WE Blog » Wichita government

Diner fight can seed success

Rhonda Holman — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:00:38 +0000

The strong emotions over the now-scrapped proposal for a central-northeast Lord’s Diner satellite extended to the Wichita City Council bench Tuesday, notably with the sharply worded expressions of regret by council members Sue Schlapp and Paul Gray. Now, those who opposed the idea of a soup kitchen at 21st and Grove need to deliver on council member Lavonta Williams’ assurances that the hungry will be fed and the city-owned building will not remain blighted. Calling it probably the “most complicated” issue of his time on the council bench, Mayor Carl Brewer challenged the neighborhood to be as passionate in solving the hunger problem as it was in fighting the proposal. “At the end of the day, we want every citizen that’s in need or that’s hungry to be taken care of,” Brewer said.

Jump-start WaterWalk

Phillip Brownlee — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:29 +0000

Here’s hoping that entrepreneur Jack DeBoer can jump-start WaterWalk. DeBoer’s Consolidated Holdings purchased controlling interest in the agonizingly slow downtown development along the Arkansas River. But the city is correct to make clear that, after spending $41 million on WaterWalk infrastructure and a parking garage, there are no more blank checks for the project. That said, the city should do what it can to help the project succeed, as it has its own investment to protect.

Maximize input on Lord’s Diner site

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:00:07 +0000

At today’s meeting the Wichita City Council may schedule a Nov. 3 public hearing that would rise above the routine. If Mayor Carl Brewer and the council decide to proceed with the controversial proposal to lease the former Boys & Girls Club at 21st and Grove for use as a satellite of the Lord’s Diner (Broadway site in photo), they should do so with full information from both advocates and opponents in the neighborhood. The need seems undeniable, especially given Wichita’s jobless numbers. But so does the concern about whether the charity will end up being as much of a detriment as an asset to the high-profile corridor, which has been the subject of so many economic development dollars and dreams. To maximize the opportunity for input, might the city’s public hearing be held after work hours?

Get going on downtown

Rhonda Holman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:00:43 +0000

Mayor Carl Brewer (in photo) and other members of the Wichita City Council made a strong impression Tuesday with their passionate arguments and unanimous vote for proceeding with a $500,000 downtown revitalization plan. “I think this plan is more or less our last option. We need to do it. We’ve made too many mistakes,” said council member Paul Gray, calling it a “must-do situation.” Responding to speakers calling for the free market to drive core development, council member Janet Miller said: “We have given free market a chance in downtown. . . . Without incentives, the free market just doesn’t work.” Brewer concluded: “We have one opportunity to do it right, and now is that opportunity.” The strong endorsement also raises expectations about what Boston-based Goody Clancy can deliver over the next year. Now, as Brewer and others pointed out, citizens will need to engage in the planning process, to ensure that Goody Clancy’s recommendations are in fact the community’s.

So they said

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:00:26 +0000

“It looks like some kind of pregnancy for south Wichita, I’m telling you.” — Vice Mayor Jim Skelton (in photo), arguing that the state should not allow the Cornejo & Sons construction and demolition landfill to grow

“What we don’t need to happen in Kansas is for an extremist brand of the out-of-touch politics of the Bush years moving into the governor’s office.” — Lt. Gov. Troy Findley, surprising people at the recent Demofest in Wichita with an obvious jab at Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.

“We’ll have good candidates. There’s plenty of time.” — State Treasurer Dennis McKinney, on Kansas Democrats’ prospects for 2010

“If you’re running for Congress or statewide office, you needed to start working last January.” — Rep. Scott Schwab, R-Olathe, questioning how Democrats can be competitive

“Thank goodness my GOP doesn’t look like old white guys who stand for bailouts, the French tanker and amnesty-McLame indeed!” — Vicki Tiahrt, wife of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, in a Twitter comment critical of Sen. John McCain and other endorsers of Rep. Jerry Moran for U.S. Senate

So they said

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:00:21 +0000

“Don’t do that right now.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson’s advice to those school districts considering litigation over state funding

“It’s not too late.” — Mayor Carl Brewer, in the Boston Globe, urging the makers of the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz “Untitled Wichita Project” to reconsider their decision to film Wichita scenes in Massachusetts

“As the overweight person said as he crawled through a barbed-wire fence, one more point and I’m through.” — Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., trying to argue for a 72-hour delay between the Senate Finance Committee’s markup and vote on its health reform bill

“It’s like writing a big fat check on an overdrawn bank account.” — Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., speaking in Olathe about the Obama administration’s spending plans

Nomar finally becoming a reality

Phillip Brownlee — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:27:48 +0000

After multiple studies and years of unfulfilled promises, the redevelopment of 21st Street in north Wichita is finally becoming a reality. On Tuesday the Wichita City Council unanimously approved the construction of the Nomar International Marketplace at 21st and Market. The city also will widen 21st Street and add some decorative landscaping. City Council member Janet Miller correctly credited the persistence of community leaders in north Wichita and former council member Sharon Fearey for not giving up on the project.

Clean up Arkansas River

Phillip Brownlee — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:01:32 +0000

Good for the city of Wichita for planning a new campaign to clean up the Arkansas River. Though its water quality has improved in recent years, the river is still too polluted, particularly after heavy rains. The new campaign will focus on ways to reduce pollution runoff into the river, such as by using less lawn fertilizer and properly disposing of motor oil and other chemicals. The Ark River is a valuable asset and should be treated as such.

Review restrictions on DNA testing

Phillip Brownlee — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:00:15 +0000

The Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center, the Wichita Police Department and the Sedgwick County Commission need to work together to make sure that police and the forensic center have the resources they need. At issue is a memo from the center last month outlining restrictions on DNA testing. Because of limited resources, the center wants to focus on violent crimes and not do testing on weapons or ammunition in cases alleging that felons possess guns. But police Deputy Chief Tom Stolz told The Eagle that DNA testing on weapons can help put gang members behind bars and prevent violence. Some prioritization on testing makes sense, given tight budgets, but the center and the commission need to make sure they aren’t taking away an important tool for keeping Wichita safe.

Fee hikes will help courses

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:00:05 +0000

To their credit, the six Wichita City Council members who voted Tuesday to raise golf course fees clearly hated to do it. The sizable hikes in season tickets (for all but students) will be especially hard for many golfers to shrug off starting Oct. 1. But an affordable new “super senior” pass will help the most dedicated players 70 and up, and the extra $1 for regular green fees and cart rentals will add up for the city — and allow better maintenance of the five courses. It was telling that a new roof recently was deferred at the hail-damaged MacDonald clubhouse until the substructure could be rebuilt. Council members made a commitment to try to stave off more increases proposed for 2012, perhaps through selling driving range passes. Vice Mayor Jim Skelton said: “I cannot stand more deferred maintenance. Deferred maintenance, to me, is lack of maintenance, and pretty soon everything starts falling apart and you get a pile of junk, and I don’t want that to happen to our city golf courses.”

Involve city in planning for new jail facility

Phillip Brownlee — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:29:20 +0000

Even if Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Kelly Parks and Commissioner Gwen Welshimer (in photo) said something to Wichita officials about the possibility of building a new work-release center or other jail facility in downtown Wichita — a big “if,” given that Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer and Vice Mayor Jim Skelton say it never happened — Parks and Welshimer clearly didn’t do a good job communicating. But what matters moving forward is that the county makes sure it involves city officials and downtown leaders in the planning, so that the location of the facility doesn’t undermine public and private efforts to redevelop downtown.

Is City 7 best use of taxpayer dollars?

Phillip Brownlee — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:00:45 +0000

It’s good that the city of Wichita is trying to make the programming on its City 7 cable channel more professional. The channel is a valuable resource for sharing information with the public. Still, taxpayers may question the priorities of the city in spending more than $260,000 on cameras and a studio, in addition to the cost of hiring former journalists to produce the “news,” at a time when the city is cutting other services and staff.

Try to find way to allow public to use garage

Phillip Brownlee — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:01:37 +0000

Though the Wichita City Council voted Tuesday to begin work on closing off the City Hall parking garage to the public, it’s good that the council asked staff to try to find a way to let the public continue to park there. After all, the public paid for the garage and should, if at all possible, be allowed to use it. Additional security measures are needed in this day and age, but they should be reasonable and not create unnecessary barriers between the people and their government.

Hooray for plans to add bike lanes

Phillip Brownlee — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:02:15 +0000

Wichita City Council member Janet Miller said she wanted to run around shouting “Hooray!” after hearing about plans to add more bicycle lanes to city streets. Her reaction is understandable. Though Wichita and Sedgwick County have added nice bike paths in certain areas, they’ve done a poor job adding bike lanes to streets. So it’s encouraging that the city is now planning to add lanes to some city streets and may add other lanes when streets are repaired. Council member Paul Gray noted that not a lot of Wichitans ride bikes for transportation, but one reason is because Wichita streets are so unfriendly to bikers.

Tear down that berm?

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:50:13 +0000

In the end last month, the Wichita City Council voted 7-0 to place the Vietnamese-American community’s memorial near but not in Veterans Memorial Park, separated by an earthen berm and the lack of a sidewalk between them. The issue caught the attention of the New York Times, which published an article about the memorial dispute. Among the Times’ quotes:
“How could people now separate us with a wall? Why the need?” asked Nga Vu, whose brother died in Vietnam War.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with being Vietnamese,” said John Wilson, a U.S. Army veteran. “This is about serving in the American military. That’s it.”
“This has divided us, our American community, and we don’t want to make this a thing that will divide us,” said the Rev. Kenny Khanh Nguyen. “But I hope that it will look silly to our children and grandchildren. I hope that the next generation will take down that berm. And I hope that the relationship can heal later on.”

County’s checkbook is now open

Phillip Brownlee — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:04:45 +0000

Good for Sedgwick County and commissioner Karl Peterjohn (in photo) for creating a new Web feature that allows the public to examine how the county gets and spends money. Data can be searched by function, category, fund or vendor. As Peterjohn noted, it can sometimes be difficult to get financial information from governments. The new “county checkbook” database helps create more openness and transparency.

Franchise trash collections, don’t add fee

Phillip Brownlee — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:05:31 +0000

Wichita City Council members are considering making Wichita’s already sky-high trash rates even higher. Say it isn’t so. Rather than franchising trash collection — which could cut trash rates in half while adding curbside recycling and reducing wear and tear on streets and air pollution — the council reportedly is leaning toward charging companies a fee to haul trash. The haulers would likely just pass this fee on to households and businesses, which means Wichitans would throw even more money away along with their trash. With the recession, governments need to provide services more efficiently. Wichita needs to follow the lead of Park City, Bel Aire and other area towns and franchise trash collection — not make our dysfunctional system even costlier.

Craziness on Kellogg

Rhonda Holman — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:00:05 +0000

Last spring the city of Wichita didn’t get far in Topeka with a legislative proposal to allow higher fines for speeders along Kellogg and other statistically deadly roadways in the state, despite Kellogg’s 2008 death toll of seven. But last week city officials got some more ammunition, as part of a radar blitz that resulted in 22 citations on 60 mph Kellogg — one driver going 107 mph and another (with a revoked license) going 85 mph. Such recklessness defies belief and justifies officers’ special attention to Kellogg. But the question remains: Would a driver willing to go 107 mph and risk a $291 minimum fine be fazed by the threat of a $592 fine?

An All-America City again

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:00:45 +0000

Congratulations to Wichita for landing its fourth All-America City award on Friday from the National Civic League. Going into last week’s finals of the annual contest, which had 143 entries, it was hard to imagine that the 31 other finalist cities had success stories as impressive as the three in Wichita’s 2009 bid: the Opportunity Drive campus on East 21st Street, Visioneering Wichita and Mennonite Housing Rehabilitation Services. The honor entitles the city to more than bragging rights. Especially amid the sharp decline in employment at the city’s aviation manufacturers, the All-America City title signals to business site-selection teams and others that Wichita isn’t standing still but actively working to improve itself and the lives of its citizens and youths.

NAACP backs veterans memorial

Phillip Brownlee — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:05:51 +0000

“As a veteran and the child of a military family with roots going back to the Korean War, I appreciate the service and the risks undertaken by the members of the South Vietnamese Army as they fought against the spread of communism,” Kevin Myles, president of the Wichita branch of the NAACP, wrote in an open letter to the Wichita City Council supporting the proposal to add a Vietnamese community memorial to Veterans Memorial Park. “These men and women fought, bled and many died, alongside men like my father, in defense of the very ideals that we as Americans still hold dear. In honoring them, we honor ourselves.”
Myles noted that “there are nearly 8,000 Americans of Vietnamese origin, many of whom are veterans of the conflict, who are an integral part of our city,” and he said that it “would send a tragic message were we to segregate our tributes by denying them space within the Veterans Memorial Park.”
The City Council decided to delay a decision until next month. Our editorial today noted how difficult this issue is, with heartfelt feelings on both sides, and expressed some hope that the council and the groups involved can find a way to honor all veterans.

Developers counted on historic preservation credits

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:02:16 +0000

From the cries of concern in Wichita and around the state, it’s clear that lawmakers didn’t understand the potential impact of a recent decision to save money by capping tax breaks for historic renewal projects. And now it’s hard to trust that they know what they’re doing by waiting until January to address the problem. “It’s important to take our time and get it right,” said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, as the Senate declined to attempt a fix at last week’s “sine die” session. Times are tough, of course, but it will be tragic if the change proves to be the undoing, for example, of the Broadview’s renovation as a Drury Plaza Hotel or of other reinventions of historic properties in downtown Wichita.

Can’t keep violating open-meetings act

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:00:19 +0000

All parties, including the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, agree that the Wichita City Council violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act last month by using secret ballots to elect Jim Skelton as vice mayor. The DA’s Office opted not to fine anybody, viewing the city’s admission of the error and subsequent release of the council members’ votes as sufficient to close the matter. City Attorney Gary Rebenstorf’s apology and promise to ensure “that like mistakes are avoided in the future” were welcome. But city officials cannot violate the law every few years, as they have three times since 2003, and escape penalties forever.

Fearey’s years mattered

Rhonda Holman — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:00:55 +0000

The praise was appropriately abundant Tuesday for Wichita City Council member Sharon Fearey, who reached the end of her two-term limit. Few council members have worked harder or with more heart, and her service mattered to Wichita’s parks, arts, downtown and historic preservation. Among the comments by Fearey’s colleagues: “I’ll miss her one-minute tantrums,” said Lavonta Williams, who also expressed gratitude that Fearey shared wisdom and strategies with her. “I think everyone recognizes that Sharon fits that fiery red hair very well,” said Jeff Longwell. “I think over a period of time we’ve actually learned to get along. And that’s a product of evolution,” said Jim Skelton. Janet Miller won last week’s election and succeeds Fearey.

Take bird-strike threat seriously

Phillip Brownlee — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:00:03 +0000

It’s good that city of Wichita and Sedgwick County leaders met Friday to study the threat of bird strikes at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, and that they are trying to come up with a comprehensive plan for land use around the airport. Last year, the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and the Sedgwick County Commission — with notable objections by commissioners Kelly Parks and Gwen Welshimer — dismissed this threat in approving a 31-acre pond just three miles south of the airport. Airport officials warned that the pond not only could increase the hazard for aircraft crews, passengers and people on the ground but also risk revocation or suspension of the airport’s operating certificate and the loss of future federal grant-in-aid funding.

No more C&D landfills gone wild

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:01:49 +0000

The Wichita City Council did right by south-siders and the environment Tuesday by denying the construction and demolition landfill at 31st Street South and K-15 the ability to grow further. The Metropolitan Area Planning Commission got it wrong in this case. Now neighbors can look forward to the day when Cornejo & Sons’ dusty operation is capped and closed. Still, council members and City Manager Robert Layton shouldn’t close the book on the C&D landfill without examining how the riverfront operation came to be approved — and kept growing and polluting for years in violation of its permit. Local and state officials also need to ensure that future landfills are sited more wisely and monitored more diligently. As council member Jim Skelton asked Tuesday: “How on Earth did this thing happen here?”