JoCo parks board reverses course, will allow e-bikes on trails for 6-month pilot

People who need a little help getting up those hills will soon be able to ride their electric power assisted bicycles on Johnson County trails. The county park district board reversed its December denial of e-bikes and will now allow them for a six-month test period, beginning in early July.

The park board has contemplated e-bikes on the trails for almost a year – ever since one trail user asked whether he could ride his electric power-assisted unicycle on them, said Bill Maasen, county superintendent of parks and golf courses.

He still can’t. Unicycles are not included in the test. Neither are scooters, hoverboards, Segways or other powered vehicles. But people with Class 1 or Class 3 e-bikes will be able to ride them on all of the paved trails in county parks for six months while the park staff collects data.

(Read more: Prairie Village Post)

Ranson Financial2019-06-26T12:06:54-05:00June 26, 2019|News|

Lawrence to consider 16-cent fee for plastic, paper bags

City of Lawrence leaders will soon consider whether to start charging people for disposable grocery and shopping bags in an effort to reduce plastic waste.

The city’s Sustainability Advisory Board voted last summer to make the issue of single-use plastics one of its priorities, and since then a committee has been studying a potential plastic bag ban. The committee has completed its review and is recommending that a fee for plastic and paper bags be imposed instead of an outright ban, according to the committee report.

Lawrence-Douglas County Sustainability Director Jasmin Moore, who is the staff liaison to the board, said the main consideration in the recommendation was how effective a ban or a fee would be at reducing plastic waste. Moore said that research has shown that in some communities retailers and grocers just shifted to thicker plastic bags that didn’t qualify as disposable but that some customers still threw away.

ACPD on horse poop trail

The Arkansas City Police Department is seeking information about people on horseback early Saturday morning who left a trail of horse droppings through downtown Ark City.

Several piles of waste were found downtown between the chamber of commerce office and the Burford Theatre, in Wilson Park, and several other locations, according to a city official.

In the video made public by police, horses and riders are seen climbing the stairs of the stage at the Wilson Park rotunda and trotting around on stage. No visible damage appeared to occur during the incident.

(Read more: The Arkansas City Traveler)

Ranson Financial2019-06-26T12:07:18-05:00June 26, 2019|News|

City code brought into question

Questions regarding Sabetha’s City Code were presented at the Sabetha City Commission meeting held at 6 p.m. Monday, June 24. Present for the meeting were Mayor Doug Clark, Commissioners Julie Burenheide, Maridel Wittmer, Norm Schmitt and Nick Aberle, Assistant City Administrator Bill Shroyer and City Clerk Steve Compo. Guests present were Austin Wasinger, Bob Ruddick and David Herbster.

Wasinger presented documents to the commission regarding Sabetha City Code — saying he had questions regarding two members within the law enforcement department.

“My concern is with some employment policies, specifically within the law enforcement,” Wasinger said. “Some within city code and city code also references state law.”

The first two documents presented were taken directly from the City of Sabetha’s website at http://www.cityofsabetha.com/Codes%20and%20Ordinances.html and were in regard to the following codes:

(Read more: Sabetha Herald)

Ranson Financial2019-06-26T08:53:54-05:00June 26, 2019|News|

Reno County Commissioners make wind farm decision official

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Reno County Commission made it official by passing a resolution for the decision to not grant a conditional use permit to the NextEra Energy wind farm project near Haven.

It was nearly two weeks ago when commissioners held a special meeting at the Fox Theatre and failed to get a supermajority vote for the conditional use permit for the wind farm project.

Commission Chair Bob Bush and Commissioner Ron Sellers voted in favor of the permit, while Commissioner Ron Hirst, who represents the area where the proposed wind farm was to be built, voted against it.

Hirst talked about his reasons for the no vote.

“We had to determine whether it improved the comprehensive plan and the zoning regulations,” Hirst said. “What it all boiled down to, my constituents in that area, the majority had relayed that they were against that. I found lots of situations relating to the comprehensive plan as well as zoning regulations that I felt didn’t justify the conditional use permit.”

(Read more: Hutch Post)

Ranson Financial2019-06-26T08:49:25-05:00June 26, 2019|News|

U.S. House passes budget with no money for USDA move to Kansas City

The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed an appropriations bill that contains no funding for the proposed relocation of U.S. Department of Agriculture research agencies to the Kansas City area.

Tuesday’s 227-194 vote looks to block a move that Kansas City leaders cheered for the 500-plus jobs it’s expected to move to the region but that has been criticized by some of the researchers who don’t want to leave Washington, D.C., and those who think the relocation is meant to diminish USDA research.

The appropriations bill, if passed in its current form, would take effect on Oct. 1. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue has said he wants initial employees to report for work in temporary work space in Kansas City in September, a tight timeline possibly meant to begin the move using current year funds. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, has accused Perdue of rushing the move to avoid congressional opposition.

(Read more: KC Star Local News)

Ranson Financial2019-06-26T08:44:26-05:00June 26, 2019|News|

Kansas secures $957,000 reimbursement in natural gas price fixing case

A price-fixing lawsuit filed by a Wichita aviation company and other natural gas customers that climbed to the U.S. Supreme Court resulted in recovery by the state of Kansas of more than $950,000 from companies that manipulated prices in the early 2000s, officials said Tuesday.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt contributed to the prevailing argument before the Supreme Court that federal law didn’t preempt authority of states to enforce its antitrust laws against price fixing of natural gas in retail transactions.

In 2015, the Supreme Court decided in Oneok v. Learjet that broad applicability of antitrust law supported a conclusion of no federal preemption. That allowed plaintiffs to continue the suit and prompted a settlement providing recovery of money overpaid because of illegally inflated prices.

(Read more: Leavenworth Times)

Ranson Financial2019-06-26T08:41:05-05:00June 26, 2019|News|

Aviation company to create up to 450 jobs in Salina

A major airplane maintenance company is coming to Salina with immediate plans to employ 50 workers by this fall and up to 450 employees within three years.

The largest hangar at the Salina Regional Airport, Hangar 959, has been leased to 1 Vision Aviation, a Sioux City, Iowa-based FAA-certified aircraft repair and maintenance station. The company does maintenance, repair and overhauls on commercial and corporate airliners, as well as private planes, crop dusters and other general aviation products.

The company’s general aviation division has both maintenance and avionics capabilities that will be expanded into a new operation in Salina beginning in July. The company plans to grow its job numbers as new airline business is contracted.

(Read more: Leavenworth Times)

Ranson Financial2019-06-26T08:36:26-05:00June 26, 2019|News|

JCPRD’s Meadowbrook Park opens in Prairie Village, marking realization of vision more than a decade in the making

Back in 2008, with the prospects for the long-running private golf course continuing to be able to operate on the land flagging, Meadowbrook Country Club leaders and Johnson County officials began discussing the possibility of the county buying the land for use as a public park.

The Johnson County Park and Recreation District had long ago identified that northeast Johnson County was underserved with county park land, and that opportunities to bring new parks and programming to the area were limited given the fact that square mileage inside the 435 loop was essentially built out with no significant undeveloped land left.

(Read more: Shawnee Mission Post)

Ranson Financial2019-06-25T09:00:56-05:00June 25, 2019|News|

Johnson County government signs 20-year agreement for KCP&L renewable energy program

The list of local government agencies that have signed on to a KCP&L program that will provide them with power from renewable sources continues to grow.

The Johnson County Board of County Commissioners last week approved a 20-year agreement with KCP&L to join the Renewables Direct program. Through the agreement, public entities and large private customers will receive power from a new wind farm. Details about the location of the farm and when it will go online have not been finalized, but Johnson County reports that KCP&L says the wind farm “may be in operation by 2021.”

(Read more: Shawnee Mission Post)

Ranson Financial2019-06-25T09:00:24-05:00June 25, 2019|News|

JoCo parks board reverses course, will allow e-bikes on trails for 6-month pilot

Lawrence to consider 16-cent fee for plastic, paper bags

ACPD on horse poop trail

City code brought into question

Reno County Commissioners make wind farm decision official

U.S. House passes budget with no money for USDA move to Kansas City

Kansas secures $957,000 reimbursement in natural gas price fixing case

Aviation company to create up to 450 jobs in Salina

JCPRD’s Meadowbrook Park opens in Prairie Village, marking realization of vision more than a decade in the making

Johnson County government signs 20-year agreement for KCP&L renewable energy program

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