By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Rep. Eber Phelps (D-Hays) was back in the Hays City Commission chambers Thursday night with an update from the state legislature for his former commission colleagues.

Phelps prefaced his report with a general observation about the first half of the 2017 session.

“It was a little bit of a pleasant surprise, the collaborative effort that seems to be present in the building, a positive attitude,” Phelps said, calling it a “huge changeover” from when he last served as the 111th Dist. state representative in 2008 to 2012.

There are about 55 new members of the Kansas House.

“Subsequently, you have a lot of new ideas,” he said, noting many of the members are much younger than he. “A lot of the young folks are really fired up. They feel they’re part of the solution and some of us old guys feel we are too.

“You could tell by the vote on the tax bill which was really a tough vote for a lot of us. It had a lot of things in it that compelled me to vote for it including the rollback of the LLC (Limited Liability Corp.) loophole. It would bring some money in and that’s what we were looking at–every possible place to find some additional money.”

Phelps believes there are no good choices left when it comes to balancing the state’s budget.

“It seems like all the one-time money has been used up and I don’t think we can sweep any more money from KPERS (Kansas Public Employees Retirement System) or KDOT (Kansas Dept. of Transportation).” According to Phelps, there is just $42 million for state road maintenance in 2018.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed the tax plan. The House was able to override his veto by 85 votes; the Senate was three votes short of an override.

A new tax bill will have to be created after the Legislature reconvenes next week.

“I suspect it’s going to be very similar to the one passed by both the House and the Senate. The hope is the Governor will probably, even if he doesn’t want to sign it, leave it lay on his desk and it will become law after 10 days,” Phelps predicted.

The House also voted to expand Medicaid. The Senate has not yet voted on the bill.

“A lot of people are looking at that, not only for the healthcare coverage portion of it, but also for just what it would do to the budget,” said Phelps. “All you have to do is look at how much (federal) money has been missed out on had we implemented that at the very beginning, when it was possible with the Affordable Healthcare Act. Right now the count is somewhere around $1.9 billion. We probably wouldn’t have a lot of the tough budget decisions we have now had that been in place and that money come forward.”

Phelps also told the commissioners he plans to visit with freshman Congressman Roger Marshall (R-Great Bend) about the R-9 ranch, the long-term water resource plan for Hays and the region.

Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau

Special Olympics athletes from across Kansas are preparing for the annual Basketball & Cheerleading Competition at Gross Memorial Coliseum, Hays High School and Hays Recreation Center on March 16-18. Last year 1300 athletes competed on various basketball teams and cheerleading squads in the tournament, and event organizers are calling on the Hays community for volunteers – 450 of them.

“You do not have to be a basketball player to help,” Sheila Rehder, Games Chair, stated. “Volunteer training is offered at the event and does not require specialized skills or ability to shoot three-pointers. It just takes a big heart with a matching smile, a few hours, and the ability to hand out a lot of high fives to athletes.”

This year 150 games are scheduled to be played during the three-day competition. Volunteer options include being scorekeepers, timers, or “runners,” who take care of keeping teams together and taking them to different stations. Approximately 75 volunteers are needed on Thursday for scoring and timing at skill stations.

Tim Rehder, Senior Vice President of Program Operations, has been working with Special Olympics for 20 years. He even met his wife Sheila through Special Olympics.

“The support has been overwhelming for all the years we’ve been in Hays,” Rehder said. “We look forward to another event with the backing we get from the Hays community. The athletes say it’s one of their favorite trips of the year. They love getting out and spending 3 days in Hays.”

For specific information on volunteering, contact Clint Armistead at 800-444-9803 ext. 111 or [email protected]. Volunteer registration is also available online at www.ksso.org/volunteer.

The Kansas State Council of the Knights of Columbus is the Presenting Sponsor of the 2017 Tournament.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Although there were a few bumps along the way, the two new “Welcome to Hays” signs are finally going up along Interstate 70.

Footings for the huge 18′ by 10′ limestone signs were dug about 45 days ago by city workers. Tuesday, three 6′ by 10′ panels were moved into place on the south side of I-70 between Exit 157 and the Hall Street bridge. The sign will be seen by eastbound traffic approaching Hays.

The monument for westbound traffic will be placed Wednesday on the east side of Hays, north of I-70 and east of Commerce Parkway.

Tobin Rupe Stoneworks, Wichita, was the low bidder for the two signs for a total of $48,300, considerably less than the originally budgeted amount of $90,000. The money comes from the Convention and Visitors Bureau budget and is generated by the guest bed tax.

“I was a little nervous,” Rupe admitted Tuesday afternoon as his crew added filler between the stone panels and the base. “I’ve never set stones this big.”

The Flinthills limestone comes from Rupe’s farm near Eureka where he has a small stone quarry.

Rupe said he has put signs up all over Kansas and he “just had to put one up for my home school.”

He attended Fort Hays State University for three years in the mid-1980s and studied sculpture with Prof. Jim Hinkhouse and others in the art department. “There were some really good art teachers at FHSU at that time and I just got into stone carving. Then I realized we had stone on our farm and I had free stone at home to use.”

The Flinthills limestone Rupe uses is much denser than what has normally been used in Hays and the softer stone found in “Post Rock” country to the east in Russell and Ellsworth counties.

“It’s very hard,” Rupe said, and it’s also very heavy. The three pieces used in the west side monument weigh 9,000 pounds each for a combined 27,000 pounds total. Each panel is 10-inches thick. The east side marker will be a little larger with 13-inch-thick panels weighing about 30,000 pounds.

“It’s much harder to chisel but it lasts a heck of a lot longer–20 to 30 years,” Rupe said. “The inside of it is like granite.”

The slab stone was originally lying flat underground. “We basically unearthed the stone, cutting down about 14 feet into the hillside,” Rupe explained. “Then we cleared off a 50 foot area and just start pulling up slabs of stone until we get one that’s 12 foot by 14 foot so we can get a good panel out of the middle of it. There’s quite a bit of “scrap” left over, but it’s stone and it just goes back underground.”

The sign letters “WELCOME TO Hays” are hand-chiseled–one inch deep–and painted with black lithichrome, a paint specially formulated for outdoor use on stone. The simple artwork selected by city commissioners was designed by Scott Gross, an artist who has done other work for the city.

Hess Services of Hays was contracted to move the stone from Eureka to Hays and used a crane Tuesday afternoon to set the first three panels in place. The company also poured the concrete for both sign bases.

Each panel is supported by five 20-inch rebars going down into the concrete footing. The concrete was still wet late Tuesday afternoon at the first site. Rupe expected it would set up and become solid overnight. In the meantime, a number of timbers will stay lodged up against the front and back of the huge sign. “Just makes me feel better. I’ll sleep better tonight,” Rupe joked. “I don’t want to wake up and see my sign laying down on the ground.”

Rupe likes the “natural look” of the signs.

If you look closely at the sides, you can see the appearance of blue. “That’s the flint,” he pointed out. “On the outside, it’s yellow. It’s basically the same type of stone structure you have in Hays, but in the middle, it’s flint.”

And, as with other ancient limestone used in Hays, the new signs contain fossils. Rupe plans to share that information with Fort Hays State and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.

“We went through several different ideas and this one stood out the best with the city of Hays,” he recalled. “It was actually supposed to be straight on the sides and I just kind of wanted to make it look a little bit like Kansas. If you have a real big imagination, that’s Kansas,” Rupe said with a laugh. The top of the sign is uneven and the upper right side is carved away.

Rupe has some artwork placed in downtown Wichita and location signs in several Kansas towns. He’s even taught sculpture classes in New York City and made signs for the Bronx Zoo, but he’s always had his eye on Hays.

“This is fun. I’ve always wanted to do something for the school (FHSU) or for the city of Hays. When we found out they were wanting signs, I didn’t care what it was, I was going to get the job,” he laughed again.

“Standing here, you feel kind of small,” Rupp said.  “This was the biggest, but it’s not the last. This was a lot of fun.”

 

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

March is a month of everything from sports to live music to sesquicentennial celebrations in Hays.

Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Melissa Dixon has some of the highlights.

For an updated Calendar of Events in Hays, go to the CVB website www.visithays.com.

A list of events celebrating the sesquicentennial of historic Fort Hays is available here. 

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Following discussion about how much low- to middle-come housing is currently available in Hays, city commissioners last week agreed to support a proposed 48-unit income-qualified housing development in south Hays.

Overland Property Group, Leawood and Salina, hopes to build “The Reserves at StonePost,” with two- and three-bedroom apartments, on the site of the former Fort Hays Trailer Park, 618 E. Fifth. OPG has built three similar StonePost rental properties on South Main near Larks Park.

The resolution of support from the city is just the first step in applying for federal tax credits from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation, a process which OPG Vice President of Development Matt Gillam called “highly competitive.”

“We’re talking about a $6 million development cost for affordable housing. It generates a lot of economic activity, not only in the city itself, but around the region. Each state is given a certain amount of tax credits and they are allowed to allocate them based on where they believe the needs are in the state,” Gillam explained.

“In Kansas, you have a pretty limited resource pool. You can fund six to eight developments. Hays is going to be competing with Kansas City, Topeka, Overland Park, Wichita and Manhattan, all in the running for these same funds.”

According to Gillam, there were 50 applications in 2016; eight were approved.

“We’ve done pretty well in the past to get Phases 1, 2 and 3 in Hays funded, but it’s not a walk in the park,” he said.

OPG would also ask the city for a Rural Housing Incentive District (RHID).

An RHID works to reimburse the developer for eligible infrastructure expenses over a 15-year period, capturing 100 percent of the incremental increase in real property taxes created by a housing development project.

Mayor Shaun Musil called the proposed project a “good idea in an area of town that’s in pretty rough shape.” But Musil also had a major concern.

“We have a lot of vacancies in town right now,” he pointed out.

“It would concern me if I saw a problem,” Gillam said, “which I don’t see right now. This is something that wouldn’t open until August 2018, at the earliest. I think the market will be better by then.

“We have done our own analysis and model, and paid third-party consultants to do this research. I’m not going to drop a $6 million hard-cost facility into a community if I know I can’t fill it.

“We have seen in the city of Hays an unhealthy rate of occupation over the past eight to 10 years. People have gotten used to it and they think that’s normal. There has to be some vacancy in the market, so that if somebody moves into town there’s a place for them to move into. If there’s nothing for them to move into and everything has a waiting list, they’re going to say no to that job offer…we’ve seen this in a lot of western Kansas towns.”

Musil was also concerned about what the proposed development might do to local owners of rental property.

“We have a housing study out. When we get that back, it may affect my thinking,” he said.

Commissioner Sandy Jacobs concurred, adding “I think it’s critical we look at unintended consequences of any kind of activity like this.”

Commissioner Lance Jones declared affordable housing the “No. 1 issue” in Hays.

“A lot of my colleagues choose to live in places like Ellis or Walker,” he said. “One guy even drives in all the way from Palco because he doesn’t want to pay the price of housing in Hays.”

Jones commended OPG on the quality and success of StonePost Phases 1, 2 and 3.

“These things are currently income-based and will fall off of having to be income-based. We need something there to replace these as things cycle in and out.” StonePost Phases 1, 2 and 3 are a 15-year compliance period. Phase 1 was built in 2006. In 2021, it will revert to regular housing and can be rented to anyone. Phase 4 would be a 30-year compliance period.

“I hope this isn’t the last project you look at here in Hays,” Jones told Gillam, “and I welcome other developers too.”

Longtime Hays real estate broker Doug Williams addressed the commission about his concerns of overbuilding in a declining economy with downturns in the oil and agriculture sectors.

“These guys (OPG) do a great job, but they’re not playing on a level playing field. Subsidized properties always rent. I hope we look at the housing survey properly because, if we don’t, I think there’s going to be some consequences,” Williams cautioned.

“If we’re going to have an RHID, we’re going to have a concise, good study that’s going to give us the kind of information we need, and I’ll guarantee you that,” Jacobs assured Williams, who thanked her.

Williams estimated there are currently at least 150 empty housing units in Hays with 50 new units under construction. Aaron White, executive director of the Ellis Co. Coalition for Economic Development, disagreed with those numbers. Both men said they talked to local housing owners and builders.

Two owners with multiple holdings told White their properties were full or nearly full. “There were a few indications it’s getting a little harder to fill the spaces and they’re having to get a little more aggressive in their marketing,” White reported.

Following the 4-0 vote in favor of the OPG support letter, Vice-Mayor James Meier said Commissioner Henry Schwaller, who was absent Thursday, last week said he “supported the development. He’s a large property owner in the community and has a lot of rentals, and he (Schwaller) supports it.”

The winners of the state tax credit housing proposals will be announced June 1.

OPG has a similar project, “The Reserves at Trail Ridge”, underway in Great Bend. Framing was scheduled to start this week.

Kansas Adjutant General

President Donald Trump has granted Gov. Sam Brownback’s request for a federal disaster declaration for 18 Kansas counties affected by a severe winter ice storm that struck the state Jan. 13 to 16. Brownback submitted his request through the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Feb. 13.

Counties named in the declaration are Barton, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Ellsworth, Ford, Hodgeman, Jewell, Kiowa, Meade, Ness, Pawnee, Pratt, Rush, Seward, Sheridan, Stafford and Trego. Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.

The declaration allows county governments to apply for Public Assistance funds for emergency work and the repair or replacement of disaster-damaged facilities. It also activates the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program statewide for actions taken to prevent or reduce long term risk to life and property from natural hazards.

ELLIS COUNTY

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and the Ellis County Health Department (ECHD) have identified one confirmed case of mumps in an Ellis County, Kansas resident. ECHD is working with KDHE to determine where the person may have contracted the disease.

Mumps is a contagious disease caused by a virus. After the introduction of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, mumps became less common in the United States. From year to year, mumps cases can range from roughly a couple hundred to a couple thousand. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 4,258 cases have been reported in the U.S. as of December 3, 2016, and seven states have reported more than 100 cases.

Mumps outbreaks are ongoing in the nearby states of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

Mumps typically starts with a few days of fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, and loss of appetite, followed by swollen salivary glands. Mumps can occasionally cause complications,including inflammation of the testicles or ovaries, meningitis, or encephalitis. Most people with mumps recover completely in a few weeks. Mumps spreads through saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose, or throat.

An infected person can spread the virus by
 coughing, sneezing, or talking,
 sharing items, such as cups or eating utensils, with others, and
 touching objects or surfaces with unwashed hands that are then touched by others.

Mumps likely spreads two days before the salivary glands begin to swell and up to five days after the swelling begins.

First and foremost, if you think you or a family member have the symptoms of mumps listed above and you need to visit your healthcare provider, call ahead so appropriate measures can be taken to protect other patients and staff. The Ellis County Health Clinic will arrange for you to be seen in an environment to minimize exposure of others to the disease.

In addition to staying away from others when you have mumps, you can help prevent the virus from spreading by:
 Covering your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, and put your used
tissue in the trash can. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve or
elbow, not your hands.
 Washing your hands often with soap and water.
 Avoiding sharing drinks or eating utensils.
 Disinfecting frequently touched surfaces, such as toys, doorknobs, tables, counters.

MMR vaccine prevents most, but not all, cases of mumps and complications caused by the disease.

People who have received two doses of the MMR vaccine are about nine times less likely to get mumps than unvaccinated people who have the same exposure to mumps virus. However, some people who receive two doses of MMR can still get mumps, especially if they have prolonged, close contact with someone who has the disease. If a vaccinated person does get mumps, they will likely have less severe illness than an unvaccinated person.

“The best way to reduce your chance of getting the disease is by being vaccinated. Protect children by making sure they have the MMR vaccine when they are 12 to 15 months old, and again before they enter kindergarten,” said Kerry McCue, Ellis County Health Department Director.

If someone was born after 1957 and has not received the recommended dose of the MMR vaccine, you can contact the Ellis County Health Department (785) 628-9440 or your primary care provider.

The Ellis County Health Department is working closely with KDHE and our local healthcare partners to monitor those individuals affected by this case and to identify contacts that may need to receive medical evaluation.

More information on mumps is available at:
https://www.kdheks.gov/epi/disease_investigation_guidelines.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/mumps/about/

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Hays Finance Director Kim Rupp reviewed the city’s 2016 Comprehensive Financial Management Policy during last week’s commission work session. Commissioner Henry Schwaller called it a “‘State of the City’ address, without the politics.”

Rupp reported “the city was able to fulfill the requirement in 2015 and again in 2016 of maintaining a 10% unreserved fund balance and a 25% budget stabilization fund for the General Fund.”

The total General Fund expenditures ended 2016 $700,000 under budget. The newly formed City Commission Capital Reserves captures these funds for future projects and pays cash to complete them rather than increasing costs by bonding.

Hays is the only city in Kansas which uses sales tax revenues solely to finance its General Fund.

There are 13 categories in the Comprehensive Financial Management Policy:

1. Fund Balances and Reserves
2. Budgeting
3. Revenues
4. Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and Fixed Assets
5. Debt Management
6. Cash Management and Investment
7. Enterprise Fund Management
8. Accounting, Auditing and Financial Reporting
9. Risk Management
10. Procurement
11. Intergovernmental Revenues
12. Economic Development
13. Policy Review

Schwaller asked Rupp what 2017 may look like “if we continue the (declining) sales tax trend we’ve had. Have we built a budget that can withstand that?”

In the 2017 city budget document, it is noted sales taxes have been trending downward for the past year.

“We were pretty conservative when we built that budget, when we projected off 2016,” Rupp answered. “We can withstand some more declines in sales taxes–two to three percent. Based off what 2015 did, projecting off 2016 and predicting for 2017, we saw some positives. We budgeted a little bit of an increase off what 2015 did. We’re hoping some of the development around town will help that.”

Still, Rupp was cautious.

“We’re going to have to keep a close eye on it,” he acknowledged. “We’ve built enough reserves in. We have enough room we can weather those storms without eating into that 10 percent, I think. Maybe those take away from the transfer into commission reserves, but certainly I think we’ve built enough in we can weather a storm.”

“In 2005, we had $18 million in the bank,” recalled long-time commissioner Schwaller, “and all of it was dedicated to water exploration. Very little reserves, if any at all. We couldn’t buy a copier for the city manager’s office; we didn’t have the money. Anything we bought we had to issue debt. It was projected that by this time we’d have so much debt the mill levy would be over 40.”

The mill levy in 2005 was 34.4. The 2017 mill levy is 25. It has not increased for a number of years–a high priority goal and directive of city staff and the city commission.

“Because of a good city manager, good staff, and a commission that stuck to its guns, we’ve been able to steer over $50 million into reserves,” Schwaller said. “This is a great report and I want to thank everybody who made it possible.”

The newest commissioner, Sandy Jacobs, has been touring all the city departments and learning how they are managed and budgeted.

“I was very impressed our employees’ knowledge and the stewardship of our money,” Jacobs added. “Along with that, City Manager Toby Dougherty does a great job managing those folks.”

Mayor Shaun Musil and Commissioner Lance Jones were absent from the work session. Vice-Mayor James Meier presided over the meeting.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

An area of south Hays that has long been the scene of city code violations is the site of proposed new income-qualified housing by the Overland Property Group (OPG), Leawood.

The developer has already built three phases of StonePost multi-family housing near the Hays Aquatic Park.

Matt Gillam, OPG vice-president of development, said the area around the former Fort Hays Trailer Park, 615 E. 5th, needs more revitalization.

“It’s been very difficult for us to find a site that meets all our stringent qualifications,” Gillam told Hays City Commissioners during their work session last week. “We feel our investment there, about $6 million in hard construction costs, will really do a lot to start this neighborhood in a revitalization process.”

OPG has an option contract on the land which expires in Dec.

“The Reserves at StonePost Phase 4 will be a stand-alone complex with its own clubhouse, and a different building style which is a little bit more refined, which we think will fit the community even better than the other phases have,” Gillam said. The development, sitting just north of the Highway 183 Bypass, will be fenced with a gated access entry.

The property is currently nearly vacant with a few abandoned house trailers and storage buildings still on site. “The view from the bypass will be a lot different than it is now,” he added.

The site plan is still very preliminary and “will change as we talk to city staff,” Gillam pointed out. Adding to the revitalization of the area would be a walk-bridge between the housing development and ball parks to the west. Gillam said OPG would contribute half the costs of building the structure. “We think that’s kind of important in connecting these neighborhoods and helping the revitalization…we’re investing $6 million and betting on a neighborhood and hoping we can help turn it around.”

Commissioner Sandy Jacobs said she was pleased OPG’s property choice. “That’s a gateway to our community, and, as we all know, today it’s not very lovely.” Jacobs also liked the idea of a bridge over the water draw. “That’s really an attractive point to me. At some point, it’d be nice for the city to finish the bike path all the way down through there,” she suggested.

A substantial amount of the construction work would be done by Hays contractors using local suppliers. Gillam noted the land is located within the flood plain and a lot of fill dirt would have to be brought in.

As part of the process in applying for Kansas Housing Resources Corporation low-income housing tax credits, OPG requires a Resolution of Support from the city, which city staff is recommending.

“With this type of financing, it’s affordable housing. These tenants are people with jobs, working class,” Gillam explained.

“We have a very strict timeline because of the way this program works. It’s a highly competitive process. Hays getting this money would be a very big deal because there’s only a fixed amount of money out there.”  If the tax credits are awarded, construction would begin in mid-October with a grand opening planned for April, 2018.

Gillam told city commissioners his group has “developed, built and owned” similar housing in six states and “not sold a single property since Day 1 in 2004. That’s a little bit different than other developers who are a kind of ‘turn and burn’-type model which is really the opposite of us.”

He also noted the same woman has been property manager for StonePost Phases 1, 2 and 3 in Hays since they were built starting in 2006.

Commissioners will consider signing the letter of support at their meeting Thursday night.

See the complete Feb. 23 agenda here.

National FFA week is Feb. 18 to 25. Eagle TV crews traveled northwest Kansas recently to speak with FFA members in a special series of interviews.