Betty J. Gerstner, age 88, of Hays, KS, passed away on Friday, February 1, 2019 in Hays.
Funeral services are pending and will be announced by Brock’s-Keithley Funeral Chapel & Crematory, 2509 Vine St., Hays, KS 67601.
Author: Hays Post
Steven Henry Nagel
Steven Henry Nagel, age 77, passed away on Thursday, January 31, 2019 at the Scott County Hospital in Scott City, Kansas.
He was born on December 30, 1941 in Ellsworth, Kansas, the son of Eilert Henry & Virginia Noble Nagel. A resident of Scott City, Kansas since 1976 moving from Sharon Springs, Kansas he was a retired truck driver for Seaboard Farms, Inc.
He was a member of the First Baptist Church in Scott City, Kansas and was a US Air Force Veteran.
On June 9, 1969 he married Elsie A. Hansley Griffin in Durant, Oklahoma. She survives.
Survivors include his Wife – Elsie A. Nagel of Scott City, Kansas, Five Sons – Lyle Nagel of Scott City, Kansas, Donald & Rhonda Griffin of Garden City, Kansas, Paul & Laurie Griffin of Amarillo, Texas, Steven Griffin of Salina, Kansas, Stacy & Glenda Griffin of Garden City, Kansas, One Brother – Roland Nagel of Great Bend, Kansas, One Sister – Laura Martin of Portland, Oregon, Sixteen Grandchildren and Fourteen Great Grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his Parents, One Son – Eilert Samuel Nagel, One Brother – Keith Nagel, One Sister – Cinda Becker and One Grandson – Jeremy Griffin.
Funeral Services will be held at 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 5, 2019 at the First Baptist Church in Scott City, Kansas with the Rev. Kyle Evans Presiding.
Memorials in Lieu of Flowers may be made to the Steven Nagel Memorial Fund in care of Price & Sons Funeral Homes.
Visitation will be from 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Sunday and 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Monday at Price & Sons Funeral Home in Scott City, Kansas.
Police arrest Kansas felon for alleged armed robbery
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a robbery and have a suspect in custody.
Just before 3p.m. Sunday, police were dispatched to 904 SW Lincoln in Topeka in reference to an aggravated robbery to an individual, according to Lt. Robbie Simmons.
Officers located someone matching the description of the suspect at 8th and SW Fillmore. This suspect attempted to flee and elude officers but was captured shortly thereafter.
This suspect was identified as 48-year-old Christopher Cowan. He was found to be in possession of a firearm and methamphetamines. Cowan was transported to Shawnee County Department of Corrections of requested charges of Felon in Possession of a Firearm and Obstruction. The robbery is still under investigation, according to Simmons.
Cowan has seven previous convictions that include possession of burglary tools, unlawful possession of firearms, violation of offender registration, flee and attempt to elude police, DUI and drugs, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
This is the 12th case in 2019 with a charge involving a felon in possession of a firearm reported by the Topeka Police Department.
Hays farmers’ market workshop Feb. 22
KDA
MANHATTAN — The Kansas Department of Agriculture, K-State Research and Extension and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will host a regional workshop in Hays on Friday, Feb. 22, at the K-State Agricultural Research Center. This is one of six regional workshops which are being held this winter to assist farmers’ market vendors and managers.
Kansas farmers’ markets not only provide a fresh food source, but also stimulate the local economy. In 2018, 95 farmers’ markets were registered with KDA’s Central Registration of Farmers’ Markets.
“Farmers’ markets provide growers a wonderful opportunity to have real interaction with consumers, and a chance to tell their farm’s story,” said Londa Nwadike, consumer food safety specialist with K-State Research and Extension and the University of Missouri. “It’s also important for farmers to understand certain legal, safety and financial parameters before choosing to sell at a farmers’ market.”
A keynote presentation will feature tips on marketing and making a profit, and a panel will provide information selling to institutions such as restaurants, groceries and schools. KDA’s weights and measures program will also offer free scale certification for attendees. Workshop topics will include:
• Pest Control Methods, Cover Crops and Soil Health
• Regulations for Selling Meat, Eggs and Poultry
• SNAP Program and Sales Tax for Vendors
• Specialty Crops and Produce Safety
• Kansas Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program Training
The workshop will be held at the K-State Agricultural Research Center, 1232 240th Ave. in Hays. Onsite registration will open at 8:30 a.m. and the workshops will begin at 9:00 a.m. and conclude by 3:00 p.m. Registration for this workshop is now open and is $20 per participant. Registration includes lunch; however, lunch will only be guaranteed to those participants who register by Feb. 14. Registration forms can be found at FromtheLandofKansas.com/FMWorkshop or at local extension offices.
For more information, contact Lexi Wright, KDA’s From the Land of Kansas marketing coordinator, at 785-564-6755 or [email protected]. Workshops were also held in Olathe, Parsons, Dodge City, Wichita and Manhattan.
KDA is committed to providing an environment that enhances and encourages economic growth of the agriculture industry and the Kansas economy. The Kansas Ag Growth Strategy has identified training for small companies via workshops as a key growth outcome for the specialty crop sector, particularly in the western half of the state. The farmers’ market workshops will provide education through partnerships to help make Kansas farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses more successful.
🎥 Eagle TV Forum: Butch Schlyer
Gary Shorman talks with new Ellis County Commissioner, Butch Schlyer.
NW Kansas students earn academic honors at Wichita State
WICHITA – Wichita State University has announced the names of more than 3,000 students who were on the WSU dean’s honor roll for fall 2018.
To be included on the dean’s honor roll, a student must be enrolled full time (at least 12 credit hours) and earn at least a 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.
WSU enrolls over 15,000 students and offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 150 areas of study in seven undergraduate colleges.
The following northwest Kansas students earned the honor:
Bird City
Bergan W Bock
Colby
Erik B Mallonee
Goodland
Sara B Amend
Amanda R Coon
Hays
Brianna M Burns
Maci M Gerhard
Bridget M Heimann
Isabella H Lee
Ashlyn M Parrish
Michaela N Spalsbury
Hill City
Taylor Gobin
Kayla M Keith
Hoxie
Billi J Wilson
Kensington
Maira Banuelos Galicia
Oberlin
Kristy M Ostmeyer
Osborne
Emma C Carlin
Phillipsburg
Kinzee L Hoover
Quinter
Brice R Hackler
Rebekah R Kitch
Rexford
Devin J Carter
Russell
Audra D Henne
Christopher V Pummell
Smith Center
Michelle M Palmer
Mitchell D Topel
WaKeeney
Bailey A Mattke
Cade A Papes
Weskan
Charice E Winter
SCHROCK: School consolidation — China versus the U.S.
A population equal to two-thirds of the United States has moved from rural China to urban China in the last decade. This rapid draw-down in rural communities has resulted in villages of mostly elderly retirees and a shrinkage of rural schools. China’s rapid educational expansion has been a 30-year miracle, dramatically raising the educational level of the younger generations. But this advancement has not been equal between countryside and city. And the shrinkage in rural schools is causing China to consolidate to improve quality.
When I speak to large groups of future biology teachers-in-training at their normal universities, I ask for hands of those who come from the countryside. In spite of more than half of China’s population living in rural areas ten years ago, usually only one-fourth of the students have come from those regions. When I ask how many of them are planning to go back to the countryside to teach, all hands drop. That is their problem.
Rural schools in China face a dramatic shortage of college-educated qualified science teachers–roughly a million nationwide. The term for a countryside person [nóngmín, 农民] or “peasant” is a term that has the connotations of poor and uneducated. And poor pay and primitive living conditions is the reason new teachers will not return. Many country schools are staffed by teachers with less than a college education. This decreases the opportunity for students to get a good education and score high on the high school leaving exam or gāokǎo[高考]. They do not have an equal chance to advance into college, an inequity that I always press when talking with university party secretaries. So that one-fourth who are in university and raised their hands studied hard to overcome the odds.
Young rural parents who migrate to the industrial opportunities in China’s cities have two options. They can leave their child or children (many rural families have more than one child) with the grandparents, send back money, and return to their rural home during this holiday. These are China’s “left behind” children [liúshǒu’értóng, 留守儿童]. The rural “left behind” numbered roughly 60 million in 2005 but have dropped to under 40 million today.
The other option is to take your child (or children) with you to the suburbs of the industrialized cities. However, residency documents or hùkǒu[户口] prevent these children from attending the regular urban schools.They must attend special migrant schools where again, although located in the city, teacher pay is low and students again have lesser-qualified instructors. These urban students are therefore also “left behind” children and numbered about 17 million in 2005. They now have risen to 23 million. When I again point out the inequity in education, party secretaries tell me that there are plans to rotate the good teachers from the “number one” public schools through the migrant city schools. But regular teachers say “no way!”
There are also about 20 million migrant kids whose families move about, especially in distant rural herding communities. Their numbers have not changed and they pose a separate and difficult problem.
But in China’s rapidly changing educational scene, the governments at national, provincial and local levels can and does work to consolidate these shrinking rural schools. Providing the best teachers possible to restore educational equity remains uppermost on their agenda.
The United States faces a similar problem. Unfortunately, providing qualified teachers for our shrinking, mostly-rural school districts in the United States in order to provide educational equity is not at the top of our American education agenda. Many rural areas in America are also depopulating, although not at the breakneck speed of China. Yet, providing qualified teachers and academic equity for rural students is rarely voiced. Arguments made for school consolidation are usually couched in terms of saving money.
In most states, public schooling makes up the biggest state budget item, often comprising half of state tax dollars. With 50 states and 50 different systems for managing schools, it is difficult to generalize. But in the 1950s and 1960s, a national movement toward school consolidation did occur as one- and two-room schools were replaced by larger modern classrooms, often on a township level for elementary schools and county level for high schools. But many states did not fully consolidate. As our rural areas depopulate, the number of school districts that lack a full array of specialized teachers grows. And it is not just our Great Plains and Midwest regions that face this dilemma. States such as Vermont with 270 districts, New Jersey with 545, Maryland, New Jersey, Maine and Virginia also need consolidation. But the desire to keep our undersized local school for sports, community identity, or other political reasons makes consolidation efforts fail.
Americans may disparage China’s central control. But it is the downside of our local control democracy that results in the United States producing educationally “left behind” children.
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.
Hays man named junior member of American Angus Assoc.
John J Stremel, Hays is a new junior member of the American Angus Association, reports Allen Moczygemba, CEO of the national organization with headquarters in Saint Joseph, Mo.
Junior members of the Association are eligible to register cattle in the American Angus Association, participate in programs conducted by the National Junior Angus Association and take part in Association-sponsored shows and other national and regional events.
The American Angus Association is the largest beef breed association in the world, with more than 25,000 active adult and junior members.
Now That’s Rural: Laura Martin, Sew Loved Quilt Shop
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
Laura was six years old. There was a big present for her under the Christmas tree. She excitedly opened the package and was delighted to find it was a sewing machine from her grandmother. Her interest in sewing grew, and decades later it became a sort of magic carpet which would bring her and her husband back to Kansas.
Laura and Ronn Martin live at Elkhart. They went off to the big city for their careers but came back to Kansas.
Ronn grew up at Elkhart. Laura grew up on a farm near McCracken, a rural community of 190 people. Now, that’s rural.
The two met at Tabor College in Hillsboro. Ronn earned degrees in computer science, and Laura earned degrees in psychology and counseling. They followed his career to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas where he worked in information technology. They also raised a daughter and son.
When Laura was a little girl, her mother had been a seamstress on the farm. “One of my earliest recollections was sitting on my mom’s lap while she sewed,” Laura said. One Christmas, Laura received the aforementioned sewing machine from her grandmother. With help from her other grandma, she even did a 4-H sewing project. Laura loved sewing, but when her mother encouraged her to try quilting, Laura had no interest at the time.
Years later when family came for a visit in Texas, Laura’s mother-in-law went to a local quilt shop. Laura observed the results. “I saw the entire process, from when she took the fabric out of the bag, handed the receipt to her husband, studied the pattern, and carefully cut out the pieces,” Laura said. Then Laura watched a beautiful quilt come to life.
“I thought to myself, ‘I could do that,’” Laura said – “especially the part about handing the receipt to my husband…”. She tried quilting and was hooked. She even worked part-time at a quilt shop in Texas.
When their children graduated, Laura and Ronn decided to make a change and move back closer to family. Ronn’s computer job enabled him to work from anywhere, as long as he had high-quality internet access which they found in Elkhart. It also meant that Laura could have her own quilt shop.
Laura and Ronn bought and remodeled a historic building in downtown Elkhart. In June 2018, Laura opened her new store. She called it Sew Loved Quilt Shop. In addition to the obvious reference to sewing, she cites as inspiration the Bible verse which says God so loved the world.
“There are a hundred women that quilt in our area,” Laura said. “Some of them can make quilts as beautiful as anything you will see at the international quilt show in Houston,” she said.
Quilters can purchase fabric, notions and other supplies at Laura’s quilt shop. Laura offers classes for all levels of experience.
“We offer kids’ sew day on days when there is no school,” Laura said. “Kids can spend a couple of hours and leave with a finished product.”
That was so popular that it led to a moms’ sewing time, which is scheduled later in the evening after supper. Laura also has a longarm device, which is like a giant, automated sewing machine that can quilt great big pieces of fabric.
“People come to the shop by the carloads,” Laura said. “We serve five states.”
What about the transition from the big city to small-town Kansas? “The people are so wonderful and down-to-earth,” Laura said. “We had forgotten what pretty sunsets looked like,” Ronn said.
For more information, go to the Sew Loved website.
It’s time to leave this quilt shop in Elkhart. We commend Ronn and Laura Martin for making a difference by returning to their Kansas roots. As we go, we observe one final treasure on display: It’s the original sewing machine which Laura received as a present when she was six years old. It’s a reminder that she was so loved.
And there’s more. Remember how Ronn’s job required high-quality internet access? We’ll learn about that next week.
Kansas man dies in 5-vehicle I-70 crash
LEAVENWORTH COUNTY— One person died in a five vehicle accident just after 4p.m. Sunday in Leavenworth County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 Ford E45 driven by Michael Weis, 62, Columbia, MT, was westbound on Interstate 70 just east of Tonganoxie.
The vehicle rear-ended a 2014 Chevy Cruz driven by Tristan Kuritz, 21, Lawrence. The collision pushed the Chevy into a 2017 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by Rachel Jones, 33, Beloit. The Dodge was pushed into a 2011 Star Bus driven by Roger Rodriguez, 64, Kansas City.
A 2017 Ford F150 driven by Robert Powell, 47, St. Robert, Mo., attempted to avoid the initial collision, swerved from the left lane to the right lane and struck the Dodge Grand Caravan.
Kuritz was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger in the Chevy Samantha Duckett, 21, Lawrence, was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Jones was transported to KU Medical Center.
Weis and Rogriguez were not injured. Four passengers on the bus reported only minor injuries. They were not wearing seat belts.
The accident investigation closed the Kansas Turnpike for several hours Sunday.
Sunny, cold Monday
Monday Sunny, with a high near 41. North northwest wind around 10 mph becoming east northeast in the afternoon.
Monday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 21. East northeast wind 9 to 13 mph.
TuesdayMostly cloudy, with a high near 33. East wind 7 to 10 mph.
Tuesday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 25. East wind around 8 mph.
WednesdayMostly cloudy, with a high near 36.
Wednesday NightA slight chance of freezing rain before 7pm, then a chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 12. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
ThursdayPartly sunny, with a high near 22.
Pentagon sending another 3,750 troops to Southwest border
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Sunday it will send 3,750 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to put up another 150 miles of concertina wire and provide other support for Customs and Border Protection.
The additions will bring the total number of active-duty troops on the border to 4,350.
The announcement is in line with what Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan had said on Tuesday when he provided estimates for the next phase of a military mission that has grown in size and length. Critics have derided it as a political ploy by the White House as President Donald Trump seeks billions to build a border wall.
Shanahan said on Tuesday that several thousand more troops would be sent mainly to install additional wire barriers and provide a large new system of mobile surveillance and monitoring of the border area. Sunday’s announcement said the mobile surveillance mission would last through Sept. 30.
Members of Congress have question whether the border mission is distracting troops from their main work of fighting extremists abroad and training for combat. The first active-duty troops were sent to the border on about Oct. 30 for a mission that was to end Dec. 15. It has since been extended twice.
“What impact does it have to readiness to send several thousand troops down to the Southern border? It interrupts their training. It interrupts their dwell time,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said at a hearing on Tuesday.
Vice Adm. Mike Gilday, the director of operations for the Joint Staff, told the panel that he does not believe military readiness has been significantly affected. He said some units have missed training opportunities because of the deployment and others have seen less time at home between deployments than the military likes to provide.
But he said there is an effort to rotate service members in and out of the mission every six to eight weeks in order to minimize any impact.
Jury: Kan. man guilty in shooting death of sleeping victim
HUTCHINSON — A Kansas man has been found guilty in the September 2017 shooting death of a man who was sleeping.
A Reno County jury on Thursday found 35-year-old Quinton Moore guilty of first degree murder.
Moore shot 42-year-old Clarence D. Allen multiple times in his head and neck while he slept in his bed at a residence at 1701 E. 30th in Hutchinson.
During an interview with a Hutchinson Police Detective, Moore at first denied shooting Allen, but later said he did but blacked out during the shooting.
The gun used in the shooting was found in a poly-cart at the home on East 6th. It was a Smith and Wesson .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun which police believe was the murder weapon. At the scene, police found six .40 caliber shell casings and 3 bullets.
Moore did not take the stand in his own defense. He is scheduled for sentencing March 15.