Cashless Tolling News
Milestones continue to be reached as part of KTA’s conversion to cashless tolling. Here’s a few things to know:

DriveKS is Kansas’ new toll payment system. At www.DriveKS.com you can view transactions, pay your toll, order a KTAG and more.
A new DriveKS app, with the same online functionality as the website, is now available in the App Store and Google Play.

Toll statements began being issued August 1 through the DriveKS system. Learn how the DriveKS billing process works and read the news release.
Toll booth removal and lane reconfiguration is underway. Read the toll plaza construction news release to learn which eight toll plazas will be first.

How To Best Use DriveKS
DriveKS incorporates many toll management features customers have been asking for – vehicle info and nicknames, communication preferences, ability to filter transactions and more. However, we know getting used to something new can be hard. We’re here to help!

Check out these ‘how-to’ videos or view the entire DriveKS playlist. The DriveKS FAQs are also a good resource. Remember, to check back for updated information as we fine-tune the new system. Don’t find your answer? Contact our Customer Service Team by email, phone or walk-in.

How to: Understand your DriveKS Statement
How to: Update your License Plate
How to: Add a Rental or Visitor Vehicle to your Account

Annual Customer Survey
Provide your feedback in our annual Customer Satisfaction Survey and you could win one of six $50 Amazon gift cards! Your participation will help us prioritize what is most important to our customers. Prior feedback collected has resulted in electric vehicle charging stations, increased overhead bridge clearance, and KTA’s transition to cashless tolling. Take the survey today.

Construction Report
Construction at toll plazas due to cashless tolling is underway, but we’ve also been busy with other roadway improvements. Learn the latest project status in this month’s construction report.

DriveKS logo
1-800-USE-KTAG

More than 30,000 Kansans voted last week on the designs for the next personalized license plates, choosing a design featuring the Flint Hills.

The Flint Hills plate got more than 56% of the vote, beating out the other four options. It will replace the “Powering the Future” tag that the state has used for personalized license plates since 2020.

“We are excited to reveal the next Kansas personalized plate design and will now work to get the design ready for production and for Kansans to purchase in 2025,” said David Harper, Kansas Department of Revenue Division of Vehicles director.

The designs are only used for people who get customized letters and numbers on their plates. It costs $45.50 to opt for a personalized plate.

The voting on the design mirrors the process the Kansas Department of Revenue used to select a new standard license plate design in December after backlash to a proposed design plates prompted a public vote. It was the first time Kansans voted on license plate designs.

Fall sports are underway, but summer temperatures put players at risk

It’s been a long, hot summer with high temperatures breaking records all over the country. Exercising and playing sports outdoors during extreme heat is risky for athletes of all ages and experience levels — from Olympians to student athletes. The American Red Cross offers ways coaches and parents can help keep players safe.

• Learn CPR, how to use an AED and how to treat heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

• Don’t schedule outdoor practices and workouts during the hottest times of the day. Instead, schedule them for early in the day or later in the evening.

• Lower the intensity of these practices until your athletes grow more accustomed to the heat.

• Make sure your players drink plenty of water to avoid muscle cramping or heat-related illness. Fluids should be consumed frequently during strenuous activity and within a half hour of training.

• Include warm-ups — even young athletes need to stretch their muscles before strenuous exercise to help prevent injury.

• Plan frequent and longer breaks. Ideally, pause practice about every 20 minutes for athletes to drink fluids and rest in the shade if possible.

• Reduce the amount of heavy equipment athletes wear in the extremely hot weather. Instead, encourage net-type jerseys or lightweight, light-colored cotton T-shirts and shorts.

• Use the buddy system to encourage athletes to drink water and watch for signs of illness in their teammates.

• Have an emergency plan in place. Emergency situations may arise at any time during athletic practices and events. Knowing what to do and how to respond quickly are critical in providing the best possible care to the athletes in emergency situations.

The first responder to an emergency situation is, typically, a member of the training, coaching, strength, medical staff or a parent. Prepare for the moments that matter with first aid and CPR training from the Red Cross. We offer both in-person classes and online training. Through our classes, you will not only learn how to perform lifesaving skills, you can gain the confidence to act in an emergency and help save a life. Learn more here.

DOWNLOAD OUR FIRST AID APP The Red Cross First Aid app puts instant access to information on handling the most common first aid emergencies at your fingertips including heat-related emergencies. Download this app by searching for ‘American Red Cross’ in your app store or at redcross.org/apps.

About the American Red Cross: 
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media. 

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New York investor Francis Skiddy wanted to have a Kansas town named after him.

Skiddy promised to build a town hall in exchange for his becoming the namesake of Skiddy, a community founded in 1869 on the boundary line between Morris and Geary counties in north-central Kansas.

But Skiddy reneged on his promise, and residents in 1879 changed the community’s name to Camden, according to the website legendsofkansas.com.

Then, in August 1883, “The town name reverted back to Skiddy because there were too many other Camdens in the nation,” that site said.

Skiddy’s post office closed in 1953, it said.

Skiddy is among the Kansas communities with interesting monikers that are no longer incorporated, or never were.

Here are eight others:

Tonovay was initially called Ton of Hay

Tonovay is located in Greenwood County in southwest Kansas. Its residents initially called it “Ton of Hay,” after a wagonload of hay they thought weighed a ton, Sondra Van Meter McCoy and Jan Hults wrote in their 1989 book, “2001 Kansas Place Names.” Tonovay’s post office opened in 1886 and closed in 1912, they said.

Swamp Angel is thought to have been named after a Civil War cannon

Swamp Angel is an unincorporated community in western Pottawatomie County, east of Manhattan and west of St. George, according to Wikipedia. It is thought to have been named after a historic Parrott Cannon known as the “Swamp Angel,” which the Union Army used in 1863 to bombard Charleston, South Carolina. Herman Melville, best known for his 1851 novel “Moby Dick,” wrote about the cannon in a poem called “The Swamp Angel.”

Smileyberg was named after business owners Smiley and Berg

Smileyberg is an unincorporated community south of El Dorado in Butler County in south-central Kansas. It got its name as a result of being founded by Thomas Smiley, who established a grocery and dry goods store there, and Barney Berg, who established a blacksmith shop there, according to a history of that county published in 1916, with details being available at ksgenweb.org.

May Day got its original post office designation on May Day

May Day, in northern Riley County, got that name after its original post office designation was secured on a May Day, according to legendsofkansas.com. That post office actually opened on April 13, 1871, that site said. It said only one structure, a school, remains standing from the original city, where the post office closed in 1954 and the last remaining business building, a store, shut down in 1969.

Buttermilk got its name from a blacksmith who loved buttermilk

Buttermilk is an unincorporated community in Comanche County in south-central Kansas. A blacksmith with the last name of “Winningham” lived there and loved consuming buttermilk in large quantities — so much that he was given that nickname and the community was given that name, according to a video posted on YouTube as part of John Wise‘s series, “Travel With a Wiseguy.”

Water availability may have precipitated creek and city’s name of Happy

The city of Happy was founded on the banks of Happy Creek in Graham County in northwest Kansas. “Possibly the availability of water in this high, dry country influenced travelers to call the creek Happy,” said the 1989 book, “2001 Kansas Place Names.” Happy in 1883 was issued a post office, which was discontinued in 1906, according to the Kansas Historical Society.

Canada was a city in Kansas

The city of Canada in Marion County in central Kansas was given that name to attract Canadians, who were told the winters there were “short and mild,” said 2001 Kansas Place Names. Canadians began arriving in 1873 in Canada, which got a post office in 1884. That was discontinued in 1954. The shoe company New Balance in a 2015 ad campaign gave away a pair of a type of sneakers available only in the country of Canada to residents of Canada, Kansas.

Stull has been dogged by demonic rumors

Its name may not be as odd as some of the others, but western Douglas County’s tiny community of Stull has been dogged for decades by rumors that its cemetery is the “Gateway to Hell” and that the community was formerly called Skull. Actually, Stull was called Deer Creek before being named after its only postmaster, Sylvester Stull. It maintained a post office for four years, from 1899 to 1903. Stull Cemetery was the site of a battle between good and evil in a 2010 episode of the superhero TV series “Supernatural,” which aired on the CW.

As reported in the Topeka Capital Journal