Emporia work, local connection leads to city receiving federal Rural Placemaking grant

29 Tuesday, November 29

Emporia work, local connection leads to city receiving federal Rural Placemaking grant

info2022-11-29T07:50:53-06:00November 29th, 2022|

Emporia’s partnership with Atlas Community Studios has led to grant funding from the federal government as part of its Rural Placemaking Innovation Challenge. The Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce and several of its partner agencies — the Regional Development Association of East Central Kansas, Ignite Emporia and Visit Emporia — are working with Atlas to develop an action plan for guiding public and private investments for now and later. Regional Development Association President Chuck Scott says conversations began late this summer. Source: KVOE Emporia Radio

29 Tuesday, November 29

As Lenexa’s Schreck prepares to retire, he looks ahead to Johnson County development

info2022-11-29T07:43:41-06:00November 29th, 2022|

During the past 40 years, Blake Schreck watched downtown Kansas City grow from boarded-up storefronts and chained-up doors into the city we know today. He remembers the regional concerns about whether Kansas City would rise to the likes of other successful Midwest cities in the 1980s. But back then, Johnson County fueled the metro's growth and often kept the region afloat, which "caused some friction" with Kansas City, he said. “Johnson County has stayed true to what it had: the quality of life, education, infrastructure and safe neighborhoods,” Schreck said. “And it still does.” Source: Kansas City Business Journal

29 Tuesday, November 29

Remodeled downtown park to tell the story of Wichita sit-in, which sparked a movement

info2022-11-29T07:44:08-06:00November 29th, 2022|

For three weeks in the summer of 1958, young protesters sat defiantly at the lunch counter of Wichita’s Dockum Drug Store, waiting to be served. “As far as we were concerned, it was the right thing to do,” said Galyn Vesey, now 85. “All we wanted was to purchase food and drink just like anybody else.” Wichita’s NAACP Youth Council staged the first successful student-led sit-in of the civil rights movement, leading the drug store chain to desegregate all of its Kansas lunch counters 19 months before the better known Woolworth’s sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina. Source: Wichita Eagle

29 Tuesday, November 29

Rail strike again looms, putting chlorine shipments at risk

info2022-11-29T01:14:57-06:00November 29th, 2022|

After averting a strike between railroad operators and labor union representatives in September, another potential strike is again threatening to put water utility supply chains at risk. According to the unions, a strike could begin as early as Dec. 9. Prior to the agreement in September, leading water sector organizations urged Congress to intervene in the strike, noting that chlorine shipments via rail could be affected. As NACWA noted in September, however, that as long as a possibility of a strike remains, chlorine would likely not be shipped by rail. Source: Water Finance & Management

29 Tuesday, November 29

WPD collecting donations for local shelters

info2022-11-29T01:13:02-06:00November 29th, 2022|

Wichita police are collecting donations to provide gifts for kids staying at local domestic violence shelters. Toys and other gift items can be dropped off on December 5, at the Patrol West station, at 5803 W Central. That is on Central just west of I-235. Gift idea include arts and crafts supplies, dolls or action figures, pajamas, and remote control toys. Gift items for teens are also needed, including things like earbuds and gift cards. Source: 101.3 KFDI

29 Tuesday, November 29

Coin toss determines Grant Township clerk race in Riley County

info2022-11-29T01:09:50-06:00November 29th, 2022|

A coin flip was held at Monday’s Riley County Commission meeting to break a tie in the election of the Grant Township Clerk. Travis Shanahan, the current clerk finished with 19 votes in the Nov. 8 election. So did Riley County resident Larry Noble. Riley County Clerk Rich Vargo explains that a coin toss, while rare in local elections, has happened before. Vargo pulled out a large coin, tossed it into the air, as Shanahan called it. Source: 1350 KMAN

29 Tuesday, November 29

Overland Park single-family development could add 1,170 homes on city’s southern edge

info2022-11-29T07:46:54-06:00November 29th, 2022|

Overland Park will consider a smaller — but still huge — development at the city's southern edge that could add 1,169 single-family houses on 506 acres. Originally, in 2012, an affiliate of a Philadelphia-based company proposed 1,808 homes on about 570 acres, plus 7,000 square feet of retail. That plan never came to fruition, but the single-family zoning for the acreage stuck. Southern Meadows LLC, an affiliate of Overland Park-based Lambie Homes LLC, now plans to develop the area near 191st Street and State Line Road. Source: Kansas City Business Journal

29 Tuesday, November 29

Former Halstead Hospital up for auction

info2022-11-29T07:49:13-06:00November 29th, 2022|

The former Halstead Hospital and other attached parcels of land and property are on the auction block. The hospital itself closed in 2002, with numerous attempts to reopen its doors over the years. ... Since 2005, nine hospitals in Kansas, many of them serving rural, poor communities, have closed or have converted to no longer offer inpatient services. Several still operate clinics or offer emergency services. The auction includes Halstead Hospital, the former Halstead Motel, an apartment complex, and a residential home. Source: KSN-TV

29 Tuesday, November 29

Overland Park weighs more public financing for Mission Farms West apartments

info2022-11-29T07:50:16-06:00November 29th, 2022|

Developers of Mission Farms West want the city to increase public financing for the next phase of construction for the mixed-use development near Mission Road and Interstate 435. The Overland Park Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee has already voted to recommend issuing $27 million worth of economic development revenue bonds – tripling the original $9 million previously approved by the city. The bonds are a financing measure that will allow the developer, Mission Farms West Development LLC, to claim sales tax exemptions on construction materials, equipment, labor and furnishings for the project. Source: Prairie Village Post

29 Tuesday, November 29

Panasonic rolls out plans for $4 billion EV plant in De Soto, Kansas

info2022-11-30T08:27:47-06:00November 29th, 2022|

City leaders in De Soto are getting a glimpse at what Panasonic’s $4 billion electric vehicle battery plant may look like. Tentative plans for the new facility show a two-story, U-shaped building to be constructed near the southwest corner of West 103rd Street and Dual Drive. Alison Hoagland, principal at Mackenzie, said once completed, raw materials will enter the facility through a central point with production lines filling both wings of the building. Source: fox4kc.com | FOX 4 - WDAF