Month: October 2016

Mayor backs school bond issue

Mayor Mark Holland put his support behind the $235 million bond issue for the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools at Thursday night’s Unified Government meeting.

“Our kids deserve the best possible education in the best possible facilities,” Mayor Holland said.

Economic development depends on the quality of the schools, he said.

“When we have quality schools, it increases the property values of all the residential property around it,” Mayor Holland said. “It increases the value in our community and the ability to provide services. This is a win-win for us. To be able to do it with a zero-tax increase is big.”

He made his remarks after Superintendent Cindy Lane spoke about the $235 million bond issue on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

Lane said under this proposed bond issue, taxes would not increase, four new schools would be built, security features would be added to schools, several new kitchens would be planned for schools, some playground improvements will be made, and repairs would be done at all schools. Taxes would not increase because this bond issue would replace the bond issue passed 15 years ago to air-condition schools. The bonds for air-conditioning the schools are expiring.

Mayor Holland also said that it is important for people to vote to retain the Supreme Court justices in this election, and not politicize the offices. There is a conservative campaign against retaining some of the justices.

There was support from several individual commissioners for the school district’s bond issue. Commissioner Hal Walker, a former UG attorney, asked UG Attorney Ken Moore to research if the commission could legally vote to endorse the school district bond issue.

Walker said he was personally in favor of the bond issue. Also offering encouragement were Commissioner Mike Kane and Commissioner Jane Philbrook.

The school district’s bond issue also has received endorsements from political action groups of the Kansas City, Kan., Area Chamber of Commerce, Tri-County Labor Council and Kansas City, Kan., National Education Association.

BPU bond issue approved

In other action, the UG Commission approved a $62 million Board of Public Utilities bond issue. Several improvements are listed for the bond issue. Also approved was $53 million in utility system refunding revenue bonds, which will refinance existing bonds.

Commissioner Mike Kane asked for a meeting between the UG and BPU. A meeting may be held in a few weeks to discuss an ordinance on telecommunications state law changes, and that will affect which utilities are underground, according to UG officials. Mayor Holland said he anticipates a discussion about whether Leavenworth Road will have utilities underground.

Kane said he would like the UG and BPU to have a discussion together, and he wants to hear the concerns of the BPU board.

For an earlier story on the school district bond issue, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/kckps-235-million-bond-issue-wont-increase-taxes-officials-say/#comment-187645.

For an earlier story about the BPU bond issue, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/ug-commission-to-consider-62-million-bpu-bond-issue-other-items-thursday/ or https://wyandotteonline.com/bpu-approves-62-million-bond-issue-for-utility-improvements/

Tonight’s high school football games

Friday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m.
Wyandotte at Sumner Academy
Harmon at Washington
Lansing at Turner
Pittsburg at Bonner Springs
Piper at Basehor-Linwood
Bishop Ward at Baldwin

Saturday, Oct. 15, at 1 p.m.
Schlagle at Northeast (Kansas City, Mo.)

Last week’s results
Washington 30, Wyandotte 21
Paola 33, Bonner Springs 6
Piper 57, Bishop Ward 6
Schlagle 70, Sumner Academy 8
Atchison 55, Harmon 27

Three men charged with trying to bomb immigrants’ apartment in Garden City, Kan.

Three men from southwest Kansas were charged in federal court here today with conspiring to detonate a bomb at an apartment complex in Garden City where Muslim immigrants from Somalia live and worship, acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.

A criminal complaint unsealed today alleged the men conducted surveillance to size up potential targets, stockpiled firearms, ammunition and explosive components, and prepared a manifesto to be published after the bombing. The attack, the defendants said, would “wake people up.”

“These charges are based on eight months of investigation by the FBI that is alleged to have taken the investigators deep into a hidden culture of hatred and violence,” Beall said. “Many Kansans may find it as startling as I do that such things could happen here.”

Charged with one count of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction were:

Curtis Allen, 49, Liberal, Kan.
Gavin Wright, 49, Liberal, Kan., owner of G & H Mobile Home Center at 1250 E. Tucker Road in Liberal.
Patrick Eugene Stein, 47, Wright, Kan.

The complaint alleges that since February 2016 the FBI has been investigating the defendants’ activities planning a violent attack against Muslims in southwestern Kansas. A confidential source attended meetings of a militia group called the Kansas Security Force, providing the FBI with information about the groups’ activities.

The defendants were members of a small group they called the Crusaders. After considering possible targets including pro-Somali churches and public officials, the defendants decided to target an apartment complex in Garden City, Kan., where Somalis lived and maintain an apartment that served as a mosque. They discussed obtaining four vehicles, filling them with explosives and parking them at the four corners of the apartment complex to create a big explosion.

On Oct. 12, defendant Stein met with the confidential FBI source in rural Finney County to examine automatic weapons the source had brought from an FBI lab in Quantico, Va. After trying out two of the weapons, Stein took the source to see the apartment building the defendants were targeting in Garden City. Stein said he would provide ammonium nitrate for the bomb and contribute $200 to $300 for other materials.

Stein also talked with the source about defendant Allen’s arrest in a domestic violence case in Liberal the previous day, Oct. 11. Stein said he was concerned that Allen’s girlfriend would give Liberal police information about the defendants’ plans.

If convicted, the defendants face up to life in federal prison. Investigating agencies included the FBI, the Liberal Police Department, the Seward County Sheriff’s Office, the Ford County Sheriff’s Office, the Garden City Police Department, the Dodge City Police Department, the Finney County Sheriff’s Office, and Kansas Highway Patrol, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Mattivi is prosecuting