Month: May 2018

Leavenworth Road Association plans fishing derby, meeting

Guest column
by Lou Braswell

The Neighborhod Business Revitalization directors were invited to meet with Mayor David Alvey recently at City Hall.

I was very impressed, he seems to really understand that NBRs continue to work with the community, the businesses and the residents. He is the first mayor I ever remember extending the invitation to listen and hear our thoughts, our projects and our concerns. It was not one of those “here is what I want to do as elected officials,” it was an actual round table. Thank you Mayor Alvey and staff. Mayor Alvey also stresses that development out west is great but he is working on the rest.

Now to our upcoming events:

June 9, Kid’s Free Fishing Derby at Wyandotte County Lake:
6 a.m., volunteers setting canopies up
7 a.m., registration begins
8 a.m. to 10 a.m., derby begins
10:30 a.m., trophy time
May need help to get canopies from house to lake (truck necessary).

June 12, LRA meeting
Community policing is bringing goggles to demonstrate impaired vision.
This is your chance to feel what it is like to walk or drive while impaired (feeling only).
The menu will be picnic-style, with Sylvester’s smoked chicken wings

June begins our Summer Youth Program, packet (letter, rules and application) has been mailed and are coming back in. Interviews and placement will begin June 1.

Our Teen Team work orders have been sent into the fantastic organization that comes from five different states with their teen – adult crews to spruce up some of residents’ homes and our community. They will be here July 8-14. All I can say is “seeing is believing.”

Our LRA July 1 meeting: Loren Taylor will be guest speaker, also known as Mr. History. If it is history, Loren knows it.

Any questions or suggestions, call the LRA office at 913-788-3988.

Lou Braswell is the executive director of the Leavenworth Road Association.

Democrats call for look at Kansas no-bid contracts

by Stephen Koranda, Kansas News Service

Top Democrats in the Kansas House and Senate will request investigations into the use of no-bid state contracts, but the proposals will need the approval of some Republican lawmakers to advance.

The Kansas Department of Revenue used a no-bid process, called prior authorization, to award a multi-million dollar contract that outsourced some information technology services earlier this spring.

A Wichita Eagle story found the no-bid process had been used more than 1,000 times since 2011.

House Minority Leader Jim Ward plans to request the creation of a joint legislative committee to study the use of no-bid contracts before lawmakers convene in January. That request would need to be approved by a panel of legislative leaders, including from the Legislature’s commanding Republican majority, who will set the committee calendar for the coming months.

“This is about the public’s right to know how their money’s being spent, how their most confidential and private information is being protected and to ensure that state government runs the way it’s supposed to,” Ward said.

Another top Democrat, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, said he’ll request an audit of the contracting process. That proposal would need the approval of the Legislature’s audit committee, or at least the Republican chairman of the committee, if it’s deemed to be a small audit.

The probe would “see whether they’re, number one, legal, and number two, if they’re at all appropriate or ethical,” Hensley said.

A spokesperson for Republican Senate President Susan Wagle said she couldn’t be reached to comment on the proposals. Republican House Speaker Ron Ryckman’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Revenue Secretary Sam Williams defended the process this week in a newspaper column, saying it made sense to use a no-bid contract to ink a deal with software provider CGI because the agency already had a relationship with the company.

“Starting from scratch and building a completely new system would have cost taxpayers significantly more,” Williams said.

He said the Eagle story found more than 1,000 instances of no-bid contracts being used, but open-bid contracts were used almost 6,000 times.

Williams said the agency had followed all applicable rules when using the no-bid process.
“Prior authorization is a legitimate state procurement process defined in statute for this very type of circumstance,” Williams said.

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to the original post.

See more at http://kcur.org/post/democrats-call-look-kansas-no-bid-contracts

Davis hits triple in first T-Bones start to lead team to 5-3 win

The Kansas City T-Bones battled bad weather and the Gary SouthShore RailCats Thursday night, winning 5-3 in their final game of the three-game series at T-Bones Stadium in Kansas City, Kansas.

It was a soggy game as rain poured throughout the night keeping the grounds crew busy between innings. The RailCats jumped out in front in the top of the first, with T-Bones’ pitcher Hunter Adkins giving up an early home run to Randy Santiesteban. The RailCats increased their lead in the third inning with help of a Garrett Copeland RBI single and an error by Adkins leading to an unearned run and a 3-0 advantage.

The T-Bones finally came alive in the fourth-inning with a leadoff double from Nick Torres off starter Alex Gunn for Gary. Cal Towey singled to put runners at the corners. Dexter Kjerstad hit a sacrifice fly to score one run and Angel Rosa reached with a “bloop” double to left center to cut the lead to 3-2.

In his first T-Bones start, Johnny Davis gave the T-Bones a base-clearing triple, scoring Tucker Pennell and Angel Rosa to make the score 4 –3 KC.

Keith Curcio added a solo home run in the home half of the seventh to give Kansas City a 5-3 lead and some breathing room in the later third of the ball game.

Four T-Bones relievers combined to shut out Gary after Adkins left after five innings. Julio Eusebio, Francisco Gracesqui, Sam Street and Cody Winiarski each tossed a clean inning with Winiarski notching his third save of the season.

The RailCats did get a two-out double in the bottom of the ninth from Wilfredo Giminez but Winiarski got a fly ball to left by the RailCat’s Reggie Wilson to end the game, sending both players and staff out of the rain.

The T-Bones (3-3) hit the road Friday as they take on the Chicago Dogs (1-5) for their home opener at 7:05 at Impact Field in Rosemont, Illinois. It will be the first-ever regular season home game for the Dogs. The action will be broadcast on the T-Bones Broadcast Network with the pregame at 6:40 p.m.

Season, group, mini-plans and nightly party suites are on sale and can be purchased by visiting the box office at T-Bones Stadium. Call the box office at 913-328-5618 or purchase and print at www.tbonesbaseball.com. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

– Story from T-Bones