The 20th annual Wild West Festival will celebrate Independence Day with a bang on Friday with what is billed as the largest fireworks show in the region.
The free Fireworks Spectacular is set to light up the sky at 10 p.m. Friday
Before that, however, there’s music and baseball to be played.
The Wild West Festival Baseball tournament will be played at Larks Park, as well as fields at Hays High School and Thomas More Pre-Marian.
Kids 15 and younger also are invited for a free swim day at Hays Aquatic Park from noon to 7 p.m. There also will be an Aquatic Fitness Mixer at the water park from 9:30 to 11 a.m., where a variety of water workouts will be demonstrated.
Early today, there is a very slight chance for non-severe thunderstorms, then another slight chance tonight.
Otherwise, today will continue the steady warming trend, with high temperatures forecast to climb near 90. It will be a rather breezy day, with sustained speeds averaging 15 to 25 MPH with higher gusts.
It will warm up Saturday through Monday, soaring to the mid to upper 90s each day.
Independence Day: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. Windy, with a south southeast wind 14 to 19 mph increasing to 21 to 26 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 36 mph.
Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 69. South southeast wind around 17 mph.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 97. South wind around 16 mph.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 69. South wind 11 to 15 mph.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 97. South wind 7 to 13 mph.
At Thursday’s Hays City Commission work session, commissioner’s received a recommendation from staff to move the city from a stage two water warning to a stage one water watch.
According to Director of Utilities Bernie Kitten, the Smoky Hill River recently received a substantial amount of rainfall, which caused the river to flow near Schoenchen for the first time in three years. The river provides water to the Smoky Hill well field, one of the main well fields for the city of Hays.
“That rain is going to help the river flow quite a bit longer. It really helped us,” Kitten said.
City Manager Toby Dougherty also mentioned that the Smoky Hill well field is the “main catalyst” for the preemptive move to a Water Warning that the city made this year. He said that, according to predictions made in May, the Smoky Hill wellfields were within a day of hitting warning status, but the rainfalls helped with the recharge significantly.
“The drought probably can’t get any worse than what we’ve had the past two summers, so we have a lot of confidence according to these predictions,” Kitten said.
The rainfall didn’t change the pumping wells in the city, but they do remain above a watch level. The Big Creek wells, which are located closer to the center of Hays, haven’t really changed that much either because they receive water directly from rainfall that goes through the city’s water depository’s. Kitten said that they require several small rainfalls in order to recharge.
“We have a long way to go with the Big Creek well field,” Dougherty said. “While the Big Creek wells are no longer as close to water watch as they were before, they still remain in the low end of normal operation, and it will take them a lot longer to recover than the Smoky Hill well fields.”
The current drought forecast released by the National Weather Service also says that the Hays area is “at a line” of possibly going out of the current drought.
Due to these factors, Kitten said staff does believe that the water warning can be removed. Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the move at next week’s regular meeting.
GREAT BEND- Just after 1:30 on Thursday morning officers from the Great Bend Police Department conducted a traffic stop in the 3500 block of 10th Street.
The Great Bend Police Department K-9 unit was called to the scene and approximately four grams of methamphetamine were found.
The driver of the vehicle Tyler Boeck, 26, was arrested and booked into the Barton County Jail.
This case is still under investigation and anybody with information is requested to call the Great Bend Police Department at 620-793-4120 or Crime Stoppers at 620-792-1300 or 888-305-1300.
HAYS- Two women from Southern California were injured in an accident at 9:30 Thursday evening on Interstate 70 in Ellis County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Chevy Traverse driven by Joyce Hopkins, 48, Burbank, CA., was eastbound on Interstate 70 five miles east of Hays and rear ended a 2005 Honda Pilot driven by Jennifer Twigg, 47, Parker, CO.
Hopkins and a passenger in the Chevy Hanna Morrow, 22, Burbank, CA., were transported to Hays Medical Center.
Twigg was not injured.
The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Google says the number of requests from people seeking to have some search results removed in Europe has jumped to 70,000 by the end of June.
The Internet giant said Thursday each application on average asks for the removal of almost four links, meaning experts have to evaluate more than a quarter million requests.
The company last month said it had received about 50,000 requests since May 29. Since that time, another 20,000 requests have come in. It says it currently receives about 1,000 per day.
Google has to comply with a strict privacy ruling made in May by the European Union’s top court that enables citizens to ask for the removal of embarrassing personal information that pops up on a search of their names.
TOPEKA – Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback today issued the following message in advance of Independence Day:
“America’s founders built this nation on a series of self-evident truths about natural rights and the purpose of government. They fought long and hard to win American liberty and the right to self-government. We have a responsibility to guard that inheritance carefully.
“As we celebrate our freedom this weekend, I encourage everyone to enjoy a safe holiday. Please do not drink and drive and be cautious while using fireworks.
BELLVILLE, Kan- Two people were injured in a crash just after 6 p.m. on Thursday in Republic County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1996 Chevy pickup driven by Larry L. Heald, 71, Concordia, was traveling eastbound at the intersection of Marble Road and U.S. 81 one mile north of Bellville.
The truck entered the intersection and struck a northbound 2013 Chrysler Journey driven by Leonard M. Boguslaw, 62, Grand Island, NE. The Chrysler overturned and came to rest in the east ditch.
Boguslaw and a passenger Ruby M. Boguslaw, 60, Grand Island were transported to Republic County Hospital. Heald was not injured.
The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that midlevel dental providers such as dental therapists working in nonprofit public settings can expand access to care in underserved communities while more than paying for themselves with the revenue they generate.
The report, Expanding the Dental Team: Increasing Access to Care in Public Settings, released by the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign and partly funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, examined the experiences of two public nonprofits with dental therapists:
• Alaska’s Norton Sound Health Corp., a tribally owned and operated nonprofit health care organization that deploys dental therapists to distant rural locations.
• People’s Center Health Services, a federally qualified health center in Minneapolis, Minn., that hired a dental therapist to expand access to dental care for low-income patients.
During 2012 in Alaska, two dental therapists working for Norton Sound Health Corp. provided care to 1,352 patients, many of whom received regular access to dental care for the first time. The revenues the two dental therapists brought in exceeded the costs of their employment by a combined $216,000.
In Minnesota, the dental therapist hired by People’s Center Health Services worked with 1,756 patients during the study year, generating net revenues of more than $30,000. These results have led the clinic to hire a second dental therapist to address further unmet needs.
Compared to dentists, dental therapists perform fewer procedures, require less training and command lower salaries. Research has confirmed that they provide high-quality, cost-effective routine care and improve access to treatment in parts of the country where dentists are scarce.
In Kansas, advocates have asked legislators to approve the licensing of mid-level dental practitioners during each of the last four sessions, but that legislation has not passed.
As part of the solution to the dental care crisis, midlevel dental providers help expand the reach of the dental care team and increase access to dental care especially for low-income adults and children, people of color, and people living in rural areas. They have been working in Alaska since 2004 and in Minnesota since 2011, and Maine recently authorized midlevel providers to practice.
The Pew report also reviewed California’s Virtual Dental Home demonstration program, which deploys dental hygienists to work with dentists via telehealth to conduct screenings and serve patients in community settings such as schools, Head Start programs and nursing homes.
JUNCTION CITY- First responders have been on the scene of a motorcycle accident on Interstate 70 in Geary County.
Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf told said that it was a single motorcycle accident near mile marker 296.
One person was transported to Geary Community Hospital with unspecified injuries. Traffic was backed up and moving slow as emergency responders work to clear the scene
Check Hays Post for more information at it becomes available.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 5-month-old American black bear cub orphaned in Oregon has found a new home in northeast Kansas.
Topeka Zoo director Brendan Wiley announced Thursday that the zoo acquired the female bear in late May. The bear’s name is Independence — or Indie for short.
Wiley told The Topeka Capital-Journal an 11-year-old boy found the cub May 22 near the southwest Oregon town of Myrtle Creek. She was malnourished and dehydrated, and after a night at the local police station, wildlife officials contacted the Topeka Zoo.
Indie arrived in the Kansas capital May 29. She’s been living in an enclosed housing unit in the zoo’s black bear habitat since.
When the Wild West Festival is up and running, officers from the Hays Police Department is, as well.
“The majority of our people are required to work this weekend because there are so many activities going on; the WWF itself, the parade, the 5Ks, all that activity,” said Chief Don Scheibler.
Scheibler said the festival usually runs smoothly — something he credits with the people who run the show.
“The Wild West Festival organization does such a good job bringing everything together and that pretty much runs itself,” he said. “The Kiwanis do a good job with the beer garden and making sure it is run properly. … Our job is just to be there in case something happens, to provide a safe and secure environment so everyone can enjoy themselves.”
Scheibler added the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office, the Fort Hays State University Police and the Hays Fire Department are all are working together for the show’s grand finale — the WWF fireworks show Friday night.
