Month: September 2019

Tonight’s UG committee agenda includes inmate housing agreement, firefighter health and safety issues, bus route changes, other topics

Tonight’s Unified Government committee meetings, which start at 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 23, at the fifth-floor meeting room in City Hall, 701 N. 7th St., will include an inmate housing agreement, firefighter health and safety issues, bus route changes and other topics.

The Public Works and Safety Committee will meet at 5 p.m. and agenda items include a Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department request to apply for $370,420 to fund the Victim Services Unit through a federal grant. This program has a $92,600 required match that is proposed to come from existing Police Department funds.

An agreement with Lyon County to house inmates to relieve pressure on the jail population also is proposed.

A report is scheduled on the UG’s building energy usage.

The public works street sweeping pilot program also is on the agenda.

Also scheduled at the 5 p.m. meeting is an appearance by Robert Wing on health and safety issues in the Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department.

The UG Administration and Human Services Committee meeting will follow in the fifth-floor meeting room.

On the agenda is a request to eliminate Route 115 Kansas Avenue fixed transit bus route because of underperformance, and to put resources into the new microtransit concept to serve the same area.

Also on the agenda is a proposal to amend the substance abuse and drug and alcohol testing policy to comply with federal law for employees in safety sensitive positions within the transit department.

Also planned is an update on the Municipal Court myWyco program.

The agenda also includes an appearance by Tscher Manck, a candidate for Wyandotte County register of deeds, on children’s safety and gun violence among teens in Wyandotte County.

Pavel Suheena, a resident, is scheduled to make an appearance speaking about his values, such as no fines on traffic violations, voluntary building code compliance, voluntary business licensing, legal recreational drug use and voluntary gun licensing, among other topics.

by Murrel Bland

It was sort of a homecoming for Bridgette Jobe, except she has not really left her home in the Piper community.

Jobe, after spending 25 years at the Kansas City, Kansas, Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, is now the director of tourism for the state of Kansas. She was the featured speaker at a luncheon meeting of the Congressional Forum, Friday, Sept. 20, at Children’s Mercy Park. The Kansas City, Kansas, Area Chamber of Commerce sponsors the forum.

Once she took over the state job on July 15 earlier this year, she found she was still dealing with many of the same persons that she worked with when she was with the Kansas City, Kansas, Bureau. And the basic aim continues in her new job — to promote tourism.

Jobe said Gov. Sam Brownback moved tourism from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Wildlife and Parks in 2011. This agency has about 470 full-time employees.

One of Jobe’s concerns is the low level of funding for Kansas tourism. Of the 50 states, Kansas ranks 48th with a budget of about $3.9 million. No general fund tax money goes to the tourism agency. Funding sources include the Kansas Lottery and subscriptions to the Kansas! magazine.

Jobe said she recently attended a conference of state tourism directors in Austin. She said part of the conference was a “boot camp” session for new state tourism directors where she learned the “do’s and don’ts” of the business.

Kansas tourism will have a new advertising agency, Jobe said; it is Bajillion of Topeka.

Jobe announced that her successor here will be Alan Carr. Carr, who was introduced at the forum, worked for more than 10 years as a vice president with Visit KC, which is based in Kansas City, Missouri. He is a graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas at Lawrence.

Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is executive director of Business West.

Aggravated domestic battery reported

A suspect choked a victim and struck her several times on the face and body during a disturbance at 2:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 23, according to a social media post by the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department. The suspect fled before officers arrived.

Shooting into home and vehicle reported

An unknown suspect fired several shots into a vehicle and also hit an unoccupied residence at 2:21 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, in the 3000 block of North 35th, according to a social media post by the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department. There were no injuries, police stated.