The TMP-Marian girls soccer team closed out the regular season by playing to a 0-0 tie with Wichita North Thrusday at the Bickle/Schmidt Sports Complex.
The Monarchs are now 10-3-1. They find out who, where and when they play for regionals next week on Saturday.
Hays High girls soccer team ended their regular season with a 4-1 win over Salina Central Thursday.
Courtney Mollecker scored on a penalty kick in the first then Talyn Kleweno netted three goals in the second.
The Indians end the regular season 7-8-1. They find out their regional pairings on Saturday.
WELLINGTON, Kan. (AP) — A judge has ruled that a Kansas woman accused of stabbing her 10-year-old son to death is competent to stand trial.
Sumner County Attorney Kerwin Spencer said Thursday a judge ruled last week that 33-year-old Lindsey Nicole Blansett was able to assist in her trial on murder and aggravated assault charges. She underwent competency tests at Larned State Hospital in Early April. Blansett on Thursday also waived her preliminary hearing.
Blansett is charged with first-degree premeditated murder in the December 2014 death of her son, Caleb, at their Wellington home.
The Wichita Eagle reports a criminal complaint in the case alleges Blansett decided Caleb’s life would be full of suffering and it would be better for him to go to heaven. She called 911 to report the stabbing.
By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The city of Hays prohibits outdoor watering between the hours of noon and 7 p.m. from June 1 to September 30 every year.
Residents wanting to seed or sod a warm-season lawn during the summer can get a permit from the city, at no charge, which allows watering outdoors during the prohibited hours to establish the new grass.
Currently, the warm season lawn permits allow 10 days of additional watering with no extension.
City Water Conservation Specialist Jason Riegel told city commissioners Thursday night, “10 days isn’t always long enough,” and advocated changing the permits to allow an extension.
“The 10 day permit may need to be extended during certain circumstances to
guarantee warm season vegetation establishment, such as when it’s hot and dry or if the grass is on north facing slopes,” he explained.
“Improved varieties of Bermuda grass may take up to 14 days to germinate when started from seed.”
Commissioners voted to approve Riegel’s recommended change in the ordinance.
Now, when an extension for a warm season lawn permit is requested, city staff will make the decision based on current conditions and the type of lawn planted. Staff may then extend warm season grass watering permits for a period of 10 days as determined by an on-site inspection.
Warm season lawn permits, for grasses including Bermuda and buffalo, are granted June 1 to August 1.
Commissioners decided against increasing the cost of cool season lawn permits, which are $100, and are available August 25 to Sept. 30. Cool season grasses, which require considerably more water, include fescue and Kentucky bluegrass. No cool season lawn permits have been sold the past two years.
“We’re not punishing cool-season lawn owners,” said Commissioner Henry Schwaller, who voted for changing the ordinance but still favors a fee hike for cool season lawn permits.
“We’re saying if you want to plant that kind of yard, you have to pay a little bit more because we’re really trying to discourage that. We’re trying to convert everyone to warm season grass,” he said.
Riegel told commissioners 32 property owners have signed up for “Cash for Grass,” a new rebate program by the city that offers up to $1,000 for converting lawns to warm season grass.
“I did some math,” said Riegel. There are 32 of the approximate 8,500 households in Hays participating this first year–1 in every 218 households.” The city has budgeted enough money to fund 50 rebates. “If we max it, that would be 1 in every 171 households.”
San Diego, where the entire population of California has been ordered to cut water use by 25 percent, has initiated a similar program.
According to Riegel, “San Diego did 350 rebates and has 490,000 households. We have four times the participation in Hays than what it is in San Diego.”
“We’re pretty proud of that,” added City Manager Toby Dougherty.
By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The crosswind runway, 4-22, at the Hays Regional Airport is the one used most by small, lighter-weight planes and will soon undergo rehabilitation.
Hays City Commissioners accepted the recommended low bid for the project Thursday night.
City staff recommended the low bid from National Sealant & Concrete, LLC of Oconto, Wisconsin, in the amount of $651,672.19, contingent upon Federal Aviation Administration grant funding.
According to Hays Public Works Director I.D. Creech, approximately 90 percent of the cost would be reimbursed by the FAA, with the city responsible for the remaining 10 percent.
The base bid and two alternates include removal and replacement of failed pavement panels, repairing spalled joints, repainting the pavement marking and resealing of all the pavement joints on the runway.
The 2015 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) included $76,340 for the city’s share of te project. Based on design costs, bids received, and anticipated construction engineering costs, the city’s actual cost would be $86,780.09, which is $10,440 over what was identified in the 2015 CIP.
“The Airport Improvement Account has adequate funds to finance the project,” Creech assured commissioners.
In addition, the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) of $4.50 per ticketed passenger departing Hays Regional Airport on United Express will be used to reimburse the city’s share over time.
“Eventually, we’ll get all the money back that we’re spending, as long as we have commercial flights at the airport,” he added.
The crosswind runway will be closed during the duration of construction. The main runway will need to be closed for short periods of time while construction occurs within the safety area; however, commercial and other air service will continue during construction.
Commissioners also approved a construction engineering agreement, “a fancy term for ongoing, FAA-certified inspections,” Creech explained, with Burns and McDonnell, the city’s airport engineering consultant. Cost is $99,780, with 90 percent to be funded by the FAA and $9,978 to be funded by the city.
Assuming the timely award of an FAA grant, Creech said construction would be completed before the end of the year.
In other business:
The Hays Police Department responded to 9 animal calls and 22 traffic stops Thursday, May 14, 2015, according to the HPD Activity Log.
May 9
Motor Vehicle Accident-Hit and Run with Private Property, 4300 block Vine, 10:00 a.m.
May 13
Disturbance, 100 block East 15th, 3:30 p.m.
May 14
Driving Under the Influence, 1200 block Vine, 1:57 a.m.
Underage Possession of Cereal Malt Beverage/Liquor, 1200 block Ash, 2:02 a.m.
Abandoned Vehicle, 200 block East 14th, 7:19 a.m.
Criminal Trespass, 100 block East 15th, 7:30 a.m.
Criminal Damage to Property, 100 block East 11th, 2:00 a.m.
Harassment, 200 block West 5th, 10:39 a.m.
Motor Vehicle Accident with Private Property, 4300 block Vine, 11:06 a.m.
Animal Call, 2000 block Metro Lane, 1:17 p.m.
Sex Offense, 200 block East 5th, 1:54 p.m.
Motor Vehicle Accident with Private Property, 4300 block Vine, 6:01 p.m.
Lost Animals, 1700 block Haney Drive, 10:28 p.m.
Isolated thunderstorms are possible this afternoon and evening along and ahead of a dryline as it edges eastward into western Kansas. Any storm that develops may become severe capable of producing quarter to golf ball size hail and damaging winds.
Today A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 7am and 9am. Partly sunny, with a high near 82. Windy, with a 
south wind 7 to 12 mph increasing to 21 to 26 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Tonight A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 64. Breezy, with a south wind 16 to 22 mph.
Saturday Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after noon. Some of the storms could be severe. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Windy, with a south wind 15 to 20 mph increasing to 21 to 26 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Saturday Night Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 7pm. Some of the storms could be severe. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 54. Windy, with a south wind 20 to 26 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Sunday Sunny, with a high near 79. West northwest wind 13 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
Sunday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 48.
Monday Mostly sunny, with a high near 66.
IRVING, Texas (AP) – Kentucky’s visit to Kansas highlights the first Big 12-SEC Challenge to be held while both conferences are in the middle of their league schedules.
The two winningest programs in college basketball will meet for the second straight season on Jan. 30, when all 10 of the matchups will be held. The Wildcats lead the series 22-6 and have won the past three meetings, including the NCAA title game in 2012. But the Jayhawks have beaten Kentucky three straight times at home.
Other first-time matchups in the third year of the challenge series are Georgia-Baylor, Tennessee-TCU, Iowa State-Texas A&M, Oklahoma-LSU, West Virginia-Florida, Oklahoma State-Auburn and Texas Tech-Arkansas in the 96th meeting between former Southwest Conference rivals.
It’s the second meeting in the series for Vanderbilt-Texas and Mississippi-Kansas State.
By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
There were 159 entries in the new Water Quality Poster Contest, a partnership between the City of Hays and KSU Watersheds. The contestants worked with the theme “What’s In Your Water?”, focusing on pollutants in water that are not desirable and create the potential for water to be unsafe to drink.
RELATED: Slideshow of winning entries.
The top three winners in each age group, pre-K through college, were invited to attend the awards presentation at Thursday night’s Hays City Commission meeting.
Cell phones and digital cameras were held up high by beaming parents as the youngsters received recognition from KSU Watershed Specialist Stacie Minson and Hays Stormwater Specialist Steven Walters, and then shook hands with each commissioner.
Under the requirements of the city’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit, Hays is required to provide educational offerings to the community about the value of improving water quality.
In partnership with Kansas State Research and Extension, the poster contest “What’s In Your Water?” was held. Minson commended the students for their “time, ideas, and talent in understanding water quality issues in our community.”
“I feel for this being a new project that it was a success. We look forward to next year and hope we have an even greater success in 2016,” she said.
Vice-mayor Shaun Musil noted “the fourth-graders had the most participation”–61 entries–and said he hoped the students were motivated by visits to their classes by some city commissioners and city staff made earlier in the year.
“Earlier this year, a few of us commissioners went to the schools to do water education and it was great response from the kids. I thought it was very interesting, if you look at the tallies of the kids who participated, it’s the fourth graders who had the most–the classes that we went in to–and I thought that was really great,” Musil pointed out.
“It was nice to see all the winners here tonight.”
The winners received Hays Area Chamber of Commerce Chamber Checks of $50 for first place, $30 for second place or $20 for third place, and a food party for their respective class.
The winning posters, judged by Ellis County Master Gardeners, Hays Optimist Club members and attendees at the Water $mart meetings, are on display in the city commission chambers at Hays City Hall, 1507 Main Street.
TOPEKA – A Lawrence man has been charged with devising a simple – and illegal – scheme that allowed him to collect more than $143,000 in credit card rewards according to U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.
Jawad Obaid, 31, Lawrence, Kan., was indicted Wednesday on ten counts of wire fraud. The indictment alleges he obtained credit cards with Capital One, Chase and U.S. Bank and accessed their rewards program Web sites for the purpose of making Internet purchases from businesses selling goods and services on the sites. In that manner, he generated tens of thousands of reward points from the credit card companies. He cancelled the purchases within 24 hours and used the reward points from the cancelled purchases to redeem cash awards in the form of checks and direct deposits to his accounts.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty 30 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on each count. Homeland Security Investigations investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask is prosecuting.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Ride-hailing company Uber says a compromise with Kansas legislators would allow it stay in the state if the measure passes.
The House expected to vote on the legislation Friday.
Uber announced in early May that it had ceased operations in Kansas after the Legislature overrode the governor’s veto on regulations the company opposed.
Under the new measure, Uber and other ride-hailing companies could do private background checks on their subcontracted drivers under the bill. But they could face lawsuits from the attorney general if drivers were found to be operating with a criminal background.
Republican Rep. Scott Schwab of Olathe said the bill also would fill gaps in insurance coverage for drivers. He said negotiations with the company had been tough and he was relieved a solution was found.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers say they have come to a regulatory agreement that will keep ride-hailing company Uber in the state.
Republican Sen. Jeff Longbine and Republican Rep. Scott Schwab announced at a news conference Thursday that they had come to a deal with all interested parties.
Uber announced in early May that it had ceased operations in Kansas after the Legislature overrode the governor’s veto on regulations the company opposed.
Under the agreement, Uber and other ride-hailing companies would be allowed to do third-party background checks on their subcontracted drivers. But, they would face possible lawsuits from the state attorney general if drivers were found to be operating with a criminal background.
Both chambers are expected to vote on the deal Friday, sending it to the governor to sign.
Hays Fire Department
Tanner Pabst was recently appointed to the position of career Firefighter with the City of Hays Fire Department.
Firefighter Pabst has been serving as a volunteer firefighter since November 2013.
He has an AS degree in computer technology from North Central Kansas Technical College.
Pabst has completed the basic firefighter program and will finish his EMT training this spring.
ELLINWOOD – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 5 p.m. on Thursday in Barton County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by Paul D. Watts, 42, St. John, was eastbound on U.S. 56 three miles west of Ellinwood in the construction zone.
The vehicle didn’t stop in time and rear-ended an eastbound 2012 Chevy pickup driven by Jerry M Standlee, 67, Ellinwood, that was stopped by flagman controlling traffic.
The motorcycle then entered the westbound lane and was struck by a westbound 2012 Ford U-haul driven by John S. Guy, 25, Chandler, Arizona.
Watts was transported to Wesley Medical Center.
Standlee, Guy and two occupants in the Ford were not injured.
Watts was not wearing a helmet according to the KHP.
