Revisiting Rice County during the 1950s

For Rice County native, Larry Meredith, growing up during the 1950s in rural Kansas was special – no internet, lots of friends and lots of room to roam.In his newest book, "Real, Rural: Growing Up Rural in the 1950s," Meredith tells tales about Bushton, the 1950s and his graduating class of 12."Nobody worried about the competition between the two grocery stores on Main St. and they drove to Lyons or Great Bend to do their serious shopping," Meredith wrote.
(Read more: State News – Morning Sun)

Ranson Financial2020-08-03T07:52:18-05:00August 3, 2020|News|

“Keeping residents and businesses healthy”: City of Wichita hopes to clarify owners’ concerns

Bars, night clubs, and some restaurant just wrapped up another weekend of shutdowns and early closures under a county health order. Monday, the city of Wichita will host a meeting to talk with owners to find ways to get them some help. KSN news spoke with Mayor Brandon Whipple about bar owners concerns. With that meeting, the city says it wants to make sure it’s helping bar and restaurant owners the best that it can. The owner of Quincy’s bar and grill says dealing with shutdowns and early closures has been tough. The same amount of people are out and about, and now they have fewer places to go.
(Read more: KSN-TV)

Ranson Financial2020-08-03T07:51:49-05:00August 3, 2020|News|

City of Hutchinson and Reno County both mark record July sales tax receipts

Federal stimulus checks and continuing stay-at-home orders are credited with helping the City of Hutchinson and Reno County both experience record sales tax receipts for July. It was a second consecutive month that receipts exceeded collections compared to the same month last year, at a time when local government officials had been expecting shortfalls due to layoffs and closures forced by the novel coronavirus. “It looks like vehicle sales were up and home improvement-type store sales as well,” said Angela Richard, Hutchinson’s finance director. Also experiencing increase sales, she said, were grocery, sporting goods and hobby stores.
(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)

Ranson Financial2020-08-03T07:57:52-05:00August 3, 2020|News|

New micro-hospital in Topeka offers alternative to traditional hospital setting

A lead physician at the recently opened Topeka ER & Hospital says the facility offers an alternative to traditional hospital settings where some people may not feel comfortable. Topeka ER & Hospital, which officially opened July 27, is the first independently owned “micro-hospital” in Kansas, according to Jared Schreiner, chief medical officer and emergency medicine physician. “The whole design of the micro-hospital started maybe a decade ago,” he said, “and the purpose was to build hospitals in communities, because we found that patients were avoiding care because they didn’t want to drive to the city, to fight parking, to fight traffic, to get on an elevator, to follow signs, to get lost, to wait in a waiting room.”
(Read more: Local News | Topeka Capital-Journal)

Ranson Financial2020-08-03T07:55:56-05:00August 3, 2020|News|

Fairway approves removal of diseased feature tree in right-of-way on Suwanee Road

The Fairway City Council on Tuesday morning unanimously approved the removal of a feature tree in the right-of-way along Suwanee Road. City staff had KC Arborist, the city’s long-time arborist, evaluate a 43-inch round tree with a large cavity about 20-feet off the ground. The arborist determined the tree to be structurally compromised as the result of a disease, and recommended its removal as soon as possible.
(Read more: Shawnee Mission Post)

Ranson Financial2020-08-03T07:54:51-05:00August 3, 2020|News|

Treasury Department: States, local governments spend only 25 percent of CARES Act subsidies

As deliberations continue in Congress over how to allocate another $1 trillion worth of stimulus money, governors and mayors say they need more than the $139 billion already allocated to their states in March to cover revenue shortfalls. A total of $150 billion was allocated to help state, local and tribal governments with specific COVID-19 response programs. But according to a new report published by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General, states have spent only 25 percent, or roughly $34 billion of $139 billion allocated to states through the CARES Act.
(Read more: The Chanute Tribune)

Ranson Financial2020-08-03T07:53:45-05:00August 3, 2020|News|

COVID-19 sapped councilman’s energy during 12-day fight

Tony Emerson’s first three days with COVID-19 weren’t so bad, he says. The local contractor and Topeka city councilman felt some soreness and had a mild fever. Still, he could talk on the phone and work on his computer. “I was like, ‘This is nothing. This is just a walk in the park. My gosh, what’s the big deal?’ ” he recalled. But Emerson, 51, said he then felt horrible for about a week, including being nauseous for all his waking hours. “You think it’s never going to end,” he said.
(Read more: Local News | Topeka Capital-Journal)

Ranson Financial2020-08-03T07:49:37-05:00August 3, 2020|News|

Kansas hopes sewage will provide advance warning of future COVID-19 surges

Want to know if the novel coronavirus is in your town? The answer might be in the sewers. Researchers at the University of Kansas are teaming up with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to track the coronavirus pandemic by measuring virus particles in wastewater. The technique, called wastewater surveillance, may provide an early warning system to give Kansas communities advance notice of future COVID-19 surges. Wastewater surveillance also helps fill in gaps in COVID-19 clinical testing, which can be limited, costly, and plagued by slow turnaround times. “The amount of positive cases that are reported understate the actual extent of infection within a city or county population,” said Tom Stiles, the director of the KDHE Bureau of Water.
(Read more: Wichita Eagle)

Ranson Financial2020-08-03T07:49:15-05:00August 3, 2020|News|

Leavenworth County vs. Copeland: Analysis of Length of Municipal Contracts

In 2016, the Leavenworth County Board of Commissioners approved a five-year employment contract with … the county’s human resources director. After a change in commissioners, the board filed an action in the Leavenworth County District Court to have the contract declared void. The board later terminated the HR director, and she counterclaimed to enforce the contract’s exceptionally generous severance package. The district court found the contract to be unenforceable as a legally impermissible attempt by one elected composition of the board to bind a later composition of that board. Copeland has appealed. The district court correctly applied settled Kansas law to undisputed material facts in granting the board’s motion for summary judgment. We, therefore, affirm the decision.
Read the Kansas Court of Appeals opinion.

Ranson Financial2020-08-02T09:31:38-05:00July 31, 2020|News|

Wyandotte County to continue in Phase 3 of reopening plan

Wyandotte County will continue in Phase 3 of the Ad Astra reopening plan, according to Dr. Allen Greiner, chief health officer of Wyandotte County. Dr. Greiner made his remarks at the 5 p.m. July 30 meeting of the Unified Government, a remote meeting held on Zoom. “The 7-day positive rolling average has come down in the past week,” Juliann Van Liew, Unified Government Health Department director, said about the COVID-19 positive rate. The trend is very encouraging, she said. Jackson and Johnson counties are seeing different trends, with their rates not coming down like Wyandotte County’s has in the past few weeks, she said.
(Read more: Wyandotte Daily)

Ranson Financial2020-07-31T08:08:08-05:00July 31, 2020|News|