By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

ELLIS — St. Mary’s Catholic School in Ellis opened for classes earlier than expected Thursday after a July 25 storm ripped off a portion of the roof, damaging the gym and many of the school’s classrooms.

In mid-August, volunteers were still scraping damaged floors and painting walls.

“Without their help, we would not be open today, so we are very grateful” Peggy Seibel, fourth-grade and head teacher, said of the many volunteers who helped with the repairs.

A portion of the school’s gym collapsed during the storm. That has been repaired, but work still needs to be finished before the gym can reopen to students. School officials now anticipate work on the gym should be done by Nov. 1.

The permanent roof still needs to put on and other projects are still in the works. Repairs also are still ongoing at the rectory next door.

However, Father Dana Clark said he has been amazed at the progress.

“I have been really impressed how many people volunteered and got done in six weeks what some people thought would take three months to complete,” he said. “It’s been amazing to get the work done that needed to get done.”

Students were set to return to classes on Monday, but repairs were completed ahead of schedule. Students started school with new flooring, new coats of paint on most of the walls and new school materials, as many items in the classrooms received water damage when the high winds damaged the roof in July.

“It’s great,” Seibel said of the school’s new look. “The kids are excited to be back. The little extended holiday was not actually as appealing as they thought it might be. They were happy to get back to see their friends. They are really liking the new look in the classrooms and happy to be here.”

School hours have been changed to make up for the late start. Students will begin classes at 7:55 a.m. Students will also be attending on days that had been designated as in-service and snow days.

Monetary donations can still be made to the school through Equity Bank, Attn: St. Mary’s, PO Box 255, Ellis, KS 67637.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Have you ever gone to the grocery store to buy kale and ended up with a box of Twinkies in your cart? A local health educator might have a program to help put you on the right track to eating better.

Jessica Moffitt, Prospectively Healthy certified health education specialist, is offering Grocery List Assist.

For a fee, Moffitt teams with her client to create menu plans and then helps the client use Dillons’ online Grocery Pickup service or another online grocery shopping app to select the groceries needed for the week.

Dillons Grocery Pickup, formerly known as ClickList, has been offered in Hays since July. Moffitt is just getting Grocery List Assist off of the ground.

Moffitt said many of her clients said they struggled with grocery shopping.

“One of the things I hear a lot from my clients is not necessarily the difficulty to eat healthier but the difficultly in knowing what to pick out at the grocery store or how to get quality produce that is going to last or just (having) the time commitment to do so,” she said.

Moffitt establishes a menu plan with input from her client. She then goes into an online grocery shopping account and puts all the items into their grocery list. The client checks the cart to make sure they don’t already have items on the list, then the client arranges for grocery pickup and payment through the app.

Dillons Grocery Pickup app allows customers to arrange for pickup up to three days in advance. You have an hour window to pick up the groceries. Dillons will load the groceries in your vehicle for you. Right now, Dillons is offering the first three pickups free with a charge of $4.95 per pickup after that, according to its mobile app. Pickups are available from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the 1902 Vine store in Hays.

Dillons has hundreds of digital coupons available through its app, but paper coupons can also be used at pickup. Dillons currently is unable to accept government benefits (including WIC and SNAP) as payment, according to its website. You also can’t add prescriptions to Grocery Pickup at this time, but Dillons said it is working to add this feature. See Dillons website for more details on the service.

Grocery List Assist services start at $40 per week. Although Moffitt lives in Hays, she said she will work with any grocery app in any location.

Moffitt will cater her meal plans to specific dietary restrictions and preferences such as low-salt or vegan. She also tries to work with few ingredients, minimal prep time and simple kitchen utensils. However, if you have a slow cooker or pressure cooker and like to use those tools, she will work those in also.

She also works to reduce waste, so if you have leftover ingredients, she will work with you to incorporate those into future menus.

“I also like taking things that we all like to eat like macaroni and cheese. I have an amazing recipe for macaroni and cheese that I love to start people out with,” she said. “You can still do things like macaroni and cheese and hamburger and lasagna, and you just make better choices in that recipe to make it a little bit healthier.

Moffitt sends a PDF copy of the recipes to clients and then touches base by phone with the client once a week to discuss how the meals went.

Moffitt recommends meal planning for anyone trying to get a better handle on their eating and diet.

“It is a really helpful tool I use in my home to make sure we have the meals ready for the week and we know what we are going to cook and we have all of the groceries,” she said. “It also reduces impulse purchases and convenience store shopping, which is great for saving time and money for the client themselves. I also think it helps us make healthier choices just because of the structure that comes from it rather than making decisions based on convenience or mood or emotions that we are feeling at the moment.”

Grocery List Assist and its menu planning feature can help clients make necessary diet changes for health reasons.

“I think the biggest thing people need to consider when they are faced with obstacle — when they are faced with a prescreening diagnosis or a full-blown diagnosis like diabetes or hypertension is to understand you have to make a lifestyle change. It is not a diet that is going to end in six months or a year. It’s a commitment you are going to have to make for the rest of your life.

“With that commitment, I think it is easier to make one better choice at a time. It might be in the direction of total health rather than trying to do everything all at once or overnight.”

One month, she might talk about reducing sugary beverages, and the next month she might help you work on decreasing sugar in desserts.

Moffitt noted Grocery List Assist can be a temporary tool. Once you have a library of recipes, you can create your own menu plans.

“Hopefully, it is just a stepping stone to move them in the right direction, so they can make these choices themselves and their own meal plans,” she said.

Moffitt will be offering cooking demonstrations and health lectures again this fall and winter through the Hays Recreation Commission. She offers classes for adults and children 3 through 7.

For a complete list of classes, see her webpage or check out Prospectively Healthy on Facebook.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Ellis County Housing Rehabilitation program seeks to fill a need for medium-income housing in Hays, but officials acknowledge it is not operating at capacity.

The program was started in 2016 by the Ellis County Economic Development Corp., which is now Grow Hays. The program was originally funded through a grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation.

“The theory is to provide funding to contractors, Realtors or handymen to be able to buy a home that is in need of repair and to make those repairs to it and upgrades and then to resell it at a maximum price of $145,000,” Doug Williams, Grow Hays interim director, said.

The community benefits because the recipient takes a dilapidated home and turns it into a habitable home and improves the neighborhood, Williams said. It provides housing in a segment of the market that is affordable. It allows the person renovating the home to make a profit, and most of the materials for the rehabs are purchased in the community, which also helps the local economy.

“It’s a win-win deal,” Williams said. “We provide funding for 100 percent of the project at no interest.”

Brady Reed and his brother rehabed a home at 300 E. 25th St., and Brady is under contract on a second home on Willow Street. Reed is a real estate agent by day, but he and his brother did some of the work on first the home themselves.

The house on 25th Street sold for a couple thousand dollars shy of asking price and was on the market less than two months. The brothers made money on the project, Brady said.

“I would absolutely recommend the program,” he said. “I know you are trying to get the word out about it. I bring it at work to clients, and a lot of people don’t know about it. I think if more people knew about it, it would get used. I think it is a fantastic program.”

For applications to be accepted, developers have several requirements that must be met: a minimum of $10,000 in renovations, the project has to be completed in nine months, and the home selling price is capped at a $145,000. The houses have to be single-family homes and can not be used as rentals.

“I don’t talk to any community in Kansas or anywhere else that does not talk about affordable housing,” Williams said, “so it is not unique to us.”

A housing needs study conducted in June 2017 by the Fort Hays State University Docking Institute of Public Affairs for the city of Hays indicated housing costs in Hays are the highest in western Kansas. Hays residents also pay a higher percentage of their income on housing, the study said.

The study also indicated Hays has a high percentage of older homes. Forty-three percent of its housing stock was built before 1970. Fewer new homes are also being built. Only 0.1 percent of the homes were one year old or less.

The study also indicated even a small growth (0.25 percent) in the Hays population would further worsen the housing shortage.

Yet at the same time, landlords in the last year have expressed concerns about an overabundance of open rentals in the city.

See related story: 🎥 Study: Hays has highest housing costs in western Kansas

“It’s a great program for someone who has a set of skills, who can do some of the work themselves and can manage a project. It is a good opportunity,” Williams said of the housing rehab program.

Williams, who is also a real estate broker, said Hays is seeing more opportunities to take advantage of the program.

“Because we have softened in the market, and certain price ranges have become softer, the opportunity to buy a home and make some improvements and resell it, I don’t think has ever been better. I think it is a really good time to do it. The market remains strong, but the low end has softened, so there are some bargains out there.”