Video By Cooper Slough
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

WAKEENEY — It may seem like just fun and games, but the Cardboard Sports Car Derby at Trego Grade School did more than get kindergarteners racing through the halls, it taught the students valuable language skills while showcasing their creative talents.

“This started the first year I started teaching in WaKeeney,” said Jane Lang, kindergarten teacher, who facilitated the event, including a march around the school and the “races,” which even brought out local police using radar to judge speed as the children ran the length of the school’s gym.

The event was the culmination of lessons the children had been learning.

“We are learning about letters and their sounds all year,” Lang said. “We have come to the point that we’re learning about ‘R’ controlled vowels.”

Those vowels include ar, er, ir, or, ur with several those sounds fitting perfectly with the name of the derby.

“What a perfect thing to do, a Cardboard Sports Car Derby,” Lang said.

She said she had the idea for the derby after visiting an arts event.

“I had seen cardboard cars featured at a art exhibit in Lawerence, Kansas, at the arts center,” she said.

She then wanted to incorporate that idea into the classroom.

“We started working on ‘r’ controlled vowels and it all just came together.”

In conjunction with the derby the students study a book that illustrates the power of imagination called “Not a Box” by Antoinette Portis.

In that story, a rabbit who has adventures with what others see as a cardboard box, but is much more for the imaginative rabbit.

To get ready for the derby, the children all received a box to take home and had a week to build their car.

While the derby featured the students racing through the gym, Lang said it’s not for a prize rather it is simply for the joy of sharing their creations.

And if the excitement shown by the children during the event is any indication, the joy of the day will make the accompanying lessons hard to forget.

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

The Hays USD 489 Board of Education met over lunch Monday with Gary Sechrist, Kansas Association of School Boards leadership specialist, to begin the search for the next superintendent for the district.

Dean Katt, current superintendent for the district, will step down at the end of the school year.

During the meeting, board members Paul Adams, Sarah Rankin, Luke Oborny and board president Lance Bickle discussed with Sechrist details of the search process, including using the KASB to assist in the search at a cost of $5,250 plus travel.

Using the KASB would be cheaper than doing the search independently, according to Katt.

The truncated time available for the search also creates a sense of urgency to begin the process.

Normally, the process is scheduled over six weeks, but due to the timing, the search will be compressed to a four-week process.

“We’re a little late,” Sechrist said. “I’m a little nervous about that.”

With the little time available, the board completed the first phase of the search during the meeting, deciding on preliminary timing for search processes.

The board agreed to allow Sechrist to produce brochures for the position that would be sent to superintendents throughout the area that could be produced in as little as two weeks.

The brochure will cost the district an additional $350.

The position would also be listed on the KASB website and teachingjobs.com, and the brochure would be sent to 286 school district offices.

A routine portion of the search and the next step that will be taken by the district is to schedule meetings for district employees and members of the community to receive input into what is wanted in the next superintendent.

Similar meetings were held for the search at the end of 2013, but as the district has faced undergone changes since that time, the board agreed it is important to once again get input.

“You’re probably safer to do it,” Sechrist said.

Groups likely to be scheduled for 45-minute meetings include teachers, parent organizations and community members.

During the last search, seven meetings were held over the course of two days.

At the April 28 board meeting, the findings of those meetings will be reviewed with Sechrist.

Following that meeting, Sechrist recommends an application deadline of May 10.

Sechrist and two other area superintendents will screen candidates based on what the board decides to look for in a candidate and will recommend candidates to the board the following week.

Interviews will then be scheduled with the full board. Sechrist recommends the full board be present during the candidate interviews and also recommends the candidates be given the opportunity to tour the district and the city of Hays.

While the search is ongoing, the board continue to discussions during its work session and board meetings.

The next board meeting is scheduled for April 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the Rockwell Administration Center, 323 W. 12th.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Ground will be broken next week for a new travel plaza north of Interstate 70 in Hays.

It was “one hurdle after another to go through,” Curtis Weilert said Saturday. “We originally were hoping to get underway in January.”

JT Travel Plaza LLC will be built just north of IHOP Restaurant at 1130 E. 41st in the Home Depot Subdivision. Weilert’s father Michael D. Weilert is the owner; Curtis is the general manager.

“This will be a great addition to Hays,” Curtis Weilert said Saturday. “There’ll be a Cenex gas station, a Schlotzky’s/Cinnabon restaurant combination with a drive-thru, and a convenience store.”

JT Travel Plaza is scheduled to open in mid-August. Weilert called it “an aggressive schedule.” He plans to begin hiring employees in about 60 days — about mid-June.

“We’ll hire up to 35 people both full- and part-time,” he said.

Nick Finnegan has already been hired as store manager. Finnegan and Weilert will soon attend Schlotzsky’s training in Austin, Tex.

Schlotzsky’s is owned by the same group of people who own Cinnabon, according to Weilert.

“Schlotzsky’s is more than sandwiches now. The menu additions include flatbread pizza, pasta and some wonderful salads. Schlotzsky’s will also have breakfast. We will be open at 6 a.m.”

Drivers will be able to purchase diesel fuel at the plaza. “We’re not a truck stop. We will be able to accommodate RVs and (diesel) pickups.”

“We’ll post gas prices on two signs, one of which will be the current Home Depot pylon sign,” Weilert said.

“Competition north of I-70 will be good for Hays,” he added.

 

                                               Video by Cooper Slough

By James Bell
Hays Post

From 0 to 99, kids of all ages will gather for the Hays Toy Show from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 16, at Big Creek Shopping Center.

The show is co-organized by Clint Straub, who has a pretty impressive collection.

“I usually sell toys and take that money and put it back into toys,” he said.

The show will feature vendors from across the U.S., people Straub refers to as a family.

“All these vendors are like family to all of us. A great group of people is what they are,” he said.

“They come from everywhere,” he said, but many will come from within Kansas for the local event.

Those vendors according to Straub frequently travel to shows, including the smaller Hays show, that feature toys of all kinds including tractors, Tonka trucks, dolls, antique toys, models, trains and homemade toys.

“It’s all kinds of toys. And then you could say plus,” he said.

While buying and selling toys brings adult collectors to the shows, children are also an integral part of the show.

“We need more kids there, because they are future collectors and that’s what is going to keep this going,” Straub said.

For Struab and many others, toy collecting starts early and lasts a lifetime.

“It’s just a taste. It’s kind of like farming. It’s in your blood,” he said.

He started as a collector in high school, something he said is common.

“If you’re going to collect, you’re going to collect at a young age,” Straub said. “I’ve always liked toys, even as a kid. I’ve never outgrown that and I never will.”

The show is open to the public. The cost of admission is $3.

By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

Construction is all but complete and the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office began returning inmates to the newly remodeled jail Monday.

Sheriff Ed Harbin gave a tour of the facility to Hays Post reporters Jon Zweygardt and Becky Kiser Monday. All doors are now remotely locked and employees were “still getting used to the changes,” Harbin pointed out.

Ellis County Sheriff Ed Harbin said they transferred 20 inmates back to Ellis County on Monday. They will continue to bring back 16 inmates a day until the majority of the inmates housed out-of-country is transferred back to the new jail.

Harbin said the jail now has 72 bunks, although how many inmates are actually housed in the jail will depend on several factors, including who is housed at the jail and what they are in jail for.

Before the remodel the prisoner capacity was down to approximately 30. Now the jail will hold more than double the inmate population. But the county will still have to house a limited number of inmates out of county for various reasons, including keeping the male and female population separated and some inmates with special needs.

During Monday’s commission meeting Dean Haselhorst applauded the effort of the sheriff’s department for their work and said it is good to finally get the construction work finished.

“We can officially say it is open after, basically 90 days of being behind schedule,” said Haselhorst “Hopefully by Thursday, it sounds like we could have all of our inmates transferred back to Ellis County.

It was costing the county at least $70,000 per month to house inmates at the jails in Dodge City, Trego, Rooks, Barton and Graham counties, according to Harbin.

Harbin said the jail is now a lot safer and more secure with the implementation of new electronic locks and security cameras throughout the facility. “It’s state of the art,” he added.

Among the changes–no more steel bars.  Instead, the inmates are housed in jail cells with reflective safety glass so they cannot see out but officers can see into the cells. The whole jail facility is controlled by a control station in the center of the jail.

There are holding cells on each floor so inmates going to court do not have to be in the public areas.  A new elevator takes inmates from the jail to the courtrooms so they again, do not have to be in the same area as the public.

Harbin said the way they used to bring inmates from the jail to the courtrooms could have led to inmates attempting to escape.

Another new feature is a video conferencing system that will limit the inmate’s personal contact with the public. They instead will be able to use the video system to talk with visitors.

Harbin, who filed for his sixth term as county sheriff this week,  said it was great to see the changes the facility has gone through and said it was “much needed.”

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

It’s been deemed a success. The first-ever “Beer on the Bricks” last Saturday brought an estimated crowd of 600 to 700 people to downtown Hays. But the event for which tickets to taste various micro-brews sold out in just four hours, nearly didn’t happen.

The myriad of state and local laws regarding the sale, possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages on public property required the city to lease the staging area–a parking lot–to the Downtown Hays Development Corporation which was completely blocked off from the surrounding area.

“Our local Kansas Alcohol Beverage Agent (ABC) told us that it is likely the option of leasing public property to a private entity in order to include alcohol at an event will not be allowed in the future,” Assistant City Manager Jacob Wood told city commissioners Thursday night during their work session.

“When property is leased, a special event permit is not allowed. This means the event would fall under other alcohol
licensing requirements that are more stringent than what is allowed under a special event permit,” Wood explained. He reviewed three options available to the city that would allow alcohol on public property:

• Approving an ordinance that would exempt specific areas permanently
• Approving exemption ordinances for special events on a case by case basis
• Approving an ordinance that would give the City Manager administrative authority to exempt public property for special events

Commissioners agreed the third option was the best after Mayor Eber Phelps asked City Manager Toby Dougherty if he wanted to make those decisions.

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Dougherty replied, “and you guys (city commissioners) can always override the city manager.”

“Let’s say the DHDC came in and wanted to have Brews on the Bricks next year and the city manager declined it. There can always be an appeal to the city commission to modify the ordinance,” he explained.

That answer satisfied Phelps’s concerns.

“What I was looking at was one person being given that authority and he might deny somebody. Then we might get this whole quandary, difficult situation at hand,” Phelps said. “But you’re saying there is a mechanism in place where they can come talk to the commission….I like it.”

Vice-Mayor Shaun Musil, who had asked for the discussion several weeks ago, pointed out the city manager would have insight into why a request might be denied.

“For example, let’s say something comes up and you just know it wont’ work for our police department to be able to manage it because they’re short staffed or something else is going on. You would know that more than we would,” Musil said.

The property lease scenario has only happened a couple of times in the past 10 years that Dougherty could recall.

Public parks in Hays are exempt from the state law. An ordinance passed by the city commission in the 1970s, according to Wood’s research, allows alcohol consumption in city parks.

“I want the commission to know what a great job city staff, the parks department and Police Chief Don Scheibler did for us,” DHDC President Sandy Jacobs said. “This event would not have happened if they hadn’t decided it was going to happen.”

The agenda item will move on to next Thursday’s regular city commission meeting.

Commissioner Henry Schwaller was absent from the work session.

Hays High School this week announced 12 senior students have been named prom queen and king candidates. The prom is set for April 16.

Front row: Raeleann Weigel, Emily Prine, Kinsey Ackerman, Brittany Dinkel, Kayla Hitchcock, Haley George.
Back row: Maddux Winter, Scott Ring, Hunter Perryman, Jarett Pfannenstiel, Trent Potter, Gage Phillips.

Hays Post

A vehicle drove over a wooden barrier and collided with a wall at Hibbett Sports shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

The collision caused minor structural damage to the building and broke a water line. There were no injuries at the scene, according to the Hays Police Department, and the cause of the accident remains under investigation.

Midwest Energy

Midwest Energy completed the expansion of its Goodman Energy Center north of Hays April 1, on schedule and under its original $30 million estimate, though final costs are pending.

“This expansion will provide a reliable and economical source of energy for our member-owners for many decades,” said Earnie Lehman, president and general manager for Midwest Energy.

When the Goodman facility was built in 2008, it was constructed to allow for future expansion should the need arise.  “Participation in the Southwest Power Pool regional energy market, and the increasing amount of wind generation in the area, provide operational challenges that can be better managed with this flexible resource,” Lehman added.

The expansion added three new natural gas-fueled generators, bringing the Center’s total to twelve units.  Each generator can operate independently or as part of a group, and can be started in a matter of minutes to ensure a constant supply of power to the grid.  The twelve engines combined produce 102 megawatts, enough to serve almost a third of Midwest Energy customers’ peak electric use.

Burns and McDonnell of Kansas City, Mo., provided engineering and general contractor services for the project, while Casey Industrial of Westminster, Colo. was the primary construction sub-contractor.  The generators were manufactured in Europe by Finnish engine maker Wärtsilä.

 

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

On Saturday members of the Fort Hays State University community gathered near Lewis Field to celebrate the ground breaking of the new themed housing on the FHSU campus.

Joey Linn, vice president for student affairs, began the celebration by speaking about the project.

“This upcoming new building is just one of many project that are taking place on our beautiful campus,” he said. “Like the others, this project will change the footprint of Fort Hays State University.”

Mirta Martin, Fort Hays State University president also spoke at the celebration.

“Today marks the beginning of a new era at Fort Hays State University,” she said, welcoming Greek organizations back to the campus.

“You symbolize everything that Fort Hays symbolizes,” she said. “The importance of scholarship, the importance of leadership, the importance of service, the importance of sisterhood and brotherhood.”

Also speaking were leaders from the FHSU Greek system, Rebecca Vincent, president of Panhellenic Council and Charlie Murphy,  Interfraternity Council president.

Vincent said without the support of FHSU leadership the organizations would not have had the recent successes in recruitment. The recruitment has brought two Greek organizations back to FHSU.

The Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity and Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority will be returning to the campus by next year.

“This has been Panhellenic’s best recruitment yet,” Vincent said. “Each of our chapters excelled much beyond our expectations, which led us to the welcoming of 51 new Panhellenic sisters at the conclusion of fall recruitment.”

Panhellenic membership totals 133 this year, according to Vincent, and 99 in the fraternity community, according to Murphy.

“We are confident that this themed housing development will better cultivate the Greek spirit,” Murphy said.

The building will have four units, with 21 beds per unit, initially housing the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and the Delta Zeta sorority.

The building is expected to be open for the fall 2017 semester.

                                   Video courtesy USD 489 News
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

During Monday night’s work session, the Hays USD 489 Board of Education had a clear message concerning the search for the next district superintendent: It’s not public, but they are working on it.

After some recent criticism of the board’s apparent lack of action in the superintendent search, the board added the topic of the search onto Monday night’s work session agenda.

“We’ve done a very poor job in being transparent in this process,” said Lance Bickle, board president, suggesting talks have been held, but in executive session.

In recent meetings, the board has had executive sessions that have lasted hours, specifically dealing with personnel.

The board has so far treated the search as a personnel issue.

“That wasn’t really accessible to the pubic for confidentially,” as they discuss hiring internally or doing a search, board member Paul Adams said. “We’ve been doing something actively, but protecting the individual that may be looking at whatever decision that we decide to make.”

Even though the discussions so far have been confidential, board members said they have been working on how best to fill the position that will be vacated by Dean Katt at the end of the school year.

“We have been hard at work over the last three weeks,” said Sarah Rankin, board member. “When we have a firm decision, we will be sharing that with the public.”

During the meeting, the board continued discussing the current status of the proposed bond issue, discussing the work of the volunteer committees, hearing from Mike Morley, who serves on the speakers’ bureau.

He informed the board that another six town hall meetings have been scheduled. He also said the fundraising committee has been working actively to collect funding for the bond issue campaign, noting in-kind donations, such as radio advertising, have been donated by local businesses.

Even more importantly, he said the vitriol surrounding the bond issue seems to be subsiding.

“I think that’s encouraging,” Morley said.

“That’s from you guys,” Luke Oborny, board member said, commending the work of the volunteer committees.

The board also discussed doubling internet speeds across the district.

The district currently subscribes to a 200 megabyte per second connection through Eagle Communications, a connection that was increased from 125 mbps last July.

“There have been days we run 200 mbps a day,” said Scott Summers, director of technology.

That causes frustration in the classrooms, he said.

While answering questions from the board, Summers said usage statistics are provided by Eagle, with some internal metrics indicating during late mornings and prior to dismissal, the district often hits its 200 mbps limit at locations throughout the district.

“It’s all over the place,” Summers said where the data is being used.

If the board chooses to increase the speed, the cost per year would increase from $22,320 to $36,720, after rebates.

The board will discuss further the options at the next board meeting.

Disclosure: Eagle is the parent company of Hays Post.

 

 

 

 

FHSU University Relations and Marketing

The Department of Social Work at Fort Hays State University will host an annual Social Work Field Day from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, in the Black and Gold Room in the Memorial Union. This event includes a continuing education program.

The Field Day is being renamed to “The Judy Caprez Social Work Field Day” in honor of retired FHSU professor Judy Caprez, who retired in 2015 after 23 years at FHSU.

Caprez will speak about “Social Work Practice and the Contemporary Family” and will conduct the training provided to meet the continuing education requirement for Kansas licensure.

A minimal fee of $20 will be charged the day of the training. Only cash and checks will be accepted. All current field instructors are exempt.

Immediately following the CEU training, field instructors will meet with social work faculty for an opportunity to provide feedback on the program and the students’ preparedness for the field workshop. This meeting will be located in the Pioneer Room in the Memorial Union.

(Editor’s Note):  Click here to see a “Community Connection” interview by Mike Cooper with Caprez about Teen Dating Violence.