High-res imagery important to county, cities

27 Friday, October 27

High-res imagery important to county, cities

info2023-10-27T12:06:32-05:00October 27th, 2023|

Barton County Cartographer Bj Wooding describes the value of the ultra-high-resolution digital orthoimagery very simply. “It’s been used by several different departments and agencies, and I don’t know how they do their jobs without it, frankly,” she said, addressing the Barton County Commission Tuesday morning. Commissioners then approved the purchase of the imagery for the Mapping Department at a cost of $28,500. This will cover the four major cities in the county (Claflin, Ellinwood, Great Bend and Hoisington) for a total of 79 square miles. The county will pay half, with the balance split among the communities based on size. Source: [...]

27 Friday, October 27

Shawnee bans short-term rentals like AirBnBs in residential areas

info2023-10-27T12:05:52-05:00October 27th, 2023|

Shawnee will ban short-term rentals like AirBnB and VRBO in single-family neighborhoods. After its fourth meeting on short-term rental businesses, the Shawnee City Council on Monday decided to move forward with banning them entirely in residential areas. During the city council committee meeting, the city council asked city staff to draft an outline that will ban rental businesses like AirBnB and VRBO in R-1 (single-family residential) districts. Source: Prairie Village Post

27 Friday, October 27

Stafford’s newest mural available in wearable version

info2023-10-27T11:56:21-05:00October 27th, 2023|

A wearable version of Stafford’s mural project has been delivered and is available for purchase or pickup if pre-ordered. “We will have extras to sell,” said City Administrator Jami Downing, who noted that available colors and sizes will be posted soon. A $5 portion of the proceeds from each T-shirt or sweater purchased will be put into the city’s Community Development Fund, earmarked for future mural projects. “We’ve got a few ideas, it’s just going to depend upon what we go to next,” Downing said. “ Source: Great Bend Tribune

27 Friday, October 27

Ford County Commission approves 1.5-mile setback between turbines, airport

info2023-10-27T11:57:30-05:00October 27th, 2023|

The Ford County Commission unanimously approved a reduction in the minimum distance a wind turbine must be set back away from private airports and air strips at its Oct. 16 meeting. The decision to reduce the required distance from three miles to 1.5 miles rejected the Ford County Planning and Zoning Board recommendation to adhere to the federal three-mile setback rule for all airports in the county for safety reasons. The 3-mile setback disqualified 12,000 acres of Bucklin area private property from receiving an estimated thirty-four turbines. Source: Dodge City Daily Globe

27 Friday, October 27

Alma Cheese Curds wins 2023 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas contest

info2023-10-27T11:58:41-05:00October 27th, 2023|

Alma Cheese Curds is the 2023 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas — People’s Choice, after six weeks of competition, the Kansas Manufacturing Council announced Tuesday. The winner was announced during the KMC Kansas Manufacturing Summit held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Wichita. “The KMC is excited to celebrate Alma Creamery ‘s cheese curds as the 2022 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas. Thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for their favorite Kansas-made products. It has been a fun competition,” said KMC Executive Director Brandie McPherson. “The manufacturing industry is an important part of the Kansas economy." Source: Emporia Gazette

27 Friday, October 27

De Soto EV battery Plant incentives helping people nearby

info2023-10-27T10:50:47-05:00October 27th, 2023|

The $4 billion Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant in De Soto is already having a big impact outside the massive campus. New interchanges are already completed and lead to roads that are currently under construction south of K-10. The development agreement just announced this month lays out how the tax incentives will help cover the upgrades and leave a lasting impact on the surrounding area. "There is a lot of infrastructure improvements that will be needed," De Soto City Administrator Mike Brungardt said. "It'll cost a lot of money, and the development is going to largely fund that through the TIF incentives." Much of that [...]

27 Friday, October 27

Reality of public service not always what Kansas officials expected

info2023-10-27T10:47:53-05:00October 27th, 2023|

The adage “you get out what you put in” usually is attached to manual labor or building a business. It’s also applicable to elected officials, both novices and veterans, as they carry out the duties of their public roles. Kansans will go to the polls Nov. 7 to vote for their choices for city government, school boards and community college boards. These elections typically draw fewer voters than those for state and national offices, but the disruptions of the pandemic shifted the context of their roles. This year’s vote represents a return to normalcy of sorts. No longer do city councils [...]

27 Friday, October 27

Cell phone tower in Andover catches fire

info2023-10-27T12:00:02-05:00October 27th, 2023|

The City of Andover says a cell phone tower at a local park caught on fire Wednesday afternoon but the cause is unknown. Hal Larcher said he was spending his day at Central Park in Andover getting pictures and video of some of the flooding happening there, when suddenly he turned around and saw a thick black smoke filling the sky. He says it was clearly coming from the cell phone tower in the middle of the park. "I was shocked for sure," said Larcher. He says it's unlike anything he's ever seen before. Larcher explains when he was looking at [...]

27 Friday, October 27

About the city of beautiful maples

info2023-10-27T10:45:23-05:00October 27th, 2023|

Hiawatha’s beautiful maples have a rich history that makes the fall splendor of the town even more intriguing. This year, fall took its sweet time settling. An unusually dry late summer and early fall certainly took its toll on the maple trees. Their beautiful colors were a little late turning, and maybe not quite as bright as a wetter year would be, but the maples still were magnificent. After Monday’s rain, many leaves have fallen, but a walk around Hiawatha can truly be inspirational and full of so many colors of autumn. Hiawatha has long been known for its beautiful maples, [...]

27 Friday, October 27

Kansas court system down nearly 2 weeks in ‘security incident’ that has hallmarks of ransomware

info2023-10-27T10:31:31-05:00October 27th, 2023|

Kansas officials are calling a massive computer outage that’s kept most of the state’s courts offline for two weeks a “security incident” and, while they had not provided an explanation as of Wednesday, experts say it has all the hallmarks of a ransomware attack. The disruption has left attorneys unable to search online records and forced them to file motions the old fashioned way — on paper. Courts are limping along, although the growing piles of paper are a mess that will have to be sorted and scanned eventually. “It’s really just slowed the whole system down,” said Chris Joseph, a [...]