Community

The official state Christmas tree ornament for this year recognizes the 150th anniversary of the founding of Washburn University, which is coming up in 2015.

Governor Sam Brownback unveiled the ornament at the governor's residence Monday. Washburn President Jerry Farley called it an honor and noted the strong connection between the state and the school.

"Washburn has played an integral role in the history of the state from the very beginning," said Farley.

Around 50 protesters, mostly young people, gathered outside Secretary of State Kris Kobach's office Tuesday, calling on him to resign. Among other things, the protesters said Kobach spends too much time on immigration issues.

The Wichita City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve water and sewer rate increases effective next year.

On January 1, Wichita's residential customers will see their monthly bills increase $1.19 to $7.74 depending on how much water they use. Commercial and industrial customers will see a rate hike of around 7 percent.

Alan King, Director of Public Works and Utilities says the water rates will insure a level of funding for proper renewal and replacement of aging water mains.

Through Walmart's Fighting Hunger Together initiative, a Walmart store in Wichita gave a $50,000 grant to help expand the Kansas Food Bank of Wichita's backpack program.

Debi Kreutzman, community relations manager at Kansas Food Bank, said they were proud of the local community for participating in the effort.

Thursday marks the start of the cold weather rule period in Kansas, restricting utility cutoffs for nonpayment of bills.

The rule is in effect from November 1 to March 31. It prohibits shutoffs of residential electricity or natural gas service when temperatures are expected to be at or below 35 degrees over the following 24 hours.

Utilities also must contact a customer 24 hours before a disconnection, and offer a 12-month payment plan for the customer to maintain or re-establish service.

Wichita taxi drivers will soon begin training in customer service. 

The first Taxi Driver Customer Service Training classes will take place Wednesday at the Go Wichita Convention & Visitors Bureau.

City of Wichita officials are urging water customers east of Rock Road in Wichita, and in all of Andover, to not water their lawns until Saturday due to a loss of electrical power at a water pump station on Webb Road.

The power outage has reduced water pressure in areas east of Rock Road. Westar is working to restore the power to the pump station.

The voluntary watering restriction is not requested of customers west of Rock Road, because they are not affected by the power outage.

A group of young adults in Wichita has created an initiative to help promote the city as a cultural and commercial destination.

The project is called From Wichita With Love and was created by a group of local friends. After attending a conference, the group was inspired to come up with innovative ways to attract attention to Wichita.

They designed a retro-inspired postcard and last week distributed thousands of them to area shops, bars and venues.