Press Releases

The City of Topeka will postpone a 3% pay reduction for all City of Topeka Staff and reconsider a potential pay reduction in June when actual sales tax receipts for March and April will be available. After a review of the sales tax receipts along with other revenue collections to date, in consultation with the Governing Body, a determination will be made as to whether salary reductions, or other decisions that may impact personnel, will need to be implemented in order to balance the budget by the end of the year. The earliest implementation of salary reductions would be reflected in the July 3rd paycheck. The Governing Body and City Manager will be taking a 6% salary reduction starting with the pay period that begins on May 2nd.
Governing Body members have expressed interest in City Manager Trout exploring the use of additional general fund cash reserves to cover expected savings that would have been achieved from the salary reductions being implemented sooner. Using general fund cash reserves for the next two months will provide the City with the time needed to review actual receipts related to sales tax revenue to guide the estimates of projected losses prior to adjusting personnel cost. Once the sales tax revenue information is reviewed, the city will determine the budgetary impact from the first four months of the year.
The City Manager will continue to explore potential savings in personnel costs through discussions with union leadership, City administration and the Governing Body. No across the board wage reductions will be effective in the next sixty days.
“I am looking at all possible options to reduce spending and offset revenue losses,” said City Manager Brent Trout. “I am continuing to work with the Governing Body and staff to find the best way to balance the budget while keeping the impact to services and staff at a minimum.”
It is still expected that the City of Topeka will experience a loss in revenue from the recent stay at home orders and appropriate steps are being taken to prepare for that loss. City staff has identified approximately $3.2 million of operational changes in the General Fund operating budget that will be implemented for 2020. In addition, it is anticipated that a minimum of $2 million in reserves will be used to offset the anticipated reduction in revenues. Similar changes will also be evaluated and implemented to utility and enterprise funds.

The City of Topeka has partnered with several downtown restaurants to provide curbside pickup of to-go orders for patrons practicing social distancing and restaurateurs seeking sales while complying with a restriction on gatherings of more than 50 people due to COVID-19 concerns.

“I’m pleased that the City of Topeka can help our downtown businesses to stay open and provide food services while promoting social distancing and creating a safe environment for our citizens,” said City Manager Brent Trout.

The City of Topeka has pledged to reserve two parking stalls in front of each participating downtown eating establishment, including restaurants, coffee shops, sandwich shops and bars that serve food. Parking stalls will be designated by orange cones and a red and white sign that says “15 min food pickup only”.

“A big ‘Thank You’ to whoever came up with this idea. At this juncture, we should do anything we can to help our employees,” said Doug Thomas owner of The Classic Bean.

 

List of participating restaurants:

Iron Rail Brewing, 705 S Kansas Ave                            Juli’s Coffee and Bistro, 110 SE 8^th Ave

Jersey Mike’s, 718 S Kansas Ave                                  The Celtic Fox, 118 SW 8^th St.

Classic Bean, 722 S Kansas Ave                                    Subway, 935 S Kansas Ave

Brew Bank Topeka, 822 S Kansas Ave                        The Pennant, 915 S Kansas Ave

The City of Topeka on Wednesday will kick off a project to inventory the condition of all roads maintained by the City.

To accomplish this, the City hired Roadway Asset Services, LLC (RAS) based out of Austin, Texas. RAS is a nationwide firm that provides professional asset management and mobile data collection services to local and state government agencies.

Beginning Wednesday, August 10, 2022, RAS vehicles will collect imagery on all pavement and above ground transportation-related assets located within the public right-of-way. The vehicles will be traveling all City-maintained roads, to include alleys. The data collection will occur during daylight hours and on dry roads.

RAS vehicles are clearly marked, and look like the below photo.

The City previously worked with RAS on a similar project. The data collection process is expected to take 4 to 6 weeks.

 

The City of Topeka is joining national efforts to better protect communities from exposure to lead in drinking water.

The City of Topeka’s Utilities Department will be conducting surveys to complete an inventory identifying the type of materials that make up all water service lines, including public and private lines. The city expects to roll out surveys in February of 2024.

Compiling data into a comprehensive service line inventory is a requirement created for all U.S. water utilities as part of the Lead and Copper Rule Revision (LCRR) and Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Utilities Director Sylvia Davis will present more information to the Governing Body at the February 6, 2024 Topeka City Council Meeting. Listen in person or watch live on Cox Local Channel 4, Facebook or the City4 Livestream. Community members are encouraged to tune in to learn more about the city’s survey plans.

About the LCRI

The EPA first established the Lead and Copper Rule in 1991 to reduce exposure to lead and copper in water. These contaminants primarily enter drinking water through corrosion of service lines, fixtures, or plumbing. EPA published Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) on January 15, 2021 and proposed Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) in 2023 to strengthen key elements of the LCRR.

The proposed rule includes many new requirements for all water utilities, including expanding consumer awareness of lead, developing service line inventories, communicating about public health, and testing at schools and child-care facilities.

Under the proposed LCRI, water utilities must identify and make public whether they have lead service lines or not by October 16, 2024.

Water safety

The city publishes its Water Quality Report each year, which includes details about where our water comes from, what it contains and how it compares to EPA and state standards. While the city’s water mains do not contain lead, some connecting parts might. There are known lead service lines on both the city side and the private side. The City of Topeka’s water treatment system complies with the EPA’s drinking water regulations and the Safe Water Drinking Act.

As part of the LCRI proposals, the city may have to replace lead service lines over the course of the next several years. But before that could happen, the city must identify those lines.

Next steps

The next step in this process is to notify homeowners whose service line material is unknown. The City of Topeka plans to mail surveys in February to those homeowners along with instructions on how to determine their type of service line and how to report that information to the city.

In addition to the mailed survey, the city will be in contact with schools and child care providers to assist in identifying their service lines and to conduct water testing.

The information will be compiled, provided to the EPA and made publicly available. The EPA has not yet indicated when this must occur.

Resources

The City of Topeka will continue to update topeka.org/utilities with information regarding these efforts. Learn more about lead in drinking water and how to limit your exposure at, https://www.epa.gov/…/basic-information-about-lead… and in this short video, https://youtu.be/PqFHrae92OM?si=txpIH9q8MT4c63s3.

The Topeka Municipal Court will suspend some scheduled dockets in August due to continued staffing and scheduling issues.

During this time, the following dockets will be cancelled:

• Monday, August 1: 10:00 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Arraignment Dockets
• Monday, August 8: 8:30 a.m. Prose Trial Docket, and 10:00 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Arraignment Dockets
• Wednesday, August 10: 10:00 a.m. Arraignment Docket
• Thursday, August 11: 1:15 p.m. Prose Trial Docket
• Monday, August 15: 10:00 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Arraignment Dockets
• Tuesday, August 16: 9:00 a.m. Court Appointed Attorney Docket
• Thursday, August 18: 3:15 p.m. Time to Pay Docket
• Monday, August 22: 10:00 a.m. Arraignment Docket
• Thursday, August 25: 3:15 p.m. Time to Pay Docket
• Monday, August 29: 10:00 a.m. Arraignment Docket

All impacted cases will be rescheduled, and impacted defendants and defense counsel will be notified by mail.

Non-docket Court business, such as defendants wanting to set court dates, resolve non-appearance required cases, recall warrants, file documents, make payments, and reset payment plans, will continue as normal during business hours.

Defendants are encouraged to check the status of their case on the Court’s online public access portal at https://www.topeka.org/municipalcourt/.

Anyone directed to report to the Probation Division should continue to report as scheduled.

 

The City of Topeka Utilities Department has completed the Lead Service Line Inventory (LSLI) required by U.S. EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) for its water systems.

Under the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR), water systems are required to make their initial inventories publicly accessible. The inventory map is available on the City of Topeka Utilities webpage under “Topeka’s LCRI Compliance”.

Through completing a historical records review, conducting surveys and performing field checks, the City determined there are 291 lead service lines in its distribution system, 810 galvanized lines requiring replacement (GRR), and 3,112 lines that are made of unknown material. These numbers include both
city-owned and customer-owned service lines. The remaining 53,592 service lines in the distribution system are identified as non-lead.

“We are proud to be part of the national effort to better protect communities from exposure to lead in drinking water,” said Utilities Director Sylvia Davis.

City of Topeka Utilities prepared the LSLI for submittal to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Over the next three years, Utilities plans to continue work to identify the remaining unknown service lines. Simultaneously, plans will begin to replace the City’s lead service lines and the GRR.

About the LCRI The EPA first established the Lead and Copper Rule in 1991 to reduce exposure to lead and copper in water. These contaminants primarily enter drinking water through corrosion of service lines, fixtures, or plumbing. EPA published Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) in 2021 and proposed Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) in 2023 to strengthen key elements of the LCRR. The final rule was approved on October 8, 2024.

Sylvia Davis, a Deputy Director in the City’s Utilities Department was recently recognized with a national leadership award.

The honor, known as the “Women Who SPARK (WWS) Award,” is given by the Utility 2030 Collaborative (U2030). U2030 offers the awards program, which aims to close the gender gap in energy and utility innovation, by recognizing women for their innovation, leadership, and mentoring.

“Sylvia is a changemaker and leader here at the City of Topeka, and we couldn’t be more proud of her to receive this very impressive award,” said Interim City Manager Bill Cochran.

Davis was one of seven women across the country to be recognized.

List of award winners

Jody Allison, Algonquin Power & Utilities/Liberty
Maureen Bolen, Utegration
Sylvia Davis, City of Topeka, KS
Terri-Lynn Duque, ENMAX
Becky Ivester, SEMO Electric & GoSEMO Fiber
Jessica Mammel, Consumers Energy
Jessica Sutorus, City of Colton, CA

To learn more about U2030 and the WWS Awards Program, visit https://utility2030.org/page/awards.

 

The City of Topeka Utilities Department has implemented a new, secure, convenient, and user-friendly online payment system for our customers. The new and improved interface provides multiple benefits to customers such as paying bills faster, improved user experience, one-time payments without having to register, view and pay multiple accounts at once, as well as text-to-pay capabilities. Our new system accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and electronic checks.
“We are excited about these changes and they reflect our continued commitment to providing a superior customer service experience,” said Nicole Malott, City of Topeka Utilities, Director of Business and Customer Services. “We recognize that customers want flexibility, accessibility, convenience, and user-friendly experience without sacrificing security. We believe these new features deliver all of these things.”
Informative inserts will accompany all of our customer’s physical bills for the next 4 weeks. They contain additional information about the transition, as well as instructions on how to register with the new system. We are encouraging all of our customers to register with the new system so that they can take advantage of the many new features. To register, customers simply need to go to Topeka.org and click on the blue banner at the top of the home page. This will take them to the new payment portal where they can quickly register or make a one-time payment.
Customers should know that if they signed up online for the AutoPay function in our previous system, they will need to cancel that service once they have registered with the new system.
Any customers that have questions regarding this transition or how to register can call the City of Topeka Customer Service Call Center at (785) 368-3111.

WaterShare is a partnership between the City of Topeka, Doorstep, Let’s Help, and the Salvation Army. This program helps hundreds of Topekans avoid a water service shut-off when they are struggling and have trouble paying their water utility bill. You can help your neighbors today by donating as little as $1 each month or by simply giving a one-time donation.

The WaterShare program (previously referred to as Round Up Program) was introduced in 2000 as a means of facilitating convenient monthly charitable donations. Since its creation, the WaterShare program has helped approximately 3,000 City of Topeka Utilities customers. For those who enroll in the program, the donation amount of their choosing will appear on their monthly water bill and all funds collected are distributed to Doorstep, Let’s Help and the Salvation Army to select eligible recipients and administer all funds.  100% of donations will go directly towards helping Topekans in need.

There are three quick and easy ways to start donating.

1. Fill out the short online form at https://www.topeka.org/utilities/watershare/
2. Call 785-368-3111 and speak to one of our customer service representatives
3. Fill out and return the short form which will be included with your August statement

The City of Topeka was successful in making the winning auction bid on Wednesday to purchase Hotel Topeka at City Center for $7.6 million.

Purchase documents are still being finalized, and the sale is not final until that process is complete.

On May 30, the Governing Body authorized $8 million in bonds to purchase the hotel. The city’s intent is to bond the purchase price for the hotel, and work collaboratively with private partners and industry experts to determine how to best proceed with re-developing the property.