Roeland Park extends city mask order, comes to agreement over Bishop Miege’s optional policy

Roeland Park has agreed to allow Bishop Miege High School to continue its optional face mask policy until Jan. 7 for all students, faculty, staff and visitors, with some restrictions. By a 5-4 vote, with Mayor Mike Kelly breaking the tie, the Roeland Park City Council on Monday night approved a memorandum of understanding, effective immediately, allowing Miege to continue its mask policy, which it had implemented Sept. 20. Also on Monday, the city council voted unanimously to extend the citywide mask mandate, which was set to expire Tuesday, to 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 16. In supporting the extension, Kelly noted that neighboring jurisdictions, including Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., have mask mandates in place into early November.
Source: Prairie Village Post

Ranson Financial2021-10-20T07:04:10-05:00October 19, 2021|News|

Overland Park lawyer files $7 million lawsuit alleging she was unlawfully detained

An attorney in Overland Park filed a $7 million federal civil lawsuit against the city of Overland Park, it’s police chief, the Johnson County District Attorney and the county sheriff alleging she was falsely arrested and detained following an altercation with a relative. Shauna McRoberts said she was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic assault and detained for 22 hours on Sept. 16, 2018 by Overland Park police after they responded to her parents’ home. In the 37-page lawsuit, McRoberts said she was the victim of an assault but police arrested and detained her for no reason.
Source: KC Star Local News

Ranson Financial2021-10-20T07:04:30-05:00October 19, 2021|News|

City working to address Food deserts in Wichita

A south Wichita community now has no immediate access to fresh fruits and vegetables after their neighborhood Save-A-Lot closed and is now being replaced with a store that does not sell produce. Hamid Bakhtiari, the Wichita-raised developer, is putting in a new dollar store to replace the Save-A-Lot. Bakhtiari said he tried to replace the Save-A-Lot with another grocery storebut that the stores that were interested would not do it without incentives. “We had probably half a million dollars in refrigeration in that place. Walk-in coolers, we had everything there,” said Bakhtiari. Bakhtiari said he was ready to find a new grocery store for the food desert, but did not have enough help from the city.
Source: KSN-TV

Ranson Financial2021-10-19T23:29:42-05:00October 19, 2021|News|

Kansas Mainstreet Program to expand its investment in downtown Kansas

Plans to expand the Kansas Mainstreet Program by up to three additional communities is scheduled to happen this winter according to Gov. Laura Kelly. “When our main street businesses succeed, our whole economy succeeds,” Kelly said. “That’s why my administration restarted the Kansas Main Street Program, to help communities program was launched in 1985 reinvest in small businesses.” The program was launched in 1985 but closed by former Gov. Brownback in 2012, then brought back by Kelly in late 2019. According to the current administration, the program invested more than $600 million in its first 27 years. Earlier this year, the Governor announced the addition of Atchison, Baldwin City, and Junction City, which brought the total number of designated Main Street communities in Kansas to 28. The program will now add up to three more designated communities, which are eligible for training and technical assistance designed to help them become self-sufficient in downtown revitalization.
Source: KSNT News

Ranson Financial2021-10-20T07:05:04-05:00October 19, 2021|News|

Is city street funding fair? Mayor, council member want to pave south-side dirt roads

The city of Wichita is on track to spend $11.5 million on road repairs next year, but the mayor and a council member say the city should do more to pave roads in poorer neighborhoods, particularly south of Kellogg. Wichita has roughly 100 miles of unpaved streets. Covering those roads in pavement requires property owners to undergo a lengthy and arduous process of gathering petition signatures and convincing neighbors to accept tax increases. Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple made his case for paving some of those unpaved streets Tuesday during the City Council’s debate over the city’s street-repair program.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Ranson Financial2021-10-20T07:06:09-05:00October 19, 2021|News|

Topeka ranks #4 in Wall Street Journal’s Emerging Housing Markets Index

Many Americans are still moving to suburban areas because they can work from home. Recent signs of an economic slowdown driven by the Delta variant made people reconsider their plans and kept smaller and more rural housing markets in the top spots for the hottest new places to live and own. To help home buyers decide on the best place to make housing investments, The Wall Street Journal collaborated with Realtor.com to rank which housing markets are expected to provide both a strong return on investment—and are a nice place to live.
Source: Wall Street Journal

Ranson Financial2021-10-19T21:26:14-05:00October 19, 2021|News|

Garden City Water Department earns award

The Garden City Water Department was recently awarded the 2021 Smart Water Application Technologies Outstanding Public Engagement Award for the city’s customer water use report. The report educates customers on their water use and shows how their use compares to other water customers in the community. Before this program, customers were generally uninformed regarding their water consumption, aside from paying the cost of their water bills.
Source: Greater Garden City » Feed

Ranson Financial2021-10-19T07:50:57-05:00October 19, 2021|News|

Peace Poles add color to this Johnson County park

The modern peace sign has been an iconic symbol since the late 1950s. Now the City of Lenexa has on display another take on conveying peace: colorfully decorated poles created by local artists. Through the summer, 37 poles have been on display at Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park as part of the Peace Poles Community Art Project. Two additional poles are on display at the Lenexa Civic Campus to help promote the exhibit. The public’s last chance to see the exhibit comes at the end of the month. The poles will remain on display at the park through Oct. 31.
Source: Joco 913 News

Ranson Financial2021-10-19T07:50:14-05:00October 19, 2021|News|

One Johnson County city to let mask mandate expire, while another extends its order

One northeast Johnson County city on Monday agreed to let its mask mandate expire at the end of this month, while another extended its mandate through mid-November. The Prairie Village City Council decided against prolonging its citywide mask mandate, meaning it will expire at midnight Oct. 31. Meanwhile, the Roeland Park City Council decided to extend its mask order until Nov. 16. The decisions come as the number of new COVID-19 cases steadily declines in Johnson County, after sharp peaks this summer. On Monday, the county reported an incidence rate — or the number of new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days — of 91 per 100,000. That’s down from a rate of 191 per 100,000 on Sept. 16.
Source: Joco 913 News

Ranson Financial2021-10-19T07:49:38-05:00October 19, 2021|News|

Baxter Springs resident helps restore a piece of Southeast Kansas history

Sometimes it’s hard to avoid the toll time can take on a building. Over hundreds of years a structure can fall into disrepair and sometimes the only option is to tear it down and salvage what remains, erasing history in the process. One man is trying to save the past in Baxter Springs, and while it’s taken some time, the community is standing behind him. “It is such a symbol of what was going on in America at that time,” says Carla Jordan, Historian, “The boom bust history of Southeast Kansas is also the history of America.”
Source: KSNF/KODE

Ranson Financial2021-10-19T00:22:16-05:00October 19, 2021|News|