From the city of Hays:

The National Weather Service is forecasting significant snow fall through Saturday for the City of Hays. This notice is to remind you that if you live/work on or are adjacent to an Emergency Snow Route, the City Manager can declare a winter storm traffic emergency “whenever snow has accumulated or there is a possibility that snow will accumulate to such a depth that snow clearing/removal operations will be required…” When this occurs, it will be “unlawful to park a vehicle on any street designated as an Emergency Snow Route.”

Citizens are asked to plan now, before the snow falls, to locate an alternate site to park vehicles off the street. By City Ordinance, if a winter storm traffic emergency is declared and vehicles are not moved, the vehicles will be towed away at the owner’s expense.

To be on the safe side, a general rule of thumb is — when snow begins to fall — move your vehicle.

The public’s cooperation is greatly appreciated. If there are questions, please contact the Hays Police Department at 625-1030 or the Hays Public Works Department at 628-7350.

As a Kansas Board of Regents member, Robba Moran is pleased that WSU, KU and KSU all made it into the NCAA tournament.  For her personally, it gets even better than that.

Her nephew, R.J. Addison, is the ball boy for the NCAA tournament at the Kansas City Sprint Center for the KSU and KU games.

“R.J. is working all the practices today, and will be the cute 11-year-old ball boy working the KSU and KU games the next couple of days,” says the proud aunt.

R.J. is a 5th grader at Harmony Elementary school in Overland Park (Blue Valley district).   “He loves sports of all kinds and plays piano and drums,” she says.  Robba herself is an accomplished piano player.

R.J’s dad, John Addison, is Robba’s brother, who has his own claim to sports fame.

John was an All-American basketball player, graduating from Pembroke Country Day School in Kansas City in 1979. He started for Colorado in 1979-80 and was an All Big-8 Newcomer (which includes both freshmen and transfers) for that season.

“He is now an assistant basketball coach at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, ” says Moran.

Robba is married to U.S. Senator Jerry Moran.  The couple recently moved to Manhattan after living in Hays for many years.

K-State plays Friday at 2 p.m. (CDT) on TruTV.   KU plays Friday at 8:45 p.m. (CDT) on TNT.

Because of this weekend’s weather forecast for snow in Hays, most of the Kansas Special Olympics basketball tournament and activities have been cancelled.

According to Tim Rehder of Kansas Special Olympics, activities are cancelled from 5p.m. Friday through Saturday.

There will be no banquet or dance Friday.

Tonight’s opening ceremonies and activities through 5p.m. Friday are still scheduled.

Since he started as an Ellis County jailer in 1980, Sheriff Ed Harbin has seen a lot of changes in law enforcement.

“The day I was hired, I was one of four jailers.  There was one inmate, who wasn’t even from Ellis County,” he recalls.

Now there are 9 full-time jailers with a 10th person soon to be hired, plus one part-time jailer.  The March 20 jail census is 42 people, housed in a facility built in 1975-76 for about 30 inmates.

“Our number one need is capacity, space for people,” says Harbin.  He wants Ellis County residents to understand how, and why, the jail would be re-designed and expanded if a proposed half-cent sales tax is approved by voters May 14.

“Jail is a very different place.  We have strong and weak prisoners;  high-security risk prisoners;  some who are suicidal; some who are in protective custody,” explains Harbin.  “We can’t put some types of people in the same area and we can’t put a lot of people in one area.

“It’s a safety and security problem–for the prisoners, for my staff, and ultimately, for the public.”

The proposed countywide sales tax would be used to fund the jailhouse project and increased security within the courthouse.  It would also fund construction of a new combined Ellis County EMS/Rural Fire building.

Watch Eagle Local News, ECTV Channel 14 tonight as we accompany Sheriff Harbin on a tour of the Ellis County jail.

Johnson County has the healthiest residents in Kansas; Ellis County is the fifth healthiest; and a group of southeast Kansas counties remain among the least healthy in the state, according to the fourth annual County Health Rankings, released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

According to the 2013 Rankings, the five healthiest counties in Kansas are Johnson, Riley, Stevens, Pottawatomie and Ellis. The five counties in the poorest health are Woodson, Elk, Chautauqua, Wyandotte and Cherokee.

Three western Kansas counties–Greeley, Wallace and Stanton, are not ranked because of insufficient data.

The County Health Rankings rank nearly every county in all 50 states according to their summary measures of health outcomes and health factors. Health outcomes describe the current health status of a county’s residents and are influenced by a number of health factors, such as high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, and family and social support.

Nationally, the data revealed that unhealthy counties have more than twice the rate of premature deaths as healthy ones and childhood poverty rates are twice as high in unhealthy counties.

The Kansas data showed similar results.

The main entrance to Hays city hall will be closed for awhile Friday as work progresses on a test plot of drought-resistant landscaping plants.

Assistant City Manager Paul Briseno says the city hall drive-up window will remain open for bill-paying.  A secondary entrance will also be open to those needing inside the building.

Workers have already begun removing concrete in front of city hall, running east to Main Street.

“The concrete in front of city hall has been deteriorating, so we’re taking it out as part of a project to put in a new garden,”  says Briseno.  “The existing greenery will be torn out as well as the grass and replaced with xeriscaping–plants and grass that use less water.”

Another test plot is in progress at 21st Street and Pershing Court.

The landscaping projects are being done by city employees.

The city of Hays is embarking on a water-efficiency program which is designed to show residents how to do their own water-wise landscaping.

The fifth annual Jana Mackey Day of Service brought together community members and Fort Hays State University students and staff to honor the life of a women’s rights advocate.

Jana Mackey grew up in Hays and graduated from Hays High School in 2000.  She was killed by her former boyfriend in 2008, in Lawrence.  Mackey had just finished her first year of law school at K-U.

Her mother is Dr. Christi Brungardt, FHSU Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies.

“We had four different service projects underway in the basement of Wiest Hall,” said Brungardt.

“Volunteers packaged 300 bags of personal supplies of soap, toothpaste, deodorant, which were donated to us.  We took them to the Community Assistance Center which is always in short supply of this kind of stuff for their clients,” she said.

More volunteers found an unused corner of Chuck’s Place to write thank-you notes via social media which were sent to members of Congress supporting recent passage of the “Violence Against Women Act.”

The other two service projects involved making cards to be sent to “Hugs for Hopes” for children, and distribution of informational fliers around Hays from several non-profit organizations.

Ten northwest Kansas high school seniors, including one Hays High School student, have won the prestigious Hansen Leader of Tomorrow scholarship.

Ryan Unruh, who plans to study Business and Journalism at the University of Kansas is among 260 students from 59 counties who’ve been awarded scholarships in the 38th annual competition sponsored by the Dane G. Hansen Foundation of Logan, Kansas.

Unruh’s award is $6,500 and may be renewed for three additional years.

Fifty Hansen Scholar winners were selected including Anna Shippy, Diane Lee, Christopher Rooney, Corinne Ziegler, and Courtney Hess of Hays High School, along with Thomas More Prep/Marian’s Allison Pfeifer.

The Hansen Scholar stipend is $4,000 and may be renewed for one additional year.

Criteria in selecting scholarship winners include proficiency in verbal and writing skills, academic record, test scores and community service.

The state’s KanCare program rescheduled education meetings to this week after snowstorms in late February forced their postponement.

In Hays Monday, an afternoon meeting at the Ramada Inn targeted KanCare providers.  The evening session was for consumers.

The meetings are presented by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.  During the providers meeting, Medicaid Initiatives Coordinator Becky Ross said the goal is to simply answer questions about the switch to KanCare.

“Everyone who was in Medicaid or Healthwave has been assigned by the state to one of the new policies, ” she explained, “and they have until April 4th to switch plans. After that deadline, patients are locked in to their policies for a year, but will have the opportunity to change plans annually.”

Ross also said patients should verify their preferred doctors are covered by their policy.

KanCare is administered by three private insurance companies, Amerigroup of Kansas, Sunflower State Health Plan and United Healthcare of the Midwest.

KanCare was launched Jan. 1 to reduce the growth of state Medicaid costs.