If signed, bill could give state chance to buy Walton Rural Life Center

What’s the plan for the Walton Rural Life Center building? Recent changes added to the state’s education funding bill would give the Kansas Legislature a seat at the planning table. During Friday’s legislative veto session, the Kansas Legislature approved an education funding package that included a provision to give the State of Kansas the right of first refusal to purchase a recently closed school. Sen. Molly Baumgardner chairs the Senate Education Committee and served on the conference committee. She explained the reasoning behind adding the provision.
Source: Harvey County Now

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T10:15:21-05:00May 2, 2023|News|

Tonganoxie will add a pet food nutrition manufacturing plant

Netherlands-based multinational corporation DSM plans to build a plant in Tonganoxie to produce nutritional premix for pet food. It plans to break ground in July and be operational by early 2025, according to a release. The plant will create 28 jobs. Nutritional premix includes vitamins and minerals that are assembled and later added to food to improve its nutritional value. The mix made in Tonganoxie will be used in branded pet food throughout the world. Tonganoxie was chosen strategically to be included in Kansas City’s Animal Health Corridor.
Source: Kansas City Business Journal

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T10:34:13-05:00May 2, 2023|News|

UG questions reuse concept for ex-Cerner Continuous Campus as developers seek rezoning

Officials with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, want more questions answered before they agree to allow former Cerner Corp. offices to become a mixed-use development. UG commissioners on Thursday agreed to a one-month hold on measures that would rezone the 63.5-acre former Cerner campus at 10200 Abilities Way. The rezoning would permit different commercial uses within the campus’ two nine-story towers, as desired by developers David Block, of Block & Co. Inc. Realtors, and Philip Goforth, of Genesis Realty & Development LLC.
Source: Kansas City Business Journal

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T10:07:37-05:00May 2, 2023|News|

Pittsburg book store celebrates its newest mural

A small, indigenous owned book store in Pittsburg, Kansas yesterday celebrated the unveiling of downtown Pittsburg’s newest murals. Books and Burrow officials say “this collaborative project titled Lenaswa Waayaahtanonki or Bison of the Whirlpool/ from the place of the Wea/Wea Homelands is an interpretation of the emergence of our ancestors from the waters of Saakiiweesiipiwi (St. Joseph River near present-day South Bend, Indiana), their homeland journey, and displacement to Kansas and finally northeast Oklahoma where our tribe is located today”. Officials say this mural was made possible by a grant from the KCAIC (Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission) and with support/assistance from the City of Pittsburg.
Source: KOAM News

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T10:37:21-05:00May 2, 2023|News|

Coyotes are on the move to more Kansas cities

Coyote numbers are on the rise in Kansas with some getting increasingly more comfortable living next to humans in residential and other urban areas. KSNT News spoke with Matt Peek, a wildlife research biologist with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP), about how coyotes are adapting to life in Kansas towns and cities. “They’ve [coyotes] adapted and are learning to live in the most urban of areas,” Peek said. “The green space of some of our cities now harbor not only coyotes but deer and other wild animals as well.”
Source: KSN-TV

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T10:01:31-05:00May 2, 2023|News|

Sedgwick County expands free public alert system

Sedgwick County Emergency Management (SCEM) is expanding the use of Civic Ready Alerts to include 17 more towns in addition to the initial test sites of Wichita and Mt. Hope. The free alert system notifies residents by phone or email of emergencies or important news in their area. As of Monday, May 1, citizens can opt-in to receive messages regarding public safety, health, weather or other community bulletins from these cities: Andale, Bel Aire, Bentley, Cheney, Clearwater, Colwich, Derby, Eastborough, Garden Plain, Goddard, Haysville, Kechi, Maize, Mt. Hope, Mulvane, Park City, Valley Center, Viola, Wichita. “Civil Ready Alerts allows each city to customize what kinds of notifications it sends out and when,” Julie Stimson, director of SCEM, said. “It’s an easy way to keep people informed of what’s happening in their own hometown, especially during times of danger.”
Source: KSN-TV

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T10:00:04-05:00May 2, 2023|News|

Hungry residents and disc golfers alike flood downtown Emporia for return of Glass Blown Open block party and Main Street Food Truck Festival Saturday

Local residents took to Commerical Street Saturday afternoon and evening to celebrate the return of the Glass Blown Open with good food, music and community. The Glass Blown Open Block Party took over the 800 and 900 blocks of Commercial with hundreds of hungry residents mingling with some of the best amateur disc golfers in the nation. GBO Tournament Director Jackie Morris says Dynamic Discs, and the local community, were ecstatic to have the GBO back after the 2019 event had to be canceled and the event was later named the Dynamic Discs Open. Unlike the DDO, the GBO this year was open only to amateur players. She tells KVOE News it is important to have an event that puts the amateurs back in the spotlight.
Source: KVOE Emporia Radio

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T09:55:08-05:00May 2, 2023|News|

Wichita officials seek dismissal in $2.4M lawsuit brought by deputy police chiefs

The city of Wichita, multiple city officials and the Fraternal Order of Police are asking a federal court to dismiss a $2.4 million lawsuit filed by former Police Chief Gordon Ramsay’s leadership team. In recent court filings, the city’s lawyers called the civil complaint filed by Deputy Chief Jose Salcido and former deputy chiefs Wanda Parker-Givens and Chester Pinkston “a press release in the guise of a pleading” that fails to state “who did what to whom.” City officials have declined to comment on the lawsuit since it was filed in February. The motion to dismiss is the city’s first official response to the lawsuit, which accuses the city manager, a former human resources director and the police union of undermining their attempts to clean up the department.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T09:53:01-05:00May 2, 2023|News|

After a tiny home is stolen in Colorado, deputies find it at a Kansas grain elevator

Three people were arrested after authorities recovered a stolen tiny home Sunday in western Kansas. Around 8 p.m., the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office was alerted by Colorado authorities that a stolen tiny home was possibly heading to Kansas, a social media post from the sheriff’s office said. The tiny home along with a stolen trailer and Bobcat skid steer loader were found at the Scoular grain elevator in Coolidge, Kansas, according to the post.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T09:49:53-05:00May 2, 2023|News|

Roeland Park pushes to fill empty storefronts

On Monday, the city and chamber announced the launch of a new small business initiative called Project RISE. The vision for the economic development project is to support small businesses in Roeland Park by serving as a “one-stop shop” for local entrepreneurs looking to open in the city, according to a press release. “We want to see every store front, every office occupied,” said Mayor Michael Poppa. “It comes back to all of us. Those who live, work, play and shop here. We want to have a synergy across our City where businesses thrive.”
Source: Prairie Village Post

Ranson Financial2023-05-02T10:38:01-05:00May 2, 2023|News|