Kansas is giving more than $300 million in state APEX incentives to Integra Technologies to build a new semiconductor factory in Wichita. The Wichita megaproject could bring 2,000 jobs and more than $1.8 billion in capital investments to the state’s most populous city. But a few chips need to fall before it’s a done deal. Integra CEO Brett Robinson said in an interview with The Eagle that the business expansion hinges on a massive government subsidy package involving hundreds of millions in local, state and federal tax dollars aimed at boosting domestic microchip manufacturing. Source: Wichita Eagle

Kansas is giving more than $300 million in state APEX incentives to Integra Technologies to build a new semiconductor factory in Wichita. The Wichita megaproject could bring 2,000 jobs and more than $1.8 billion in capital investments to the state’s most populous city. The project is the second approved under Kansas’ APEX incentive program, which was established last year in the state’s effort to lure Japanese tech firm Panasonic to build a new battery plant in De Soto, Kansas. The Kansas Department of Commerce is touting the deal as the second-largest economic development project in the state’s history — behind the [...]

Federal workplace safety regulators have fined a Wichita Water Partners subcontractor for a serious violation of workplace safety law in the death of a construction worker at the city’s new water treatment plant. Manuel Esparza, a 55-year-old project manager for Utility Contractors Inc., was killed last March while trying to move a large iron pipe at the Northwest Water Treatment Facility. Source: Wichita Eagle

The Kyner grain elevator that towers over the main street in Wilson, Kansas, hasn’t been in service for well over half a century. Most passers by look at the silos and see a relic of the past. David Criswell sees mountains. Criswell, 60, is a former mayor of Wilson, a purveyor of raw Kansas honey and a passionate goat apologist — they’re “largely misunderstood” creatures, he says — and he has a vision for the defunct silos no less quirky than one might expect from a town of 836 whose claim to fame is the world’s largest painted Czech egg. Criswell [...]

Wichita appears to be competing with Coffey County for a massive state subsidy package aimed at helping Kansas land billion-dollar “megaprojects” — the same incentives program used in July to lure Panasonic to the Kansas City area. It’s a competition because APEX incentives can go to only one more project before the program expires at the end of 2023. To qualify, companies must agree to spend $1 billion or more to expand operations or relocate their headquarters anywhere in Kansas. Source: Wichita Eagle

Wichita’s next police chief will be Joseph P. Sullivan, a former leader in the Philadelphia Police Department. City Manager Robert Layton announced the decision Tuesday afternoon in a written statement. Sullivan’s start date is early December. “Joe Sullivan has a proven ability to successfully lead and manage a world-class police department,” Layton said in the news release. “I have every confidence that he is the right person at the right time to take on the challenging task of ensuring Wichita residents have trust in the integrity and transparency of our police department.” Source: Wichita Eagle

The city of Wichita will spend $1 million paving dirt roads around schools in 2023. The City Council on Tuesday approved year one of a 10-year capital improvement plan to fund $31 million of paving projects near schools and in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Public Works and Utilities Director Alan King said 160 of the 5,100 lane miles managed by his department are dirt roads. “We have these islands within the city, within neighborhoods, of unpaved roads,” King told council members. “The historical approach to this has been to have petitions circulated and then the cost of those streets are borne by the [...]

With the “extraordinary home price appreciation” of the last two years and “a lot of things that are unfolding before our eyes,” as Stan Longhofer put it, you can’t blame him and other economic forecasters for getting a prediction or two wrong these days. “Economic forecasters were put on this earth to make the weatherman look good,” said Longhofer, director of the Center for Real Estate at Wichita State University. Still, he and Lawrence Yun of the National Association of Realtors are going to make their forecasts for next year’s housing market at the 2023 Wichita Housing Forecast Conference on Wednesday. [...]

The Sedgwick County Commission has ordered a cost analysis of the Wichita City Council’s decision to decriminalize marijuana, exploring how much it would cost the county to book people in jail for misdemeanor marijuana offenses and pursue charges in district court. Commission Chairman David Dennis said Wednesday he plans to bill the city for any future costs of jailing and prosecuting people on misdemeanor marijuana charges. “At what point do we start charging the city of Wichita for this process,” Dennis said. “Because we’re going to bill them for all the people that go into our jail.” Source: Wichita Eagle

After a spate of brawls, school security deploying pepper spray and students arrested with guns, the Wichita School Board on Monday approved spending $1.5 million for metal detectors at public high schools. “I tried to put myself in the parents’ positions last week, and I would have been scared,” board member Kathy Bond said. “I’d be scared with what has happened.” The detectors will be placed at the entrances of North, South, East, West, Northwest, Northeast, Southeast and Heights high schools. Every student who enters the building in the morning will have to pass in a single-file line through the metal [...]