Governor Laura Kelly Announces Nearly $2M to Boost Tourism Industry

Governor Laura Kelly today announced that Kansas Tourism, in partnership with the Patterson Family Foundation, is providing nearly $2 million to eight tourism projects across the state to enhance the state’s growing tourism industry. …
The TASK recipients and amounts awarded:

City of Great Bend Convention & Visitors Bureau, Barton County, $337,500
Flint Hills Discovery Center, Riley County, $200,000
Grassroots Art Center, Russell County, $172,226
Horse Thief Reservoir Benefit District, Hodgeman County, $299,918
Johnson County Park & Recreation District, Johnson County, $201,168
Miners Hall Museum Foundation, Crawford County, $337,500
Strataca: Kansas Underground Salt Museum, Reno County, $174,750
The Nature Conservancy, Logan County, $238,950

Source: Kansas Department of Commerce

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T22:13:47-05:00October 30, 2022|News|

Derby updates revamped Neighborhood Maintenance Grant program

Looking to increase utilization, the city of Derby modified its previous neighborhood revitalization program earlier in 2022 – having spent a little over half of the allocated funding between 2016 and 2021. City staff reported on the success of the new Neighborhood Maintenance Grant program at the Oct. 25 Derby City Council meeting. With the success, updates to continue enhancing the new program in 2023 were presented for consideration, which the council approving them unanimously. Partly due to updates to property code enforcement, the revitalization program was reviewed to better assist low-to-moderate income homeowners.
Source: Derby Informer | News

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T22:12:53-05:00October 30, 2022|News|

Wichita looking at regulations for short-term rentals

Wichita City Council members are looking over a draft of recommendations for licensing and regulation of homes that are used as short-term rentals of seven days or less. The homes are offered through booking apps and web sites like Airbnb and Vrbo. Planning director Scott Wadle presented the draft recommendations to council members during a workshop meeting this week. He said short-term rentals became popular around 2008 with apps that were offering bookings, and there are around 475 rentals operating in Wichita, a higher number than previous years. … The draft requirements include yearly licensing requirements, zoning requirements, limits on occupancy and insurance requirements.
Source: 101.3 KFDI

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T22:12:12-05:00October 30, 2022|News|

Johnson County receives federal grant to create Mental Health Court

Johnson County is on track to create a mental health court that will reduce the likelihood of people with severe mental illnesses returning to the criminal justice system. On Thursday, the Board of County Commissioners accepted a $309,766 grant from the Department of Justice to support the development of the Mental Health Court program. Johnson County Mental Health Center, in collaboration with the District Court and District Attorney’s Office, applied for the grant. The grant funds will be used for staff training and education, travel and research, developing program assessments and paying staff salaries associated with program implementation.
Source: Johnson County Kansas

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T22:11:12-05:00October 30, 2022|News|

SE Kansas Mining History preserved through donations

Kansas Tourism announced this week that Miners Hall Museum will receive $337,500 to help preserve an important piece of SE Kansas Coal Mining History. The grant goes toward relocating and renovating a Page 618 Walking Dragline, which is a unique piece of coal mining machinery that was used to dig for coal in Cherokee County. This is only one of eighteen Page 618 Walking Draglines ever built and only one of two Page 618s still in existence. It will be the largest walking dragline preserved for public display in the U.S., and is the only restorable walking dragline of its kind known to exist.
Source: KOAMKOAM

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T22:10:41-05:00October 30, 2022|News|

Downtown Pittsburg art district designation will open doors for new projects

There’s already a lot of public art in Downtown Pittsburg, and more of it is now on the way. Earlier this week, the Pittsburg City Commission gave its blessing to the creation of an arts district in the downtown area. Crista Cunningham is the president of the Pittsburg Artwalk Association, the group that has been pursuing the idea for the last year. She says the new designation will pave the way for even more public art in that part of town. “To hopefully enhance what’s already happening, so if there’s a way for those business owners to get grants using that title, the possibility is there. Hopefully, it will shine up our downtown even more, bring more people to the area,” she said.
Source: KSNF/KODE

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T22:09:38-05:00October 30, 2022|News|

Erie has best small library in state

The Erie City Public Library has been named the Kansas Library Association’s Best Small Library in Kansas. Erie Library Director Julie Kent … said she kind of just fell into doing the seed library. “When this whole thing started, when I got the grant for the greenhouse two or three years ago from the county, in my grant, I put in $50 for seeds.” She happened to find a five-gallon bucket of seeds on sale at Tractor Supply for $20. Then she thought she could probably get donations of seeds if she asked. She reached out to Baker Creek Seeds and then the husband of one of the library board members who works in the gardening department at Walmart said they had a whole bunch of seeds they wanted to donate to the library.
Source: Parsons Sun

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T22:08:54-05:00October 30, 2022|News|

Mobile library unveiled in Goddard

On Oct. 17, the Goddard Public Library officially unveiled its new mobile library. The converted recreational vehicle will help the library expand its outreach. “We do a ton of outreach in the area,” said library director April Hernandez. The library does outreach activities through the Goddard School District, not just in the city itself. Hernandez said the mobile library will make it much easier to perform those services. The library has loads of crates and other items that previously needed to be loaded and unloaded for each event. Staff members thought it would be good to have a dedicated vehicle.
Source: Times-Sentinel

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T22:04:32-05:00October 30, 2022|News|

Municipal Bond Trends for October 28, 2022

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman and Beth Warren.

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T08:44:05-05:00October 30, 2022|News|

Enforcing fowl in Hutchinson: What to do with chickens

Holly Wright first thought about raising chickens when food prices started to go up during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She researched for several months before investing in them, she said, since it required building a coop and run, and buying feed, and then she and her husband started their flock in their yard on East Second Avenue. A few months ago, she spotted a story about the city discussing changes in a city ordinance related to the birds after Councilwoman Sara Bagwell asked for a review to allow larger backyard flocks.
Source: Hutch News

Ranson Financial2022-10-30T08:38:50-05:00October 30, 2022|News|