Steve Fillmore and Thom Kirk met with the Chase County Commission to provide an update on the Cedar Point Fire Station. “By this time next year, we want it built,” Commissioner Tony Hazelton said. “Can you tell us where we are at?” “We are working on the pad,” Kirk said. “I’m trying to get the pad built up to the elevation Steve wants. When we are ready we can make arrangements for the water lines.” “We need to let the pad sit for a little bit, a couple months at least,” Steve Fillmore said. Both men expressed they are making progress [...]

Emporia Senior Center Board President Karen Hartenbower gave Lyon County Commissioners a brief update on how things are running at the center Thursday morning. Hartenbower said the center had been treading water over the last year. Lannie Lyman, former director of the Emporia Senior Center, was charged with stealing more than $100,000 between May 2014 - Sept. 2017 from the organization in July. Hartenbower said Ian Boyd was recently hired as the new director of the Emporia Senior Center, and things are starting to improve. “He’s been with us three-and-a-half months and he’s doing really well because, for a year we [...]

City officials expressed interest in allowing a little more time for the completion of a biodiesel plant in Emporia. Renewable Energy Group Executive Director of Corporate Affairs Scott Hedderich accompanied Regional Development Association President Kent Heermann to a study session of the Emporia City Commission Wednesday morning to discuss potentially renewing an old agreement between the RDA and Renewable Energy Group. The agreement concerns a biodiesel plant, something that had been discussed publicly by the RDA as far back as 2007, when the plant was first broached as a possibility. If the commission were to sign off on it, it would [...]

Lyon County Commissioners approved a motion to republish 2018 budget expenditures for both the Road & Bridge and Noxious Weeds departments during a short action session at the courthouse Thursday morning. Commissioner Dan Slater said the updated budgets — which are set to be published in The Emporia Gazette next week — accounted for recent weather events. “The departments are both spending a little bit more money than we intended to spend, so with the weather doing weird things we decided to be safe and republish the budgets,” Slater said. “December can be a strange month for roads, especially when you [...]

Local legislators, business leaders and educators got a snapshot of the future of state and local economies during the 2018 Emporia Regional Economic Outlook Conference Friday afternoon at Emporia State University. The conference is a program of Wichita State University's Center for Economic Development and Business Research, which collects and analyzes data from around the state to get an accurate picture of regional economic growth around the state. Attendees heard updates on the economic conditions of ESU, the state, low- to moderate-income communities, real estate and Emporia and Lyon County. ESU School of Business Dean Ed Bashaw said the general feeling [...]

The Emporia City and Lyon County commissions had a joint meeting Wednesday evening during which they discussed topics ranging from a possible food policy council to housing issues. Teresa Briggs, Daphne Mertens and Hannah Crowl of Healthier Lyon County addressed the commissioners about the need for a food policy council. Briggs cited information from the Centers for Disease Control which reports life expectancy is growing shorter rather than longer. “Just let that sink in,” she said. “Whereas, here in the United States, we like to think that we are progressive enough and realize what we need to do to keep ourselves [...]

The Chase County Commission continued discussion on suggested updates to a county employee’s handbook during a meeting earlier this week at the courthouse. The commissioners have been discussing edits to the publication for several weeks with Deputy Clerk Tiffany Harshman, who has been in charge of the project. Department heads were invited to bring concerns to the discussion before the handbook undergoes its next round of edits. Some of the proposed changes include dropping residency requirements for county employees, which would open the pool of prospective workers to include people from outside of Chase County. Department heads agreed with the change, [...]

The Lyon County Commission signed two agreements with Reading Wind Energy, LLC related to an ongoing wind farm project in Reading during a meeting Thursday morning at the courthouse. The wind farm is a project of RES Americas and has been a point of discussion off and on for nearly a decade. Planning and Zoning Director Sam Seeley said the county needed to sign a Road Use Maintenance Agreement and Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement in order to move forward with the project. “In process of doing [the Reading Wind Farm project] they’ve been using county roads,” Seeley said. “There [...]

The Emporia City Commission has officially raised its minimum heating requirements for rental housing within the city limits from 60 degrees to 68 degrees. According to Vice Mayor Jon Geitz, the city began looking into the minimum housing standards of other cities around the state and found Emporia’s heating requirements were much lower than average compared to the rest of the state. “It has to have the ability to produce heat at least 68 degrees,” he said. Community Services Officer Shelly Kelley had approached the city during its most recent study session, asking commissioners to consider this change. She said she [...]

Before the west was won, sometimes even preachers had to fight for what they believed. They had to have what Kansas Wesleyan University Criminal Justice Professor John K. Burchill called “sand,” and what many modern people call “guts.” He presented “Cowboys and Clerics” at the Emporia Public Library Saturday as part of Humanities Kansas and covered several famed historical pastors and how they handled the chaotic life of early Kansas towns. (Read more: Emporia Gazette)