Air Force Senior Airman Orlando D. Hudson has graduated from Airman Leadership School at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.
The five-week course is designed to train senior airmen to understand their positions in the Air Force organizational structure, combat leadership, supervisory communications skills, and profession of arms, which are needed for professional development to be effective noncommissioned officers. Airmen are prepared and better equipped to serve as supervisors, managers and rating officials as they progress in their enlisted military careers.
The school is the first of three levels of professional military education programs used to develop and cultivate leadership and supervisory skills. The course is required for airmen to complete prior to being promoted to the rank of staff sergeant.
Hudson is the son of Leslie D. Sipple, brother of Rymiah J. Tenn-Hue of Kansas City, Kan. and grandson of Patsie A. Sipple of Kansas City, Kan.
He is a 2007 graduate of Manhattan High School, Manhattan, Kan. He earned an associate degree in 2014 from the Community College of the Air Force, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
Month: June 2014
Schlittler named executive director of Downtown Shareholders
by Mary Rupert
Chuck Schlittler, executive director of the Fairfax Industrial Association, will become the executive director of the Downtown Shareholders on July 7.
“I view it as progressing, as evolving,” Schlittler said about downtown Kansas City, Kan.
Progress is being made now in downtown Kansas City, Kan., he said, pointing to renovation of an old Katz store and another building at 736 Minnesota Ave. as examples of revitalization that is now taking place.
Schlittler, who has been director of the FIA for 5.5 years, said his immediate goal will be getting to understand the issues and people involved with the Downtown Shareholders. He will meet with all those involved with the organization.
He said he expected that the organization will continue to address bringing business into downtown Kansas City, Kan., continue working with all partners, such as the Board of Public Utilities, Unified Government, Chamber of Commerce, Workforce Development and others. Also, there may be issues that need to be addressed soon, such as housing shortages downtown and traffic, he said.
Schlittler said his new job will encompass economic development, housing, helping businesses, both new and existing, working through zoning requirements, serving as a liaison between the downtown area and the Unified Government, as well as a liaison with other groups.
He also will be watching over the Downtown Shareholders role as a self-supported municipal improvement district, a self-taxing entity that downtown entities have started to provide security, beautification and cleanliness.
He also will be working with fulfilling the Downtown Shareholders’ requirements for a Neighborhood Business Revitalization group. The group is one of several NBRs in Kansas City, Kan.
The former director of the Downtown Shareholders, Ed Linnebur, recently accepted a position as a program officer with the Greater Kansas City Local Initiatives Support Corp. He had been Downtown Shareholders executive director since 2008.
Schlittler said the FIA will have a plan in place to make sure there is a point of contact after he leaves.
Commerce Department helps add jobs
Views West
by Murrel Bland
The number of Kansans working today, about 1.4 million, is about the same number as those working before the “Great Recession” hit in 2007. That was the message that Dan Lara brought to the Congressional Forum at its monthly luncheon meeting at the Reardon Convention Center.
Lara, who handles public affairs for the Kansas Department of Commerce, was the featured speaker at the meeting. He was substituting for his boss, Pat George, who is Secretary of Commerce. George was attending to family business.
Lara is a former press secretary for Sam Brownback when he was U.S. senator. Brownback is now governor seeking his second term.
Lara told of various success stories of companies that the Department of Commerce has helped including two in Lenexa. They are Quest Diagnostics which will employ 500 persons and Grantham University that will employ 400.
The employment rate in Kansas in May was 4.8 percent compared to 6.1 percent this time last year, according to the Kansas Department of Labor. The unemployment rate in Wyandotte County for May was 7.8 percent.
The Commerce Department has launched the “KanVet” program that is an aggressive effort to employee military veterans. It asks private and public sector employers to take a pledge to help hire veterans; those who have taken the pledge include Country Club Bank, Kansas City Power and Light and Rental City. After businesses take the pledge, staff members from the Commerce Department work with businesses to link qualified veterans with job openings.
Lara also told of the Rural Opportunity Zone program offered in 73 Kansas counties. Such counties are authorized to provide a state income tax waiver for up to five years or to pay student loans up to $15,000 or both. To be eligible for the program, a person must establish residency in one of the 73 counties after July 1, 2011, live outside Kansas for five years previous and have earned less than $10,000 in each of the five years before coming to Kansas.
Lara said the program was successful in attracting engineering graduates, among other professionals.
Bob Kimball, a member of the Congressional Forum whose family was a longtime business owner in the Fairfax industrial area, questioned whether the program was fair to engineering students who were Kansas residents and graduates of the University of Kansas or Kansas State University; they would not be eligible.
I asked Lara if there was any possibility for an urban opportunity zone in Wyandotte County. I explained that Wyandotte County faces the same problem as many rural counties with the loss of population. Lara said such an urban program might be considered.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.