July tax collections show sustained revenue stability
TOPEKA—Tax collections show a continuation of the revenue stability displayed last fiscal year, with total taxes more than 10 percent above last July, according to the latest monthly revenue report released Wednesday.
July tax collections total $499.04 million, which is 10.03 percent over last year, and 2.33 percent, or $11.35 million over revised estimates.
“The fiscal year 2019 is starting much like we saw in the 12 months of the fiscal year 2018, with collections above estimates, and above the previous year’s intake,” Revenue Secretary Sam Williams said. “We anticipate we will keep seeing this trend in the coming months.”
Because it’s the first month of the fiscal year, July is the only report where the numbers for the month and the fiscal year are the same. Individual income tax collections were $227.69 million, or $39.21 million above last year, exceeding estimates by $7.69 million.
Sales tax collections totaled $205.75 million, which is growth $2.25 million over last year and $753,000 above estimates.
They are public or community-owned entities created for a single purpose: to acquire, manage, maintain, and repurpose vacant, abandoned, and foreclosed properties –the worst abandoned houses, forgotten buildings, and empty lots. There are approximately 75 communities now operating formal land bank programs across the country. And while land banks are most often associated with communities with large-scale blight and abandonment, many communities now see the benefit of implementing land banking as a means of preventing the contagious blight that can sweep across urban neighborhoods like a plague, infecting house after house until whole blocks – even neighborhoods – become empty and abandoned shadows of their former selves.
In early July 2018, the city commission approved the adoption of Ordinance No. 3535 creating a Land Bank for the City of Fort Scott, approving the Land Bank Manager as Rhonda Dunn, and approving the Land Bank Board of Trustees as the five City Commissioners along with a representation of the Bourbon County Board of Commissioners and a representative from Bourbon County Economic Development Council, Inc.(BCEDI) The expiration terms of the City Commissioners will run consecutively with their term of office. The Bourbon County Commissioner will follow the same term of office.
Following an organizational meeting for the city’s land bank held July 25 at city hall, City Commissioners Jolynne Mitchell was appointed the chairperson, Randy Nichols as vice-chairperson, Cindy Bartlesmeyer as secretary; County Commissioner was appointed Jeff Fischer as treasurer. Steve Buerge is the President of BCEDI and is the member on the board currently but their board can vote and send a different representative if desired, according to city minutes.
The Fort Scott Land Bank Board will meet the first Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m. at city hall, before the regularly scheduled city commission meeting, starting in September.
Dunn asked the board to set a budget recommendation of $30,000 to take to the City Commission. Steve Buerge is matching this amount. Her recommendation of $30,000 is for the demolition of three houses, any mowing assessments, and any legal work needed to be completed on deeds, according to the city minutes.
KDHE latest agency to ease public access to important records, such as birth certificates
TOPEKA – Governor Jeff Colyer and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) today announced that Vital Statistics certified records are now available through the State of Kansas’ iKan app. The application allows residents to request birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates from their computer or mobile device, eliminating the need to visit a physical office in person.
In March, Governor Colyer introduced the iKan app to allow users to interact with multiple State services in a single self-service, intuitive experience from their mobile phones, tablets, and computers. At the initial launch, the app allowed Kansas residents to remotely renew their vehicle registration. The app, which now includes Vital Statistics records, makes it easy to request official documents from anywhere with an internet connection and using technology most people carry with them everywhere.
“In today’s rapidly changing world, it is becoming increasingly important that we ensure government keeps pace with innovation and that we are taking advantage of technology to provide the best possible experience to those we serve. By quickly giving Kansans access to this important information, we are taking steps to do just that,” said Governor Colyer. “I’m excited to add another State agency to the list of iKan participants.”
Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Secretary Jeff Andersen, added “iKan has already partnered with State government to facilitate vehicle registrations and other services. Today’s announcement is great news for Kansas and will make obtaining vital records much easier, while also decreasing lines and wait times in government offices.”
iKan is made available through PayIt, a Midwest-based technology firm specializing in the simplification of government transactions across the country, including taxes, utilities, court records, and more as part of their cloud-based platform. PayIt has provided the myKTag app for the Kansas Turnpike since 2014.
Once a Vital Statistics record is requested using iKan, depending on the delivery method selected, the requestor will be notified by text when the record is available for pick up or have it delivered within seven to 10 business days. Cost for a record and the processing fee through the app is $20. To download the app, search “iKan State of Kansas” on your iPhone and Android devices.
At 4 p.m. the Bourbon County Commissioners may be attending a public hearing at Fort Scott City Hall regarding proposed improvements at the Fort Scott Municipal Airport.
The Design Review Board will meet on Thursday, August 2, 2018, at 4:00 p.m. at the City Hall Commission Meeting room at 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas. This meeting will be held to discuss a Certificate of Appropriateness for improvements to the building at 9 N. Main and any other matters that may come before the Board. This meeting is open to the public.
The city of Uniontown’s Council received a grant to replace the natural gas pipeline in the town.
The Uniontown City Council has been active in recent years to improve the town’s infrastructure.
A project to widen and deepen the town’s ditches to keep water going where it should, a water line replacement project and this year a natural gas line replacement project has been initiated by the council. Uniontown’s population is 272.
The city of Uniontown was awarded $201,000 in 2017 with Community Development Block Grant funds to replace a natural gas transmission line, according to kansascommerce.gov/CivicAlerts.
The city will contribute $201,000 in matching funds for this project.
NPL Foreman Pat Wier, Parker, left, tells USIC employee Mason Adams, Sugar Valley, right, where the pipeline project is, on Tuesday morning. USIC locates electric meters for entities.
The Uniontown project started June 12.
“We are trying to get it done by September 1,” NPL(Northern Pipe Line) Foreman Pat Wier, said. “So far, we are up to date, but we have a lot of work to be done.”
The two-man crew is replacing PVC pipe with PE pipe. The crew is comprised of Wier and Edmundo Rodriguez, Lenexa.
“PE is a federal requirement,” Wier said. “PVC is not recognized anymore. We are laying new pipe in portions of the city where the PVC is.”
The crew worked late into the night on Thursday to get resident Bill Griffith hooked back on to gas after a day spent laying pipe on the town’s southeast side.
“Once started, we couldn’t quit,” Wier said. “There are a few late nights.”
The usual hours for the crew is 7 a.m to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, Wier said.
Edmundo Rodriguez, left, an NPL employee, chats with Mason Adams, USIC employee during work on the pipeline just south of Nita Campbell’s property Tuesday morning.
Next for the crew is replacing 3,700 feet of two-inch steel pipe south of town.
“That is exposed,” Wier said. “We’ll be replacing and putting pipe underground for safety.”
Recently, a brush mower in this area ran over the steel riser and “caused a pretty good (gas)leak,” Wier said. “That’s why we are doing all this.”
During the FortScott.Biz interview a Kansas Corporation Commission Inspector, Jon Bolinder, turned up at the work site.
Kansas Corporation Commission Office of Pipeline Safety Inspector Jon Bolinder of Topeka stopped by the Uniontown gas line project Tuesday morning.
Bolinder is with the Office of Pipeline Safety for the KCC, he said.
Bolinder said all projects submit a construction notice to KCC. He was on his way to the Coffeyville area and made a stop in Uniontown to view the project.
“We come out and make sure they are following code when installing,” Bolinder said. He also said it helps him “in my head, when I am doing the paperwork on the project.”
The Small Cities Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program allows the Kansas Department of Commerce to distribute federal funds to Kansas cities and counties looking to improve their community.
To receive CDBG funds, a project must meet at least one of the following federally mandated criteria, according to the website:
The project benefits low- and moderate-income individuals.
The project removes or prevents slum or blight condition.
The project eliminates an urgent need created by a disaster when local funds are unavailable.
Katrina Lewison, Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor and running mate of Joshua Svaty, will be available for a “Meet & Greet” on Friday, July 27, from 10:00 am until 11:15 am, at Common Ground, 116 S Main Street.
A West Point graduate and decorated veteran, Lewison led a Blackhawk helicopter platoon in the 101st Airborne during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Following her successful military career, Lewison moved back to her home state of Kansas. Originally from Hutchison, she now lives in Manhattan with her husband Tyler and their three daughters.
Lewison is the Director of Consulting & Training at CivicPlus, a company that helps cities utilize software to better engage citizen populations and streamlines processes.
She has graduate degrees in Public Policy and Organizational Psychology & Leadership. She’s a member of the USD-383 Board of Education. Lewison is active in her church community and volunteers on various committees.
For more information about the event, contact Shirley Palmer, Bourbon County Coordinator for the Svaty-Lewison campaign, at 620-223-4105.
City of Fort Scott-Public Hearing for Airport-Monday, July 30th at 4:30 pm
Executive Session-Privileged in the Attorney-Client Relationship
Justifications for Executive Session:
Personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel
Consultation with an attorney for the body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship
Matters relating to employer-employee negotiations whether or not in consultation with the representative(s) of the body or agency
Confidential data relating to financial affairs or trade secrets of corporations, partnerships, trusts and individual proprietorships
Preliminary discussions relating to the acquisition of real property
Matters relating to the security of a public body or agency, public building or facility or the information system of a public body or agency, if the discussion of such matters at an open meeting would jeopardize the security of such public body, agency, building, facility or information system
The City’s tree and brush dump site will be open from 8:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. Monday, July 23rd through Friday, July 27th, 2018 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday hours will return to normal hours which are 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and normal hours will resume the following week. Residents are encouraged to take their tree damage from the recent storm to the brush dump.
The Design Review Board will meet on Thursday, July 26th, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. at the City Hall Commission Meeting room at 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas. This meeting will be held to discuss a Certificate of Appropriateness for improvements to the building at 9 N. Main and any other matters that may come before the Board. This meeting is open to the public.
Jason McReynolds releases water from a hydrant on 2nd Street Wednesday, which is part of the process of cleaning the water system. The flushing gets the chlorine into the system faster and farther, Scott Flater said.
The Marmaton River is the source of drinking water for almost all of Bourbon County, except for the most extreme western portion, which has a private reservoir.
Scott Flater is the superintendent of the City of Fort Scott Water Production Department, who is tasked with providing clean, safe water from the Marmaton River to all of Fort Scott and Consolidated Rural Water District # 2 residents.
“We make water for the city,” Flater said. “But our number one customer is Rural Water #2.”
Over two million gallons of water a day is processed and sent out to the city and the county, he said.
“Everything comes through this building,” Flater said. “We have a river intake on 5th and Short Streets.”
The rural water district then sells and distributes the water from Fort Scott to the small towns in Bourbon County.
The city’s water production employees are in the middle of a cleanout process. It’s called burn out/flushing, and it’s an annual event.
“The water is safe during the rest of the year or during this burnout (cleaning out), it’s safe,” Flater said. “We are sending it out to our family and our community. It’s the highest quality.”
The cleaning out of the system is a maintenance practice for the distribution system, Flater said.
They started July 16, and if all goes as planned the water cleaning process should be completed by the end of next week, Flater said.
“The burnout won’t reach outside of Fort Scott until today (July 20),” Flater said.
Flater commended a small town in Bourbon County for being far-thinking in their water supply.
Flater said Uniontown, in the western part of the county, has been “pro-active to rebuild their water infrastructure” in the last few years. “They’ve done a great job.”
This computer screen is set up in the office of the water treatment plant at Ninth and Burke streets and shows the outline of the water cleaning process, so the plant operators can see what is going on in the plant.Scott Flater shows the water samples that are tested: from left is water directly from the river, the middle is water that has been mixed with chemicals and the right is the water that has been fully processed and is ready to drink. This is so plant operators can do “right now” testing on the water, he said.Brandon Russell, one of four plant operators, does comparative water testing in the water treatment plant Thursday.The turquoise and blue pipe in the center of the photo is located in the lower level of the city’s water plant. The 24-inch pipe is where all the Marmaton River water is piped into the plant. It is then processed in a mixer with chemicals. The water is then transported to a settling basin. Following this step, chlorine is added to the water. It is then run through a filter and goes into a clear well from where the water proceeds to water towers then to the water distribution system.
There will be a meeting of the Fort Scott Land Bank held on Wednesday, July 25th, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. in the City Commission meeting room at 123 S. Main Street.
This meeting will be held to organize the Land Bank Board and any other items deemed necessary for the formation of this board.
There will be a majority of the City Commissioners present, but no City Commission business will be conducted.
