
Upon completing its Strategic Master Plan in 2018, the Derby Recreation Commission saw the interest in a new indoor aquatic center remain very high.
After gauging feedback from community members about the possibility of a steering committee, the DRC plans to engage the subject in more detail in 2020.
DRC Superintendent Chris Drum said that the finishing touches and opening of the new Hubbard Arts Center remain a priority, but it’s not deviating from the interest of additional aquatic space.
(Read more: Derby News | derbyinformer.com)
BOE approves schematic design for Derby Middle School bond projects
The Derby Board of Education approved a schematic design for upcoming bond projects at Derby Middle School at its Monday meeting.
Burke Jones, director of operations, said at the Nov. 12 meeting that the design represents an early phase in developing the bond projects – which are not set to be complete until August 2021.
The design was presented by McCownGordon Construction and SJCF Architecture, the companies responsible for much of the district’s recent and upcoming bond projects.
(Read more: Derby News | derbyinformer.com)
Greenwood County Commissioners Approved Meeting Room Updates
Commissioners continued discussion over the courthouse meeting room renovation project during their regular meeting on Monday, November 25. Commissioner Chuck Spradlin noted that, after having prompted Emporia and Olpe construction companies over the prospect of completing the project (only being met with replies rejecting the idea of traveling that far for work), Mike Brazzle of Madison’s Brazzle Builders Inc. was approved to construct the commissioners’ desk, lectern, and platform. Commissioners had previously received a bid of $13,800 from Brazzle, an estimate that included the construction of press, legal counsel, and clerk’s desks, in addition to the now approved commissioners’ desk, lectern, and platform. When the subject of approval was bridged, Commissioner Roy Ballard said, “I don’t know that we need a Cadillac in a Chevrolet garage. We want it to look nice, but we don’t want to break the bank doing it.” Spradlin reminded Ballard that discretionary funds had been budgeted for in the previous year.
“I was pretty much opposed to spending too much money. It sounds to me like Mike has the price down to where it would be affordable,” said Commissioner Paul Hodge. Following concerns voiced by Commissioner Ballard about costs, commissioners began reviewing areas where funds could be saved. Though the vote for approval was not unanimous, with Commissioner Ballard voting no, the project received approval with an estimated $13,600 budgeted for completion. Construction will likely begin soon after the start of the new year.
County officials balk at citys proposed tax relief program
Bourbon County Commissioners agreed on Nov. 19 they would adopt a resolution for guidelines for economic development incentives.
Bourbon County Economic Development Director Jody Hoener presented the guidelines and asked commissioners if they would make a motion to adopt the guidelines. Commissioners agreed they would need a resolution for the guidelines and asked County Clerk Kendell Mason to place the resolution on a future agenda.
Hoener’s presentation came a week after a discussion commissioners had Nov. 14. Commission Chairman Lynne Oharah said the Nov. 14 discussion was a response to a presentation made Aug. 27 by Fort Scott Economic Development Director Rachel Pruitt.
(Read more: Fort Scott Tribune)
USDA invests $5.2 million in rural broadband for Kansas families
Wave Wireless, which provides wireless internet service in Labette County, will expand its network next year and bring fiber optic broadband internet service to 1,390 rural Labette County homes. The service will offer up to gigabit speeds.
Wave Wireless received $5.2 million from USDA’s ReConnect pilot program. The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Matthew Lohr announced the award Monday afternoon at the Neosho Township Fire Department on U.S. 400 and Wallace Road. Galen Manners’ company will get a $2.6 million loan and a $2.6 million grant from the ReConnect program. The total award will be $5,271,852.
Manners will use the money to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises broadband network capable of transmission rates of 100 megabits per second or greater.
(Read more: Parsons Sun)
USD 308 School Board approves research contract
The USD 308 School Board approved a contract Monday that will give the district access to quick-turnaround research as well as research on special projects.
The contract with EAB allows the district to get a quick turnaround on any research the company has done for other districts and provides in-depth research on topics specific to USD 308.
For example, if the district wanted to know about research-based programs that other districts have used to lower chronic student absenteeism and the company had already studied the issue, EAB would get that information to the district quickly. If the district wanted assistance with setting the best start times for schools, EAB would be able to help, but the project might take longer.
(Read more: Hutch Post)