Hays city commissioners applaud HaysMed for receiving the Commercial Water$mart Award from the Hays Beautification Committee.
HAYSMED
HaysMed was the recipient of the 2016 Water $mart Landscape Award for commercial landscapes.
Bob Schumacher and Randy Major, HaysMed Grounds Department Associates, accepted the award from Hays Mayor Eber Phelps during the July 14 city commission work session.
The award is sponsored by the Hays Beautification Committee in conjunction with the City of Hays with categories for both residential and commercial landscapes. The award is based on water smart landscaping that exemplifies superior design and follows the seven principles of water smart landscaping. Those principles include: planning and design, low water use plants, practical turf areas, efficient irrigation, solid amendment, mulches and maintenance.
HaysMed has converted the majority of the hospital grounds to environmentally friendly landscaping. This type of landscaping reduces erosion, improves habitat and also reduces the use of water. The project reduced six acres of fescue grass to one acre thus substantially reducing outside water while maintaining an attractive grounds presentation for patients, families and the public.
In addition the hospital incorporated a water barrel tree watering system.
A state Senate race in the Topeka area shows how complicated this election cycle can be for some candidates. Kansas Republicans are running at a time when polls are showing the state’s Republican governor — and the Legislature itself — with pretty low
Photo by Stephen Koranda/Kansas Public Radio There’s a rematch in the Republican primary for the 20th District Kansas Senate seat between Joe Patton, left, and incumbent Vicki Schmidt. Unlike in 2012, this year both are trying to keep their distance from Gov. Sam Brownback’s policies, which according to recent polls are unpopular with a majority of Kansans.
Senator Vicki Schmidt, a moderate Republican from Topeka’s 20th District, is not shy about the fact that she often doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Gov. Sam Brownback.
“My job is to represent the people in my district, and when the people in my district do not think that certain policies are the right way to go, then I’m not going to be with the governor,” Schmidt said.
Issues like taxes, abortion and the budget caused a rift in the Republican Party leading up to the 2012 elections. In the primary, Schmidt was on one side of the gap and conservative Republican House member Joe Patton was on the other.
Schmidt narrowly beat Patton and survived a purge of moderate Republicans fueled by political advocacy groups and the governor.
This year, there’s a rematch. Patton has been out of the Legislature since the last race. Sometimes these days, he doesn’t sound that different from Schmidt.
“When I began to look what was going on over here at the Capitol, they were deficit financing. They’re underfunding education. They’re robbing from the highway fund. They’re robbing from KPERS. It’s a mess,” Patton said.
Crossing ideological lines
Both Patton and Schmidt are trying to appeal to voters who have some concerns about the way things are going in Kansas.
“I know people are concerned about gun control, but I really think the underlying problem is a mental illness that is not being treated accurately,” said Cheryl, a voter in Schmidt’s district who didn’t want to use her last name. “Mentally ill people are definitely needing our help.”
Schmidt said she hasn’t supported cuts to mental health services.
If she’d gone along with Brownback and conservative leaders, though, she would have voted for more trimming.
“If I were ‘more Republican’ and voted the policies that the Republicans have put forward in the last couple years, I would have voted to cut schools, I would have voted for block grant funding, I would have voted for the largest sales tax increase in history, I would have voted for borrowing from KPERS,” Schmidt said.
“Endorsements are less important in this current political environment.”
– Brownback spokesperson Melika Willoughby
Take a step back in time to 2012, and Patton was in the room when Brownback signed into law the massive income tax cuts.
Fast forward to today and Patton is talking up a time he pushed back against Brownback. His website explains how the governor wanted to close the Kansas Neurological Institute in Topeka, a state facility for people with developmental disabilities. Patton offered an amendment on the floor that restored the funding.
“I think it’s important that we do things that are right regardless of the political consequences,” Patton said.
Some groups allied with the governor, like the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, endorsed Patton in 2012 and again this year, but Patton’s making a sales pitch aimed at crossing ideological lines to attract 20th District voters.
“They really don’t concern themselves so much with party labels or factions. They want somebody who can get the job done,” Patton said. “Quite frankly, some of these issues are not liberal, moderate or conservative. You just have to get the government to work, and I can do that.”
Current environment
Move on to other legislative races, and you might see moderate challengers trying to connect conservative incumbents to the governor. Many conservative incumbents, meanwhile, aren’t talking about Brownback.
When asked if the governor would be endorsing any candidates in the GOP primary, Brownback spokesperson Melika Willoughby wouldn’t directly say.
“Endorsements are less important in this current political environment,” Willoughby said.
Willoughby sounds confident that Brownback’s allies will do well, even in an environment where a recent poll shows almost three quarters of Kansans having an unfavorable view of the governor.
“Kansas Republicans have overwhelmingly chosen to elect pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, small-government candidates in the last three election cycles, and they will likely do so again this year,” she said.
Conservative candidates want to be associated with some of those positions, but they’re being careful in this election cycle about their associations with Brownback.
TOPEKA – Elusive Pokemon GO characters have been spotted at many Kansas state parks and nature centers, and there’s no better time to join the chase. The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) welcomes Pokemon hunters stalking the virtual critters that have popped up at some of the most picturesque and educational places in Kansas. The game is an exciting new way to get outdoors and enjoy all that natural Kansas has to offer.
“Pokemon GO is both fun and distracting, so we encourage players to use common sense and follow certain safety precautions while on a Pokemon quest,” said Linda Lanterman, State Parks Director.
Some of the basic safety rules include:
Be aware of your surroundings, especially along trails, roads, cliffs, stream banks and lakes. It is important to watch where you place your feet to avoid a fall, poison ivy or a venomous snake.
Stay on trails and don’t drive off roads into unauthorized areas.
Don’t trespass on private property which may be adjacent to park boundaries, and don’t enter someone else’s campsite or recreational vehicle.
Don’t operate a vehicle or boat while distracted by the game. Watch for pedestrians, bicyclists and wildlife along roads, around boat docks and in parking areas.
State park entrance fees still apply. Any vehicle entering a Kansas state park must have either an annual entrance permit or a daily entrance permit. The daily entrance permit is $5 and is available at the entrance gatehouse or kiosk. All state parks are open 24 hours, except for Kaw River State Park, which is open from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and Prairie Spirit Trail, which is open during daylight hours only. Players can use the self-pay stations if a park office is closed.
KDWPT sports 26 state parks and six nature centers where visitors can enjoy the outdoors and learn about the natural history of Kansas. For information about the state parks and nature centers, visit ksoutdoors.com and click on either State Parks or Education.
DERBY, Kan. – The Hays Larks hit seven home runs and cruised to a 17-4 rout of Derby Saturday night, sweeping the two game series at Panther Field as well as the season series with the Twins. Nate Olinger and Garrett McKinzie both hit two homers while Austin O’Brien, Mike Mioduszewski and Jacob Boston all hit one. The Larks (33-9, 29-9 JL) pounded out a season-high 20 hits while matching their season-high in runs scored to maintain their one-game lead over Liberal in the Jayhawk League second half.
McKinzie had a career-high five hits and drove in three and scored four times. He hit a solo homer in the Larks two-run second then a two-run shot in a five-run fourth inning. O’Brien also hit a two-run blast and Mioduszewski a solo shot in the fourth.
Olinger had four hits and drove in five and scored four runs. He hit a solo homer in the fifth inning and a three-run blast in the ninth. Boston added a solo homer in the four-run ninth.
Mioduszewski finished with three hits and now has 11 over the last three games. Ty Redington had a hit to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.
Shane Browning (3-1) scattered four hits over five innings with three walks and a strikeout and picked up the win in his second start of the season.
The Larks, who have Sunday off, open a three-game series with Dodge City Monday at Larks Park. Tuesday’s game is in Dodge City before the final Wednesday in Hays.
DICKINSON COUNTY – One person was injured in an accident just before 7 p.m. on Saturday in Dickinson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Ford Econoline Van driven by William B Wallett, 45, Senoia, GA, was eastbound on Interstate 70 eight miles east of Abilene.
The van traveled into the median, struck a guardrail and rolled coming to rest into the westbound lanes.
A passenger Cooper B. Lynn Sr., 36, Dixon, CA., was transported to the hospital in Abilene. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
Wallett and another passenger refused transport for treatment.
Yordano Ventura pitches in Saturday’s game vs. Texas. (Courtesy Kansas City Royals / Chris Vleisides)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cole Hamels allowed one unearned run in 5 1/3 innings, Nomar Mazara and Adrian Beltre homered and the Texas Rangers defeated the Kansas City Royals 7-4 on Saturday night.
Hamels, who is 6-1 with a 2.24 ERA in his past nine starts, limited the Royals to five hits, struck out four and walked three. Hamels (11-2) lowered his ERA to 2.87, which is tied for third in the American League.
The Rangers picked up only their fifth victory in 20 games.
Mazara homered in the fourth with Jurickson Profar, who had walked, aboard, which was the first hit off Royals starter Yordano Ventura. Mazara, who tops all American League rookies with 25 games with multiple hits and 141 total bases, doubled to center in the fifth, scoring Delino DeShields.
Beltre, a career .363 hitter at Kauffman Stadium, hit a three-run homer in the Rangers’ four-run seventh off Joakim Soria. Ian Desmond singled in the first run of the inning. Soria has allowed six runs in his past two outings and has a 9.72 ERA in his past nine relief appearances.
Ventura was struck in the right rib cage by a Beltre laser to end the fifth. After Ventura threw to first base, he collapsed to the ground in pain and was attended to by trainer Nick Kenney. X-rays were negative, but Ventura did not come out for the sixth. Ventura (6-8) gave up three runs on three hits and four walks while striking out five.
Cheslor Cuthbert doubled with one out in the first, extending his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games and took third on Mazara’s fielding error. Cuthbert scored on Eric Hosmer’s groundout for the only run off Hamels.
The Royals scored three runs in the ninth on four singles and a bases-loaded walk before Salvador Perez grounded into a double play to end the game.
RANGERS ADD DUFFY
The Rangers claimed 1B Matt Duffy off waivers from the Astros and assigned him to their Triple-A Round Rock club. Duffy, 27, hit .294 with 20 home runs, 29 doubles and 104 RBIs last season with Fresno in the Pacific Coast League. He was hitless in three at-bats this season with Houston.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rangers: LHP Derek Holland, who is on the 60-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation, threw his first bullpen session, 25 pitches, since going on the DL. If he has no setbacks, Holland could begin a minor league rehab assignment in early August.
Royals: LHP Mike Minor, who had labrum surgery in 2015, threw a simulated game but has yet to pitch in a big league game this season.
UP NEXT
Rangers: RHP A.J. Griffin will be working on five days’ rest Sunday after a no-decision Monday at the Angels.
Royals: RHP Edinson Volquez is 0-2 with an 8.22 ERA in three career starts against the Rangers, his first club.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas students will spend less time taking tests under recently announced changes.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the Kansas State Department of Education is reducing the total required material to be assessed by 60 percent next school year. Education officials said the changes follow conversations with superintendents, principals, teachers and advocacy groups during the latest round of testing.
Education department official Beth Fultz says there were concerns that students were “spending a lot of time out of class taking tests.”
The changes are possible because of revisions made to the federal education law. The revisions give more authority to states and local school boards, including how state assessments are administered and their results used.
More details about the testing changes will be made after school starts in August.
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A woman accused of attempting to hide a gun used to kill a Salina teen has been sentenced to probation.
The Salina Journal reports that 22-year-old Mexico citizen Azucena Garcia-Ferniza was sentenced to a year and a half of probation but will remain in custody while her immigration status is reviewed.
She was convicted earlier of charges accusing her of hiding a gun belonging to her boyfriend, Macio D. Palacio Jr., after Palacio had been taken into custody for the murder of 17-year-old Allie Saum. Saum was struck and killed when Palacio fired into a truck she was in.
Palacio has been sentenced to at least 50 years in prison after being convicted in Saum’s death.
The judge also ordered Garcia-Ferniza to pay court costs and other fees.
ELLSWORTH COUNTY – One person was injured in an accident just before noon on Saturday in Ellsworth County,
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Toyota truck driven by Matthew Blaine Haring, 44, Olathe, was westbound on Interstate 70 just west of 12th Road.
The vehicle left the roadway and hit a culvert on the right side of the road.
One passenger Samuel Grayson Harting, 9, Olathe, was transported to Ellsworth County Medical Center.
The driver, one adult and two other children were not injured.
All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
police vehicles lined up prior to Saturday’s funeral- photo Ness Co. Sheriff
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Hundreds of mourners gathered for the funeral for a Kansas City, Kansas, police captain shot to death on duty.
Kansas City, Kansas, police Capt. Robert Melton was fatally shot Tuesday by a suspect fleeing law enforcement. A 20-year-old man, Jamaal Lewis, is charged with capital murder in Melton’s death. Melton was 46.
The Kansas City Star reports people began showing up at Children’s Mercy Park after sunrise for the service, which began at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Military veterans also lined the street holding American flags.
Police Chief Terry Zeigler struggled to make it through his tribute to Melton, who he said was committed to the force. Zeigler said Melton’s family would always be part of the department.
Police officers also attended from other states, including Oklahoma and Texas.
Originally from the rural Ottawa County village of Ada, a young Tom McGavran helped his parents operate the local grain elevator and spent summers working for an area farmer.
“My parents taught me work ethic, commitment and conservative living,” said McGavran. “They always supported me in my pursuit of a college degree, and they were very proud that my two brothers and I received college degrees from Fort Hays State University.”
McGavran chose to attend FHSU primarily because his two brothers, Ray and Fred, were already students there. “To me, it was more like moving home rather than leaving home,” he said. “The three of us and a friend rented a small house right off campus.”
During McGavran’s freshman year, all three brothers pledged to the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity. “It was a very unique situation for three brothers to pledge at the same time. We were even featured with a picture in the Sigma Tau Gamma national magazine,” he said.
With a recent gift to Fort Hays State University, McGavran and his wife, Emley, residents of Minneapolis, created a scholarship that will benefit FHSU students in perpetuity. The Tom and Emley McGavran Endowed Scholarship will support students who are descendants of Sigma Tau Gamma members or who are from North Ottawa County USD 239 (Minneapolis-Delphos). It will also benefit finance majors.
McGavran’s time at FHSU, and even life after graduation, was greatly influenced by his participation in Sigma Tau Gamma. Even though Sigma Tau Gamma has not been an active fraternity on the campus of Fort Hays State since the 1980s, alumni members continue to embrace the belief that men are social beings and that friendships of college men are lasting ones.
“Most of my memories from Fort Hays State University evolve from the lifelong friendships that I made in our fraternity. Even after all these years, I still have a foursome of friends that I made through Sig Tau who get together for the annual FHSU Alumni golf tournament,” said McGavran.
After graduating from Fort Hays State, McGavran worked as a bank examiner for 10 years before an opportunity opened up in Emley’s hometown of Delphos. “I had worked at the Bank of Delphos for four years when the chance to buy the bank came up. I contacted family and friends and was able to raise the necessary capital to purchase the bank. I served as president, CEO and chief lending officer for the next 29 years,” said McGavran. “Emley was able to stay at home while our two daughters were growing up, but she also helped at the bank some.”
Even after a solid career, the influence and effect that Fort Hays State and Sigma Tau Gamma had on McGavran remained unchanged.
“Fort Hays State University and Sigma Tau Gamma literally changed my life. When we sold our bank, my family and I started looking at ways that we could give back to my college, my fraternity and the community that has been so good to us over the past 30 plus years,” McGavran said.
“I told my daughters that when I died, I wanted to establish a scholarship at FHSU that would benefit my friends from the fraternity as well as the community where we lived. I felt there was no better way to give back to a community than investing in the youth. My daughters’ immediate response was ‘Why wait? Do it now so you can set it up how you want to.’ Hopefully this scholarship will encourage other students from our area to attend FHSU and it will have the same impact on them that it had on me,” he said.
Recipients of the Tom and Emley McGavran Scholarship must be full-time FHSU students. In addition, they must be a descendant of a Sigma Tau Gamma member, a graduate from USD 239 or a finance major. The scholarship is renewable for up to four years so long as academic requirements are continually met.
Establishing a scholarship in support of students at Fort Hays State University is easy, and doing it now guarantees that your gift will be used exactly how you want it to be. To get started, simply contact the FHSU Foundation at (785) 628-5620 or by email at [email protected].
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A three-time Paralympics gold medalist from Wichita wants whoever stole the gold ring he received during the 2004 Athens Paralympics to return the ring.
Nick Taylor’s ring and other items were stolen during a robbery at his Wichita home earlier this month. He told The Wichita Eagle (https://j.mp/2ao10wu ) the ring is a symbol of his first Paralympics tennis championship.
Of the three gold Paralympics tennis medals – in Athens, London and Beijing – his first in Athens is special because it’s among few things he has that mark that high point in his life.
Wichita police spokeswoman Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the robbery investigation is still open and phone calls and Crime Stoppers tips about the incident are welcomed.
Taylor says he’d just like the thief to return the ring.
NICODEMUS–The United State Postal Service will provide a special stamp cancellation station on Saturday, July 30, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Nicodemus Homecoming celebration.
Nicodemus National Historic Site and the U.S. Postal Service collaborated and developed a special Pictorial Postmark to recognize and celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the designation of five buildings in town as Nicodemus National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.
The law designating the Site was signed by former President William Clinton twenty years ago on November 12, 1996.
On Saturday, July 30, the Postal Service will have a temporary postal retail station set up in the Nicodemus town park. They will provide hand postmarking service, the sale of stamps, and other stamp products during the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Visitors can personally present addressed or unaddressed envelopes, postcards, or other items with sufficient First-Class Mail postage to a postal clerk at the temporary retail station on Saturday. The clerk will apply the pictorial postmark and hand back the items.
If visitors are unable to attend the Homecoming Celebration on July 30, the U.S. Postal Service can provide mail-back service for a limited time.
Visitors can mail pre-stamped envelopes and postcards to the Hill City Post Office at 112 E. Main Street in Hill City, KS 67642, to receive the special pictorial postmark. Mail-in requests must be postmarked no later than 30 days following July 30.
The town of Nicodemus is symbolic of the pioneer spirit of African Americans. They dared to leave the only region they had been familiar with to seek personal freedom and the opportunity to develop their talents and capabilities.
The five buildings of the Nicodemus National Historic Site.
Nicodemus NHS represents the western expansion and settlement of the Great Plains, and includes five buildings: The First Baptist Church, St. Francis Hotel, Nicodemus School District Number One, African Episcopal Church, and Township Hall.
HaysMed has converted the majority of the hospital grounds to environmentally friendly landscaping. This type of landscaping reduces erosion, improves habitat and also reduces the use of water. The project reduced six acres of fescue grass to one acre thus substantially reducing outside water while maintaining an attractive grounds presentation for patients, families and the public.
NPS