Month: July 2017

BPU summer program helps provide hundreds of jobs for youth

Since 1998, BPU has provided thousands of opportunities for Wyandotte County youth to work and receive job training skills through a variety of summer employment and training opportunities in the community.

What started as a simple youth employment program has transitioned into a more diverse youth development and mentoring initiative.

Today, BPU partners with local nonprofit organizations to connect young persons with businesses, helping them attain the skills they will need for college or their first real job.

The emphasis is toward at-risk and lower income youth in the community, in coordination with Unified Government designated Neighborhood Business Revitalization groups. In 2017, BPU is helping nine area nonprofits assist hundreds of local youth in the community. This includes:

• The Argentine Neighborhood Development Association
• The Armourdale Renewal Association
• The Central Avenue Betterment Association
• Downtown Shareholders, Kansas City, Kansas
• The Historic Northeast-Midtown Association
• The Leavenworth Road Association
• The Rosedale Development Association
• Turner Community Connection
• The Northeast Optimist Club

These organizations have created a number of training and educational initiatives to help young persons, including a Learn-to-Earn program, a Leadership Development/Mentoring program, and a young Ambassadors Program. All are geared toward helping young people learn more about business etiquette, time management, crisis resolution, financial responsibility, while becoming stewards of their community as they grow and mature.

BPU is proud to partner with these groups and assist these area youth, and remains committed to bettering the community through its award-winning socially responsible efforts, a spokesman said.

– Story from David Mehlhaff, BPU chief communications officer

Wyandotte County students named to KU’s honor roll

Wyandotte County students are among more than 5,250 undergraduate students at the University of Kansas who were named to the honor roll for the spring semester.

The students were from KU’s Lawrence and Edwards campuses and the schools of Health Professions and Nursing in Kansas City, Kansas.

The honor roll includes undergraduates who meet requirements in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and in the schools of Architecture, Design and Planning; Business; Education; Engineering; Health Professions; Journalism; Music; Nursing; Pharmacy; and Social Welfare.

Honor roll criteria vary among the university’s academic units. Some schools honor the top 10 percent of students enrolled, some establish a minimum grade-point average, and others raise the minimum GPA for each year students are in school. Students must complete a minimum number of credit hours to be considered for the honor roll.

On the KU honor roll from Wyandotte County:
Shelby Covey, Bonner Springs, School of Social Welfare;
Tessa Newberry, Bonner Springs, School of Architecture, Design and Planning;
Sara Rehm, Bonner Springs, School of Pharmacy;
Jarius Jones, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Mija Jones, Kansas City, Kansas, School of the Arts;
Jena Klaas, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Lauren Klapper, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Janice Levina, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Cameron Long, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Business;
Sydney Mansaw, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Health Professions;
Tara McCoy, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Pharmacy;
Kimberly Merritt, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Engineering;
Faith Miller, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Natalie Moon, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Business;
Emma Murrugarra, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Isaac Nevarez, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Pharmacy;
Jenni Nguyen, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Tyler Nguyen, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Leah O’Brien, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Social Welfare;
Oscar Orozco, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Social Welfare;
Oscar Pena, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Jamie Redic, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Nursing;
Aislin Reynolds, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Claudia Rivera, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Education;
Marcus Robinson, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Maria Rodriguez, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Business;
Vanessa Romero, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
John Russell, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Engineering;
Raul Saenz, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Kenzie Schuley, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and School of Education;
Gordon Sheldon, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Business;
Keegan Sparks, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Colby Spiess, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Laura Suarez, Kansas City , Kansas, School of the Arts;
Branden Taylor, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Samara Tortolero, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Melinda Vongphrachanh, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Pharmacy;
Christian Wagner, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Courtney Wagner, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Brooke Wietharn, Kansas City, Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences;
Logan Wilson, Kansas City, Kansas, School of Engineering;
Dominick Wynn, Kansas City Kansas, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Great Plains-Westar merger would create company with 1.6 million Kansas, Missouri customers

by Jim McLean, Kansas News Service

Two of the region’s largest utilities are taking another run at a merger.

Great Plains Energy, based in Kansas City, Mo., and Topeka-based Westar Energy announced Monday that they would seek regulatory approval for a proposed merger, which if approved would create a Fortune 500 company with $14 billion in assets and approximately 1.6 million customers in Kansas and Missouri.

The Kansas Corporation Commission earlier this year rejected a bid by Great Plainsto acquire Westar, Kansas’ largest utility, for $8.6 billion. Regulators balked because the deal also would have required Great Plains to assume $3.6 billion in debt.

The new deal addresses those concerns by proposing a “merger of equals,” said Mark Ruelle, president and CEO of Westar, who if the deal is approved would serve as the non-executive chairman of the board of the new company.

“A merger of equals means that neither company is acquiring the other. Neither is paying a premium to the other. And there will be no transaction debt. We simply combine and exchange our shares in a new company that our shareholders both own,” Ruelle said at a joint news conference outside Westar’s downtown Topeka headquarters.

Tom Wright, a former chairman of the KCC, said the companies’ new proposal appears to address the commission’s previous concerns.

“At first glance it appears it does, but it will all be dependent on the details,” said Wright, who served on the KCC from 2007 to 2014.

The merger would generate immediate operating efficiencies of $35 million to $45 million, according to the companies. Those savings would grow to between $140 million and $170 million by 2021.

“The new transaction unlocks better operational savings and better long-term growth than either of our companies could generate on our own,” said Terry Bassham, president and CEO of Great Plains.

Based on those projections, the companies are promising to provide $50 million in savings to their customers, as soon as the deal is approved, in the form of a one-time rate reduction on their initial bills.

“We’re so confident in those savings generated by this deal that we’re willing to make that commitment even before those savings have been generated,” he said.

Gina Penzig, a spokeswoman for Westar, said it wasn’t possible to calculate an average savings to customers until the deal is approved and regulators determine how it should be apportioned to residential, industrial and other types of consumers.

There would be no layoffs, officials said. Instead, the companies would retire some aging generating units and not fill some job vacancies going forward to achieve the savings.

The combined companies would be leaders in renewable energy, Bassham said.

“One-third of our retail sales will come from wind energy,” he said. “And almost half of all energy provided to our customers would be through carbon-free power.”

The merger would mean no immediate change for Wolf Creek, Kansas’ only nuclear power plant. The companies, which already own a share of the facility, would keep it in operation through the end of its “licensed life” in 2045, Ruelle said.

Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. 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/great-plains-westar-merger-would-create-company-16m-kansas-missouri-customers.