By BEV CHEUVRONT
HFHEC

This is the story of a dining room set donated to Habitat for Humanity of Ellis County ReStore. Its journey tells the story of how giving back and paying it forward are key to helping Habitat achieve strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter.

Carrie finds a good home for unneeded furniture
Hays resident Carrie Nassif recently found and moved into her “dream house.” The previous owner left a substantial dining room set that sat 10 people and included a matching buffet and china cabinet. Carrie, however, had inherited a lovely 100-year-old table from her mother and no longer needed the dining set, which she decided to donate.

“It was well-crafted,” Carrie said. “I think it’s important to recycle, and I felt it would be great to find a place where the dining set would be used and loved.”

She called Habitat ReStore, 2918 Vine, the store that helps Habitat build affordable homes.

Two volunteers from the Hays Knights of Columbus loaded the 10 chairs, table, buffet and china cabinet onto their truck. Once they unloaded the furniture at the Habitat ReStore, more volunteers arranged it on the showroom floor, pricing the entire set at a modest $200.

Meet Christopher
Christopher is the minister of a small congregation in Turon, Kansas. He has dedicated his life to helping others through his ministry and personal life. A number of years ago, he donated some land he owned to the town of Hoisington, Kansas, with the stipulation that it be used for a Habitat for Humanity home.

Fast forward to 2017.

Christopher West never dreamed he’d become another link in the Habitat for Humanity circle of compassion. But that’s what happened when a fire destroyed his home, leaving Christopher and his young sons with nothing but a small insurance payout—enough to put a new roof over his family’s head, but not enough to furnish it or replace the many personal items lost to the flames.

Christopher’s family receives a hand up
Christopher was furnishing his new home on a tight budget when he found the dining set Carrie donated at Habitat ReStore. Christopher arrived to pick up the dining suite and left with it and much more, including a sofa, a love seat and toys and books for his sons.

“You can’t imagine how devastating it is to lose everything – pictures, kids’ school drawings, things you can’t replace,” says Christopher. Living with only the bare essentials has been an additional hardship for his family.

A day in the life of a Habitat ReStore donation: a table turns into a home
“I like to shop at places like the ReStore,” Christopher says. “I know that my money – as little as it is – goes to a good cause. I’m receiving a blessing, and I’m giving a blessing.”

The circle of compassion continues, as Carrie’s donated dining room suite brings joy to the West family while proceeds from its sale help fund Habitat homes.

You can pay it forward by giving back
Habitat for Humanity’s work is fueled by people like you who care about our community and want to help those in need of a hand up. You can help by donating items to Habitat ReStore, shopping at the store, volunteering your time or giving an in-kind or financial gift.

The most recent home available from HFHEC is located in Victoria, at 901 11th.

Bev Cheuvront is a member of the board of directors of Habitat for Humanity of Ellis County.

(Editor’s note: The article originally ran in July’s issue of HFHEC’s monthly newsletter, Habitat Connection. To keep up to date with Habitat’s progress in Ellis County, subscribe to their newsletter by emailing “Newsletter” to [email protected] or follow HFHEC on Facebook.)

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

About 25 local people Tuesday night took a tour of Lincoln Elementary School and had the opportunity to ask questions about a proposed $78.5 million Hays USD 489 bond issue.

Representatives of DLR, the district’s architectural firm; members of the district’s Community Vision Team; teachers; board members; Superintendent John Thissen; principals; and the construction manager at risk, Nabholz Construction, were all on hand to answer questions and provide information.

The bond would increase the mill levy by 11.43 mills, which would be $16.43 per month on a $150,000 home. The district does not receive any state aid for bond projects, because it is considered a “rich” district. This means state taxes paid here end up going to other districts in the state like Dodge City, Garden City, Hutchinson, Salina and Liberal to pay off their bond debts.

See a list of all the projects that are part of the bond and FAQ sheet by clicking here.

A member of the cafeteria staff talked to attendees about the problems Lincoln has with its basement cafeteria and kitchen. It is not large enough for all the preparation to be done there, so a great deal has to been done off site, and much of the food has to be stored off site.

The sewer lines run in the back of the walls of the cafeteria, and the school dealt with a line break that lead to an odorous yellow liquid seeping through the wall while the children were eating. Crews had to come in and work at night to fix the plumbing. A regular odor comes from one of the utility closets in the basement cafeteria.

Since the cafeteria is in the basement, children or staff who have disabilities or injuries can’t make it down the stairs. They can’t have lunch with their peers and have to be served lunch in the library. The basement also serves as the school’s tornado shelter.

The building was built before the national school lunch program was created, and the basement was likely never intended to be used for a cafeteria.

Children at Wilson Elementary School only have about 10 to 15 minutes to eat their lunch. One younger students was in tears because she couldn’t finish her lunch in that amount of time. The times are short because of a lack of space in the cafeteria.

Two art teachers, music and orchestra all share one room on the second floor of Lincoln. Rita Legleiter, art teacher, said the arrangement is difficult because she has to reconfigure her classroom every morning. Because she has to move between schools, she also loses time and she can’t stay with students as they progress into the upper grades of elementary school.

Certain special education services are also sharing rooms in the building, which are split by dividers.

The district is proposing closing Lincoln, repurposing O’Loughlin Elementary and building a new elementary school.

Three elementary schools would not only mean staff would have less travel between schools, it would mean millions in savings.

Amber Beverlin, senior architect for DLR, said the district should save $400,000 to $500,000 each year of the 30-year bond because of the new buildings and consolidation to three elementary schools instead of four.

That will be an estimated $10 million over the term of the bond.

Some members of the community have had questions about the length of the bond. Troy Wade, also of DLR, said the district stands to save money by attending to the building needs now. The cost of construction goes up 4 to 5 percent each year. Interest rates are also low now, and those could increase if the district came back to do another bond in 10 or 15 years.

Delaying construction could add 40 percent to the cost of the work, Wade said.

One attendee said she lived near one of schools that was scheduled to close and wanted to know what would happen to the empty buildings.

Lincoln, Washington, Munjor, Westside and Rockwell would no longer have students in them if the bond passed.

Early Childhood Connection students at Munjor and Washington, students at Westside and the Learning Center students would all go to O’Loughlin. The Westside and Rockwell buildings will still be used by administration support staff. Other arrangements may eventually be made for those offices.

Munjor would go back to the Catholic Church. The district would try to repurpose or sell the Lincoln and Washington buildings. If this could not be done, there is money in the bond to demolish the buildings.

Valerie Wente of the Community Vision Team, said an old school in her hometown of Topeka had been taken over by the Topeka Community Theatre. Chris Dinkel also of the Vision Team said the space could even become green space or a park.

Another attendee asked where the new elementary school would be built. Thissen said that has not been determined. The district has land at the high school that the school could be built on. However, Thissen said he was not sure if that is where the community wants to place the school. There is money in the bond to purchase land for the new school.

HHS principal Marty Straub said he was excited at the prospect of having an elementary school near the high school as it would allow high school students to act as mentors with the younger students and the younger children to be involved in the early childhood development labs at the high school.

The district can’t release a possible location for the new school yet because that would affect negotiations for a possible land purchase. Thissen said that would be one of the first things addressed if the bond passes.

The school to replace Wilson Elementary School will be placed on the same site as the current Wilson. Once the new Wilson is completed, the old building will be torn down.

One attendee said she would not support the bond if all the schools were on the east side of town.

The group discussed the decision to build a new elementary school to replace Wilson instead of renovating Wilson. Wilson is insured for $5.9 million, Wade said. A renovation would cost $16.5 million. A new school is going to cost $21 million. When a renovation is going to cost more than 60 percent of the cost of a new building, architects recommend investing in a new building.

Each of three elementary schools would be four-section schools, which means that four classes of each grade could be located in those schools. The four-section schools would allow for growth, but also allow in the short term for class sizes to be reduced. The average class sizes at the schools right now is about 23, and the district wishes to decrease that to 18 to 22 students.

If the bond is approved, design work will take 10 months to a year. The new elementary schools would be the first to be finished. The renovations could take longer, and O’Loughlin would likely be the last project as the students would need to be able to move into the new schools before work on that building could begin.

Above all the district is urging people to register to vote and vote. The district is providing voter registration forms in the offices of all its buildings. In post analysis of a bond that failed in 2016, only about 30 percent of teachers and parents voted in the election.

Thissen said he urged people to vote no matter how they chose to vote. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 17. Early voting is set to start on Oct. 23 and Election Day is Nov. 7.

 

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

An 108-year-old church made it safely to its new home at Rock Haven Spa on Monday.

The church was purchased by Dereama Allenbaugh, owner of Rock Haven Spa, to be used as a new facility at the spa southwest of Hays.

Allenbaugh said last week she was told by the movers they were unsure if the historic building would make the 15-mile move.

Kansas Highway Patrol troopers and crews from Midwest Energy were on scene Monday to facilitate the move. The church had to be transported down the Highway 183 Bypass from near the Interstate 70 west exit to its new home.

The church had been a part of a defunct tourist attraction. However, before 1990 it  was the meeting place for a rural congregation in Graham County.

Allenbaugh said the old church has many of its original attributes, including hard-wood floors, a tin ceiling and wooden pews.

However, it has been heavily vandalized over the years.

Allenbuagh hopes to restore the building for use at the spa. She was initially reticent to release plans for the structure for fear the aging building would not survive the move.

According to an employee at Rock Haven, work is underway to place the old church on a permanent foundation that has been built at the spa.

 

By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

The Hays High School graduating class of 2017 scored higher on their ACT scores than their state peers.

Shanna Dinkel, assistant superintendent, gave a report to the Hays school board at its meeting Monday night.

ACT scores

English: HHS: 22.4 State: 21.1 National: 20.3

Math: HHS: 22.9 State: 21.3 National: 20.7

Reading: HHS: 23.4 State: 22.3 National: 21.4

Science: HHS: 23 State: 21.7 National: 21

Composite: HHS: 23.1 State: 21.7 National: 21

HHS’ composite scores were the highest on record for the school.

The state released information last week the state’s scores as a whole had gone down. Although the state did go down, the state still tops the national rankings.

More students are taking the ACT at HHS–80 percent, compared to 73 percent in the state, 60 percent nationwide.

“As a district, we are very excited with these scores,” Dinkel said.

HHS Principal Marty Straub said the school conducts ACT prep and other activities to help students prepare for the tests.

“The principal in me goes one day to the next and says, ‘What can we do next?'” Straub said, “…keep working and doing those things we know work and do our best.”

New state assessment standards are focusing on individual courses of study, college and career readiness, post-secondary success and making sure the students are taking the right courses to succeed, Dinkel said.

Straub said fewer students are asking to get out of rigorous courses of study.

“I think that is a change in culture,” he said. “I also believe the trust from the parents and kids is very important. We say we know it’s tough. We know that it is a heavy load. I think they trust that we are not trying to hurt their kid. I think they trust that rigor and hard work and developing a strong work ethic and focus is probably healthy for them.”

Dinkel also reported the district exceeded state medians on 2016-17 standardized science testing for all three grades that were tested: grades five, eight and 11.

In other business, the board:

• Heard a report on a LED lighting project.

• Heard a report on KASB policy changes

• Heard a report on the Hays High School HVAC system. The district has $520,000 set aside for upgrades to the system and another $250,000 that could be set aside this year.

• Heard a report on the Capital Outlay Project Plan

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Children in a kindergarten class color sheets that help them learn about the color blue.

Some of those children may know their colors, how to write their name and read fluently. Other children may not even be able to hold the crayon or have ever had a pair of scissors in their hands.

“I don’t believe we see a larger gap anywhere in a student’s K-12 education than we see in kindergarten,” Shanna Dinkel, Hays USD 489 assistant superintendent, said.

As the state changes its accreditation process, more emphasis is being placed on kindergarten and kindergarten readiness in attempts to close these gaps. Hays USD 489 has provided all-day kindergarten for years, but this is the first year all-day kindergarten has been fully funded by the state.

Amanda Meagher, kindergarten teacher at Wilson Elementary School, served on a state committee tasked with making a case for all-day kindergarten.

“We talked about a lot of reasons and research that showed we need that time and opportunity for some teacher-led play. They just needed to be here all day,” she said. “It is hard to do that in a half day — to get to the academics and the growth of the child and to meet the needs of the individual child when it was such a short amount of time that you were with them.”

Kindergarten is a year of transition. It is supposed to be more like preschool at the beginning of the year and more like grade school at the end of the year. There is no other grade like that, Meagher said. Children learn basic classroom skills, such as keeping supplies neat, brining back notes and folders, and being a part of the communication process with their parents.

“Transitioning with their fine motor skills and work habits, hopefully sets them up for success and gets them excited about learning and become lifelong learners,” she said.

The kindergarten program itself will not change. The district had been using at-risk funds to support the all-day program, but those funds can now be used in other at-risk programs, Dinkel said. Those dollars have been diverted to pay for classroom aides at each elementary school and regular education paraeducators at the middle school and high school. The kindergarten fee was also eliminated as a result of state funding.

Dinkel and other experts agree kindergarten and pre-kindergarten are essential times for children’s learning and development.

Donna Hudson-Hamilton, director of the Early Childhood Connections program, said children’s brains develop at a staggering rate during early childhood. Ninety percent of children’s brain development occurs before the age of 5. Children have about twice the number of brain synapses as an adult until they are about 10 years old and then the brain starts to pare back in adolescents.

“If we lose that opportunity, that is not an opportunity that we can get back. If you have 90 percent of your brain developing at that time, we want to give that the best we have for the child,” Hudson-Hamilton said.

Children who receive early childhood education are more likely to graduate from high school on time and only 15 percent of children who receive early childhood education require special education services — compared to 34 percent of those who do not.

Early childhood education makes economic sense, as well. For every dollar spent on early childhood education, the state saves $7 in later interventions.

A long-term study found at age 27, children who participated in early childhood programs were four times more likely to be earning more than $2,000 per month, three times as likely to own a home and twice as likely to have never been on welfare as an adult.

However, the investment the U.S. is making in early childhood education does not match the potential for development at this age. Despite the great leaps a child’s brain makes between birth to age 5, the U.S. dedicates the least money to education during this time.

The district has a kindergarten readiness committee that includes staff from the district’s Early Child Connections program, kindergarten teachers and representatives of other preschools in the city. The group works with parents and preschools to help close the gaps kindergarten teachers are seeing as children enter grade school.

A few years ago, the focus was on toilet training. More recently, the committee worked on helping children develop the fine motor skills to hold pencils.

Balancing gaps between students can be tricky, Meagher said.

“It is all about meeting the child where they are at. You focus in on what each child needs. It is like an individual plan for each child. You know this child may need help with fine motor skills, so you provide help with play-based learning or your learning lab activities where you give them lots of opportunities for them to grow in their fine motor skills,” she said.

A lot of what Meagher’s committee talked about was growing social and emotional skills and giving children time to learn through play. This is mirrored in the state board of education’s new assessment goals.

The state has developed a survey tool to help assess where children are developmentally as they come into kindergarten, which it will start to administer to incoming kindergarteners in fall 2018. The developmental snapshot, called the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, looks at a child’s development in the areas of language and literacy, cognitive and problem solving, physical well-being and motor development, and social-emotional development.

“Our kindergarten teachers do a great job of bridging that gap, but the better the kids come prepared for kindergarten, the further we can take them throughout the year,” Dinkel said. “Academics are very important, but we also need to make sure the social, emotional development is there as well.”

Hudson-Hamilton said the children’s soft skills, such as being able to work with other students, follow directions, ask questions appropriately, are skills students will need throughout their lives to be successful.

The preschool programs focuses much on rules and routines and has implemented a program called Slide that helps the children further transition from a preschool to a kindergarten setting. Children learn skills, such as how to work independently and how to raise their hands.

The new mission of the state board is to develop individual plans of study for each student that helps them close gaps and challenge them where ever they are at, Dinkel said.

“I think it is exciting that we are focusing on it at the state level because it definitely is very, very important to the start of school and how we start and kids end kindergarten really sets them on the path through the rest of our K-12 system,” Dinkel said.

The state’s new accreditation standards also is pushing for full-day Head Start within the next five years. All-day preschool is also listed among the Hays USD 489 school board goals.

This year, Early Childhood Connections has three classrooms that are full day.

“The children are somewhere during that time,” Hudson-Hamilton said. “We will be providing the same rest time and snack time as if they were in another setting. There is more opportunity to interact with them. For the children who don’t need to nap who are really getting ready to go on to kindergarten, we get to do some more direct instruction with them. It is going to give a little bit more opportunity to diversify what we can do for the child.”

Play is the children’s work at this age, Hudson-Hamilton said. It may look as if the children are just playing, but the early childhood teachers have a set, intentional curriculum.

“You may come into a classroom, and they might be doing a cooking activity,” Hudson-Hamilton said, “but as a part of that cooking activity, they may be counting out how many ingredients that go into the cooking activity. They may be working on predictions — what’s going to happen when we do this? What is going to happen when we add heat to it?”

ECC has 120 students ages 3 through 5 in its program at the former Washington School in Hays. However, the program works with children as young as infants at its Munjor program and through home-based services.

Although the state board and the Kansas Legislature has made strides in supporting early childhood education, more still needs to be done, Hudson-Hamilton said.

“I do think it is important for people to advocate for this population because they don’t have their own voices yet, so we need to be speaking on their behalf,” she said.

By MIRIAM S. BUCKLEY

LURAY — The plight of small towns in Kansas is an issue that appears in newspapers and on TV regularly in our state. The city of Luray, is one rural town that has faced hardship due to grocery stores, businesses, schools, and restaurants closing down. Today, the Luray Main Street only has a couple of businesses that operate on a daily basis. Yet, the towns people of Luray are determined to do something to change the uncertain future of this once thriving town, and try to improve the imminent fate of their small town.

A group of Luray citizens have come together with community leaders and building owners to organize one of the largest arts, crafts, and antique shows in the state of Kansas. Last year, this small town hosted the first ever Luray Craft Fair, and had about 40 vendors register for the event. With the enormous success of the 2016 event, the event hosts decided to reach out to even more vendors to see if they could make the event grow.

This October 21st, the town of Luray will host their now annual Luray Craftique, and they are expecting more than 160 vendors to attend. Although there are a few events in Kansas that boast a large amount of vendors, this is one of the only ones in Kansas that is almost entirely indoors! With the closure of many of the shops and stores, the store owners have partnered together to offer their shops for the upcoming vendor event. Thus, the Luray Craftique will have over 100 indoor vendors in six buildings, all of which are within walking distance of Luray Main Street. There will also be a plethora of outdoor vendors and food trucks in attendance.

In addition to the normal arts and craft vendors, this year the Luray Craftique has also had the incredible fortune to be able to partner with the Vesper Vintage event. The Vesper event experienced a loss of venue for their antique market, and instead of closing, they are just moving over to the city of Luray for that day. With the addition of the antique shoppers, the Luray Craftique sponsors are hoping to draw a wide variety of attendees and to draw new business to the city of Luray.

Though a craft fair may seem like an unusual way to grow a town, the city of Luray is hoping that this year’s event will help to put them on the map and help small business owners see that Luray is a great place to live and work. The city of Luray also boasts free land for people who are willing to relocate to Luray and start a business. Will these incentives help boost a town close to failure? Only time will tell if their fortune will change.

Luray is a small community located about 1 hour from both Hays and Salina, and about 25 miles north of Russell. If you would like more information about how you could be a vendor/guest at the Luray Craftique or help the town of Luray, please email the event hosts at [email protected].

By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

A 108-year-old church located off the Hays bypass is scheduled to be lifted off its foundation and moved on Monday to Rock Haven Spa.

The church is part of a defunct tourist attraction, but before it was located there in 1990, it served as the meeting place for a rural congregation in Graham County.

Dereama Allenbaugh, owner of Rock Haven Spa, said she plans to restore the church if the building survives the 15-mile move to its new location.

The building still retains many of its original features, including hard-wood floors, but has been heavily vandalized over the years.

“It is quite a task to move an old building,” she said. “Once it’s off the main road, I was told it could take three days to bring it through the pastures.”

Midwest Energy Crews will be involved in the move, as power lines will have to be lifted to allow the church to pass. The steeple has already been removed to make this process easier.

Some of the lines may be able to be lifted live. If not, there might be a short-term power outage of about 15 minutes for people in the immediate area while the power lines are taken down and reconnected, according to Midwest Energy.

“I have good thoughts and high hopes and my fingers crossed that it makes it down the highway,” Allenbaugh said. If you want to help, please wish it safe passage.”

Allenbaugh said she will release more information on the plans for the building at Rock Haven once it has arrived and been placed safely on its new foundation.

“It is a charming building,” she said. “I hope it can be used again.”

 

 

 

 

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Bryan Zollinger is excited to be back in Hays after nearly 30 years and “bring his coaching career full circle.”

The 51-year-old got his start coaching 28 years ago as an assistant to Rick Keltner, the Hays High School boys basketball head coach.

Zollinger went on to Atwood High School where he was the head basketball coach and assistant football coach to Dan Lankas during a portion of Lankas’ 17 winning seasons with the Atwood Buffaloes. Later, Zollinger moved to the junior college ranks as both an assistant and head basketball coach. The last 10 of those years were at Seward County Community College in Liberal where Zollinger coached the SCCC Saints to five Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division championships and two regional championships. During that time Zollinger coached six All-Americans and won nine Coach of the Year awards.

“After 23 seasons in the trenches of college coaching and becoming a father, I felt it was time to make some changes that were more conducive to raising my daughter,” Zollinger said. “It was creating a lot of stress in my life. I was torn between what I needed to do as a college coach and being home with my daughter. I didn’t think I was doing the right thing as a coach or as a single dad. Ultimately, I felt the right thing to do was choose family.”

Thus, the recent move back to Hays where his parents Joe and Euleta Zollinger and his sister Amy Wasinger live, and the decision to start a small local business.

His five-year-old daughter is in kindergarten at O’Loughlin Elementary School where Wasinger teaches third grade. “We moved up here from Liberal, the only home she’s known, to be around mom and dad and my sister and her family. It’s been wonderful,” he said with a smile.  “I felt this was the best place to raise my daughter and to try to put down some roots and build something for my daughter’s future.”

Zollinger recently opened Synergy Supplements, 1702 Vine, which offers nutritional supplements of all kinds for all goals.

“My interest in starting this business was born out of my love for helping people reach their goals in sports,” he explained. “I’ve been studying exercise and nutritional supplementation for most of my adult life and this seemed like the best way to continue to pursue that passion, albeit in a somewhat different fashion.”

Zollinger’s interest in nutritional supplements began when he was a high school athlete to stay healthy and help improve his performance on the court. Since then, he says, “it grew into a passion. Whether people want to lose weight, get stronger, address a certain health concern or perform better in competition, we can help.”

A selection of bodybuilding products is also available at Synergy Supplements and Zollinger is offering essential oils at the request of customers. “I’m learning it’s a very popular thing.”

“The biggest portion of our store is aimed at general wellness, the health aspect,” Zollinger said. “Weight management, controlling cholesterol, men’s health, women’s health, all types of vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and different things to just keep you healthy.” If you can’t find what you want, Zollinger will order it from his distributors.

Product lines include Life Extension, Doctor’s Best, NOW, Bio Nutrition, Health from the Sun, Nature’s Alchemy, Mushroom Wisdom, Plus CBD, Nature’s Way, Terry Naturally, Optimum Nutrition, and BSN. According to Zollinger, most of the products are derived from foods and natural plants. Old ‘”folk remedies” are making a comeback, he says. “Cod liver oil is popular again.”

One of his most popular supplements is Curamin, an all natural, non-addictive supplement used to relieve pain, one of the best-selling products in the industry.

Zollinger encourages people to discuss their health history with him, including medical prescriptions and other supplements they take, in order to customize the supplements to each individual and to avoid interactions.

As a baby boomer himself, Zollinger is hyper-aware of the body’s changes as we age. “Women going through menopause, men with prostate problems, the immune system gets a little bit weaker and we can’t fight infections as well as when we were younger. There can be bladder problems and also problems with the thyroid. Sometimes it gets out of whack and that affects all the hormones in your body.”

Everybody has a flagging energy level occasionally.  Zollinger says you don’t have to consume high doses of caffeine to become more alert. “There are things available now that increase your body’s natural energy production in different ways that don’t make you jittery or high-strung.”

There are also natural sleep remedies using milk peptides that are “much milder than prescription sleep aides and don’t give you that hangover effect the next morning.” he said. “They’ve isolated these compounds that you can take 20 to 30 minutes before you go to sleep. You get a better night’s sleep and don’t wake up feeling groggy.”

Most people spend money on products to make themselves look good on the outside. Zollinger is more concerned about the inside. He firmly believes vitamin and mineral supplements are an “investment in your health and your body,” he said. “If you’re not healthy and can’t enjoy your life, that affects everything else.”

After high school, Zollinger played college basketball at SCCC and Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa. While attending Fort Hays State University in the late 1980s to finish his teaching certification, he played throughout Kansas on traveling teams.

And, Zollinger is still coaching. “It was also a blessing that when I got back to Hays I was contacted by Rick Keltner who let me know he had an opening on his staff if I was interested. I’m excited to be a part of this community again, and hopefully, to help HHS and Coach Keltner build on their tradition.”

Synergy Supplements is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. More information is available at www.synergysupplementsks.com and on Facebook or by calling 620-482-0536.

 

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Hays city commissioners spent more than a half hour during their Thursday night work session talking about how to grow the local economy.

Commissioner Henry Schwaller had requested the agenda item to specifically address how the city can help increase sales tax revenues which fuel the General Fund.

First acknowledging the price downfalls in oil and agricultural commodities, coupled with a dramatic change in the retail store environment, Schwaller then concluded “we need to take action. It’s going to take something special.”

Schwaller presented a list of American new store openings by U.S. retail industry chains with planned expansions through the year 2020, including ALDI, T.J. Maxx and Dicks Sporting Goods. “It’s pretty clear that even though we have a large number of commercial vacancies now, most notably in a 40-year-old shopping mall, these retailers are not going into a mall. Their model is different. So what are we willing to do to recruit a retailer?”

“I think we have to be careful about giving the farm away,” said Mayor Shaun Musil, “but I think we’ve got to be looking at everything, not just retail.” Musil also mentioned high land prices which he said “seems like a big problem, whether it’s true or not. It’s all the city ever hears about (concerning commercial development.”)

Earlier this week the city announced it will give away the two acres it owns for development of a mixed-use facility between Fort Hays State University and downtown Hays. “I think it’s a great step forward,” Schwaller said.

Commissioner Sandy Jacobs cautioned against using a “broad brush format” to recruit retailers. “Everyone is going to have a different idea of what they want.”

She told commissioners the Salina Central Mall is losing its Dillard’s store and “they’re going to change how they look at the mall. They’re going to restructure that north end of the mall where Dillard’s was and it’s going to have outside entrances. … I think of Town Center in the southern part of Kansas City.”

“If we truly know a business wants to be here, we should be on their doorstep talking to them,” Jacobs emphasized. “We need to let them know we want them to come to our community.”

Schwaller asked if the city should send a representative to the national trade show of retailers. Commissioner Lance Jones suggested the city might create a new employee position to “do economic development and go recruit businesses.”

Jones was more concerned about a need for affordable housing. “People don’t want to bring their families here and live in houses that have been retrofitted for college kids, and that’s what our housing is. We don’t have apartments for families and we don’t have affordable houses.”

Vice-Mayor James Meier, the city’s representative on the Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development, was also concerned about “unrealistic” land prices. He had a larger question about slow population growth. “How do we grow our 20,000 population to reach 25,000 people,” Meier asked. “We’re a regional hub with a population that’s not quite large enough (to entice retailers) with a unemployment rate that hovers around three percent. You can look at those things in a positive light, but from a retail point, I think those things are not positive.”

Meier then brought up something city staff has talked about with the Hays Area Planning Commission, calling it “one of the best things we could do in the short term, and that’s to improve the north Vine corridor access.”

“It’s something we can actually do, that is within our realm, to open up access to businesses that are on Vine. By doing that it will open access to property that has not been developed, both north and south of the interstate.”

City Manager Toby Dougherty interjected with some good news.

“We finally this week got KDOT (Kansas Department of Transportation) approval for the roundabout concept we’ve been tweaking for the past year,” Dougherty told commissioners.

“We’ve already talked to the property owners along there. So, I think it’s time to find out what’s it going to cost to build this. It would dramatically increase access throughout the corridor.”

Dougherty has been monitoring traffic on Vine Street since demolition of the former Ambassador Hotel, 3603 Vine, began early this year. “It’s like the old ‘Frogger’ video game, trying to get out of the west side. That’s not sending a positive message to visitors.”

An update will be presented at next week’s regular meeting. The preliminary plan calls for creating three traffic roundabouts on north Vine Street.

Although Schwaller had asked at a meeting last month if the city wanted to help pursue development of a convention center, no mention was made of it Thursday.

 

By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

A new series on auto restoration called “Gear Dogs” on the Discovery Channel features one of Hays’ very own.

Lance Moland, a graduate of Hays High School, is a mechanic for car fanatic Nate Boyer and his shop Kultured Custom Restorations. Moland has been with the Gardner, Kansas, company since 2012.

This is the second series that has come out of the Kultured Custom shop. “Chop, Cut, Rebuild” aired on the MAVTV in 2016.

The latest series is based on a new venture from Moland’s boss, Boyer, which he has dubbed the “The Doghouse.” It is a community garage where professionals or “dogs” like Moland are teamed with hobbyists, who can rent space or cut the shop in a portion of the proceeds from a flip.

The shop provides the space, equipment and the know-how to help the hobbyists reach their restoration goals.

Moland said Boyer, who he called the bearded wonder, saw the business opportunity in what are being called condo garages when someone asked him for space to finish a restoration project. Similar businesses are popping up around the country.

“It is kind of country club for car enthusiasts,” Moland said. … “There are guys who just don’t have the space or quite the right tools to finish their project so it is just sitting in their garage. Why not give them a spot they can come in and rent or if they want to flip their vehicle, Nate can partner up on that.”

Moland, 32, does a little bit of everything around the shop. He strips the cars down, does metal and body work, repairs chaissis, and makes mechanical repairs.

“I can take a car from an old project to brand new condition, customized, restored or whatever start to finish,” he said.

He said he really loves his job.

“There is entirely too much stress in building cars from the ground up—customizing things, especially chaissis and safety stuff and suspension stuff,” he said. “There is so much stress that if you don’t love it, there are is no point in doing it.

“You see a lot of that coming through on the show. It seems like we joke around a lot, we joke and we laugh, but you have to. You have to have a hell of a sense of humor to put up with all of it.”

He started working as a small engine mechanic during high school at True Value in Hays. He did the auto technical program in high school and then graduated from v0-tech in 2005. He also worked for Mike Keller at Big Creek Restoration, which he said was the hardest job he had to leave. He moved to the Lawrence area, where his wife was hired to teach.

Since he started working for Boyer, he has worked on some unusual vehicles. Surprisingly the shop has worked on a number of British cars, including Triumphs and MGs. Victoria British, a major supplier of British restoration parts in the U.S. is located in Lenexa.

The first episode, which aired on Monday, featured a ’67 Plymouth Belvedere. The shop hopped it up and lifted the front end up with a straight axle. Moland said he had a lot of fun on that project and it was one of the favorite projects the shop built for the season.

This season you will also see a restoration of a 1980 Jeep Honcho, a model that viewers may recognize as the vehicle that gets thrown into the ditch in the movie “Twister.” A ’48 Chevy bread van will be transformed in one of the later episodes of season into a hot rod. Viewers can also tune in to an episode featuring  a 1956 Chevy Nomad.

It has taken about two years from the time the production company did the sizzle, which is basically what the production company shows to the network, until the show was ready to air. The show premiered on Discovery  Hays Eagle Channel 65, HD 665 Monday with shows continuing weekly at 9 p.m. Mondays.

The episodes that are airing now where shot in the spring of this year.

Shooting a TV series does add work to the shop. The mechanics still have to keep the work flowing at Kultured Custom and keep customers happy while working with TV crews.

Moland has put in some long hours to finish projects on time for the series, which can be challenging while trying to balance a family life.

Moland met his wife, Eryn Norton, in Hays. They have one small child with another on the way. The couple was in Hays over the holiday weekend visiting relatives.

Moland said he was a little hesitant about filming Gear Dogs at first.

“We saw the light,” he said. “It is a good opportunity for publicity and to have people see what we are doing and have some fun with it.”

 

 

As church grows, founding pastor also prepares to pass the torch

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Celebration Community Church will celebrate the dedication of a new worship center this weekend.

The church has just completed the third in a series of building projects at its building at 5790 230th Ave., Hays.

A new 550-seat worship center will include state-of-the-art sound and projection systems. The environmental projection system will allow the church to project images on three walls of the worship center for an encompassing multimedia experience.

“This is not your grandmother’s church,” Senior Pastor Kyle Ermoian said.

If the church wanted to turn the worship center to a stained-glass, gothic cathedral, it could do it. If someone always wanted to be married in the mountains, they can recreate a mountain top. The church has access to 10,000 images for its new projection system.

“We live in a media-driven society,” Ermoian said. “Unless the church mirrors that, it will fall behind, and we have found that has happened throughout the country. Celebration has always tried to stay on the cutting edge of contemporary Christian music, as well as contemporary up-to-date, state-of-the-art technology.

“The technology is used to reach this generation and the next in a way they can relate to. To reach the next generation, we have to speak the language of the next generation, and that is multimedia driven.”

The children’s area, which was the original worship area, has been remodeled and decorated with bright colors. During the week, the church offers Victory Christian Academy school program for pre-school through fifth-grade children. On Sunday, children’s church is offered for all services except the 8:30 a.m. worship. Children participate in a group worship with music and then break off into age-appropriate smaller groups for lessons, games, snacks and crafts.

Ermoian described stepping into the children’s area like stepping out of Kansas into the colorful world of Oz.

The rest of that area was remodeled into small-group areas and office space.

The lobby of the church has also been remodeled to give up to 100 church members opportunities to gather and socialize before and after services. The church has a speciality coffee/smoothie bar in the lobby, which will sell drinks with proceeds going to church missions.

Celebration began in 1996 with 14 people in a storefront in Hays. The church moved to its present location with a 13,000-square-foot building in 2001. A 15,000-square-foot addition was added in 2008, and the most recent three-year Faith Forward capital campaign added 16,000 square feet.

Ermoian said the new facilities were tools to help the congregation continue its mission to reach the estimated 20,000 unchurched residents within a 20-mile radius.

“The church is not a building,” Ermoian said. “The church is the people. Buildings are the tools to facilitate the growth of the people. It has always been our goal to attract people, to connect them, to grow them in their faith, to teach them to serve and send them to reach other people with the good news that we have been given.”

Celebration has a contemporary service at 8 a.m. on Sundays. It also has three services that are geared to the next generation that consist of contemporary Christian music with a live band and mutlimedia presentations. Those services, called the Edge, especially attract worshipers younger than 50.

The Edge services are at 5 p.m. Saturdays and 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sundays.

All services had been conducted in the church’s gymnasium due to space concerns, but that was never the intended use for the that part of the facility.

The church’s children’s ministry serves more than 100 children each weekend. The CrossCurrent ministry for middle school and high school students also serves about 100 youth. The church college and career program attracts more than 400 young adults every Wednesday night. In all, the church attracts more than 900 people to its Hays campus each weekend. The church also has a branch in Colby.

“Looking to continue to reach out to our community and beyond, we have developed a facility to accommodate that future growth,” Ermoian said.

After 21 years of serving the Hays church, Ermoian, 65, will retire to north Georgia at the end of October to be closer to his four grandchildren.

Brant Rice, who spent the last 17 years as youth pastor and teaching pastor, will assume the role as senior pastor. He will be assisted by Derek Mayfield, systems pastor. Rice and Mayfield spearheaded the current capital campaign.

Rice echoed Ermoian’s thoughts the church needed a place for people to connect and the lobby and coffee bar will help the church members do that. Rice is also looking forward to using the church’s new projection system.

“It will give a great aesthetic environment,” he said.  “We will be able to add creativity to worship, creativity in wedding and  collages during memorial services. Those are just some of the things we hope to draw into worship.”

Rice said he hopes to continue to move the congregation forward, but he has big shoes to fill.

“Pastor Kyle has done a phenomenal job meeting a need in community to provide a contemporary worship,” Rice said. “Above all things, we want to continue to attract unchurched people and help develop people to become mature followers of Christ.”

Ermoian said he has great confidence he is leaving the congregation in competent hands and great pride in seeing the latest building additions completed. He also hopes the new worship center and its multimedia experience will further help engage parishioners.

“There is great satisfaction in seeing the growth of Celebration over the last 21 years and the buildings we have raised money for, built on time and under budget,” he said.

A new sermon series will be kicked off during all services this weekend in dedication of the new facilities that focuses on the church as its people. The church will also celebrate with child dedications and an outdoor baptism service on Sunday.

Rice said the sermon series will focus on God’s purpose for the church.

“We are not to be holy huddle or a club or exclusive hub,” he said. “We are imperfect people and we want to help people learn what God’s purpose for their life is.”

For more information, contact the church at 785-625-5483.

Updated 10:36 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

“Land cost should not be an issue,” said Assistant City Manager Jacob Wood Tuesday as he announced the “West 10th Street Development.”

The city-owned property on the north side of West 10th between Elm and Ash Streets, plus a lease for adjacent parking, will be given to the developer selected by the city.

Requests for proposals (RFPs) are being sent out for the project to developers across Kansas. A link will also be available on the city’s website, www.haysusacom. “We’re excited about this here at the city,” Wood said during a news conference.

The location, just north of the railroad tracks and within easy walking distance of Fort Hays State University (FHSU) and the downtown Hays commercial district, was previously owned by Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR).

“We’re interested in any kind of mixed-use development, such as a retail store on the bottom floor and apartments up above, multi-family residential, or a commercial development,” Wood explained.

The city owns the 1.26 acre site, along with a 0.93 acre lease secured from UPPR for parking. It sits one block from the downtown Hays commercial district and a little more than one block from the FHSU campus.

According to Wood, the area historically was used for parking by the old railroad passenger train depot. As he understands it, the depot “just kind of disappeared overnight. Union Pacific tore it down without giving much notice to anybody (after it was no longer used.) The city did purchase that property and it’s really just been used for parking ever since.

“We want to develop as much of the site as possible. If the city were to require someone to put in a bunch of on-site parking, that means there’s less space for the building.  Since we have parking across the street (to the south), they don’t have to worry about that.

“The intent is to leave this thing as wide open as we can and see what we get,” said Wood.

The city has reserved the right to cancel the RFP or select none of the proposals submitted.

“We’re going to let the developer decide what to put there. City staff will review it and then the city commission will make a decision and some kind of agreement.”

Wood acknowledged high land prices in Hays can hinder development.

“People really complain about the price of land here. That’s the biggest thing we hear from outside developers is that the cost of land is too expensive. So this is an opportunity. The cost of land is pretty cheap if it’s free,” he said with a grin.

The city also thinks the land location is good, within one of the most visible corridors in the community.

“We’ll just have to see what the developers think, if that’s a good location, halfway between FHSU and downtown,” said Wood. “It’s gonna have to be something they want to do, what they think the market can bear, and also something the city commission thinks will work in that area.”

The property is in the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, an area eligible for property tax rebates on the increased value of the property once the project is complete.

Proposals will be accepted through Dec. 15, 2017.

TMP-Marian

TMP-Marian, along with the TMP-Marian Alumni Association are pleased to announce this year’s slate of homecoming candidates. These young men and women are among the many at our school that represent the ideals in the school’s mission statement: spiritual growth, academic excellence, and leadership formation. We are honored to have these students represent the student body at this year’s homecoming festivities.

This year’s TMP-Marian homecoming begins Thursday, Sept. 14 and wraps up at the homecoming banquet on Saturday, Sept. 16.

This year’s candidates are:

Creighton Renz and Anna Gottschalk – Creighton is the son of Shelton and Cheryl Renz and Anna is the daughter of Jude (Class of 1985) and Lora Gottschalk.

David McFarland and Ciara Seib – David is the son of Galen and Rose McFarland and Ciara is the daughter of Brent and Jessica Seib.

Trae Megaffin and Elly Lang – Trae is the son of Brad and Lisa Eisiminger and the late Rex Megaffin and Elly is the daughter of John (Class of 1990) and Stacey Lang.

Karl Rack and Anna Speno – Karl is the son of Marvin and Jennifer Rack and Anna is the daughter of Tim and Jessica Speno.

Gavin Schumacher and Halle Lang – Gavin is the son of Chris (Class of 1996) and Dana (Class of 1996) Schumacher and Halle is the daughter of Greg (Class of 1994) and LaNae (Class of 1994) Lang.