Special to the Leader & Times

Gov. Laura Kelly has announced the dates for a summer round of local consult meetings to elevate water planning and share insights on existing and future funding. The seven meetings will take place across the state in late July and throughout August.

“Preserving and protecting Kansas’ water supply for the next generation is of the utmost importance for our state,” Governor Laura Kelly said. “These local consult meetings provide Kansans the opportunity to share their thoughts on how we can best tackle our short- and long-term water issues. I encourage Kansans to attend a meeting near them so we can take coordinated, collective action for communities in every corner of our state.”

L&T staff report

The recall petition filed last week against Seward County Commissioner Steve Helm was not accepted “in its current form,” according to a memo released by Seward County Attorney Russell Hasenbank.

According to Hasenbank’s letter, there was a large volume of additional information submitted, but the petition itself must state facts sufficient to support the reason for the recall “within the four corners of the document,” meaning on the single sheet.

Hasenbank provided an invitation to the petitioners to come discuss the matter further.

The three petitioners were not made aware of Hasenbank’s conclusions before the signed document was released through other sources on social media., and the letter was dated Friday, July 17. As of press time, the three petitioners, Jim Rice, Bee Symons and Rick Madden, did not receive notification from Hasenbank there were any issues with the petition, and it was unknown if they planned to cure any defects.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Liberal citizens had the opportunity to hear an update on the happenings of the city from City of Liberal leadership last week, and one of the major points of the presentation was about the city’s overall budget.

“The budget is something I could probably talk about for hours and hours on end, but the goal is to help make it easier for people in the community to understand,” Diseker said. “I see the budget as a big puzzle, and something everyone should know about me is I like doing puzzles. I walked into my first day of preschool all ready to go, and I spent the day in the corner doing puzzles I’d taken off the shelf, which my teacher recounted to my mother when she came and picked me up later that day. Doing the budget is like putting together a big puzzle, and every piece is different every year. For 2026, the commission and I were very adamant about putting out information and documentation to the public to help them better understand where everything goes and how everything comes together. The 2026 budgeted expenses came to a total of $61.8 million, with $26.6 million (43 percent) going toward infrastructure and environment, which is roads and sewers and all of that. $14.8 million (24 percent) goes  toward public safety, which is the Liberal Police Department, Liberal Fire Department, etc. $6.9 million (11 percent) goes toward transportation, which includes city sidewalks, the CityBus program, Liberal Municipal Airport, etc. $5 million (8 percent) goes toward Recreation Department programs and spaces, which includes the parks, the golf course, part of Liberal Memorial Library, Arkalon Park, and other similar areas. $4.8 million (8 percent) goes toward administration and government, which includes everyone at City Hall and the city commission. The final $3.7 million (6 percent) goes toward economic development, which includes tourism, the Mid-America Air Museum, public affairs, and the different incentives we offer. There are parts of our budget that have restrictions, by law, and we have to abide by those, we can’t just get money and then spend it wherever we want. We see the comments online asking ‘Why isn’t money being used for X or Y, why is it being used there?’ but there are some things we simply can’t use money for outside its given purpose.”

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The Liberal community was shocked earlier this year to hear of Adventure Bay Water Park closing for a while due to renovations, and the project has now taken a big step forward.

Contract negotiations for design and build services with Hutton Corporation in partnership with Water’s Edge Aquatic Design for the design and construction of a new water recreation facility inside Light Park were approved by the Liberal City Commission earlier this month. The proposed facility concept includes a free-entry, unstaffed splash park space which can open as soon as temperatures are consistently above freezing along with a seasonally-staffed, paid-entry recreational facility featuring a lazy river and multiple recreational zones found in a standard water park. Funding for the project will be paid from the 1-cent Sales Tax fund, allowing the project to be completed without the need for property tax increases or new debt expenses.