Over the past few weeks, as our city, county, and state worked to contain the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities has taken many proactive steps to protect our customers and employees.
BPU will continue working to ensure the delivery of reliable energy and clean drinking water to our community, as it has for more than 100 years. Our employees understand what is required of us in being deemed an essential service provider. Electricity and water are critical public infrastructure services that support life and are vital to sustaining any community.
We understand that it might take some time for our community to fully recover from this pandemic event. Regardless, we will be here to assist our customers and the community in any way we can. Please keep your BPU employees in mind during this period, knowing that they are working across our city to keep our utilities operational.
I am confident that we can work our way through these unchartered waters, and know that my thoughts and prayers are with all of those impacted directly or indirectly by this crisis. Like other challenges in the past, our utility and community will get through working together and helping one another.
BPU would like to thank other public and private institutions for their efforts in supporting Wyandotte County and the Greater Kansas City area.
As we continue to try to reverse the effects of this pandemic, KCBPU and its dedicated staff will continue to be here working with other public service providers and first responders.
Please look for updated news releases and other updates through a variety of media outlets as we attempt to keep you informed. Be safe and follow the recommendations of our medical professionals.
Thank you,
William A. Johnson, general manager Board of Public Utilities, Kansas City, Kansas
The U.S. Supreme Court today held that a Kansas officer acted reasonably in making a Douglas County traffic stop, reversing the Kansas Supreme Court, Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.
The high court ruled 8-1 that a sheriff’s deputy making an investigative traffic stop after running a vehicle’s license plate and learning that the registered owner’s driver’s license had been revoked was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The Kansas Supreme Court had unanimously held the stop violated the Fourth Amendment.
“The inference that the driver of a car is its registered owner does not require any specialized training; rather, it is a reasonable inference made by ordinary people on a daily basis,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority.
Schmidt said today’s decision further clarifies the scope of the Fourth Amendment for law enforcement officers in Kansas and around the country.
“Today’s ruling makes clear that the Fourth Amendment does not require the patrol officers who keep our streets and highways safe to suspend their common sense when they put on their uniforms,” Schmidt said. “As this deputy knew, and as the U.S. Supreme Court today confirmed, it is common sense to suspect the registered owner of a car is the person driving it, and that is sufficient to make a traffic stop to determine whether that reasonable suspicion is in fact correct.”
While on routine patrol, the deputy involved in this case ran a registration check on a pickup truck with a Kansas license plate. The Kansas Department of Revenue’s electronic database indicated the truck was registered to an individual whose driver’s license had been revoked. Without observing any other traffic infractions or identifying the driver, the deputy pulled over the vehicle, discovered the owner was in fact the driver, and cited the defendant as a habitual violator for driving while his license was revoked.
The U.S. Supreme Court noted that today’s ruling is narrow and that any traffic stop in this situation must quickly end if the officer’s reasonable suspicion about who is driving the vehicle is not confirmed. The case now returns to the Kansas Supreme Court, which will determine whether additional proceedings are necessary.
Today’s decision was the last of three the attorney general’s office successfully argued at the U.S. Supreme Court during a four-week period last fall. The other two cases were Kansas v. Ramiro Garcia, an identity theft case arising from Johnson County, and James Kraig Kahler v. Kansas, a death penalty case arising from Osage County. The U.S. Supreme Court has now ruled in favor of the attorney general’s position in each of the three cases.
A copy of today’s decision in Kansas v. Charles Glover is available at https://bit.ly/34fCxS9.
Kansas reported 845 positive COVID-19 cases on Monday. The virus has spread through more than 40 counties. (KDHE map) In this statewide chart, total cases are in yellow and new COVID-19 cases are in blue. (KDHE chart)At 3:40 p.m. Monday, the UG COVID-19 website reported 190 positive cases in Wyandotte County. (Graphic from UG COVID-19 website)
Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday said Kansas is trying to secure additional personal protective equipment for health care workers and first responders.
The governor made her remarks while positive COVID-19 cases went up another 98 cases today, for a total of 845 cases, with three more deaths from Sunday, bringing the total to 25 statewide deaths.
Gov. Kelly said there were three ways the state was trying to get more supplies of masks, gowns, gloves and ventilators – first, through the strategic national stockpile managed by Health and Human Services; second, through the Federal Management Emergency Agency; and third, through buying equipment.
Kansas has received 90 percent of its share of personal protective equipment from the national stockpile, she said, and the federal government has said it will not be releasing the remaining 10 percent. The last shipment came in on the night of April 2 and is being distributed to counties based on their census numbers, she said.
Kansas has made seven requests to FEMA for personal protective equipment, she said, and has received nothing so far. The state has requested over 260,000 testing supplies, 9.1 million surgical gowns, 22.3 million gloves 4.6 million N95 masks, 1.2 million face shields, 10.7 million surgical masks and 500 ventilators, she said.
The state also has been trying to buy supplies privately using state general fund money, which the state has been pursuing since the beginning, she said. The state budget included $15 million for purchasing personal protective equipment. Some items have already been purchased. She said that because of the pandemic, several of the state’s orders had been canceled. Other costs have been inflated, such as $1.85 N95 masks now costing more than $4.
The state is now awaiting a shipment of 3.9 million N95 masks, 1.8 million surgical masks, 2 million gloves, 4 million gowns, 2 million shoe covers and 2 million face shields, she said.
“These private purchases are designed to hold Kansas over until new supply chains can deliver or until FEMA sends us our requested supplies,” Gov. Kelly said.
She said the state has reached out to research labs for testing chemicals, autobody shops for N95 masks and tattoo shops for gloves. They also are trying to reach out to Kansas businesses to manufacture what they need, she added.
“I’m grateful for all the businesses that have stepped up at this time of need,” Gov. Kelly said. “Unfortunately, all of this may not be enough to meet the demand we could anticipate coming by the end of the month.”
One major Kansas hospital uses 220,000 gloves a day, even after taking measures to slow the use of protective equipment, such as stopping elective surgeries, she said. Local communities also are using their supply chains to procure personal protective equipment, she added.
“I continue to coordinate with our state and federal partners to fast-track PPE production, procurement and delivery,” Gov. Kelly said. “We are never going to solve this problem if states are continually forced to bid against each other and against the federal government. It is creating widespread confusion among all the state’s suppliers and it is delaying every state’s response effort, including Kansas. It’s also driving up the cost of PPE tremendously for every state.”
She said there are still a few more weeks before the Kansas infection rate is expected to peak.
The governor also said that the state will evaluate what its needs are and then ask for supplemental aid in the fourth phase of the federal relief effort.
She also said that higher education is an area that needs more assistance.
Kansas COVID-19 positive cases increased to 845 on Monday, an increase of 98 cases from Sunday’s total of 747, according to Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. He said the number of positive cases will continue to go up as testing increases.
The KDHE also reported 25 statewide deaths, three more deaths from Sunday’s figures.
There were 198 hospitalizations statewide, KDHE reported, compared to 183 on Sunday.
At 3:40 p.m. the Unified Government COVID-19 website updated its numbers to 190 positive COVID-19 cases in Wyandotte County, with 50 patients hospitalized and one more death than Sunday.
Dr. Norman said the University of Washington models have slightly decreased their national projections, reducing expected deaths from 93,500 to 81,700 nationwide. The number of ventilators required are being decreased from 31,700 to 19,000, he said.
The state is in the process of increasing its capacity, with the Army Corps of Engineers looking at alternative care sites, such as dorms, hospitals and nursing homes that have been decommissioned, he said.
Dr. Norman reported that six counties, including Wyandotte, Johnson, Leavenworth, Coffey, McPherson and Sedgwick, have had clusters of cases.
“Three of the 11 clusters are related to church gatherings,” Dr. Norman said.
With the Easter and Passover holidays coming up this week, Dr. Norman asked residents not to gather in numbers that would put them in danger.
According to the Unified Government Health Department’s Facebook page, the three church-related clusters were the Ministers Conference at Miracle Temple Church of God in Christ March 16-22; a gala on March 14 at Rising Star Baptist Church; and the Power Realm Church of God in Christ, all in Wyandotte County. This was before Wyandotte County’s stay-at-home order went into effect March 24.
On Friday, another cluster in Wyandotte County was reported. The Riverbend long-term care and rehabilitation center near 78th and Freeman in Kansas City, Kansas, had 17 residents who tested positive for COVID-19, now including some deaths.
At Lansing Correctional Facility, there are three inmates and five staff members who have tested positive, he said. State health staff are working with the prison, and because the way the facility is designed, he thinks Kansas will be in better shape than some other prisons nationwide.
Dr. Norman said the state lab has about 1,900 test kits in-house now, and is adding two new methods. One is a 45-minute test that started on Friday, he said.
Kansas also will receive 15 Abbott test platforms, he said, that take about 15 minutes.
It is something that can be distributed through the state, he said. They will be “closer to the bedside,” he said.
The state has been testing sick people and will continue to do so, and it also will bring in more tests for the general public, he said. That will be giving them an indication of how widespread the disease is, he said.
“We are improving on staying at home and decreasing our mobility,” he said.
Even though the state improved, it’s still a D grade statewide, he added. Johnson and Wyandotte County have C grades, he added.
“What we’re trying to do is prevent illness and death,” Dr. Norman said.
