Month: March 2017

Planning items, law enforcement study on UG agenda March 2

The March 2 Unified Government Commission agendas include planning and zoning items, as well as discussion of a law enforcement study.

The law enforcement study will be presented at the 5 p.m. UG Commission meeting March 2 in the fifth floor conference room, City Hall, 701 N. 7th St., Kansas City, Kan., according to the special session agenda.

At the 7 p.m. UG Commission meeting March 2 in the Commission Chambers, lobby level, City Hall, there are several planning and zoning items on the agenda.

Items scheduled on the planning and zoning consent agenda March 2 include:

• A change of zone application from limited business district to general business district for a used car lot at 667 S. 55th St., recommended for denial.
• A special use permit for a used car lot at 667 S. 55th St., recommended for denial.
• A master plan amendment application from low density residential to community commercial at 667 S. 55th St., recommended for denial.
• A special use permit to operate and develop a community solar farm at 4240 N. 55th St., Don ray with the Board of Public Utilities.
• A special use permit for a parking lot for Joe’s Kansas City BBQ at 4620 Mission Road, Jeff Stehney with Joe’s Kansas City BBQ.
• An ordinance rezoning property at 100 N. 10th St. from single-family district to planned commercial district.

The presentation of the county administrator’s report also is on the agenda.

The meetings are open to the public.

Anti-diabetes plan progressing in Kansas Legislature

by Andy Marso, Kansas News Service

When the Kansas Senate comes back after this week’s midsession break, it may consider legislation to form a comprehensive state plan to fight diabetes.

House Bill 2219 would instruct the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to conduct an analysis of state costs from diabetes, identify best practices to prevent and control the condition, and develop a budget to implement those practices.

It also would require the agency to report on the plan’s progress every two years.

Just before the break the House voted 117-7 to pass the bill, which is one of the main legislative priorities for the American Diabetes Association. Four other states passed similar plans in 2016, according to the organization.

According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes affects almost 13 percent of the adult population in Kansas and leads to about $2 billion in health care costs annually.

The association’s numbers include an estimated 69,000 Kansans who have undiagnosed diabetes. Numbers from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that include only those with diagnosed diabetes ranked Kansas at 21st highest in the country, at 9.5 percent.

People with diabetes are unable to produce or properly use insulin, a hormone that turns food into energy. There are two main forms: Type 1 diabetes, previously known as juvenile diabetes, and Type 2 diabetes, the most common kind. Common complications of diabetes include heart and blood vessel disease, kidney damage, blindness and nerve damage.

Larry Smith is president of the National Diabetes Volunteer Leadership Council, a Kentucky-based nonprofit that testified for the Kansas bill. He said Kentucky was the first state to enact a diabetes action plan and about one-third of states have them now.

“It has opened the eyes of the Legislature and the government that there is a problem and it’s a big drain on their budget,” said Smith, whose daughter has Type 1 diabetes.

Smith said the push to fight diabetes in Kentucky began with Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican physician who led the state from 2003 to 2007.

“He realized the cost that diabetes put on the state budget was substantial and held them back on a number of things they wanted to do in terms of education or infrastructure and so forth,” Smith said.

A similar bill died in the Kansas House in 2015. But Rep. Susan Concannon, a Republican from Beloit who brought this year’s bill, said the current version was voted through in part due to testimony from Rep. Blaine Finch, a Republican from Ottawa, and from his teenage daughter who has diabetes.

“It was a little more meaningful for us this year to have one of our colleagues make it more personal,” Concannon said.

Andy Marso is a reporter for KCUR’s Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org.
See more at http://kcur.org/post/anti-diabetes-plan-progressing-kansas-legislature.

Lady Blue Devils rally in both games for sweep of State Fair

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Kansas City Kansas Community College’s women’s softball team stole a page out of the KU basketball playbook Tuesday, coming from behind in both games in a doubleheader sweep of State Fair.

Trailing 1-0, the Blue Devils tied the opener in the sixth inning and won it in the seventh 2-1 on Mikaela Hoffart’s two-out double and then erased a 6-4 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the sixth for an 8-6 win in the second game.

“A really good determined effort to come from behind in both games,” KCKCC coach Kacy Tillery said. “We swung the bats (30 hits in the two games), got strong relief from Cheyenna Owens in both games and didn’t make an error in either game.”

The wins snapped State Fair’s four-game winning streak and boosted the Blue Devils’ record to 6-2 heading into a re-match with State Fair in Sedalia Thursday before jumping into Jayhawk Conference play Tuesday when they league favorite Highland in a twin bill starting at 1 p.m.

Sophomore Megan Sumonja did not allow a hit in the opener until the sixth inning when State Fair scored its only run on a leadoff walk, stolen base, ground ball and a two-out infield single, the Roadrunners’ only hit of the game. The Blue Devils bounced right back to tie it in the bottom of the inning. Candice Jennings started the inning with a double to left and with two out, Katherine Stringer lashed a double to right-center to tie it.

The Blue Devils then won it in the seventh on a one-out walk and Hoffart’s sinking line drive that skipped past the rightfielder and brought pinchrunner McKenzie Hersh home with the game-winner. Four Blue Devils had two hits in the contest, LaTisha Thomas, Hoffart, Jennings and Stringer.

The rally made a winner out of Cheyenna Owens, a freshman from Pleasant Ridge who also got the win in the nightcap. Owens came on in the top of the seventh after Sumonja had given up a walk and hit batsman and on her second pitch, got a ground ball double play started by Jennings at shortstop. Owens then pitched three innings of relief in the second game, allowing three hits, two runs and no walks.

Trailing 6-4 in the nightcap, KCKCC wasted no time in tying the game. After a leadoff single by Taylor Hall, Basehor’s Allison Kasick blasted a game-tying home run to centerfield, The Blue Devils then won it on doubles by Hoffart, Jennings and Stringer.

The Blue Devils pounded out 19 hits in the second game including 11 in the first three innings when they only scored four times while leaving eight runners on base. The first four Blue Devils hitters in the first – Thomas, Hall, Kasick and Hoffart – all singled and Stringer added a fifth but KCKCC managed only two runs.

Hoffart finished with four hits, three singles and a double; Kassick drove in four runs with a home run, single and sacrifice fly; Hannah Bishop singled three times; Sam Sudac and Thomas each singled twice and Jennings and Stringer had RBI doubles.