Deep Fission says it plans to install a nuclear reactor underground at an industrial park in southeast Kansas. Parsons, Kansas, will be the site of a California startup’s first ever 1-mile-deep nuclear reactor — with support from county commissioners, both Republican Kansas U.S. senators and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration. Deep Fission will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday at Great Plains Industrial Park. Company leaders hope to receive U.S. Department of Energy authorization and get its nuclear reactor up and running by next Fourth of July.
Read more: The Lawrence Times

Super Pass pool program holders in northeastern Johnson County will have access to another municipal pool for the 2026 swim season. After dropping out in 2024, Roeland Park will rejoin the Super Pass program next summer. The Roeland Park City Council unanimously approved the move at its meeting on Nov. 17. The program allows pass holders access to any participating city pool, which in 2025 included Fairway, Mission and Prairie Village. Those three cities are set to remain in the program next year, and Roeland Park will be added back. In previous years, Leawood and Merriam also participated in the program but no longer do. Roeland Park Councilmember Emily Hage said she has heard anecdotally that Roeland Park residents appreciated the Super Pass program, and when the city dropped out, residents started buying their pool passes in other communities.
Read more: Johnson County Post

As the first snowflakes of the winter dusted Hutchinson on Monday morning, City of Hutchinson Public Works Director Cecil Weible and his crew stood prepared to keep the city’s roads clear and ice-free. “We had all of our equipment ready before everyone went home for Thanksgiving, and we had people out this morning looking for slick spots,” Weible said. Fortunately, Monday morning’s snow was not only small in its amount but it was a light snow, which precluded city crews from having to pretreat city streets ahead of its arrival, he said. “With a snow like this, the wind will blow most of it off the roads,” he said. When snow hits the city, City of Hutchinson Public Communications Manager Jessica Woodyard encourages residents to visit the city’s website at https://www.hutchinsonks.gov/517/Snow-Removal for the latest information on road conditions and snow removal.
Read more: The Hutchinson Tribune

Mayor Brad Finkeldei said he believes downtown Lawrence will be transformed, the city will expand west of Kansas Highway 10 and more development is coming in the next year or two. Finkeldei, first elected to a four-year term in 2019 and reelected in 2023, previously served as mayor in 2021. Traditionally, the person who receives the most votes in an election will serve as vice mayor for the first year of their term, then as mayor the following year. The candidate who received the second most votes in the election follows as the next vice mayor. The new commission — which includes Finkeldei and Commissioners Mike Dever and Amber Sellers, plus newly sworn Vice Mayor Mike Courtney and Kristine Polian — stuck with tradition Tuesday evening. In his remarks, Finkeldei said he believes two projects that will be “the two largest single drivers of sales tax in this community in the past 50 years” will come online soon in the new convention center at KU’s Gateway District and in Costco on what is for now the far northwestern edge of Lawrence.
Read more: The Lawrence Times