TOPEKA – Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) Acting Secretary Jeff Zmuda today announced that Joel Hrabe has been selected to serve as the agency’s deputy secretary of facilities management.
Effective August 11, Hrabe will assume his new role as deputy secretary of facilities management, the KDOC’s division that is responsible for the day-to-day management of the state’s eight adult correctional facilities. Currently, Hrabe is serving as the warden for Norton Correctional Facility, a position he has held since 2017.
“I am excited to have Joel working with me at this time and in this capacity,” said Acting Secretary Zmuda. “The population and safety challenges in our facilities are well known, and Joel is the right leader for the important work required to address these challenges.”
During his 27 years at Norton Correctional Facility, Hrabe has served as a corrections counselor, classifications administrator and deputy warden.
He also has worked with the agency’s Special Operations and Response Team (SORT), helped strengthen emergency response practices and completed National Institute of Corrections (NIC) training in cognitive approaches to changing offender behavior and comprehensive prison classification systems. He also is involved with NIC’s Executive Excellence program and is a graduate of the KDOC’s Leadership Development Academy. Hrabe earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Kansas State University.
The KDOC facilities management division oversees operations of eight adult correctional facilities across Kansas serving just over 10,000 inmates currently.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A government report shows farm real estate values went up 6% in Kansas from last year.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Tuesday that the value of all land and buildings on Kansas farms averaged $1,960 per acre for 2019. That is $110 per acre higher than last year.
The report is a bright spot as Kansas farmers struggle with mounting debt, lower crop prices and trade challenges.
Cropland values in the state went up 5% from last year to $2,160 per acre. Dryland cropland averaged $2,050 per acre, about $90 higher than a year ago. Irrigated cropland averaged $3,320 per acre, up $340 an acre.
Pastureland averaged $1,390 per acre, up $70 higher than a year ago.
Eloise J. “Frenchie” Newell, age 92, passed away Tuesday, August 6, 2019 at Hays Medical Center, Hays, Kansas.
Eloise was born December 7, 1926 to Arthur and Alice (Thibault) Newell. Eloise was one of seven children. He grew up on a farm in Graham County and attended Bogue High School.
Eloise met the love of his life, Frances Goetz, and they married at St. Joseph’s Church, Hays, Kansas, on August 5, 1946. They celebrated 67 years of marriage. To this union were three children: Joan, Arlen and Mary.
Eloise worked at Walker Army Airbase after high school. After marrying Frances, he pursued employment with the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) Engineering Department at the Hays office. He retired from KDOT after 40 years of service. He was a Certification Senior Engineer Technician and was also a Registered Land Surveyor. He had a license to operate the Division’s short wave radio, if needed. He also helped maintain the local office.
Eloise enjoyed fishing, hunting, maintaining beautiful flowers in their manicured yard and growing an abundant large garden. He had great devotion to his faith and practiced it all his life.
Eloise is survived by sister Pat Belisle (Duane), Damar Ks: Daughter, Joan (Dick) Palmer of Haysville Ks: daughter in law, Pat Newell, Versailles Ky; grandchildren, Lisa (Nick) Aschenbrenner of Bonner Springs Ks: Laurie Guilbault, Topeka Ks: Jeremy (Shiloh) Newell, Fairfield Ohio: Leticia Newton, Mt Eden Ky: and, Bonnie (Kenneth) Johns, Versailles Ky, seven great great grandchildren, a bunch of awesome nieces and nephews and wonderful friends.
Eloise was preceded in death by his wife, Frances; son, Arlen; and daughter, Mary. Also preceded by sisters, Eleanor Bellerive, ODella Bedard, Priscilla Emigh, and brothers, Robert and Mitchell Newell.
Funeral services will be 10 AM Friday, August 9, 2019 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hays with burial to follow in the church cemetery.
Visitation will be Thursday 6 PM – 8 PM with a combined rosary and parish vigil at 7 PM all at Brock’s-Keithley Funeral Chapel and Crematory 2509 Vine Hays, KS 67601.
Condolences may be left by guest book at www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com or by email at [email protected]
Linda K. Freeland, 70, passed away on Monday, August 5, 2019, at Salina Regional Health Center in Salina, Kansas.
She was born to Dale Renberger and Dolores (Nuss) Renberger on April 13, 1949, in Hays, Kansas. She graduated from McPherson High School in 1967.
Linda married David E. Freeland on January 10, 1971, in McPherson, and they celebrated their 48th anniversary just this year. Son Paul David was born February 15, 1975, and son Michael Robert was born September 28, 1979.
Linda received her degree in Early Childhood Education from Kansas State University in May 1971. She owned her own preschool, Four Seasons Preschool, for nearly 40 years, and retired in spring 2017. She taught more than 1,400 children during her time as a preschool teacher.
Survivors include husband Dave; son, Paul (Rachel), Melissa, Texas and their children, Sydney, Chase and Erynn; son, Michael (Kristina), Salina and their children, Gabriel, Dominic and Oliver; sister, Alana (Larry) Schafer, Salina; brother, Terry (Estelle) Renberger, McPherson; sister-in-law Gloria Freeland (Art Vaughan), Manhattan; sister-in-law, Gaila Freeland de Chambi (Humberto Chambi), La Paz, Bolivia; and six nieces and four nephews.
Linda was preceded in death by her parents, her father-in-law, Edgar Freeland, her mother-in-law Edla (Mostrom) Freeland; and her grandparents.
A memorial service will be at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, August 9, at First Baptist Church of Salina, 843 Lewis Ave., with Pastor Dave Walters officiating. Burial will be at Roselawn Cemetery. Friends may call at the Ryan Mortuary on Thursday from 4 until 8 pm where the family will receive friends from 5 until 7 pm.
Memorial gifts may be made to First Baptist Church of Salina, The Greater Salina Community Foundation’s Linda K. Freeland Scholarship, which goes to Salina students who plan to study early childhood education, or to the Tammy Walker Cancer Center.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — A 27-year-old Kansas City-area man was sentenced to 26 years in prison for shooting into a stranded car with four women who had just left a wedding.
Jackson photo Jackson Co.
The shooting in November 2016 killed one woman and severely injured the other three.
Deandre Jackson was sentenced Tuesday. He pleaded guilty in June to 10 crimes, including second-degree murder.
25-year-old MarYanna Pennington died. Her sister was paralyzed from the chest down, a third woman lost the use of an arm and the fourth suffered back and abdominal injuries.
The women’s car broke down near a Kansas City cemetery after they left a wedding. Investigators say the shooting occurred after Jackson’s girlfriend and Pennington were involved in an earlier altercation.
More than 30 shell casings were found at the scene.
TOPEKA ― State officials have told one of the key players in Kansas’ privatized Medicaid system that it stands in danger of getting fired for not living up to its contract.
Aetna Better Health has until Wednesday to tell state officials how it is addressing chronic complaints about delayed payments to hospitals and other problems.
A formal letter from the state to Aetna says failure to fix the problems so far means the company’s contract “is in jeopardy of being terminated for cause.”
The letter said that if Aetna didn’t solve the problems by Wednesday, the state “may seek any and all remedies available under the contract.”
Complaints about Aetna’s performance piled up for months and boiled over Monday at a quarterly meeting in Topeka of a committee that monitors the state’s privatized Medicaid system called KanCare.
Representatives for hospitals and doctors’ offices said Aetna doesn’t reimburse correctly, or sometimes at all. They said their billing workers feel stuck in a purgatory of paperwork, spreadsheets and phone calls, unable to reach the right people at Aetna to correct errors and pay out missing funds.
Aetna hasn’t even put together a complete and accessible directory of physicians and specialists that it covers, providers complained. The company’s contract began at the start of this year.
“Why has it taken you this long to get geared up?” said Sabetha Community Hospital CEO Lora Key. “To get a physician directory correct? To get us paid correctly?”
An Aetna representative apologized repeatedly, saying his company had fixed some problems and was nearing solutions on others.
“I understand your frustration,” Keith Wisdom said. “It’s fair to expect us to be further along at this point.”
Wisdom said medical experts help set Aetna’s reimbursement policies. That drew incredulity from those who count on the company for reimbursement.
“You’re telling me you have a medical director who oversees and approves all this? … It befuddles me,” said Wichita pediatrician Rebecca Reddy. “It’s silly. And that it takes that long to resolve is disrespectful.”
Reddy said doctors sometimes can’t get paid by Aetna even for common and necessary procedures, such as frenotomies on newborns. A frenotomy involves removing a tissue under the tongue when it hinders a baby from breastfeeding.
She said Aetna demands that providers first get approval from Aetna, but that can take weeks for a procedure that should happen swiftly. She questioned why doctors haven’t run into the same problems with Aetna’s commercial insurance — only its Medicaid arm called Aetna Better Health.
“Your name is ‘Aetna,’” Reddy said. “So I expect that you have processes in place. And then you act like this is a whole new puppy that has to be trained … when clearly you have other functioning systems around the nation.”
“My apologies for your frustration,” Wisdom replied. “There’s obviously thousands of (billing) codes.”
He said Aetna has reviewed concerns about its pre-approval requirements and will remove certain basic procedures from the list.
Kansas fully privatized its Medicaid system in 2013, dividing it among three private companies. The program mostly serves low-income children, but also parents, pregnant women, people with disabilities and seniors in long-term care.
Last year the administration of then-Gov. Jeff Colyer booted one of the three insurers, Amerigroup and tapped Aetna instead. Amerigroup sued the state unsuccessfully over the bidding process in an effort to keep its contract.
Aetna’s contract began at the start of this year. The other two Medicaid companies — Sunflower and UnitedHealthcare — faced complaints in the past similar to those now faced by Aetna.
On July 24, after months of complaints about Aetna, Kansas health officials sent a notice of non-compliance to the company.
In an emailed statement, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Tuesday that the non-compliance letter concerns “failure to meet contract performance standards.”
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment gave Aetna 10 business days to file a roadmap for fixing the situation.
“We must hold our contractors accountable,” the state agency said. “It is our hope to work collaboratively with Aetna to come into compliance.”
Aetna did not discuss the non-compliance letter at Monday’s meeting, and Wisdom declined to answer questions from a reporter after the meeting. The company hasn’t answered additional interview requests sent to the company on Tuesday.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health and education for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @Celia_LJ or email her at celia (at) kcur (dot) org.
NORTON COUNTY – Residents of Norton County are being asked to reduce unnecessary electrical usage today, according to a social media post late Wednesday morning by Prairie Land Electrical Cooperative and Norton County Emergency Management.
From Prairie Land Electrical Cooperative:
“There was an outage last night affecting over 200 members in southwest Norton County.
The primary underground wiring faulted at about 9:50 p.m. on Tuesday. Service was temporarily re-routed to another circuit to restore power until the problem could be identified and corrected.
Today, extra crews are on site to replace the faulty underground wire and get the affected members back on their assigned circuit as soon as possible.
Since more members are sharing a circuit, we are asking those that are able, to reduce unnecessary usage for the rest of the day. Turn off fans when you leave the room. Unplug electronics you are not using. Set your thermostat a few degrees higher. Use your grill or crockpot instead of the oven. This will reduce your chances of a low voltage situation that may cause breakers to trip.
We’ll let you know as soon as everyone is back on the proper circuit.”
Howard L. Kerr, 91, passed away on August 5, 2019 at the Cedar Village Care Center in Ness City. He was born on December 13, 1927 on the farm in Ness County, Kansas the son of Paul and Frances (Fercking) Kerr.
Howard was a farmer stockman. He was a member of Sacred Heart Church where he was a member of the Knights of Columbus for over 70 years. He belonged to motorcycle clubs for 10 years, traveling around the states. He was always active in his children’s activities. He married Florence Gabel on April 29, 1947, in Ness City. She died on April 30, 2010.
Survivors include four sons, Gaylen (Debra) Kerr of Ness City, Franklin (Linda) Kerr of Topeka, David (Mary) Kerr of Ballwin, MO, Rick Kerr of Lawerence; a daughter, Leigh Ann Hendrickson of WaKeeney; 10 grandchildren; and 19 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife, infant son, Howard, and brother, Wayne Kerr.
Rosary and Parish Vigil will be on Saturday, August 10, 10:30 A.M., with funeral service at 1:30 P.M., at Sacred Heart Church, Ness City. Burial in the Sacred Heart Cemetery, Ness City. Friends may call at Fitzgerald Funeral Home, Ness City, from 9:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. Friday, August 9, with the family present from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.
Memorial contributions may be given to the Sacred Heart Cemetery or Hospice of the Prairie.
Words of sympathy and support may be left for the family at www.fitzgeraldfuneral.com.
SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — A Florida boy who called 911 to report he was hungry and wanted a pizza got a lesson in proper emergency call etiquette, but he also got a pie.
The Sanford Police Department said in a Facebook post that the hungry 5-year-old called 911 last Friday.
Three officers responded to the home in suburban Orlando for a well-being check. They met with the boy and his older sister, who told them they were fine and that her brother had used the phone without her knowledge.
The officers explained that the 911 system is only for emergencies. Then they went to Pizza Hut and brought a large pizza back to the house.
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman says lightning destroyed her septic tank and caused a toilet in her house to explode.
Marylou Ward tells television station WINK News that the sole toilet in her Port Charlotte home was shattered into hundreds of pieces on Sunday.
Ward says the explosion was the loudest sound she’s ever heard, and that she also smelled smoke. She says a plumber told her lightning hit the methane gas that was built up in the pipes from feces.
Ward says she’ll have to get the toilet and septic system repaired, but she’s thankful no one was injured.
