Wednesday is  Cold Weather Awareness Day in Kansas and a Winter Weather Advisory is posted for western Kansas Thursday and Friday. 

The Hays Parks Department is one step ahead and has already closed its park restrooms.

Jeff Boyle, Director of Parks, says the laborious project project includes shutting off drinking water fountains:

The Parks Department will reopen the restrooms and water fountains next spring as soon as warm weather permits.

Boyle says that requires  a consistent pattern of non-freezing nighttime temperatures.

 

The Hays Regional Airport’s commercial service is subsidized under the U-S Department of Transportation Essential Air Service (EAS) program.

Currently, Great Lakes Airlines is the passenger service provider.  

The next round of EAS bids are due to the Federal Aviation Administration December 2.

Assistant City Manager Paul Briseno says the city anticipates bids may involve turbojet aircraft which would trigger the need for an environmental assessment:

 

Great Lakes Airlines provides of 32 flights per week to and from Denver utilizing 19-passenger Beach 1900 Turboprop aircraft.

EAS contracts are for a two year period

 

 

 

More instances of counterfeit bills passed in Hays have been reported to the Hays Police Department.

On Friday, the Hays Police Department received reports of fake $100 bills turning up recently at Radio Shack, Westlake Ace Hardware and Hastings.

Investigator Jeff Ridgeway is one of the HPD officers working on these and other recent counterfeit money cases.

“There are numerous security features built into U-S paper currency,” says Ridgeway, “but an alert store clerk is also important:”

Security features on bills printed by the U-S treasury include color shifting ink, watermarks, security threads and micro-printing.

Everybody is “politicking,” believes First District Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) of his colleagues in Washington, D.C.

That’s why he favors term limits, and not just for members of Congress:

Huelskamp was in Hays recently for a town hall meeting.

Dr. Laura Wilson is breathing a sigh of relief tonight, although it may be temporary relief.

She found out late this afternoon that seven fossils collected by Charles Sternberg in the 1920s are no longer for sale by the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM).

Wilson is the Chief Curator and Curator of Paleontology of Fort Hays State University’s Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays.

The seven large vertebrate fossils collected and sold to the San Diego Museum by Sternberg are among the 12 fossils listed for sale in the Bonhams public auction scheduled for tomorrow, November 19.  Amid an outcry from paleontologists and other museums, SDNHM has pulled the fossils from the auction.

Charles H. Sternberg was part of the well-known fossil hunting family that included George, the former director of Sternberg Museum. The Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays is named for the family.

Read Wilson’s blog post “Discovery Under the Dome” about the controversy.

 

The newly reconstructed main runway at the Hays Regional Airport is open for business.

A ribbon cutting ceremony Monday afternoon featured remarks from Hays Public Works Director I.D. Creech, who talked about the project and the economic impact of the airport:

Burns and McDonnell is the project engineer.  The contractor is Smoky Hill Construction, LLC.

Tune in Tuesday when Hays Post talks with Airport Manager Bob Johnson and Airport Advisory Board member Mike Konz on Eagle Radio and Eagle Community TV, Channel 14.

 

An Ellis woman has started a support group for people affected by eczema.

Adrienne Gashler’s two pre-school daughters both have it.  They’re among the 30 million Americans living with eczema, a chronic inflammation of the skin:

Gaschler also hopes the new group will be able to conduct fundraisers for eczema research.

For more information, contact Adrienne Gaschler, Support Group Leader for the National Eczema Association at 785-726-1344 or [email protected].

You can watch the entire interview with Gashler next week on the Eagle Community TV Forum with host Gary Shorman on Eagle Community TV Channel 14.

Hays High School senior Sara Nansel was one of the featured speakers during Monday’s Veterans Day ceremony at the Hays VFW Post 9076.

Her father Mark Nansel is executive officer of the 388^th Army Reserve center, and her mother Nikki is Family Readiness Group Leader for the 388th.

Sara talked about how her family and others in her speech, “Why I’m Optimistic about the Future of Our Nation:”

Nansel now moves on to district competition.

Each year, nearly 40,000  high school students from across the country enter to win a share of the $2.2 million in educational scholarships and incentives awarded through the VFW’s Voice of Democracy audio-essay competition.

It took city of Hays employees six days to collect 380 tons of “junk” during last month’s annual alley cleanup.

According to Solid Waste Superintendent Marvin Honas, 39 employees on five crews worked 2,184 hours starting October 14.

They picked up 760,000 pounds of trash, debris and tree limbs not normally collected using a variety of trucks, tractors and trailers.

Honas says the amount of metal goods was down substantially from previous years.

“We also only collected 20 bicycles which people put out to be refurbished and then we donate the bikes to local kids, ” says Honas.

“Our employees saw several people taking the bikes and putting them in the back of their trucks.  We’re pretty sure they’re iron collectors and sell the bikes as scrap iron.

“I hope people realize why those bicycles are out there, and that we recycle them.”

The alley cleanup program is free for residential refuse customers.

“The bill is a sham.”

First District Kansas Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS)  doesn’t like the 1,200 page immigration reform bill passed by the Senate in June, which has yet to be debated by the House:

Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner ruled out any action in the House this year on immigration reform.  Immigration laws have not been changed since 1985.

Both chambers of Congress have passed versions of the 2013 farm bill, and right now a conference committee is working to resolve differences between them.

Eighty percent of the farm bill is for food stamps, and according to First District Kansas Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS,)  that’s where the hold-up is:

The House has passed legislation to slash approximately $40 billion annually, or about 5 percent including changes in eligibility and work requirements. The Senate wants to cut a much smaller $4 billion cut.

There were fewer Boy Scouts than usual attending the Fall Merit Badge Event in Hays.

“About 50 Scouts were here Saturday, mostly from Troop 101, United Methodist Church, and Troop 133, First Presbyterian Church in Hays,” said Troop 101 Assistant Scout Master Steve Urban.

“We know we were competing with football playoff games and pheasant hunting opening weekend.”

Still, those in attendance had their pick of 14 Eagle Merit badge offerings.

Seven of the badges are required:  Citizenship in the Nation, Citizen in the World, Cooking, Family Life, Personal Management, Swimming, and Sustainability.   Seven other are elective:  Art, Auto Maintenance, Energy, Graphic Arts, Scout Heritage, Soil and Water ad Traffic Safety.

The Cooking badge starts with the basics.  Registered Dietician Kristen Angell of the Center for Health Improvement, talked about using knives carefully, whether in the kitchen and around the campfire:

The scouts also spent part of their lunch break practicing the flag ceremony at Mount Allen cemetery on Vine Street.