Gerry Bieker, Manager of Member Services could not pass up sharing “Farm City Days” in Iola. The Angry Bird themed Event is advertised locally with these impressive “Home Grown” Birds. “Farm City Days” has been an ongoing event for many years in Iola according to Corey Schinstock, Iola Assistant City Administrator. The event includes a carnival, food and 2 days of music on the square and runs October 6th through the 9th.
KMEA Staff visited the cities of Eudora and Iola on Thursday September 29th. Member Services met with Mike Hutto, Director of Public Works for Eudora first thing in the morning and Sid Fleming, City Administrator and Corey Schinstock, Assistant City Administrator later in the day in Iola.
KMEA Staff visited the cities of Chapman and Enterprise on Wednesday September 28th. Jay Newton, Interim City Administrator, Bobby Kamm, Public Works Director and the Staff for Chapman as well as Paul Froelich, City Superintendent for Enterprise took time out of their schedules to visit with us about a wide array of topics including the upcoming Annual Conference.
The KMEA Annual Conference November 3- 4 2016 is just around the corner. It’s not too late to register! We are kicking off the conference with the KMGA and KMEA Board of Directors meetings, which start on Thursday, November 3rd at 10:30 a.m. Registration will run from 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
We are excited to bring you some great speakers presenting topics you won’t want to miss.
There is still time to register, however, to meet hotel deadlines and finalize conference materials, please be sure to register no later than Friday, October 7th. You can register by going to the Events tab on the kmea.com website or simply click here.
We hope to see as many of you as possible, as this year’s conference promises to be a great event.
The 2016 KMEA Golf Outing was held at Falcon Ridge Golf Club on September 14. After an evening of rain, 32 golfers took to a soggy course for a very good time. Our generous sponsors made it possible for all the attendees to walk away with prizes and smiles. This annual event is sure to grow.
The following day, after two Executive Committee meetings and a Joint EMP meeting, attendees were treated to a Royals baseball game in a suite sponsored by Sega. 
We would like to introduce you to D.J. Smith and Garrett Higgins. They are KMEA’s most recent additions to the staff. D.J. and Garrett together with Paula Campbell, David Rosenthal and Kent Balkenbusch will operate the 24-hour system operations desk. Welcome D.J. and Garrett.
Beginning August 31st Gerry Bieker will join the KMEA Staff as your new Manager, Member Services. Gerry comes to KMEA with a background of public service in Kansas dating back to 1991. Gerry was the Director of Public Utilities for the City of Colby before moving on to Paola in 2004 to serve as Director of Public Works. In 2009 Gerry moved to Chapman to become the City Administrator. In July of 2014 Gerry became the City Manager of Goodland where he currently serves.
Gerry has an impressive list of achievements during his time in city government. We are very excited to welcome Gerry as the newest member of your KMEA team.
Staff left Overland Park Wednesday morning to visit six KMGA member cities over the next two days. The first stop was at the City of Howard, where they met with Becky Oakleaf, Ernest Tousley, and Kevin Mitchell. The next destination was the City of Winfield. At Winfield staff met with Gus Collins and James Ging. Jim Neal also provided a tour of Winfield’s power plant facility.
On Thursday staff met with Amber Kummer and Larry Berry with the City of Anthony. From Anthony they traveled to Attica to meet with Suzann Shippy. The next stop was in Argonia to meet with city clerk Mindy Mages. The final stop was at the Wellington power plant. There, staff met with Roger Estes and Ryan HainThe visits included reviewing historical usage data, looking at current rate calculation processes, discussing services and assistance that KMGA can provide, as well as making note of our upcoming Annual Conference in November. We thank everyone for taking time to visit with us. It is always very beneficial and productive to meet with member cities.
The Executive Committee had its monthly meeting at the beautiful City of Lindsborg on Wednesday.
Lindsborg was settled in 1869 by a group of Swedish immigrants. The City kept the Swedish culture and today you can see the Dala Horses displayed throughout Main Street. The Dala Horse is a wooden carved and painted horse statuette that symbolizes Dalecarlia the Swedish province where the Dala Horse originated from. Lindsborg is the home of Bethany College and has a population of 3,458.
Greg DuMars, the former president of KMEA and the City Administrator of Lindsborg attended the meeting. The meeting was held at the Sundstrom Conference Center a striking event venue located on Main Street.
Speaker- Allen Mosher, APPA
Yesterday KMEA sponsored a solar energy symposium in Lindsborg, Kansas. The event included presenters from Cornerstone Energy and MC Power both solar energy developers. Also, Allen Mosher, Vice President of Policy Analysis for the American Public Power Association presented on distributed resources and APPAs Public Power Forward. It was a great event with more than thirty people in attendance and several on the phone. Thanks to Colin Hansen as well for his presentation on metering laws and regulations concerning parallel and distributed generation. It was a great day in Lindsborg and we hope everyone came away more informed on the solar industry and how it may affect our communities and customers.
