Eudora entices new parks and rec director from city twice as large

The newly named Eudora parks and recreation director said she is stepping down from a similar position in a much larger community because of the greater opportunities Eudora offers.

Sally Pennington is wrapping up her duties as parks and recreation director at Neosho, Mo. She has had the job in the city of about 13,000 people 15 miles south of her hometown of Joplin for 2 1/2 years.

“The size of a city has nothing to do with the recreational amenities available,” she said. “Neosha doesn’t have a rec center, aquatic center or ballfields.”

Kansas auditors predict Cabinet-agency IT consolidation to raise costs

The cost to Kansas taxpayers of consolidating information technology services in the executive branch of state government could increase by millions of dollars depending on the level of IT staff retained and the replacement of outdated infrastructure, auditors said Monday.

The Kansas Legislature’s auditing division estimated that continuing with existing consolidation plans for state Cabinet agencies could increase annual costs $2.6 million to $38 million, depending on how many of 230 targeted IT personnel were eliminated because of efficiencies and the unavoidable expense of addressing the “poor condition” of Kansas’ IT infrastructure.

“Their plan will likely increase state costs instead of achieving savings,” auditor Andy Brienzo told a joint House and Senate committee.

Ranson Financial2019-07-29T18:43:11-05:00July 29, 2019|News|

Federal grant to enable GraceMed to enroll 8,000 more Kansans into KanCare

GraceMed Health Clinic says it will be able to enroll or re-enroll more than 8,000 Kansans into the state’s Medicaid/CHIP program over three years with a grant from the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has awarded GraceMed a grant of $1.095 million. GraceMed will use the funding for enrollment of Kansans in 29 counties in the south-central and eastern parts of the state.

(Read more: Wichita Business Journal)

Ranson Financial2019-07-29T18:40:48-05:00July 29, 2019|News|

Pottawatomie County Commission at odds over contingency plan to fill county administrator position

For the first time since Pottawatomie County Administrator Robert Reece announced his retirement, the county commission was tasked with discussing the next steps in filling the position during their Monday meeting.

HR Director Crystal Malchosa presented commissioners with an estimate of hiring a third party search committee to recruit for the position. The county is currently a member of third-party firm ICMA which was presented as the most cost-efficient.

“We’re already a member of ICMA and they range anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 to do the recruitment for the administrator position,” Malchosa said.

(Read more: 1350 KMAN)

Ranson Financial2019-07-29T18:39:38-05:00July 29, 2019|News|

County OKs more than $700,000 in parks and rec spending

Shawnee County commissioners voted Monday to allocate more than $700,000 for parks and recreation repairs and improvements, including $200,000 to make the Lake Shawnee Trail safer in an area that was the scene of a fatal bicycle accident on a steep hill in 2007.

Commissioners Bob Archer, Bill Riphahn and Kevin Cook voted 3-0 to re-purpose $200,000 the county previously borrowed by issuing bonds for other purposes to enable its public works department to flatten a section of the parks and recreation department’s Lake Shawnee Trail, which runs parallel to S.E. 45th Street.

The work will be done as that department carries out an upcoming project to widen a nearby stretch of S.E. 45th. The county currently has signs posted along the trail directing cyclists to dismount and walk their bikes because the hill’s steepness makes it unsafe.

Ranson Financial2019-07-29T18:37:32-05:00July 29, 2019|News|

County officials discuss proposed $10 million in parks and rec spending

Shawnee County Commissioner Kevin Cook isn’t against pickleball, he said at Monday’s commission meeting.

Cook addressed dozens of pickleball enthusiasts — many of them senior citizens — who attended to show support for creating a “Family Park” featuring new trails and pickleball courts on county-owned land just south of S.W. 21st and Urish Road.

Cook suggested the three-man commission would overextend the county government financially if it approved Commissioner Bob Archer’s proposal to incur $10 million in new debt to finance new construction in parks and recreation, with some of that going to develop the Family Park in an amount that hasn’t been made specific.

Ranson Financial2019-07-29T18:36:30-05:00July 29, 2019|News|

Kansas auditors question lack of rules, transparency of $25 million jobs program

The Kansas Department of Commerce operated an open-ended job growth program for five years that awarded $25 million without defining boundaries for making financial awards and in some cases didn’t mandate a formal application nor hold recipients accountable for delivering economic growth, state auditors said Monday.

Under the Kansas Job Creation Program Fund created in 2011 to provide cash awards to companies to help create jobs and foster growth, the Kansas Legislature’s division of post audit said, the commerce department failed to develop written policy to dictate the size of cash awards and how recipients were to be selected. State law didn’t establish criteria.

Commerce personnel considered the program a “deal-closing” mechanism and didn’t make creation of jobs or economic activity a condition of grant approval for all recipients, the audit said.

(Read more: News – The Topeka Capital-Journal)

Ranson Financial2019-07-29T18:35:29-05:00July 29, 2019|News|

Newly renovated Eisenhower museum reopens in Abilene

A museum honoring President Dwight Eisenhower in his childhood home in Kansas has reopened after undergoing a massive, yearlong renovation.

Visitors got their first glimpse Monday of modernized exhibits in the 25,000-square-foot (2322-sq. meter) museum. They feature new graphic panels, display cases, theater experiences and digital interactive stations.

The original schedule was to open in time for the 75th anniversary of D-Day in early June, but the federal government shutdown delayed the timeline.

(Read more: Great Bend Post)

Ranson Financial2019-07-29T18:32:32-05:00July 29, 2019|News|

As Rural America Slips, Governors Look for Ways to Help

… governors recognize there’s a huge disconnect between the nation’s superstar cities and rural areas left wondering when the recession’s going to end. Governors of states including Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have started programs to bolster rural economies…

Rural America is too vast and varied to paint with a single brush. Many rural areas are thriving. Still, it’s clear that overall, the rural economy is falling far behind major metropolitan counties.

…

In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly has created an Office of Rural Prosperity. The effort is beginning with a listening tour of rural areas, led by Lt. Gov. Rogers and featuring several cabinet officials. The tour has already hit 28 cities in eight regions, with two more stops planned this week.

Rogers says that broadband and housing always come up, along with complaints about cuts to state services. “We closed a lot of agencies in rural Kansas, so they have to call Topeka,” he says. “Rural Kansas probably got hit harder than our urban areas did for the last eight years.”

(Read more: GOVERNING)

Ranson Financial2019-07-29T22:01:05-05:00July 29, 2019|News|

New broadband map for Kansas coming soon

An updated and finished detailed broadband access availability map of Kansas will be “rolled out” Tuesday in Dodge City, in conjunction with a telephone service association conference.

The end of July was the deadline for Connected Nation’s mapping project, carried out in partnership with the governor’s office and the Kansas Department of Commerce, said Connected Nation’s vice president of government affairs, Brent Legg.

“What it’s going to show is service availability at the street level, essentially, for broadband all across the state,” Legg said.

“Seventy broadband service providers participated in the map, and then we had another 10 who elected not to participate, unfortunately, but we were able to use the data they filed with the FCC to supplement the more granular date here,” Legg added.

(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)

Ranson Financial2019-07-28T21:55:38-05:00July 28, 2019|News|

Eudora entices new parks and rec director from city twice as large

Kansas auditors predict Cabinet-agency IT consolidation to raise costs

Federal grant to enable GraceMed to enroll 8,000 more Kansans into KanCare

Pottawatomie County Commission at odds over contingency plan to fill county administrator position

County OKs more than $700,000 in parks and rec spending

County officials discuss proposed $10 million in parks and rec spending

Kansas auditors question lack of rules, transparency of $25 million jobs program

Newly renovated Eisenhower museum reopens in Abilene

As Rural America Slips, Governors Look for Ways to Help

New broadband map for Kansas coming soon

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