ELLIS – Ellis city council members will consider approving an ordinance during their meeting Monday night that would establish small cell antenna aesthetic standards as well as approval of a resolution to establish fees for installation of wireless facilities.
In other business, an update on the the campground expansion project will be provided and revisions will be considered to the new business utility incentive policy.
The complete agenda follows.
AGENDA
January 7, 2019
REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF ELLIS
City Hall – Council Meeting Room
BILLS ORDINANCE REVIEW WORK SESSION BEGINS AT 7:00 P.M.
ROLL CALL AND MEETING CALL TO ORDER AT 7:30 P.M.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
AMENDMENTS TO AGENDA (if needed)
CONSENT AGENDA
Minutes from Regular Meeting on December 17, 2018
Bills Ordinance #2060
November Manual Journal Entries
(Council will review for approval under one motion under the consent agenda. By majority vote of the governing body, any item may be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately)
PUBLIC COMMENTS
(Each speaker will be limited to five minutes. If several people from the group wish to speak on same subject, the group must appoint a spokesperson. ALL comments from public on agenda items must be during Public Comment. Once council begins their business meeting, no more comments from public will be allowed.)
PRESENTATIONS OF AWARDS, PROCLAMATIONS, REQUESTS & PETITIONS (HEARINGS)
SPECIAL ORDER
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Consider Approval of Ordinance Establishing Small Cell Antenna Aesthetic Standards
Consider Approval of Resolution Establishing Fees to Install Wireless Facilities
Update on Campground Expansion Project and Review of Project Map
NEW BUSINESS
Consider Revisions to New Business Utility Incentive Policy
Consider Resolution Waiving Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
Consider Approval of Purchase of Backup Submersible Pump
Steve GillilandSeveral years ago while at an outdoor writers retreat and turkey hunting with a guide around Milford Lake, we veered off the beaten path into a piece of unbelievably thick woods. While walking the ¼ mile back out along a gravel road, we came upon one of those once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunities.
On one side of the road a wooded hill rose several feet above us; on the other side, the ground dropped 50 feet or so and opened up into a picturesque valley. We came to an opening where we could see plainly into the valley below, and a beautiful tawny colored whitetail doe stood grazing there in lush green grass still glistening with morning dew. Just a few feet away from the grazing doe stood a wild turkey hen, and as we watched, the hen jumped up onto a log less than 4 feet from the doe. Like actors on a stage, both animals held their positions for a precious couple of seconds before the turkey darted for cover. It was a National Geographic kind of moment! This was pre-smartphone days and my small digital camera was tucked into my pocket as usual, but any movement to retrieve it would have spooked both actors.
I’m just sayin,’ what if I’d had some sort of high-tech camera built into my glasses that would have allowed me to snap a photo by simply touching a button on the side of my glasses, or better yet, just by blinking my eye! A device like that would allow me to photograph whatever I could see. I don’t think I’ve ever ventured into the outdoors without seeing a multitude of sights that would have all made fantastic photos.
This got me thinking about all the inventions I’ve wished for over the years. My casting prowess with a fishing rod is the stuff of legends… bad legends! Each time I cast an expensive jig into the treetops or hang one up on the roots of a tree I wonder why someone hasn’t addressed this problem (heaven forbid I should just practice!) Suppose my fishing rod had a sight of some sort on it, a trigger in the handle and a device on the tip that would propel the bait. Haphazard casters like me could place the butt of the rod against our shoulder, align our intended target in the sight and merely squeeze the trigger, producing the perfect cast! I’m certain the money saved on lost jigs and such would pay for the device in 20 to 30 years. With inventions like these I’m sure we’d all be better sportsmen…or would we?
I’m betting our forefathers would roll over in their good old fashioned graves if they knew we used GPS technology rather than landmarks on the bank to find the best crappie brush piles. Or if they knew we could measure shooting distance with laser range finders rather than pacing off and mentally recording the number of yards to certain spots in our shooting lane. Or if they knew we had game calls that incorporate the latest in electronics.
I’ll always remember this story from 15 years ago (when I won’t remember what I had for breakfast.) I worked part-time for a guy who loved technology. He still had a flip phone, but when I came to work that particular morning he was nothing short of ecstatic about a new “app” on his old flip phone that let him type and send messages (now known as texting.) I thought to myself, “How dumb, that’ll never catch-on!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against change or against keeping up with the times if it brings me more enjoyment from my sport or helps me better utilize God’s creation. I’m just sayin’ that maybe we should each step back in time on occasion and do things like grandpa did them. If nothing else, it would bring us new appreciation for the outdoors prowess of our ancestors. These high tech toys are no substitute for knowing the habits and habitat of our quarry. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my trolling motor battery is dead and I was texting the entire time as my high-dollar GPS controlled trolling motor drove me to this spot on the lake, so I have no idea where I am.
I may or may not find my way back in time to write next week’s column, so if you hear nothing from me next week, please shoot me a text or an email and help me find the boat ramp! I’m just sayin’…..Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.
Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].
The Fort Hays State University Foundation recently released its 2017-18 financial report.
“We gratefully acknowledge the support given by FHSU alumni, friends, faculty, staff and students. The FHSU Foundation’s statistics published here represent its financial standing as of June 30, 2018, the end of the most current fiscal year,” the report says. “An honor roll of every donor from whom a gift was received between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018, is available on the Foundation website under the link “Donor Recognition” at https://foundation.fhsu.edu.”
Fort Hays State University is currently accepting applications for the position of University Police Officer. For a full description and a list of requirements, go to https://fhsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/CAREERS.
Applicant must be at least 21 years of age, no felony convictions, no convictions for domestic violence, and must maintain a valid Kansas driver’s license.
LOGAN — The Dane G. Hansen Museum is pleased to offer dance lessons for beginning and advanced learners by instructors Kerry & Dezi Ferguson of Kensington.
Eight weekly sessions will be held on Sunday afternoons, starting Feb. 3. Beginners will meet from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and the advanced class will run from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Classes will be held at the City Building in Logan. Participants must be at least 13 years of age. Instruction may include, but is not limited to: waltz, two-step, swing, polka and cha cha.
This fun learning opportunity is offered to the public through the Hansen Museum’s Continuing Education Program with funding from the Hansen Foundation. Registration fees are as follows: couples $100 and singles $60. Discounts are available to Patron and Sustaining Hansen Museum Members. For more information, please contact Shari Buss at 785-689-4846.
The Museum is open weekdays 9-12 and 1-4; Saturdays 9-12 & 1-5; Sundays and holidays 1-5. We are closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. The Museum is handicapped accessible and thanks to the generosity of the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, there is never an admission fee.
Mary Hendrickson, University of Missouri Sociologist, spoke about community wealth and how local and regional food systems can boost the local economy and create resilience.
By TOM PARKER Kansas Rural Center
“That’s the thing about rural Kansas,” Corie Brown wrote. “No one lives there, not anymore.”
The Los Angeles author’s assessment on rural Kansas in particular and Kansans in general was the outcome of an odyssey across the state for an online article published in April 2018. Its title, “Rural Kansas is Dying: I Drove 1,800 Miles to Find Out Why,” set the stage for her thesis.
She interviewed farmers, university professors, politicians, local food system supporters and farm group leaders about the state’s rural population and community decline and what could be done to mitigate it. She found little hope in their responses.
While many felt some of her conclusions were accurate, many who were interviewed felt disappointed that she did not place more emphasis on the efforts being made to address the problems and challenges rural communities and farmers face. They ended up feeling used, and none more so than Marci Penner, who had recommended many of the locations and people for the interview.
As director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation and co-author of “The Kansas Guidebook for Explorers,” Penner has traversed the state countless times and talked with the same people Brown had, yet her assessment was totally the opposite.
Marci Penner, Sampler Foundation, facilitated a panel discussion. Donna McClish, Wichita, spoke about her mobile farmers market work.
“I feel very differently,” she said. “I’m not some Pollyanna who thinks we’re doing great, because we have many issues. There are reasons why it has changed over the years, and reasons why some towns aren’t thriving. But because of the people in this room,” she told a conference crowd last November, “I have confidence that we can create a new rural, a new paradigm, of what we want rural to be.”
Penner offered her upbeat perspective in “What’s Right about Kansas Farms, Food and Communities,” a panel discussion at the Kansas Rural Center’s annual Food and Farm Conference, held mid-November in Wichita, Kansas. Panelists were Luke Mahin, director of Republic County Economic Development and board member of the North Central Kansas Food Council; Debbie Beardon, Market Manager and secretary of the Allen County Farmers’ Market Board and founding member of the Core Leadership Team for Allen County Growing Rural Opportunity Works Food and Farm Council; Donna Pearson McClish, founder and director of Common Ground Producers and Growers, Inc.; Steve Swaffar, Executive Director of No-Till on the Plains; and Ed Reznicek, General Manager for Central Plains Organic Farmers Association. Keynote speaker Mary Hendrickson, a rural sociologist at the University of Missouri at Columbia, also offered insights about how rural communities can build social, financial, natural and cultural capital to address the changes facing rural America.
Luke Mahin, who was one of Brown’s sources, was puzzled at how few of the positive endeavors he mentioned made it into her article. While it’s true that Republic County has lost population, down from a high of 19,000 in 1890 to 4,700, by embracing economic development and investing in new technologies, the county offers more opportunities for entrepreneurs, small businesses and Internet-based businesses than most rural counties, he said.
Similar benefits apply to agriculture. Farmers are innovating and adapting new technologies, and there’s a lot of talk about pushing agriculture forward. “There’s no better time to come back to a rural area because of the flexibility it offers and the quality of life,” Mahin said. “Access to technology has leveraged all that.”
Several panelists felt that though Brown’s article highlighted the perils of commodity farming, it didn’t go far enough to recognize alternative methods farmers are using to go forward. Swaffar sees agricultural conservation practices reversing many of the ecological damages caused by conventional farming, and injecting hope among the state’s farmers.
Panelists at the KRC conference addressed “What is right about Kansas?” Left to right: Ed Reznicek, Steve Swaffar, Donna McClish, Debbie Beardon, Marci Penner and Luke Mahin.
“The folks I work with are very excited about dirt, though we don’t call it that anymore,” he said. “It’s soil. And soil is more than a growing medium—it’s a living organism.” Five years ago, he said, you wouldn’t have heard the term ‘soil health,’ but now it’s mainstream. Why? Because it turns farmers into biologists, and biologists are excited to see the soil come alive. For farmers, that translates into reducing input costs and being able to grow more than just wheat and corn and sorghum.
“Now that they see the capabilities, they’re thinking well beyond traditional commodity crops,” Swaffar said. “We’re seeing changes in the soil and in communities.”
For McClish, food and food production are the driving forces of rural sustainability, and nowhere are they more critical than in food deserts like rural Wichita and surrounding communities. Common Ground Producers and Growers began in 2014 after a friend asked McClish to provide fresh vegetables and produce to a low-income senior center where people had difficulty getting to the farmers’ markets. When other centers got word of it, they asked to be included. The company now serves 33 sites and several rural counties surrounding Wichita, through a network of growers and producers, and continues to expand. “Our motto is, ‘all are fed, no one is hungry,’” she said.
The experience taught her that food is an economic stabilizer and could contribute to the expansion and resurgence of family farms. “Rural Kansas can rebound,” McClish said. “We do good with adversity. We’re all looking at the same problems but we have different ways of solving them. Food is the basis of relationships. We can make this work together.”
Beardon also lives in a food desert in Southeast Kansas, and knows firsthand the importance of food for community growth. After a local farmers’ market folded, Beardon spearheaded a campaign to restructure the market. In the spring of 2010 it reopened with more than 60 vendors, 27 of whom were there for the entire season.
Beardon also worked with the county commissioners and the residents of Moran to purchase their grocery store, which now serves customers for 30 miles around. “There are needs out there beyond our imagination, and as an individual you may not think you can do a lot,” Beardon said. “Keep your ears to the ground and find out who else is interested, put your heads together and just start walking.”
Cooperatives like the Central Plains Organic Farmers Association (formerly Kansas Organic Producers) embrace a different approach by cooperatively marketing certified organic grains, Reznicek said. It is a system that resists corporate capitalism for a system that is ecologically sound, economically viable and socially just. “Because of its social goals and purpose, cooperatives represent a form of social economy, which is a much broader-based economy than the commodity and financially-driven market economy,” he said.
Public schools are one example of successful social economies. They function outside of market support with an unusual level of harmony, he said. The electrification of rural Kansas was another. Farmers contributed their time and machinery to set poles and string lines to reduce the indebtedness cooperatives would have to pay to electrical companies. The same model could be used again.
“That history is worth looking into,” Reznicek said. “The future of healthy rural communities is cooperative.”
To turn the tide of rural depopulation and economic decline, Hendrickson said in her keynote speech preceding the panel, communities are going to have to think creatively and to both identify and invest in capital—financial, social, natural, human, cultural and political. Of critical importance is resilience, the capacity of a system to absorb shocks and bounce back.
“There are different ways of thinking about what makes a community wealthy, but most mean the same thing—ownership, control, lasting livelihoods,” she said. “We need to put all the capitals together to make our food and farming systems resilient to shocks.”
Hendrickson compared the changes facing rural America to the changes farmers face with climate change. “It’s been weird, weird weather, but we’re in something we’ve never experienced before,” she said.
After asking people to identify what makes their community livable, the answers largely centered on its people. “People are engaged in a community and the dedication to its quality of life,” Hendrickson said. “This has to be measured, but nobody measures it. We don’t have a happiness scale, though that might be more important than the gross domestic product.”
Then again, maybe there is a happiness scale that can be measured in those who, in spite of the challenges and difficulties of living in rural Kansas, not only choose to stay, but strive to make them better. If so, Penner wants to be included in that group.
“If you’re rural by choice, I want to be in your tribe,” she said. “We can repurpose these small towns with the things you’re doing. This team we have can really make a difference for our communities to be livable, lovable, visitable, workable, with better health care and broadband, big things, but we have big hearts. And I want to thank Corie Brown for writing that article. I love getting fired up.”
Tom Parker is a freelance writer and photographer from Blue Rapids, Ks. who prepared this article for the Kansas Rural Center.
TOPEKA — Up-to-the-minute information on the 2019 Kansas Legislature is only a phone call or chat away. Kansas residents can access information about the Kansas Legislature, bill status, legislative process and more by calling 1-800-432-3924 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Questions are answered by experienced reference/research librarians at the State Library of Kansas and are kept confidential.
In addition to calling the hotline, Kansans can chat with a librarian instantly through the library’s Ask A Librarian service found at kslib.info/ask or use their phone to text questions to 785-256-0733. TTY users should call 711. Questions can also be emailed to [email protected] or by visiting the State Library.
Callers can also leave brief messages to be delivered to their legislators as well as request copies of bills, journals, and other legislative documents.
The State Library is located on the third floor, north wing of the Kansas Capitol Building. The library’s hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
NAMI Hays will present “The Adolescent Brain” by Ken Windholz, MS, LCP, LMLP, instructor in the Department of Psychology at Fort Hays State University, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 7 at Center for Life Experience.
The center recently moved to a new location at 205 E. Seventh St., Suite 257, (Hadley Center), Hays.
There will be no support group meetings that night.
Supervised child care will be available.
For more information, contact Ann Leiker at 785-259-6859.
The Hays Public Library has hired Sara Schoenthaler to serve as its early literacy coordinator. This position will organize storytimes and other early childhood literacy efforts.
Schoenthaler, originally from Hays, is a graduate of Hays High School and Wichita State University. She will receive her master’s of library and information science from Emporia State in May.
As a graduate student, Schoenthaler created a Literacy Adventure Kit, which is intended to be an at-home reading education activity for parents to use with their children. She worked at the library at Emporia High School and the Emporia Public Library.
Schoenthaler began working at the Hays Public Library on Jan. 2.
FHSU President Tisa Mason visits with students at the 2018 Dodge City Student Recognition Program in February.
FHSU University Relations
Denver will be President Tisa Mason’s first stop of 2019 in Fort Hays State University’s annual month-long, 12-city, three-state tour to recognize high school and transfer students who have been awarded scholarships from the university. The event also provides an overview of what makes FHSU a special place, both in and out of the classroom.
The Denver Student Recognition Program begins at 1 p.m. Mountain Time Sunday, Jan. 20, at the Renaissance Denver Hotel, 3801 Quebec St.
A highlight at each event is when President Mason individually recognizes students who have already been awarded scholarships to FHSU for the next academic year. Other university officers, administrators and faculty also attend the programs to answer questions and to visit with prospective students and their families and friends.
Another highlight is the dessert or pizza buffet after the recognition portion of the program. Dessert is served at the Denver SRP. Students and their friends and families have the opportunity to mingle with FHSU faculty, staff and administrators before and after the scholarship presentations.
Since its beginning in the 1987-88 year, Fort Hays State’s SRP program – unique in higher education – has had the mission of recognizing all students interested in college, and their friends and families. The events provide them with the opportunity to meet faculty and staff from the university. The public is welcome to attend.
Students and families in Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska can sign up now to attend programs in their areas. High school juniors, seniors and transfer students have already been invited to Student Recognition Programs in their areas.
Many high school seniors and transfer students will receive certificates for a variety of scholarships awarded to them by FHSU.
Scholarships to be awarded at the SRPs include the $3,500 Presidential Award of Distinction, the $2,000 University Scholar Award, the $1,500 Hays City Scholar Award, and the $1,000 Traditions Scholar Award. All are awarded only to incoming freshmen enrolling in college for the first time, but each is renewable provided students maintain the minimum required academic standing.
A renewable $1,500 scholarship is available for transfer students, and a $1,000 non-renewable transfer scholarship is also available.
Other one-time awards recognized at the SRPs are the $900 or $500 Academic Opportunity Awards, given to scholars by individual academic departments.
Each SRP event also features two scholarship drawings – a $400 FHSU Student Recognition Program Scholarship and a $600 textbook scholarship – and a drawing for a laptop computer. Four $400 SRP scholarships are awarded at the reception in Hays.
The SRP schedule includes the core area served at each program site, but students are welcome to attend any SRP program. However, they must RSVP by calling 785-628-5673 or by signing up online through the RSVP link at www.fhsu.edu/admissions/srp/.
The program schedule: Denver, 1 p.m. Mountain time Sunday, Jan. 20, at the Renaissance Denver Hotel, 3801 Quebec St. Dessert will be served. The Denver SRP serves students from all Colorado counties except for Bent, Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Kit Carson and Prowers counties, which are served by SRP programs in Colby and Garden City.
Wichita, 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27, at the Marriott, 9100 Corporate Hills Drive. Dessert will be served. The Wichita SRP serves students from 19 south-central and southeast Kansas counties: Barber, Butler, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley, Crawford, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Labette, Montgomery, Neosho, Reno, Sedgwick, Sumner, Wilson and Woodson.
Salina, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27, at the Hilton-Garden Inn, 3320 S. Ninth St. Pizza will be served. Students from eight counties are invited to Salina: Chase, Clay, Dickinson, Ellsworth, Marion, McPherson, Ottawa and Saline.
Great Bend, 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4, at Great Bend High School, 19th and Morton (east entrance door). Pizza will be served. Students invited to the Great Bend SRP are from Barton, Pawnee, Pratt, Rice, Russell and Stafford counties and from the cities of Bison and Otis in Rush County.
Colby, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, at Colby High School, 1890 S. Franklin. Pizza will be served. Students from nine Kansas counties, two Colorado counties and four Nebraska counties are invited to the Colby SRP: Cheyenne, Decatur, Gove, Logan, Rawlins, Sheridan, Sherman, Thomas and Wallace in Kansas; Cheyenne and Kit Carson in Colorado; and Chase, Dundy, Hayes and Hitchcock counties in Nebraska.
Overland Park, 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, at the Doubletree Hotel, 10100 College Blvd., serving 12 eastern Kansas counties and the Kansas City metropolitan area. Dessert will be served. The Kansas counties served are Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Doniphan, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami and Wyandotte.
Topeka, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, at the Ramada Inn, 420 SE Sixth St. Dessert will be served. Topeka serves students from 14 counties: Brown, Coffey, Geary, Jackson, Jefferson, Lyon, Marshall, Morris, Nemaha, Osage, Pottawatomie, Riley, Shawnee and Wabaunsee.
Beloit, 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11, at Beloit High School, 1711 Walnut. Pizza will be served. The Beloit SRP is for students from the Kansas counties of Cloud, Jewell, Lincoln, Mitchell, Republic and Washington and from the cities of Osborne and Downs in Osborne County. Students from the Nebraska counties of Clay, Jefferson, Nuckolls and Thayer are also invited.
Kearney, Neb., 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, at the Holiday Inn, 110 S. Second Ave. Dessert will be served. Students from 14 Nebraska counties are invited to the Kearney SRP: Adams, Buffalo, Dawson, Franklin, Frontier, Furnas, Gosper, Hall, Harlan, Kearney, Lincoln, Phelps, Red Willow and Webster.
Hays, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, in the Fort Hays Ballroom of FHSU’s Memorial Union, 700 College Drive. Dessert will be served. The Hays SRP serves students from seven counties: Ellis, Graham, Norton, Phillips, Rooks, Smith and Trego counties and from the cities of La Crosse in Rush County, Natoma in Osborne County, and Ransom in Ness County.
Garden City, 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, at Garden City High School, 2720 Buffalo Way. Dessert will be served. Garden City serves students from 13 southwest Kansas counties and four southeast Colorado counties: Finney, Grant, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearny, Lane, Morton, Scott, Seward, Stanton, Stevens and Wichita in Kansas; and Baca, Bent, Kiowa and Prowers counties in Colorado.
Dodge City, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, at Dodge City High School, 2201 W. Ross Road. Pizza will be served. The Dodge City SRP serves eight counties – Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Ford, Gray, Hodgeman, Kiowa and Meade – and Ness City in Ness County.
ELLIS – Ellis city council members will consider approving an ordinance during their meeting Monday night that would establish small cell antenna aesthetic standards as well as approval of a resolution to establish fees for installation of wireless facilities.
Today