Kansas Municipal News
Municipal Bond Trends for July 7, 2022
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman and Beth Warren.
Fed officials Waller and Bullard back another big interest rate increase in July
The Federal Reserve is well on its way to another sharp interest rate hike in July and perhaps September as well, even if it slows the economy, according to statements Thursday from two policymakers. Fed Governor Christopher Waller left little doubt that he believes increases are necessary if the institution is to meet its duties, and the market’s expectations, as an inflation fighter. “I’m definitely in support of doing another 75 basis point hike in July, probably 50 in September, and then after that we can debate whether to go back down to 25s,” Waller told the National Association for Business Economics. “If inflation just doesn’t seem to be coming down, we have to do more.” In June, the Fed approved a 75 basis point, or 0.75 percentage point, increase to its benchmark borrowing rate, the biggest such move since 1994.
Source: CNBC – Bonds
Atchison E-Community Program Renews
Atchison E-Community Program has been offering gap financing loans since 2017. The loans are for small business start-ups, expansions and acquisitions. Businesses like laundromats, coffee shops, wine bars, contractors and hair salons have used this locally controlled, revolving loan fund as gap financing to make their small business ideas work. In the past five years of operation the Atchison E-Community Program has now closed over 30 loans totally nearly $1.5 million in gap financing for local small businesses. Currently, the Atchison E-Community’s loan portfolio has no failed loans and no accounts past due.
Source: City Government | atchisonglobenow.com
Derby updates employee pay matrix for 2022
Per a move to more routine pay studies, an updated pay matrix was brought before and approved by the Derby City Council at its June 28 meeting. The first pay studies of 2022 – with plans for a second round in the fall – looked at 26 positions and compared employee pay with that of similar positions in 11 different cities and counties based on population, proximity to Derby, etc. The average population of the nine similar cities was 29,358.
Source: Derby Informer | News
Sedgwick police chief becomes interim city administrator
For the next six months, Brian Daily will be both Sedgwick’s police chief and its city administrator. The city council voted Wednesday to hire Daily as interim city administrator, effective through Jan. 1, 2023. He will continue with his duties as police chief, a position he’s held since June of 2020. “It’s going to be busy, without a doubt,” he said. “But I think there’s a degree of overlap already between the positions.” He noted that over the past year, he had already been taking on more administrative responsibilities. “It’s going to be a lot to accomplish, but we have a good vision, and the truth is we have great staff at the city and excellent department heads,” Daily said. “If I give them the support they need, things are going to go very well.”
Source: Harvey County Now
Bomb threat closes Dodge City Community College campus
On Thursday, Dodge City Community College was closed due to a bomb threat. According to a press release from Dodge City Community College, at 1:04 p.m. they received a call from a person saying there was a bomb in the art room. They say the caller described the bomb, described its location in the back of the classroom and that it would go off in just over an hour. Police, Fire and EMS responded and coordinated with campus security to evacuate the area and sweep the stated location. They did not find anything. It was also learned that the same report had been made at multiple campuses across the nation. Each ending the same way, with nothing being found.
Source: KAKE – News
Prairiefire sets date to pay outstanding Overland Park bond interest
An Overland Park mixed-use heading into its development home stretch later this month will settle up on bond interest it has owed, in part, for more than two years. UMB Bank has scheduled July 22 as the date to pay $286,465 in bond interest, on which Prairiefire previously had defaulted, with a special record date set for Monday, according to a June 30 event notice. The bank is trustee for $14 million in community improvement district (CID) revenue bonds issued by Overland Park in 2012 to help finance Prairiefire through sale tax revenues generated at the development. Prairiefire is located between Lamar and Nall avenues, south of 135th Street.
Source: Kansas City Business Journal
Roeland Park moves toward offering curbside glass recycling program
The Roeland Park City Council took further steps Tuesday night toward offering curbside glass recycling to residents. The council authorized city staff by a 6-1 vote to create a draft agreement with Ripple Glass of Kansas City, Missouri, to provide glass recycling for an estimated $94,500 a year. …In a Roeland Park citizen survey last year to rate support for a curbside glass recycling program that would cost $3.50 a month per household (regardless of participation), 34% said they were very supportive of such a program and 34% said they were not supportive. The city approved a six-month pilot program in August 2021 for Ripple Glass to provide biweekly curbside glass recycling services and paid the company $9,000 for the program.
Source: Prairie Village Post
Prairie Village’s $10K radio donation makes it to Ukrainian sister city
Prairie Village’s donation of $10,000 worth of radios to its Ukrainian sister city, Dolyna, have been received and are being put into action. Prairie Village developed a sister city relationship with Dolyna, Ukraine, in the early 2000s. Though the two cities hadn’t been in touch often in recent years, when the news about the Russian invasion broke, Prairie Village city staff worked to rekindle the relationships. Dolyna is located in the western part of the country in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, or district. The western Ukrainian city is acting as a hub for the collection of humanitarian aid.
Source: Prairie Village Post
85 Airports Awarded Nearly $1B for Terminal Improvements
The Federal Aviation Administration awarded nearly $1 billion to airports across the country for projects that will improve terminal capacity, efficiency and accessibility, according to a release from the administration. The money, which was made available in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will be distributed among 85 airports, the FAA said. This is the first round of grants; under the law, the FAA will annually administer $1 billion in airport terminal grants for five years. “Americans deserve modern airports that meet the needs of their families and growing passenger demand,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the release. The “grants will improve airport terminals while also creating good jobs in communities across the country.”
Source: Route Fifty – All Content
Randy Smith officially hired to lead Cowley College
The Cowley College Board of Trustees hired Randy Smith to become the next president of the college starting Monday. The board held a short meeting Wednesday to approve a contract with Smith. The meeting followed a farewell reception in the Wright Room for current president Dennis Rittle, who will become president at Northwest Arkansas Community College next week.
Source: The Arkansas City Traveler
Summer Virtual Education Series, Free to All City Clerks in Kansas (sponsored by CCMFOA)
First Session: July 13 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Expert Stacy Jaramillo with the Kansas Department of Administration, will share budget best practices, Revenue Neutral Rates and general reminders for budget submission. We’ll also have a County Clerk on the line to help with any additional questions.
Save the date for additional sessions:
August 25 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
September 22 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
October 20 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Series sponsored by City Clerks and Municipal Finance Officers of Kansas. All CCMFOA members will be eligible to submit for CMC/MMC points with an assessment for education.
Muni rates fall as focus turns to potential recession
Municipals rallied Wednesday, ignoring a selloff in U.S. Treasuries, after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes reiterated the Fed’s position it would raise rates 50 to 75 basis points at its July meeting to stave off inflation. Equities ended slightly up. Municipals were in their own lane Wednesday and triple-A yields fell four to 10 basis points, depending on the scale, while the two-, three-, five- and seven-year USTs rose above the 10-year, with some in the market seeing the FOMC minutes as dated now that the focus has turned the focus to a potential recession away from inflation concerns. The Fed “wants slower economic growth to curb inflation using interest rates as a brake on the overheated job market,” said Carl Ludwigson, managing director at Bel Air Investment Advisors. The good news, he said, is “the bond market may have already priced in much of the Fed’s action plan. The threat to asset prices is broad based inflation pushing central banks to tighten monetary policy even more rapidly than expected.” If the Fed’s policy response “proves too aggressive, then Treasuries and high-quality municipal bonds will again be the place to hide as tighter financial conditions lead to demand destruction,” he said.
Source: The Bond Buyer
Municipal Bond Trends for July 6, 2022
The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman and Beth Warren.
Fed sees ‘more restrictive’ policy as likely if inflation fails to come down, minutes say
Federal Reserve officials in June emphasized the need to fight inflation even if it meant slowing an economy that already appears on the brink of a recession, according to meeting minutes released Wednesday. In raising benchmark borrowing rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, central bankers said the move was necessary to control cost-of-living increases running at their highest levels since 1981. Members said the July meeting likely also would see another 50- or 75-basis point move. A basis point is one one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. “Participants concurred that the economic outlook warranted moving to a restrictive stance of policy, and they recognized the possibility that an even more restrictive stance could be appropriate if elevated inflation pressures were to persist,” the document said.
Source: CNBC – Bonds
Fireworks compromise seen as successful in Barton County
The Barton County Commission at a special meeting last Thursday approved allowing rural county residents to shoot fireworks on Sunday, July 3, in addition to Monday, July 4, as was allowed under the county’s current resolution. “We made a lot of people happy with that,” said District 5 Commissioner Jennifer Schartz, speaking during the commission meeting Wednesday morning. It was a compromise between allowing fireworks for the week leading to the Fourth and no change at all reached after much discussion with a host of fire chiefs from around the county. “We need to use that as a starting point for next year,” Schartz said. The extension this Fourth weekend was only for this year, and officials want to revisit the issue before next year.
Source: Great Bend Tribune
North Newton’s electric car charging station gets work out in era of high gas prices
As gasoline has seen a dramatic rise in price, North Newton drivers are putting their city electric car charging station to good use. The city of North Newton installed two electric charging stations located at the city hall in 2019. The stations cost $4,000 with half the amount donated by a private donor, city administrator Kyle Fiedler said. “I would say the stations are used steadily for sure,” he said. “We see a group of regular vehicles here on a regular basis,” In 2021, the stations provided a total of 496 charges to residents with electric-powered vehicles with 1,936 kWh of usage, according to the city of North Newton.
Source: Harvey County Now
Brown County puts Wind Energy Moratorium in place
The Brown County Commission met Thursday morning for the regular end-of-month meeting, and after much discussion, the group took a vote that brought the culmination of months of discussion regarding wind energy, agreeing to a Wind Energy Moratorium by a 2-1 vote…. With the moratorium now passed, the commission will move on to selecting a company to help create their Comprehensive Plan, and then begin working on zoning regulations.
Source: hiawathaworldonline.com
Peabody and Hillsboro work together to keep water flowing to customers
…sometimes, the customer has no idea just how close to a crisis they were and how very hard their cities worked to keep them from ever having to experience the slightest inconvenience. This happened in Marion County recently when the water plant had an issue beginning on June 15 with a 24-inch valve, which restricted flow of water into the distribution system. The approximately 40-year-old valve likely had a gasket come loose and wrap around the internal valve mechanism. … Thanks to the quick thinking of Water and Wastewater Superintendent Morgan Marler and all the teamwork of the Peabody and Hillsboro city departments, the staff developed a work-around solution, bypassing the broken valve temporarily with pumps.
Source: Hillsboro Free Press
Kansas governor orders flags flown at half-staff in honor police officer who died
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has ordered flags in Kansas to be flown at half-staff next Tuesday to honor a police officer who died while on duty. St. Marys Police Department officer Mark Lamberson died unexpected while he was on duty on Saturday, July 2. Police Chief Derek Cid said the is leading the investigation. Foul play is not suspected. “I am directing flags statewide be flown at half-staff to honor Officer Mark Lamberson, a valued member of the Saint Marys Police Department,” Gov. Kelly said. “My thoughts are with Officer Lamberson’s family and the entire Saint Marys community as they mourn his loss.” Flags will be lowered on Tuesday, July 12, the date of his funeral.
Source: KAKE – News