ELLIS COUNTY

The Ellis County Public Works Department in cooperation with Midwest Energy Inc. is announcing that a utility line repair project will take place on Highway 40 between Cathedral Avenue and East Main Street in Victoria, Kansas.

This area of Highway 40 will be closed to traffic beginning at 5:00 p.m. Thursday, May 03, 2018 for a duration of approximately 5 hours and will re-open to traffic at 10:00 p.m.

Motorists traveling in the affected closure area will be directed through a detour route during the time of the road closure.

Please direct any questions to the Ellis County Public Works Department at 785-628-9455. Your cooperation during this project is appreciated.

CITY OF HAYS

UPDATE AT 11 a.m.–The leak has been exposed and staff will be cutting and sectioning the line. No time estimate yet on when the leak will be repaired.

City of Hays crews are on the scene of a water leak at Vine Street and Downing Avenue. In order for crews to repair the water line on Vine Street, the northbound lane of traffic on Vine Street has been reduced to one lane from 22nd and Vine to Centennial and Vine.

Water service will be unavailable to a few businesses in the area until the leak is repaired. Those businesses have been notified.

Check Hays Post for details as information becomes available.

FHSU University Relations

The fraternity and sorority community at Fort Hays State University collected over 8,000 non-perishable food items and raised nearly $2,000 during their annual Greek Week.

This year’s competitions were a food drive and a penny war, both won by sororities.

Delta Zeta won the penny war, which raised a total of $1,924.90. Half went to Jana’s Campaign, Options and Circle of Sisterhood, a Panhellenic philanthropy that promotes equality and gives everyone the chance for a rewarding life.

Alpha Gamma Delta won the food drive with an average of 133 items per member, 4,153 items in total. The items were donated to three food pantries around Hays and the food pantry on FHSU campus.

Winners of spring faculty awards to be recognized

FHSU University Relations

The public is invited to the annual spring convocation of Fort Hays State University on Friday, May 4, when President Tisa Mason will deliver her first State of the Campus address, and the winners of the spring 2018 Faculty Awards will be recognized.

The convocation, which begins at 3:30 p.m. in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center in Sheridan Hall, will also feature annual reports from the Faculty Senate and the Graduate School.

The spring faculty award winners are Dr. Mohammad Riazi-Kermani, professor of mathematics, for research; Angela Walters, associate professor of informatics, for teaching; and Ken Windholz, instructor of psychology, for service.

All three recipients received a $500 check for their accomplishments. Each faculty member was notified of the award in a surprise visit to a classroom by FHSU President Tisa Mason, Interim Provost Dr. Jeff Briggs and Deron O’Connor, community president of Commerce Bank, which contributes to the cash award.

Riazi-Kermani was recognized especially for his contributions to the Mathematics Stack Exchange, a question-and-answer site for academic mathematicians at any level and professionals in related mathematical fields. More than 500,000 people around the world participate.

“Indicative of his vast knowledge in all areas of mathematics,” said the recommendation letter for Riazi-Kermani, “Dr. Riazi-Kermani has solved problems in a variety of mathematical areas such as calculus, real analysis, algebra/precalculus, linear algebra and differential equations.”

Walters’ recommendation letter said she “is an outstanding teacher who exemplifies committed quality instruction.”

“Not only is she naturally a strong communicator who is a master of her subject area,” the letter continued, “she is a person who continually seeks to strengthen her teaching and constantly works to maintain currency in her rapidly changing professional field.”

The letter also noted that she initiated and is leading an overhaul of the curriculum for Web and application development in the W.R. and Yvonne Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

The recommendation for Windholz said that community service has been a hallmark of his life throughout his 40 years of experience in providing mental health services to individuals in the Hays community and as a faculty member at Fort Hays State.

His service include being an announcer for numerous FHSU sporting events – basketball, football and baseball. In the Department of Psychology, he is faculty sponsor for the Psychology Club, and in the community he works with the Hays National Alliance on Mental Illness and works hard, in the words of the recommendation letter, “to increase awareness of mental illness in the community through diverse service activities.”

They join three other faculty members, who were recognized for teaching, research and scholarly activity in the fall 2017 semester, as candidates for the Faculty Member of the Year Award. The winner of that award and the $1,000 prize that goes with it will be announced at the fall convocation in August.

Each of the five colleges of the university nominates outstanding faculty members to receive the awards. Recipients are selected by a committee appointed by the respective college deans.