Month: June 2019

Jane Sieve Wilson, an assistant Wyandotte County attorney, was appointed June 3 by Gov. Laura Kelly to fill the term of retiring Chief Judge Wayne Lampson in the Wyandotte County District Court.

The news of the appointment was confirmed by the governor’s office.

A resident of Kansas City, Kansas, Wilson has spent the last five years as an assistant attorney with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County-Kansas City, Kansas, where she handles legal issues affecting county management, the county jail, the Sheriff’s Department and labor relations.

Before working for the Unified Government, Wilson was a trial attorney with Liberty Mutual, and spent almost four years in private practice at the firms of McAnany, Van Cleave and Phillips, P.A., and Lathrop Gage LLP.

“Jane is not just an accomplished attorney, she’s also a lifelong resident of Wyandotte County, and she will be an excellent judge,” Kelly said in a news release. “Her experience with a wide variety of legal issues has prepared her for service on the bench, and her performance in last year’s judicial election shows that many voters in Wyandotte County already know and trust her. I know she will serve the citizens of Wyandotte County well.”

Wilson has also served as a municipal judge pro tempore. After growing up in Wyandotte County, she graduated from Kansas State University in 2002 and earned her juris doctor from Washburn University School of Law in 2005. In 2018, Wilson was the runner-up in the primary election for the Division 5 district court judge position.

“I’m honored that Governor Kelly has chosen me for this position,” Wilson said in the news release. “Serving as a district court judge requires constant vigilance to ensure that each hearing is fair and each case is resolved impartially based only on the law and the facts. That will be my goal every day. Chief Judge Lampson set a great example that I hope to honor and follow so that anyone who comes into my courtroom understands the process and is confident that the result is just.”

Gov. Kelly chose Wilson after a committee of the Wyandotte County Bar Association chose three finalists. The other finalists were Mike Nichols, a private practice attorney in Kansas City, Kansas, and Jennifer Tatum, a prosecutor in Jackson County, Missouri. Both Tatum and Nichols reside in Kansas City, Kansas.

Judges in Wyandotte County are elected and serve four-year terms. When a judge retires in the middle of a term, the governor appoints a new judge to finish out the term. The Division 8 position to which Wilson is being appointed will be on the ballot in 2020.

Chances are good for water releases from upstream reservoirs into the Missouri River to continue through a few months.

The Kansas River also is experiencing higher flows as reservoirs upstream are filling up and water is being released.

At an Army Corps of Engineers news conference on Tuesday, Kevin Low, a National Weather Service hydrologist, said that the NOAA Climate Prediction Center indicates the chances are good for above normal precipitation for the next three months, June through August, across the entire Missouri River basin. Several rivers and tributaries in the Missouri River basin currently are in flood stage, he said.

While during the next seven days there are chances for pop-up thunderstorms in the region every day, Low said he didn’t look for significant rainfall to affect the mainstem rivers during this period.

According to John Remus, chief of the Missouri River basin water management, the 75,000 cubic feet per second water releases from the Gavins Point reservoir in South Dakota into the Missouri River would continue for some time, perhaps into the fall. The amount of the releases is monitored and evaluated daily. Remus said the cause of the flooding this year was heavy rainfall throughout the Missouri River basin.

Water from some Kansas reservoirs now is being released into the Kansas River, which was in minor flood stage in Wyandotte County on Tuesday. Both the Missouri and Kansas rivers were declining slightly in Wyandotte County on Tuesday. The releases have been held down to a level that results in less than the highest levels of the rivers seen in March and April.

The Missouri River crest has moved downstream from Kansas City, although the Missouri River is still in moderate flood stage in Wyandotte County. The Wolcott area near I-435 and the Missouri River is experiencing flooding.

At Levasy, Missouri, a levee in eastern Jackson County overtopped and breached last weekend, according to officials.

Throughout the Kansas City district, more than a million sandbags have been issued, according to Corps officials. Two automatic sandbag machines are currently deployed in Hardin, Missouri, according to officials. More than 43 levees have overtopped or overtopped and breached since May 22, officials said.

Truman Dam releases increased from 30,000 cfs to 40,000 cfs on Monday. Water has been accumulating at Truman Lake, into the surcharge stage, and after the crest passes Hermann, Missouri, the water releases could increase from 40,000 cfs to 60,000 to 70,000 cfs, according to Corps officials. That could be maintained for a few weeks, according to officials.

The Missouri River has been shut down to boat traffic during the present flooding, officials said.