Are we going through a drought?

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District 4

Newsletter

Council Member Jeff Blubaugh

Message from Jeff Blubaugh

You don’t need to be a scientist to know how important water is to maintain life. And nothing brings this more to the forefront than drought conditions. So is Wichita experiencing a drought?

The annual average rainfall in Wichita is 34” and 13” of snow. And so far this year we have had 25.2” of total precipitation which is below average. This is not considered drought conditions even though the temperatures were exceptionally high this summer. The 10-year average temperatures for Wichita show the hottest month as July with an average high of 93 degrees. And this year we had lots more sunshine and heat and less rainfall than normal. Still, we did not break the record of 18 consecutive 100-degree days in July from 1980.

The climatological community has defined four (4) types of drought:

1) meteorological drought

2) hydrological drought

3) agricultural drought

4) socioeconomic drought.

Meteorological drought happens when dry weather patterns dominate an area. Hydrological drought occurs when low water supply becomes evident, especially in streams, reservoirs, and groundwater levels, usually after many months of meteorological drought. Agricultural drought happens when crops become affected. And socioeconomic drought relates the supply and demand of various commodities to drought. Meteorological drought can begin and end rapidly, while hydrological drought takes much longer to develop and then recover.

Thanks to the foresight of our Public Works Department, the City of Wichita has been storing water through the Aquifer Storage & Recovery (ASR) project for quite some time now. The ASR diverts water from the Little Arkansas River when the river flows are high, treats it to drinking water standards and injects the processed water into the Equus Beds aquifer. By doing this, the City accumulates recharge credits with the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) allowing it to withdraw this additional water from the Equus Beds Aquifer when needed. The ability to establish and utilize these credits is critical to ensuring the City can meet the demand during an extended drought.

Water storage is a great idea and one that you can implement at home using rain barrels. You can even be rewarded for purchasing a rain barrel through the City’s Water Conservation Rebate Program. Other water saving devices such as toilets, dishwashers, and more are also rewarded by submitting an application and receipt for qualified purchases. Wichita might have water reserves, but it is up to all of us to conserve and keep our reserves safe.

So to answer the question… is Wichita having a drought... actually no, it is not. Are area farmers and gardeners experiencing crop failures? Yes, they are. But this is mostly due to the timing of too little rain and too high temperatures. And crops affect not only humans, but livestock as well. We can only hope and pray that these extremes will soon stop.

New Poll:

How much was your highest water bill this summer?

Over $30

Over $50

Over $100

Over $150

Over $200

Zero. My residence uses well water only.

Select

Results from the September 2, 2022 poll

Question: Which ONE of these services would you prefer if provided by the City of Wichita?

Free vouchers to take items to the landfill - 15.5%
Vouchers for free tire disposal - 13%
Provide roll-off dumpsters & disposal for alley cleanups - 14.3%
Subsidize trash service for low-income residents - 14.3%
Allow single dwellers to share trash service with a neighbor - 14.4%
Mattress and box springs drop-off locations - 12.3%
I don't want tax dollars to pay for any of these services - 16.2%

Chief of Police update

The City of Wichita today announced the appointment of Troy Livingston as Interim Chief of the Wichita Police Department (WPD) effective Tuesday, September 27. Livingston is a former Deputy Chief of WPD and served in a variety of capacities with the department from 1995 until 2019 when he retired from the department. He is not a candidate for the permanent chief position.

Current Interim Chief Lem Moore will continue serving the WPD until Friday, September 30 to assist with the transition. City Manager Robert Layton said, “Troy Livingston is a great fit to serve the City as Interim Chief. He has an outstanding depth of experience and knowledge of the department. His tested judgement and commendable experience at just about every level of leadership in the department, from officer to deputy chief, gives him a great perspective and understanding of the needs of the City and the department. He will be a strong, respected leader while the search for the permanent chief position is completed.” Layton continued, “I also want to recognize and thank Interim Chief Moore for his many, many years of service and specifically for his leadership over the last several challenging months for the City. We wish him well.”

Livingston said, “I am looking forward to serving my community again, as well as preparing for a smooth transition for the new chief. This is a wonderful opportunity to get a lot of great progress accomplished for the City in the interim."

Livingston holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Houston and a master’s in both criminal justice and public administration from Wichita State University. He also attended the FBI National Academy’s 274th Session, graduated from the Major Cities Chiefs Association Police Executive Leadership Institute and graduated from the Northwestern School of Police Staff and Command, Class 381.

Will it be Map A or Map B?

Charter Ordinance 173 provides for the revision of City Council district boundaries every ten years based on decennial census data if the district populations are out of balance by more than plus or minus 5 percent of 1/6^th of the population of the city. The districts were last revised in December of 2012.

District boundaries must be re-established by December 31, 2022. The current population of the City of Wichita has been established at 397,532, based on 2020 Census data. Per the Charter Ordinance, the population of each district must approximate one-sixth (1/6^th) of the total population, which is 66,255. The population of each district may deviate from that standard by up to five percent (5%), plus or minus, thereby requiring that the population ranges must fall within the range of 62,942 to 69,568.

P.S. District 4 is the same on either maps.

To learn more, click HERE.

Half of the District Advisory Boards (DAB) chose Map A as the preferred revisions

Map B is the preferred revision for redistricting by DABs 2, 4, and 6.

Cheer the Wichita Wind Surge on to victory!

If the Wind Surge move onto the final round of playoffs, the Surge will play the winner of the Texas League South on Sunday, September 25. The final two games will be hosted at Riverfront Stadium on Tuesday, September 27 and Wednesday, September 28.

New! Community Job & Resource Fair

10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, September 21, Wichita Advanced Learning Library

Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas and the Wichita Department for Children and Families (DCF) Will be hosting The Together Sedgwick County Community Job/Resource Fair at the Wichita Advanced Learning Library located at 711 W 2nd Street N, Wichita.

If you are taking a Wichita Transit bus to and from your home or current workplace in order to attend the job and resource fair, simply tell your bus driver that you are attending the job fair. You can ride free from 8 am to 3:30 pm. Check out the Wichita Transit QR code to find the routes that work best for you.

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QR code for Wichita Transit routes.

Railroad Crossing Improvements

Beginning Monday, October 3, Kansas & Oklahoma (K&O) Railroad will start maintenance work on their tracks east of the Arkansas River and south of Lincoln.

The project is slated to take approximately eight to 10 weeks, dependent on weather. Because of the work, streets at several of the railroad crossings will be closed to through traffic while K&O works on them. Santa Fe and St. Francis Streets will be the first to be worked on, with work progressing west.

The impacted railroad crossings are along the Bayley Corridor including the following streets: Santa Fe, Saint Francis, Emporia, Topeka, Broadway, Market and Main Streets. The maintenance on the crossings will improve the drivability of the crossings for residents as well as fix damage to the tracks and upgrade materials.

The City will use the closures as an opportunity to make repairs to the street approaches and sidewalks that immediately abut the tracks in order to provide a better driving experience for motorists and safer facilities for pedestrians.

Message boards will be put up in the area prior to the crossing closures.

Rubble from removal of existing tracks will likely be stored along the track area, but will be removed from the site before completion of the overall project.

Wild West Days at Old Cowtown Museum

September 24 and 25.

Saturday hours 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m., regular admission both days!

Come out to Cowtown for our biggest fundraiser of the year! We will have tons of vendors, First-Person Re-enactors, gunfighters, dancers and a whole lot of old west fun! Some of the planned happenings are:

Over 200 reenactors and historians on the grounds plus general public; 9 gunfight groups, 19 legends of history, 23 vendors; and so much more.

Tallgrass Film Festival celebrates 20 years

The Tallgrass Film Association fosters an appreciation of the cinematic arts by creating shared experiences around the international medium of film. Join us for the 20th Annual Tallgrass Film Festival in downtown Wichita, KS September 28-October 2, 2022. Anyone can attend with a ticket. First come, first served, and you have 5 days and various venues for viewing movies!

Join our District 4 Advisory Board meetings

The Wichita District 4 Advisory Board meets monthly to weigh in on current Zoning and other cases presented by the Wichita-Sedgwick County Planning Department, as well as discussions and presentations by various other departments. The October meeting will be held at the Alford Branch Library, 3447 S Meridian, 6:30 pm, October 3. Or you can continue to join us via Zoom or Facebook Live. To join in on the meeting, the Zoom link is posted on each month's agenda that you can find on Councilman Blubaugh's page via Wichita.gov

Yoga? Football? Dance lessons? Enroll now!

Where can I find.....?

To find out when a street sweeper will be visiting your neighborhood, street closures, water outages, public parks in other parts of the City, and more, just add this link to your "favorites".