Plans are in motion to construct a new shelter on Bluemont Hill near the scenic overlook.

The Manhattan Parks and Recreation Advisory Board moved Monday to recommend the city partner with the Manhattan Kiwanis Club on the project. It’s now up to the city commission to decide the shelter’s fate.

“We felt that a shelter up there would be nice, rather than just picnic tables,” Mark Maxwell, past president of Manhattan Kiwanis, said. “It would make it more enjoyable to come up and have events for your family and stuff up there.”

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City commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a request to vacate a small public utility easement near the hotel project in Aggieville.

The easement, in the 1200 block alley between Moro and Laramie Street, was created to allow telecommunications lines to enter the formerly-planned Midtown building while avoiding the narrow alleyways where utility lines were often damaged.

“Now the new building is going to sit over in this area, and then this is actually going to be part of the parking garage,” public works director Brian Johnson said. “Obviously those utilities don’t want to go through the parking garage to get to the building, so they’re going to come around to 12th Street.”

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Manhattan residents can stroll around with an alchoholic beverage within a boundary downtown starting on Third Thursday.

As previously reported, the Manhattan City Commission on June 17 voted 3-2 to establish the year-round common consumption area, referred to by downtown officials as the “outdoor refreshment area.”

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Manhattan residents can stroll around with an alchoholic beverage within a boundary downtown starting on Third Thursday.

As previously reported, the Manhattan City Commission on June 17 voted 3-2 to establish the year-round common consumption area, referred to by downtown officials as the “outdoor refreshment area.”

The post Downtown common consumption area to debut during Third Thursday appeared first on News Radio KMAN.

Housing projects, street maintenance and cemetery improvements will be discussed at Tuesday’s city commission work session.

In April, the city opened the first round of workforce housing sales tax funding applications and have since received two applications for potential housing projects, both along Moro Street.

The first is from local developers Zach and Michelle Burton, who are seeking a $215,000 grant and a sales tax exemption for a proposed 15-unit townhome project at 1000 and 1004 Moro Street.

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City commissioners have advanced an ordinance to rezone K-State’s Unger Complex from a business commercial district to high-density residential, following a contentious meeting Tuesday evening with neighboring residents.

The decision paves the way for the building to be converted into apartments for middle- to moderate-income people.

K-State intends to sell the property at 2323 Anderson Ave. and is in negotiations with Fred Merrill Jr. and Jake Mooney, co-applicants with Unger Housing, LLC. The applicants are planning to repurpose the building into workforce housing, with 106 planned units.

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City officials will consider on first reading an economic development agreement with PTMW, a metal fabrication company. The company intends to enter a lease agreement with Flint Hills Ventures, LLC, which owns a warehouse facility under construction at 1105 Kretschmer Drive. PTMW is requesting a 10-year tax abatement and an incentive package that includes a $760,000 performance-based job creation grant. The company intends to employ 146 full time workers in the first five years, at an annual wage above $40,000.

The company is also seeking a $250,000 equipment investment grant, paid out in full if the company can show evidence of an $11 million equipment investment in the building by the first anniversary of the agreement date. Incentives would be paid out from the 2023 Economic Development Recovery and Relief Sales Tax Fund.

If approved Tuesday, the item would come back for a final reading at the April 15 legislative meeting.

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By Megan Moser

Despite complaints from some residents that they were blindsided about the amount of their special taxes, Manhattan city commissioners on Tuesday approved levying special assessments for 14 benefit districts in Manhattan.

These are areas in which work was done to improve a district, and now the city government is levying special assessments against the benefiting properties.

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