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Month: July 2019

FHSU Management Development Center offers 5 workshops in July 

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FHSU UNIVERSITY RELATIONS

Fort Hays State University’s Management Development Center will offer five workshops in July, focusing on Facebook marketing, Microsoft Excel, and tips on how to deal with difficult employees. 

Introduction to Facebook Marketing – July 9
Participants will learn how to increase engagement and drive website traffic using the world’s most popular social platform by creating and curating content, using ads effectively and more. This half-day workshop, facilitated by Dr. Mary Martin, professor of applied business studies, will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon in FHSU’s Memorial Union Stouffer Lounge.

Intermediate Facebook Marketing – July 9
In this workshop, participants will build upon what participants learned in the Introduction to Facebook Marketing workshop. Participants will learn about Facebook apps and how to use them to run contests and promotions, add email subscribers, integrate user’s Instagram feed, offer customer support and more. This workshop, facilitated by Martin, will be from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Stouffer Lounge.

Introduction to Excel – July 16
Participants will learn the basics of Excel, such as setting up a spreadsheet, creating charts and graphs and other customizable features. Other basic features of the class include a tour through tabs and instruction on ribbons, menus and more. Participants will learn about merging, freezing and adding rows and columns, formulas, functions and keyboard shortcuts.

This workshop, facilitated by Dr. Cole Engel, assistant professor of economics, finance and accounting, will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon in FHSU’s McCartney Hall, room 114.

Intermediate Excel – July 18
Intermediate Excel will take an in-depth look at sorting and filtering data. Participants will learn how to format their Excel programs to include the Descriptive Statistics Analysis ToolPak and how to read the output. What-If Statements, logical statements and data validation will be reviewed, along with PivotTables and PivotCharts.

This workshop, facilitated by Engel, will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon in FHSU’s McCartney Hall, room 114.

Dealing with Difficult Employees – July 31
Participants in this workshop will learn the secrets to motivating difficult employees and correcting negative behaviors in the workplace. Common disruptive employee behaviors will be examined and the identification of potential risks to organizations will be identified if behaviors are not corrected. Strategies for constructively managing the performance of difficult employees will also be discussed.

This workshop, facilitated by Dr. Robert Lloyd, assistant professor of management, will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon in FHSU’s Hansen Hall, first floor meeting room.

The workshops will cost $119 each. A 15-percent discount applies for all Hays Area Chamber of Commerce members for a single session. Contact the MDC to receive the discount. A completion certificate and 3.0 continuing education units will be awarded to each workshop participant.

Registration is available online through the Registration link in the sidebar on the page at www.fhsu.edu/mdc. Registration closes one week before each workshop.

To learn more about this workshop or additional upcoming trainings, contact Hannah Hilker, MDC training development specialist, by phone at 785-628-4121 or by email to [email protected].

1 dead, 5 hospitalized after boats collide on Lake of the Ozarks

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MILLER COUNTY, Mo— One person died and five were injured after two boats collided just after 10p.m. Saturday at Lake of the Ozarks.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1999 Formula Cruiser driven by Bradley Siebenek, 37, Holts Summit, was headed downstream at the four-mile mark of the Osage Arm. A 2002 Formula cruiser driven by Kelly L. Wise, 59, Atlantic, IA., was headed upstream when the boats collided.

The body of Jason Russell, 39, Eugene, was recovered by divers at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in 80 feet of water, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol

EMS transported Siebeneck and passengers in the 1999 Formula Brian D. Basham, 42, Eldon, Wise and a passenger in the 2002 Formula Tammy Wise were transported to Lake Regional Hospital.

Nathan P Sneller, 37, Jefferson City, was airlifted to University Hospital. They were not wearing life jackets, according to the MSHP.

FHSU grad joins ABBB

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ABBB

The certified public accounting firm of Adams, Brown, Beran & Ball, Chartered (ABBB) is pleased to announce the addition of Alexis “Alex” Crispin to their professional team. Crispin joins the firm as a staff accountant in the ABBB Audit Department.

“We’re very excited to welcome Alex to the ABBB team,” said Brian Staats, CPA, CGMA, managing partner of ABBB. “We look forward to witnessing her continued development and growth as an accounting professional.”

A summa cum laude graduate of Fort Hays State University, Crispin earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting in 2018. Originally from Shawnee, Kansas, she currently lives in Hays.

Adams, Brown, Beran & Ball, Chartered provides a wide range of traditional and non-traditional CPA and consulting services to clients throughout Kansas, including agriculture organizations, construction companies, feed yards, financial institutions, governmental and not-for-profit organizations, manufacturers, medical practices, oil and gas companies, professional service firms, real estate companies and small businesses. Founded in 1945, today the firm maintains 13 office locations throughout the state. For more information about Adams, Brown, Beran & Ball, please visit www.abbb.com.

Kansas man arrested for weekend arson fire

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SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an arson fire and have a suspect in custody.

Wesley Howell photo Shawnee Co.

Just after 1 p.m. Saturday.  fire crews responded to a structure fire located at 911 SE Bellview Avenue in Topeka, according to Fire Marshal Michael Martin.

Upon arrival, fire crews found the two story wooden frame residential structure with smoke showing. Firefighters began an offensive fire attack, keeping it confined to the structure of fire origin.

A preliminary investigation indicates the fire was intentionally set, according to Martin. The estimated dollar loss is $15,000, of which all is associated with structural loss.

During the course of the investigation a suspect was identified.  Police arrested 32-year-old Wesley E. Howell. He booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges of arson.

There were no injuries reported.

Wilcox School in Trego County receives statewide restoration award

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Wilcox School

TREGO COUNTY — Each year the Kansas Preservation Alliance Inc. recognizes exemplary efforts in historic preservation across the state of Kansas. The 2019 Awards for Excellence were presented May 17 at the Historic Fire Station No.2 in Topeka.

The Wilcox School in rural Trego County received a Merit Award for Excellence with Distinction: Preservation. Cathy Albert and Jody Zeman, representing the Wilcox School, and Len Schamber, representing Schamber Historic Preservation, LLC, were present to receive the award. Sixteen projects across Kansas received Awards for Excellence and only two projects received Awards with Distinction, including the Wilcox School.

Jody Zeman and Cathy Albert, representing the Wilcox School, and Len Schamber, Schamber Historic Preservation of Damar, KS, attended the presentation and accepted the award.

Built in 1886, Wilcox School District 29 is significant as one of only a few remaining rural school houses in Trego County and one of a few remaining native limestone one-room schools left in the United States. The school served Wilcox Township for sixty years. District 29 was eventually consolidated with other rural districts and the Wilcox School closed in 1947. The school continued to be used by consolidated districts for several more years. Later. the building was purchased by the Hi-Plains Gravel Grinders Motorcycle Club and used as their clubhouse.

Restoration began in 2012, and today the school is a monument to the demanding manual labor and ingenuity of the early settlers of Wilcox Township who dreamed of making a better life for their families and neighbors.

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Exploring Outdoors Kansas: State park dilemmas

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Steve Gilliland

Most, if not all Kansas state parks are located at major lakes and reservoirs, so it’s no surprise that many of them were devastated by the flood waters; Kansas Dept. of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism reports that over one-half of our state parks were seriously affected by the flooding.

By the time you read this column, July 4th will be nearly upon us, a normally very busy time for state parks, but many will still not be open or will only offer limited services. KDWPT says that one-fourth to one-half of the annual state park revenue comes from visitors to state parks and lakes over Memorial Day weekend, which was literally a “washout,” and now the 4th of July holiday will bring in very limited revenue also.

KDWPT relies solely on park entrance fees, campsite & cabin rental fees and marina concessions to fund state parks operation, maintenance and repairs. The sale of hunting, fishing and fur harvesting licenses CANNOT be used for state parks. In 2018 about 6.9 million people visited KS State Parks, and the Park Fee Fund and Cabin Rental Fund together brought more than $10.5 million in revenue. As of June 15, the Park Fee Fund for just the months of April – May was down about $100,000 compared to 2018 due to lost entrance and campsite fees, and the income from cabin rentals was off by $30,000, and that doesn’t include refunds to people who had prepaid. Also lost was revenue from marina concessions and income from the annual Country Stampede held every year at Tuttle Creek that was moved this year because Tuttle Creek State Park was unusable. The Cheney State Park Manager estimated that income there at Cheney alone was down by $50,000 compared to 2018.

Besides tremendous loss of income, our state parks will now face enormous repair expenses to boot, and at some parks employees don’t yet know entirely what they’re dealing with. At some parks, power was turned off, electrical components removed from boxes and water heaters removed from showers because of the depth of the flood water. That meant no power to campsites and no power to pump sewage, etc. At Kanopolis, many trailers had to be moved to higher ground. At other parks, cabins were moved and myriads of picnic tables were chained down. One marina owner said they had no fuel to sell yet, but were thinking about getting T-shirts made to sell that read “I Didn’t Drown in the Flood of 2019.”

Cleanup and restoration will take months at best; electrical components and water heaters will need reinstalled. Mountains of debris will need hauled and trash sorted from it before it can be disposed-of or burned. Sand will need brought in to restore beaches, fallen trees and limbs will need cut-up and moved and hundreds of acres of grass will need cleaned or replanted. Boat ramps and docks will need repositioned and repaired and some structures rebuilt entirely. Cabin damage will need fixed and big rocks and other objects that got moved around by the rushing water will need repositioned. And none of this even addresses the miles of roads that will need repaired or replaced.

Such is life; we often don’t know what we have till it’s gone. One park official also mentioned the lingering smell at his park; he commented “It all smells like the inside of a minnow bucket!” The KDWPT website, www.ksoutdoors.com has a new link in red letters at the top that takes you to a page called “State Park Alerts” that lists the status of all Kansas State Parks at any given time. Check that link for the status of your favorite parks and let’s continue enjoying them as we continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].

Hays students earn honors at Cloud County Community College

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CONCORDIA — Jace Armstrong of Hays has been named to the Cloud County Community College Spring 2019 President’s List. To be named to the president’s list, students must be enrolled in a minimum of 12 hours of college coursework and must have earned a semester grade point average of 3.9-4.0.

• • •

Tanner Brown of Hays has completed the requirements for the General Business 30 Hour Certificate from Cloud County Community College.

Brown also was named to the Cloud County Community College Spring 2019 Honor Roll. To be named to this honor roll, students must be enrolled in a minimum of 12 hours of college coursework and earn a semester grade point average of 3.6-3.899.

Prairie Doc Perspectives: Misery to miracle

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Rick Holm

Miracles still happen.

Some think that the scourge of smallpox was present around 12,000 years ago, however, we know for sure it was here 3000 years ago as it was found on the face of an Egyptian Pharaoh mummy. We know that it caused many large and devastating epidemics killing about 35 percent of infected adults and 80 percent of infected children. Even during the 20th century, smallpox still resulted in 300-500 million deaths world-wide.

Pictures of people suffering from this miserable viral illness show skin of face and body breaking out with dime-sized firm white or red blisters. People also commonly developed fevers, vomiting, spread of blisters into mouth and eyes, and too often came to a wretched and miserable death. If one survived, the common facial pox scars could be extremely disfiguring and sometimes affected the cornea of eyes causing blindness.

During the tenth century in China, someone began inoculating the fluid from a smallpox blister onto abraded skin on the arm or leg of a healthy individual, allowing for a single pox to get started in a controlled way. This worked fairly well except that the procedure made them infectious to others for a while and resulted in death to the recipient one percent of the time. Contracting smallpox killed about 35 percent of adults, so reducing the rate to one percent was an improvement. This rather dangerous process of inoculating live smallpox became popular in England during the 16 and 1700s.

Smallpox was given the medical term variola from Latin for spotted pimple. It had been commonly known as the red plague until in Britain during the 1600s it was called smallpox to distinguish it from great-pox or syphilis.

Noting that milk maids rarely got smallpox, in 1796 British rural physician Edward Jenner found that inoculating the fluid of the milder disease cowpox provided for substantial immunity from smallpox without significant risk to the recipient and without the danger of spreading smallpox. Jenner called the cowpox inoculate “vaccine” after vacca, the Latin word for cow.

With a vaccination campaign lead by the World Health Organization, world-wide deaths reduced from two million per year in 1967 to none in 1977. I find it nothing short of a miracle that in those ten years, human smallpox infections were virtually eliminated from this world.  It was a miracle wrought by human intelligence, the ingenuity of creative and resourceful minds, and the scientific method.

It was the miracle of vaccination.

For free and easy access to the entire Prairie Doc® library, visit www.prairiedoc.org and follow The Prairie Doc® on Facebook, featuring On Call with the Prairie Doc® a medical Q&A show streamed most Thursdays at 7 p.m. central.

Bethany College president accepts job in Kentucky

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Bethany College President Will Jones is stepping down. Photo courtesy Bethany College

LINDSBORG – Will Jones will step down as Bethany College President this summer, Board of Directors Chair Corey Peterson, ’84, announced.

According to Peterson, an interim president will be identified in the coming weeks for the 2019-2020 academic year. Vice President of Academic Affairs Beth Mauch will serve as acting president until then.

“We have accomplished much at Bethany thanks to Will’s leadership, tireless work ethic, and skills. Fortunately, Will is leaving Bethany in a good place. We have had back-to-back record Freshman classes and strong enrollment growth over the past three years. The college is in good standing with the Higher Learning Commission, has an excellent cabinet, faculty and staff in place, and has enjoyed several years of balanced budgets. Looking forward, Bethany has the pieces and plan needed to continue strengthening its financial standing and to successfully carry on its mission,” Peterson said.

“I am deeply saddened to have Will leave, but am thrilled for him and his family to have an opportunity to move back to his home state to serve an excellent college where they will be near their family and friends. I will be forever grateful to Will and Amy and all they did to allow Bethany to not only survive a very difficult situation, but to thrive. Lindsborg will miss them and their wonderful children, and I wish them the very best.”

Jones said, “Serving Bethany with the college’s faculty, staff, and board the past three years has been a professional honor. I am deeply grateful for the confidence placed in me to help Bethany College to rise. It has been great to have been a Bethany Swede.”

Jones will become the president of Georgetown College effective July 1.

Since arriving at Bethany in the summer of 2016, Jones has led the college in increasing full-time enrollment nearly 25 percent. Jones also led the college in launching the Good Life Scholarship, Swedes to Sweden, and Bethany College Swedish Crafts. The college benefited from a renovation of Alma Swenson Hall and the construction of a new tennis complex during Jones’s tenure. In addition, Bethany also secured a USDA loan to purchase New Hall and refinance the college’s long-term debt and completed a five-year strategic plan.

Following the appointment of an interim president in the coming weeks, the college’s board of directors will begin a national search for a permanent successor.

 

John Robert Geisinger

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John Robert Geisinger, 85, of Selden, died Saturday, June 29, 2019, at Prairie Senior Living Complex of Colby. He was born April 30, 1934, in Sheridan County, KS to John and Anna (Goscha) Geisinger. John graduated from Leoville High School in 1952 and served in the United States Army from 1952-1954 as a payroll officer in Germany. After the service he attended Fort Hays State University for 2 years, then returned home to farm. John also had his own construction company. On February 4, 1961, John married Julia Ann Martin. John enjoyed gardening, woodworking and building wooden toys for his children and grandchildren. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Leoville.

John was preceded in death by his parents; wife Julia Ann Geisinger; sister Doris Ann Short and brother William Geisinger.

He is survived by his children, Jacqueline (Mike) Wiens, of Colby, John Geisinger, of Selden, Joe (Patty) Geisinger, of Austin, TX and Jason (Dana) Geisinger, of Selden; brothers Jim and Eugene Geisinger; ten grandchildren, Johnna (Josh) Dexter-Wiens, Kaylin Wiens, Madison Wiens, Josh (Brittany) Geisinger, Jessica Geisinger, Libby Geisinger, Mary Geisinger, Jake Geisinger, Karlee Geisinger and Nash Geisinger and two great grandchildren, Luca and Aubrey.

Visitation is 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, July 2, 2019, at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Leoville, KS, with a Vigil at 7:00 p.m. The Funeral Mass is at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 3, 2019, also at the church, with burial to follow in Calvary Cemetery, Leoville. Memorials are suggested to local Catholic Youth Organizations or the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, in care of Baalmann Mortuary, PO Box 391, Colby, KS 67701. For condolences or information visit www.baalmannmortuary.com.

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