If the county is going to buy land for future housing development, a developer needs to be found first. That was the general consensus of Allen County Commissioners, who got more clarification about a recent proposal from Thrive Allen County. Thrive wants to apply for a state housing grant to purchase between 10 and 12 vacant properties they could use as an incentive to developers. The grant requires the participation of a city or county. Source: The Iola Register

It’s a scene we’ve all seen: The hero floats down a raging river toward a waterfall and certain doom. Imagine watching something like that for the first time, in a movie on a big screen, nearly 100 years ago. “Our Hospitality,” a feature-length silent film made by Buster Keaton in 1923, includes just such  a dramatic scene. Both Keaton and his co-star and then-wife, Natalie Talmadge, survive near-death experiences in thrilling style and some acrobatic action on the edge of a waterfall. The Buster Keaton Celebration, “In Changing Times,” offered that movie for their Friday night feature presentation. Along with the [...]

After months of advocacy by activists, the Wichita City council has voted to establish a board to advise the council and city staff on environmental concerns, climate change and economic vitality. The council voted unanimously Tuesday to support Wichita’s Sustainability Integration Board, which will advise in such areas as reducing emissions and finding economic growth that is environmentally friendly. The council had listened to 27 Wichita citizens during the past six months who spoke about climate change concerns, The Wichita Eagle reported. As currently planned, the board will have 14 members and meet quarterly. Some of the advocates and some council [...]

If local buy-in to Moran’s Marmaton Market doesn’t pick up, the store will likely close within the next 30-60 days, predicts manager Marilyn Logan. “If just half the people in town would come in and spend $20 to $30 a week, that would make the difference in us being able to stay open,” she said Thursday. In business since 2018, the cooperative grocery store has failed to gain local traction. “There’s tremendous support from the surrounding areas. From Moran, not so much,” Logan said. “The owners of the diner in Kincaid and the Mildred Store are regular customers,” Logan said. “In [...]

Erie city clerk, began the process by noting the building currently housing Erie Market was “relatively new,” since it had been rebuilt by the previous owners following a flood. “There were not many options on selling it, because it was a newer store,” Lero said. “It would take more money to purchase it,” and buyers weren’t coming forward. The owners therefore approached the City of Erie, because they had heard of other cities successfully operating stores of this kind. The city was receptive, but didn’t want to move forward without doing their due diligence, especially because “running it as a mom-and-pop [...]

To fight the ongoing opioid crisis — the addiction to high-powered prescription painkillers — a Southeast Kansas coalition will work to remove the barriers that keep someone from treatment. In large part, that translates to transportation, helping someone get to treatment or a job. It could also mean help paying for counseling and treatment programs.  A $1 million federal grant will help area counties with those issues and more over the next three years.  Thrive Allen County announced it has received a federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration. The Rural Communities Opioid Response Program grant will provide about [...]

Allen County will pursue a contract with a private company to provide countywide ambulance services starting in 2022. County commissioners voted, 2-1, Tuesday to negotiate solely with American Medical Response, and to let its existing EMS contract with the City of Iola expire on Dec. 31. The move is certain to have major ramifications within the Iola Fire Department, because firefighters man ambulances throughout the county from stations in Iola, Humboldt and Moran. “The decision was not made lightly,” Commissioner David Lee said, noting he’d had “a lot of sleepless nights” during negotiations. “But at the end of the day, I [...]

A company can’t wait 100 years to upgrade its business model. Education should be no different. “But we have only two models. One-room schoolrooms of 100 years ago, and today’s outdated model,” which is in the process of being revamped, said Randy Watson, Kansas Commissioner of Education. Rather than using state assessment scores to gauge a student’s success in high school, educators are looking to redesign the material and school experience so that they are better tailored to students’ skills and abilities, helping them develop into critical thinkers who address real-life problems. “We all know a student’s ACT scores will never [...]

Most Kansas counties lost residents over the past 10 years as the state’s population concentrated in more populous places, including the Kansas City area, new census figures released Thursday showed. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s once-a-decade count of the nation’s population showed that 80 of the state’s 105 counties declined in population since 2010, 16 of them by more than 10%. Most of those counties were rural. Five of the top 10 fastest-growing counties were in or close to the Kansas City metropolitan area. The state’s most populous county, Johnson County, has affluent Kansas City suburbs that have been growing [...]

Humboldt council members raised the base pay for city employees from $11.84 an hour to $15 an hour at their meeting Monday evening. The increase “puts us back into a place where the city is a viable option to earn a living wage,” said Paul Cloutier, council member. Increasingly, the city has been losing employees to better-paying jobs, said Cole Herder, city administrator, “for which I can’t blame them. I can’t blame anybody looking for work elsewhere to earn more money.”  The city currently has five openings on its maintenance crew. Cloutier said the significant increase makes Humboldt competitive against not [...]