William F. Schneider, 75, of Luray, Kansas, died on Wednesday, July 18, 2018, in Luray, Kansas.
William was born in Sumas, Washington, the son of Vernon W. and Vesper L. (Brown) Schneider. He worked as a curator of books and worked for a law office writing wills for clients.
He is survived by his daughter Casey Elizabeth Koroshec of Seattle, Washington, and close friend Warren Fallis and wife Angela of Luray, Kansas.
Cremation has been selected and there will be no funeral services at this time. Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary of Russell, Kansas, is in charge of the arrangements.
The backpacks are available to students K-12 who reside in and attend school in Ellis County. Children who attend the STAR classroom at Roosevelt Elementary School in Hays are also eligible.
Donations for the backpacks are still being collected.
According to project coordinator Laura Schoaff, there is an extra need for 1 subject spiral notebooks in wide or college-rule, 2-pocket folders, 4 oz. washable school glue, 3″x5″ ruled index cards, large pink erasers and shampoo.
Backpacks will be distributed Thu., Aug. 2, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Hays Armory, 200 Main Street.
For more information, contact Schoaff at 785-623-2800.
Those were the last words Tia Coleman recalls her sister-in-law yelling before the tourist boat they were on sank into a Missouri lake, killing 17 people, including nine of Coleman’s family members.
First responders on the scene of the lake accident Thursday evening -photo courtesy KYTV
A huge wave hit, scattering passengers on the vessel known as a duck boat into Table Rock Lake near Branson, Coleman said, recounting the ordeal from a hospital bed. When the Indianapolis woman came up for air, she was alone. She prayed.
“I said, ‘Jesus please keep me, just keep me so I can get to my children,'” Coleman told television station KOLR.
She spotted a rescue boat and swam as fast as she could.
Coleman’s husband and three children, ages 9, 7 and 1; her 45-year-old sister-in-law and 2-year-old nephew; her mother-in-law and father-in-law and her husband’s uncle all died Thursday night in the deadliest accident of its kind in nearly two decades. Others killed included a Missouri couple who had just celebrated a birthday; another Missouri couple who was on what was planned as their last extended vacation; an Illinois woman who died while saving her granddaughter’s life; an Arkansas father and son; and a retired pastor who was the boat’s operator.
State and federal investigators were trying to determine what went sent the vessel, originally built for military use in World War II, to its demise. An initial assessment blamed thunderstorms and winds that approached hurricane strength, but it wasn’t clear why the amphibious vehicle even ventured into the water.
Coleman said the crew told passengers they were going into the water first, before the land-based part of their tour, because of the incoming storm. The area had been under a severe thunderstorm watch for hours and a severe thunderstorm warning for more than 30 minutes before the boat sank.
Suzanne Smagala with Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ride the Ducks in Branson, said it was the company’s only accident in more than 40 years of operation. The company hasn’t commented on Coleman’s account of the tour, which usually begins with a tour of downtown Branson, known for its country shows and entertainment, before the vessel enters the lake for a short ride on the water.
Company President Jim Pattison Jr. said the boat captain had 16 years of experience, and the business monitors weather.
Twenty-nine passengers and two crew members were aboard. Fourteen people survived, including two adults who remained hospitalized Saturday. Coleman and her 13-year-old nephew were the only of the 11 members of her family who boarded the boat to make it out alive.
Another survivor was 12-year-old Alicia Dennison, of Illinois, who says her grandmother, 64-year-old Leslie Dennison, saved her from drowning. Alicia’s father, Todd Dennison, told the Kansas City Star that his daughter recalled feeling her grandmother below her, pushing her upward after the boat capsized.
Another young survivor was 14-year-old Loren Smith of Osceola, Arkansas. She suffered a concussion, but her father, 53-year-old retired math teacher Steve Smith, and her 15-year-old brother, Lance, died.
Others killed included 65-year-old William Bright and his 63-year-old wife, Janice. The couple had recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary and had talked about Branson being one of their last big trips, recalled neighbor Barbara Beck.
The couple moved to Higginsville from Kansas City, Missouri, three years earlier to be closer to a daughter and grandchildren and quickly embraced small-town life.
William Bright’s final public Facebook posting noted the wedding anniversary and how happy he was with his wife, three kids and 16 grandchildren. Life, he wrote, had “been a lot of fun.”
Another Missouri couple killed in the accident were 69-year-old William Asher and 68-year-old Rosemarie Hamann. The St. Louis-area couple had been celebrating Hamman’s birthday earlier in the week. In a final Facebook photo postedby Hamann, he’s sticking his tongue out and she’s smiling.
“I can only imagine what they were going through. They were so in love. It’s just heartbreaking,” said friend Russ McKay, who said talked to Hamann the day before the accident.
McCay says Hamann told him the couple had just gone on a paddle boat and were planning to go again. He doesn’t know why they chose the duck boat instead.
Chance also brought the Colemans aboard the doomed vessel.
Tia Coleman said her family initially lined up for the wrong tour so they had to switch out their tickets for the 6:30 p.m. ride.
She says the crew showed passengers where the life jackets were but said, ‘Don’t worry about it, you won’t need it’,” Coleman said.
When swells crashed into the boat, they were told to stay seated, she says.
“When that boat is found all those life jackets are going to be on there” Coleman said. “Nobody pulled them off.”
The company’s website had been taken down by Saturday, save for a statement that its operations would remain shuttered to support the investigation and allow time for families and the community to grieve.
While the boat captain survived, its driver, 73-year-old Bob Williams, did not.
Branson Mayor Karen Best said Williams was a “great ambassador” for the city. Williams’ family in Rhode Island, where he’d lived for decades before retiring to Branson, remembered him as a deeply religious man who founded a local church.
“Pastor Bob was a prince of a man, loving, kind, and generous, whose loss to our family is incalculable,” said Williams’ son-in-law, Bishop Jeffery Williams, who now leads King’s Cathedral in Providence.
Dane G. Hansen Foundation has awarded Hays USD 489 a grant to purchase an audiometer and tympanometer.
The grant was for $8,266.
The equipment will be used by to screen students in grades pre-K through 12 in all USD 489 schools.
The current hearing instruments were purchased in 2004.
Nurses will be trained on the new equipment before the beginning of the school year by a Hays High School alumna. The grant was written by Corina Beam, USD 489 Foundation secretary, with the assistance of current and former USD 489 nurses.
The Hays USD 489 school board will receive a report Monday on projected enrollment for the 2018-19 school year.
A report in the board packet estimated total K-12 enrollment at 2,912. Kindergarten through fifth-grade enrollment is estimated at 1,409. Hays Middle School enrollment is projected at 674, and Hays High enrollment is projected to be 829 students. Hays enrollment was 3,047 students on its official count day on Sept. 20, 2017. Hays enrollment was 3,070 in 2016.
The final enrollment figures are important because they are plugged into a state formula to determine funding.
Superintendent John Thissen said Wednesday he hoped as many as half of all students will be enrolled online by the time in-person enrollment starts. That will be Aug. 1 and 2 at the Hays High School cafeteria. This is the second year for one-stop enrollment. You will be able to enroll all your children at the same time at this site. The site will also have an express pay line for those who do not wish to pay enrollment fees online.
Wilson playground
The board is also set to consider the purchase of new playground equipment for Wilson Elementary School.
Wilson has received a $5,000 grant toward the purchase of playground equipment from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. The total cost of the equipment will be about $78,000. No district funds will be used to purchase the equipment. The Wilson Home and School Association has been saving for years toward the replacement of the aging equipment and will cover the rest of the cost.
Other business, the board will
• Hear recommendations for committee appointments from board president Mandy Fox
• Vote on Kansas Association of School Boards policy recommendations
• Discuss board goals
• Hear a report from Chris Hipp, new director of special education
• Discuss the annual Lewis Field Stadium facility use agreement with Fort Hays State University
TOPEKA – The application period for the 2018 Kansas Firefighter Recruitment and Safety Grant (KFRSG) is now open until the grant deadline of October 1, 2018. The grant is made possible with the state of Kansas budget passed by the State Legislature and signed by Governor Jeff Colyer.
This year, the previous grant budget of $200,000 has been doubled to $400,000, to assist volunteer and part-time fire departments across the state with firefighter safety and recruitment.
Grants issued through the KFRSG program will cover the costs of safety gear for firefighters and physical examinations for firefighters whose physicals are not covered by their departments. It will also provide funds for the purchase of new washer-extractor machines used to clean bunker gear following a fire, with further funds available for the creation of Explorer programs to attract youth volunteers into the fire service.
Volunteer and part-time fire departments face recruitment and retention challenges because they do not have the funding to provide safety equipment. Without new equipment provided by the recruiting fire department, potential volunteers are faced with not only donating their time but also providing their own safety gear, sharing gear with others, or doing without.
Safety gear which can be purchased through this grant program based on a proven and demonstrated need, includes bunker or wildland gear, to include: coat, pants, helmet, gloves, hood and boots; and new masks for Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) units for new department members.
This grant program not only addresses safety of firefighters, but their health as well. The OSFM provides grants to local firefighters to assist in paying for physical examinations not otherwise covered by their departments. A physical examination by a doctor could identify underlying health issues and, hopefully, decrease the number of health-related deaths.
The OSFM also uses grant funds to purchase and strategically place washer-extractor machines throughout the state. It is vital to the health of firefighters to properly clean bunker gear following a fire to prevent the transfer of carcinogens, particulates and biohazards to firefighters, and those they serve. Further, as more and more particles attach to protective gear and chemicals remain on clothing, the gear gradually loses its effectiveness – putting firefighters at increased risk.
A key goal for the KFRSG program is firefighter recruitment, which provides funding for the start of Explorer programs. These programs offer a great way for local fire departments to give the youth of their area an opportunity to explore both career and voluntary opportunities in the fire service. All fire departments will be able to apply for funding to cover the Explorer program or the National Volunteer Fire Council National Junior Firefighter Program initiation fees up to $500, plus a $100 start-up fund.
Grant applicants must be established and recognized volunteer or part-time Kansas fire departments in good standing with OSFM (must be current with NFIRS reporting) or a firefighter in good standing with their local fire department. All safety gear purchased through the program would become the property of the requesting department and not of the individual for whom it was requested.
Applications are available at www.firemarshal.ks.gov/KFRSG. The deadline for submission to receive funds through the KFRSG is Oct. 1, 2018. Grant funding will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Hays has won the Sister Cities International 2018 Award for Best Overall Program for a city with a population of 10,000-25,000.
The awards competition, which is open to over 500 sister city programs nationwide, recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding individuals and community sister city programs that are promoting peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation.
In 2017, the Hays Sister City Committee welcomed residents from both its Sister Cities — Santa María de Fe, Misiones, Paraguay and Xinzheng, China — for Hays’ sesquicentennial celebration. A four-person delegation from Paraguay came to celebrate the occasion and the newly rekindled Sister Cities partnership. The committee worked with Fort Hays State University to include visiting students and faculty from Xinzheng, China in the festivities.
The impact of the visits was widely visible in the Hays community, as the city officially introduced guests at many events including a formal celebration and community barbecue.
The visit sparked many conversations with locals. Some conversations were light-hearted, and included teaching the rules of baseball at a local game, chatting about American cars at the car show, or small talk while browsing local vendors at the market and sidewalk sale.
However, there was also much more serious interaction, as people discovered common challenges between the sister cities: fostering business, stimulating growth, and retaining young people in the community after schooling.
“We all stand to learn from these superstar Sister City programs as they impact their communities across a broad range of sectors that include business entrepreneurship, youth leadership, and arts and culture,” said Roger-Mark De Souza, Sister Cities International’s President & CEO.
“These individuals and local organizations inspire us to be better citizens as their work exemplifies President Eisenhower’s vision of engaged international citizen diplomats. They create beneficial connections and lasting relationships which will help their communities today and for years to come.”
Sister Cities International Annual Awards recognize excellence in overall programming and highlight key innovations in arts and culture; business and trade; humanitarian assistance; youth and education; and professional and technical exchange categories. Award winners will be recognized during SCI’s 2018 Annual Conference Aug. 2-4 in Aurora, Colorado.
The conference will bring together hundreds of the most influential citizen diplomats and global leaders in diplomacy, foreign affairs, policy, business, and innovation to discuss, share examples, and network. This year’s theme, “Cities Leading the Way,” will focus on smart and resilient cities, leadership development, and entrepreneurship as key building blocks of President Eisenhower’s vision of creating a more peaceful world through citizen engagement and international cooperation between cities.
Founded as a Presidential Initiative by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, Sister Cities International serves as the national membership organization for 500 member communities with over 2,000 partnerships in more than 140 countries on six continents. The sister city network unites tens of thousands of citizen diplomats and volunteers who work tirelessly to promote the organizations’ mission of creating world peace and understanding through programs and projects focusing on arts and culture, youth and education, business and trade, and community development.
The Hays Sister Cities Committee members are Olga Detrixhe, Melissa Dixon, Ann Leiker, Dawne Leiker, Heather Musil, Brandon Nimz, Mehran Shahidi, Brittney Squire, and Corrie Zimmerman. Past committee members that played an important part in 2017 events include Max Maximov, Carol Solko-Olliff, and Helen Ang Robson.
KANSAS CITY– The suspect connected to a shooting which occurred Friday in Blue Mound, Kan., was arrested Saturday following a vehicle chase.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) special agents were working with Kansas City area police departments to locate a shooting suspect who was wanted for attempted murder, according to a media release.
An officer from the Leawood Police Department spotted the vehicle at approximately 6:20 p.m. in the area of Roe and College. The suspect did not stop for the officer and a pursuit began.
Near I-435 and Wornall, the suspect identified as John Butler, 35, Lenexa, crashed his vehicle and exited on foot into a wooded area. KBI agents and officers pursued him on foot, and he was arrested a short time later.
Butler is jailed on numerous charges to include attempted murder. Nothing further will be released at this time.
—————
LINN COUNTY – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) is assisting the Linn County Sheriff’s Office with an investigation into a shooting.
Just after 1:30p.m. Friday, authorities responded to the report of a shooting at a residence at 604 E. Walnut Ave., in Blue Mound, Kan.
Image courtesy KBI
Upon arrival, a male shooting victim was located, and was transported by EMS to a Kansas City area hospital for treatment. He is expected to survive his injuries, according to the media release.
A shooting suspect was identified, and the investigation led the KBI’s High Risk Warrant Team, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, and the Mound City Police Department to conduct a tactical operation near the 500 block of Main in Mound City between approximatley 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday.
The suspect was not apprehended as a result of this operation, and the search continued overnight.
Anyone with information related to this shooting is asked to contact the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME or the Linn County Sheriff’s Office at 913-795-2665.
Our 2019 budget proposes spending $2.4 million over expected income. Raising the mill levy will not fix this. It’s a matter of spending more than we take in – we need to learn to live within our means. This overspending is unsustainable.
Priority one is the Ellis County taxpayer. Many of them live from paycheck to paycheck and can’t spend $100 when they only have $50. For the past few years we have moved money from capital accounts and using it to pay for day-to-day operations, hoping that someday in the future additional tax revenues would rebound or appear. Painfully, the reality is that we as a county can no longer rob Peter to pay Paul.
It is absolutely necessary that we get control of spending in Ellis County now and not place this burden on future commissioners. Each and every county elected official and department head needs to change how they operate. I know that department heads have started working on this, but it was also made abundantly clear that this is not a popular idea with elected officials or employees. We were elected by the taxpayers of Ellis County to make hard decisions when it comes to spending and that’s what we need to do now and in the future.
We received a letter from Ellis County attorney Tom Drees which was addressed to our county administrator in which he claimed his department is $14,937 down from what he claims is necessary to adequately fund his department and imply the threat of a lawsuit with his declaration that Kansas law “requires the county to adequately fund the county attorney”. It appears Mr. Drees believes the courts should decide what constitutes “adequate funds” and not the Ellis County Commission, whose members have been elected by taxpayers to make these very decisions.
I believe this thinly veiled threat of legal action is unappreciated, unwise and in very poor taste. Particularly with a requested budget of $924,787.00 – which has risen steadily each year from his budget of 2015 at $771,416. His budget has increased 8.5% over this period and let me point out that inflation has risen less than 2% over the past few years. Comparable counties such as Barton and Ford have larger staffs and significantly lower budgets for 2018 of $702,000 and $824,000, respectively.
My vote on the 2019 budget will ultimately depend on what steps we as a commission are willing to take to bring spending in line with revenues. I look forward to the suggestions of my fellow commissioners.
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
If precision agriculture is the process of placing the exact amount of crop inputs needed at the precise time and place that they are needed most, then what is precision marketing? Precision marketing would mean using technology to provide potential customers with timely information most useful to them. One rural Kansas company is on the leading edge of such technology.
During the past two weeks, we have learned about the Mertz family. Today in the conclusion of this three-part series, we’ll meet the younger generation: Abram Mertz. Abram and brother Lincoln are founders and co-owners of LivestockDirect in Manhattan, a printing and marketing company which is essentially using precision marketing to benefit its customers – seed stock cattle producers across the country. Abram and his siblings grew up on the family farm and went to high school at the nearby rural community of Wamego, population 4,372 people. Now, that’s rural.
“Since my own family sold Simmental and SimAngus bulls, I grew up reading bull sale catalogs with my dad after dinner,” Abram said. “When I was in high school, Dad asked Lincoln and me to build a website for River Creek Farms,” Abram said. “We enjoyed working on the challenge together.”
It went so well that other people asked if he and Lincoln would develop websites for them also. During this time, Abram was active in 4-H and the American Junior Simmental Association, serving as national president one year.
One day at the Riley County Fair, Abram met a fellow 4-Her named Dani Devlin. The two eventually married and graduated from K-State. They now have an 18-month-old baby, Madden, and are expecting their second child in November 2018.
Meanwhile, Abram and his brother Lincoln began working on websites for other livestock producers. Many of these customers also printed full-color sale catalogs for their bull sales. “As we heard customers talk about their printers, the need for a high quality, full-color printing option tailored to the industry was clear,” Abram said. The two brothers formed their own company which specialized in producing such products. They named the company LivestockDirect.
Today, LivestockDirect prints and mails high quality sale catalogs and also works to make sure that those catalogs are being delivered most effectively. Abram and Lincoln developed a high-tech system called MailScope which tracks catalog deliveries to customers and enables the seedstock producer to call, text, or email specific customers directly from the MailScope platform. MailScope can be accessed anytime from anywhere, including any laptop, desktop, or mobile device.
In other words, a rancher can mail catalogs, track where they are in the mailstream, know when and where they were delivered to the customer, and follow up with that customer immediately – from a cell phone, for example.
“In the past, it was a shotgun approach,” Abram said. “A rancher might mail sale catalogs to 2,000 names, talk to 100 potential customers and 50 might buy. MailScope takes the uncertainty out of the personal touch,” he said. “Knowing when your customer has received the catalog allows you to perfectly time a follow-up call or email. The platform also reduces uncertainty and stress caused by the USPS.”
In the future, LivestockDirect wants to enable seedstock producers to understand consumer preferences and respond to them in more targeted and efficient ways. “We’re a tech company,” Abram said. “We’re providing our customers online tools to market more efficiently.” In addition to high quality printing services, LivestockDirect helps businesses produce tri-fold mailers and specialty items such as caps, tumblers, mugs, knives, gloves, and much more.
Abram and Lincoln have grown their business. “In our first year, we produced catalogs for 25 breeders in Kansas and Nebraska,” Abram said. “In 2018, we’ll print catalogs for over 600 breeders in 30 states.” The catalogs go from coast to coast and North Dakota to Texas.
For more information, see www.livestockdirect.net.
If precision marketing can have efficiency benefits just like precision agriculture, then we commend Abram and Lincoln Mertz of Livestock Direct for making a difference by applying technology to seedstock sales. In rural Kansas, such innovation and entrepreneurship is precisely what is needed.
Today
A 20 percent chance of showers before 8am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 91. Southeast wind 8 to 10 mph.
Tonight
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1am. Increasing clouds, with a low around 69. East southeast wind 6 to 11 mph becoming north after midnight.
Monday
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 88. North wind 6 to 8 mph.
Monday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 66. North northeast wind 6 to 9 mph.
Tuesday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. Northeast wind 5 to 7 mph becoming east southeast in the afternoon.
Tuesday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 66.
Wednesday
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 91.
Wednesday Night
Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Thursday
A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 84.
A court ruling has cleared the way for more states to legalize sports betting, but it may not provide much revenue to government. (File photo/KCUR)BySTEPHEN KORANDA Kansas News Service
A new report finds legalizing sports gambling could boost revenue for states like Kansas, but any windfall is likely to be brief.
Sports gambling began to tempt lawmakers after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalized it earlier this year. The report released Thursday from the Pew Charitable Trusts said sports book likely won’t be a magic pill to cure state budget issues.
Mary Murphy, one of the authors of the study, said tax collections from sports betting may not be new revenue. Rather, it’s likely to be money cannibalized from places such as casinos and the tax proceeds they generate. That’s based on past experiences when gambling has been expanded.
“States could experience short-lived gains followed by downward pressure on revenue as more and more states legalize,” she said.
Because there’s currently very little legal sports gambling, Murphy said it’s hard to estimate what the financial impact of sports betting could be. However, she said states shouldn’t count on a major bonanza.
“The revenue streams will likely be small,” she said.
That’s because sin taxes overall make up a small percentage of state revenues. The report found in Kansas they account for 3.3 percent and in Missouri it’s 4.9 percent. Those numbers include alcohol, tobacco and gambling taxes.
When the Supreme Court knocked down the federal ban on sports gambling, Republican Senate President Susan Wagle hailed the ruling as a victory for state’s rights.
“The legalization of sports betting will help diminish illegal gambling operations and allow states to bring their regulations into the 21st century,” she said in a statement. “I am confident the Kansas Legislature will act appropriately to regulate sports betting next year.”
Marijuana is another issue on the minds of some state lawmakers. The Kansas Legislature, with a strong block of conservatives, seems unlikely to approve legalization. But the number of other states legalizing medical and even recreational marijuana has grown rapidly in recent years.
Murphy said neighboring Colorado has seen significant, although volatile, revenues from recreational marijuana. Monthly taxes and fees totaled around $2 million in early 2014 and were around $21 million in April 2017.
States that are early to the party may be able to cash in on tourism dollars as people visit to sample legal pot, but that buzz is likely to fade over time.
“As their neighbors … legalize recreational marijuana, the early adopters may see fewer tourism dollars,” Murphy said.
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.
The Fort Hays State University Alumni Association will host a golf tournament Friday, Aug. 3, at Meadow Lake Golf Club, 1085 East Golf Club Dr in Colby. Golf enthusiasts are invited for a relaxing day on the greens while raising funds in support of Fort Hays State University student scholarships.
The tournament begins with registration at 8 a.m. followed by tee time at 9 a.m. Registration fees are $90 per golfer or $300 for a team of four.
Special guest FHSU Athletic Director Curtis Hammeke will offer an update on Tiger athletics and the university after the tournament. Non-golfers are invited to stop by the golf course at approximately 1:30 p.m. to hear the latest in FHSU news.
Today
