HUTCHINSON -A Kansas man involved in a fatality accident has been formally charged by the state with vehicular homicide and having no insurance.
On May 12, Everette Hardy, 25, Hutchinson, was eastbound on 14th Avenue in Reno County.
He failed to yield at a stop sign and collided with southbound pickup driven by Jack B. Johnson, 80, at the intersection of Poplar Street, according to Police
Johnson was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries and was later transported to a Wichita hospital where he died on June 3.
Hardy was cited at the time for disobeying the stop sign, but now faces the much more serious charge.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State and county agencies are joining with university laboratories in searching for ways to make sure the Zika virus doesn’t take hold in Kansas.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has started a statewide surveillance program to monitor the mosquitoes that spread the virus, and it’s preparing to release a plan of action.
The Biosecurity Research Institute at Kansas State University has increased research on the virus, and the Shawnee County Health Agency has created an awareness program to deter any further increase of Zika virus cases in the state.
Five individuals have been diagnosed with the Zika virus in Kansas, with all of those cases travel-related.
There have been 820 cases of Zika virus in the U.S.
Some city workers spent much of their July 4th holiday repairing a major water leak near 10th and Milner.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
One Hays resident said he noticed Monday morning “the water pressure was low” when he took a shower.
The reason? There was a major water leak at 10th and Milner, which a city water department worker described as the biggest leak he’d seen in his 15 years on the job.
“The city water tower near the Sternberg Museum of Natural History was nearly drained, with millions of gallons of water lost,” according to Hays Assistant City Manager Jacob Wood. He said employees were still calculating the total amount of water loss as of mid-morning Tuesday.
Early morning on July 4, workers at the city water plant noticed a dramatic and fast drop in the water level of the distribution system — about 5,000 gallons a minute. An alert was sent at 6:27 a.m. through the city’s Nixle notice system from Utilities Division Asst. Director Jeff Crispin to residents that workers were trying to find the leak and asking residents to curb water usage.
It took a while to find the leak.
“Usually, when you have a leak that size, it’s pretty easy to spot,” said Wood, “and people will call in telling us where it’s at. There’s water running along the curb and in the street.”
Monday’s leak caused the loss of millions of gallons of water from the Hays water tower near Sternberg Museum.
This time, however, the leak was less visible. It was in a secluded area near 10th and Milner, between the back of an APAC equipment lot and the railroad tracks.
“It was not evident right off the bat where the leak was,” Wood explained, “and it took several hours to actually find and locate.”
It was also a big leak.
“It was in a 12-inch main (line). The split was on the underside of the pipe and it was about 6 feet long — a pretty large water leak.”
Another Nixle alert was sent when the leak was found and isolated, advising residents water was shut down from Ninth to 11th streets between Vine and Pine streets, and asking residents to continue conserving water.
Nearly 12 hours passed between the time the public was first notified of the leak and then notified it had been repaired.
A final Nixle alert was sent at 6:17 p.m. alerting residents the utilities crew had fixed the leak and full water service was being restored. The city asked residents to continue conserving water through Tuesday morning.
Water still standing Tuesday morning between APAC and the railroad tracks
“During that entire time, we were losing quite a bit of water, and it takes time to build the system back up,” Wood said. By 10 a.m. Tuesday, “there should not have been any issues with water pressure or volume in the city’s two water towers.”
The pipe that ruptured was old.
“I don’t know when it was put in. It had to be quite some time ago because, in that area, there’s been stuff built up and around it and typically that wouldn’t happen. If the city put in a new water line, we wouldn’t allow you to build that close to it,” he said.
Workers were surprised there wasn’t much build-up or corrosion inside the pipeline.
“Typically over time, even though the line may be 12 inches (in diameter), there’ll be build-up and there really wasn’t very much,” Wood said.
“It’s just one of those things that happens with water lines,” Wood said, “a couple of holes that split together. It’d probably been leaking for quite some time.
“There are water lines leaking all over the city of Hays that we don’t know about, just not big or dramatic enough to impact or cause a problem with the distribution system.”
Wood said there are employees 24 hours a day at the city water treatment plant, 1200 Vine, to monitor the water distribution system. There is also a system with alarms and alerts that will send out messages if something is wrong.
HODGEMAN COUNTY –Two people were injured in an accident just before 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Hodgeman County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Ford Escort driven by Cameron Duane Finke, 46, Garden City, was east bound on Kansas 156 three miles west of Burdett.
The vehicle entered the south ditch, went off a bridge and was under the roadway.
Finke and a passenger Crystal Finke, 44, were transported to the Hodgeman County Hospital.
They were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Photo by Abigail Wilson/KMUW While many educators are spending the summer on the campaign trail, the sign outside a public elementary school in Wichita urges voters to register.
By Abigail Wilson
To say that many educators in Kansas are fed up with state lawmakers would be an understatement. The Legislature has been putting a tighter and tighter squeeze on public schools in recent years.
This election season, educators are trying to send some legislators packing. The Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) estimates that across the state, roughly 50 current and former school board members, administrators and teachers are candidates in legislative elections.
In western Kansas, Stafford USD 349 Superintendent Mary Jo Taylor is running for Senate.
On the other side of the state in Johnson County, retired special education teacher Vicki Hiatt is vying for a Senate seat, and English teacher Brett Parker hopes to get a seat in the House.
South of Wichita, KASB President Don Shimkus is gunning for the seat left vacant by Senate Education Committee Chair Steve Abrams, who withdrew from the election just before the deadline.
In Wichita, Democrat Lynn Rogers has been campaigning for Senate District 25 since August of last year.
After serving on the Wichita school board for 16 years, he’s frustrated with legislators he says act as rubber stamps for Gov. Sam Brownback. Rogers said the block grant funding system passed by incumbent legislators assumes all children have the same needs.
And he’s sick of hearing the repeated talking points about top-heavy administration.
A huge part of the support for Rogers’ campaign has come from area educators and parents. He estimated that more than 150 people with education ties have helped him spread his message, knocking on doors or handing out fliers.
Changing climate
Linda Zehr, who recently retired from a 30-year career as a teacher in Wichita’s public school district, is one of them.
With her long hair tied back in a low ponytail and a clipboard in her hand, she walked with Rogers through her west Wichita neighborhood, introducing him to her neighbors.
Zehr said she has been politically active before, but never to the extent of going door-to-door for a candidate. Zehr said decisions made at the state level left her with an increasing number of duties and a frozen salary for at least eight years.
Her daughter is still a kindergarten teacher in Wichita. “She said to me the other day, ‘Mom, how did you do this for 30 years?’”
Zehr told her daughter there was a supportive climate for teachers in the first 25 years of her career.
“This last four or five years is when it really has become a battle against public education in many respects.”
Zehr said recent moves by state lawmakers have threatened public education in ways she had never seen before.
The Legislature eliminated guaranteed tenure and attempted to limit what teachers can negotiate for in their contracts.
There also has been a push to use public money for private schools.
Senate candidate Lynn Rogers said part of the problem is that school boards, like the one he’s been serving on, are partly to blame.
He said board members have done such a good job of shielding parents and students from the effects of state cuts to public education that few noticed how deep the cuts were. And as long as those cuts were hidden, no one was questioning their legislators.
So now Rogers is knocking on doors, telling anyone who will listen that the cuts are not over and it’s to a point now that they’re really going to hurt.
The Wichita school district was forced to reduce expenditures for the upcoming school year by $22 million because of flat funding from the state. In order to save money, the teachers in the district agreed to lengthen the school day and shorten the overall school year.
Rogers said those moves, along with the possibility of outsourcing custodial staff and eliminating elementary and middle school librarians, finally caught people’s attention. “So people are seeing the impact, either fewer bus routes, different start times for their kids or in some cases fewer schools if we’ve had to close schools,” Rogers said.
‘This little Band-Aid’
Although the Legislature did avert a statewide shutdown of public schools at the end of June threatened by the Kansas Supreme Court, educators running for office say the last-minute fix doesn’t change anything.
Kim Palcic, a third-grade teacher from Olathe, is a candidate for House District 15.
“We need every student to have the best possible education and I don’t think this little Band-Aid is going to help us,” Palcic said.
“It will work for this year. The schools will open, and that’s what’s important. But it’s not enough.”
However hard it was for lawmakers to come up with the money to resolve inequities between school districts and avoid the shutdown, satisfying the Supreme Court on adequacy will be harder. And no matter what, the Legislature will have to come up with a new funding formula.
This year’s legislative elections will determine whether it’s going to be a formula that educators like or a formula that the conservatives – with whom teachers are at odds – will get behind.
Abigail Wilson is a reporter for KMUW, a partner in a statewide collaboration covering elections in Kansas.
Ellis County Commissioners will consider transferring funds from the Buckeye Wind payment to the Public Building Commission at Tuesday night’s commission meeting.
The PBC collects the sales tax and approves the change orders for work on the newly remodeled courthouse and Law Enforcement Center. Because sales tax collections are down, the PBC does not have enough money, at this time, to pay outstanding change orders.
The commission brought up the idea of using the funds for the Buckeye Wind Project to cover the difference. The commission has also discussed an increase in lease payments from the county to the PBC. The county leases the building from the PBC until the financing is retired.
The PBC is made up of the three seated county commissioners.
In other business, the commission will discuss the enforcement of planning and building regulations in the county.
The commission will also discuss bids received for a new backhoe at the landfill.
Tuesday’s Public Building Commission starts at 5 p.m. with the county commission to follow at the Ellis County Administrative Center.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Kansas City Royals announced today that relief pitcher Wade Davishas been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right forearm strain. Davis’ D.L. stint is retroactive to July 1, making him eligible to be reinstated on Saturday, July 16. To take Davis’ place, the Royals have selected the contract of right-handed pitcher Brooks Pounders from Omaha (AAA) and designated left-handed pitcher Tyler Olson for assignment.
Pounders, 25, will be in uniform (#62) for tonight’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays. He is 4-1 with a 2.80 ERA, while recording 78 strikeouts in 64.1 innings with the Storm Chasers. The 6-foot-5 right-hander was selected to the Pacific Coast League All-Star team last week.
SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a burglary suspect.
Just after 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, sheriff’s deputies were sent to the 2100 block of East Schilling Road after the report of someone trying to break into the office of Johnson Sand, according to Saline County Undersheriff Roger Soldan.
When deputies arrived they found the building had been broken into and noticed a pickup with a welder in the back was stuck in the mud. There were also footprints leading away from the pickup.
In a search of the area they found Johnathan Ahlvers, 33, McPherson, in a sand pit hiding behind cattails.
Ahlvers began to swim away, was told by a deputy he would not be able to cross it, before he began swimming back to the edge of the pit. He told deputies he was having trouble breathing and could not get to the top of the pit.
Emergency Medical Staff transported Ahlvers was to the hospital, then on to jail.
He is being held on requested charges of burglary, felony theft, trespassing, and criminal damage to property.
Deputies recovered two laptop computers from the edge of the sand pit, which had been taken from the office building, according to Soldan.
Phillipsburg resident James W. Hoover passed away Monday, July 4 at the Phillips County Hospital, Phillipsburg, at the age of 69.
He was born Feb. 7, 1947 in Manhattan, KS, the son of Kenneth & F. Elizabeth (Iles) Hoover.
Survivors include his daughter, Kelly Hoover of Phillipsburg; 2 sons, James II of Hutchinson & Michael of Greenville, SC; 3 brothers, Bob of Topeka, Tom of Manhattan & Mark of Minneapolis, KS; his sister, Penny Cochran of Manhattan; 4 grandchildren & 2 great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Friday, July 8 at 2:30 p.m. in the First Christian Church, Phillipsburg, with Pastor LeRoy Herder officiating. Burial will follow in the Fairview Cemetery.
Visitation will be from 5:00 to 9:00 Wed & 9:00 to 9:00 Thursday in the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel.
Memorial contributions may be given to the Church or the American Heart Association.
Online condolences: www.olliffboeve.com.
Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
A 22-year-old Scott City man was arrested after a winding on-and-off chase through Hays last week.
According to Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Tod Hileman, the chase began just before 2 p.m. Thursday, when a trooper spotted a 2011 Kawasaki motorcycle entering the U.S. 183 bypass and heading north.
“He just opened it up,” Hileman said, adding the trooper reported speeds around 100 mph.
The driver — Parker E. Holterman, 22, Scott City — then turned east on 41st.
“The driver turned around and looked at the trooper. He was going close to 100 mph on 41st,” Hileman said, noting Holterman then turned south on Hall. “At this point, they could tell he was trying to get away.”
The chase was paused when Holterman turned east onto 33rd into a more residential neighborhood.
The motorcycle made several more turns in residential neighborhoods before returning to 41st traveling east.
“No one was actually chasing him,” Hileman said. “Another trooper turned onto 41st and saw that he had crashed his motorcycle there on the curve by the antique store.”
Holterman was not wearing a helmet, but Hileman said he didn’t suffer injuries that required treatment.
Holterman was arrested on suspicion of fleeing and attempting to elude and reckless driving.
Hileman said high-speed chases are called off on a case-by-case basis, depending upon why officers are conducting the pursuit in the first place and what area the chase is located.
The Hays Police Department also assisted in the incident.
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director James Comey says the FBI will not recommend criminal charges in its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Comey made the announcement Tuesday, three days after FBI agents interviewed Clinton in a final step of its investigation.
The Justice Department has been looking into whether anyone mishandled classified information that flowed through Clinton’s email server. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of Comey and of career prosecutors
Although Comey’s announcement removes the threat of criminal charges, it’s unlikely to eliminate concerns about Clinton’s trustworthiness. And it almost certainly won’t stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from continuing to make the server a campaign issue.
“It’s just one of those things that happens with water lines,” Wood said, “a couple of holes that split together. It’d probably been leaking for quite some time.
HODGEMAN COUNTY –Two people were injured in an accident just before 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Hodgeman County.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 26-year-old Kansas man who climbed onto a roof to launch fireworks is dead after falling from atop his Topeka home.
