Ellis County Commissioners Dean Haselhorst, Barb Wasinger and Swede Holmgren discuss the 2015 budget final draft in a special meeting Wednesday night.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
“That was far less painful than I anticipated.”
That was the reaction of Ellis County Commission Chairman Barb Wasinger after Wednesday night’s special meeting in which commissioners set Aug. 18 as the public hearing date for the 2015 budget.
Cuts of about $1.7 million were made. Commissioners were determined to close the budget gap without an increase in taxes or in the mill levy.
Wasinger thanked county staff and said “we were truly a team.”
“I’ve gotten a lot of negative reaction from constituents,” said Commissioner Dean Haselhorst, “but I feel we three commissioners, along with department heads, elected officials and County Administrator Greg Sund did an excellent job in making those cuts.”
“Nobody wins,” said commissioner Swede Holmgren.
“It’s not a win/win, it’s not a win/lose. I hope it’s neutral,” he clarified. “These budget cuts were painful, but logical, decisions.”
Addressing the handful of county employees sitting in the audience, Holmgren asked for their support:
The estimated mill levy for Ellis County in 2015 is 33.7, down from 34.232 in 2014. Total expenditures in the 2015 budget are $28,707,698.
Nathan Leiker, Ellis County Extension executive board member
Nathan Leiker, Ellis County Extension executive board member, was the only person to question commissioners during the special meeting.
Leiker thanked the commission for “adding a little more money back into the Extension Council budget,” and asked about the status of remodeling the building at 610 Main Street, which houses county Extension offices, the county health department and the county environmental office.
Commission chairwoman Barb Wasinger told Leiker those improvements are “still in the FY 2015 budget.”
The budget public hearing is scheduled for 5 p.m. Aug. 18 in the Ellis County Clerk’s office.
Detailed budget information is available in the county clerk’s office and on the Ellis County website.
Last week, Ellis County commissioners agreed to begin lease negotiations with the Hadley Center for temporary office space of courthouse and Law Enforcement Center employees while the building is remodeled.
Since then, they’ve been told Thomas More Prep-Marian High School, which will be using the Hadley Center third floor as its girls residency program dorm, has some objections.
“TMP officials, the Salina Diocese and some members of the public are concerned about the ‘character’ of people who will be in and out of the temporary courtrooms in that building,” County Administrator Greg Sund told commissioners during a special meeting Wednesday night.
Dave Van Doren, co-owner of the Hadley Center, said he will write a “questionable character” clause into the county’s lease barring people deemed as dangerous from the building.
Ellis County Sheriff and Hays Police Chief Don Scheibler told commissioners they “cannot guarantee who will come into the building.”
Former Sears building in the Centennial Plaza shopping centerVacant NEW Corp. building on south Commerce Parkway
Tuesday morning, county officials toured the vacant NEW Corp. building on south Commerce Parkway, and the former Sears building, 2508 Vine.
According to Sund, the NEW Corp. building is “bigger than needed” and the Sears building “needs lots of cleanup.”
Van Doren offered the county the option of renting space for only administrative offices at half the cost of an earlier proposal and suggested “suspect booking, interrogation and the courtrooms be temporarily housed in the county’s future administrative building at 718 Main,” which is just west of the Hadley Center.
“TMP is OK with it,” Van Doren said.
Commission Chairwoman Barb Wasinger told Van Doren the county would have to hear directly from TMP and its representatives.
Kathy Taylor, TMP principal, said the “Salina diocese attorney will want to know exactly which county offices are going into the Hadley Center, what services will be offered and who will be be working in those offices and which members of the public would be likely to come into the offices.”
The commissioners and Sund agreed “we’re going to have public objections no matter where we place the jail pods (to temporarily house Ellis County inmates.)”
“One phone call I got today,” said commissioner Dean Haselhorst, “the guy objected to having a jail in the Sears building.”
“He said there are a lot of businesses in that area. I asked him if he realized the current jail is at 13th and Main Street in downtown Hays. He still didn’t like it,” Haselhorst said.
Commissioners voted unanimously to begin lease negotiations for the NEW and Sears buildings.
Last Thursday night, Hays city commissioners approved spending $25,000 for regional marketing of the airport.
City Manager Toby Dougherty explained the money will be combined with funds from the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development:
“We’re advertising pretty heavy right now, before the service starts and then it’ll slow a little once the flights resume. We’re going to promote it more than we have before because we have a lot of customers to get back,” said Dougherty.
Temporary walls are up for construction of the expanded TSA holding area in the terminal. A pre-construction meeting was held Friday.
Flights for travel after August 1 can be booked now online at united.com.
With the recent outbreak of measles in Kansas, HaysMed Infection Prevention is offering information to the public.
While there have been no reported cases of measles at HaysMed it is important to be aware of the situation.
First and foremost, if you think you or a family member was exposed to the measles stay home, or away from public places, except to see a health care provider. If you need to visit your healthcare provider, call ahead so appropriate measures can be taken to protect other patients and staff. The doctor will arrange for you to be seen in a quarantined environment where you will not expose others to the disease. If not, the doctor can talk you through how you can treat the disease from your home.
Measles is highly contagious and is spread through the air by breathing, coughing, or sneezing.
The signs and symptoms of measles typically begin one to two weeks after someone is exposed to an infected person.
Symptoms include:
• Fever
• Blotchy rash on the skin, which spreads from the head to the trunk then to the lower extremities (Measles can be spread to others from four days before to four days after the rash appears.)
• Cough
• Runny nose
• Red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis)
• Feeling run down, achy
• Tiny white spots with bluish-white centers found inside the mouth (Koplik spots)
People at high risk for severe illness and complications from measles include infants and children aged 5 years and younger and adults aged 20 years and above, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems.
Ruben Schuckman, Tourism Sales Manager for the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau, is retiring from his city position at the end of the month.
Schuckman has worked in the job for 15 years.
During Thursday’s Hays City Commission meeting, Assistant City Manager Paul Briseno reviewed the success of recent tourism events organized by Schuckman.
Tours of six Ellis County historic churches were conducted in June and July.
“All but four of the 69 participants in June were from out of town. In July, approximately 95 people attended, mostly from central and southeast Kansas. Generally, all of the participants lodged and dined out in Hays,” Briseno noted.
“We’d like to thank Ruben for his 15 years of service to the city of Hays and wish him the best in his new endeavor.”
The city has begun accepting applications for the position of Tourism Sales Manager. Review of applications will begin August 11 and will continue until the position is filled.
Charles C. Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute.
Last week, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – the extremist movement now occupying large swaths of territory in the region – forced the last Christians out of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Images of desecrated churches, looted homes and ruined lives now serve as the obituary for one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.
If the world barely noticed, it’s not surprising. The fate of Christians in Mosul is only one of many competing news stories of religious and ethnic violence across the globe, from northern Africa to the Middle East to the Ukraine.
Tragically, people in many parts of the world are drowning in rivers of blood shed in the name of one ethnic or religious group against another. Even where religious communities have peacefully co-existed for years – Christians and Muslims in Africa, for example – the lid is off and the knives are out.
The causes of the current worldwide epidemic in sectarian violence are complex, with each region plagued by a volatile mix of religious, ethnic, economic and political differences with deep historical roots.
“Religion” is often the trigger – or the excuse – for power struggles that have less to do with faith and more to do with national or tribal identify and political power.
Consider Myanmar (Burma) where the Buddhism of the majority is so defined by national identity that it spawns hatred for the Rohingya Muslim minority – in clear contradiction to traditional Buddhist teachings. Muslims are condemned by extremist Buddhist monks as strangers in their own land, aliens who must be attacked and driven out.
As a result, Rohingya Muslims – who claim to be indigenous to Myanmar – are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Over the past two years, more than 100,000 Rohingyas have been forced to flee Myanmar and many thousands more have been put in camps with no access to basic services such as health care, clean water or sanitation.
Similar perversions of religion fuel “religious” conflicts in many other places, including Nigeria where terrorists kidnap children and murder innocents “in the name of Islam” and the Central African Republic where “Christian” militias butcher Muslims “in the name of Christ.”
What makes many of these conflicts so intractable is, in a word, indoctrination. Young people in far too many places are taught to hate and fear the “other,” passing ancient divisions rooted in religious and ethnic identities from one generation to the next.
From textbooks in Saudi Arabia that disparage Jews to training camps of terror in Yemen, young minds are prepared to continue the battle – often in the name of one religion over another.
In the short term, of course, the only recourse is to combat sectarian conflicts with some combination of political, diplomatic, humanitarian and military action – a juggling act of mind-boggling complexity.
But for the long term, the best answer to schools of hate and violence are schools of respect and understanding – schools where students learn how to engage people of different religions and beliefs with civility and respect.
One avenue to creating such schools is Face to Faith, an education program offered free to schools by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Now active in more than 30 countries – including nearly 200 public and private schools in the United States – Face to Faith uses videoconferencing and secure online community to connect students directly with their peers in classrooms across the world. (Disclosure: I serve as advisor to Face to Faith in the U.S.)
Launched just five years ago, Face to Faith has already engaged more than 60,000 students in civil dialogues that range from exchanges about personal values and beliefs to discussions of global issues of shared concern. The aim is not only to educate young people about religions and cultures, but also to inspire them to work together for the common good. (www.facetofaithus.org)
Schools implementing Face to Faith are on the front lines in the ongoing struggle for the hearts and minds of the next generation. When students are able to build bridges of trust and understanding, they’re better prepared to resist voices of hate and violence.
Face to Faith won’t stop the rivers of blood overnight. But it’s a very good start.
Charles C. Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20001. [email protected]
The new executive director of Kansas Next Step Inc., Allison Ochoa, plans to “build the KNS brand.”
She has the experience, seven years, as the former public relations coordinator for the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce. She has also worked as an adjunct instructor for the Fort Hays State University Department of Leadership Studies, including work with the department’s programs at FHSU’s partner schools in China.
“Kansas Next Step was founded 10 years ago by Deb Denning as a non-profit organization and it’s well-known in Hays, Ellis and Victoria,” said Ochoa. “The groundwork is laid. Now we’re going to ‘market’ the program more broadly so more people know how KNS will give students an edge academically:”
“KNS is governed by a board of directors and has a rigorous application process,” said Ochoa.
“We have internships opportunities, education camps, research expeditions, and even financial assistance. Sometimes, students qualify to attend a national academic event and their families can’t afford to send them. Kansas Next Step can help pay for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and experience, resources that lead to success.
“Hopefully, what we’re doing is not taking the place of schools or universities. We want to supply opportunities for people to take part in something bigger, and then contribute their success back to us as better citizens in Kansas and the country,” Ochoa explained.
Funds for Kansas Next Step are developed through individual donations, sponsorships, and an annual oil and gas industry seminar in Hays. This year for the first time it will be a three-day event. Registration fees are donated to KNS. Deb Denning organized the fundraising event with her husband Tom. They own TDI, Inc., an oil exploration company.
To date, Kansas Next Step has supported more than 200 students and instructors through financial awards totaling more than $150,000.
Martha “Marcy” McClelland, R-Hays, is a candidate for Ellis County Commission District 1.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Two candidates will vie for the First District seat on the Ellis County Commission in the August 5 primary.
Martha “Marcy” McClelland, Hays, and Lyle Johnston, Ellis, are both Republicans. Both filed their paperwork and paid the fee with the Ellis County Clerk’s office.
McClelland, is a member of the Ellis County Joint Planning Commission and Ellis County Farm Bureau board. She lives in Hays and owns farm ground northwest of the city.
Although this would be her first time to serve in public office, McClelland has been attending Ellis County Commission meetings since she retired in 2006.
The county’s budget is always a top priority to McClelland who “does not want property taxes to increase:”
“I worked at Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas, and we did a lot of interaction with the state legislature about state funding and making our voices heard. I believe I can help the county in that area,” McClelland said.
“I’ve attended the recent 2015 draft budget meetings, and I know everybody thinks they’ve cut to the bone, but we’re still going to have to cut more …really hard decisions to make.”
McClelland believes she can “be the voice of rural residents in Ellis County.”
She supports the Buckeye wind project and is open to the idea of establishing a permanent county-wide sales tax to help increase revenues.
The District 1 seat is held by Republican Swede Holmgren, Ellis. He did not file for re-election, but has said he might run as an independent candidate in the November general election.
K-State Research and Extension 4-H Youth Agent Nicolette Unruh, Russell and Ellsworth counties
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
This is the 34th year for the Russell County Free Fair in Russell. It’s the first Russell County Fair for the new Extension 4-H Youth Agent, Nicolette Unruh, who serves Russell and Ellsworth counties as part of the Midway K-State Research and Extension District.
Unruh grew up in Pawnee County, and was a member of Barton County 4-H for 12 years. She knows what to expect in her “brand-new” role:
“I’m here as an agent to help facilitate the fair, make sure the judges are in place, and help get these 4-H’rs an accumulation of their year so they can learn a little bit more than they were already were with their projects,” said Unruh.
“The fair helps them finalize that all.”
Highlights of Wednesday night’s events at the Russell County fair include:
2 pm – Bucket Calf records due in Fair Office.
6 pm – Register for Mutton Bustin’ (60 lbs & under)
6:30 pm – Free Hot Dog Feed – Sponsored by Eagle Communications
6:30 pm – 4-H Bucket Calf Show followed by 4-H Beef show – Livestock Show Arena.
6:30 – 8:00pm – 4-Told Concert
7 pm- McClain’s Mutton Bustin’ sponsored by Russell County Sheriff Dept. – Grandstand Arena
8 pm – Six Appeal Concert
The Russell County Fair continues through Friday. More information is available on the fair’s website.
Ellis County Administrator Greg Sund hands a copy of the latest 2015 budget draft to county commissioners.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Ellis County commissioners heard a progress update on the 2015 budget from county administrator Greg Sund during the regular meeting Monday evening.
“We’re getting closer,” Sund told commissioners following a budget meeting earlier in the afternoon. “There are still adjustments that will have to be made to this to make it work out right.”
A budget gap of $76,811 remains, and that “required pretty substantial cuts to transfers,” Sund explained, “and I just can’t work in the (employee) pay adjustments. They aren’t in there.”
“That’s a miracle that we go to that,” said commission Chairwoman Barb Wasinger.
Sund said he expects the commission will have another budget meeting next week. Commissioners are hoping to balance the budget without a tax increase.
In other business, Mike Graf, Ellis County Public Works director, presented an update to commissioners. Following a personal visit from Kansas Department of Transportation Secretary Mike King last week, Graf said KDOT is receptive to partnering with Ellis County on road projects. King toured targeted improvements for 55th, 230th and Feedlot Roads.
Graf said KDOT is interested because of the “economic benefits that could come to expanding businesses” in those areas.
Gloria Pfannenstiel presents her winning Commissioner’s Cookie Jar from the 2014 Ellis County Fair to Ellis County Commissioners
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Ellis County Commission Chairwoman Barb Wasinger wanted to keep holding the Ellis County Fair Commissioner’s Cookie Jar presented at the start of Monday afternoon’s commission meeting.
It was hot and humid outside, and the glass jar was refreshingly cold to the touch.
The clear one-gallon jar, filled with nine different types of cookies brightly decorated with red, white and blue designs, was still chilled after it was removed from the freezer. That’s where it had been kept for freshness since Gloria Pfannenstiel was judged the winner of the Commissioner’s Cookie Jar in the Open Class Foods project during last week’s Ellis County Fair.
The jar itself also sported red, white and blue stars with a red, white and blue lid in keeping with the theme “All-American Flair at the Ellis County Fair.”
Pfannenstiel captured the same title five years ago.
Ellis County commissioners Dean Haselhorst, Barb Wasinger and Swede Holmgren
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
After weeks of discussion and with a deadline quickly approaching, Ellis County commissioners voted 3-0 Monday night to authorize the negotiation of a lease with the Hadley Center for temporary housing of courthouse employees:
The courthouse will be remodeled in phases starting with work on the jail and Law Enforcement Center followed by the other courthouse offices. The jail, LEC and courtrooms will remain in the courthouse. Other administrative offices will move to 718 Main Street, which also must be remodeled.
In comparing the final two options, first floor of the Hadley Center, 205 E. Seventh, and the long-empty Hays Pathology Lab on east 13th Street, Commissioner Dean Haselhorst said he had changed his mind and now favored the Hadley Center because “it’s move-in ready within the 30 to 45 days we’re going to need it. The Path Lab would need a lot of work.”
A recent examination of the lab building revealed mold in the eastern side of the basement.
Commissioner Swede Holmgren, attending his first meeting since breaking his left hip in late June, agreed.
“My thought is, the Path Lab has been in a dormancy, not disrepair. With water and the HVAC system not being used for several years and having to upgrade or replace those, and having to do some construction to get the building operational again, we’re going to have to do far less than that with the Hadley Center already being ‘move-in ready,” he said.
Commission Chairwoman Barb Wasinger asked Dave Van Doren, an owner of the Hadley Center, about a “lower price or refund” if the county doesn’t require a one-year lease of about 20,000 square feet, which is estimated at nearly $200,000. She asked what it would cost to lease “one floor for three months.”
Van Doren told commissioners the cost to rent space in the building is $13 a square foot per year. The cost for 6,000 square feet of space for three months would be about $65,000.
Holmgren asked Van Doren where jail pods — temporary prisoner housing — would be located.
“Nobody has talked to me about placement of jail pods,” replied Van Doren. He added there “could be room in the far east and far west parking lots.”
The Hadley Center has 281 developed parking spaces. Current tenants are using 110 of those. County Administrator Greg Sund said he counted 157 open parking spots during a survey last Friday morning at 10 a.m.
Remodeling of the jail and courthouse, along with construction of the new EMS/Rural Fire building, are funded by a half-cent sales tax approved by voters last year.
