SOS Executive Director Connie Cahoone and Child Advocacy Center Director Lucas Moody updated the Lyon County Commission on the purchase of a new building, capital campaign and renovations during a meeting Thursday morning at the courthouse. SOS offers services in four separate locations — three of which are rented. They recently purchased 1420 C of E Dr., which currently houses KVOE. Cahoone said the radio station will remain in the building. The rest of the building will be renovated to house all SOS staff and services. “This is something that we’ve wanted to do for years,” Cahoone said. “We had a [...]

Teresa Briggs of Healthier Lyon County came to the city's Wednesday study session to talk with city commissioners about the possibility of adding vaping to an ordinance that prevents smoking in public places. She also talked about the possibility of boosting the tobacco and vaping age to 21. Vaping, Briggs said, is not covered by the Kansas Clean Air Act, which prevents people from smoking in places of business and other public places. She feels vaping should fall under the same restrictions as smoking. (Read more: Emporia Gazette)

The Emporia City Commission continued its ongoing land bank discussion during a study session Wednesday morning. City Attorney Christina Montgomery presented commissioners with a draft ordinance for the land bank. She said the Community Housing Board had expressed willingness to serve as an advisory board for the land bank. If created, the land bank would take properties that had been abandoned, foreclosed upon or that were otherwise distressed or underutilized with the intent of returning them to productive use and alleviate problems caused by having such properties in the city. (Read more: Emporia Gazette)

A request to construct a communications tower northwest of Emporia has been tabled for at least 30 days following a meeting of the Lyon County Commission Thursday morning. The decision came after a request was presented to commissioners by AT&T and Network Real Estate LLC to erect a cell phone tower near a residential area located just west of the intersection of Road 190 and Road E. The request was approved by the Lyon County Board of Zoning and Appeals, according to Zoning Director Sam Seeley. “As of right now, the land is zoned as agriculture,” Seeley said. Homeowners in the [...]

The commission also approved a request by County Engineer Chip Woods to remove the weight limits of 18 county bridges and alter the weight limits on an additional 10 to comply with federal law. Woods said there was nothing structurally wrong with the bridges, but the formula for how those limits are developed had been changed. The Road and Bridge Department will be responsible for changing or removing signs at each bridge and then will need to provide photographic proof to the Kansas Department of Transportation once the work is complete. Woods said the county’s failure to comply could result in [...]

Lyon County Commissioners approved a letter to the Kansas Department of Transportation regarding how closures of the turnpike negatively affect local traffic on Interstate 35. The approval came following a discussion with Undersheriff John Koelsch Thursday morning at the courthouse. He said the purpose of the letter was to request a meeting with Secretary of Transportation Julie Lorenz. “It’s based on the joint city/county discussions about when the KTA decides to close and requests our local resources to close the gate,” Koelsch said. “It creates a backup on I-35 and overwhelms our resources in short order. It’s occurred several times over [...]

City Attorney Christina Montgomery addressed the Emporia City Commission Wednesday about changes to state cereal malt beverage laws. In April, grocery stores, convenience stores and CMB bars that only serve low-alcohol-volume beer may be allowed to carry enhanced cereal malt beverages. An enhanced cereal malt beverage, according to Commissioner Becky Smith, who owns Twin Rivers Winery and Gourmet Shoppe, is essentially a strong beer — up to but no more than 6 percent alcohol; IPAs may fall into this category. She said the changes to enhanced cereal malt beverage laws won’t have any impact on her business because it’s a farm [...]

Things are looking up for the Flint Hills Community Health Center, according to a report given to the Lyon County Commission Thursday morning. FHCHC CEO Renee Hively said the quarterly report — which focused on services and programs rendered between Oct. 1 — Dec. 31, 2018 — was overwhelmingly positive. She said she expected more upswings throughout the year. “I’m very optimistic on what 2019 is going to bring to Flint Hills Community Health Center as a whole,” she said. “Overall, Flint Hills Community Health Center has done really well. We’re in that restructuring phase of our turnaround plan, which started [...]

The Emporia City Commission discussed the land bank it has been considering Wednesday at its regular meeting. City Housing Specialist Jeff Lynch said the community housing board had been brought up to date about the land bank concept. “I think they are in general accepting of doing that — serving as the land bank if that’s what we needed them to do,” he said. Lynch said members had asked the commission for input on goals for the land bank. There are about four or five actual lots in the land bank, not including Walnut Park. According to Lynch, two people have [...]

The Lyon County Commission declined to renew its membership with the Flint Hills Regional Council for 2019 Thursday morning at the courthouse. The Flint Hills Regional Council is a voluntary service association formed between a number of counties, cities and municipalities to provide services of mutual benefit to the region with a mission to enhance economic viability and overall quality of life for Flints Hills residents. Lyon County has been a member for five years, but Chair Rollie Martin said he wasn't sure if the county was seeing a true benefit from its involvement. He said he believed the county should [...]