Manhattan, Junction City home sales up 20.1% in 2020

Manhattan and Junction City home sales through November 2020 increased by 20.1% when compared to the same time period last year. Through November 2020, 1,701 homes have been sold, up 285 from 1,416 sold through November 2019, according to data from a Flint Hills Association of Realtors report for the area. This report takes multiple listing services and data from the Flint Hills Association of Realtors, including information combined from Manhattan and Junction City areas.
Source: Derby Informer | News

Ranson Financial2020-12-21T07:37:59-06:00December 21, 2020|News|

New courthouse trees ‘something Bill would have loved’

Cowley County will put up a stone in front of a maple tree by the courthouse to honor Bill Taylor, longtime county counselor, who died in 2012. “You can’t go through county records without seeing his name everywhere. He lives in our documents,” said county administrator Lucas Goff. “And it’s because of Bill that we had trees around the courthouse in the first place.” At a county commission meeting a number of years ago, Taylor said the county needed to put in trees around the courthouse itself, Goff said. The county planted several trees at that time. But the Kansas weather took a toll on the trees, Goff said, so they had to be taken out from the front of the courthouse this past year.
Source: The Arkansas City Traveler

Ranson Financial2020-12-21T07:37:35-06:00December 21, 2020|News|

Week after Thanksgiving was the worst of the pandemic in Sedgwick County, new data show

New data from the Sedgwick County Health Department show the week after Thanksgiving was the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. Both the rate of new cases and the positive test rate — two key indicators used to measure the spread of COVID-19 in the Wichita area community — spiked in the days following Thanksgiving. The health department’s latest recovery metrics report, dated Friday, shows a record-high positive test rate in Sedgwick County of 28.3% for the week of Nov. 29. The 3,668 new cases of COVID-19 and the resulting rate of 714.2 new cases per 100,000 people were also record highs for one week.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Ranson Financial2020-12-21T07:37:13-06:00December 21, 2020|News|

Bar owners spar with county officials over health orders

The Crawford County Commission heard concerns Friday from local bar owners about COVID-19 mitigation enforcement — the second time this week that they’ve received such complaints from at least one owner. Unlike Tuesday’s meeting, county health officials were present to address bar owners’ concerns and respond to them, which may have cleared up some of the issues raised. Other questions, however, appeared unresolved — with more restrictive rules for the general public rather than just business owners discussed as possible solutions.
Source: Pittsburg Morning Sun

Ranson Financial2020-12-21T07:36:50-06:00December 21, 2020|News|

Valley Center Public Schools getting onsite health clinic in 2021

An ongoing project that started three years ago for Valley Center Public Schools is finally coming to fruition in January 2021. The School district is opening a part-time medical clinic at Valley Center High School in mid-January. “For students and staff it’s just eliminating the drive into Wichita,” said University of Kansas School of Medicine Wichita Medical Practice Association Executive Director, Aaron Ryan. “We hope that leads to more preventive care visits, more timely visits, decreased time away from the classroom.”
Source: KSN-TV

Ranson Financial2020-12-21T07:35:44-06:00December 21, 2020|News|

Major changes on the horizon as Lawrence marks 20 years of citywide bus service

The city marked the transit system’s 20th anniversary this month, but the idea of a citywide bus system had been talked about long before the first buses went into service. By the time the City Commission approved spending property tax revenues for the service in 1999, which together with federal and state transportation funding got the service started, it had been a topic of discussion for more than a decade, according to newspaper archives. As with many government decisions, there were critics, but when the choice to continue funding the service with a special sales tax was put to voters in 2008 and again in 2017, the answer was a resounding yes.
Source: LJWorld.com.

Ranson Financial2020-12-21T07:43:12-06:00December 21, 2020|News|

Mayor dons cop uniform again at 72

Years after retiring as a full-time cop and city administrator, Marion mayor David Mayfield has plunged back into part-time police work. Mayfield, 72, now works part-time transporting prisoners for the sheriff’s office. “I’m a jail deputy,” Mayfield said. “It’s just prisoner transports.”… Mayfield has known sheriff Rob Craft for many years because both worked for the Kansas Highway Patrol and were trainers at KHP academy.
Source: HILLSBORO Star-Journal

Ranson Financial2020-12-18T08:37:10-06:00December 18, 2020|News|

New commission to benefit Belle Plaine

Following a vote in the 2020 general election, the community of Belle Plaine now has a formal Parks and Recreation Commission – a first for the city. While the community wasn’t lacking for recreational sports opportunities, Parks Advisory Board vice chairman Jessica Ferguson noted the entity behind those summer and fall leagues – the Belle Plaine Recreation Organization – was a volunteer group. Additionally, with a Parks Advisory Board instead of a Recreation Commission, the organization kept running into issues pursuing opportunities for the community.
Source: Derby Informer | Area

Ranson Financial2020-12-18T08:35:21-06:00December 18, 2020|News|

First doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrive in Cowley County

TThe first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived at William Newton Hospital in Winfield on Wednesday, and will be administered to front line staff who directly care for or come in close proximity to COVID-19 positive patients. The hospital received around 145 doses of the vaccine at around 1 p.m. Wednesday and began giving them to employees on Thursday morning, according to an email from Cowley County Health Officer Tom Langer. The hospital also posted on its Facebook page Thursday morning that it had received the vaccine and begun administering it to workers.
Source: The Arkansas City Traveler

Ranson Financial2020-12-18T08:33:07-06:00December 18, 2020|News|

COVID-19 economic woes ‘crushing’ OP Convention Center, which projects $2.8 million loss in 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has crushed revenues at the Overland Park Convention Center this year, with officials now expecting to end the year with only about a third of the revenue and less than half the staff they had in 2019. “This pandemic has moved us back 20 years,” said Brett Mitchell, the center’s general manager. The numbers now more closely resemble how the center was doing its first year of operation, he told the city council’s Finance, Administration and Economic Development committee this week.
Source: Prairie Village Post

Ranson Financial2020-12-18T08:32:54-06:00December 18, 2020|News|