News – Page 8 – Ranson Financial Group LLC

Dino park ironing out financial matters

info2018-11-30T06:44:29-06:00November 30th, 2018|

Field Station: Dinosaurs is working through financial issues that it has recently faced and is paying its bills, according to Executive Producer Guy Gsell of the recently opened attraction. “All the vendors from Field Station: Dinosaurs’ build-out, including Dondlinger, have been paid in full,” Gsell said in an email to The Informer. This fall, two liens were filed in Sedgwick County Court. Since the park is in a STAR bond district, it uses special financing vehicles, including a percentage of state sales tax revenue, for its development. The park recently received an infusion of $700,000 from the district. The money was [...]

Chanute city commission wants to negotiate; proposes counter offer on city-owned building

info2018-11-20T08:56:34-06:00November 20th, 2018|

Chanute city commissioners gave a counter offer Monday evening on the cash bid for the sale of an industrial building. The commission approved a motion to ask for $350,000 for a city-owned building at 615 W. Cherry. Todd Morris and Lamar Eby have offered $291,000 to buy the building that they would then lease to a so-far unnamed company. Chanute businessman Jim Caldwell of Bridgewood Custom Cabinetry has offered $500,000, but also seeks economic incentives including rebates for 20 jobs created and reimbursement for equipment investment. The offer by Morris and Eby does not require incentives. Caldwell’s offer would rebate up [...]

Derby sales tax dispute settled

info2018-11-19T06:46:58-06:00November 19th, 2018|

Attorneys for the city of Derby and the Kansas Department of Revenue have reached an agreement on terms to settle a dispute over how the state has been distributing revenues from the half-cent Derby Difference sales and use tax. The parties filed a request Nov. 15 in Shawnee County District Court for a consent judgment and final order to ensure the state begins in December 2018 to remit all revenues collected from the Derby tax to the city instead of remitting a considerable portion of those revenues to Sedgwick County. In 2013, the 0.5 percent tax was approved by Derby voters [...]

Goddard STAR bond project breaks ground

info2018-11-15T09:23:00-06:00November 15th, 2018|

Officials broke ground Nov. 6 at the location for a planned hotel, indoor water park, and ball field development in Goddard. According to The Times-Sentinel, this was the second groundbreaking for the project, which is being funded in part through STAR bonds. Once completed, the project will feature a new hotel, Genesis Health Club, preschool, along with outdoor baseball fields and a 10-lane, 25-meter competition pool. The Times-Sentinel reports that the STAR bond project should see construction before the end of the year, and the target for completion is late 2019. The project will receive $23 million in sales tax revenue [...]

New economic development plan in council’s hands

info2018-11-15T09:21:46-06:00November 15th, 2018|

The Community Development Advisory Board (CDAB) approved a final proposal for the city’s new economic development plan. Now it’s up to the city council to make a final decision. At its Nov. 7 meeting, CDAB approved a final draft of the 2019-2021 Derby Economic Development Plan.The six-person board forms a new plan every three years that details a broad vision for progressing the city’s economy. Similarly to the one from 2016-2018, the proposed plan prioritizes three main objectives: retain and develop business, attract and develop new business, and market the quality of the city. (Read more: DerbyInformer.com - news,news/)

Derby looks to be more walkable

info2018-11-15T09:18:45-06:00November 15th, 2018|

What should the city of Derby be doing to become a more walkable community? That’s the overall question being posed at an upcoming open house – and officials and planners are seeking the public’s input. The impetus behind this is the creation of a Walkable Development Plan. City Manager Kathy Sexton said the undertaking is an important one. “For 15 years, the city has worked to improve the walkability of the community,” she said. “Now with more than 25 miles of bike paths and lots of sidewalks, we decided to assess our progress and chart a course for the future by [...]

More opposition brought to wind project discussion

info2018-10-26T07:31:22-05:00October 26th, 2018|

Thursday, the Secretary of State’s Office admitted that new voters in Ford County have been confused about where to cast their ballots, thanks to notifications handed out to all newly registered voters. Those standard notifications, says Brian Caskey in the Secretary of State’s election office, automatically listed the regular polling site instead of the temporary one in use this November. The county elections office moved the site after pending construction made the regular site at the Dodge City Civic Center unusable. Instead, voters will have to drive out to the Western State Bank Expo Center outside of town. In the case [...]

Residents fire complaints to Apex at Neosho County meeting

info2018-10-22T07:16:41-05:00October 22nd, 2018|

Heated discussion about a proposed wind generation facility drew a rebuke from a Neosho County Commissioner Friday morning. Commissioner Jennifer Orr warned people against sarcasm and hostility during public comments at Friday’s commission meeting. Opponent Dustie Elsworth raised an issue with a document that had been submitted to the state, which said Apex Clean Energy does not own or lease agricultural land. Apex plans to build 100 to 130 electricity-generating wind turbines in the Neosho Ridge project in the southwestern part of the county. Apex Senior Development Manager Jade Scheele said Elsworth should have brought the question to Apex directly, and [...]

Homeowners balk at placement of wind turbines

info2018-10-22T07:08:29-05:00October 22nd, 2018|

Citizens concerned about the Neosho Ridge Wind Project expressed some alarm on Wednesday about how close the wind turbines would be to homes. Dustie Elsworth, rural Erie, said he and others have been in contact with Apex Clean Energy, the company proposing the wind project, in an attempt to negotiate the company’s proposed setback of 1,400 feet from homes’ foundations, not property lines. Given the proposed height of the turbines of 610 feet, based on forms filed by Apex with the Federal Aviation Administration, the group prefers at least a mile setback from properties, but said they were told by Apex [...]

Opponents say wind farms come at a cost

info2018-10-22T06:53:42-05:00October 22nd, 2018|

Green wind energy sounds appealing as companies propose leasing land to build new wind farms that would help counties with job creation and economic development efforts. Concerned citizens in Neosho County have been researching the impacts of wind farms on counties and found things to not be so green, including claimed financial benefits to counties and landowners. About 30 people met Wednesday night at Tony’s Function Junction south of Erie to discuss the proposed Apex Clean Energy wind farm project in Neosho County and to share what they’ve found about wind projects in Kansas and other states. Apex plans a wind [...]