Earp Meat Company of Edwardsville, Kan., will receive $5 million in allocated funding from the Kansas Department of Commerce.

The funds were received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Areas were targeted based on recovery needs and the economic situation.

Earp is one of four businesses to receive funding.

Over $99 million worth of requests were made to the state; only $30.6 million were rewarded in the competitive process.

UPDATE: More on the funds, from a press release:

Recovery Zone Facility Bonds and Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds are two new types of bonds created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help economically distressed areas. Recovery Zone Facility Bonds are much like Private Activity Bonds and can be used for privately owned or used projects. These bonds are federally tax exempt, which can provide the issuer with a lower cost of capital. Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds, which are used for public infrastructure, are fully taxable to the bond holders, but the U.S. Treasury will pay to the issuer (cities, counties) an amount equal to 45 percent of each interest payment.
 
The Kansas Department of Commerce reviewed applications for these two categories of bonds through a competitive process. The Recovery Zone Facility Bond process was exceptionally competitive, with the Department of Commerce receiving $99 million in requests for $30.617 million in available authority.
 
Organizations that have been issued bond authority through the first round of this reallocation process must confirm their intent to issue bonds with the Department of Commerce’s Bond Allocation Administrator by February 17, 2010. Allocations that are not confirmed by this date will be surrendered and redistributed among other applicants. The bond authority allocated to a project may be combined with other funding sources. This bond allocation expires if the bonds are not issued by May 31, 2010.

The Kansas City Kansan's editorial staff brainstormed the list of Wyandotte County's 10 Most Important Stories of 2009.

Here they are. Feel free to disagree with the list in the comments and provide your own list.

10. Moore announces retirement: U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, who had served over a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Wyandotte County, announced he would retire.

Since then, a number of potential candidates on both sides of the aisle have announced at least some interest in running for the seat.

On the Democratic side, Unified Government/Mayor CEO Joe Reardon and Kansas Sen. David Haley announced they would "consider" running.

A plethora of Republicans, including Kansas City, Kan., resident Daniel Gilyeat, have expressed interest in the seat.

9. New preschool in KCK: After looking at an initial downtown location for a new preschool, the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools District settled for a location on 55th Street in between State Avenue and Parallel Parkway.

The new preschool, which will serve as the district's replacement for its preschool center at Indian Springs, will open this January.

8. Christmas Snowstorm: Wyandotte County received its highest snow total on Christmas Day in nearly 50 years and some areas across the county received a foot of snow.

The snow provided headaches across the state, as travel on highways slowed down significantly.

Still, in terms of injuries, they were mostly limited to just one incident concerning an accident at Interstate 435 and Leavenworth Road. The storm began as an ice/sleet event early on Christmas Eve and then evolved into a snowstorm. The snow continued at a slower pace the weekend after Christmas.

7. Reardon re-elected among election results: Unified Government Mayor/CEO Joe Reardon was re-elected to a second term. He won well over 80 percent of the vote against LaTosha Moore-Fradieu.

Among the other prominent election results: Mark Jones was voted off the Board of Public Utilities in favor of David Alvey and Cathy Breidenthal and Wendell Maddox were selected to fill positions on the Kansas City Kansas Community College's Board of Trustees.

6. KCK Public Schools names new superintendent: The Kansas City, Kan., Board of Education unanimously selected Cynthia Lane to fill the position of superintendent of schools once current Superintendent Jill Shackelford retires from the district next summer.

Lane has been with the school district for over 20 years. She's currently an assistant superintendent in the district.

During the past few years, Lane has been instrumental in implementing the district's Laptops for Learning program and has headed the efforts to deal with massive budget crunch state wide.

5. Nebraska Furniture Mart, Legends clash with UG over taxes: Other than the Kansas Speedway, Nebraska Furniture Mart and The Legends Shopping Center are the two most prominent tenants within Wyandotte County.

During the summer, the UG battled with the two tenants – mostly with NFM - on late tax payments.

While The Legends and the UG agreed to a full payment, the battle with NFM was a bit nastier. NFM Executive Vice President Bob Batt held a press conference inside the story denying that the store owed that much money.

But in the end, a deal was made.

Nebraska Furniture Mart agreed to pay $700,000 in property taxes from 2006, and will pay $2.1 million in back property taxes from tax years 2007 and 2008, based on its self-valuation of $30 million.

4. Plaza at the Speedway blossoms as latest western development: With chain stores like Best Buy and Walmart dominating the area, the latest shopping center is beginning to fill in at the Village West area.

3. Wizards, Cerner set for KCK: Joining the Kansas City T-Bones, the Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards is expected to relocate across the state to KCK, pending a STAR bond agreement with the State of Kansas.

Along with the Wizards' new stadium, located across from Nebraska Furniture Mart, is a new Cerner office campus.

The $414 million Kansas City Wizards-Cerner Office Campus project could create over 8,000 jobs, which would be largest job creation project in the history of Wyandotte County.

Once completed in 2011, the entire project will triple the number of jobs in Village West from 4,473 to 12,791. The total payroll of the Village West jobs would skyrocket to $334 million from an original $81 million figure.

Along with the office campus and soccer stadium, Wyandotte County Park would become the host of a soccer complex that would host regional and national tournaments.

Over half of the project would be funded by private entities. STAR bond revenues from Village West would fund the stadium itself.

2. Kansas Speedway selected as casino location....again: A year after the Kansas Speedway was initially selected to host Wyandotte County's casino, the speedway again won approval from the State of Kansas after re-submitting a smaller plan to the state.

The multi-phased casino will include $361.8 million casino and dining area in phase one, with a hotel and casino expansion coming in phase two of the project. Phase two will cost around $159.1 million to construct.

There will be over 2,300 slot machines, 86 table games, 100,000 square feet of gaming space and over 28,000 square feet of restaurants, clubs and night-life attractions.

Initially, the Kansas Gaming Facilities Review Board was concerned with approving the plan without a concrete plan for a hotel. But a proposed 300-room hotel was enough to win the board's approval. The hotel must be built a few years after the casino is originally constructed.

1. State, county budget crunch hits Wyandotte County: While the list mostly includes good news, the top story of the year details job losses, dollars lost and an overall budget crunch that reflects that downturn in the economy.

Every governing body in Wyandotte County faced major hurdles in dealing with the budget crunch. A look just a few:

• Unified Government: The UG implemented furloughs in 2009 and asked local unions to consider not accepting their raises. Most of them – notably the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department – voted to accept a pay freeze to prevent layoffs. A 10 percent across the board cut was also passed by UG commissioners. Overall, the UG had a loss of $15 million in state aid from Kansas.

• KCK Public Schools: Over 100 faculty jobs across the district were slashed with the loss of state aid. In addition, KCK Public Schools had to dip into its contingency fund to help stabilize finances in result to the multiple cuts announced by Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson. The district had to also increase the mill levy The situation is expected to worsen next year.

• Turner School District: A school was closed because of budget reasons.

• Edwardsville: The City attempted to pass a sales tax increase, which valued at the ballot box in a horrible voter turnout.

• All school districts could face future cuts again this spring. KCK Public Schools, Turner and the Bonner Springs School District have all joined "Schools for Fair Funding," an organization that sued the state earlier this decade for increased funding. A lawsuit is expected by area superintendents.

Cyndi Niezer wrote this note to me this morning concerning vehicle problems she and her family had during last week's storm:

My family and I were in an accident on Christmas night on 435.  A good Samaritan from Edwardsville stopped to help us.  My son says his name is John.  He was driving a minivan to Gardner to take his 2 daughters to visit their mother.  I never got to thank him for his kindness and help that night.  Is there any way you can help me?  They were our Christmas angels.

Here are some police reports provided by the Edwardsville Police Department. All activity occurred during the period of Oct. 30 – Nov. 12.

ARRESTS

• 150 Block of Mellot: Police arrested an adult male based on a warrant
• 4th and Newton: Officers arrested a man based on a warrant during a traffic stop
• Interstate 435 and Kansas Avenue: Man arrested for having warrants out of Kansas City, Kan.

BATTERY

• 9500 Block of Swartz

BURGLARY/THEFTS

• 20 Block of Newton: Stolen vehicle
• 700 Block of S. 2nd Street
• 9900 Block of Woodend
• 9300 Block of Woodend

DRUGS

• 8800 Block of Eastbound K-32: Possession of marijuana

MISC

• 1700 Block of S. 104th Street: Police responded to reports of a suspicious person hanging around Edwardsville Elementary School.
• 1700 Block of S. 105th Street: Officers responded to a "stray, black and white cat."
• 600 Block of S. 4th Street: Police responded to someone bitten by an animal.
• 600 Block of S. 4th Street: Officers responded to a "child in need of care."

TRAFFIC INCIDENTS

• Interstate 435 and Kansas Avenue: Vehicle accident caused by deer.
• 600 Block of S. 4th Street: Vehicle accident caused by deer.

After a grand total of 350 votes were counted in Edwardsville, no sales tax increase will be implemented in the city.

185 voters said no, while 165 voters voted yes on a sales tax increase in Edwardsville.

Just 12.5 percent of Edwardsviile's 2,806 registered voters cast ballots.

While the Unified Government decided to push the issue of a sales tax increase in Kansas City, Kan., aside, Edwardsville residents will have an opportunity to pass or reject an increase.

Residents will vote to impose an additional one-half percent of a sales tax on city-wide retailers.

If passed, the increase would be effective on April 1, 2010. Right now, Edwardsville has one of the lowest sales tax percentage in the Greater Kansas City metro area.

The City of Edwardsville will host its first public forum this Thursday concerning its special sales tax election.

The forum will be held at the Edwardsville Community Center, located at 696 3rd Street, from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. Residents in Edwardsville can ask questions about the upcoming election and why the tax is needed to support city operations.

A second forum will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at Edwardsville Elementary School.