By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

Continued improvements to Ellis County fire service likely will save property and homeowners in Ellis County on their insurance this year.

After an evaluation in December, the Ellis County Fire Department’s Public Protection Classification (PPC) for Company 4 Victoria, Company 5 Hays and Company 6 Ellis all saw a rating increase.

According to information presented to the Ellis County Commission Monday by Director of Fire and Emergency Management Darin Myers, all three departments had their rating improve from five to four for within 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant.

The rating for Hays and Victoria increased from a six to a five for within 5 miles of the fire station. Ellis increased from a seven to a six rating.

The new ratings put the Ellis County Fire Department within the top 25 percent of all departments rated by the ISO.

“That is astounding,” Commissioner Barb Wasinger said. “You should be congratulated with the cooperation of all the different fire departments.

“We are so fortunate and so grateful for our volunteer firefighters and we’re grateful for the job you’re doing.”

Myers said there is a lot that goes into determining the ratings.

“They don’t look at how we respond, how fast we get there,” Myers said. “It’s a lot more the administrative details that go on with the fire department.

“It’s how it’s organized, how effectively and efficiently you’re using your resources and how well you’re working interdepartmentally.”

The rating for all three remained at 10 for over 5 miles from a fire station, but Myers said the only way to change that is to build more stations.

They are still waiting on the rating for Schoenchen.

Earlier this year, the city of Hays announced their fire rating fire rating also improved from a three to a two.

The new ratings will be effective June 1 for Victoria, and July 1st for Ellis and the areas outside of Hays, according to Myers.

“Each insurance company provides their premiums on different basis, not everybody goes off ISO records, not everybody goes off of the same date of when they calculate their insurance premiums,” Myers said.

“When I contacted my insurance agent, he said one of the biggest jumps that you’ll see within his company is going from a class six to a class five, which a lot of ours just went too,” he said.

Myers suggested residents reach out to their insurance company when the new ratings take effect.

“It could be a pretty big cost savings throughout the entire Ellis County,” Myers said. “We have over 9,900 residential structures and just about 1,800 commercial properties.”

Myers said the reason for the increase in rating is because of everything they have done to improve the department.

Among those improvements are recent upgrades to the Ellis County Dispatch Center.

The county has upgraded dispatch consoles, call-taking software for the consoles and call-logging equipment at the dispatch center. The county has also purchased new public safety radios in 2017.

“That project gave us enough points to be able to at least maintain the same score that we did in the past,” said Myers. “That’s actually how far outdated we were with the systems down there.”

Myers said those upgrades helped to keep the ratings where they are but the county will need to continue updates. He said the need for the new equipment and training and procedures and protocols are weighing on the dispatch rating.

A second part of the PPC evaluates the fire department. That includes the types of equipment, the number of fire fighters, the amount of training each fire fighter goes through and automatic aid.

Water supplies are also a part of the PPC rating. According to Myers, the closer property is to a water source the better the rating will be.

Myers said to maintain the score they need to, “continue with our replacement programs, continue with our support for our volunteer firefighters, give them what they need – as we can – and keep our volunteer forces up.”

“We can have the nicest equipment in the world, nicest fire stations in the world, nicest bunker gear, but if we have nobody to put in them it’s never going to work,” he said.

In other business, Treasurer Lisa Schlegel provided the commission with and interest income update, approved the purchase of cold mix asphalt from Hi-Plains Sand of Kanopolis and awarded a bid for cold in-place asphalt recycling from The Coughlin Co. of Salina.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

At Monday’s meeting, the Hays USD 489 school board considered changes to language in its administrative handbook on emergency drills and parent notification in case of emergencies.

The board sent the handbook back to administration asking language be included that specifically says the administration will notify parents in any incident that involves student safety.

The proposed language included increasing the number of emergency drills from one a year to two, which is consistent with the district’s current policy. This includes active shooter drills, Superintendent John Thissen said.

Thissen noted he expected the state to this year or next increase the number of required emergency drills. The state currently requires tornado and fire drills, but does not require emergency drills.

Thissen said he thought it was important to let the community know when evacuation drills or lockdown drills are taking place so individuals don’t misunderstand the nature of the event and become alarmed.

The proposed language said the administration would notify parents through the district emergency notification system of planned and unplanned drills. This could be in the form of email, text or a phone call. The policy goes on to state parents will be notified in “for any other notifications deemed necessary.”

Board member Greg Schwartz said he specifically would like that section to state parents will be notified in any instance involving student safety.

The concern over notification of parents stems from a student threat in February. A student at the high school made a verbal threat against the school, was removed from school and placed in state custody.

Parents were not notified of the threat until five days after the student was removed from school and rumors swirled about a gun at the school. Between the time of the threat and the parent notification, there was a mass shooting at a Florida high school. Some parents were so concerned about rumors of violence at the school they kept students at home.

The school board and Thissen both acknowledged the parents should have been notified sooner about the student threat at HHS.

Thissen said he was willing to make changes. He said he thought he and board shared the same intent, it is just a matter of changing the wording in the policy.

Thissen said he would take recommendations from board members about further revisions to the notification policy and would bring it back to board at its next meeting on April 30.

FHSU University Relations

Scholarships for the Noyce Teacher Leader program at Fort Hays State University have been granted an additional $1.45 million from the National Science Foundation to extend the program into the spring of 2023. The award will support eight $13,000 scholarships for future mathematics or science teachers each year.

Combined with the grant awarded in 2012, the Noyce funding for FHSU totals almost $2.7 million to provide scholarships for junior or senior education students majoring in a science or mathematics field.

“This is a great award for expanding STEM educator scholarships,” said Dr. Paul Adams, dean of the College of Education at Fort Hays State. “In addition, the award will assist in recruiting students from community colleges who aspire to a career in science or mathematics teaching.”
Adams noted that FHSU’s Noyce program also has funding to provide scholarships for students transferring from community colleges in Barton County, Colby, Dodge City, Garden City and Seward County.

The ultimate aim of the program, said Adams, is to expand the workforce in the STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – by training teachers of science and mathematics for middle and high schools.

Funding for the program comes through the NSF from the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, created by the family of Noyce, who was a co-founder of Intel. At FHSU, the program also funds a variable number of Noyce Summer Scholars for the university’s Science and Mathematics Education Institute. The scholars receive a stipend of $550 per week for five weeks to work in summer programs for area youth – summer camps for math and science in various contexts.

Directors of FHSU’s Noyce Program are Adams; Dr. Gavin Buffington, chair of the Department of Physics; Dr. Janet Stramel, associate professor of teacher education; and Dr. Bill Weber, assistant professor of mathematics.

Information on the Fort Hays State Noyce Teacher Leader program, including links to application and reference forms, can be found at www.fhsu.edu/smei/noyce/.