The USD 489 Board of Education and Hays National Education Association Negotiations Meeting will be held tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Toepfer Board Room at Rockwell Administration Center, 323 W. 12th.
During the meeting, the HNEA will present a counter-proposal for rates of pay and taxes, a proposal on language for flexibility in hours, health insurance, and hours and amounts of work, according to the minutes of the last regular board meeting.
UPDATE: Drewel forced to cancel Hays appearance.
Area veteran Tommy Drewel is booked to speak at the Hays American Legion, 13th and Canterbury, Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Drewel was a Marine from 1992 to 1996 serving in the Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, Fourth Platoon. During his tenure, he was in Mogadishu, Somalia, during the events that would later become the basis of the film “Black Hawk Down.” The unit Drewel was assigned to secured the second chopper downed during the incident.
Drewel, originally from Great Bend, moved back to Kansas following his time in the military. He currently serves as a Veterans Service Representative of the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs in the Fort Dodge Field Office.
The event is open to the public.
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The skateboard scene in Hays will be dealt a big blow when White Chocolate, 810 Main, will close for business Saturday.
The business has been open since 1998.
Derek Hadley, known by locals as “Dude,” has been running the location since 2005, but said he always felt at some point the shop would close.
“Dude”
“We kinda knew it was just kind of inevitable that people move on and, with this type of lifestyle and culture, you really, to be doing it, to have a store and to be successful, you have to be immersed into the sub-culture of skateboarding, or at least, maybe not necessarily have to skate, but be into the lifestyle and know what it’s about, know the mentality, really almost be into it for the love.”
The Hays White Chocolate is one of two locations for the business. The other is located in Lawrence, and Hadley said the Hays location is likely closing due to the difficulty of the owners operating both locations.
While the store catered to the skating sub-culture by selling skating hardware, in recent years the location expanded into clothing sales as well, bringing in an interesting mix of shoppers.
“Our customers are really unique I think,” Hadley said. “We’ve had a wide variety of people that have came in over the years, and they’re, in my opinion, the best customers. I think we just have the most loyal of customers.
“We have everybody from little kids, just starting out skateboarding, or just like certain brands, like Vans or something, all the way up to … we’ve had grandmas shop here like 60, 70-years-old that like our girls selection.”
Austin Phyfer, a regular customer at the shop, said he felt people who shop there preferred the personal experience of shopping for skateboarding supplies in the store, rather than online, but speculated that a lack of community support hurt the business.
“With there not being a lot of space to skate, it’s hard for people to want to put forth the money in something they can’t use,” he said.
Hays has a skate park at 30th and Sherman Avenue, but efforts by the Western Kansas Skatepark Committee to update the facility have stalled this year.
The shop was staffed by up to five people at a time, including Hadley, who will now be pursing other options. Hadley said he likely will move out of the area following the closure and was unsure what the staff will do after the closing.
Although the shop is a center for the skate culture in Hays, Hadley feels that skateboarders and other fans of action sports will still have a strong following here — even after the closure.
“We had a pretty good skate scene. We had the skate park before the shop even opened,” Hadley said. “Usually a shop like this will open up to meet demand, I don’t really think it’s the other way around.
“I think the skate scene will keep going.”
Through their last day of business the shop is running closeout deals on much of its merchandise, and what is left will mostly be transferred to the Lawrence location, according to Hadley.
A longtime fixture in the Hays, the Home Party Club, 229 W. 10th, has announced this weekend will be its last.
An announcement made on their Facebook page gave little details as to reason for the closing, but said Saturday will be the last day.
“Closing doors! All inventory must go. $1 bottles $1 single wells and awesome deals on everything else. Stop into the HPC for the last time ever. Open through Saturday. It’s been fun. We’ll miss you all,” the page said in the original announcement.
A message was added later giving an brief update about the current owners.
“Just received word that the HPC owners are moving into bigger and better things. All inventory still must go,” the later message said.
HPC owner Jason Noriega declined to comment for this story.
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
While seeing a police force burst through a school is a frightening scenario, yesterday the Hays Police Department Special Situations Response Team did just that in a training exercise, in order to be prepared for an active shooter scenario, should it ever occur in Hays.
These training sessions are used “to prepare ourselves if we have something like that,” said HPD Corp. Brandon Hauptman.
The HPD conducted the training throughout the day at Roosevelt Elementary School, 2000 MacArthur, using special tactical equipment.
“We like to use the schools because we want to be familiar with the environment we are in,” Hauptman said. “If this is the place it could happen, we want to make sure we are familiar with the buildings.”
The training included single, two, three and team response training from a real event scenario, meaning the officers participating carried with them what they would have available during regular patrols.
“Typically an active shooter response would be from the patrol level.” Hauptman said. “All officers would have their issued handgun with them, we all carry 9mm now…there could be officers that aren’t on the team that go, but everyone is going to have either a patrol shotgun, or patrol rifle that they bring in.”
While the training is necessary and carries with it a small element of danger, the HDP conducts these training sessions with great care and safety, according to a statement made by the HPD before the training.
Hauptman said the team trains for this kind of scenario approximately once a year.
The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Commission will meet Thursday at the Robbins Center on the Fort Hays State University campus at 1 p.m.
Along with committee reports the commission is set to discuss wildlife fees, 2016 turkey regulations, tourism along with Cedar Bluff and Webster State Parks. The committee will also have workshop sessions during the meeting addressing park regulations, fishing regulations, duck zone boundaries, late migratory bird seasons and aquatic nuisance species in Kansas.
Dr. Roger Marshall currently serves on the commission and is running for the Kansas First Congressional District, including most of western Kansas.
A full agenda for the meeting can be found here.
The meeting is scheduled to be streamed online live. Click HERE to watch online.
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
On Friday, downtown Hays once again will be bustling with activity as the Hays Arts Council presents the Summer Gallery Walk beginning at 6:30 p.m. throughout the city.
The event will showcase a variety of media and styles as artists from the area and beyond present work throughout the city, with all but one exhibit being accessible for free to the general public.
Interactive map of the Summer Gallery Walk events
“For anyone who may still not have participated in an Art Walk, it is basically like a wonderful little art buffet the night we have any art walk,” said Brenda Meder, director of the Hays Arts Council.
One of the draws of the event is the lack of structure, which allows people to move freely through the exhibitions.
“There are no fees anywhere, there’s no rules, it’s not like a tour where you start here and traverse across a set path,” Meder said. “You go wherever you want, stay for however long you want, visiting in whatever order you want.”
The summer Art Walk is the newest of the three annual walks, but has been growing through the last few years, she added.
“We realized that other entities that said we’re going to be (having events) on that night too,” Meder said. And so the HAC worked to create the Summer walk, replacing the regular gallery opening at the HAC.
“The Summer Art Walks really have just blossomed in the more recent years. The summer walks are now much larger than the spring walks for instance, spring and fall were, 20 years ago.”
Brenda Meder
“I’ve likened it before, to folks, almost like an old fashioned ice cream social, whether you are going out for the ice cream or the social, you’ll get both — only we’ve got art instead of ice cream,” Meder said.
In addition to the regular exhibitions, this walk has partnered up with a local organization to bring something extra this year.
“I’m very proud to be including the event at Singers on our Art Walk list, even though there is a cover fee to get into Singers that night, which we normally don’t do on an art walk night. It is a benefit for CASA — Court Appointed Special Advocates — so its for the benefit of our children,” Meder said. “This is their big charity event fundraiser.”
Read more about the CASA fundraiser here.
The regular walk will run from 6:30 p.m. until 9 p.m., but with the CASA benefit and other later musical events, participants can plan a full evening with the walk.
“Your day can start at Sternberg catching the lobby display, and you can move all the way through the community, finishing up by supporting that benefit into the late hours on Friday night,” Meder said.
For more information visit the Hays Arts Council Website, or their Facebook page.
Sara Bloom
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Great food and stiff competition was abundant in Frontier Park last weekend in Hays as the Downtown Hays Development Corp. re-envisioned an annual event — giving it a new atmosphere, date and name.
“It was the first time that we had had this event referred to as Fire on the Frontier BBQ Classic. It was actually Blues BBQ & Bargains for the last six years,” said Sara Bloom, DHDC executive director. “We were asked by the fair committee to change our dates, so we did. We moved it from July to June and, with the date change we thought, ‘You know what. We’re going to change the name too, and give it a whole new feel.’”
With the change in the time and name, Bloom said there was nervousness about the turnout, but participants proved to be more than willing to accept the change, creating good turnout for competitors and visitors.
“We wanted to make sure that our teams that had been here in previous years knew that we had moved, knew that we had changed,” Bloom said.
Overall 36 teams registered for the event, with all but one entering into the BBQ competition.
“We changed a lot this year,” Bloom said. “We didn’t have a car show, didn’t have a kids que. We changed the name, we changed the date, but the teams stuck with us.”
The event brought in various entertainment for all ages, including a bounce house, live pigs from Fort Hays State University and live music during the evening, and Bloom estimated the event drew about 1,500 participants Friday night.
“It just turned out to be a really great overall event,” Bloom said.
JP Custom Smoke, a past winner, took home top honors in the barbecue competition.
“He took the whole thing. He took a couple of our categories as well as the grand champion,” Bloom said.
Saturday morning in Hays also featured Great Planes on the Great Plains, an annual fly-in at the Hays Regional Airport. That event brought area air enthusiasts to the airport along with fans of classic cars at the nearby car show.
Once the planes landed, there was still plenty to do at the show, including model airplane demonstrations, helicopter rides, paper airplane competitions in the terminal and, of course, close-up looks at various types of aircraft on the airport tarmac.
A helicopter also was swooping overhead throughout the morning, offering rides to thrill seekers.
While the fly-in is an annual event, the DHDC has offerings through the summer and fall. The above video highlights those events and more information can be found at the DHDC website.
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
During the last regular meeting of the 2014-15 year, the USD 489 Board of Education passed several much needed maintenance measures at Hays High School.
The only measure not to pass unanimously Monday was the repair of the Hays High Gym A roof at a cost of $5,000. The roof had been damaged in a recent storm, forcing repairs to be made. Fortunately, it was determined the damage was caused by weather, and the full cost of the repair — $109,695 — will be covered by the district’s insurance policy, excluding the deductible, according to Rusty Lindsay,director of buildings and grounds.
While the cost of the repair will be limited to the deductible, the measure brought about debate from the board about how the contractor was chosen.
Member Greg Schwartz argued the process should have been open to a bidding process, however due to the nature of the damage, and the repair being covered by insurance, the process was different than a regular maintenance project.
“There was no bidding because it was insurance,” Lindsay said, also informing the board that, in his experience, it is rare for bids to be sought for an insurance claim. The company that originally put the roof on the building, High Plains Roofing, was sought by the insurance adjustor and will be completing the repairs.
“That section was one High Plains had done, that’s why he contacted him to come back originally and that’s how they ended up with the quote. If it had been O’Loughlin, it would have been Roofmasters’ … ,” Lindsay said. “The adjustor didn’t require anything but just the one quote.”
The board also approved the resurfacing of the HHS running track. The track was built two years ago, but the top layer of the track was not fully installed to help stretch the cost over multiple years. The resurfacing will put another layer on top of the existing material.
Getting contractors to bid for the project was “tricky,” Lindsey said, due to the material necessary to pave the surface being required to be the same as what is currently on the track surface in order to maintain the warranty.
Lindsay said the project is scheduled for July 6 and was in the budget for the year. After the resurfacing, the track will be maintenance-free for at least three years, Lindsey said. The cost of the project is estimated at slightly over $80,000.
The board also passed changes to the lighting in Hays High, opting to continue upgrading lighting from the current bulbs to high-efficiency LED fixtures.
“We chose to go ahead and do the gymnasium project because that’s where the savings were at, but I wanted to go ahead and do the hallway project while the bids were still good,” Lindsey said.
The cost of the updated hallway lighting is estimated at $30,515.
While the project most likely will not be done by the time students return in the fall, Lindsey said it would be a minimal disturbance to students.
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
During Monday’s regular Hays USD 489 Board of Education meeting, the school board wrapped up routine services for the district, getting ready for new board members who will take over in July.
The meeting was the last for three board members, including Greg Schwartz, who has served on the board for 12 years. Both Board President James Leiker and Vice President Marty Patterson are also seeing their time on the board come to an end.
Greg Schwartz
The board voted to renew the trash and recycling program for the district in a unanimous vote. The measure will create no substantial changes to the program from last year.
With no significant changes in the contract, Rusty Lindsay, director of buildings and grounds, said the current contract was extended and no bidding took place.
The board also approved changes to the student handbooks for the 2015-16 academic year. Those updates generally center around technology policies.
Those policy changes are “generic updates with technology policies,” Superintendent Dean Katt said, noting policy changes will be under review during the school year.
During the meeting, the board also took action on money-saving worker compensation options, and the board canceled the meeting scheduled to take place later this month.
“We had looked at that and I think we really don’t have an agenda item. It was to have a work session before the July meeting, but with the board turnover and all of those things I don’t see the need to have that,” Katt said.
The next meeting will be July 6. New members to the board will be Dr. Paul Adams, Luke Oborny and Miranda Fox.
Paul Adams
The agenda has been set and today at 6:30 p.m., the USD 489 Board of Education will meet in the Toepfer Board Room at the Rockwell Administration Center, 323 W. 12th.
Along with committee, superintendent and financial reports, the Board will address several maintenance issues during the meeting.
According to the revised agenda for the meeting, the following new business is up for discussion:
Approval of the Federal Meal Program for Nutrition Services
The board shall vote on the approval of the Federal Meal Program.
Worker’s Compensation
The board will take action on the worker’s compensation insurance options.
Approval of Bid to Surface Hays High School Running Track
The board shall vote on the approval of the bid to surface the Hays High School running track.
Hays High School Hallway Lighting Bid
The board shall vote to approve a bid for the HHS hallway lighting project.
Renewal of Trash and Recycling Removal
The board shall vote to approve a vendor for trash and recycling removal.
Hays High School Gym A Roof Repair
The board shall vote to approve the repairs to the HHS Gym A roof.
Approval of Student Handbooks
The board will review the student handbooks for 2015-2016 and vote on their approval.
Cancellation of the June 29, 2015 Work Session
The board shall vote on canceling the work session on June 29, 2015.
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
When discussing archaeology, most think of remote jungles and uninhabited deserts, but the Kansas Anthropological Association is practicing archaeology close to home, with the annual Kansas Archeology Training Program Field School giving participants experience excavating an ancient homestead just west of Hays.
The excavation, which began June 5, features activities for participants including block excavation of the site, work in a functional field laboratory at Hays Middle School, 201 W. 29th, formal classes in archeology and a certification program.
“Every year, we partner with an amateur organization, the Kansas Anthropological Association, to excavate a site,” said Robert Hoard, State Archeologist, Kansas State Historical Society. “Here we do citizen science. People come, we give them basic training and then they can come out and excavate an archeological site.”
While there are many people working the site, most are volunteers. Gary Hicks is one of those volunteers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MysB5e3x35o
“Our first dig was in 2014, we were looking for new opportunities, to serve our community,” Hicks said. He found the excavations were exactly what he and his wife had been looking for.
“This is a great fit, a great organization, the two digs we have been on have been professionally managed,” Hicks said. “The time is well spent, in terms of research. The education value is well beyond what we thought it would be.”
Volunteers of all ages are helping with the project, including 12-year-old Liam Bevitt, who came with his archeologist father. Bevitt is excited by the work and his discoveries so far.
“I’m starting to get into it a lot,” Bevitt said. “We found burnt bone, burnt earth, bone and flakes.”
While the site may provide a look back into life on the high plains between 500 and 1100 CE, the site was only recorded in June 2013.
“The Kraus site and several related sites were discovered by Charlie Kraus, who farms land owned by Kenneth and Dorothy Kraus near Yocemento. He found a small corner-notched arrow point and a piece of thick cord-roughened pottery,” according to the Kansas Historical Society.
So far, evidence shows a complex society flourishing in western Kansas during this period.
“The treeless western plains of Nebraska and Kansas were inhabited by people who made pottery and used both spear throwers and the bow and arrow. While deer and bison were common prey for them, pronghorn also were important, as were fish and small mammals. They built small temporary houses with round packed-earth floors that left only a faint impression for archeologists to discover. They buried their dead in a variety of ways and settings but often included grave goods of freshwater mussel shells or shell ornaments,” according the KHS.
The site being excavated near Hays is one of several scattered through the High Plains.
“Although few have been excavated, there are numerous Keith phase sites in Kansas — so many, in fact, that a substantial population increase is implied.”
The Hays site may provide additional looks into the life and culture of Keith phase people due to its rarity.
“While many have been recorded, only a small number of intact Keith phase sites remain, and none have been excavated using modern techniques,” according to the KHS.
Work at the site will continue until June 20.
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
An Ellis tradition 24 years in the making is happening again Saturday, as residents from the area converge in Ellis to enjoy the activities of Riverfest throughout the city.
“It’s going to be a really great day,” said Dena Patee, director of the Ellis Alliance.
Riverfest started as a way to get people into Ellis, but evolved over the years into an area tradition that brings residents from the area into the city to enjoy the festivities. Organizers bring in a variety of events giving everyone something to look forward to during the day, including live music, karaoke and a fun run.
“Throw some fun in there, get some people to town and let people have a good day,” Patee said.
While events change year to year, two popular attractions from last year once again will be making an appearance — the adult obstacle course and a horseshoe tournament.
“It’s not your normal thing,” Patee said, but events during Riverfest are planned to give everyone who attends something to look forward to, no matter their personal tastes.
“It is very fun to get people together to run the obstacle course,” Patee said.
As for the horseshoe tournament, Patee said, “that just started last year and was very well received.”
This year’s musical guest — Soul Preachers — will bring ’80s rock to the event in their first appearance at Riverfest.
While the day is put on for residents to have fun, it takes a lot of work to plan the celebration every year and, this year, an unexpected event created a bit more work than usual.
During setup for Riverfest, a minor hiccup brought the community together before the event even started. In the Riverfest area, a cottonwood tree, estimated by Patee at 140 years old, fell onto the grounds — but it did not take long for Ellis residents to notice and quickly work to remove the massive tree.
“They just came out and did it,” Patee said.
During the festival, workers who removed the tree will be recognized for their efforts.
“That’s what small-town living is about,” Patee said.
Click the image above for a full schedule of events.
