GOODLAND — Dixieland jazz and razzmatazz is coming to the Goodland High School Auditorium, Sunday, Sept. 15 at 2 p.m. MDT (3 p.m. CDT). Sponsored by the Western Plains Arts Association, admission is by WPAA season ticket or adults $20, students $10, at the door. The second of WPAA’s 50th anniversary season performance is made possible through the generous support of area businesses and individual donors, including a special grant from the Dane Hansen Memorial Foundation, Logan, Kan.

Headquartered in Denver, Colo., the Queen City Jazz Band has delighted audiences since 1958, with traditional, swing, ragtime, and Dixieland-style jazz, as well as blues and spirituals. A chemist at Golden’s Coors Brewery, Harney Peterson, organized the band for his weekly traditional jazz program on KFML radio.

The QCJB has been featured at jazz festivals from Florida to British Columbia and has toured Europe. They have produced dozens of recordings and are regularly guest artists with all the major regional symphony orchestras and concert bands. The current band excels in entertaining listeners of all ages with the music of the early master of blues jazz like Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong along with the great sounds of the “Second Line” straight from Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Most of the music presents audiences with the happy sounds of the 20s, 30s and 40s era. The QCJB has performed at every major Dixieland and swing jazz festival in North America. They faithfully recreate the music of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin, Bix Beiderbecke, Wilbur DeParis, Turk Murphy and many others.

The band’s busy schedule abounds with weddings, worship services, educational clinics, fundraisers and major parties. Each year they are featured at the Evergreen Jazz Festival in Evergreen, Colo. Over the years the band has recorded many of their best songs.
Lev Ropes, artistic director, West Side Live! Presents, writes: “The QCJB is always a delight to have in our concert series. They present a variety of fine jazz along with information about composers, eras, and performers that adds even more to our audiences’ listening pleasure. Great fun, lively, instrumental and vocal music that fills our house. We love ‘em.”

Current band members are: Wende Harston, singer, Bill Clark-tuba/leader, Kevin Bollinger-trumpet, Eric Staffeldt-trombone, John Bredenberg-reeds, Hank Troy-piano, Rory Thomas-banjo and Tony Pantelis-drums.

Since 1992, blues and gospel singer Wende Harston brings to life the great hit songs of Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Ethel Waters, Alberta Hunter, Helen Humes, Ella Fitzgerald, and other early blues singers. Harston is the complete package as she sings, dances and acts. She has appeared in many feature film and a made-for-TV film series. She can also be seen in local theater productions. She not only sings but writes songs for the QCJB.

Clark is a retired professor from UC Denver and the tuba player and leader of the QCJB. Clark received his music education degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He continued at Northwestern where he studied with the Chicago Symphony’s legendary tubist, Arnold Jacobs. He began his teaching career in the Boulder public school system and recently retired as a Professor of Music at UC Denver after more than 45 years as an educator. Clark, the band’s longest term member, started with the QCJB in 1976 and became the leader in 1985. Clark’s passionate endeavors while teaching included his college band, the UC Denver Claim Jumpers, one of the Nation’s finest college Dixieland bands of the time. The “CJs” performed across Europe and have been featured at many jazz festivals in the country. In the early 70’s, Clark performed on the Ed Sullivan Show when he was touring with the original Your Father’s Mustache Band.

Kevin Bollinger, trumpet, attended the Eastman School of Music. Later, he studied with Bill Clark and was in the UC Denver Traditional Jazz band, Red Beans and Rice, directed by Clark. Bollinger is a much sought after free-lance trumpet player in both jazz and classical idioms. In his spare time, he works as a systems administrator for a government agency.

Reedman, John Bredenberg, has years of experience playing traditional jazz on clarinet, saxophone and banjo. Bredenberg served in the US Navy, then attended the University of Northern Colorado as a clarinet major. He is a master electrician, and has recently retired.

Eric Staffeldt is the QCJB’s trombonist, holds a M.A. degree from the University of Denver. Staffeldt has worked for many years in the design industry, providing custom finishes for furniture and cabinetry for some of Denvers’ finest homes. He also writes and arranges music for QCJB and other local groups. Staffeldt is the current director of the University of Colorado Denver Claim Jumpers. He is a freelance musician as well as a regular performing member of several Denver area ensembles, ranging in style from classical to salsa to jazz.

Hank Troy has been the pianist with the QCJB since 1981, making him the second longest term band member. He is the secretary/treasurer for the Queen City Jazz Foundation. In this capacity Hank helps with the behind-the-scenes activities of the band, such as helping to produce the band’s annual concert. He is a nationally recognized expert as a pianist for silent movies and has traveled the country doing the same. As leader of the Queen City Ragtime Ensemble, Troy promotes Ragtime Jazz, the great American music that was the precursor to the traditional jazz that the band performs today.

Rory Thomas, banjo player, comes to the QCJC with a great deal of professional experience including playing with all of Denver’s best traditional jazz bands. He has also played with Karla West’s Goodtyme Jazz Band and still plays with the Poudre River Irregulars when available. Rory is a retired graphic artist .

The drummer, Tony Pantelis, holds a B.S. degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. Tony played with the Delta Sonics, recent “Best of Denver “ award winners from Westword Magazine. Other highlights include appearances with The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, The Denver Symphony Orchestra and performances at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

The Hays USD 489 school board discussed creating a wage schedule for classified staff at its meeting Monday night.

The school board was first presented a classified wage study on June 16. It found several classes of USD 489 employees are not making as much as their peers. These included building secretaries, office assistants and clerical workers, and information technology assistants.

The starting wage for a USD 489 school secretary is $9.62 per hour, but the average starting wage for other Hays employers is $12.78. Comparable school districts pay an average of $11.08 and comparable cities pay an average starting wage of $13.45.

Office assistants and clerical workers start at $10.06 at USD 489, which is comparable to other school districts but is more than $2 below the average in the Hays community and $4 below the average in comparable cities.

IT assistants did start at $10.95 per hour at USD 489 with the average at peer districts at $13.38 and $11.87 in the city of Hays. Administration increased the pay for this position to be on par with paras and classroom aides, who perform similar duties.

Keith Hall, interim director of finance, suggested creating a wage schedule starting with secretarial staff. He said the hope would be to use the secretaries as a template to create schedules for other positions.

Faith Lochmann, HR coordinator, said the group could be divided into to town categories — front line secretaries and principal secretaries.

Hall said first the district needed to increase secretaries’ starting pay to be comparable to their peers. Those who are earning below that would receive a bump in pay. Administrators have yet to determine what would happen to those individuals who are above the starting wage. Do they also get a bump in pay or nothing, he asked.

Hall and the board discussed creating a schedule that included milestone pay increases for longevity.

Including longevity in a wage schedule could help attract new employees and be incentive for current employees to stay, Hall said. Board members asked if that would include work experience from another employer, and Hall said he thought it would. Custodians already have longevity included in their pay scale.

Board member Greg Schwartz said he wanted to see how benefits compared at comparable employers in the area. Schwartz suggested the Hays school district employees might be receiving better benefits. He said the entire compensation package needs to be considered.

Schwartz said he loved the concept of a wage schedule, but he didn’t want to set the wages too high.

“These aren’t the only wages we have to deal with, and they are also not the only problems we have to deal with,” he said. “I want to be responsible to make sure we are paying people competitive wages, but I also don’t want to be irresponsible in paying them over what the market rate should be such that we can’t have other things like lunch rooms and thing like that.”

Hall said the administration has yet to plug numbers into a new wage schedule. His plan is to do so and then bring an option back for the school board to review. He said he does not think the district will be able to make wage adjustments for the entire classified staff in one year, rather he suggested doing it in sections with secretarial staff first.

He said he would try to factor in benefits when creating the schedule.

KDJM is a 15,500-watt station that will cover all of Salina which is the diocesan seat for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salina. (Diocesan seat means where the Bishop for the diocese resides.) KDJM has the potential of reaching 81,570 individuals.

“We’re excited to expand Catholic radio to the Salina area,” Donetta Robben, executive director of Divine Mercy Radio, said. “Radio is a wonderful opportunity to evangelize and to reach people individually and privately.”

The license transfer will take place in December, with Divine Mercy Radio, Inc. broadcasting on KDJM after January 1. Divine Mercy Radio is a nonprofit corporation and has filed with the FCC to make KDJM a non-commercial, educational station. Divine Mercy Radio will run KDJM from their Hays studio.

Divine Mercy Radio, Inc. owns KVDM-FM, 88.1, Hays and KRTT-FM, 88.1 Great Bend. They mostly broadcast programing from the radio branch of the Eternal Word Television Network.