The annual inspection of Hays fire hydrants starts today. (Click to enlarge)
HFD
It’s that time of year again where we start flow testing the city’s fire hydrants.
The Hays Fire Department will begin inspecting and flow testing fire hydrants on Thu., March 1, 2018 in the area from Vine St. to Canterbury Dr. between 13th St. and 22nd St. This is part of a coordinated effort by the city to inspect all fire hydrants in the city and flush all water mains annually.
Friday’s schedule is in the area from Vine St. to Hall St. between 32nd St. and 41st St.
Inspecting fire hydrants ensures that the valves operate properly and that there is no damage or obstructions that will prevent or interfere with the prompt use of fire hydrants in an emergency. Firefighters are also checking the pressure and volume of water mains in each neighborhood for firefighting purposes. The associated flushing of water mains allows chlorine to be distributed throughout the system to eliminate bio-filming in the water mains.
Friday’s hydrant inspection area (Click to enlarge)
Slight discoloration of the water supply may be encountered although there will be no health risks to the consumer. All reasonable efforts will be taken to minimize the inconvenience to the public. Drivers are asked to avoid driving through water discharging from a fire hydrant during the short flushing period.
For more information please contact the Hays Fire Department at 785-628-7330.
In 2014, I supported Greg Orman in his run for U.S. Senate against Sen. Pat Roberts. I supported him because Roberts was failing Kansas families and change was necessary. But in that two-man race, Greg Orman lost by 10 percentage points. And part of the problem was that no one seemed to know what Orman stood for or what a vote for him would mean for Kansas.
I am extremely disappointed that Greg Orman decided to run for governor this year. Despite supporting him in 2014, I will absolutely not support him this year. And I am not alone in this change. There are strong candidates with real solutions running for governor – and Greg is not one of them.
In his recent announcement, Orman said a lot of nice, vague things. He tried to play on our frustration with Washington D.C. and gridlock we see there. But he forgot that in 2016 Kansans demanded change. We elected a wave of new faces to the Kansas Legislature with a mandate to stop Sam Brownback and go in a new direction.
Through bi-partisan cooperation, the Legislature reversed the Brownback tax plan and put our state on the road to recovery. There is a lot more work to do, but progress is being made.
Other candidates for governor have been leading the fight against the Brownback/Colyer agenda for years and standing up for our families. All while Greg Orman went on a national books tour and made appearances on national television shows.
Other candidates have been fighting for our public schools, pushing for better healthcare, encouraging investment in roads, helping businesses grow, and demanding more transparency in state government. They have been offering real, concrete solutions.
Meanwhile, Greg Orman has been planning his next political move.
In 2008, he filed as a Democrat to run for the U.S. Senate. Then in 2012, he planned to run against Kevin Yoder in the 3rd Congressional District. Then in 2014, he ran as an Independent for U.S. Senate, got the Democrat to drop out of the race, and lost anyway. And now, he is running for governor. Do you see a pattern? I do.
The fact is, Greg Orman only wants what’s best for Greg Orman.
After having Sam Brownback as governor for seven years – Kansans have had enough of politicians putting their personal political agenda before the best interests of our kids and families.
I will support a candidate who has the best solutions to our state’s challenges – regardless whether they are Republican, Democrat, or Independent.Independent thinking is about offering independent ideas, not having an “I” behind your name.
We all believe that Kansas’ best days are ahead of us. This fall, Kansans must demand real solutions and real answers. This election will impact our future for decades to come. I encourage Kansans to look for a real champion for our families. Vote for a candidate with a proven record of fighting on behalf of Kansas – not Greg Orman.
March is a month packed with activities in Hays, including lots of sporting events highlighted by the Special Olympics Kansas Basketball and Cheerleading Tournament.
The Easter Bunny will make several special appearances this month, and a ribbon cutting will be held to celebrate the opening of the new Downtown Pavilion.
Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Melissa Dixon has some of the highlights:
An updated calendar of events is available online on the CVB website www.visithays.com.
A simulation of the historical mural Hays artist Dennis Schiel hopes to paint on the 1-million gallon Sternberg water tower.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
The two water towers in Hays are scheduled for repainting next year.
Local artist Dennis Schiel painted large historical murals on two Hays buildings and is proposing to do the same on the city’s larger one million gallon water tower just east of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.
According to City Manager Toby Dougherty, in order to accommodate Schiel’s schedule for painting the mural wrap, the tower repainting would need to be completed in 2018.
The 500,000 gallon water tower north of Hays on Highway 183.
There are adequate funds available to repaint both water towers this year. One company would be hired to do both projects. “It’s an economy of scale,” Dougherty explained.
The 500,000 gallon water tower at 55th and U.S. Highway 183 was constructed in 1994. The Sternberg tower was built in 1974 and recoated in 1997. The paint is 21 years old and flaking which Dougherty said could expose lead if not addressed.
“This was actually noted back in the ’90s, the last time the tower was repainted,” Dougherty noted. “At that time they had the discussion of whether to cover it or to remediate the lead. They chose to cover it.
“The covering has held up well, pretty much for its useful life, but now we’re at a point where we need to remediate the lead.
“That entails essentially draping the entire water tower because you cannot have that lead dust contaminant polluting the area. So they’ll have to drape the tower, sand it down, remove all the lead paint, contain it, remove it off-site, and then repaint the tower. It’s quite an involved process,” Dougherty added.
It’s also much more expensive, with a cost estimate of $550,000, while the smaller north tower repainting is estimated to cost $100,000.
Hays city commissioners will consider Schiel’s mural proposal during their Thursday work session.
Other agenda items include discussion of a temporary traffic roundabout at the intersection of 27th Street and Canterbury Drive. Mayor James Meier has suggested the possibility of a mini-roundabout being installed after the restriping of Canterbury to three lanes which will be done later this year as part of the 2018 Street Maintenance Plan.
Sondra Hickert, teacher at The Learning Center, was honored with the Hays USD 489 February staff Best of the Best award.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Sondra Hickert, teacher at The Learning Center, was honored with the Hays USD 489 February staff Best of the Best award.
She was nominated by Beth Ziegler, Learning Center administrative assistant, and Keri Petersen, Learning Center coordinator, who spoke on her behalf at the school board meeting Monday.
“Regularly, students of ours are dealing with things such as eviction or they simply do not have any food to eat in their homes. There are indeed many heart-wrenching plights a fair number of our students are up against,” Petersen said. “What they find in Sondra is a very smart woman who can connect them to community resources. Then once they are stable, she is able to fire up or refire an indignance in them against the insidiousness of giving up pressures.”
Petersen said she regularly sees Hickert use words of affirmation with her students.
“She is a one-of-a-kind servant in terms of working with and often counseling the population we have,” Petersen said. “Our students come in with many, many challenges. Not only does she calmly give them some rays of hope for their current predicaments, and there are a myriad of family and student challenges, she follows through and helps them elevate up from the dilemma and navigate to post-secondary enrollment and eventually success.”
Hickert is comfortable serving as a liaison between the program’s young people and adults and community organizations set up to help the students, Petersen said. She said Hickert is the poster teacher for learning center and high school teachers everywhere.
“Sondra makes sure our Learning Center students are well positioned with confidence and they are embraced, supported and boosted up for all of the good things in life,” Petersen said.
Hickert thanked the school board and the district for valuing alternative education and making sure no children are left behind.
Hickert also thanked her husband and children for supporting her in her work and allowing her to take the extra time and effort to help her students, including taking breaks out of family trips to deliver or pick up laptops or proctor tests.
Gavin Jacobson, Hays High School senior, was awarded the student Best of the Best award.
Gavin Jacobson, Hays High School senior, was awarded the student Best of the Best award.
He was nominated by HHS administrative assistant Sue Rouse.
“It makes my day to see Gavin every day in the hallway with a wave and smile and a ‘Hi, Mrs. Rouse,'” she said.
Rouse met Jacobson when she was working as a job coach at HHS. Although he was not one of her students, Gavin always waved and smiled at her.
“Whenever I saw Gavin, I knew I could always count on that smile to pick me up and keep me going,” she said. “I loved it when he said, ‘Hey, Rouse.'”
She said she was thankful to have such a positive student as Jacobson at the high school.
Gavin said through a prerecorded digital recording “Thank you for this special award. Thank you to my family. I love them. Some of my favorite activities are playing basketball and music and dancing. I like to go to school and have many friends. Go Hays High!”
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State snapped its nine-game losing streak by sweeping a doubleheader with Wayne State (Neb.) on Wednesday (Feb. 28) at Tiger Stadium. FHSU won both games in come-from-behind fashion by scores of 6-4 and 10-5, moving to 4-14 overall on the season. Wayne State dropped to 1-4.
Fort Hays State 6, Wayne State 4
Wayne State scored three runs in the top of the second to take an early 3-0 lead, but the Tigers rallied right back in the bottom half of the inning to take a 4-3 lead. A pair of runners reached before Terran Caldwell drove home two with a single up the middle. Veronica Knittig also singled up the middle to bring in Caldwell from second to tie the game. Bailey Boxberger knocked in Knittig two batters later on a single through the left side.
The Wildcats tied the game with a run in the top of the third, benefitting from a leadoff triple, but the Tigers took the lead back with a pair of runs in the fourth. Sara Breckbill brought home both runs with a double to left field.
Starting pitcher Hailey Chapman went four innings before turning the ball over to Sierra Rodriguez, who went three innings to earn her first save of the season. Rodriguez allowed only two hits and struck out one. Chapman picked up her first win of the season, allowing four runs on eight hits with three strikeouts.
Fort Hays State 10, Wayne State 5
Wayne State took an early 2-0 lead with a pair of run in the first, but the Tigers rallied back with a pair in the second to knot the score. Sierra Rodriguez had a two-RBI single to get the score evened.
Wayne State went back on top 4-2 with single runs in the third and fourth, but the Tigers turned the game in their favor with four runs in the bottom of the fourth. Run-scoring singles from Rodriguez and Sydney Harsh tied the game and later, Veronica Knittig had an RBI single and Candace Bollig had a sacrifice fly RBI to put the Tigers on top.
Rodriguez, who started the game in the pitching circle for FHSU, ran out of gas in the fifth, allowing back-to-back hits that plated Wayne State’s fifth run. Roles reversed from game one and Chapman had Rodriguez’s back this time, mowing through the Wildcats over the final three innings. Chapman stranded a runner at second by striking out three consecutive hitters on 10 pitches (all strikes). Chapman went on to strike out seven, getting all three outs in the seventh in that fashion as well. She allowed only two hits. Rodriguez allowed five runs on nine hits with two walks and two strikeouts over the first four innings, but it was enough to earn the win and move to 3-4 on the year.
The Tigers sealed the win with a four-run sixth inning, all on unearned runs. Two errors in the inning benefitted the Tigers. Sara Breckbill had an RBI single and Chapman had a two-RBI double. For the day, Chapman and Rodriguez both earned a win and a save, and combined for five RBI at the plate in game two. Sarah Kay led the team with three hits in the second contest.
Riley Vanderveen took the loss for Wayne State, allowing 10 runs (six earned) on 13 hits with two walks.
Fort Hays State is slated to begin MIAA play on March 9 when it travels to Northeastern State in Tahlequah, Okla.
TOPEKA — Alyssa Runyon was unaware of her new friend Keith Hawkins’ criminal past when she offered him a place to stay after a Facebook post said he needed somewhere to sleep for the night.
Alyssa Runyon & Zaylynn Courtesy image
That night in August 2017, Hawkins’ entered the room of Runyon’s daughter, Zaylynn, and killed the young girl. When Alyssa found him in Zaylynn’s room, Hawkins killed Alyssa as well.
Although Hawkins was required to register as a sex offender after committing a sexually violent crime against a 5-year-old when he was 12, he was only listed with law enforcement rather than a publically available list.
Edward Runyon, the father and grandfather of the victims, testified during the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee in support of HB2739, which would require juveniles to register as sex offenders for life and on a public forum for being convicted with aggravated sexually violent crimes.
Hawkins-photo Harvey County
“I think we’re here to protect the innocent and unfortunately we do many things as kids; we steal a candy bar we do other things like that, but we don’t (unintelligible) sexualize a child or anything like that,” Runyon said during his emotional testimony. “That’s where you cross a line as far as what’s OK and what’s not OK.”
Current law requires offenders under 14 to register until they are 18 or for five years after the incident, whichever is longer. For those older than 14, the same requirements apply, unless it is a severity level one offense. HB2739 as currently written would eliminate these exceptions, causing all juveniles to register for life for all sexually violent crimes.
Runyon went to his district’s legislator Rep. John Whitmer (R-Wichita) and asked for legislation that would attempt to stop tragedies from happening in the future.
“I’m getting a little tired of people not holding people accountable for their actions,” Whitmer said after the hearing. “I mean don’t get me wrong I don’t want to ruin a kid’s life as an adult because he’s having to register for the rest of his life — you commit that crime, I could care less if you have to go register.”
Eight written testimonies in opposition of the bill were sent to the House Committee with similarities between each. Opponents argued previous legislation and cases, saying it is unfair to punish juveniles as adults based on their underdeveloped brains. In addition, opposing testimony evaluated taking away the hope of juveniles for a better future by forcing them to register for a lifetime.
“To spend a lifetime paying for a crime committed as a child is the surest way to take away someone’s hope,” said Jason Runyan, whose 18-year-old son has one more year of registering as a sex offender after sexually assaulting Runyan’s younger step-son.
Opposition came in ways of asking for psychological treatment in communities to overcome trauma, as many juvenile offenders are often previously abused themselves as pointed out in licensed professional counselor Emily Schmidt’s written testimony. Other testimonies asked for professional help on both sides of trauma in legislation rather than further prosecution.
“My opinion is the best person to help them is a psychologist, someone who is trained to identify these issues and work with these issues not necessarily a blanket law” said Topher Philgreen, chief operating officer of Youthfront.
Philgreen presented stories of juveniles he has worked with who have been in legal trouble after exploring and developing in their sexuality through touching of peers.
HB2739 requires offenders of violent sex crimes of all severities to register for life on a public forum. Whitmer said that the levels of severity could be addressed as the bill is further discussed. This could include the Romeo and Juliet situation deemed acceptable by many parties, which refers to sexual contact between minors who are less than four years apart in age, even though the legal age of consent is 16 years old.
“The Romeo and Juliet issue can be–rarely is it ever charged as a level six (offense)—but it can be. So perhaps one of the things we do when we rework the bill is carve out that because obviously that’s not what we’re going for,” Whitmer said after the hearing.
There is no further discussion scheduled for HB2739.
Peyton Kraus is a University of Kansas junior majoring in journalism from Minneapolis.
HAYS, Kan. – The Fort Hays State baseball team manufactured a season-high five home runs in an offensive shootout victory over Northwestern Oklahoma State 18-16 on Wednesday (Feb. 28) at Larks Park. The Tigers avenged a 7-6 extra-inning loss to the Rangers (Feb. 7) in Alva, Okla. from earlier this season. FHSU improved to 8-6 overall, while NWOSU dipped to 8-7 on the year.
In a game full of offense for both teams, Fort Hays State scored the most runs in a single game since last season against New Mexico Highlands (Feb. 12) and hit the most home runs in a game since 2016.
Easton Palmer got the start for the Tigers, but a couple FHSU defensive miscues and two home runs from the Rangers gave NWOSU a quick 5-0 lead to begin the contest. Addison Kaasch collected his first home run of the season with a lead off blast to straight center, putting the Tigers on the board in the home half of the first.
The Rangers chased Palmer out of the game with two outs in the second frame, building a 9-1 lead before Austin Weiser came on in relief, producing a fly out to escape the inning with no further damage.
The Tiger bats soon heated up in the bottom of the second inning, as they plated ten runs on eight hits. Jordan Wilkerson began the scoring affair with a solo shot to right for his fourth deep ball of the season. Marcus Altman came around to score on Jason Nicholson’s triple to left-center, giving the Tigers some life. Nicholson then crossed home plate via Jonathan Mariani’s RBI single to the outfield.
Clayton Basgall roped a 2-run single up the heart of the diamond, plating Kaasch and Mariani. Dayton Pomeroy then cleared the bases with his team-leading fifth home run of the season, a two-run blast over the wall in left-center, scoring Basgall and closing the gap to 9-8 in favor of the Rangers.
Sophomore Marcus Altman kept the inning alive, giving the Tigers their first lead of the game sending a 3-run shot to left-center. The Tigers grabbed an 11-9 lead after two wild innings of play. Grasser tacked on a couple more runs in the third with a 2-RBI single through the left side of the field, increasing the Tiger lead to 13-9 after three frames.
In the fourth inning, the Rangers third-baseman, Justin Bundy, knocked in his first of three home runs in the contest, cutting the Tiger lead to 13-11.
Kaasch demolished his second long ball of the season in the fourth frame, a three-run opposite field blast, extending the Tiger lead to 16-11. Nicholson put the Tigers up for good with a sacrifice fly to center, plating Grasser in the fifth frame. Pomeroy recorded an RBI groundout in the bottom of the sixth inning, giving the Tigers the 18-12 advantage.
NWOSU stormed back in the game with Bundy hitting two more big flies, most notably a two-run home run in the top of the ninth, collapsing the Tigers’ lead to 18-16 before Sam Capps struck out the side to end the game, giving the Tigers the victory.
Weiser (1-0) picked up the win for FHSU, going 1.2 innings of relief. Tanner Smith came out of the bullpen and pitched 2.2 solid innings of work, surrendering only a run on three hits while striking out five batters. Cole Schumacher and Cody Rottinghaus each pitched one inning of out the pen before Capps came on to prevent the Rangers from coming back in the game.
Senior Jonathan Mariani collected four hits in five at-bats in the contest, scoring two runs and producing one run batted in.
The Tigers will be back in action as they resume conference play over the weekend when they host Northwest Missouri in the MIAA home opener for a three-game series. Game one with the Bearcats is set to commence at 2 p.m. on Friday (Mar. 2).
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita official for the Kansas Department for Children and Families no longer has his job.
Bill Gale-photo by Phil Cauthon courtesy KHI
Agency Secretary Gina Meier-Hummel announced Wednesday that Bill Gale was relieved of his appointment on Tuesday. He was the Wichita regional director of family services.
Meier-Hummel said the agency wasn’t comfortable with Gale’s leadership and wanted to go in a different direction. Her statement didn’t elaborate.
Before taking the state job in 2014, Gale spent eight years on the Wichita City Council and another eight years as the Sedgwick County election commissioner.
Gale took over the Wichita office when the previous director, Diane Bidwell, resigned after a state investigation found some staff members improperly released private information and gave preferential treatment to a private entity, FaithBuilders.
Today Sunny, with a high near 54. North northwest wind 6 to 8 mph becoming southeast in the afternoon.
Tonight Mostly clear, with a low around 29. Southeast wind 7 to 11 mph.
Friday Sunny, with a high near 66. Breezy, with a south wind 14 to 24 mph.
Friday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 40. South wind 15 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.
SaturdaySunny, with a high near 73. Windy, with a south wind 15 to 20 mph increasing to 21 to 26 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph.
Saturday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 46. Breezy.
SundayMostly sunny, with a high near 73. Breezy.
Sunday Night A slight chance of rain showers before 3am, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers between 3am and 4am, then a slight chance of snow after 4am. Some thunder is also possible. Partly cloudy, with a low around 31. Windy. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
