Month: November 2014

With high winds in the weather forecast, a burn ban is back in effect for Thursday, Nov. 6, according to the Kansas City, Kan., Fire Department.

Winds will be 7 to 16 mph, with gusts up to 24 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Today’s weather forecast is sunny and 52.

The high winds will cause a concern about outdoor fires, the Fire Department stated. All residents who have burn permits for today are asked to refrain from outdoor burning until further notice.

Anyone whose three-day burn permit expires today may go to the nearest fire station and request a burn permit for when the burn ban is lifted, the Fire Department spokesman said.

Outdoor burn permits must be issued 24 hours before the three-day burn permit starts.

by William Crum

At the planning session tonight the Board of Public Utilities members talked about what the utility’s projected income will be for 2015.

On the electrical side, income is an estimated 27 percent for residential; this is due to the housing boom which the county is going through, BPU officials said. Also 26 percent is projected for industrial, according to BPU officials.

However, the big increase is on the commercial side, which will be an estimated 47 percent, which is an increase over previous years. This is mainly due to corporations, for example, General Motors and Owens Corning Fiberglass, whose sales are up. A lot of other corporations are considering coming to Wyandotte County in the future, therefore the overall revenue for the BPU will be up, according to officials.

On the water side, revenue will be down slightly. An estimated $30,000 decrease is anticipated, according to BPU officials.

At the regular meeting, Heidi Holliday, executive director of the Rosedale Development Association, gave a presentation. Rosedale Development Association has a program that is dedicated to helping the youth of the community and Is funded through grants through the Board of Public Utilities, he said. It started in 1997 with the goal of providing Rosedale youth ages 14 to 17 an opportunity to gain experience training and skills that they need to successfully enter the workforce upon completion.

Within the organization, for example, they learn skills such as how to fill out and turn in an application, resume writing and cover letter writing. Not only do they learn skills, they also hear from various speakers on diverse topics during the orientation and weekly lunch and learn sessions, according to Holliday.

Rosedale Development Association also is a partner with businesses, higher education, and other organizations providing similar services. Currently they’re looking for other businesses with whom they can be a partner, she said. They are also looking for speakers who will come in and talk about the corporations they represent. For more information, contact Allissa Jensen, 913-677-5097.

Today the Kansas Supreme Court delayed the hearing scheduled in a same-sex marriage case.

The court said the attorneys now had until Nov. 14 to show cause why the stay of a judge’s administrative order should or should not remain in effect pending the resolution of the case filed in federal district court. The Kansas attorney general has said he plans to appeal that federal case.

The Kansas Supreme Court action came after the U.S. District Court yesterday overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. The federal ruling was temporarily stayed until Nov. 11.

While some of the federal courts are saying bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, the state’s attorney general has been defending the state’s ban because it was in the form of an amendment to the Kansas Constitution that was passed by voters in 2005.

The Kansas Supreme Court had scheduled a hearing on its same-sex marriage case for Nov. 6, hearing arguments to decide whether a Johnson County judge could direct the court clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. That hearing now has been postponed indefinitely.

The Kansas Supreme Court also now has ordered the attorneys to show cause why the Supreme Court’s consideration of this action should or should not be stayed pending final resolution of the federal case.

“If [Attorney General Derek] Schmidt’s mandamus action in our court were to proceed, we would also likely reach the same constitutional questions reviewed in ‘Marie’ [the name of the federal case]. And if we were to reach the opposite conclusion from the federal court – uphold the ban, not block it – the courts’ conflicting judgments would inject additional uncertainty into the debate of the validity of Kansas’ same-sex marriage ban,” the Kansas Supreme Court wrote in its order today.

The ACLU has been fighting against same-sex marriage bans in Kansas and Missouri, and other areas. In other action today, the ACLU won a case in St. Louis, Mo., on issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

“This is a positive move forward for loving same-sex couples in the city of St. Louis,” said Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. “It is also a win for families throughout Missouri as another discriminatory obstacle is lowered.”

There are currently 32 states where same-sex couples can marry, according to the ACLU.

Documents that have been filed in the Kansas Supreme Court case are available for viewing by the public on the Kansas Judicial Branch website at www.kscourts.org, under “State vs. Moriarty” in the What’s New section.