From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio PBS Kansas Presents Kansas Week.

A Wichita woman fed up with Washington launches a grassroots campaign to unseat Congressman Ron Estes.

Plus, the battle over big Tech in our backyard.

Why?

Massive data centers are sparking outrage in one county, while another welcomes them with open arms.

But first, a major shakeup to local public safety.

Why leaders are now weighing a plan to merge Wichita and Sedgwick County fire departments.

That's what we're talking about right now on Kansas Week.

Welcome to Kansas week.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

Wichita and Sedgwick County leaders are now exploring a major change to local public safety, combining their fire departments.

Supporters say merging the two agencies would save taxpayer dollars and improve efficiency, as the region grows.

City and county fire crews already co responded to roughly 6000 emergency calls last year.

While many leaders are open to the idea, some are proceeding with caution.

City Councilwoman Becky Tuttle wants to ensure that a merger will not negatively impact the Wichita Fire Department, which currently boasts an 83% public satisfaction rate.

Here to discuss this, and some of the week's other big news is Cake news anchor and senior political reporter Pilar Pedroza.

Harvey County now managing editor Adam Strunk, former state representative Tim Hodge and Sedgwick County Commissioner Ryan Beatty.

Commissioner Beatty, I'll start with you.

You're.

I'm sure you're well familiar with this topic.

This isn't a new topic.

We've been discussing merging county and city departments for many years.

In fact, we have already merged several departments, parks and arts and culture things, mostly maybe CD, which is building and construction department.

They're merged already dealing with Wichita and Sedgwick County.

So tell us how this is going right now and whether you think it's going to happen now or not.

Jared I think you're right.

This is not a new conversation to this community.

It's a conversation that has happened many times before.

And what typically happens is this conversation gets going.

The public gets excited that there could be reform, could be modernization, and then we lose political will.

And I think it's really important to understand the terms that we're talking about.

We talk a lot about consolidation.

When I talk mostly about regional fire approach, what does this look like?

We have really good relationship now.

Sedgwick County Fire Wichita Fire Department Co respond on 6000 calls a year together.

But there's also 20 cities in Sedgwick County.

And we're responsible for a regional fire response.

So the challenge that we're trying to solve is a rising cost of government, while we also have rising population and commercial centers that are on the perimeter of the city of Wichita, where the city of Wichita is going out responding in these areas.

So the Wichita taxpayer is the one, in my view, that it's best incentivized to talk about a regional model to where we can actually better partner and better share resources and services.

And same story with county crews as well.

County fire crews are often responding within the city limits of Wichita.

Already.

They have a mutual aid agreement.

So some fire stations really are close together, especially out east and in the Andover area.

So, I mean, what is going to get us over that hill this time?

It seems like like you said, we lose political will, and it seems like there's a power struggle at odds over here.

It's some of it, I think, that the community deserves the conversation.

I think what the community needs is information.

We cannot make these decisions in silos or simply at county commission meetings or Wichita City Council meetings.

These decisions and these conversations have to be very clear, very transparent, and we need to bring awareness to the community about not just what's happening today, but five years, ten years.

We deserve visionary leadership that can project generationally about the challenges we have and how we can best overcome them.

Yeah.

All right, Adam, welcome to the show again.

Thank you for joining us.

You're from Newton?

Yeah.

What's your perspective on this?

Well, I do think that especially with mongoose, like you do.

See, it's almost always multiple fire departments responding to the same call.

And like it is good.

We have this kind of communication.

And I do see where there would be some efficiencies.

But I'm kind of curious about in this topic when we're talking about, putting these two together.

Have you had any kind of discussions?

Do you have any kind of thoughts on how the different parties would contribute to funding?

Would it be like a singular mill levy?

Would it be like, what do you do?

Is there any kind of discussion here?

I think that's a great conversation the committee has to have what's so unique about compared to Wichita Fire.

County fire Wichita Fire is embedded within the general budget.

Yeah, it's a county fire is its own fire district where the taxpayers pay directly for the service.

So and that's capped right by the state to on how much they can charge new fire districts, things like that are capped.

So there are controls there.

And the taxpayer pays directly for the service so that the cities can focus on other things aside from fire budget and fire staff.

Yeah.

Tim Hodge, you're also from Harvey County.

You know, I think the taxpayer is going to ultimately drive this conversation, right?

Because at some point, the taxpayer is going to be annoyed with being diverted from a different topic to just it's straight up tax liability, and they're going to demand consolidations.

When you have sheriff's departments and police departments side by side, when you have fire departments and city fire departments, they're doing the same job and people are going to have if you look at your tax bill, you have like 14 different taxing duties on.

And there's another point on that is just like you get pay competition.

So like it rubs me up the wall because as a taxpayer, I'm watching the sheriff's department that I pay for and the police department, which I also pay for having to well, we need a budget increase because we have to pay more to compete with this.

And it's like, well, we're just getting it.

Yeah, I can see there's some benefits, but I don't buy the I don't buy the conversation like, well, we won't have any staffing changes.

I mean, one of the biggest benefits to this would be having a more streamlined administration system, I would assume.

Yeah, fewer of the highest.

Yeah, exactly.

Jobs out there.

And that is probably the biggest part of the savings of efficiency that you get with consolidation.

And I've watched this over the years with various counties, but also the school districts and probably the biggest fight back against consolidation is that loss of community identity.

You know, Wichita Fire Department means something to a lot of which tends and the idea of not having that anymore.

Yeah.

But when you look at communities that have made that change, look at Johnson County, look at Wyandotte County, and it is more efficient.

It is a better run organization.

And so you have to kind of balance those two.

Yeah.

And that's again, it does come down to the voters as you've said.

Have you looked at other communities who have done this?

I think Riley County is one that's done it as well.

How have they all across the country we see Nashville.

We see what's happening, Oklahoma City, Denver, the community deserves the conversation.

I don't know if it's the right place.

I don't know if it's the best plan.

But here's what I know is that I'm not too proud to believe that the current systems we have are perfect, is I think we should look nationally and glean from other models so that we can reform, pivot and modernize.

And again, it's about looking cost savings may not be today, but they will be in five years, ten years or 20 years.

And our citizens deserve leadership that have that sort of vision to look outward, to see exactly where we're going, not just where we are.

And Tim mentioned that taxpayers are going to demand this.

Do you think we're at that problem right now?

Because after this terrible failed sales tax vote, the school board has now announced that they're going to go out for another tax increase in November.

Are we at that point where taxpayers are demanding this?

The cost of government is increasing.

People need reprieve, but they need a vision to follow and they need to understand that.

And again, I'm not sure we don't flip a switch and do this tomorrow.

Maybe there's a way we can stair step this in over time, but that's the conversation the community deserves.

And and we're going to get it to them.

And I do think you're right about people needing reprieve.

I mean, there's just so many different taxes out there.

Property taxes along with people seeing increases 40 to 50 or 60%.

Some folks, those are just untenable for so many homeowners.

And even if it is 1015 years down the road, just knowing that there's some relief out there.

Yeah.

Well, and and go ahead.

Appraisers.

Appraisers are not the bad guy.

It's it's government set the mill.

Yeah.

The mill lobbies are the bad guys.

Right.

And I don't when voters and taxpayers start electing politicians, local politicians that are committed to bringing down the cost of government for their community, those politicians are going to win.

Yeah.

It's your council members that continue to say, even though we're keeping the mill levy, the same, it's generate more and more and more money, even though they're telling you they're keeping the mill levy the same.

Our next story, the debate over massive data centers is taking two very different paths.

And neighboring Kansas communities.

Here in Sedgwick County, leaders are pumping the brakes.

At a recent open house, residents were sharply divided.

Their rural farmers raised alarms over the loss of valuable land and potential drains on the Equus Beds aquifer.

While supporters argue that facilities are essential for modern life, for now, all commissioners have extended a temporary ban on new projects through June 11th to draft stricter zoning rules.

But just down the road in Wellington, city leaders there are welcoming so-called developers.

A proposed facility there promises to use waterless cooling, needing only two gallons of water a day.

The project would bring 200 construction jobs and over $1 million in annual electric revenue.

Locals are hoping that the economic boost will reverse their shrinking population.

And again, Commissioner Beatty, I'll start with you.

Since you've been at the top of this conversation data centers, it's a tough go.

It seems like Sedgwick County residents, they've we fought with this with the Tyson chicken plant years ago.

Tell us about how this is going.

Well, I mean, my email inbox to a tune of about 200 or 300 a day suggests the community is very interested in this topic.

We have to remember the genesis of how this happened in Kansas last legislative session in 2025.

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 98, which amongst many things, it gave a sales tax exemption for 20 years of all prospective data centers.

So Kansas became a hotbed nationally for Google and Oracle and Meta and other large organizations to put data centers here that are necessary parts of their ecosystem.

We realized last year when we started hearing rumors that Sedgwick County, that we had no policy, no zoning regulations, no land use policy.

So that was the initial impetus for the the moratorium, where we work for our conversations around water and, setbacks and environmental use and all of these things need to be figured out, and we need to set the rules and expectations of what we want with data centers coming here.

But the last point, which is probably the most pertinent point, is anytime you take an industrial use and you put it in rural residential areas, it creates disruption and we have to be sensitive.

These are private contracts between private developers and private landowners.

But there is a community impact here, and that's why we need to take our time and understand exactly what we're doing and building these zoning regulations.

Know, Adam, again, you're from a more rural area.

Well, and I think we broke the story in the Sedgwick County, but we're seeing that, we Harvey County put in a longer moratorium.

Reno County is talking about data centers as well.

We're seeing a lot of action in the area.

But I just to me, I think one, it's a little bit of a lack of information because, you know, they're these very ephemeral things.

Like it starts with the rumor, well, my neighbor's leasing ground and my neighbor's leasing ground, and I don't blame these people who've lived there for, for generations on a property wanting to know what's going in.

But to like that whole section of Kansas is really, really, really like into the Equus beds.

Like they're very what's the word?

Not sensitive about it?

I don't think that's the right term.

But like that Equus bed is probably the most important natural resource we have in the entire region.

That Equus bed gives all of us water in that region.

Like that Equus bed takes all care of all the agriculture.

And yes, it has a good refill rate.

But I mean, when you look at one of these larger, larger plants like it might take up as much, it might take up as much water usage as a city of like 5000 homes, like Andover has a little over 5000 homes.

So, like, that's a big question, especially considering when the Equus beds are ready is kind of tapped out, or they are pretty tight on water permits.

And I mean, theoretically one of the cities could provide them water.

I don't know if which like I don't know that's yet.

Right.

A lot of questions.

But like it would have to be something that's light on water just because I don't think they would be able to get the permitting to go in the Equus bed with the groundwater management district.

Well, and I question the, claims of economic improvement to the communities because it doesn't take that many people to run these warehouses.

You're talking 2 to 5 jobs, maybe.

Yeah.

When they took all these construction, hundreds of construction jobs, that that's construction dollars, 20 jobs.

They're permanently and that's it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And well, and then we're not even talking about the energy rates like the evart like, because they have to build out capacity to serve these.

And these are again, some of these are not small like a 75 kilowatt plant.

I mean, that's again using the power of a small city like that.

Then they raise rates for build out.

And I know the KCC did pass something recently for the 75 and higher, but what stop's like a 50 kilowatt or megawatt plant is still a huge, huge huge draw.

So like it's again with people what are we getting for it?

Are we getting economic development?

Are they going to lower our taxes with all the revenue that comes in?

I mean, I don't see taxes getting lowered very often.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

So it's like, so what are we getting?

Well, we're not getting economic development.

We're not getting cheaper electric rates.

We're getting more expensive electric rates.

And then on top of that, this water that we rely on in is this important research for the future is being tapped in.

So I don't blame these people for having a lot of questions or opposition.

Yeah.

Tim Hodge, anything else to add here?

Not much.

I just I think the one and done thing is a real phenomena, like, yeah, there's going to be a lot of jobs at the beginning, but do those stay I think the exemptions, any exemption for a business coming in means everyone else has to supplement and subsidize that.

So I really think our our business leaders are our county.

City leaders need to think about that quick giving the people coming in the inside lane.

Everybody else stay in lane eight.

I think that, that any anytime you have more of a demand on the power, it makes it easier to raise rates for everybody.

And so, I mean, we got to think about that.

And the water was mentioned.

And so, I don't know who these I want to see these benefit us.

I don't want it to be like another casino situation where the owners walk off with everything, and the neighbors and the people in the community are stuck with addicted gambling people.

And lower property values.

Yeah.

And so that's we need to be very cognizant of the type where the revenue will come from and where it will go.

And hopefully it will stay with us.

One last thing.

Think about one last thing, Commissioner Beatty.

I've heard that there may be lots of noise with the.

We've talked about the water complaint, usage of water.

I have noise complaints entered into this.

These are conversations about noise mitigation, sound mitigation.

And again, it's very important to understand if there are different types of data centers.

We have dozens and dozens of data centers in Sedgwick.

And we're talking about hyperscale.

We do believe there's models that exist out there now that are air cooled or closed loop systems that use gray water there.

Sound mitigation.

We're asking can they go vertical instead of needing a thousand acres?

There's just a lot of questions.

The tax benefit is the biggest community benefit is one of these billion dollar plans.

This could be we're estimating in Sedgwick County, one of these hyperscale data centers is anywhere from 6 to $10 million annually, annually to a lot of these.

I mean, I'll give you an example.

Valley center, $1,087,000.

Yeah.

So a Valley center was to get 50%.

I'm not Valley Center people.

I'm not saying that you don't have to say yes.

I'm just saying that it's significant property tax.

But it's this is more than a dollars and cents conversation.

This is community impact.

And we need to be very reasonable on how we impact the communities that depend on rural, a real way of life.

All right.

Our next story, a Wichita woman is now launching a campaign to unseat Republican Congressman Ron Estes.

Katie Tindall announced her run as a Democrat for Kansas fourth congressional district.

Her political journey began last March at Gruver Labs in downtown Wichita.

That is where a group of residents met to discuss their frustrations with recent changes and cuts happening within the federal government, concerned over new white House policies and the dismantling of several federal agencies, Tindall helped co-found a civic engagement group called Leading Kansas.

Recently, she switched her party registration from independent to Democrat at the urging of local officials to jump into the race.

Tim Gill now joins a crowded Democratic primary of at least six candidates who are hoping to challenge Congressman Estes.

Tim Hodge, does she have any chance here?

There's there's and she there's a number of other candidates.

Do we know who those other candidates are?

Sure.

I mean, I look at look it up because I don't want to be accused of touting one or the other.

But the Democratic Party has a good chance, and they if they do the work, if the messaging is, is done, who doesn't want to, to vote for someone?

It's going to make taxes fair or take help with health insurance or property tax lowering.

And that's the candidate that's going to win.

And from my my vantage point, it looks like the Democratic candidate does all of those things.

And I think, yeah, they've got a great chance.

They just have to get through the primary pillar.

What do you think?

Well, I think James Thompson is a good case study for this.

It's a race that showed that somebody who has a good grassroots game, what she does, who has that level of charm that can reach people and talk to people on every side of the aisle, has a better chance that being said, statistics say the incumbent has the best chance by far in a way, and especially Ron Estes, who's very well known, very well-liked among Republicans, at least at home.

Not this many Republicans as he used to be.

Yeah, that's true.

Roger Marshall has gone even even lower.

Yeah, Congressman Ron Estes still has a pretty favorable track record among local reporters.

And this is where I'm probably going to disagree with Tim here.

I so I will say this, even in Harvey County and some of the rural counties we have, this is the most energetic I have ever seen.

The folks on the left in the Democratic Party, like it used to just be Old People coffee Club.

Now they're showing up.

They're protesting, they're doing like registration drives, like.

So that is there's a lot of energy.

I think we've seen in local elections.

I think we've seen elections across the country.

There are some conservative voters that are just staying home or frustrated with this.

We're not going to vote Democrat.

But, you know, they're just not real happy with how things are going on.

So do you think there's a low turnout?

I think those things both work in.

But what you were talking about, about Thompson, did they say, yeah, sorry, my bright, it's been a few years, right?

I mean, that's a perfect case study though.

Like, do I think that she could do well in Sedgwick County and some of the more urban areas?

Yeah, I do, but if you look at the entire district, like that district is drawn to make it hard to win and she's got to win some of those western counties.

Plus you have all of the people who live in the Wichita suburbs and I yeah, I just I don't think so, but I think that we'll see, more of a fight than we normally do, but it's with all of these candidates, right.

Like there's it would help if there was some big name recognition.

And she perhaps she has that grassroots, big name recognition recognition.

But I'm not kind of seeing that with everybody.

I don't know that she has that outside of the metro area though, because I had to do some filling up when I was preparing for this.

I was like, who and then who?

And yeah, no, no.

Ryan Beatty.

How in two now are you with the fourth district congressional race?

Very in tune.

It's interesting.

Katie Tyndall is actually someone that I know and I know quite well.

She's very sharp, very smart.

She actually served as a steering council chairman for the Sedgwick County Fire Department.

She obviously was involved leading Kansas is one of the founders.

And they were very involved and active in local government, I think.

I think Katie's, a wonderful person.

I give a lot of credit to.

Invites him to put their name on a ballot.

I will tell you, Ron Estes, someone who I deeply appreciate.

I think a lot of Republicans in the fourth district deeply appreciate Ron.

He is on the powerful and influential Ways and Means Committee.

Ron has been very active and very helpful to Sedgwick County government in my role as a commissioner.

Whenever we have a need, Ron's office is always there to help.

So Katie is, in for a dog fight in the primary, and it's going to be interesting to see how far left she has to go to win a primary and then have to come back in the general.

Right.

But, you know, people are frustrated and even have a white House right now that's going to make it hard for some midterm elections.

And it, it it'll be interesting.

It is tough when you talk about powerful positions in Kansas.

We're almost it hasn't eclipse like Bob Dole powerful but he's he's getting close there as to bringing funding, I will tell you what the political clout to and what you have to say that he's been very helpful to the county, because what I hear from individual voters is when they call Ron houses his office, they don't get any any of the help that they're looking for that they don't get that from Roger Marshal's office, that if they want help from Kansas congressional delegation, call Jerry.

That's how it's always I hear it time and time and time again.

Yeah.

I was always a marine.

Still shows up.

Yeah, I would tell you.

Yeah, I'll tell you.

Ron has been very helpful.

Congressman has been very helpful in the Sedgwick County government, very active, very engaged.

This is going to be a dogfight.

But, you know, a dogfight sometimes is a good thing that it does get our delegation out and involved and active and and again, I'm not here.

I don't see what some people are claiming the congressman has lost.

He's always been active and always been helpful for Sedgwick County government.

And it's always good to get a different perspective ahead of elections are good for everybody.

Yes.

Yeah.

The Sedgwick County District attorney is now investigating a closed Derby hospital after dozens of former patients say they are now being sent to collections with no way to even pay their bill.

Rock Regional Hospital shut its doors in early January after filing for bankruptcy late last year.

Court documents show the facility owed more than $60 million in unsecured claims.

But now former patients say the notices keep coming.

Many reports receiving calls from collection agencies, but they can't reach anyone at the closed facility in order to resolve the charges or actually even make a payment.

The DA's office opened its investigation after a local news inquiry uncovered nearly 100 complaints from frustrated patients who are desperate for help.

Paula Pedroza.

Rock Regional Hospital closed a couple of months ago and this is this is hard to take for rural communities.

Although Derby isn't technically a rural community.

But it's it's hard to see hospitals in the outlying area closing like this.

Well, I will say that the day that this story aired on Kake news, we actually did have contact from the CEO, Jack Cooper, as the reporter who did the story.

And he was able to speak with the CEO, who said that they believe they had things set up so that people would be able to finally make, the payments through the phone number again.

So hopefully that has been fixed.

And that really was the goal of the DA's office in opening the investigation, is hoping that that would push things along.

But it just seemed to be another step.

I was in court for several of the bankruptcy hearings and everything was very rushed.

Everything was very chaotic and discombobulated, and it sounded like that's the way the hospital had been from the very beginning, when it even opened up, without everything in place.

And then it got hit by the pandemic and it just went downhill.

Well, I remember, you know, and I'm from Haynesville, Darby area, lifelong resident of south Wichita and Sedgwick County.

And I were driving by that hospital for the last few years, even after the pandemic, like you mentioned in the the parking lots empty.

And I'm like, this doesn't bode well for this hospital.

You know, Jim Howell represents the Darby area, but so can what do you can you Commissioner, Commissioner, I was very active in those conversations when it looked like it was inevitable that the hospital was going to have to close.

And I'm thankful our district attorney is getting involved.

They do a lot of consumer protection issues.

I have full faith and confidence.

He's going to be able to draw some connecting links, and people are going to able to pay their bills.

But there's a broader conversation around Rock regional that I think needs to happen is this is about access to health care, not even the cost of health care, but access.

And, and when everything is congregated, and dense inside of the city of Wichita, we need outlying areas that have access.

I saw that Ascension announced that they're potentially purchasing.

There might be an acquisition here that's helpful for the people in Darby, a class A city.

I saw that Ascension is opening up a smaller satellite emergency room in west Wichita now, out on US 54 West Cadillac.

So it's about access Rock regional.

That was a gap that needs to be filled.

And I'm hopeful that essentially can really show that gap and access.

Say from my experience, you know, you talked about the parking lot being empty.

I had a friend who had to be in the hospital twice in the last couple of years.

And while she entered through Saint Francis both times, she ended up out at Saint Teresa because that's where the beds were available.

I met him and Adam.

Commissioner was talking about access, health, access to rural health care and places like Newton.

Harvey County is always a tough.

Yeah, we're we're lucky because we have Newton Medical Center.

It's a pretty strong regional, regional hospital.

We do get a lot of people in from McPherson County and from Marion County handling that.

So, I mean, yes, it is really important to have health care access.

It is also I mean, the hospitals are a huge draw for Newton.

We have a lot of big retirement communities in Newton because we have really quick access.

So people are looking for that and that's an important part in a community.

Yeah.

Tim Hardy, anything else.

The hospitals are struggling with reimbursement rates with uninsured, with, people who aren't covered with dealing with all the different insurance providers.

They all have a different contract with that provider.

And so it takes one on one conversations with almost every service that's provided.

And then people wonder why they're bogged down and make sometimes those mistakes that happen.

So we have to if we want to go up to 30,000ft and and solve this, we're going to be we're going to be great.

But it's very difficult to solve this with all the different interests involved wanting their cut of every bill.

And fortunately for the bankruptcy court, believe it.

It does may seem chaotic, but it does have to go through, processes that are approved by the bankruptcy court and people will have protections that way.

The federal Debt Collection Practices Act will protect folks and hopefully the county attorney can help out, too.

Yeah.

All right, that is a wrap.

I just wanted to talk to Paula for a second.

You're a short time right here.

I if you're not going to be with us for very much longer.

What's going on?

You're getting a breaking news.

That was not going to be announced until Sunday night on Kake news.

I am leaving Kake news Sunday is my last show.

I was given an opportunity I couldn't turn my back on.

But right now I'm trying to concentrate on finishing things here strong.

Giving the folks of Kansas what they have given me, which is everything.

Yeah.

And I wanted to thank you for your service.

You've been here almost 20 years, and you've been a very great reporter for both TV stations, channel ten and channel 12.

You've worked at channel three as well.

So I wanted to thank you for your service.

You've done a great, service for the residents of Wichita and Sedgwick County.

And politics is something that, a lot of people, a lot of reporters don't want to cover, you know?

So I don't understand that.

Yeah.

You've done a great job, and you're good.

Kansas week goes to.

That's right.

And thank you for having me for six years.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thank you so much to Paula Adam Strunk Tim Hodge Ryan Beatty, thank you so much for also taking CSN for sharing their video with us.

We'll see you next week.