Lawrence City Commission approves new historic resources code, adds 2 locations to historic register

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the replacement of the Conservation of Historic Resources Code with an updated version. Lawrence established the historic resources code as article 33 of the city code in 1988. This chapter, designed to conserve historic resources, mandated a review every five years. However, it had not been reviewed since its inception. In 2014, the Historic Resources Commission was advised to assess and suggest changes. A subcommittee identified significant modifications, leading to a complete revision proposal. The biggest changes in the revised chapter encompassed aspects such as allowing administrative review for most projects and streamlining the approval process with added flexibility and emergency procedures. In July 2023, the Historic Resources Commission held a public hearing, approved the revised chapter and forwarded it to the Lawrence City Commission for consideration. “It may not be exactly what we want, or what I want, or what the community wants, but progress is important,” Vice Mayor Mike Dever said. “Perfection is very difficult to achieve, but I think this is real progress.” The commission also unanimously approved adding two places to the Lawrence Register of Historic Places: the Historic Kansas River Bridge Stone Pier and the Henry Waters House at 1124 New Jersey St.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T11:02:27-06:00January 17, 2024|News|

Burrton considering selling natural gas

The City of Burrton is considering selling off its natural gas, but City Clerk Kim Ryan said the decision wasn’t final. Ryan said the city had received interest from both the Kansas Gas Service and Black Hills Energy. The Kansas Gas Service set the original deadline for Feb. 4 but extended it for a later meeting. Ryan said the city plans to have a meeting on Feb. 5 and expects a decision to be made by the middle of February. According to Ryan, the city is considering selling because of all the state regulations. “You almost need a couple of full time people to run it,” Ryan said. “We don’t have that manpower.” Ryan said the current supervisor who knows how to manage it plans to retire in 2026, and finding a replacement would be challenging. Cost was another reason Ryan said the city is thinking of selling. “It’s costing more to run it than [it’s] making,” Ryan said. Burrton, like Halstead and Hesston, has struggled with high gas prices during the cold temperatures seen in recent winters. In 2021, gas bills increased by 10 to 20 times the normal rate for that time of year.
Source: Harvey County Now

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T11:01:04-06:00January 17, 2024|News|

Joint city-county meeting to focus on homelessness and housing strategic plan

The Lawrence City Commission and Douglas County Commission on Wednesday will hold a joint meeting to review the strategic plan to address homelessness and hear updates on progress. The commissions will not take any binding action but will discuss collaboration between the governing bodies going forward, according to the agenda. Both commissions heard reports on the draft plan in spring of 2023, and city/county staff members held public engagement meetings to gather community feedback over the next couple of months. The plan has since been revised, and the final draft was completed in December, according to the presentation in the meeting agenda. The joint meeting is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17 at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. Douglas County commissioners will then have their regular meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. at the historic courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T11:00:03-06:00January 17, 2024|News|

Waging war on snow, ice

“It’s been pretty mild since I got here,” said Pittsburg Street Supervisor Lonnie Wells, “2011 was the last big storm, and that’s OK with me.” As Wells spoke Tuesday, the City’s trucks were crisscrossing Pittsburg using plows and a mixture of sand and salt to clear the streets of stubborn packed snow. Although the weekend’s snow was not deep, the extreme cold slowed melting and many streets were still slippery. Wells said that once snow is compacted by traffic and temperatures are as low as they have been recently, it becomes almost like ice. “You can’t plow that stuff off,” Wells said. The extreme cold creates specific problems of its own, Wells said. “Our rock salt is only effective once it gets to about 20 degrees,” he said. The sand ($18 a ton) is mixed with the salt ($125 a ton) at a ratio of four to one before it is applied. Wells said the crews try to prepare for winter weather by pretreating streets with a brine solution at least once a week. Wells said he has a crew of seven. His department has five 10-wheeler trucks, two 1-ton trucks and a couple of pickups on which small plows are mounted. Perhaps the most effective tool in the battle against the snow and ice, the Sun, was helping out, as well.
Source: Morning Sun

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T10:58:34-06:00January 17, 2024|News|

Why is Wamego dropping its speed limit to 20 mph?

With a few exceptions, the City of Wamego has chosen to drop the speed limit for local streets to 20 mph. KSNT 27 news spoke with City Manager Stacie Eichem for an explanation for why the decision was made and what this means for people driving through Wamego. She said the Governing Body of Wamego approved Ordinance 1800 on Dec. 19, adopting a city-wide 20 mph limit. Language in the ordinance states that a traffic speed study was conducted by Olsson Engineers. A recommendation from this study asked for the speed limit on local roadways to be lowered to 20 mph “in order to better align travel speeds along local roadways with speed limit guidance.” The City of Wamego provided KSNT 27 News with the map below to better explain what local streets will be impacted by the new ordinance. All highlighted streets are exceptions to the rule while those that are not highlighted will be switched to 20 mph. Eichem said city leaders heard complaints from some local residents that traffic was moving too quickly in city limits. Eichem, who shared similar concerns with city leaders, received authorization to start a Safe Driving Coalition which consists of local residents, the Wamego Police Department, USD 320 and the City of Wamego. This is all being done to make the city streets safer for travelers and locals alike.
Source: KSNT 27 News

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T10:57:30-06:00January 17, 2024|News|

Appraisal increases match housing market changes

Appraisals in the county have increased significantly, with the county appraiser saying it’s the highest she’s ever seen in the past three years. Real estate agents say there are changes in the housing market that explain these increases. Brad Elliot, a real estate agent in the county, said interest rates increasing in recent years has kept many people from selling. This causes increased competition for the houses that are put on the market and drives prices up. Elliot thinks, with interest rates decreasing again, more houses will be added to the market. People who had been unwilling to move because their interest rates would go up might consider a move now. The Federal National Mortgage Association predicts that interest rates will continue to decrease and will end 2024 around 6.5 percent, compared to the nearly 8 percent interest rates that have been seen. Beth-Ann Kingsley, a real estate agent based in Halstead, agreed that demand was the cause behind the increased prices and values. Kingsley added that construction on new houses slowed during COVID-19, causing construction to get “backed up.” This furthered the decrease in available housing inventory.
Source: Harvey County Now

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T10:56:17-06:00January 17, 2024|News|

Markets Expect Rate Cuts Soon. Central Banks Say Not So Fast.

There may be a middle ground between blindly trusting central bankers’ interest-rate guidance and disregarding it completely. On Tuesday, stocks fell, Treasury yields jumped and the U.S. dollar rose against other currencies after Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller warned that any lowering of interest rates this year will need to be “carefully calibrated and not rushed.” Though he is a well-known hawk, many other officials have also recently suggested that investors may be expecting borrowing costs to come down too far and too fast. European Central Bank rate setters made the same point at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, including chief economist Philip Lane. To be sure, Waller’s comments still suggest that monetary policy stands a good chance of being loosened this year. But markets have priced in a lot of stimulus over the past few months, and failed to heed calls for caution.
Source: WSJ.com: Markets

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T10:55:09-06:00January 17, 2024|News|

New zoning code could bring in different events around Century II

More special events could be coming to downtown Wichita. The City Council unanimously passed a zoning change on Tuesday, which not only removed outdated zoning but also opened up the facility to more events and opportunities in the area around Century II. It came about after an artist began to fight to keep his shop in Old Town, and a group looked into holding a tattooing convention there, but the Central Business District prohibits tattooing. A few months after Afterlife Tattooz opened in Old Town, the owner got a letter from the City telling him tattoo shops were not allowed in his part of town. After gathering support from the Old Town Association, the tattoo shop asked the City to change the zoning to allow tattooing in Old Town, which was approved by a vote 7-0 in September and went on to the second reading. The tattoo and piercing convention is planned for spring. The change now gives the area more flexibility, but the City Council still has to sign off on each special event.
Source: KSN-TV

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T10:52:10-06:00January 17, 2024|News|

Prairie Village moving ahead with plan to build new city hall

Prairie Village is moving forward with plans for a new city hall — unchanged from a design the previous city council supported before last fall’s elections altered the makeup of the governing body. During the first discussion of the new city hall facility in 2024, the city council on Tuesday decided to ultimately exclude two proposed changes to a roughly $30 million design that the previous council had asked city staff to explore last year. The plan backed by the council calls for a completely new 18,000-square-foot city hall building on the south side of the parking lot outside the current municipal complex. In addition, a new municipal courtroom would be built as an addition to the police department where the current city hall is on the north side of the municipal complex.
Source: Johnson County Post

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T10:51:11-06:00January 17, 2024|News|

Panasonic answers concern Kansans to pay for electricity infrastructure serving De Soto plant

Panasonic executives involved in construction of the $4 billion electric vehicle battery plant at De Soto said Tuesday the facility would begin production in early 2025 and negotiations continued with Evergy on delivery of electricity to manufacturing space occupying 4.7 million square feet. The company broke ground in July 2022 on a project backed by up to $1 billion in state economic incentives with the promise of employing 4,000 people in production of lithium-ion batteries used in vehicles. In testimony to the House energy committee, Panasonic said the December decision not to build a comparable plant in Oklahoma didn’t indicate presence of supply-chain or market-force challenges capable of undermining the Kansas plant. “We are extremely committed to our growth and development in Kansas,” said Tina Jeffress, a Panasonic group manager for sustainability and energy. “We do not anticipate any issues when it comes to ultimate market demand for our product. This is a generational investment in Kansas and as you can see from how quickly we are putting steel in the ground and developing other infrastructure on site, we are full speed ahead when it comes to this project.” Panasonic, the battery supplier to electric vehicle maker Tesla, said installation of steel framing in De Soto on one side of the two-wing plant was 93% completed, while steel components on the second wing were 44% completed. Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, said the cost of building electricity substations and miles of electricity transmission lines to accommodate Panasonic would be paid by consumers in Evergy’s central region, which included Emporia, Topeka and Wichita. Typical ratepayers in Johnson County where the plant has been located wouldn’t be part of that rate obligation, he said.
Source: KAKE – News

Ranson Financial2024-01-17T10:49:11-06:00January 17, 2024|News|