By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

Construction on the western portion of Old U.S. 40 in Ellis County took another step forward Monday night when the county commission approved bids for phase one and two of the project.

The first phase of the project from Yocemento to Ellis is mostly considered safety improvements – widening culverts and installing more guard fence, according to Tom Bennet, vice president of BG Consultants. That contract was awarded to Sporer Land Development of Oakley for $609,000.

Phase 2 was awarded to APAC-Kansas for $1.13 million. Bennett said the majority of phase 2 is hot-mix asphalt surfacing.

Both bids came in below the engineer’s estimate, and Bennett said they hope to use the savings from phase 1 to determine the thickness of the asphalt in phase two. The saving from the first two phases would go to pay for three additional alternates.

The major alternate would be a 1-inch asphalt leveling course. Because the cost to mill the current road is expensive, they will instead use the asphalt surfacing and the leveling course to improve the road surface. The leveling course is expected to cost $458,298. It will be approved, by the commission as a change order if funds are available.

The other alternates would be to extend asphalt on side roads to the railroad tracks north, to keep mud from dirt roads being tracked onto the highway. The contractor did the same thing with side roads on the eastern portion of the project, from Toulon to Victoria.

BG Consultants will present the commission with the official contracts to sign later this month. Once they are approved, construction could begin later this year.

In other business, the commission:

• Heard a request from Treasurer Ann Pfeifer to fill two full-time and one part-time positions.

• Met in an executive session with Randal Allen from the Kansas Associations of Counties to discuss non-elected personnel issues. No action was taken.

FHSU University Relations and Marketing

Mehran Shahidi was named director of intercultural integration at Fort Hays State University by Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Graham Glynn.

Glynn said Shahidi, who served as the director of English as a second language (ESL), will now expand his role to support international students.

His role is serving as the primary point of contact and providing cultural and settlement support for international students. He will also develop and implement programs to encourage cultural interchange within the FHSU and Hays communities.

Amanda Ergun will fill Shahidi’s previous position as director of the ESL program. Ergun previously served as assistant director of the ESL program.

The Hays Police Department responded to 6 animal calls and 7 traffic stops Monday, Sept. 28, 2015, according to the HPD Activity Log.

Suspicious Vehicle–1500 block US 183 Alt Hwy, Hays; 1:55 AM
Abandoned Vehicle–700 block Walnut St, Hays; 4:38 AM
Abandoned Vehicle–200 block block E 17th St, Hays; 6:42 AM
MV Accident-City Street/Alley–1200 block Canterbury Dr, Hays; 7:48 AM
Assist – Other (not MV)–1200 block Fort St, Hays; 8:13 AM
Criminal Damage to Property–1200 block Walnut St, Hays; 9/25 4 PM; 9/28 8:30 AM
Truancy–200 block W 29th St, Hays; 9:51 AM
Theft of Services–200 block E 5th St, Hays; 9/17 12 PM; 9/28 11:30 AM
Criminal Damage to Property–2200 block Centennial Blvd, Hays; 9/27 12 PM; 9/28 12:14 PM
Shoplifting–4300 block Vine St, Hays; 8/24 4:40 PM; 8/24 4:41 PM
Fraud–200 block W 5th St, Hays; 1:35 PM
Fire–3100 block Thunderbird Dr, Hays; 1:15 PM; 1:50 PM
THEF – Theft (general)–2200 block Canterbury Dr, Hays; 1:50 PM
Animal Call–2500 block Virginia Dr, Hays; 2:0 PM
MV Accident-Private Property–4300 block Vine St, Hays; 2:48 PM
Warrant Service (Fail to Appear)–1000 block Fort St, Hays; 3:12 PM
Juvenile Complaint–2700 block Fort St, Hays; 3:48 PM
Found/Lost Property–Hays; 4:19 PM
Suicidal Subject–3600 block Vine St, Hays; 4:46 PM
Driving Under the Influence–4300 block Vine St, Hays; 5:09 PM
Disturbance – Noise–700 block E 6th St, Hays; 6:43 PM
Civil Dispute–2200 block Canterbury Dr, Hays; 7:11 PM
Civil Dispute–300 block E 20th St, Hays; 7:34 PM
Criminal Damage to Property–Hays; 9/26 5 PM; 9/28 8 AM
Driving Under the Influence–2500 block Vine St, Hays; 7:39 PM

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

Last Tuesday, Fort Hays State University issued a safety advisory notifying the FHSU community of an alleged sexual assault that had occurred the previous Sunday. That alert reached more than 6,200 students in less than a minute, an analysis shows.

The Emergency Notification System is part of the FHSU Crisis Management Plan that allows FHSU to provide almost instantaneous alerts to the campus community.

Rave Mobile Safety, the contract agent for the system, provides diagnostics of alerts, which allow for later analysis.

Of the 6,913 individuals who have provided a telephone number to receive text alerts, 98 percent had been received within three minutes and more than 6,200 received the alert within a minute the analysis shows.

Of the 12,537 individuals who provided an email address for the system, 95 percent had received the alert over email within six minutes.

Telephone calls, typically the slowest delivery method, were placed to 11,648 individuals who had signed up for the phone alerts. While tracking how many received the calls is not possible, all calls had been placed within six minutes.

Members of the FHSU community can provide current information for the alert system in the FHSU central online platform, Tiger Tracks.

No further details about the alleged sexual abuse have been made available.

Ellis County Sheriff

The Ellis County Drug Enforcement Unit collected 394 pounds of unused or unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medicine since the last event, most of which was surrendered on Saturday during the National Drug Take Back fall initiative.

Two sites were manned by officers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“We’d like to thank the community again for its overwhelming response to this initiative. Since the DEA first launched the Take Back program five years ago, the residents of Ellis County have turned out in droves to support it,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “This is the best way to keep drugs highly susceptible to misuse or abuse from getting into the wrong hands.”

The Drug Enforcement Unit plans to continue to give people a more environmentally responsible and secure way to dispose of medication. The sheriffs office will take medicine at the law enforcement center throughout the year during regular business hours.

The department, however, cannot accept aerosols, sharps containers or syringes.