Kansas in dire need of state energy plan

Consultants hired by the Legislature to examine Kansas’ unusually high electric rates bullet-pointed the obvious: Kansas has neglected to develop a comprehensive plan defining the state’s energy future. Interests as diverse as the Kansas Municipal Utilities association to the Climate and Energy Project of Kansas praised London Economics International for urging Kansas to craft the type of benchmark plan operational in more than two-thirds of states.

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T21:29:26-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

Pittsburg Police and Fire Departments host Battle of The Badges Chili Cook-Off

The Pittsburg Fire and Police Departments battle it out for a good cause.

Today kicked off the fifth annual Battle of The Badges Chili Cook-Off.

Every year the event is ran in collaboration with the American Red Cross as a blood drive.

After participants donate blood they are encouraged to taste each department’s chili and vote on whose is the best.

With this being the area’s largest blood drive, they are hopeful to collect 100 pints of blood this year.

Paul Lyle, American Red Cross, said, “So we really appreciate the volunteers and of course the Red Cross personnel and our donors, they’re wonderful.”

If you didn’t get a chance to stop by today, the event will be held again tomorrow at the Frisco Event Center from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T19:29:39-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

Leaders looking for feedback on new police-community relations initiative

People in Topeka are invited to learn more about a new police-community relations initiative Monday night. The meeting will focus around a new “steering committee” that law enforcement officials hope will be a place for tough conversations.

This will be the first time organizers are getting community feedback on the new initiative.

Cain Davis, president of the Strategic Leadership Academy, says the new committee will focus on law enforcement matters, but they won’t be the only voice at the table.

“It’s going to be law enforcement, maybe a member of Black Lives Matter, a member of the NAACP, a citizen who is just interested in it,” said Davis.

Davis said the meeting Monday night will be a great chance for people to learn more and shape the conversation. Afterwards, he says they’ll have a better idea of what groups are interested and what groups they need to work towards developing.

(Read more: KSNT News)

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T19:27:21-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

Wabaunsee County leaders holding town hall on suicide and mental health

Wabaunsee County leaders are holding a town hall Thursday night about suicide and mental health. This comes after five people died by suicide in Wabaunsee County in 2019.

Wabaunsee County Sheriff Rob Hoskins said he looked back through records and found that the county averaged three to five suicides each year.

“The national average for suicide is 16 per 100,000 people,” said Hoskins. “Wabaunsee County being less than 7,000 people, losing five citizens that puts us a little over 5 times the national average.”

The town hall meeting will include community leaders, school officials, clergy and mental health professionals. Wabaunsee USD 329 Superintendent Brad Starnes says he wants this to be a step toward ending the stigma around mental health.

(Read more: KSNT News)

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T19:26:04-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

100 calls to 911 in minutes after earthquake tied up emergency services, Hutch police say

More than 100 calls to 911 in Reno County in the 10 minutes following a 4.6 magnitude earthquake Sunday afternoon delayed emergency services from responding to people who needed help, law enforcement said.

The Kansas Geological Survey reported that the earthquake — tied for the second-strongest in the state in the past year — struck at around 1:08 p.m. about a mile west of South Hutchinson.

“Within ten minutes our 911 center received over a hundred calls,” the Hutchinson Police Department said in a Facebook post. “Of those calls only a handful required emergency services to respond. We want to remind our citizens that during a major incident to not call 911 unless they need to report an emergency.

(Read more: Local News |)

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T19:24:54-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

KPERS trustees decline proposal to cut 7.75% rate of return assumption

Trustees of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System on Friday decided to retain the current 7.75% investment return assumption rather than heed a recommendation of consultants to lower the foundational economic measure to more closely reflect national expectations.

The decision to maintain the status quo for three years avoided profound financial implications for KPERS, which serves 300,000 current or former public employees. A 0.25% reduction in the investment-return forecast would have driven up the system’s unfunded actuarial liability by $569 million and shrinkage of 0.5% would have equated a $1.2 billion surge in that unfunded long-term liability.

The decision by trustees was influenced by reports of a preliminary gross total return of 17.5% on KPERS’ assets in calendar 2019. That was a reversal from KPERS’ minus-2.6% in calendar 2018.

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T19:22:36-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

KCC explores theory of migrating earthquakes

The Kansas Corporation Commission’s conservation director Thursday said lack of information inhibited declaring a precise cause of earthquakes into Reno County far away from southern Kansas sites where a surge in seismic activity was linked to injection of oil-and-gas wastewater deep underground.

Kansas’ southern tier of counties were rocked by earthquakes starting in 2013 as the oil industry increased fracking to free pockets of oil and gas from subsurface rock. Fracking wasn’t the direct cause of quakes, but the high-pressure injection of millions of barrels of wastewater from the process below the surface was blamed for the sudden seismic activity.

There were 353 earthquakes in Kansas at magnitude 2.5 or greater from 2013 to 2017. That was 10 times the number documented in the previous four decades.

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T19:17:25-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

Vintage downtown stoplights get a facelift

Leon Pfannenstiel read the raised lettering on the metal pedestal of a stoplight pole awaiting painting at his shop, Leon’s Welding & Fabrication, on the US-40 highway bypass.

“Eagle Signal Co., Davenport, Iowa,” Pfannenstiel read out loud.

The pole is one of seven in his shop, all of them taken down on Main Street from the corners of 11th and 12th streets in Hays.

The City of Hays hired Leon’s Welding to refurbish the lights, said Public Works director Jesse Rohr.

(Read more: News – The Hays Daily News)

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T19:15:27-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

Shawnee Mission teachers, admin set final negotiations session in hopes of reaching contract accord

The state assigned fact finder who heard testimony from the Shawnee Mission School District administration and National Education Association-Shawnee Mission earlier this month has issued the report with his recommendations on terms for a contract agreement, setting the stage for one final negotiation session between the parties.

The NEA-Shawnee Mission announced to its members over the weekend that the union and administration will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28 at the Center for Academic Achievement. The session will be open to the public.

However, the parties have agreed not to release the fact finder’s report until after the negotiations session has concluded, a decision permitted under Kansas’s Professional Negotiations Act.

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T19:14:20-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

Lenexa entering encroachment agreement with Magellan Pipeline Company for public improvements

The city of Lenexa is entering an encroachment agreement with Magellan Pipeline Company to make infrastructure improvements near Old Town.

The encroachment agreement will authorize Magellan Pipeline Company to construct curb and gutter, storm sewer, street lighting, sidewalk and trail improvements along Santa Fe Trail Drive between 95th Street and Pflumm Road.

City staff noted that the encroachment agreement with the pipeline company was necessary because a portion of the project (sidewalk, trail and curb and gutter) will cross over the existing Magellan pipeline and easement.

Ranson Financial2020-01-20T19:13:17-06:00January 20, 2020|News|

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