HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Only two county commissioners were present for an overflow crowd Tuesday morning. A large television had to be set up in a vacant area of the courthouse to accommodate those who couldn’t squeeze into the actual commission chambers. However, a technical difficulty delayed the meeting.
Eventually, commissioners heard from several residents about the proposed moratorium to stop any construction of a wind farm in the southeastern and southern areas of the county. Commissioners decided to delay any decision for three weeks.
Commissioner Dan Deming wants to see if they could work with the company to address some of the residents’ concerns. They also wanted time to allow Commissioner Bob Bush to be brought up to speed on the issues discussed.
Commissioner Deming talked about the economic benefit to the county:
He also sees how the tax payments could help finance things in the county:
No decision was made either way Tuesday, but one could come in three weeks once Commissioner Bush is back.
The two commissioners present greenlit the county to prepare a resolution for a conditional use permit for NextEra Energy to build a 199-foot meteorological tower on the southwest corner of Irish Creek and Mayfield roads. This permit would be good until Nov. 6, 2021, at which time they would need to seek another permit or tear it down. They are expected to approve the resolution next week.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Commissioners will take on two matters regarding the proposed wind farm near Pretty Prairie during Tuesday’s agenda session. The first is a request by NextEra to construct a 199-foot-tall temporary tower that will be used to measure wind speed and conditions as a study for the proposed wind farm.
The other comes at the request of several patrons around the Haven area that would like to see the wind farm either stopped or delayed. The commission will consider a resolution for a temporary moratorium on commercial wind energy improvement within the unincorporated parts of the county until better regulations can be put in place.
Over the past several meetings, area residents have come before the commission asking for the delay saying that not enough study has been done regarding the economic or environmental impact on the area.
Tuesday’s meeting of the Reno County Commission begins at 9 a.m. in the Reno County Courthouse.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A new company is coming to Hutchinson. At the same time, a staple of the downtown area will come back to life. eNGines-LPG announced its plans Thursday to begin operations at the former Betts Bakery facility at 120 E. 3rd Ave. eNGines-LPG is a family-owned and operated industrial engine distributor and generator manufacturer. This facility will serve as the company’s flagship headquarters where it will assemble, distribute, sell and support product lines. It will serve as a showroom for innovation for current and future products.
President of eNGines-LPG, Matt Roeser, explains, “Protecting the environment is our passion and culture — providing environmentally-safe engine solutions. eNGines-LPG is a concept to operate an engine which can run off both natural gas (NG) and propane (LPG) fuels while maintaining the lowest emission output and below the U.S. EPA required standards. Our products range from 5 HP – 250 HP natural gas (NG), propane (LPG) and diesel (D) fuel engine solutions. All of which focus on our promise of providing environmentally-safe engine solutions.”
“Since March, Greater Hutch — the economic development division of the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce — worked in concert with the Kansas Department of Commerce, City of Hutchinson, Reno County, and JP Weigand & Sons to help attract eNGines-LPG to Hutchinson,” Debra Teufel, president/CEO of the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber, said. “We are excited to welcome eNGines-LPG to Hutchinson. Their entrepreneurial spirit and company culture will be a great addition to the Reno County business community.”
The company was seeking a location for its production facility that would give it the logistical advantage of a central location with excellent access to its current and future customer base, as well as a strong workforce.
“With our central location, and as a leading state for companies in the energy industry, we know eNGines-LPG has made a great choice in relocating to its new home in Hutchinson, Kansas,” Robert North, interim secretary for the Kansas Department of Commerce, said. “We are pleased to welcome this great company to Kansas and are looking forward to being a part of their future success.”
Future build out and upgrades include plans to update a majority of the building into warehousing and cross-dock storage. Furthermore, they envision converting a portion of the building to other start-up entrepreneurs who are looking for manufacturing space to grow and develop their business.
“Our family roots drew us to Kansas, but what ultimately attracted us to Hutchinson was the culture of the community. Your hospitality, sincere approach and desire to assist in our vision for growth was evident from our first visit,” Roeser said. “The building at 120 East 3rd is a true gem, and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to help be her caretaker. The sheer size of the building provides great potential. It is large enough to suit our immediate needs and long-term vision while also providing unique character in a vibrant, downtown setting.”
Economic development has been a top priority for the Chamber, carried out by Greater Hutch staff, as they focus on bringing new investment and jobs to Hutchinson and Reno County. “We appreciate the teamwork of our city, county and state partners to bring resources to bear that will lead to the creation of over 50 new jobs,” Teufel said. “We are excited to secure another economic development win for Reno County with a company that will create quality new jobs.”
eNGines-LPG will begin to transition into the space immediately with an operation date targeted for second quarter 2019. Hiring is expected to begin immediately for key positions, with support staffing ramping up in the beginning of 2019. Prospective employees should submit online résumés to information@engines-lpg.com.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The first set of historic consoles used by NASA flight controllers to manage the first missions to land astronauts on the moon left the Cosmosphere SpaceWorks facility in Hutchinson on Wednesday. The panels were loaded up in a NASA Super Guppy aircraft and flown out of Wichita.
According to the Cosmosphere, the panels arrived in Houston and a second set of panels are being loaded onto trucks and should arrive at SpaceWorks sometime next week.
When completed, the $5 million restoration will return Mission Operations Control Room-2 inside the Mission Control Center to how it looked at the time of Apollo 11, the first mission to land humans on the moon.
Space Center Houston, the visitor center for Johnson Space Center, together with NASA, Texas Historical Commission and the National Park Service are overseeing the project, with the goal of having it ready in time for the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing next year. The Park Service gave its approval for the restoration in 2017 given the room’s status as a National Historic Landmark since 1985.
The consoles were first used for NASA’s Gemini 4 mission in 1965 and retired after STS-53, the 52nd space shuttle mission in December 1992.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The first in a series of face-to-face meetings with the Kansas Association of School Boards and USD 308 regarding the next superintendent is set for both Thursday morning and evening. The public is encouraged to attend.
The district is looking to hire its next superintendent and is asking for public input on what they are looking for in the district’s next leader. The first meeting will run from 10 a.m. until 11:15 a.m. The evening meeting is from 6:30 until 8. Both meetings will be held at the HCTEA building at 800 15th Circle.
Additionally, the district continues to run a survey online. Members of the public can voice their opinions about the superintendent position online until Nov. 19 at www.research.net/r/hutchsupt.
The district hopes to name its new superintendent by the middle of January.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voters will decide Tuesday whether to promote to governor Kris Kobach, a strong ally of President Donald Trump, who wants to crack down on immigrants living in the state illegally and resume conservative tax-cutting policies from earlier in the decade that critics labeled a failure.
October gubernatorial candidate debate -photo courtesy Kobach for governor campaign
Republican Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, says if elected he would slash spending and seek tax cuts like those championed by unpopular former Gov. Sam Brownback.
His Democratic opponent, state Sen. Laura Kelly, has made her opposition to the ill-fated 2012-13 experiment in slashing state income taxes the centerpiece of her campaign in a tight race. She was part of a bipartisan effort in 2017 that reversed most of the tax cuts to drag state finances out of a gaping hole.
“By then, Kansans understood the damage that was done,” Kelly said between last-minute campaign stops. “And they wanted nothing more to do with that.”
A wildcard in the race is Independent candidate Greg Orman, a Kansas City-area businessman, who Democrats fear could take enough votes from Kelly to hand the election to Kobach.
Kansas is considered a deep red state with party registration 44 percent Republican and 25 percent Democratic. But its dominant Republican party sometimes splits between moderates and conservatives, leaving an opening for a Democrat to peel off disaffected GOP voters. In recent decades the state has alternated between Republican and Democratic governors.
That GOP rift emerged this year with the nomination of Kobach, who has concentrated on motivating his conservative base rather than wooing moderate voters.
“The way we win is, we rack up our numbers,” Kobach told a get-out-the vote rally in Topeka. “If Republicans vote in big numbers, we win a statewide election. It’s just that simple.”
Kobach has built a national profile as an advocate of tough immigration policies and strict voter identification laws. He has advised Trump and served as vice chairman of Trump’s since-disbanded commission on voter fraud. He narrowly defeated Gov. Jeff Colyer in the GOP primary in August after Trump ignored some of his advisers and tweeted an endorsement of Kobach.
Trump carried the state by 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential race and had a rally to help Kobach’s campaign in October. Donald Trump Jr. had two fundraising events for him.
Kobach delights in provoking critics with stunts such as using of a red-white-and-blue jeep with a replica machine gun mounted on top in community parades to emphasize his support for the 2nd amendment to the Constitution.
Despite the painful experience of the Brownback tax cuts, he has promised to shrink the size of government so that the state could resume cutting taxes. He has bristled at Kelly’s suggestion that he would revive the Brownback tax experiment and top it, arguing that he would be more aggressive about reducing government spending.
Kelly wants to increase spending, not reduce it, saying more money is needed for higher education, early childhood education and mental health services.
She also embraced a plan this year from the Legislature to phase in a $548 million increase in spending on public schools in response to Kansas Supreme Court decisions in an education funding lawsuit filed in 2010. Kobach criticized the court and suggested that lawmakers had paid a “king’s ransom” to comply with the court order.
Like Trump, Kobach has stressed immigration issues in the run-up to the election. He wants policies designed to push immigrants living in Kansas illegally out of the state. Kelly said Kobach’s immigration policies would hurt the state’s economy, particularly in western Kansas which depends on immigrant workers for the meatpacking industry.
Orman had hoped to build on an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2014 as an independent candidate that brought him national attention. But his campaign for governor never gained enough traction to make him more than a spoiler.
Moderate Republican Rep. Steve Becker of Buhler lost his primary in August, but he hasn’t conceded his Kansas House seat to his conservative challenger just yet. He’s mounting a write-in campaign.
State Rep. Steve Becker, a Republican from Buhler, tries to convince people on the streets of Hutchinson, Kansas to write in his name in the general election. BRIAN GRIMMETT / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Two years ago, when Becker was elected to his third term, a slew of moderate Republicans won seats in the Kansas House. Democrats made equally substantial gains. The Legislature shifted significantly toward the center.
The Senate isn’t up this year, but conservative candidates and political groups are trying to reclaim some of the more than two dozen House seats they lost in 2016.
A rare write-in campaign
In this summer’s GOP primary, conservative Paul Waggoner beat Becker by a measly nine votes in the 104th District.
The 22 votes written in for Becker on Democratic ballots, according to The Hutchinson News, didn’t count in the partisan primary. But with no Democrat running, Democratic voters could push Becker over the top in the general election.
“He’s just a really nice person and he believes in people,” said Riley Withrow, himself a Democrat. “And I believe that he will look out for his constituents more than Paul Waggoner will.”
Withrow grabbed a yard sign from Becker’s booth at the October Third Thursday event in Hutchinson.
Becker was there with a group of supporters working to convince passersby to fill in his name on the Nov. 6 ballot. They handed out leaflets with instructions on how to do it and the tagline, “Don’t write him off, write him in!”
“It seems to me that everybody in my district ought to have a vote on who their representative is, not just Republicans,” Becker said.
He says Paul Waggoner is just too conservative.
Waggoner, on the other hand, calls Becker a “RINO”: Republican In Name Only.
“You know, maybe identity theft is not only about finances, it’s also about politics,” Waggoner said.
He says Becker’s views are too far left and out of step with most of this central Kansas district.
During the primary campaign, he sent out mailers against Becker, including one with a picture of a bucking donkey labeled with the incumbent’s name in large letters.
“We had pin the tail on the Democrat,” Waggoner explained.
Political action committees are postcarding
The Kansas Chamber and Americans For Prosperity Kansas — political groups that advocate for lower taxes and smaller government — have also spent tens of thousands of dollars on mailers, door knocking, and online ads, including more than $2,000 for Waggoner, in an effort to oust moderates.
A Kansas Chamber PAC expenditure report from August 2018.
The Chamber’s political action committee endorsed candidates in GOP primaries for seven seats that moderates took two years ago. Their candidates won six of those primaries.
“I just think this is more, in a lot of these districts, just reverting back to the political mean,” Waggoner said.
Republican Rep. Joy Koesten of Leawood was one of those moderates who unseated a conservative in 2016 and then lost this August. But she doesn’t think her defeat is an indication of the direction her Johnson County district is leaning.
“I think what happened this year is that the ultra-conservatives had two good years to try to figure out who was the most vulnerable in the Republican caucus,” she said.
Now the conservative candidate in the 28th District, Kellie Warren, has serious competition from Democrat Brian Clausen for Koesten’s seat.
63 general election races for House seats, many could be close
There are at least a dozen competitive matchups between conservatives and Democrats in legislative districts across the state.
It also includes three districts where Democrats are now vying for seats held by first-term moderates who the Chamber’s candidates knocked off in August. Thosecandidates have been endorsed by the Mainstream Coalition, which advocates for greater health care access, public school funding, and gun control.
In a couple of races, trouble for Republican nominees have spelled opportunity for Democrats. The GOP has withdrawn its support for Michael Capps in the 85th District in Wichita amid allegations he abused his foster children, giving Democrat Monica Marks a chance. In Olathe’s 26th District, Democrat Deann Mitchell is running against Republican Adam Thomas. Thomas was arrested and charged for election fraud following allegations that he falsified information about his residency on his candidate filing.
“This election will be a measure of how engaged people truly are and whether or not they’re paying attention to the policies that were created in 2016 and 2017 and whether or not they want to stay the course or go back to the Brownback era,” Koesten said.
Outcomes will matter
The margins are razor thin. On the last day of the legislative session this spring, the House deadlocked 59 to 59 on a bill that would have marked a return to cutting taxes.
Of course, who controls the Legislature won’t be the only factor determining which direction Kansas goes. Who is governor will matter too. And voters across the state have a lot on their minds in deciding.
“I really don’t see myself voting for anybody who doesn’t support gun rights and who is for abortion,” said Kansas State University student Ryan Bare.
“Education and health care are usually pretty important for us,” Trista Crawford said as she stood along the sidelines of the Overland Park Fall Fest parade.
CREDIT BRIAN GRIMMETT / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
If Democrat Laura Kelly comes out on top in the governor’s race, the 2019 legislative session could see another attempt at Medicaid expansion. If it’s conservative Republican Kris Kobach, lawmakers will likely fight over spending and tax cuts.
That one legislative race could matter in determining the eventual outcomes on those issues is a big reason why Becker is mounting an improbable write-in campaign to keep his House seat.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — For the second time in the past eight years, the Hutchinson USD 308 School District is looking for a new superintendent.
And, for the second time, District Human Resources Director Rick Kraus is interested in the job.
Kraus says his interest in the job stems from what he’s learned from past leadership:
Kraus talked about some things he can bring to the table as the leader of the Hutchinson school district:
Kraus applied for the job in 2010 when then-superintendent David Flowers left. The district instead hired Jan Strecker in the interim for one year and then hired Shelly Kiblinger, who left USD 308 in April of 2017. Since then, Dr. Gary Price has been the interim superintendent.
The Kansas Association of School Boards is conducting the search for a new superintendent. The plan is to have new leadership in place by the middle of January.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — In a room filled with law enforcement, dispatchers and media, Hutchinson Police Chief Jeffrey Hooper and City Manager John Deardoff held a press conference to discuss the recent events involving the Hutchinson Police Department.
While few other details were given about the recent personnel matters within the department, they did take time to discuss changes that are ahead and how the department is coping with the recent events.
Deardoff gave this opening statement:
During the press conference, Hooper informed those in attendance that the incident involving an off-duty officer has led to a number of personnel changes:
Hooper says one of the three officers terminated was Capt. Troy Hoover. He was terminated Monday. The rest of the personnel matters have come over the past three days. Hooper says he is making changes to how the department is structured:
Hooper says he is also going to go through the entire policy manual in an effort to make the department more efficient:
The events of the past three days have been a challenge for the department and for the new chief who has been on the job less than two weeks. Hooper says the department will be better in the long run:
Currently, the department is working hard to bring new officers on board. The department is down 10 officers. Hooper says the Reno County Sheriff’s Department is stepping in to help fill any gaps in patrols until the open positions are filled.
City Manager John Deardoff has now confirmed that several officers have been placed on administrative leave. The number and names of the officers involved was not released, but an internal investigation continues. The actions came from new Chief Jeffrey Hooper, who has been on the job less than two weeks.
In talking with Hoover Monday, he says he believes the termination stems from a February incident involving a Hutchinson patrol officer. Calls were placed to 911 saying the female officer was driving erratically and had her child in the car. However, Hoover couldn’t confirm that was the reason. That officer has since resigned from the force.
The leave of the officers may or may not be connected to that investigation, but Deardoff says more information will be provided during a Wednesday press conference. Deardoff also wanted to stress that the officers were not suspended, but placed on leave.
