The rain actually started Monday, Sept. 30 with 0.19 inches recorded at the K-State Agricultural Research Center late in the day. It was also warm with the high temperature reaching 92 degrees.
As a cold front moved in, Tuesday’s high was 73 degrees with another 0.75 inches of rain falling throughout the day. The two-day total is 0.94 inches.
So far this year Hays has received 27.06 inches of moisture. The average total by the end of October is 21.26 inches.
Saturday’s Purple Light Nights in Hays, sponsored by Options Domestic & Sexual Violence Services, is all about the support and strength of survivors.
Shaelin Sweet, community advocate, said the annual event is in observance of October’s National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“It’s about awareness but it’s also about the support the Hays community shows to our survivors,” Sweet said. “Support can mean the difference between life and death for the people we work with.”
The family-friendly event is free and will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, 3000 Sternberg Drive. It includes a petting zoo, children’s games, free chili, cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, and a survivor luminary ceremony. Participants will be able to decorate and personalize their luminary in honor or memory of someone who has been abused.
Options supports the entire family.
“When domestic violence happens, when sexual assault happens, the entire family is impacted even if they were not the direct victim,” says Jennifer Hecker, executive director. “Many times, those voices are left out and we want to be able to bring those voices forward and show our support for the whole family.”
A similar event will be held Oct. 3 at Options’ new satellite office in Colby.
The non-profit agency serves 18 counties in northwest Kansas and provides free confidential services.
Help is available by calling the Options 24-hour hotline at 1-800-794-4624, or by submitting a request online on the Options Facebook page or website www.help4abuse.org.
Patty Stull recently sold her Coldwell Banker franchise to independent real estate agent Robert Readle. Stull will continue listing and selling real estate as she’s done the past 36 years.
Readle buys Stull’s Coldwell Banker corporation, which will now have two Hays locations
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Coldwell Banker now has two locations in Hays.
Patty Stull has been owner/broker of Coldwell Banker Executive Realty in downtown Hays for nearly 36 years.
Stull sold her Coldwell Corp. on Sept. 24 to independent real estate agent Robert Readle. New Coldwell Banker signage — outdoors and indoors — will soon be installed at Readle’s office on the corner of 22nd and Vine streets.
Stull, 72, is not retiring. She will still list and sell real estate from her office at 1001 Main.
“For a long time, I’ve known I don’t have a successor,” Stull said. Her three daughters are grown and working their own jobs, with no interest in taking over their mom’s business.
She wanted to find someone to become the new owner who “has passion and great care for the clients, has good ethics, is reliable and accountable.”
Robert Readle Real Estate will become a second Coldwell Banker location at 22nd and Vine.
Stull says she found all that in her 38-year-old competitor, Robert Readle, when she approached him with her idea of selling her franchise to him.
Stull will mentor Readle, who appreciates the opportunities and support Coldwell Banker offers. It’s the largest franchise real estate company in the country.
“Being independent for so long (since 2014), we’ve really had to learn the nuts and bolts of the business. It’ll be pretty liberating to have that kind of backing behind us,” Readle said, “and we’re really looking forward to what it’s going to do for all of our agents.”
Readle considers Stull “a titan, one of the best in town. I really admire the work that she does.”
He reinforced their shared values and passion for the industry.
Coldwell Banker signage will soon go up on Robert Readle’s building at 22nd and Vine.
“A good Realtor loves working with people and helping them achieve their goals,” agreed Readle, who also has a background in finance.
“Of course, there’s a business side. You have to run an office, maintain files, follow regulations. When Patty and I are doing that at the same time, it’s kind of redundant. Now that we’re working together, she gets to put that on my desk now,” he said with a smile.
“My location at 1001 Main is intact and I’m not going anywhere,” Stull promises. “It was very hard to let go … but I’ve been smiling every day.”
Stull’s office in downtown Hays
The partnership creates the largest real estate company in Hays with 20 agents.
The company was started in 1967 by broker/owner/builder Robert Finch who bought the Coldwell Banker franchise in 1982. Stull purchased it in 1984.
The Hays city commission Thursday night unanimously approved the purchase of 19 properties for right of way acquisition within the North Vine Street Corridor Project.
Plans are to build two-lane traffic roundabouts on Vine Street at 32nd/33rd, 37th, and 41st Streets, plus a teardrop roundabout at the eastbound Interstate 70 exit ramp.
During an executive session at the end of the Sept. 12 city commission meeting, John Braun, city project manager, presented details of proposed offers to acquire right of way, easements, and the costs associated with the project.
“These are 19 properties — various small tracts — between 32nd Street and 41st and Mopar,” Braun said Wednesday afternoon. “Those will remain confidential until the project is bid out.”
Cost of the property purchases is $390,020 to be funded out of Capital Projects.
“To reiterate what the city’s project manager said, we took no action (after the executive session) and so now we’re doing that in open session,” Mayor Henry Schwaller said Thursday night.
“This will help us complete the project on north Vine Street.”
Braun has said he expects the right-of-way acquisitions to be “all wrapped up with utility clearances out of the way” in November.
By the end of this year, the entire completed plan is scheduled to be submitted to the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) for an anticipated April 2020 KDOT bid letting, allowing for construction to begin in June or July 2020.
The remainder of the project cost will be paid through a two percent increase in the Transient Guest Tax (TGT). It went into effect Oct. 1, 2018, and is projected to raise $6.2 million over 20 years.
Vice-Mayor Shaun Musil was absent from the meeting.
North Vine Street corridor traffic improvements (Click to enlarge)
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
A revised agenda for Thursday’s Hays City Commission meeting now includes an authorization request for right of way acquisition within the North Vine Street Corridor Project.
During an executive session at the end of the Sept. 12 city commission meeting, John Braun, city project manager, presented details of proposed offers to acquire right of way, easements, and costs associated with the project.
“There are 19 properties — various small tracts — between 32nd Street and 41st and Mopar,” Braun said Wednesday afternoon. “Those will remain confidential until the project is bid out.”
The commission will vote on authorizing $390,020 for the property purchases to be funded out of Capital Projects.
Other agenda items include a recommended bid award to complete Cure in Place Pipe (CIPP) lining of approximately 15,000 linear feet of 8-inch sanitary sewer.
Sewer cleaning and inspection has been performed by a contractor yearly since 2013, giving staff data to develop a repair program.
CIPP costs about $25 per linear foot, according to Jeff Crispin, water resources director, much less than the cost of $300 to $500 per linear foot to replace a sewer line.
The project includes a spot repair of the Hays Aquatic Park swimming pool drain under the Big Creek levee.
“An inspection of the pipes under the levee revealed there’s a hole in the swimming pool line which could cause a problem in case of Big Creek flooding,” Crispin said. “The Army Corps of Engineers requires the pipe to be repaired for us to remain eligible for federal levee programs.”
The low bid of $377,251.50 was submitted by SAK Construction, O’Fallon, Missouri.
A design contract for reconstruction of 27th Street from Hall to Fort will be reviewed. Kirkham Michael & Associates, Inc., Ellsworth, submitted the low bid of $89,900 for engineering services.
Annexation of 4890 and 4940 General Hays Road will be considered. Owner J & L Capital LLC wants the properties annexed for development and connection to city services. The land is contiguous to city limits. Staff is recommending the annexation.
The Sept. 26 meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in Hays City Hall, 1507 Main.
The parking lot was full and overflowed to neighborhood streets for Thursday’s Go Truck Go in Hays.
Children and their parents were invited to the popular annual event sponsored Hays USD 489 Early Childhood Connections for a closeup experience with large work vehicles — and their drivers — used in and around Hays.
The two-hour event was held for the first time at the former Oak Park Medical Complex, 2501 E. 13th, now home to all of the school district’s early childhood programs. The Hays school board will consider suggested new names for the four-building complex at its Monday meeting.
Youngsters got up close and personal with the operators of the huge vehicles who lifted the smallest kids up into high cabs while talking about their job and how the vehicle is used. Other children took pride in clambering up by themselves and posing for pictures taken by their parents.
The vehicles were parked on the east side of the school complex.
Walking alongside the vehicle lineup was also a lesson in learning colors as parents pointed out the bright red Hays fire truck, a yellow USD 489 school bus near a yellow Ellis County Public Works road grader, the John Deere green tractor from Carrico Implement, gleaming white Midwest Energy bucket trucks, and a blue semi from Simpson Farm Enterprises.
First responders from Ellis County showed curious youngsters the equipment aboard their fire truck, ambulance, and police and sheriff’s vehicles.
Free food and drinks were also available for the families, many of whom took advantage of the adjacent Kiwanis Park to enjoy a picnic.
Several agencies provided information and giveaways from their groups including Girl Scouts, CASA of the High Plains, Cottonwood Extension District and the city of Hays Water Resources Department.
“I don’t think any of these logos were adopted by ordinance by the commission in the past,” Toby Dougherty, city manager, told city commissioners Thursday night.
“But because of the staff’s goal to combine them into one logo, we would like you to come to some sort of consensus.”
Dougherty, along with Melissa Dixon, Convention and Visitors executive director, and other city staff members worked with Hays artist Scott Gross who was contracted to design a new logo.
Three similar designs were shown to commissioners who agreed with the staff recommendation of the abstract lowercase “h” option.
Vice-mayor Sean Musil was a little hesitant. “I don’t hate it. I’m just not in love with it,” he said. “I love this logo,” Musil said holding up his bottle of water sporting a current city logo. “To me, this looks fresh.”
The goal of the logo project was to create a standardized city logo that will work in all type of media, signage, letterhead and even employee clothing. The logo color can be tailored to different departments such as green for parks and blue for water resources.
“The logos that are out there aren’t very organized or cohesive,” said Gross. “It was time to give it an update, give it a nice refresh.”
Gross, who has also designed logos for several local businesses including Regeena’s Flowers and Gella’s Diner in downtown Hays, showed mockups of the logo on city vehicles, clothing, the blue trash carts and a photo of the iconic Frontier Park bridge.
“The logo looks like it’s two colors but it’s really just one color,” Gross explained. “You’re only spending money on one color when you go to printing on different things. It’s portable. You can’t really embroider two tones like that so you’re just doing one color, nice and simple.”
The city’s “3 Amigos” logo featuring General George A. Custer, James B. “Wild Bill” Hickok and William “Buffalo Bill” Cody often utilized multiple colors, a more expensive process than a single color.
The new logo will use common Pantone colors and the sans-serif Gotham font.
Gross also showed examples of the logo reversed, in 1-color, gray-scale, and 2-color with a color background.
Some of the logo changes will start immediately.
“All the online electronic stuff, that will happen right away. The stuff we give to the press, the letterhead. All that stuff is going to change quickly,” Dougherty said.
Employee shirts will change as they need to be replaced.
The 50-plus wayfinding signs in Hays may not change. “We may look at it and say keep it. It’s a whole separate entity aside from the organizational logo for the city of Hays.”
Hays Regional Airport has its own logo. The new logo will be adapted, perhaps by adding an airplane, to keep the same organizational theme.
Commissioner Ron Mellick asked if the city was going to “throw away thousands of dollars of letterhead.”
“We buy letterhead in really low amounts,” Dougherty answered, “because commissioners’ names change and we have to redo that letterhead. We buy on an as-needed basis. It’s not like we’re going to toss a lot of stuff into the recycling.” Letterhead will not be changed until after the 2020 commission is seated in January, so there will be no additional cost.
The police and fire departments will also use the updated letterhead. Uniform patches will not be affected and for now, the logo will not be placed on police vehicles. Other city vehicles will get new vinyl decals right away.
The logo committee anticipates the cost to implement the new logo is less than $10,000.
There are a lot of different logos used by the city of Hays – at least 20 – in all type of media, signage, letterhead and even employee clothing.
City staff believes it’s time to update to a single organizational logo, standardizing the various logos being used by all departments.
The “3 Amigos” logo has been used for many years, depicting the Old West history of Hays and its connection to General George A. Custer, James B. “Wild Bill” Hickok and William “Buffalo Bill” Cody at historic Fort Hays.
“It’s been on letterhead, city vehicles, city pins. That logo is fine but it doesn’t transcend well to a shirt logo, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, or the water tower,” says Toby Dougherty, city manager.
“Over the years we’ve developed one-off logos. These have all been organic, rather than a concerted effort,” he explained.
Dougherty pointed to many other city entities, each with its own logo, including the Hays Aquatic Park, Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex and wayfinding signage. “The Parks Department has a different letterhead that involves bison.”
City staff began talking about the need for a singular logo early this year and contracted with local artist Scott Gross to come up with some design concepts.
Several designs were reviewed by Dougherty, Melissa Dixon, CVB executive director and staff members.
City staff is proposing the top design as the new organizational logo for the city of Hays.
They settled on one simple design with three variations. Those will be presented to the Hays city commission during their work session tonight.
“The goal is to create an organizational logo – the city of Hays logo. It’s not meant to represent Hays as a city; it’s the city of Hays as an organization,” Dougherty emphasized.
“Therefore we tried to keep it as neutral and sterile as possible. No history, no wheat, no oil, no Volga-German. It’s not mean to represent anything except the city of Hays as an organization.”
If city commissioners reject the proposed logo change, Dougherty said the city would likely continue as is using the existing multiple logos.
Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution Courtney-Spalding Chapter members Bunnie Bowen, Susan Unrein, Sherrie Smith and Judy Sherard with Hays Mayor Henry Schwaller.
Schwaller recently signed a proclamation declaring Sept. 17-23, 2019 as Constitution Week in the city of Hays.
Its current goals stress membership growth, conservation, American history and Good Citizenship Awards to further the education and historic values of youth. The chapter focuses on U.S. flag presentations, supporting patriotism throughout the nation and supporting troops in Project Patriot.
Projects for Phases I and II totaling $4.4 million were approved in 2004 by a TDD ordinance and a 3/4-cent sales tax was enacted April 1, 2005, both for a maximum 22 years. The city then issued $1.77 million in TDD sales tax bonds to finance Phase I.
The TDD tax outperformed projections allowing the Phase I bonds to be called early and completed in January 2018. It was determined the 3/4-cent TDD sales tax could continue until March 2027 to fund a portion of Phase II improvements.
TOPEKA – Recently the Kansas Water Authority (KWA) met in Goodland under the new direction of Constance (Connie) Crittenden Owen who was appointed Chair this past summer by Governor Kelly to lead the KWA.
“My experience as a licensed attorney practicing Kansas water law for more than 25 years has exposed me to real-life water issues that affect individuals and families, as well as businesses and municipalities,” said Owen. “As Chair I welcome the opportunity to apply the knowledge and expertise of the board members, professionals in our state agencies and stakeholders throughout Kansas to protect our water resources for current and future generations.”
In addition to Owen, several new members were present including: Jeremiah Hobbs representing the State Association of Kansas Watersheds, Chris Ladwig representing the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and industrial water users, Sen. Carolyn McGinn representing Environment and Conservation, and David Stroberg, Hutchinson, representing Groundwater Management Districts (GMD) 2 & 5.
(GMD 5 includes Edwards County, site of the R-9 Ranch owned by the cities of Hays and Russell which is a planned long-term water source for the two communities.)
Two major actions were taken by the KWA which included approval of Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) membership for positions with 2019 term expirations as well as approval of State Water Plan Fund (SWPF) budget recommendations for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2021.
The KWA re-appointed 54 currently seated members to serve another four-year term on their respective RACs and appointed 25 new members to serve on nine of the RACs.
As in recent years, the KWA decided to develop a SWPF budget recommendation package which focuses on full restoration of the State General Fund (SGF)/Economic Development Initiatives Fund (EDIF) demand transfer totaling $8 million. Enhancements and appropriations which took place for SFY 2020 were recommended as base-level funding program funding for SFY 2021, with additional enhancement recommendations for 12 projects/programs/initiatives totaling $3,170,100 and ultimately creating a budget recommendation package which includes full restoration of the SGF/EDIF demand transfer.
Other actions of note by the KWA include approval and authorization of the Kansas Water Office (KWO) Director to proceed with negotiations with the Lower Smoky Hill Water Supply Access District for the purchase of additional irrigation storage space in Kanopolis Lake; approval for the KWO to enter into a multi-state Planning Assistance to States (PAS) agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a flood risk management study for the Lower Missouri River Basin in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska; and approval for the KWO Director to enter into an agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to receive and utilize High Hazard Potential Dams Rehabilitation Grant Funds.
Presentations were also provided by the Kansas Geological Survey on the Arbuckle in Kansas and Groundwater Management District 4 on water conservation efforts in northwest Kansas.
The KWA is responsible for advising the Governor, Legislature and Director of the Kansas Water Office (KWO) on water policy issues. They also ensure that water policies and programs address the needs of all Kansans as well as serve as advisors of the Kansas Water Vision and Kansas Water Plan. The KWA was established in 1981 and consists of 13 voting members who are appointed by the Governor or Legislative leadership. State agency directors serve as ex-officio members.
The KWA meetings are throughout the year and the next meeting is scheduled for December 19 in Salina. For additional information and other upcoming meetings, please visit www.kwo.ks.gov.
By BECKY KISER
