Kansas topped $1 billion in forfeited federal funds early in 2016. But the clock kept ticking. Now losses have surpassed $2 billion, and the clock still ticks. Our failure as a state to adopt expanded Medicaid eligibility continues to cost us dearly, financially and morally.
Stop reading for a moment, and pull up the Kansas Hospital Association website: www.kha-net.org. Immediately you will see an hourglass shaped “ticker” giving a running account of funding foregone. Watch as the dollar loss mounts. Tick, tick, tick. More than a thousand dollars a minute. More than a million dollars a day.
Duane Goossen
Starting January 1, 2014 Kansas could have allowed 150,000 more Kansans to become eligible for Medicaid health services. The federal government would have paid the whole tab for the first 3 years and then 90 percent thereafter. By now more than $2 billion would have flowed directly into the Kansas economy.
Kansas only needed to say “yes.” Yet year after year Gov. Brownback and his legislative allies have made sure the answer was “no,” not for logical policy reasons, but because expansion was part of Obamacare.
At first many Kansans were also skeptical. But their attitude toward the Medicaid portion of Obamacare shifted as a majority of states–including red states like Arkansas, Kentucky, and Iowa–moved to expand. By 2017 surveys showed a strong majority of Kansans favoring expansion. That sentiment played out legislatively last spring when a bipartisan majority of Kansas lawmakers voted to accept the federal funds, but Brownback quickly put his veto pen to the measure, and an override attempt fell just a few votes short in the Kansas House.
As Brownback issued his veto, he likely thought Medicaid expansion was about to die anyway along with Obamacare. President Trump and a Republican Congress had put Obamacare repeal on the front burner nationally. Yet “Repeal and Replace” and the starker “Repeal and Replace Later” ultimately failed, in large part because of the blow that would have been delivered to Medicaid.
Medicaid expansion had proved to be an effective (and popular) way to reduce the number of Americans without health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 32 million Americans would lose health insurance as a result of repeal and replace legislation. Republican governors of expansion states opposed repeal. Kansas’ own Sen. Moran played a key role in keeping the possibility of Medicaid expansion alive for Kansas, after lots of constituents let him know how they felt.
So now Medicaid expansion appears here to stay, and our years of refusal seem more financially inept than ever. Kansans who could have had health care have been left without or shunted to emergency rooms, a moral stain on the Brownback administration and on Kansas.
In June, the Kansas Legislature took an important step toward fixing the Kansas budget by rescinding Brownback’s tax policies. Expanding Medicaid eligibility should be the next step toward freeing Kansas from the troubles of the Brownback years, and that vote should occur immediately when the Legislature reconvenes in January. Stop the ticker, lawmakers.
Duane Goossen formerly served 12 years as Kansas Budget Director.
Corn, bean and milo fields attract deer and other hooved animals like moths to a flame. Feedlots do the same especially during winter with extended periods of cold weather, heavy snowfall or crusty snow cover.
That’s when these creatures find natural sources of vegetation more difficult to acquire. Antelope, deer and elk are messy eaters too. They soil or destroy three to four times the forage they consume.
The answer most ag-related people consider begins with hunting. This is also one of the most effective damage-control techniques known to reduce deer damage.
Oftentimes, this remains easier said than done. It requires foresight, planning, commitment and details on the part of everyone involved. And even then, it may not be enough.
What other recourse do farmers, ranchers and landowners have when dealing with such challenges?
This may entail seeking outside help. And in this case, that may mean contacting the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT).
“We need to know if you’re experiencing challenges with wildlife,” says Robin Jennison KDWPT secretary. Jennison recently spoke to farmer/rancher members of Kansas Farm Bureau.
“Contact your local wildlife and parks official or call our Pratt or Topeka offices,” Jennison continues. “We’ll send someone to work with you on the best way to solve your problem.”
Kansas law provides landowners with rights to protect their property from damage by deer but KDWPT needs to know about the incident.
There tends to be plenty of talk in rural communities among farmers, ranchers, landowners, their neighbors and sometimes everyone but KDWPT staff, says Jeff Grossenbacher who farms in Nemaha County.
“Farmers and ranchers are good about discussing challenges and problems among themselves, but they don’t always contact authorities that can help,” the northeastern Kansas corn and bean farmer says. “Tell KDWPT your concerns if you have challenges with deer, antelope or elk.”
With fall harvest swinging into high gear, this may be one of the easiest times for farmers to spot evidence of deer or antelope activity in their crops. Letting KDWPT know what is happening on cropland also helps them determine how many permits to allow hunters in the various hunting districts.
“Wildlife and Parks will not know if such damage occurs unless you tell them,” Grossenbacher says. “If you have problems, let them know.”
Sometimes, deer damage to private land occurs outside of the regular hunting season. When such incidents happen and the farmer or rancher is unable to keep the deer from causing substantial economic loss, this may justify a special control permit, Jennison says.
Landowners, farmers and rancher may secure such control permits from KDWPT to address localized hotspots of deer damage. These permits allow landowners to kill deer outside the normal deer hunting season.
Damage control permits can be issued on a site-by-site basis after an inspection of the damage by one of the department’s district wildlife biologist. Each permit is issued for a specific number and type of deer.
For more information on antelope, deer or elk damage control permits contact your local district wildlife biologist or the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Operations Office at 620/672-5911 or http://ksoutdoors.com/KDWPT-Info/KDWPT-Social-Media
John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
In urban areas, where most folks are strangers and can’t hold one another accountable, some drivers comfortably use sign language to tell fellow travelers of their pent-up frustrations. As a result, city drivers often see a middle-finger salute during commutes to and from work.
Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.
When I moved to a rural region, I realized one of the bonuses of country life is local drivers don’t do this. Rural motorists often know one another or they know the other person’s friends and family. It wouldn’t do to flip off the boss or preacher and then have to come up with a lame excuse such as, “But I was only adjusting my garage door opener.” Instead of insulting one another, country drivers greet everyone, friend or stranger, with the “country wave.”
While urban dwellers easily identify the one-fingered address so often used in their home district, it takes time to realize rural drivers acknowledge everyone they meet on a two-lane road with one of several variations of the friendlier rural salute. Big city visitors to the country must learn this greeting holds no malice, no frustration, no anger. It’s a neighborly, “Good to see you.”
While the one-fingered salute’s only variation involves which hand to use to express those negative feelings, the “country wave” has several presentations. Like their stressed out urban counterparts, rural residents can also choose to issue their friendlier greeting with either the right or left hand. What is necessary to position a relaxed palm between 10 and 2 o’clock at the top of the steering wheel.
When an oncoming vehicle closes in enough that each driver makes eye contact, the person waving has to decide, “One finger–or two–or maybe all four”? The concern with one finger is that the other driver could misinterpret it as one of those rude city salutes. It takes confident drivers who probably knows their recipients to use a pointer finger wave.
Another more common variation of this greeting involves keeping the palm on the top of the steering-wheel, but instead raising pointer and middle fingers in a synchronized movement. This action doesn’t expend much more energy, and it’s easier for oncoming drivers and passengers to see. Pick-up and truck drivers, in particular, prefer this version of the “country wave.”
Some drivers are so relaxed cruising rural roads they find themselves keeping both palms on the wheel and incorporating a gleeful four or even eight digits wave to greet the driver coming their way. Bold as it is, this is an acceptable variation of the less obvious one or two fingered greetings.
My cousin who lives near Denver recently visited. He told us how much he enjoyed driving section-lines where neighbors acknowledge one another and strangers with “the wave.”
Those who live in rural areas know they have more blessings than they can count. One of those is the simple “country wave” that says, “Always good to see you.”
Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
If a centennial is 100 years and a sesquicentennial is 150 years, what is 130 years? Whatever that number of years might be called, in 2017 it is the basis of a celebration of the founding of a historic community in rural Kansas.
A team of volunteers has come together to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the founding of Zenda, Kansas. Zenda was founded along a railroad line in Kingman County on Sept. 6, 1887.
The town was originally named New Rochester. However, the post office found that there were already 28 places named Rochester in the U.S. so the name needed to be changed to avoid confusion. The wife of a railroad employee had just read an 1884 novel called The Prisoner of Zenda, and she suggested Zenda because it was a pretty-sounding name. Another version of the story is that Zenda is the shortened form of an ancient religious term meaning “Good Prevails over Evil.” In any event, the town’s name was officially changed to Zenda in 1899.
The town changed through the years. In 1987, Zenda celebrated its centennial. An extensive, hard-cover historical book about Zenda was produced for the centennial year. One of those on the book committee was Bonnie Bailey.
Three decades later, Bonnie Bailey is again volunteering to help with the celebration She is now president of the Zenda Museum Board. Betty Green is board treasurer.
Zenda is located in southwest Kingman County. It is a rural community of 90 people. Now, that’s rural. In 2017, people from Zenda and the surrounding rural region have come together to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the community’s founding. A full slate of activities is planned for Saturday, Sept. 2.
Activities begin with a kids fun run and a 5K walk and run for the adults on Saturday morning. A farmers market and craft show will be open, followed by a square dance exhibition from Harper County. A parade will take place at 10:30 a.m.
At 12 noon, turtle races will be held, followed by a serving of the Zenda birthday cake at the community center and a horse shoe tournament and bingo. Kid’s games will be held in the afternoon, with the Zenda fire trucks providing water to cool off the kids afterwards.
A decorated wheel barrow race and scavenger hunt takes place in the evening. At 6:30 p.m. is a historical play called Legends written by Betty Green. “This shows interesting characters from the community’s past. They’ll perform in period costume,” Betty said. A street dance and beer garden will conclude Saturday night.
Food vendors will be available during the day. A quilt display will be open as will the museum.
Memorabilia from the community’s past will be on display at the museum. Another part of the museum shows a remarkable miniature model of historical Zenda, as constructed by Bonnie Bailey herself.
“Thirty years ago, Bonnie built a tiny replica of Zenda as it appeared in the 1900s,” Betty Green said. “She made little wooden buildings and added shingles and doors. It has lots of detail, like things sitting on the porches. It’s quite impressive. I think it took her about three years to do it.”
Zenda is located in a strong agricultural region of south central Kansas. In fact, one of the new varieties of hard red winter wheat developed by K-State wheat breeders and released by the Kansas Wheat Alliance in 2016 is named Zenda.
Agriculture remains a backbone of the economy around Zenda. It also has its own rural telephone company to provide quality service. The community itself is strengthened by the commitment of the volunteers who sustain and celebrate it.
We salute Bonnie Bailey, Betty Green, and all those who are making a difference by preserving and celebrating this history. So if a centennial is 100 years and a sesquicentennial is 150 years, what is 130 years? The answer is: A lot of fun, in the rural community of Zenda, Kansas.
And there’s more. An old lumberyard in Zenda has a whole different purpose. We’ll learn about that next week.
Despite a devastating tropical storm and a drop in the national active drilling rig counts, domestic crude futures prices were lower by mid-morning Monday. The Nymex benchmark contract was down 74 cents to $47.13/bbl. The international benchmark fared slightly better. London Brent was off 19 cents to $52.22. At CHS in McPherson, Kan., the price for a barrel of Kansas Common crude on Friday was up a quarter to $38/bbl.
US gasoline futures have jumped to two-year highs. Triple A says the national average retail price for a gallon of regular on Monday was $2.368, up a half penny over Sunday and 3.4 cents higher than a week ago. The average across Kansas actually dropped three tenths of a cent Monday to $2.21 a gallon. The average price in Hays was $2.214 and in Great Bend, $2.192. Both are lower than last week.
Tropical storm Harvey forced the shutdown of more than one tenth of the US refining capacity. Refineries along the Houston ship channel were shut down early and are now surrounded by water. On Sunday, S&P Global Platts Energy said there had been no reports yet of damage to refineries in Corpus Christi, near where then Hurricane Harvey hit Friday night. It could take a week or two to restart those refineries. Analysts say some could decide to perform seasonal maintenance, which would delay restarts even more. Over the weekend the EPA suspended some emission-related formulation regulations, and that could help offset shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel. The Web site GasBuddy.com activated its crowd-sourced Gasoline Availability Tracker to help you identify areas with shortages and where gas is available.
Independent Oil and Gas reported a drop in the Kansas drilling rig count for the week. There were 13 active rigs in eastern Kansas, down two, and 22 west of Wichita, which is up one. Nine Kansas contractors are working out of state, three more than last week. There’s a lot of activity in Stafford County: with drilling underway at two sites, and drilling ahead at one more. Contractors reported drilling ahead at one site in Barton County and one in Ellis County. Baker Hughes said last week the national rig count was 940, down four oil rigs and two seeking natural gas. The count in Canada was 217, up three rigs.
Independent reported 17 new well completions across Kansas last week. That’s 847 so far this year. There were seven completions reported in eastern Kansas and ten west of Wichita, including two in Barton County and one in Ellis County.
Operators filed 17 permits to drill in new locations across the state over the last week, nine east of Wichita and eight in western Kansas, including one in Barton County. So far this year we’ve seen 899 new drilling permits, compared to 623 at this time last year, and 1,607 at the point in 2015.
The company that built the Dakota Access oil pipeline filed a lawsuit in North Dakota federal court against Greenpeace and other groups, alleging that they disseminated false and misleading information about the project and interfered with its construction. In its lawsuit, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners requests damages that could approach $1 billion. According to USA Today, the company alleges the groups’ actions interfered with its business, facilitated crimes and acts of terrorism, incited violence, targeted financial institutions that backed the project and violated racketeering and defamation laws. Greenpeace attorney Tom Wetterer said the lawsuit is “meritless” and part of “a pattern of harassment by corporate bullies.” Wetterer says the lawsuit is “not designed to seek justice, but to silence free speech through expensive, time-consuming litigation.”
Analysis published by the Houston Chronicle asserts that most new crude oil produced in the Permian Basin of West Texas will be exported. Analytics firm IHS Markit says oil exports are expected to triple to about three million barrels per day by 2025. Permian production is approaching 2.5 million barrels per day now, up from less than one million six years ago. But new pipeline projects are in the works to move that crude to Houston and Corpus Christi. The projects are expected to increase Permian pipeline capacity to nearly five million barrels by 2020.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper says the state will not offer an online map of oil and gas pipelines in the aftermath of a fatal house explosion blamed on a gas leak. Hickenlooper cited concerns about security and theft. Instead the state will require energy companies to provide that information to an existing program used to locate underground utilities for homeowners. Among a half dozen other steps announced Tuesday are efforts to get the industry to fund a program to seal off old, inactive, “orphan wells.”
North Dakota’s daily crude output fell 0.8% in June after dropping 0.9% in the previous month. The Department of Mineral Resources said daily output remained above 1 million barrels for the fifth month in a row. At the end of June, the state’s total number of producing wells reached an all-time high of 13,915. By way of comparison, last year Kansas listed 52,832 wells, and produced just shy of 104,000 barrels of crude oil per day, according to the Kansas Geological Survey.
Russian crude-oil shipments to China last month were up more than 54 percent over a year ago, marking the fifth month in a row as China’s top oil supplier. That’s about 1.17 million barrels per day according to Reuters. So far this year Russian shipments grew nearly 16 percent.
Martin HawverWe’re still waiting for that stern letter to Secretary of State Kris Kobach from the leaders of the Kansas Legislature about his use of that seven-letter word they don’t like to hear on the campaign trail.
Nope, it’s not about body parts, or what you say when the low-fuel light starts blinking on the dashboard.
It’s “corrupt.”
And, it struck a nerve with at least one state representative earlier this summer, when House Speaker pro tem Scott Schwab, a Republican from Olathe, told the legislative leadership council he didn’t like the sound of it and it is disrespectful of lawmakers and other holders of state office.
Schwab is working on a stern letter that the Legislative Coordinating Council—the leaders of each chamber—urged him to get written for their signature so they can tell Kobach to tone down that inflammatory word unless he files charges against those corrupt politicians he never identifies by name and office held.
Kobach has been quiet while that letter is being written, but you gotta know that you hardly ever go wrong with that word among voters who think they are paying too much in taxes or the neighbor’s street gets plowed but not theirs, or they can’t smoke in the courthouse anymore…
Corrupt has become almost a word you read or hear but don’t pay any attention to, sorta like “excuse me” or “is that your pistol?”
Yes, we’re all waiting to see just what letter is going to look like, and whether the legislative leadership which on an apparent unanimous vote unleashed Schwab to get it written with the assistance of the Kansas Revisor of Statute’s office will sign the letter.
Schwab doesn’t make a bad point: It’s a little demeaning to be called corrupt just because you got elected to the Kansas House or Senate or to a statewide office. Just because someone’s taxes have to go up, or the local bars wanted support for those communal drinking areas last session so they could start using those cool red plastic cups so their patrons could wander down the street to the hardware store, doesn’t mean you’re corrupt.
But at some point, state elected officials are just trying to run the government for us and aren’t getting any side benefit (maybe a little less ice, a little more rum in that red cup?).
There’s probably a good point among all the linguistics here. If anyone, even a candidate, knows that a state official has done something corrupt, well, someone needs to be told about it. A complaint filed or something.
But just tossing around the word isn’t a good idea, nothing you would want your children to do.
And while Kobach is a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, we noticed that Schwab has nearly become a candidate for the post Kobach is giving up. He’s named a campaign treasurer, but hasn’t dug out the starched white shirt he’ll probably wear when he makes a formal announcement that he wants the GOP nomination for Secretary of State in next year’s election cycle.
And even the whole issue of blasting candidates as “corrupt” probably becomes a fairly decent little campaign issue for Schwab, who by avoiding using that word can essentially claim that he is politer than his predecessor.
Gotta say, though, that if a candidate tosses out the word corrupt, and then shows us proof of that corruption, that’s a pretty good sign the candidate is watching out for all of us. But just tossing the word out without some evidence of who is corrupt, what the corruption is, and initiating some action to stop it isn’t in the best public interest.
Yep, that word “corrupt” is relatively powerful. Let’s see what lawmakers, or at least legislative leaders, do with it…
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com.
Don Johnson and his wife Carole were on a Caribbean cruise in January when Carole took a phone call that dramatically changed the direction of their lives. Don and Carole both had successful careers as manufacturing engineers in England where they lived about an hour south of London’s Heathrow airport. Carole’s company was asking her to move to the U.S. to operate one of their facilities in Kansas.
Steve Gilliland
They liked life here in the U.S. and they saw this as an opportunity for Carole to advance within her company, so the deal was accepted. Don had always worked for American companies, so work and vacations had brought them stateside many times to cities like Las Vegas and Manhattan, NY, but upon hearing their destination this time, they looked at each other and wondered aloud “Where’s Kansas?”
Now moving is always complicated and stressful, and even more so when you’re completely changing continents, but in the Johnson’s case, yet another factor entered into the mix. In the U.K. Don was a falconer and had 3 birds of prey and two hunting dogs that all had to be moved also. I asked him why he just didn’t get different birds and dogs when he got here to Kansas and he told me “I see those animals as a lifetime commitment so they had to come along.”
Don Johnson with Zola the barn owl
In February, they bought a home near Wichita and in March Don began the process of getting his birds and the dogs sent here. The dogs, he was told would be no problem, and they in fact could even come on the same flight as he. His birds of prey however were a different story. First he was told by an agent in New York that the birds could not be sent to the U.S. at all.
After many hours on the phone with fish and game officials first in Kansas, then in Washington DC and finally in Denver, he was told of a way to obtain a special permit that MIGHT be procured in 60 to 90 days. When he explained that he couldn’t wait that long, a person at the Pratt office of Kansas Dept. of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism found a way to get him that same special permit in just 3 days! So he had the special permit for the birds, both the import and export permits to get the dogs and birds flown here at a cost of $ 8,200, and thought all was well. Nope, not yet! Next he was told the birds would be considered a commercial shipment rather than a pet shipment, which added another $ 2,200 to the price tag. As Don would say “long story sideways,” after starting the process in March, he and the dogs arrived in late May, but his 3 birds of prey not until mid-August, all at the cost of a nice used car.
Johnson has 2 Harris Hawks, a male named Jasper and a female named Megan and a Barn Owl named Zola, all acquired while still in England. Birds of prey kept by falconers must be flown year round as frequently as possible and must be weighed often to keep their weight within certain strict parameters that allow them to fly and hunt. Megan was Johnson’s first bird and she was rescued from a situation where she’d been kept in a tiny 6 foot square enclosure and not flown for 2 years. Johnson kept Jasper 9 months for a friend, then acquired him when the friend decided he didn’t want him back. Zola the Barn Owl was purchased from a breeder in the U.K. who included the word “owl” in all their names; her birth name was “Cinderowla.”
Don Johnson with Megan his Harris Hawk
To own birds of prey and be a falconer in the U.K. no license, permit or even knowledge of falconry was required. Here in KS, Johnson will have to navigate a process where he first gets a licensed Kansas falconer to sponsor him as a apprentice, then he’s required to pass a written test with at least an 80%, then have the housing facilities for his birds built and inspected by KS Dept of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism at which point he’ll become an apprentice falconer. After being an apprentice for 2 years he can be issued a general falconer license.
A housing facility for birds of prey is called a “mew,” and Johnson is constructing a beautiful facility with a covered portion with raised perches and an attached flight pen where Megan and Jasper will live when he doesn’t have them out flying and hunting. Zola the Barn Owl will have a pen of her own, and be kept separate from the 2 hawks. The process of getting them acclimated to their new surroundings will be quite lengthy and will begin with allowing them to be free in the mew and flight pen until he feels they will return to his gloved hand when set free to hunt. Harris Hawks are known as “wolves of the sky” and in the wild often hunt in groups. Johnson says Megan and Jasper will hunt with his dogs; as the dogs walk through a field, the birds will set high in nearby trees awaiting the dogs to flush prey, and they will keep abreast of the dog’s progress by relocating from tree to tree as the dogs move ahead.
Don Johnson is anxious to finish construction of the mew so he can get Megan, Jasper and Zola out and about again. Johnson told Joyce and me that he and Carole absolutely love life here in the states and he already knows all his neighbors by their first names, as was apparent as a little girl across the road was calling and waving to him as we left (that’s more than I can say for many of us who’ve lived here for years!) His love of our country is infectious, and I think it would do us all well to listen to a few of his reasons why.
Don and Carole Johnson, Jasper, Megan, Zola the Barn Owl and dog Max; yet more good reasons to explore the outdoors here in a land called Kansas!
Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].
I saw something on the Main Street Cervs sign today that I wanted to share. It said “be someone that makes everyone feel like someone.”
I don’t feel I’ve done a very good job of this when it comes to the Thunder on the Bricks organization.
Two years ago Harold Bettis and Rod Roy came into the downtown visitor’s center to ask for our help in organizing a car show. Downtown Hays Development Corporation jumped right in. We jumped in so far that to the naked eye it appeared that the car show was a DHDC event.
Let me assure you the event in fact belongs to a wonderful group of committed car and motorcycle enthusiasts who want nothing more than to give back to this amazing community we all call home.
In just two years, the show has raised almost $12,000 and given over $8,000 of that back to charities and schools in Hays including Big Brothers Big Sisters, NCK-Tech, the VFW, Habitat for Humanity, Cancer Council of Ellis County, Hospice and more.
The planning for the event started almost a year in advance and meetings happened at least once a month. I’m guessing many of you reading this got a visit or two from the men involved asking you to sponsor the event or to print just a few more flyers. Countless hours were spent traveling to nearby shows to spread the word. Many sacrifices were made to ensure an amazing show here in Hays.
If you see any of these men—Harold Bettis, Rod Roy, Mike Hertel, Dennis Schuckman, Louie Gilmore, Kent Laas, Phil Wiesner, Bill Waller, Dave Wing, Roger Lohmeyer Jackie Lang, BJ Rupp and Jeremy Herl—please take some time to thank them for their hard work and commitment.
Each of them poured themselves into this event selflessly with one goal in mind, giving back. DHDC is honored to have been a part of Thunder on the Bricks and to have played a part in facilitating it.
Whether this partnership continues or not, we wish them all the best and continued growth.
This event is the perfect example of what one idea and a little collaboration can accomplish. Just one or two people with the same passion and drive can in fact, make a difference. I look forward to the next idea…the next collaboration.
Sara Bloom, executive director, Downtown Hays Development Corporation
I’ve been proud to call Hays ‘home’ for more than five years now. My husband and I moved to Hays in early 2012 for my job as the Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Agent at the Ellis County Extension Office.
Wait–what? Where? What’s Extension?
If you’re not as familiar with K-State Research and Extension (as I think you ought to be), you’re not alone. Many people ask who we are and what we do. We’ve even received mistaken phone calls from folks trying to get an extension on their court date or taxes!
So, let me try to answer the question “What’s Extension?” and tell you why your local Extension agents are neighbors you should get to know.
K-State Research and Extension is devoted to helping people live healthy and successful lives; it’s part of Kansas State University’s three-fold mission and traces back to why and how K-State was created as the state’s land grant university.
Federal legislation in 1862 granted land to states for the creation of institutions that could give working-class citizens in rural areas equal access to higher education, something formerly only available to wealthy families in eastern cities. Kansas State University was founded in 1863 as the nation’s first land grant university to provide on-campus teaching, research and outreach to Kansas citizens. In 1914, another law created the Cooperative Extension Service which placed educators in the 3,000-plus counties of America to extend practical, research-based information from the land grant university right to the people. It is this outreach mission which makes land grant universities like K-State unique.
In Kansas we are fortunate to have a great alliance with county government to support K-State Research and Extension. Federal and state funds come into Kansas State University to support the framework, administration and specialists of K-State Research and Extension. Mostly county funds, with shared state input, support the local extension offices.
Extension in each county works to meet local needs. Extension agents live in local communities, share concerns about local issues and have a stake in local success. Locally-elected citizens serve on boards and committees to guide and oversee our efforts. While Extension programs may vary from county to county, all are designed to provide reliable, research-based education to help individuals, families, farms, businesses and communities solve problems, develop skills and build a better future.
On July 1 st, following a trend of 45 counties before us, Ellis County and Barton County joined their Extension programs together to form the Cottonwood Extension District, the 17th Extension district in Kansas. The district allows for operational efficiencies as well as agent specialization which will reduce duplication and give more in-depth focus and expertise for local programming. Agents will continue to office in their local counties and will provide educational programming in both counties. You will now have access to the seven agents of the Cottonwood Extension District for more specialized service.
The wide selection of Exension education and services is easy for Kansans to obtain; after all, we’re located nearby! K-State Research and Extension is the “front door” to information from Kansas State University. Agents have access to the knowledge, experience and expertise of a statewide network of extension specialists and researchers on the cutting edge of scientific knowledge– all of whom share the goal of improving the quality of life of all Kansans, including YOU.
So I encourage you to get to know the personnel, programs and resources of K-State Research and the Cottonwood Extension District. Our local office is located at 601 Main Street, Suite A, in downtown Hays. We currently have three extension agents on staff in the Hays office (and an opening in the Horticulture position while we recruit a new agent) with three agents in the Great Bend office and we are all considered K-State faculty.
We provide low- or no-cost educational programs that are open to the public, serve as speakers at clubs, organizations and schools, do one-on-one consultation on individual issues and share information through print, broadcast and social media. You can connect with the services and resources we offer by calling our Hays office at 785-628-9430, receiving our quarterly email newsletter, visiting our website at www.cottonwood.ksu.edu, liking our Facebook page, currently at “K-State Research and Extension- Ellis County” or following us in the media.
We’re here to extend information from our state and partner experts to the people of Ellis and Barton counties to help you have a better life.
Linda K. Beech is Cottonwood District Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.
PHILLIPSBURG — Question: What do the below well-known Phillips County names have in common?
Merklein Troyer Blackburn Robinson Parker Boyd Jennings Elliott Kemper Morgan
Answer: These local families have all lost loved ones in the fight against Nazism.
Less than two weeks ago Nazi protesters descended upon Charlottesville, Va. They participated in torchlight marches straight out of 1938 Berlin, shouted Nazi slogans, and predicted, on camera, that nearby anti-Nazi protesters would be hurt or killed.
Their predictions turned out to be true when one of the Nazis got behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger and plowed almost a block through a mass of human bodies. The Nazi then put his vehicle into reverse and drove over the broken bodies of the injured as he attempted his getaway.
In 2017 it seems more than a little breathtaking that we are having a debate regarding whether or not Nazism should be a part of our political discourse, and whether or not Nazis have “very fine people” within their ranks.
Our president spoke those words last week — that there were very fine people who were marching with the Nazis at Charlottesville.
This comment by the president, as well as other comments, resulted in a firestorm of criticism from hundreds of Republican and Democratic lawmakers across the nation, as well as scores of conservative, liberal, and centrist media outlets. So many business leaders resigned from the president’s White House advisory boards because of the comments regarding Nazis that the president had to shut down several of the councils altogether.
The highest ranking members of the U.S. Armed Forces — the Joint Chiefs of Staff — also weighed in and issued rebukes of the controversial statements concerning Nazis.
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, a native son of Plainville, spoke out with moral clarity very early in the discussion while others were either still silent or were equivocating.
“White supremacy, bigotry and racism have absolutely no place in our society, and no one — especially the president of the United States — should ever tolerate it. We must all come together as a country and denounce this hatred to the fullest extent,” Moran said.
Moran knows of what he speaks — his father, Raymond Edwin Moran, was an active participant in the fight against Nazism, seeing action against it in North Africa and Italy during World War II.
Out here in the heartland, discussions about Nazism can seem a little abstract, as can, sadly, the loss of life 1,200 miles away in Charlottesville, Va.
What is not abstract is the fact that around two dozen local Phillips County men have given their lives in opposition to Nazism.
It has been my honor for the past several years to have been working closely with Dean Buchner of Phillipsburg, identifying and putting together biographical profiles of all of those from Phillips County whom were killed in the service of their country during World War II.
Dean is now in his 90s, and is a combat veteran of the war himself. It is not uncommon to see him walking the sidewalks of Phillipsburg, heading up town for coffee.
Dean hasn’t allowed me to tell his own story, feeling that it will distract from the stories of the sacrifice of the others we are hard at work on — some of whom he personally knew as a teen and who went off to war and never came home.
Dean was in the thick of the fight against Nazism as an enlisted soldier in a WWII tank destroyer unit. By thick of it, I mean slugging it out in tank battles against Nazi Panzers as close as 75 yards away.
Anyone of a certain age who doesn’t know someone who fought in World War II has to have been living in a cave. I myself had two fairly close relatives involved.
The first was Jim Claggett, my mother’s second cousin. He was older than her and would carry her piggyback across rain-swollen gullies when, as children, they walked to the Jaybird Country Schoolhouse southeast of Kirwin.
Later on, with the war raging all over the world, Jim was in the 11th grade attending Kirwin High School when he dropped out, enlisted at age 17 and went off to fight Nazis. He returned several years later, and resumed his schooling. I sometimes wonder what the Kirwin schoolboys, probably not even shaving yet, thought about sitting next to this grizzled veteran of the war against Hitler.
John Ross
Then there was my uncle, John H. Ross, my grandfather’s half-brother. Born in Oklahoma in 1918, his father died 11 years later after which John came of age as a dust bowl Okie during the hardscrabble years of the Great Depression, boxing and hobo-ing on freight trains as he moved around the country struggling to earn money to survive the hard times.
For a period John called Phillips County home, living with his older brother, Lyle T. Ross, my grandfather, on the family farm along the banks of Bow Creek. When the war started John went out and enlisted so he could fight Nazis, and soon became a pilot. His own story was unheralded within the Ross family. What little that made its way to the light of day during family gatherings was that John flew P-38 Lightnings and had once been shot down over the English Channel. Declared Missing In Action, he spent 24 hours in the frigid waters of the North Sea before being fished out by a British rescue boat, the captain of which took the sweater off his own back and gave it to John to help warm him up.
Uncle John died in 2013 at the age of 95. Upon his death, I found out he was highly decorated, earning 11 medals flying 96 missions with the 8th Air Force against Nazi Germany, and that he had been shot down by the Nazis not once, but three times. I also discovered he was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and that the book “Eyes of the Eighth: A Story of the 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group, 1942-1945” credits his photo-recon missions as being integral to the Allied victory over the Nazis during the Battle of the Bulge.
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In the course of my work with Dean Buchner, we believe we have identified most of Phillips County’s World War II dead. There were a lot of them. Since this article today is about Nazis and the evils of Nazism, for purposes of it, I am narrowing our list down to those who lost their lives in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of War fighting Nazis. A number of other Phillips County residents were killed in the Pacific Theater, but that story will have to wait for another time.
Among those who died in the fight against Nazism were Paul Merklein and Eldon Blackburn. Very familiar names, given that family members who we know today in 2017 were named after them and live and work among us.
There was also Edsel Stuckman who fought Nazism. Edsel was a medic, and had a single-minded purpose of getting to and aiding his buddies who were wounded in battle — so said an article published when he was killed.
Edsel was the only child of Hugh and Alta Stuckman of Kirwin. His death was a lonely one with no American seeing it happen. He was found afterwards and it was surmised a sniper got him. Nineteen years later his elderly parents made a pilgrimage to the distant European graveyard he now rests in to visit him one last time before their own deaths.
Lorain Westenhaver of Phillips County chose to fight Nazis by volunteering for the 502nd PIR, 101st Airborne Division (of ‘Band of Brothers’ fame). He was killed three days after Christmas during the Battle of the Bulge. Phillips County’s George C. Dawes, a tank crewman, was killed during that same battle a few weeks later.
John Boyd and James Elliott died in battle in the Mediterranean Theater fighting Nazism.
Merle Robinson was killed in Italy in 1945, around the same time Ray Troyer, a tanker, also was. Their deaths followed that of Francis L. Kemper, who served in a medical unit and was killed in Italy in 1943.
Lawrence Jennings died of wounds fighting Nazism in the German Fatherland just 10 days before the end of the war. Eldon Blackburn was killed in Germany two weeks earlier.
Floyd Parker lost his life in North Africa. Karl Scanlon, Ray Starr and Wayne Matthies died in France. All from Phillips County, all perished fighting Nazism.
Walter Merklein was killed in Italy in May 1944, 10 weeks before his cousin, Paul Merklein, lost his life in France.
Phillips County’s John Van Der Hyde has a grave marker in Belgium near to where he fell. Lawrence Morgan died with the eight other members of his bomber crew while flying over Belgium. He has markers both there and in Fairview Cemetery in Phillipsburg and was the brother of the founders of Phillips County’s Morgan Foundation Charitable Trust.
The battle against Nazism was waged fiercely back in the 1930s and 1940s. A number of Phillips County men, with many, many years of their lives yet ahead of them, died in order to halt it. Now, in 2017, over seven decades later, the cause against which they sacrificed their lives is rearing its ugly head once again.
Rearing its ugly head not in Europe, but right here on the streets of America.
Kirby Ross, [email protected], is editor of the Phillips County Review. Republished with permission.
Months ago, I blocked off on my calendar a couple of hours to watch the eclipse from the parking lot of my office. As the day approached, the excitement across the country really increased, as the available eclipse glasses decreased. By Sunday, it appeared there were no glasses available, and I resigned myself to experiencing the eclipse at the Sternberg Museum in Hays, which was going to have a direct feed from NASA (or so I understood).
Sunday morning, in Sunday school class, we watched a “Ted Talk” (Ted.com) about the eclipse. In it the presenter made the case that you owe it to yourself to see a total eclipse some time in your lifetime, that it is an event that can only be fully experienced by seeing and feeling it in person, and that this upcoming eclipse could be the last opportunity for some of us.
In the last month or so, I have heard the song “On Eagle Wings” too many times – all at funerals. At least a couple of them were unexpected funerals – people dying in the prime of their life, before their time (at least according to me). There were other reminders as to the fragile nature of life. All of them were overwhelming.
So early Monday morning, after thinking about the Ted Talk, I made the decision to join my wife, Barbara, and our middle son, Ben, and drive to central Nebraska to experience the total eclipse of the sun.
We did not have glasses, despite our search, but I recalled from my youth that we used negatives from film to create a filter. Luckily, we found some old photographs with negatives. On the way to Nebraska my son built three sets of “glasses” for our viewing.
We located a dirt road in central Nebraska, just off of Highway 183. We pulled off and quickly we ran into others from the Hays area. We eventually stopped with some friends of my son.
At this site where we stopped, we ran into some other people who had three extra sets of glasses that they freely gave to us (so I still have my eyesight). We donned them and then at about 12:30 p.m. the event started in full swing.
We knew that we would experience the total eclipse for just over two minutes. It seemed odd that we would drive three hours for such a short experience.
Let me share with you what happened. With about 15 minutes before the total eclipse, the colors started changing. (I took photographs and in reviewing them later, the colors got deeper and richer.) It began getting darker. A cool breeze kicked up from the south, swallows suddenly came out, as if it was dusk. The sun was still too bright to look at without the protective glasses.
Suddenly it was the full eclipse. The wind stopped. There was no noise – silence – except crickets began chirping, as if it were night. All around us, for 360 degrees, the whole horizon looked like a sunset. Shadows disappeared. It was dark. We could see stars and planets in the sky.
But it was the silence, and stillness, that were so breathtaking. I felt little, and awed, by the universe.
Then it was over. The sun peaked out on the right side of the moon; the light again enveloped us. Everyone began clapping and talking excitedly, as the silence was broken. The warm breeze picked up. The temperature began climbing.
On the way home my wife, my son and I realized we had shared something very special with each other, individually and with nature.
We all have “eclipse” opportunities in our lives, and it is so easy to pass on them. It is so easy to say “I am too busy” or “there will be another chance.” As I have been reminded recently, that is not always true.
September 4th is the anticipated birth date of my first grandchild (“Fred”, as I have named him, with no input from his parents!) His father, my son Dan, knows that we have some business and travel plans around that time. He asked recently, “What if ‘Fred’ decides to come early, what about your work and travel plans?”
As I told him, my plans can all be changed. Fred gets born once, and I am going to be there. I am not going to wait for the next time. Fred is the next “eclipse” that I will not miss.
We all have “eclipse” opportunities that come up in life. Please seize those moments to be with your family. The rest of life can wait.
Randy Clinkscales of Clinkscales Elder Law Practice, PA, Hays, Kansas, is an elder care attorney, practicing in western Kansas. To contact him, please send an email to [email protected]. Disclaimer: The information in the column is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is different and outcomes depend on the fact of each case and the then applicable law. For specific questions, you should contact a qualified attorney.
Rig counts across the US were lower Friday, but higher in Kansas, especially the eastern half of the state. Independent Oil & Gas Service reported a nearly six percent increase in the number of active drilling rigs across the Sunflower State over the last week. There were 15 active rigs in eastern Kansas, up four, and 21 west of Wichita, down two. Operators report drilling ahead at one site in Stafford County, and they’re moving in completion tools at one site in Stafford County, one site in Barton County, and three sites in Ellis County. Baker Hughes reported 946 active rigs across the country, a decrease of five oil rigs but an increase of one gas rig. Canada reports 214 active drilling rigs, down six.
Independent Oil & Gas reports ten well completions across the state last week, one in eastern Kansas and nine west of Wichita including one new completion in Stafford County. So far this year, operators have completed 830 wells, compared to 719 at this time last year, and 2,768 two years ago at this time.
Operators filed 23 permits to drill at new locations across Kansas last week, 882 so far this year, including 13 east of Wichita and 10 in western Kansas. There’s one new permit in Barton County and two in Stafford County.
The Kansas Corporation Commission is expected to rule within a couple of months after a hearing last week on that controversial saltwater disposal well proposed in Morris County. A lawyer for opponents of the project asked commissioners to reject the application or reduce the allowable pressure. KCC staff surprised some observers by proposing to reduce the volume and pressure proposed by Quail Oil & Gas. The company points out there have been saltwater disposal wells in the area for decades without any earthquakes. Manager Wray Valentine also said their proposal calls for much less water than is being dumped in wells in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma, where earthquake activity has spiked.
The first sand mine serving the oil patch in West Texas is open for business in Kermit, Texas. The $325 million mine is owned by Houston sand supplier Hi-Crush Partners. Over the next 18 months, rivals including U.S. Silica Co. and Fairmount Santrol plan to build more mines that will send millions of tons of sand into the Permian Basin. This allows oil producers to circumvent expensive rail lines that transport white sand from Wisconsin, one of the costliest obstacles in West Texas.
The volume of natural gas being “flared” in North Dakota is creeping back up. In June the amount of gas being burned at the well head reached 222 million cubic feet per day in June, up 31% from the same month last year. That’s far lower than the peak in 2014. Most other oil-producing states don’t allow long-term flaring. Lawmakers passed regulations in 2014 to limit flaring, but it appears some producers are not following the new regulations. The state’s oil fields have historically lacked the pipelines and processing plants needed to get that natural gas to market.
North Dakota will get $10 million in federal funds to help pay for law enforcement expenses during months of pipeline protests. The state faces up to $38 million in bills for protest-related costs. It’s not yet clear whether state taxpayers or even the pipeline developer will pay the rest. Senator John Hoeven announced the grant from the Justice Department’s Emergency Federal law Enforcement Assistance Program.
It might surprise you to learn that in Colorado the biggest source of complaints against the oil and gas industry is noise. In 2013 state regulators fielded 252 complaints. Last year, 419 complaints were filed with the state. Through July of this year, the tally is already higher — 704 complaints. The biggest reason for the jump in those complaints is not concern about water safety or fear over explosions. It’s noise. More than one noise complaint per day on average has been filed so far this year.
Our energy exports continue to grow. US crude exports are now going to India and South Korea for the first time, a significant change to global oil flows.
Total is buying Maersk’s oil and gas business in a $7.45 billion deal which the French energy company said would strengthen its operations in the North Sea and boost earnings and cash flow. Maersk Oil has reserves equivalent to around 1 billion barrels of oil.
Bloomberg reports state-owned Citgo has started to make quiet inquiries to buy Canadian crude for its refineries in Texas and Louisiana. The imports would be used to replace dwindling shipments from Venezuela, which is is redirecting more of its shrinking supply to Russia, China and India to repay loans. Analysts say Canadian crude is a natural replacement, because it’s equally heavy and high in sulfur.
Venezuela is handing over unprecedented control of its state-owned oil assets to Russia, its longtime financial backer in an effort to stave off insolvency and economic collapse. The socialist government has offered an ownership stake in up to nine of Venezuela’s most productive oil projects, according to Reuters. The deals give Russian President Vladimir Putin an even stronger foothold and, potentially, a way to skirt U.S. economic sanctions.
There are few organizations more important to the well being of our community than Fort Hays State University, and for decades the City of Hays has partnered with the University on the Hays City Scholarship Program to recruit young talent to our community.
However, in the 2018 budget that the City passed, the Commission cut $10,000 from this scholarship program. There were dissenting voices on the Commission, nonetheless the budget ultimately passed unanimously. While I think that this decision was wrong, rather than criticize the decision makers, I want to propose a solution and challenge the people of Hays to raise $10,000 to fund the Hays City Scholarship Program for 2018.
Clearly, losing $10,000 isn’t going to bankrupt Fort Hays State University, but a cut in scholarship funding means either a reduction in the number of students that we scholarship or a cut in the money each student receives. Neither is a good option for students or for Hays. Since the City of Hays has chosen not to fund this program fully, I am calling on the Community of Hays to step up. Whenever there is a government-spending cut, we inevitably hear that if certain people think a program is important, then those people should pay for it; so if you value this scholarship program, please donate.
If I were independently wealthy, I’d write a check, but I’m not, so I can’t. However, I am running for City Commission, and since there seems to be an expectation that I raise several thousand dollars for yard signs and mailers, I’d like to mix things up. Rather than raising campaign funds, I am launching a fundraising campaign to fund this program, and I would greatly appreciate your help reaching this goal.
