FCFH

Time is quickly approaching for our third annual upcoming fundraiser at First Call For Help! The Amazing Race: First Call Community Challenge will take place Saturday, March 3 and… WE WANT YOU!

Select your team of 4, come up with a Team Name that suits you and decide whether or not you choose to wear costumes to make your team stand out! Collect your donations of at least $75 a person or $300 per team and you’re ready to compete! Remember: this is a fundraiser so the more money you raise the better chance your team will be the Ultimate Fundraiser and receive a three-minute headstart in the race!

Laura Shoaff, First Call for Help project manager, encouraged employees to organize teams with their co-workers then challenge other businesses in their industry to form their own teams. The Kansas High Patrol has formed a team and is challenging the Hays Police Department to do the same.

Inspired by the CBS hit, “The Amazing Race”, teams of four will solve clues to various locations in Hays. Once there, complete a challenge before receiving a clue to the next secret location. The team finishing a specified number of challenges with the quickest time is the winner! Now, for those of you who have never participated, this is NOT your typical race where you must physically train or get left behind in everyone else’s dust! This is teamwork at its finest.

Teams may be made up of coworkers, family members and friends, anyone 12 years or older. One vehicle per team is needed as this race will be spread around Hays. Team prizes will be awarded for the Quickest Time, Best Costumes and the Ultimate Fundraiser, including additional drawings for individual prizes! Teams raising $500 or more will receive valuable time deductions!

Money raised from this event will support our Emergency Assistance Fund. Allowing First Call For Help to financially assist Ellis County families in threat of eviction or those struggling to keep their utilities on. All donations will remain local and you will have a blast participating in this unique fundraiser, Amazing Race: First Call Community Challenge.

Register your team by going to https://firstcallelliscounty.com/AmazingRace or you may call 785-623-2800. Want to compete, but can’t find a full team? Call us at First Call For Help and we can register you over the phone and put a team together.

Form your teams today and register; $75 is due at registration, the rest is not due until Feb. 23. 

 

ELLSWORTH COUNTY — A man from Hays died in an accident just before 3:30 a.m. Saturday in Ellsworth County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2016 Ford F250 driven by Dustin S. Karst, 39, was northbound on Kansas 14 five miles south of Ellsworth. The pickup crossed the center line into the southbound lane and struck a 2010 Peterbilt semi driven by Brian K. Coleman, 49, Tecumseh, OK., head-on.

Karst was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Parsons Funeral Home.

Coleman and a passenger in the sleeper Tina Coleman, 49, Tecumseh, OK., were transported to the hospital in Salina. The KHP did not have seat belt usage details for Karst.

FHSU University Relations and Marketing

The first free hearing screening of the semester to be held in western Kansas by Fort Hays State University graduate students will be offered in Norton.

The screening will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Friday, Feb. 2, at the Almena State Bank, Norton Branch, 302 E. Holme Street, Norton.

“The FHSU Speech-Language Hearing Clinic is continuing into its second semester of its second year of providing hearing screenings sponsored by a grant from the Kansas Masonic Foundation,” said Marcy Beougher, speech-language pathologist and an instructor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

The grant will provide numerous opportunities for older adults in western Kansas, and in some areas of eastern Colorado and southern Nebraska, to receive important health screening services that are currently scarce or difficult to access.

“This fall we had two successful screenings in St. Francis and Ulysses,” said Beougher. “Through these community screenings hosted by active Masonic lodges, we are trying to reach individuals who likely would not have access to a free hearing screening.”

The Norton screening will be hosted by the Naphtali Lodge No. 310 of Almena and provided by graduate students from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders under the supervision of an FHSU Herndon Clinic instructor. 

Appointments may be scheduled ahead of time, but walk-ins will be welcomed on a first-come, first-served basis. Each site will have four stations, with each screening lasting approximately 15-20 minutes. Information about hearing loss and follow-up services available will be shared during the screenings. Free educational materials and earplugs will be provided by the Kansas Masons.

“The students are gaining excellent clinical experience as well as mandatory clinical hours from each screening,” she said. “We are grateful to the Kansas Masons for their support of this quality program.” 

The second screening of the semester will be Feb. 16 in Hoxie. 

To schedule an appointment for the Norton screening, contact Tammy Steinmetz at 785-669-2486 or [email protected].

For more information, visit fhsu.edu/herndon-clinic/ or contact the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at 785-628-5366.

CCCC

CONCORDIA — Cloud County Community College has announced the names of students on the Fall 2017 Honors List. To be named to the honors list, students must be enrolled in a minimum of 12 hours of college coursework and earned a semester grade point average of 3.6-3.899.

The following local students have been named to the Cloud County Community College Fall 2017 Honors List:

Jace Armstrong of Hays, KS

Tanner Brown of Hays, KS

Cloud County Community College (CCCC) is one of 26 public two-year community and technical colleges in Kansas and is coordinated by the Kansas Board of Regents. CCCC’s service area encompasses a 12-county area primarily in north central Kansas with its two physical campuses in Concordia and Junction City.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Hays school board will discuss long-range facilities planning at its meeting Monday.

Members of the board said at their last meeting having a long-range facilities plan was important in creating a possible new bond issue to bring before voters.

Superintendent John Thissen said at that meeting the district has at least two buildings that are 90 years old that need to either be replaced or hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to upgrade essential systems, such as heating and cooling, and plumbing.

In addition, the buildings need security upgrades and are not handicap accessible.

Two USD 489 bond issues have failed in the last two years — a $94 million bond issue in 2016 and a $78.5 million bond issue in November.

The board has discussed the need to propose a bond that would cost taxpayers less, but have not come to a decision on what might be in a next bond issue or who would decide what projects would be in a third bond attempt.

HHS HVAC
The district will again consider a $782,000 project to improve the HVAC system at Hays High School. A vote on the issue was stalled at the last board meeting after board member Greg Schwartz asked to see numbers that compared what was spent on a similar project at Hays Middle School in 2015.

Schwartz has been critical of the board’s decision to hire a construction manager at risk for the project instead of using a traditional bidding process for the project. Schwartz was appointed to the board after the construction manager at risk was hired.

A report to be discussed at the meeting Monday shows the 2015 cost of the HMS project was $17.29 per square foot. This does not factor in inflation. The HHS project would cost $12.75 per square foot, and would be paid for with capital outlay funds.

This would be the first phase of a multi-phase project to improve the HVAC system at the high school. The whole project is estimated to cost $4 million to $5 million.

Student Technology 
The board will hear a first report from the district’s Technology Committee on replacement of student computers.

The committee is recommending a schedule that will stagger the replace of devices over a period of four years to help keep the budget more stable. In the 2018-19 school year, the cost of the replacement schedule would be about $258,000.

The board will also:
• Hear a report from the city of Hays on tax implications of the Hilton hotel project.
• Discuss the renewal of contracts for the superintendent, assistant superintendent and director of special education.
• Hear a report on the district’s Kansas Education Systems Accreditation.