Beginning Monday, Elm Street between Sixth and Eighth streets will be restricted to southbound traffic only with no parking or alley access. The curb and brick repair project is scheduled to be completed within one week, pending weather conditions.
Signs will be in place to direct the traveling public. The traveling public should use caution and if possible, avoid this area.
For more information, call the Office of Project Management at 628-7350 or the contractor, J-Corp, at 628-8101.
In the U.S., there are almost five million people with mild to moderate dementia, and studies show that about 70 percent are at home, either alone or with a caregiver, often a spouse. If people with mild to moderate dementia can stay home safely, this would save Medicare and Medicaid a great deal of taxpayer money. More importantly, this would provide those people affected with dementia their preferred environment. Indeed, it is important to allow all people the chance to stay at home whenever possible.
A 2013 Johns Hopkins report studied more than 250 people with dementia living at home and found that 99 percent of the demented and 97 percent of their caregivers had at least one unmet need. The foremost unmet need was defined by safety issues such as poor lighting in walkways which increased the risk of falling. Other needs that were not being met in this study included not performing regular exercise, poor follow-up with health care providers, not having prepared legal and estate planning and not receiving help with medications and some activities of daily living. Researchers found that those with lower income, with depression and with borderline rather than severe dysfunction had significantly more unmet needs.
When there were at-home caregivers for these folks with early dementia, the caregivers were often not aware of these deficiencies. In addition, the needs of the caregivers were often ignored or unrecognized. Remarkably, at-home caregiver stress and depression were some of the strongest predictors for an earlier move of the person with dementia to the nursing home.
Methods to enhance a person’s chance of staying at home are not difficult. Preparation for legal issues and estate planning should be done early and BEFORE the loss of memory. Other methods include providing raised toilet seats, grab bars in the bath and bedroom, properly tacked down carpets, good nighttime lighting in walkways and proper day and nighttime footwear. Researchers also advise providing enhanced support for caregivers with education about community support available such as social services, occupational therapy and caregiver support groups. In addition, screening and treatment of any caregivers’ depression, should be provided. This would go a long way in helping people stay at home as they age.
Bottom line: Most of us, and our families, are not prepared for the possibility of dementia as we age. If we prepare, we greatly improve our chances for staying at home.
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HAYS – The final day of the AA/AAA State American Legion baseball tournament produced three dramatic finishes, including a pair of walk-off wins, and when all way said and done Saturday it was Emporia Post 5 claiming the state championship with a 7-5 win over the Hays Eagles at Larks Park in Hays.
Dustin Schumacher postgame interview
In the first semifinal of the day the Sabetha scored three early runs and lead the Hays Eagles 4-2 heading into the bottom seventh but Hays got back-to-back walks to open the frame and then Trey Riggs singled in a pair of run to tie the game at two. Then, following a sacrifice bunt Brady Kreutzer delivered a walk-off RBI single giving Hays the 5-4 win.
In the second semifinal game Emporia and Iola battled for 11 innings before Jace Stewart singled in the game-winning run in a 3-2 Emporia win.
That set up the state championship game between the host Eagles and Emporia. The Eagles beat Emporia in the second game of pool play on Thursday and Emporia beat the Eagles in a tournament in Emporia earlier this season.
The Eagles, as the visiting team, struck for two runs in the first inning. With the bases loaded Brady Kreutzer doubled to left field to give Hays a 2-0 lead. Emporia answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning tying the game at two.
After a pair of scoreless innings Tate Garcia and Cody Petersen drove in a pair of runs on back-to-back RBI singles in the fourth to give Hays a 4-2 lead.
Kreutzer drove in his third run of the game with he second run scoring double in the fifth putting Hays up 5-2.
Emporia’s Beau Baumgardner hit a two-run homerun in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Hays lead to 5-4.
In the sixth inning, with Hays still clinging to a one run lead it appeared that Eagles starter Tate Garcia had recorded a strikeout of Cade Kohlmeier to end the inning. But the third base umpire overturned the home plate umpire’s call of a strikeout swinging. He ruled that Kohlmeier foul-tipped the pitch. With the extra chance Kohlmeier singled two pitches later starting a rally that was capped off by a three-run double by Hayden Baumwart that gave Emporia a 7-5 lead.
In the top of the seventh inning Hays got the tying run aboard with no outs but were unable to push across a run in the inning as the Eagles fell to Emporia 7-5.
Tate Garcia suffered the loss for Hays, he allowed seven runs on seven hits with six strikeouts in 5.2 innings.
TREGO COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just after 11a.m. Saturday in Trego County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2000 GMC pickup driven by Phyllis Jean Parke, 46, WaKeeney, was eastbound on county road T just east of Trego Center.
The driver lost control on the soft shoulder, entered ditch and rolled.
Eagle Med airlifted Parke to the hospital in Hays. She was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
The Hays Cheer Association is currently having sign-ups for the 2019 football season. HCA is open to first- through sixth-grade students and is open to the public. Hays Cheer Association is coached by Jenny Linenberger and Holly Linenberger. This is the squad’s second year.
Open registration
Registration fees are $125, which include cheerleading gear.
The kids will cheer for the Hays Football Association, which is the Hays Oilers traveling football team. Although they are a traveling football team, the squad will only cheer at home games.
The squad is excited to announce that this year it will be have a mini cheer camp with the Ellis High School Cheerleaders on Sunday, Aug. 18.
The Ellis High School Cheerleaders hold the titles of All American Cheerleaders, 2017 Game Day Cheer Showcase KSHSAA Champions, 2018 Game Day Cheer Showcase KSHSAA Champions and 2019 UCA Camp Champions.
The squad’s first game is Sept. 7.
Most of the games are on Saturdays and are at Hays Middle School. Playoff games will take place at Fort Hays State University. The squad members will perform at the playoff games at Fort Hays State University.
The Oilers Cheerleaders will participate in the Hays High School Homecoming Parade and the Fort Hays State University Parade.
Along with participating in the parades, the squad members will perform at the annual Downtown Hays Christmas Tree Lighting.
In the Hays Cheer Association Program, the members learn cheers, stunts, dances, jumps and performance material. Along with this, they learn sharpness and motion techniques. The cheer squad provides the tools to increase cheerleading skills. It also allows the members the opportunity to build fundamental life skills and relationships that last a lifetime, while having fun.
If you are interested and want to join the squad, follow the squad’s Facebook page, where the squad’s registration link is available.
The closing date for registration is Aug. 8. First Practice will be Aug. 10.
Registration fees, signed waivers are due and fittings will take place on Saturday, Aug. 17.
Officer Ryan Blecha hands out chips to hungry swimmers at the Hays Aquatic Park during Thursday’s HPD Community Night Out.
BY BECKY KISER Hays Post
As usual, Hays police officer Ryan Blecha was on duty Thursday evening, but this shift did not require a patrol vehicle or even the official uniform.
This duty called for wearing shorts and a special T-shirt as Blecha manned the chip station in the food line for the Hays Police Department’s “Community Night Out” at the Hays Aquatic Park (HAP).
“He’s very important,” laughed Mackenzie Blecha, Ryan’s wife.
Mackenzie and Gentry Blecha
Mackenzie and daughter Gentry, 18 months, were some of the Hays police officers’ family members enjoying the fourth annual event. It included free swimming for everyone and a hot dog or hamburger meal for the first 1,000 people.
Gentry loves swimming, according to Mackenzie. “She’s been a water bug since she was six months old. She just goes and goes and goes, doesn’t care how cold it is.”
The Blecha family goes swimming together every couple of weekends when Ryan is off, but this weekday was a special experience.
“I think it’s important for us to show up also because we’re not only supporting him but were supporting the community and supporting the pool.
“I think it’s good for these guys to be out here and show their softer side,” Mackenzie said with a smile. “They get to communicate with everybody in an informal way.”
No waiting in line for Gentry as her dad hands her chips.
Ryan Blecha has been on the Hays police force for two and half years. “We moved here in March 2017 and then found out two weeks later we were having Gentry,” Mackenzie laughed again. “It’s in the Hays water,” she quipped.
Ryan is originally from Norton and Mackenzie is from Hoxie. She’s a dental assistant at Lifetime Dental Care. Mackenzie will be back at the pool Tuesday at 1 p.m. with her Lifetime Dental team. “We’re going to hand out Popsicles to all the kids just for a little fun summer freebie.”
Prior to joining HPD, Ryan served five years in the Marine Corps as a military police officer.
Mackenzie says the Marine Corps prepped her for the sleepless nights that come with being the wife of a law enforcement official.
“We did a seven month deployment so this was just kind of cake after that.
“Night shift is just a little bit harder. That’s another reason we’re down here today because we want to get every ounce of him that we can. He will start back on night shift in September so we’ll be missing him a little bit. It’ll be more of the single parent life.”
Hays police officers rotate between day and night shifts every four months.
City commissioners Eber Phelps and Shaun Musil
Several city officials also enjoyed Community Night Out, including city commissioners Eber Phelps, Ron Mellick and vice-mayor Shaun Musil.
Phelps joked he was glad the event had not been scheduled for Wednesday when the high temperature in Hays was 107 degrees. Thursday’s high was 92 degrees.
Attendees also got to check out a HPD patrol cars, the SSRT (Special Situation Response Team) van and some of the gear used by the police.
“Community Night Out” is sponsored by the city of Hays, Walmart, Hays Recreation Commission, Pepsi of Hays, Heartland Building Center, Fraternal Order of Police Hays Lodge 48, Phaze 2 and Nex-Tech.
The LPN Program at NCK Tech – Beloit Campus has recently been ranked No. 2 in the state of Kansas by www.practicalnursing.org.
The website looked at nineteen schools, which included community colleges, technical colleges and private career schools in the state of Kansas.
Criteria for ranking included NCLEX-PN exam first time pass rate over the past several years. NCK Tech’s overall score listed was 98.71. The overall pass rate for the Beloit program has been 100% for the past several years.
The college has two campus locations – Beloit and Hays with both campus locations offering the LPN program. The Hays campus also offers an RN/ADN program. “At NCK Tech, practical nursing students receive training to perform nursing intervention with precision and efficiency consistent with current evidence-based practices,” stated www.practicalnursing.org. “Nursing professionals provide nursing theory instruction in the classroom, lab and at clinical sites.”
For a ranking of Kansas LPN programs and additional information regarding LPN programs in the state, read the complete article on www.practicalnursing.org. To learn more about NCK Tech’s nursing programs, visit www.ncktc.edu.
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
Could the extension service do for health what it has done for agriculture through the years? During the past century, American agriculture – with assistance from agricultural research and extension – has been transformed from subsistence farming to an agricultural system that is the envy of the world. Could similar progress occur in the health arena? To do so would require a deep cultural change that would value health as a priority. In short, we might say it requires a culture of health.
Dr. Paula Peters is associate director of extension programs for K-State Research and Extension. The term “extension” refers to the state- and county-based educational outreach programs which extend helpful research results from the nation’s land-grant universities to the public.
“For years, (extension) has done work on nutrition, foods, and physical activity,” Paula said. In a larger sense, extension has worked to support the health of families, farms and communities since the extension service was founded in 1914.
In 2014, the national Extension Committee on Policy supported the development of a national framework for extension work in public and community health. That report included the aspirational statement that extension could do for health what it has done for agriculture.
In Kansas, even before that time, the Kansas Health Foundation provided an endowment to support extension work in health. Those funds supported an Office of Community Health for several years.
“We wanted to build the capacity of our local extension agents to work in the health area,” Paula said. Funds were redirected to support grass-roots health-related extension initiatives.
Peters
This initiative reflected the fact that a deep, cultural commitment to health was needed. The initiative was called Culture of Health. “People think of improving physical health, but we are looking more broadly than that,” Paula said. “It’s also mental health, financial health, the health of the community itself.”
The initiative began with a series of facilitated community conversations with extension professionals and community partners around health issues. Then grants were offered to county and district extension units. The grant applications required that a local needs assessment be completed and that the work be implemented through collaborative coalitions.
In February 2019, K-State Research and Extension awarded $170,000 in grants for 32 projects in 51 counties across the state. These supported multiple kinds of health-related projects, such as healthy food access, physical activity, mental well-being, anti-poverty, and much more. Because they were implemented through local coalitions, agencies worked together in beneficial ways.
As a person who loves a good acronym, I appreciated projects with titles like Johnson County EATS – Easy, Affordable Tasty Solutions, Atchison County’s BOOK – Believing in Opportunities for Our Kids – and Meade County’s CATCH – Coordinated Approach To Community Health. Meade is a rural community of 1,721 people. Now, that’s rural.
Beyond the, um, catchy titles, this work dealt with serious, long-term issues. For example, the Marais des Cygnes Extension District worked on suicide prevention and mental health intervention. The Twin Creeks Extension District worked on a produce buying incentive program for low income buyers at a local farmer’s market.
In addition, the state extension team sponsored adult mental health first aid training for more than 100 extension professionals in spring 2019. “We’re not counselors but we can connect people to the resources they need.”
Another training was held in June 2019 on policy systems and environment. “We need to do more policy work to assure that healthy behaviors are supported and sustainable,” Paula said.
Most of all, this has led to a new level of collaboration on health issues. “It’s been fun to watch our agents reach to their collaborators and also each other,” Paula said.
Can extension do for health what it has done for agriculture? If Paula and her team have their way, it will. We commend Paula Peters, her specialists, and all those extension agents who are making a difference by improving our healthy behaviors. They remind us that health isn’t just going to the doctor. This is about a culture of health.
And there’s more. Next week we’ll learn about a local initiative for a basket-full of health.
By RANDY GONZALEZ FHSU University Relations and Marketing
It began as a training ground at Fort Hays State University for young western Kansas band students back in the 1940s, and it’s still going strong as one of the state’s music education leaders.
The High Plains Music Camp now also offers a week of summer instruction for middle school and high school orchestra and vocal students. It serves as a recruiting tool for the university as well.
Dr. Ivalah Allen, associate professor of music at FHSU and the camp’s director, estimated as many as half of the students in attendance enroll at FHSU in a variety of majors.
Luis Valencia, a Fort Hays State sophomore-to-be from Leoti, is majoring in music education and vocal performance. He attended two High Plains camps while in high school and served as a counselor this year. Attending the camps factored into his decision to choose FHSU.
“I’m really happy I chose Fort Hays State,” he said. “I feel like all the faculty are basically family to me, and they are mentors to me. It just feels right being here.”
A lot of other students feel the same way. Each summer, several students complete seven years at the camp.
This year, about 220 participants learned from 21 counselors, many of them former students at the camp. For those in orchestra and band, students range from sixth grade to current high school graduates. Vocal students can begin attending the camp the summer before entering high school.
Even as the 72nd annual event was winding down in mid-July, Allen was busy preparing for next year’s event as well as the big 75th annual camp down the road. She wants to welcome back former students and camp instructors for the event’s diamond anniversary.
The camp was founded in 1947 by former Fort Hays State band director Harold G. Palmer because there was no outlet for youth musicians to learn during the summer. At first it was solely a band camp, and orchestra and vocal students were added over the years.
Students from all across Kansas and neighboring states converge on the FHSU campus for instruction and to give performances in all three areas of concentration. Several of the instrumental and vocal instructors brought in each year are FHSU graduates. Allen said she knows of no other camp like it.
“It’s not just how they individually grow,” Allen said. “They take this back to their schools with the knowledge that they have gained. It’s an amazing opportunity.”
A limited number of scholarships are available, focused on both ability and need. Allen said she just hopes to break even financially each year.
“This is strictly for us to train young musicians,” she said, “not for us to make money as a department.”
The Dane G. Hansen Museum announced its 5th Annual 5K Run/2 Mile Fun Walk will be in conjunction with the 46th Annual Arts & Crafts Fairon Saturday, Aug. 17, 2019, at the Dane G. Hansen Museum in Logan, Kansas.
All entry fees will be donated to Phillips County Hospice Services. Entry fees are $20 for adults and $10 for youth 15 and under.
Check-in and T-shirt pick up starts at 7 a.m. on the corner of Douglas and Main in front of the museum. The 5K run will begin at 8 a.m. with the 2-mile walk to follow at 8:15 a.m. Paid registrations received by Aug. 5, receive a free T-shirt.
Prizes awarded to each divisions’ top male and female finishers. For more information, contact the Dane G. Hansen Museum at 785-689-4846. This event is sponsored by the Dane G. Hansen Museum with funds from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation.
The Dane G. Hansen Museum is open 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays and holidays. It is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
The Museum is handicapped accessible and admission is always free thanks to the generous support of the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. For more information, call 785-689-4846.
The City of Liebenthal is seeking one or more individuals to fill the following part time positions. A valid driver’s license is required. Individuals seeking to fill multiple positions will be given priority in hiring.
MAINTENANCE/MOWING POSITION – Knowledge of operation and maintenance of mowers, tractors, chainsaws, trimmers, etc. Will be responsible for maintaining streets and city properties. Ability to
maintain equipment is also necessary. $400.00/month
WASTEWATER OPERATOR – Lift station and Sewer System maintenance. Must have a Small Systems Waste Water operator license or willing to test within one year of start date. Yearly training to maintain wastewater license will also be required. $400/month
WATER OPERATOR – Must have a Small Systems Water Operator License or willing to test within one year of start date. Training every two years (or as regulated by the KDHE) is also required. Some water operator duties include: Clean and monitor well houses, collect water samples, monthly residential meter readings, assist with water repairs, flush fire hydrants, etc. $400/month.
Anyone interested is asked to submit inquiries and contact information to [email protected] or by calling 785-259-8778.
Scroll to the bottom for a map of garage sale locations. Hays Post offers FREE garage sale listings weekly. Having a garage sale next weekend? Click HERE to submit your information.
3905 Fairway Dr. Hays
August 2nd – 3pm-8pm and August 3rd – 8am-11am
-Furniture
-Home decor
-Men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing
-Shoes
-Jewelry, hats, bags, etc
-Kitchen items
-Children toys, books and movies
-Blankets, pillows, and comforters
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3194 Olympic Lane, Hays
Friday, August 2nd, 3-7pm; Saturday, August 3rd, 8am-1pm
Furniture, antiques, kitchen, lawn/garden, tools, hobby gear, and so much more!
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211 E. 29th, Hays
Friday, Aug. 2, 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. & Saturday, Aug. 3, 8:00 a.m.-Noon
Household & decorative items, kitchen items, tons of $1 DVDs, Gameboy/gameboy games/DS games, Ipad, clothing (little girls’ size 2-6; teen girls; women’s small to plus size; boys pre-teen/teen; & men’s), shoes, US Army digicamo, sports misc. (including water sports & golf balls), grills, books, toys & games, and much more!
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119 W 38th, Hays
Friday, August 2 Noon – 7 pm – Saturday, August 3 – 8 am – 1 pm
FOUR FAMILY SALE – Lots of furniture – bedroom set (queen), chairs, desks, window AC units, TV cabinet, etc., toys, baby clothes, baby bouncer, stroller, Little Tykes race car toddler bed, adult men & women clothes, purses, shoes, Christmas decor, books, clothes rack, ironing board, DVDs, VHSs, lots of misc.
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3005 Tam O’Shanter, Hays
Aug. 2 9:00-7:00, Aug. 3 9:00-12:00
Saturday
Hays-area garage sales