Despite a record breaking high of 84 degrees in Hays Wednesday, Hays Director of Parks Jeff Boyle was looking toward the weekend’s weather forecast calling for two consecutive nights of lows around 20 degrees.
“Every year when the cold weather starts hitting, we will be shutting down our restrooms and drinking fountains in our area parks to keep everything from freezing up and breaking,” Boyle said. “The restrooms are not heated–it’s pretty costly to heat all those.”
“We have to drain the water out of the system, disconnect all the P-traps and do all kinds of interior plumbing to get the water out of the system to keep the pipes from cracking.”
Parks Department employees started the work Tuesday. Each year the shutoff date varies based on fall temperatures.
“We’ve had a phenomenal fall this year and there’s been no need to close those restrooms down. Two years ago though, we were closed down by mid-October,” Boyle recalled.
“We watch the 10-day weather forecast, knowing it takes us four to five days to get our work done. It just depends on Mother Nature.”
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the search for a missing Kansas infant whose mother was killed (all times local):
10:50 a.m.
Police in Wichita, Kansas, say the FBI has joined the search for a missing newborn whose mother was found shot to death in her home.
Police Lt. Todd Ojile said during a news conference Friday that the week-old infant’s father returned home from work Thursday to find the girl missing and her 27-year-old mother dead. He says the child is believed to be in danger.
Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the girl’s father isn’t considered a suspect.
Authorities haven’t released the name of the parents, but they released the name of the girl, Sofia Victoria Gonzalez Abarca.
Woodrow says authorities have not issued an Amber Alert seeking the public’s help in finding Sofia because investigators haven’t identified a suspect, which is required for such alerts.
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SEDGWICK COUNTY -Authorities in Wichita are investigating after a woman was found shot to death and her infant daughter was reported missing.
Police said the 27-year-old woman was found shot to death at her Wichita apartment Thursday, and her week-old infant daughter is missing. The woman’s name hasn’t been released.
Police spokeswoman Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says police are talking with the KBI and are canvassing the neighborhood.
Police also say they’re looking no longer looking for a 1997 purple Cadillac with Kansas tags in connection to the case.
Police contacted the occupant. Woodrow says the child’s father also isn’t considered a suspect.
Sofia-photo Wichita PD
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SEDGWICK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating a fatal shooting and searching for an infant.
Sofia Victoria Gonzalez Albarca is 6 days old and is missing from a scene of the shooting in the 200 Block of North Brunswick. The baby’s mother died in the shooting.
The infant was last seen around noon on Thursday and was reported in a purple Cadillac with Kansas License Plate 716GET, according to police.
Police asked if you have any information, call 911.
Advisory: Hays City Commission Meeting to be held on Tuesday during Week of Thanksgiving
During the week of Thanksgiving, the Hays City Commission meeting will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 22, at 6:30 p.m., in City Hall, 1507 Main, rather than Thursday, Nov. 24.
TOPEKA – The state’s October seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.4 percent. This was unchanged from September and up from 4.0 percent in October 2015.
In northwest Kansas, the jobless rate in Ellis County inches up, increasing from 2.9 percent in September to 3.0 percent in October.
Jobless rates fell in Rooks, Russell, Rush and Trego counties. Click the map above for a county-by-county look at October jobless rates.
The preliminary seasonally adjusted job estimates from the Kansas Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate Kansas nonfarm jobs increased by 900 from September. Since last month, Kansas private sector jobs increased by 900. The largest private sector over the month job increase was in Manufacturing.
Over the year, Kansas lost 5,300 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs. Kansas lost 5,700 private sector jobs since October 2015.
Kansas not seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs decreased by 5,400, a 0.4 percent decrease since October 2015. Kansas lost 5,700 private sector jobs since last year, or 0.5 percent. The state gained 10,600 total not seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs over the month. Since September, private sector jobs increased by 5,100, or 0.4 percent.
“Kansas retailers are off to a fast start with their seasonal hiring this year. The number of retail trade jobs in the state increased by 2,400 in October,” said Tyler Tenbrink, Senior Labor Economist, Kansas Department of Labor. “It remains to be seen if this pace will continue, or if employers are hiring their seasonal workers early this year compared to years past.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not revise the seasonally adjusted preliminary total nonfarm job estimates for September. Seasonally adjusted private sector jobs were revised upward by 300 jobs, from 1,139,000 to 1,139,300.
Seasonally adjusted estimates for October show that the state’s labor force increased by 333 to 1,483,372. Of those in the labor force, 1,417,937 Kansans were employed and 65,435 were unemployed. This month’s net change in the labor force was attributable to 98 fewer Kansans counted as employed and 431 more unemployed.
Over the year, the labor force decreased by 20,769 persons, with a decrease of 25,601 in employment and an increase of 4,832 in unemployment.
The labor force participation rate was 66.7 percent, unchanged from September and down from 68.0 percent last October.
The November 2016 Labor Report will be released on Friday, December 16.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition activities
Mike Pompeo, a conservative Republican congressman from Kansas, says he accepts President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate him to lead the CIA.
In a statement on Friday, he said that while he has loved representing Kansans in Congress, the opportunity to lead a top U.S. intelligence agency is a call to service he can’t ignore.
Pompeo still must be confirmed by the Senate.
The 52-year-old was elected to Congress during the tea party wave of 2010.
Pompeo has been a harsh critic of the Obama administration. He denounced the Iran deal, which granted Tehran sanctions relief for rolling back its nuclear weapons program, and was a member of the congressional committee that blasted Hillary Clinton over the attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya.
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President-elect Donald Trump has picked Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo to be CIA director.
That’s according to a Trump transition official.
Pompeo is a conservative Republican and a fierce critic of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Trump is beginning to fill out his governing team, and the transition official says Trump will make the Pompeo announcement on Friday morning, along with his nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be attorney general and his selection of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to be national security adviser.
The official wasn’t authorized to disclose the decisions ahead of Trump’s announcement and insisted on anonymity.
The Hays Area Planning Commission will meet Mon., Nov. 21, to consider approval of a preliminary plat of Creekside Estates, the former Arbor Valley Estates Addition located west of Augusta Lane between West 26th and 27th Streets.
The area is zoned for residential development. Click here for more information about the plat application.
The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Monday in Hays City Hall, 1507 Main. The complete agenda follows.
HAYS AREA PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING AGENDA
CITY COMMISSION CHAMBERS
1507 MAIN, HAYS, KS
NOVEMBER 21, 2016
6:30 PM
1. CALL TO ORDER BY CHAIRMAN.
2. CONSENT AGENDA.
A. Minutes of the meeting of August 15, 2016
Action: Consider approving the minutes of the August 15, 2016 meeting.
3. PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS. None
4. NON-PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS.
A. Preliminary plat for Creekside Estates (Former Arbor Valley Estates Addition located
west of Augusta Lane between West 26th and 27th Streets)
Action: Consider approval of the Creekside Estates preliminary plat (Former Arbor
Valley Estates Addition located west of Augusta Lane between West 26th and 27th
Streets)
5. OFF AGENDA ITEMS/COMMUNICATIONS.
A. City Commission action and planning and development updates on Planning
Commission related issues
6. ADJOURMENT.
Hays city commissioners discuss the requested addition to a draft development agreement with Hays Investors LLC.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
One item was added this week to the proposed development agreement for a new retail development north of Interstate 70. Hays city commissioners saw it for the first time during their work session Thursday night.
A public hearing date for the project has already been set for Tue., Nov. 22.
Dave Christie of Hays Investors LLC has submitted a petition for the creation of a 1% Community Improvement District (CID) sales tax to construct approximately 73,000 square feet of retail space directly north of Home Depot. The development is expected to consist of a 50,000 square foot building to be used by a national retailer and another 23,000 square feet of retail space.
Finance Director Kim Rupp told commissioners the draft development agreement has been reviewed by the city’s bond counsel and the city attorney.
He explained the city added a stipulation in the event certificates of occupancy for 73,000 square feet of retail space are not issued within 36 months of approval of the CID, then the CID will be dissolved. Additionally, as long as the CID is in existence, the developer will not request, and the city will not approve, any additional economic development incentives on the retail project property.
Thursday night’s Section 20 addition from the developer addressed market and economic conditions:
Section 20
“The City hereby acknowledges and agrees that the development of the Project, including the Development schedule, may be adversely impacted by changing economic and market factors. Accordingly, the City hereby agrees to reasonably consider amendments to this Agreement requested by the Developer as a result of economic and/or market conditions.”
City Manager Toby Dougherty said his office received the add-on late Wednesday.
“Right now, they’re still saying we’re going to occupy 73,000 square feet within three years. But, what they’re saying here is, we would like to be able to ask you to modify the agreement,” explained Dougherty. “It has nothing to do with the 22 years the CID would be in place.”
“We think they’ve probably been told by a bank that the covenants require them to make a good faith effort to adjust the size under certain economic conditions,” City Attorney John Bird interjected. “If a potential retailer comes in and says we can’t make it work at 73,000 square feet but we can at 50,000 square feet…They’re not getting something automatically from us, and you’ll have the ability to negotiate.”
Aaron White, Ellis Co. Coalition for Economic Development Director
Aaron White, director of the Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development, told commissioners what was “expressed to us by their attorney.”
“Should their contracts come through and the clients are saying ‘our square footage formula (for the Hays market) dictates the facility would be 65,000 square feet instead of 73,000,’ the bank was concerned that the city could do away with the CID point-blank. Or, the other example given was if the facility is 80% complete at the 36 month deadline and they have contracts in hand to fill all the space that’s being built. Is there an opportunity for a six-month extension? So the language was designed to allow some flexibility based on the client needs or market change.”
Commissioner Lance Jones said he didn’t like it and wanted more time to think about it. “It’s gonna come back on a future commission and put them in a bind. So if we can move this forward without this Section 20 language, I’d appreciate it.”
Commissioner Henry Schwaller agreed. “He is a developer. We didn’t pick the 73,000 square feet–he did. Now, if he’s having cold feet because Retailer X may want 3- or 10,000 feet less, that’s not our fault,” Schwaller said.
“Home Depot brought a lot of sales tax to Hays,” countered Mayor Shaun Musil. “If he (Christie) brings potentially what he’s saying–it’s a big name company and I think it would be a big draw for Hays–for us to slap him around and say no, we’re not interested, I think would be a big mistake.”
White confirmed Christie has a letter of intent from the national retailer but no contract at this time.
Commissioners ultimately agreed to include the Section 20 add-on in the draft development agreement for next week’s agenda.
“It’s still possible for you next week to say ‘No, I won’t approve that as drafted. I would approve it the way we had it originally,'” Bird assured the commission, “and then let them make their decision.”
“The feedback we got from their counsel was that the bank would pull their financing without some sort of statement saying there is an option to request a change,” White added. The city has requested a copy of the bank’s written intentions.
The commission meeting is Tues., Nov. 22, rather than Thursday because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
November 14 – 18, 2016 call 785-628-2995 when you hear Theresa Trapp play a Crystal Gayle song to register to win a pair of tickets for the show. Winner will be announced Friday, November 18, 2016.
Only one entry per person. Must be 21 years of age or older to enter.
Winner will need to have a Prairie Band Players card to enter the concert.
Winner will need to pick up the tickets at the KZ Country Studio, 2300 Hall, Hays, KS.
Prairie Band Casino & Resort provides a variety of live entertainment in the Great Lakes Ballroom. The Ballroom holds approximately 1,100 seats. It provides an intimate setting to be closer to the artist than you will ever be!
All attendees MUST be 21 years of age or older AND have a Prairie Band Players card to enter. Tickets will be available at the Will Call desk beginning at 3PM on the day of the show.
Don’t have a Players card? Don’t worry. You can still purchase your tickets. Come early during the show and visit the Players Club to get yours that day. New Members only, will receive $25 Prairie Cash when they sign up for a new card!
All guests that swipe their Players card to enter any of the shows will be entered into a drawing. One winner will receive $500 Prairie Cash! The winner will be announced at 10:00PM in the Casino floor.
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Crystal Gayle is an American country music singer. Best known for her 1977 country-pop crossover hit song, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue”, she had 20 number one country hits during the 1970s and 1980s (18 on Billboard and 2 on Cashbox) with six albums certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Gayle became the first female artist in country music history to reach platinum sales, with her 1977 album We Must Believe in Magic.
Hits Include:
Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue
Talking in Your Sleep
I’ll Get Over You
Somebody Loves You
Plus all your Christmas Favorites:
White Christmas
Little Drummer Boy
And Many More!
Doors: 6PM • Show: 7PM • Prairie Band Casino & Resort – Great Lakes Ballroom
Eagle’s Gerard Wellbrock — the Voice of the Fort Hays State University Tigers — is one of five finalists for the 2016 National Sports Media Association Sportcaster of the Year in Kansas.
Finalists were nominated by NSMA members last month and the winners will be chosen via ballots sent to NSMA members on Dec. 1.
Other Kansas sportscasters up for the award include: Mike Kennedy, Wichita State Radio Network, Wichita; Greg Rahe, KVOE Radio, Emporia; Kevin Romary, Wow! 6 News, Lawrence; and Wyatt Thompson, K-State Sports Network/Learfield, Manhattan.
The organization also chooses the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year. Finalists for that award include Kevin Haskin of the Topeka Capital-Journal and Tom Keegan of the Lawrence Journal-World.
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Federal workplace safety officials say a man killed at a Kansas industrial plan became caught in a molding machine.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a news release that the 63-year-old plastics manager was killed Thursday at Fuller Industries LLC in Great Bend. The man’s name wasn’t immediately released.
The company, formally known as Fuller Brush, is a manufacturer of commercial cleaning supplies, custom brushes and private label chemicals. Company officials didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.
Location of the Fuller Plant-google map
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BARTON COUNTY – Authorities in Barton County are investigating a fatal industrial accident at Fuller Industries in Great Bend.
At 12:15 p.m., first responders were dispatched to the Fuller Industries facility in reference to an employee that was injured.
Emergency responders found that the man died from an accidental head injury, according to a media release.
Police have no reason to suspect foul play.
The name or age of the man was not released.
No calls were answered at the Fuller offices on Thursday afternoon. “It looked like the plant was shutting down for the day,” Couch said.
The firm manufactures cleaning supplies and brushes at their facility located 1 Fuller Way, according to the company website.
BARTON COUNTY – An investigation is underway after a fatal industrial accident on Thursday at the Fuller Industries plant in Great Bend.
First responders were dispatched just after 12:15 p.m. and one employee was injured and died, according to Great Bend Police Chief Cliff Couch.
The name or age of the man was not released.
No calls were answered at the Fuller offices on Thursday afternoon. “It looked like the plant was shutting down for the day,” Couch said.
The firm manufactures cleaning supplies and brushes at their facility located 1 Fuller Way, according to the company website.
By BECKY KISER
CITY OF HAYS
