Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

Iola — Four state senators from southeast Kansas are meeting today with a group of regional leaders to decide how to sustain an economic development initiative launched at a summit held here in November.

The senators, all Republicans, organized the summit to generate ideas for how communities used to competing with one another could cooperate to improve the economy of the region, which generally has the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in the state. Recent reports also have ranked the 17 counties in southeast Kansas among the least healthy in the state.

The initiative, called Project 17, will be governed by a steering committee consisting of the senators and 16 area leaders. That committee, which is having its first meeting today, will guide the project for at least two years, according to a statement released earlier this week by the senators: Pat Apple, Louisburg; Jeff King, Independence; Bob Marshall, Fort Scott; and Dwayne Umbarger, Thayer.

— Jim McLean produced this story as part of the KHI News Service’s partnership with Kansas Public Radio. It aired Friday on KPR’s Morning Edition.

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