September 2015 – Page 18

Arden Franklin Johnson

Posted on September 25, 2015

Arden Franklin Johnson was born on February 10, 1921, the third of four sons, to Arthur and Minnie (Eller) Johnson in Rooks County, Kansas, and passed away September 20, 2015 at Homestead Health Center in Wichita, KS at the age of 94.

Arden grew up working on his family’s farm, and graduated from Kirwin High School with the class of 1939.

Arden was united in marriage to Vivian Grace Kincaid in Woodward, OK, on Sept. 10, 1947. They were blessed with three children: Lois Marie, Richard Jarrell and Betty Jean.

Arden and Vivian lived in Glade, KS, for several years before moving to Phillipsburg, KS, in 1956, where Arden worked for Western Power and Gas Company as a lineman. In 1959 they moved to Conway Springs, KS, where Arden became an isolated serviceman for Western Power. Arden was active in the Lion’s Club and the Chamber of Commerce in Conway Springs. He was also a volunteer fireman for the city. Arden was involved in many community events and played the role of Santa Claus several times for the annual Christmas celebration at City Hall. Church played an important part in Arden’s life. As long as his health permitted he sang in the church choir, men’s quartet and at times traveled with his children to perform at area churches.

Arden and Vivian moved to Medicine Lodge, KS, in 1982 where Arden became a substation operator for Centel (formerly Western Power). Arden worked for Centel until he retired in 1987.

Arden and Vivian celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Sept 10, 1997. Vivian’s health declined over the next several years and Arden became her full time caregiver until her death in 2002. Arden then moved to Wichita, KS, to be closer to his daughter, Lois. He lived independently until his health made it necessary to move to long term care in 2015, where he lived until his death. He was greatly loved and will be greatly missed.

Arden is preceded in death by his parents, wife Vivian, two brothers, Orville and Jarrell. He is survived by his brother Doyle of Glade, KS,; children: Lois Carley and husband Jerry, Wichita, KS, Richard Johnson and wife Kim, Sarasota, FL, Betty Mathewes and husband Charles, Houston, TX; two grandchildren: Brian Johnson and Sarah Mathewes; three great-grandchildren: Cade, Carsyn and Carlie Johnson; and a host of family and friends.

Graveside services will be held Monday, Sept. 28 at 11:30 a.m. in the Marvin Cemetery, Glade with Pastor Forest Cornwell officiating.

Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Monday at the funeral home.

Memorial contributions may be given to the West Side Church of God.

SW Kan. hospital locked down after patient threat from Oakley

Posted on September 25, 2015

Hays Post

SYRACUSE — A patient threat prompted a brief lockdown of the Hamilton County Hospital in Syracuse on Thursday afternoon.

“The threat came by phone from a man in Oakley at one of our providers,” said Rob Rawlings, Hamilton County Hospital chief operations officer.

“Our staff initiated our emergency response protocol and locked-down the hospital until we were sure the patient was not in the area,” he said. “Law enforcement here and in Oakley worked well together to take care of the situation. We were only on lock-down for about 20 minutes.

The hospital CEO and I were actually out of town and our staff did an excellent job of following the planned procedures,” said Rawlings.

No arrests have been made in connection with the threat, according to Officer Ryan Leitner with the Oakley Police Department.

“We don’t plan to release names or anything else at this time,” he said.

Demolition work at new retail development delayed by permitting

Posted on September 25, 2015

Hays Post

Paperwork has delayed demolition at the site of a future retail shopping development in northern Hays.

Chance Reeser of Tebo Properties said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is still reviewing a demolition permit required by the city of Hays prior to work beginning.

“We are hopeful that KDHE approves it on Monday,” he told Hays Post on Friday.

Hays-based Paul-Wertenberger Construction is overseeing the demolition of the unoccupied 4340 Vine building and will continue to prep the site while awaiting the permit to be issued.

Tebo Village will include a freestanding restaurant — Pasta Jay’s — and a 12-storefront retail mall at the northeast corner of 43rd and Vine.

Click HERE for more.

Kan. man dies after motorcycle’s mechanical problem

Posted on September 25, 2015September 25, 2015

Traffic backed up on I-29 in Kansas City as a result of Thursday's fatal accident-MoDot photo — Traffic backed up on I-29 in Kansas City as a result of Thursday’s fatal accident-MoDot photo

PLATT COUNTY, Mo. -A Kansas man died in an accident on Interstate 29 just after 1:30 p.m. on Thursday in Northwest Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2000 Harley Davidson driven by John Bledsoe, 41, Huron, was southbound on Interstate 29 at the Interstate 435 Interchange when it developed a mechanical problem.

The motorcycle began sliding; Bledsoe was ejected and then hit by a 2015 Ford Escape.

Bledsoe was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s office.

A passenger on the motorcycle Michelle Bledsoe, 46, Huron, was transported to North Kansas City Hospital.

The SUV traveled off the road and hit a cable barrier. The driver Cody B. Everett, 28, Jackson, MO., was not injured.

Fighting inequality at the local level

Posted on September 25, 2015

OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer and public speaker.

Inequality isn’t a condition. It’s a creation. Inequality is produced by thousands of decisions deliberately made by bosses, bankers, and big shots to siphon money and power from the many to the few.

We see Wall Street and Washington doing this, but the deepening chasm of inequality in America is also the product of decisions that local elites are making every day. Take Grand Rapids, Michigan, a city largely run by a few billionaire families sharing an entrenched laissez-faire ideology. They oppose heavy-handed government policies — unless you’re poor or working class.

Thus the city’s leaders, who find it unconscionable to hike taxes on the rich, recently socked low-income bus riders with a 16 percent jump in fares. For the 27 percent of people in Grand Rapids who live below the poverty line, that’s a serious chunk of change siphoned right out of their pockets.

Then, the board of directors of the city’s transit agency slipped a siphon tube into the wallets of the agency’s own drivers and mechanics, arbitrarily terminating their pensions. Adding a crude insult to injury, the board simultaneously gave the transit boss a raise — literally stealing from workers to lift the CEO’s salary above $200,000 a year.

When the workers, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, began leafleting bus riders to oppose the fare hike and pension theft, the arrogant boss and autocratic board threatened to arrest and fire them.

Luckily, it’s still legal to exercise your First Amendment rights even in Grand Rapids, so the union won an injunction against this repression. Better yet, the attempted siphoning of money and power has rallied community groups, students, bus riders, and others into a grassroots movement to stop widening the inequality gap and start bridging it.

OtherWords.org columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer and public speaker.

Taking it lying down vs. plain old lying

Posted on September 25, 2015

The Republicans have finally found someone to man up to Donald Trump, who’s threatening to turn their presidential primaries into a Saturday Night Live skit. She’s a woman.

At the latest Republican debate, with a stage-full of candidates straining at the leash to distinguish themselves by puncturing the balloon that is The Donald, it was Carly Fiorina — and only Carly Fiorina — who coolly stepped forward to reveal his one-man clown show for what it was.

The moderator had asked Fiorina to respond to Trump’s insulting critique of her looks. Dripping with contempt, she noted Trump’s habit of backing away from statements like that by pleading misunderstanding, as he already had with his crack about Fiorina’s face. Then she said:

“Women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”

Pow! Right in the kisser. The message behind that simple sentence was clear: “You, sir, are a cheap liar and a punk.”

It got her the warmest applause of the night.

Later, Fiorina took center stage again during a general bashing of Planned Parenthood as she told the story of a video surreptitiously taken at a Planned Parenthood clinic. It showed, she claimed, “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”

Clearly a chilling and horrific story. Even I, a Planned Parenthood supporter, could see why these wonderful, moral Republicans wanted to defund the organization.

Except there’s no such video. Fiorina was lying.

It wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t a misunderstanding. It was a deliberate lie designed to make a political point more forcefully. Shame on her.

The Republican Party finally gets someone who can stand up to Trump’s lies — and it turns out she’s a liar, too.

Fiorina wasn’t the only candidate who took on Trump at the debate. Jeb Bush, who was the front-runner out of the starting gate and has been losing ground ever since, was easily the most pathetic of the also-rans.

Trump’s been driving him crazy for weeks now, ridiculing him at every turn, and it’s begun to get to the former Florida governor. A couple of weeks ago, when asked about Trump, Bush complained:

“He attacks me every day with nonsense, with things that aren’t true. He tries to personalize everything. If you are not totally in agreement with him, you’re an idiot, or stupid, or you have no energy, or blah, blah, blah. That’s what he does.”

Which is the political equivalent of saying “That bad man is being mean to me. Make him stop.”

Is that who you want going eyeball-to-eyeball with Putin or the Ayatollah?

Give Bush this, though: He didn’t give up. He took another crack at Trump at the debate, this time in defense of his wife.

Trump had insinuated that Bush perhaps had a soft spot for Mexicans on the immigration issue because of his wife, who’s Mexican-American.

Bush came out breathing fire. “To subject (sic) my wife into the middle of a raucous political conversation was completely inappropriate,” he said. Then, addressing Trump directly, he added:

“She’s right in the audience. Why don’t you apologize right now?”

Trump said no. And Bush…said pretty much nothing.

If being called an influence on her husband is the worst thing she has to endure in this campaign, Columba Bush is one lucky political wife. As a wise man once wrote: “Politics ain’t beanbag.”

But if you demand that an opponent apologize, there should be an “or” afterward. Apologize or “I’ll punch you in the face.” Or “I’ll challenge you to a duel.” Or “I’ll pour coffee on your head.” Something.

There was nothing. Which was pretty much the case with all the candidates, save Carly Fiorina — and she lied.

OtherWords.org columnist Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Mich.

New Utilities Director named for Hays

Posted on September 25, 2015

Johnny O'Connor, Hays Director of Utilities — Johnny O’Connor, Hays Director of Utilities

City of Hays

City Manager Toby Dougherty has announced the appointment of Johnny O’Connor as the new Director of Utilities for the City of Hays. O’Connor is currently serving as the Assistant Director of Utilities.

In announcing the appointment, City Manager Dougherty stated, “Johnny has a strong background in the water/wastewater field as well as excellent leadership, management, and organizational skills.”

O’Connor started his employment with the City of Hays November 10, 2014, as the Assistant Director of Utilities. Before joining the City of Hays, O’Connor worked as the City Superintendent of Attica, Kan. and as the Operation Supervisor for the City of Wichita. He received his Master of Business Administration from Friends University.

GOP lawmakers: House Speaker John Boehner to resign

Posted on September 25, 2015

ERICA WERNER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a stunning move, House Speaker John Boehner informed Republicans that he would step down at the end of October.

Rep. John Mica said Friday that Boehner “just does not want to become the issue. Some people have tried to make him the issue both in Congress and outside.”

Boehner took over the speakership in January 2011.

HPD Activity Log Sept. 24

Posted on September 25, 2015September 25, 2015

The Hays Police Department responded to 10 animal calls and 15 traffic stops Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015, according to the HPD Activity Log.

MV Accident-City Street/Alley–700 block Elm St, Hays; 9/23 8:15 PM
Assist – Other (not MV)–2200 block Canterbury Dr, Hays; 5:27 AM
Animal At Large–2500 block Virginia Dr, Hays; 8:12 AM
Suspicious Activity–1700 block Hall St, Hays; 8:54 AM
Welfare Check–500 block W 17th St, Hays; 9:13 AM
Shoplifting–4300 block Vine St, Hays; 9:28 AM
Shoplifting–4300 block Vine St, Hays; 10:08 AM
Animal At Large–1300 block Felten Dr, Hays; 10:24 AM
MV Accident-Hit and Run–200 block E 12th St, Hays; 10:25 AM
Warrant Service (Fail to Appear)–200 block of E 10th St, Hays; 11:26 AM
Animal At Large–3300 block Vine St, Hays; 11:58 AM
Drug Offenses–200 block E 5th St, Hays; 11:08 AM
Parking Complaint–500 block Riley St, Hays; 1:08 PM
Unlawful Use of Weapon–200 block W 17th St, Hays; 1:07 PM
Animal At Large–700 block W 12th St, Hays; 1:46 PM
Animal At Large–2700 block Epworth St, Hays; 2:05 PM
Traffic/Driving Complaint–Ellis County; 3:11 PM
Assist – Other (not MV)–1200 block Fort St, Hays; 4:01 PM
Shoplifting–4300 block Vine St, Hays; 4:05 PM
Shoplifting–2900 block Vine St, Hays; 4:53 PM; 4:55 PM
Welfare Check–2700 block Colonial St, Hays; 5:11 PM
Suspicious Activity–400 block Halladay St, Hays; 5:32 PM
Animal Call–2400 block Walnut St, Hays; 6:40 PM
Burglary/vehicle–2900 block Vine St, Hays; 5 PM; 7 PM
Disturbance – Noise–300 block W 9th St, Hays; 8:23 PM
Domestic Disturbance–500 block W 17th St, Hays; 9:05 PM
Disturbance – Noise–400 block W 7th St, Hays; 11:11 PM
Disturbance – General–3400 block Vine St, Hays; 11:22 PM

First of three massive electric generators moves through Hays

Posted on September 25, 2015

Midwest Energy

The first of three massive electric generators is making the slow journey from the Hays rail yard near Vine Street to the Goodman Energy Center.

Plans call for the first 150-ton generator to make the trip Friday morning after 8 a.m., with another following on Saturday morning and the final engine following on Sunday.

Pilot vehicles will guide the generators up Vine Street and turn west on 27th Street. On 27th, they’ll travel to the US-183 bypass and over the I-70 bridge and continue north on 230th Avenue. Midwest Energy crews will raise power lines where needed along the route, to allow the generators to safely pass underneath.

Motorists on those roads during these times are asked to exercise extreme caution near the convoy. As the convoy moves at just above walking speed, drivers in a hurry should consider alternate routes.

The generators were manufactured in Europe by Finnish engine maker Wärtsilä. They arrived at the Port of Houston earlier this month, and traveled to Hays on rail cars. Valued at nearly $5 million each, they are the centerpiece of the $30 million expansion at the Goodman Energy Center north of Hays, which will see the plant’s capacity grow from 76 megawatts up to 102 megawatts, enough to power more than 15,000 homes. The expansion should be complete and operational in early 2016.

$30.26M loan agreement with KDHE approved for wastewater treatment plant

Posted on September 25, 2015September 25, 2015

Finance Director Kim Rupp explains the $30.26M KDHE loan for the wastewater treatment plant upgrade.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

It’s going to cost $30,260,000 to upgrade the city of Hays’ wastewater treatment plant.

City commissioners voted unanimously Thursday night approving an ordinance authoring a Kansas Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund (SRF) Loan with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) to pay for the project.

City Finance Director Kim Rupp, aided by David Arteberry of George K. Baum & Co., determined the SRF is the best source of funding for the project costs.

Rupp explained to commissioners the city has 20 years to pay back the loan with semi-annual payments.

Rupp expects the interest rate will be locked in at 2.27 percent. The estimated annual payments will be $1,894,312. Estimated total interest will be $7,626,235.

Sewer rates for Hays customers will triple over the next six years to help finance the wastewater plant renovation as well as replacement of aging sewer lines.

The Hays waste water plant was originally constructed in 1953, expanded in 1967, and last improved in the early 1990s. The facility has reached the end of its useful life and more stringent federal and state environmental regulations continue to force the plant to meet lower effluent limits.

HDR Engineering, Inc. was hired in April 2015 to identify improvements and costs for renovating the plant to meet current regulations as well as those regulations anticipated to be promulgated in the next five to ten years.

Annual Memorial Youth Upland Hunt set for Oct. 10

Posted on September 25, 2015

Submitted

On Oct. 10, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, in cooperation with Smoky Hill Pheasants Forever No. 424, will host the annual youth upland hunt in memory of a former volunteers Darrell Brown, La Vern Steiben, LeRoy Culbreath and Sid Carlile.

The event will be held at Hays City Sportsman Club, Interstate 70 Exit 157.

The hunt is for youth between 12 and 18 years of age. Each youth hunter will have the opportunity to harvest at least four birds while hunting over some fantastic pointing dogs.

The participants do not only hunt, but are mentored on a variety of other subjects. They receive instructions on how to hunt with pointing dogs, field safety, how hunting dogs are trained, gun handling, how to clean and prepare the birds they harvested, and what type of habitat to look for when hunting upland birds.

The D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program is also incorporated into the event.

Special hunts like this one are part of the Kansas Hunter Recruitment and Retention Program called “PASS IT ON.” This program addresses the need to recruit new hunters and retain existing hunters in order to ensure the future of hunting.

For more information or to register, contact Shayne Wilson at (785) 628-1415 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. There is no charge for the hunt.

Hyundai recalls 470,000 vehicles to fix big engine problem

Posted on September 25, 2015September 25, 2015

DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai is recalling nearly a half-million midsize cars in the U.S. to replace key engine parts because a manufacturing problem could cause them to fail.

The recall covers 470,000 Sonata sedans from the 2011 and 2012 model years equipped with 2-liter or 2.4-liter gasoline engines.

The company says metal debris may not have been removed from the crankshaft. That can restrict oil flow to the connecting rod bearings, causing them to fail. If that happens, the engines could stall and cause a crash.

Dealers will inspect the cars and replace engine assemblies if necessary for free. The company also will increase the engine warranty for 10 years or 120,000 miles.

Owners will be notified Nov. 2 and the recall will start when parts are available.