info2023-05-08T19:45:00-05:00May 8th, 2023|
Overland Park’s unique food safety inspection regime may be on its way out. The city council’s Community Development Committee on Wednesday unanimously recommended ending city inspections of eating establishments because it duplicates the efforts of the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Overland Park is the only city in Kansas that has its own food inspection program alongside the state’s. Source: Prairie Village Post
info2023-05-08T19:44:14-05:00May 8th, 2023|
In an effort to continue facilitating more home improvements in Derby, the city is currently taking applications for the 2023 Neighborhood Maintenance Grant (NMG) program. The program, which was retooled to increase utilization in 2022, seeks to help eligible homeowners with exterior home maintenance projects. Usage increased drastically in the first year of the new program as compared to the previous five years. During each annual grant cycle, a total of $25,000 is available to help homeowners with qualifying repair projects including roofs, siding, gutters, paint, doors, windows, masonry porches, exterior lighting, and repair of existing porches, fences, outbuildings, sidewalks, etc. [...]
info2023-05-08T19:43:14-05:00May 8th, 2023|
Many volunteer departments across the state are pinching pennies, forcing them to prioritize critical equipment over health and safety. "With a limited budget, you kind of have to make a judgment call of, some of the gear is good enough," Fire chief for Cowley County Fire District 3 in Burden, Chris Cannon, said. "It's not within the recommended guidelines, but it looks OK. So it was a huge challenge. We really couldn't do it with a budget of dollars that we had." Cannon says grant funding is essential to being able to operate effectively and safely. "It's just very challenging because [...]
info2023-05-08T19:42:43-05:00May 8th, 2023|
They see the sun come up as they pick up students and take them to school every morning. Then, pick up the students again and drop them off at home in the afternoon. In Valley Center, generations of students are familiar with a bus driver known as Miss Gail. ... Every school day in Valley Center begins with 20 school buses transporting about a thousand students to USD 262 schools. "When I first started, it was a job, and I could take my children with me on the school bus. So, that was good. I raised all three of my children [...]
info2023-05-08T19:39:54-05:00May 8th, 2023|
Stories of success and life change provided reprieve from much of the conversation about homelessness, substance abuse and mental health issues in Saline County during a public forum Wednesday. The stories were an almost necessary pause from some of the harrowing realities discussed among those who showed up to the forum. Not long after hearing statistics on homelessness, high recidivism rates, and a look at challenges county agencies see day-to-day, the stories left the crowd of about 50 musing. Source: Salina Journal
info2023-05-08T19:38:57-05:00May 8th, 2023|
People looking for an experience in north central Kansas have another back after more than a year being away as the Kanopolis Drive In movie theater opens up this weekend for the 2023 season. The theater, located at 804 N. Kansas Ave. on the edge of Kanopolis, was hit like the rest of the area by the Dec. 15, 2021 windstorm, receiving damage to several parts of the property, including its 70 foot-wide screen, causing the theater to not open during the 2022 season. Source: Salina Journal
info2023-05-08T19:33:38-05:00May 8th, 2023|
Owner Chris Payne says he may consider closing Heartland Motorsports Park after Shawnee County rejected an offer he made to try to settle a property tax legal battle. Heartland Park hasn't necessarily reached the end of the road, Payne said this past week. Still, Payne "must begin to make firm economic decisions to wind down the events at Heartland Park," Payne's attorney David Holstead told county counselor Jim Crowl in a letter sent Tuesday. Payne's company, Shelby Development LLC, will now "proceed to mitigate its damages in the appropriate and practical manner that is necessary for any enterprise under such circumstances," [...]
info2023-05-08T19:32:09-05:00May 8th, 2023|
Hutchinson will become Smallville, Kansas, the home of Clark Kent, from June 15-17 to celebrate the community and togetherness as the 10th annual Smallville Festival takes place throughout Hutchinson. The city’s Third Thursday, Kansas State Fair, Reno County Museum, Cosmosphere and Strataca will partake in the three-day stretch of activities. On June 15, Smallville will be kicked off at Third Thursday in downtown Hutchinson from 6 to 9 p.m., including family-oriented games and food, plus superheroes. Source: Hutch News
info2023-05-08T19:29:20-05:00May 8th, 2023|
This week marks 98 years since a patient first stepped into an old farmhouse in Topeka, marking the beginning of one of the world's most well-respected and influential leaders in modern mental health care. It was 1925 that C.F. Menninger and his sons, Karl and William Menninger, first began seeing patients in their clinic. The family of psychiatrists became renowned for their holistic approach to mental health, unheard of at the time. Thousands of patients from around the U.S. and world came to "tiny" Topeka throughout the 20th century to see the practice, and several of the world's leading psychiatrists and [...]
info2023-05-08T19:28:05-05:00May 8th, 2023|
County-by-county battles are raging as wind and solar projects balloon in size, edge closer to cities and encounter mounting pushback in communities from Niagara Falls to the Great Plains and beyond. Projects have slowed. Even in states with a long history of building renewables, developers don’t know if they can get local permits or how long it might take. In Kansas, wind power grew rapidly for two decades and supplies around 45% of the electricity generated in-state, ranking it third in the nation. But at least five counties in more-populous eastern Kansas have recently placed moratoriums or bans on new wind [...]
