More residents may soon become eligible for Overland Park’s property tax rebate pilot program this year. With roughly $110,000 left in the pot set aside for city property tax rebates this year, the city is looking at expanding the eligibility criteria to include more household income levels in the program. Currently, only extremely low and very low income households — defined under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s guidelines for the Kansas City metro area — are eligible for the rebate. However, the city could expand that to include low-income households as well.
Read more: Johnson County Post

Just one month into the pilot, the city of Prairie Village is expanding its drop-off composting program. The Prairie Village City Council on Aug. 18 unanimously agreed to purchase three more KC Can Compost smart bins for a total of five drop-off composting locations. Since launching on July 1, KC Can Compost has collected more than 8,000 pounds of food scraps (as of Aug. 18) from the two bins originally approved as part of the pilot program.
Read more: Johnson County Post

Weeks after the Olathe Planning Commission denied a proposal for a massive cold storage facility, residents who live by the proposed site poured into the City Council chambers, pleading with council members to deny the project over concerns of it posing an environmental hazard. In a meeting Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously approved tax incentives to help fund construction for parts of the project, but the development proposal itself still needs to come back to the dais for final approval.
Read more: Homepage

Twice in the past five years, supermajorities of voters have turned down proposals to build new high school baseball and softball fields in Louisburg, Kansas, home of the Wildcats. The school board had no intention of asking again. Its new plan was to fund a scaled-down version of the project by entering into a 10-year, $4 million lease-purchase agreement with First Option Bank. Adding in interest, the fields would cost about $4.8 million. Unlike proposals before it, though, the annual payments of more than $400,000 would be funded entirely through the school district’s capital outlay budget, meaning construction wouldn’t require a property tax hike. But 568 people signed a protest petition that was filed with the Miami County clerk in July — more than twice the threshold of Louisburg voters necessary to trigger a referendum vote on whether the project can proceed.
Read more: Homepage

A Shawnee police dog that was stabbed in Kansas City, Kansas, Aug. 5 is back to work after nearly a month of recovery. Dagger, a K9 police dog with the Shawnee Police Department, returned to full duty Tuesday after he was stabbed while responding to an aggravated robbery call on Aug. 5.
Read more: Homepage

The Kansas Supreme Court is seeking public input on proposed Rule 1405, which would create a standing Rural Justice Initiative Committee. If approved, the rule would set the structure for the committee, including membership and terms. The committee would oversee the implementation of recommendations from the Rural Justice Initiative Final Report, track the effectiveness of those efforts, and explore ways to improve access to legal services in rural areas.
Read more: KCLY Radio

“History was made here today.” That’s how one person described the test flight of a drone that delivered a piece of medical equipment to a rural hospital nearly 30 miles away. It was a pioneering effort to see how unmanned aircraft can benefit rural hospitals and patients in the future. 
Read more: KCLY Radio

A new vending machine in Garden City is offering free doses of Narcan to anyone who needs them. Compass Behavioral Health announced that its outpatient office at 1111 E. Spruce St. has partnered with DCCCA to provide the medication, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The machine is available to the public at no cost.
Read more: KSN-TV

Being a helpful member of your community doesn’t have an age limit, as shown by second grader Tiffany Hernandez from Burrton. She’s been coming to the Newton and Burrton public libraries since she was 18 months old. Now, the 7-year-old is giving back to places she says are a couple of her favorite places in the world. “The kids section, and the books,” Tiffany said when asked what her favorite part of the library was. But Tiffany has another passion; earlier this year, she got into making hair bows. But Tiffany wasn’t going to just give these handcrafted bows away. This second grader also has an entrepreneurial spirit, so she decided to sell these at the Burrton farmer’s market. But instead of saving the money for herself, Tiffany decided to donate all of the earnings, around $100, to both libraries.
Read more: KSN-TV

The City of Haysville has been ordered to pay a $250 fine for violating the Kansas Open Records Act. The Kansas Attorney General’s Office says the city violated the KORA when it didn’t produce photographs requested by a resident without providing any explanation as to why they were not provided. He realized he did not receive all of the requested records when the photos were presented in a jury trial.
Read more: KSN-TV