Led by Player of the Year Trey Riggs, the Hays High Indians placed five players on the All-Western Athletic Conference baseball team. Indians coach Frank Leo is the WAC Coach of the Year.
Hays had four named to the first team, more than any other school. Along with Riggs, fellow seniors Palmer Hutchison and Cody Petersen as well as junior Brock Lummus are on the first team with freshman Dylan Dreiling an honorable mention pick.
This is the third straight year Riggs has received all-conference recognition after going 6-2 with a 1.71 ERA on the mound while batting .400. He was tied for third on the team with three home runs.
Hutchison is all-conference for the second straight season after leading the Indians with seven doubles, was tied for the team lead in triples with two while hitting .403
Peterson was tied for the team lead with four home runs while hitting .309 and was second on the team with eight stolen bases.
Lummus was second on the team with six doubles, was tied for the team lead with two triples and tied for third with three home runs while holding a .333 batting average.
Dreiling hit .323 and was tied with Petersen with a team-high four home runs.
TOPEKA – Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) Secretary Laura Howard announced today she has appointed several leadership positions to serve on the agency’s newly established State Hospital Commission.
Kimberly Lynch, currently Chief Counsel for KDADS, has been named State Hospital Commissioner. Lynch began her more than 10 years of state service in 2009 with the Kansas Attorney General’s Civil Litigation Division. She joined KDADS in 2012 and was promoted to Chief Litigation Attorney, then Senior Counsel, before being named Chief Counsel in 2017. Lynch holds a Juris Doctorate from Washburn University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washburn University, where she majored in Psychology. She recently earned a certification in Health Care Compliance from the Health Care Compliance Association. Throughout her tenure at KDADS, Lynch has represented the state hospitals and provided guidance and counsel to the superintendents and staff.
Dr. Mike Dixon has been named Deputy Commissioner of the new commission. Dr. Dixon, who was named Superintendent at Parsons State Hospital and Training Center (PSHTC) in 2017, will continue to serve as Superintendent while taking on the additional role of State Hospital Deputy Commissioner. In addition, he has served as Chief Forensic Psychologist and Program/Clinical Director for the Sexual Predator Treatment Program at Larned State Hospital (LSH). Dr. Dixon holds a Ph.D. in Community Clinical Psychology from Wichita State University and is a licensed psychologist.
KDADS’ current budget director Georgianna Correll, has also been named State Hospital Commission Deputy Commissioner. Correll joined KDADS in 2016 as the Facilities Reimbursement Manager and was promoted to Budget Director in 2017, where she has worked closely with hospital superintendents and provided guidance to the hospitals’ chief financial officers. Correll has held a variety of positions within the public sector as well, such as Director of Business Development and Client Relations, Business Analytics Manager and Sales Manager. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Friends University.
Secretary Howard announced the creation of a new state hospital commission in February this year as part of a strategic plan to develop a cohesive approach to supporting and empowering the Kansans it serves. The new commission also affords the agency the opportunity to improve communication and collaboration between state hospitals, commissions and stakeholders.
Leisia Dipman
Additionally, Secretary Howard announced Acting Superintendent of Larned State Hospital, Lesia Dipman has accepted the permanent superintendent position and will continue to serve and bring continuity to the hospital staff and the Larned community.
Dipman has served the State of Kansas for 34 years, starting her career at LSH in 1984 where she has worked in various positions, including Administrative Program Director of the State Security Program. Dipman attended Fort Hays State University and Kansas State University (KSU) and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from KSU in 1994. In 2005, she earned a master’s degree in social work from Newman University in Wichita.
RILEY COUNTY —A Kansas inmate who walked away from work release in April is back in custody, according to the Riley County Police Department booking report.
Swafford- Photo from an earlier arrest in Mitchell County
Just after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Austin Swafford, 34, was arrested in the 1000 Block of South Seth Child in Manhattan. He had originally been held in Riley County on a probation violation, according to the RCPD arrest report.
On April 26, police in Beloit reported Swafford’s disappearance, that he had “ties to Beloit, the Mitchell County area and that the public should not approach him.
Riley County records indicate Swafford may have turned himself in. The arrest occurred at the police department in Manhattan. He is being held on a $1500 bond. Police had no additional information on Swafford.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that aims to combat the illegal robocalls torturing Americans.
Though the measure wouldn’t eliminate all unwanted calls, it would give regulators more tools to go after scammers. It would also push phone companies to adopt new technology to combat fake phone numbers popping up on caller ID.
The Senate passed the bill 97-1 on Thursday. It’s not clear what will happen in the House, where Democrats in charge have their own anti-robocall proposals.
The bill has support from the telecom industry and consumer groups, a rare combination.
As scam call volume rises, the Federal Communications Commission is trying to nudge phone companies. The nation’s communications regulator will vote in June to allow carriers to block scam calls by default for customers.
Each year Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) Foundation for Agriculture awards scholarships to college students studying in fields that benefit agriculture and rural Kansas. Forty-two recipients received $25,000 in scholarships for the 2019-20 school year.
Over the past decade, the foundation has awarded more than $300,000 in scholarships.
“We’re investing in students today to ensure they become tomorrow’s leaders,” says KFB President and Foundation Chair Rich Felts.
Dixie Miller, Reno County, is the winner of the $500 Godfrey and Emma Bahr Miller Agriculture Scholarship, a permanent, privately endowed scholarship fund for students attending a college in Kansas and majoring in a subject related to agronomy and conservation.
Cade Hibdon, Franklin County, was awarded $1,000 for the Frank & Helen Bernasek Memorial Scholarship.
Sara Schlickau, Reno County, received $1,000 for the K-State Agricultural Communications and Journalism Scholarship.
Jacqueline Clawson, Meade County, was awarded $500 for the DeWitt Ahlerich Memorial Scholarship.
Seven students received scholarships to Kansas technical colleges. They are Gage Harding, Neosho County; Dylan Helwig, Cherokee County; Wyatt Hilt, Cheyenne County; Talen Quenzer, Thomas County; Wyatt Schuster, Jewell County; Brody Stamm, Washington County; and Lane Wells, Wichita County.
Four $1,000 KFB scholarships were awarded to juniors and seniors enrolled in Kansas State University’s college of agriculture and majoring in a subject related to agriculture. They are Sara Gammon, Bates County, Missouri; Ciara Hodgkinson, Pratt County; Leah Metzger, Butler County; and Katelyn Pinkston, Clay County.
Two $1,000 KFB scholarships were awarded to juniors and seniors enrolled at Fort Hays State University. Recipients are Dani Mangus, Sherman County; and Brianna Stefan, Clark County.
Twenty-five recipients received $500 scholarships. These students are attending a Kansas college with a Kansas Farm Bureau Collegiate chapter. Students must be a Farm Bureau Collegiate member.
The Hays Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has hired Sarah Wasinger as the new President/CEO, replacing Tammy Wellbrock who submitted her resignation earlier this year.
Wasinger currently serves as the Board Clerk and Assistant to the Superintendent for USD 489, a role she has had since 2014. Prior to this position, she worked for RadioShack for more than eight years, serving as both District Training Store Manager and Store Manager.
“Not only does Sarah have a wealth of experience to bring to this position,” said Shane Smith, 2019 Board Chair, “she is also highly involved and informed about Chamber offerings.”
Smith said that Wasinger has been extremely involved with the Hays Area Young Professional (HAYP) program, a group under the Chamber umbrella that caters to professionals ages 21-40. Wasinger served as a member of the HAYP Advisory Council for three years and as Chair in 2018. In 2018, she was elected as an Ambassador, which serves as the public relations arm for the Chamber.
“Making Hays the best place to live, work and play is important to me because my roots run deep in Ellis County,” said Wasinger. “I have always had a servant leader’s heart and a great desire to succeed. Cultivating our community members into confident achievers and leaders is something I’m excited to help foster for ongoing success.”
During her time at USD 489, Wasinger has led or participated with many initiatives, including: establishing the USD 489 Hope Pantry; serving on the Hays Homeless Coalition; and planning the first annual Project 489 Dinner Show & Auction as part of the USD 489 Foundation for Educational Excellence.
“Sarah’s vast understanding about the community as well as her connections with many area businesses and organizations is impressive,” said Smith. “On behalf of the Board of Directors, we thank Tammy Wellbrock for her leadership and believe that Sarah will continue to expand upon this strong foundation that supports our many Chamber members.”
Smith said meet-and-greet opportunities will be planned for the community when Wasinger is on board, which is slated for the first of July.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas clinic stopped providing telemedicine abortions months ago and returned to court Wednesday after concluding that the legal climate remains uncertain despite a judge’s order late last year saying the state couldn’t stop the procedures.
The clinic in Wichita operated by the Trust Women Foundation also faces a complaint over its past telemedicine abortions filed with the state’s medical board by officials from the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life. The state has enacted three laws in eight years to require physicians to be physically present when giving women pregnancy-ending medications.
The clinic has two doctors who live outside Kansas and can be at the clinic two days a week. In October, it started having them confer by webcam with women seeking medication abortions to increase the hours the physicians were available to patients. The clinic stopped Dec. 31.
“I was just fearful that our clinic and our doctors could be penalized,” Julie Burkhart, the foundation’s CEO and founder testified during a daylong state district court hearing Wednesday. “I wanted to be in a position where we absolutely knew we were able to wade into those waters.”
The clinic stopped telemedicine abortions on the same day Shawnee County District Judge Franklin Theis ruled that the state couldn’t stop the procedures. But Trust Women attorneys said Wednesday that they could not get written assurances from the local district attorney and the State Board of Healing Arts that no ban would be enforced.
The Trust Women Foundation filed a new lawsuit in late January, seeking an order to block enforcement of any ban. Another judge, District Judge Teresa Watson, had the hearing Wednesday and said she hopes to rule “in short order.”
The hearing was the first lower-court action since the Kansas Supreme Court ruled last month that access to abortion is a “fundamental” right under the state constitution. The high court said the state constitution grants a right to “personal autonomy” and to “control one’s own body.”
Mary Kay Culp, Kansans for Life’s executive director, said she worries that the legal dispute over telemedicine abortions “could turn out badly” — and be only the first of many.
Abortion opponents fear that that the Kansas Supreme Court decision endangers even longstanding restrictions. Many were enacted under Republican Govs. Sam Brownback and Jeff Colyer before Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly took office in January.
Their frustration is rising as other states, including Alabama and neighboring Missouri, move to ban most abortions and abortion foes hope the U.S. Supreme Court will reverse its historic Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973 legalizing abortion across the nation.
“They could back and turn over virtually all our abortion laws,” Culp said.
Kansas enacted its first telemedicine-abortion ban in 2011, only to see it swept up in a broader lawsuit against multiple restrictions that prompted Theis to block them all together. In his December ruling, Theis said that earlier order blocked a 2015 version of the ban, and he declared that a 2018 version was an “air ball” without enforcement provisions. The state has appealed.
Kansans for Life launched its complaint over the Wichita clinic’s telemedicine abortions before Theis’ last ruling and received a notice last month that the complaint had been assigned to an investigator. The medical board regulates the clinic’s physicians, while the clinic itself is regulated by the state health department.
The medical board’s 15 members all were named by Brownback and Colyer, both strong abortion opponents. Kelly, an abortion rights supporter, cannot fill any spots until four members’ terms expire June 30.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Burkhart testified that webcam conferences made the clinic’s two physicians available to patients and additional eight to 12 hours a week. She also said telemedicine allowed the clinic to reduce waiting times, so patients could spend less than two hours there, instead of from six to eight hours.
She said that Trust Women hoped eventually to open a clinic in rural Kansas offering telemedicine abortions.
But Shon Qualseth, a lawyer representing the Kansas attorney general’s office, said the clinic still cannot show that its patients face imminent harm without another court order.
“I have some time that I want to devote to some more children’s-type of activities,” Hertel said. “This position came up on the school board, and I thought this would be an opportunity for me to be able to make a difference in children’s lives, so I decided to go ahead and run.”
Hertel, 58, has extensive background working with children and families.
She was involved in the founding of both CASA and Big Brothers and Big Sisters in Ellis County. Hertel served as the first CASA director and later as president of the CASA board as well as president of the board of BBBS.
For years, she has done psychological evaluations with a parenting emphasis for the court in custody and child in need of care cases. She worked as a therapist in her own counseling agency as well as for High Plains Mental Health.
She currently works with children and families at Serenity Psychological Services in Hays.
She received her bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in resource counseling from Fort Hays State University, and is working on her PhD in health psychology through Walden University.
Her daughter, Ana, attended Hays public schools before her death from a childhood muscular disease. Her daughter was in the special education program, and Hertel said she is very familiar with that program.
“I am familiar with a lot of different areas of the school district and feel that I can be an asset to all of those areas,” she said.
Hertel has collected stuffed animals in her daughter’s name for first responders to give to children in crisis in program she calls Ana’s Gift. She has also donated books to the school district and spearheaded efforts to bring the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program to Hays. The program provides free monthly books for Ellis County children birth through age 5.
Most recently, she donated to the ARC Park, accessible park project, also in her daughter’s Ana’s name.
For her work with children, she was awarded the Woman of Distinction Award by Soroptimist International.
“I am mostly wanting to focus on programming, staff and people who can make a difference for children,” Hertel said of her goals if elected.
She said she thought the current school board is doing a good job and she wants to continue with that positive work.
Hertel said she has supported past bond issues. The school district had failed bond issues in 2016 and 2017 and has discussed a third try for a bond to address facility needs in the district.
“I have served on a site council and have seen the facilities and some of the maintenance that needs to be done in the facilities,” she said.
However, she said she would need more information before making any decisions on facilities as a board member.
The Hays school board has clashed with the teacher’s union in the past. The board and Hays NEA reached impasse during negotiations last year.
“I think I am a very open person,” Hertel said. “My education, experience, etc. has always been in working with people, trying to resolve problems, conflicts, so I think I would be good at coming up with some good resolutions.”
The deadline to file for the school board election is noon Monday, June 3. The USD 489 positions that are up for election include those held by Oborny, Mandy Fox, Paul Adams and Greg Schwartz. All candidate filings need to be handled through the Ellis County Clerk’s office at 718 Main St., Hays.
School board and city elections will be on Tuesday, Nov. 5. If nine or more candidates file for the USD 489 school board, a primary election will be on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
Brian Shannon has filed to run for the school board in Ellis USD 388. Don Pruitt has filed for in Victoria USD 432. Four positions are open in each of those races.
A portion of USD 403, USD 399 and USD 407 all are in Ellis County.
Justin Frye and Kristin Lyle have filed in the Paradise USD 399 election, and Kathy Wallert has filed for election in Russell County USD 407.
No one has filed as of Thursday for the open positions on the school board for Otis-Bison USD 403.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY — An 88-year-old Kansas man is recovering after a dramatic water rescue.
Wednesday water rescue photo courtesy KDWP&T Game Wardens
On Wednesday, Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the intersection of County Road 6600 and 4500 Road where a family reported 88-year-old Robert Harriman was last seen at that location at approximately 10a.m., according to Sheriff Robert Dierks.
Heavy rainfall over the past week left the area flooded by the Verdigris River.
Deputies and the family began a search and located Harriman’s vehicle one half mile from the road. Deputies contacted Neodesha Fire crews and a warden from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to do a water rescue.
They used a drone to help see the vehicle and determined Harriman was trapped in the vehicle.
Neodesha Fire crews, Game Warden Uhrmacher and an off-duty trooper used a patrol boat to reach the vehicle that had been swept 2000 feet off the flooded road and remove Harriman.
Independence EMS treated him at the scene and transported him to a local hospital. The sheriff had no update on his condition Thursday.
After a day’s reprieve from rain, much of northwest Kansas can expect potentially severe weather Thursday afternoon.
The National Weather Service is predicting severe hail and wind across a swath of Kansas from Hugoton to Hays. There is a low to moderate risk for tornados southeast of Dodge City and Larned, as well.
Historic flooding at the park has forced all but two campsites to be closed.
Visitors are still able to visit the lake, but park rangers advise the public to not get in the water.
Hutchinson resident Danielle Hunt says her family and friends usually spend Memorial Day weekend at Cheney Lake. She’s changing her plans this year due to road closures and flooding.
SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating after a man alone in an apartment firing a gun was killed by police.
Police on the scene of Thursday’s fatal shooting-photo courtesy KWCH
Just before 2a.m. Thursday, police responded to report of an explosion at an apartment complex in south Wichita, according to Police Chief Gordon Ramsay.
Officers at the scene heard gunfire and worked to determine where the gunfire was in the complex. An individual was inside an apartment shooting and continuing to shoot, according to Ramsay. Officers began to evacuate nearby apartments and called in the SWAT team. Despite attempts, police were not able to make phone contact with the shooter, according to Ramsay.
Just before 6 a.m.two officers fired multiple shots and killed the suspect.
The suspect had multiple guns, at least a rifle and a handgun. About 30 gunshots were reported altogether. An armored police vehicle was struck four times, according to Ramsay.
It is with great sadness that the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo announces the passing of our beloved African Leopard, Banera. Just two days short of her 19th birthday, Banera was humanely euthanized today after animal care staff and veterinarians had determined that her quality of life had deteriorated to a point that we could no longer keep her comfortable.
For the past 6 years Banera has been treated for severe arthritis. In recent years her arthritis has gotten so bad that sedation was required twice a year to trim her nails because she was unable to scratch them to wear them down. A necropsy has been performed and results are pending.
Banera moved to the zoo at just 10 days old in June of 2000. Dr. Malone advised against acquisition at that time because the facility she was born at housed animals in horrible living conditions. Dr. Malone said, “It is a true testament to the care given to our animals here, that animal can have such poor genetics, but still live so long.”
Due to being hand raised, Banera has always enjoyed human comfort, making her a staff favorite. Zoo Supervisor/Curator Sara Hamlin said, “Whenever I had a bad day, I would get out of the office and pay a visit to Banera. She would always come down off of whatever bench she was napping on and greet me with excited meows. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the privilege to care for her.”
African leopards live up to 12 years in the wild and up to 21 years in managed care. Most leopards have tawny-colored fur with black rosettes, like Toby, but some are completely black, like Banera, which is called melanistic coloration. But this doesn’t make them a black panther, there is no such animal. “Panther” is just an old term that comes from the genus name, Panthera, and is sometimes used to describe leopards, jaguars and cougars.
The zoo’s other leopard, Toby, will remain on exhibit to be an ambassador for his species. For more information please contact Sara Hamlin, Zoo Supervisor/Curator at (620)793-4226.
