The city of Mission may limit how many short-term rental licenses can be issued to a single owner. … Other cities like Fairway, Merriam and Shawnee have all adopted ordinances this year regulating short-term rentals in some way. Prairie Village is also looking into requiring all rentals in that city to have a 30-day stay minimum, which would effectively ban short-term rentals in that city.
Source: Johnson County Post
The multiagency center, or MAC, will be new to Wichita, but the concept of it — a dual resource center and shelter — has been tried and tested for years in cities across the country, from Eugene, Oregan to Bowling Green, Kentucky. In hopes of answering residents’ questions, The Journal connected with similarly-operating navigation centers in three cities — San Antonio, Phoenix and Reno, Nevada — to learn more about how their resource got started and the impact it has made on its community.
Source: KLC Journal
“A generational highway” that was the reaction of one Crawford County resident after attending the U.S. 69 highway study meeting in Pittsburg today. “Yeah, I think this is an interesting process that they’re doing, sharing with us information, and then gathering information from us,” said Belinda Brumfield, Crawford County resident. Belinda Brumfield is one of many Crawford County residents who attended the second round of the Kansas Department of Transportation’s U.S. 69 highway study meeting.
Source: KSNF/KODE
The City of Topeka is trying to address a shortage of police officers by offering more competitive pay. The city budget manager said there’s a shortage of 40 officers, and that there’s a growing pay gap for officers in the Topeka Police Department (TPD) compared to similar cities. Robert Perez, Topeka’s city manager, said addressing the officer shortage is a high priority. He says currently the city is forced to rely on cops working overtime.
Source: KSNT 27 News
The City of Wichita will be asking residents to do more to reduce water use in order to hold off mandatory water restrictions. Public Works Director Gary Janzen talked about a “call to action” during a workshop meeting Tuesday with the Wichita City Council. He said the plan is for the city to restrict its own water use, while calling on residents to take voluntary steps, and there will be a proposal to raise water rates for higher volume users. Janzen said the goal is to reduce water consumption by ten percent. He said the city historically sees an increase in water use during the months of July, August and September, and now is the time to change course and change habits. The plan will have the city stepping up restrictions on water use at its public facilities and parks, to follow stage two of the city’s drought response plan. The city is not officially going to stage two, which would have mandatory restrictions, but residents will be urged to take voluntary steps to reduce their water use. Residents will be asked to reduce outdoor watering and limit watering to one or two times per week.
Source: 101.3 KFDI
At a recent Harvey County Commission candidate forum, a question was posed: how does a solar farm operate in the county, with a ban on solar farms? The question came after candidates were asked if they supported the wind and solar ban currently in place in the county. Kyle McCaskey, the communications director for the county, said that the solar farm near East Lake is on private property, not county property. McCaskey said it’s run by Butler Electric Cooperative. Karen Rothe, director of the planning, zoning and environment department, provided further information about regulations for private solar farms or projects in the county. Rothe said it wasn’t a complete ban. The ban only applies to commercial wind and solar, not private landowners. According to the county’s website, the ban only applies to unincorporated areas of the county. According to Rothe, the solar farm in question was in line with current regulations. She added that the solar farm by East Lake had even been used as the model by the planning commission to determine solar regulations in the county. “We haven’t had any complaints about that solar project,” Rothe said. For private landowners, there are still regulations. A solar farm must not be more than 10 acres, and the main use of the solar must be personal use. A portion of the electricity produced must be used in Harvey County. “You can’t just hook it into the electric grid and send it off to Florida where Harvey County sees none of it,” Rothe said.
Source: Harvey County Now
With a large gap in child care options in the county, a child care task force hopes a dedicated employee could lead the charge in finding solutions. The task force is working to address issues around child care in the county. According to Child Care Aware of Kansas, the county currently can only fulfill 25 percent of the potential child care slots needed and needs up to 1,400 more child care slots. In the past, they reached out to child care providers to learn what their biggest issues and needs were. Now, to be as effective as possible, the task force said they need to hire someone to focus on meeting the community’s needs full-time. “A lot of what we’re doing is out of our normal 9 to 5 work,” said Dalton Black, director of Harvey County United Way, who is also on the task force. After receiving responses from child care providers from a survey they sent out, Black said they have some ideas of how to make changes to serve them and the community better. Some of the top issues child care providers listed in their survey were food costs, staff retention, paying staff salaries, facility maintenance and training certification. They feel it would be best to have a coordinator in charge. “We’ve followed other communities and what they’re doing,” Black said.
Source: Harvey County Now
Donation statistics presented to a special committee Friday by Shawnee Mission School District administrators showed a lopsided giving advantage when it comes to the district’s wealthiest schools.
But whether that disparity is resulting in more staff positions or better educational outcomes for those schools gifted more money wasn’t clear. It’s also not immediately clear if the district plans to do anything to address the gaps among schools. Over the previous three school years, about 80% of donations dedicated to a particular school — funds brought in through traditional PTA fundraisers, as well as more direct gifts like checks written by parents and grandparents — went to schools with less than 20% of students on free or reduced lunch, according to administrators.
That is nearly $2.4 million going to 16 schools. By comparison, 31 other schools in the district that have 20% or more of their students on free or reduced lunch received just shy of $550,000 combined. The differences grow more stark when broken down by feeder pattern. Schools in the Shawnee Mission East feeder pattern led donation totals by a wide margin, receiving $2.15 million overall. That’s more than twice the district’s four other high school feeder patterns combined. SM North’s feeder pattern was a distant second with $250,000 in donations, followed by SM Northwest with $195,000, SM South with $149,000 and SM West with $110,000.
Source: Johnson County Post
Bourbon County Commissioners on Monday learned more about a topic that has cropped up during discussions on solar panel developments – limited zoning. Commissioners have discussed zoning in recent months and have also been asked by citizens to consider adopting limited zoning as it relates to certain land uses. Commissioners have discussed both sides of the debate on solar panels, and heard from landowners who oppose the developments for various reasons.
Source: Fort Scott Tribune
The proposed homeless services center at a repurposed Lenexa hotel took another step forward last week, as a majority of county commissioners agreed to fund $3.3 million in renovations. The commission also voted to approve a 10-year agreement with reStart Inc., the Kansas City-based nonprofit tasked with operating and ultimately owning the shelter. Commissioners considered whether to use federal Housing and Urban Development funds for the renovations, but rejected the idea because of the added cost and extended time period. Using a HUD grant would require an environmental impact statement that could take up to two years to complete, and the sale of the hotel and nearby restaurant depends upon closing by the end of October. HUD money also would drive the cost of renovations to $4.86 million and require a remediation plan for noise, radon and soil contamination. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has already monitored the site and determined the levels are safe, said Assistant County Manager Joe Connor. Instead, the money will come from COVID relief funds that are a part of the county general fund.
Source: Johnson County Post
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