These small Kansas towns have zero dollars for books. A statewide book festival is helping

Small as it is, the Madison Public Library is nominally a quiet place, but for a moment, Christine Inman made an exception. Inman, the library director and sole full-time employee, had just learned the library had been the recipient of a $1,000 grant from the Kansas Book Festival. At any other library, this would have been good news — $1,000 can and would buy countless books to refresh the library. But at Madison Public Library, about 30 minutes south of Emporia, the grant represented double the $500 budget the community resource usually receives for books each year. Source: CJonline

Why is a business that can bring in millions not living up to its expectations? One thought is, it's the name. Outside of Kansas, people don't know where Hutchinson is, let alone Hutchinson Regional Airport. Hutchinson, Minnesota, with a population of right around 15,000 might just have a larger name recognition. But even if it doesn't, a consultant said, people need to know Hutchinson, Kansas is near Wichita − and where the airport is located makes a difference. ... In addition to changing the name of the airport, making it more a regional name − like Central Kansas Regional Airport − [...]

While the process has been years in the making, the final steps to have Salina designated as a POW-MIA City only took a few short weeks. On March 14, Salina officially became the second city in Kansas and 50th in the nation to be designated as a Prisoner of War (POW)-Missing in Action (MIA) City by the Jefferson Barracks POW-MIA Museum, Inc. Salina’s designation comes after the City Commission adopted a resolution to become a POW-MIA City on March 13 with the assistance and at the encouragement of Steve Murrison, commander of local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1432. Source: Salina [...]

More people than ever have visited Kansas state parks in recent years. Those parks saw more than 8 million visitors for the first time in 2020, the COVID year. That total fell in 2021 to 7.6 million, then rose last year to 7,892,316, said Linda Lanterman, parks director for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. That department maintains 28 state parks. It will soon add one more, as Gov. Laura Kelly signed a bill Wednesday establishing Lehigh Portland State Park near Iola. Source: Salina Journal

Kansas economists predict modest growth and healthy tax revenues, with new estimates released Thursday adding $238 million over the next two years to state coffers. The revenue forecasts come ahead of legislators and Gov. Laura Kelly finalizing budgets and tax cuts during the coming week. Politicians have a projected $1.9 billion budget surplus to work with for the current fiscal year, and a $2.5 billion surplus for next year. Source: Hutch News

A powerful supercell thunderstorm produced eight tornadoes that touched down between 8:13 and 8:55 p.m. Wednesday in Chase County, injuring two people, one when a car was picked up, the National Weather Service said. No one was killed. Cottonwood Falls, the county seat of Chase County in east-central Kansas, is located about 65 miles southwest of Topeka. One of Wednesday evening's injuries resulted from a "semi that was rolled" and the other from a "car that was picked up with glass breaking," said information shared by the Wichita office of the National Weather Service. Source: CJonline

The Small-Town Water and Sewer Infrastructure Assistance and Grant Program is now accepting pre-applications for funding. This program is funded from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State Fiscal Recovery Funds as recommended by the SPARK Executive Committee and approved by the State Finance Council in December 2022. This funding opportunity will provide up to $10,000,000 in short term sewer and drinking water grant funding to local governments. Eligible funding recipients would include cities, counties and other identified political subdivisions who have populations less than 1,000 people and are experiencing a health or regulatory compliance issue that an infrastructure project would [...]