TOPEKA – Northwestern Kansas Community Corrections was awarded a grant to improve drug testing and supervision of high risk offenders, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced today.
The organization will receive $87,837 for substance abuse programs, methamphetamine abuse programs and increased drug testing and supervision.
“Combatting substance abuse remains a significant issue in our communities,” Schmidt said. “This grant will support Northwest Kansas Community Corrections in its efforts to provide these much-needed services.”
The grant is part of the Federal Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program and was awarded by the Kansas Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. Schmidt serves as the chair of the council.
On Thursday, Oct. 17, beginning at 9:30 a.m., the Farm Service Agency in Ellis County and Cottonwood Extension District will host an informational meeting on the 2018 Farm Bill. It will be held at the Agricultural Research Center – Hays, 1232 240th Ave.
The 2018 Farm Bill was signed into law in December of 2018, but election and enrollment just opened for farmers to select Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) on their 2019 and 2020 crops. There have been some changes to both programs and farmers are encouraged to attend their county Farm Bill meeting to learn more. These meetings will show how these programs performed in the 2014 Farm Bill, give an overview of the changes made in the 2018 Farm Bill, and help farmers start thinking about their election decisions. There will also be a program yield update offered that will take effect in the 2020 crop year that farmers will want to take advantage of.
RSVP is appreciated by Tuesday, Oct. 15, to ensure we have enough seating by calling the Cottonwood Extension Office, Hays, at 785-628-9430.
ROOKS COUNTY — A small earthquake shook portions of Rooks County Thursday morning. The quake just after 6 a.m. measured a magnitude 3.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Location of Thursday’s quake -image Kansas Geological Survey
It was centered approximately 1.5 miles north of Zurich. The Rooks County Sheriff’s office reported they had not received calls about the quake.
The USGS reported a 2.8-magnitude quake just south of Zurich Oct. 6 and a 3.3-magnitude quake just west of that area Oct. 3.
A quake measuring 2.2 was recorded in northern Rooks County Oct. 2.
The cold front blowing into the region has the potential to bring record overnight lows to western Kansas, according to the National Weather Service in Dodge City.
Northwest winds are expected to continue into Thursday evening, gusting up to 50 mph.
A widespread freeze is expected for most of western Kansas, with temperatures falling below 28 degrees.
“The growing season is expected to end for most locations tonight and Friday morning,” the NWS warned.
The frigid temperatures could come with precipitation, as well, with scattered light snow showers overnight. No accumulation is expected.
The cold is expected to last into Friday, with a high of only 47 predicted. This weekend, moderate temperatures return with highs in the low to mid-60s on Saturday and Sunday.
The band of snow will weaken as it moves east of Colorado this afternoon. The highest snow amounts are expected to be in East Central Colorado, with less to the east. The snow will end by mid evening. Any snow/visibility reports are appreciated. #kswx#newx#cowxpic.twitter.com/C8bARgxgxJ
The unseasonably cold weather has forced the change of locations for two of Fort Hays State University’s Homecoming events.
Today’s pep rally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. is still on, but it has been moved indoors to Gross Memorial Coliseum. The march and the bonfire have been canceled.
Friday’s rededication program at the Plymouth Schoolhouse has been moved to Forsyth Library. The program will begin at 10 a.m., then will move to the Plymouth Schoolhouse for a reception as originally planned.
The schoolhouse, celebrating its 40th anniversary on the FHSU campus, will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to noon Friday.
Tonight’s pep rally will feature remarks from FHSU President Tisa Mason and Head Football Coach Chris Brown and introductions of Tiger athletes, the Homecoming royalty and the Alumni Award recipients. There will also be performances by the FHSU marching band, cheer squad and Tiger Debs dance squad.
The Local Food Truck will be set up near Gate 2 of GMC, serving burgers, brats, bierocks and drinks.
UPDATED, 4 p.m. Thursday: This corrects the day of the Plymouth Schoolhouse celebration, clarifies that the march also has been canceled.
Facilitator Betty Johnson talks with Guy Windholz about an intergenerational facility.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Designing a strategic plan for the future of Ellis County drew the biggest interest and group during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Strategic Doing Re-Start for Ellis County.
Volunteers gathered at the Rose Garden Banquet Hall in Hays to winnow down the number of project ideas for community improvements generated at a meeting last month.
As attendees enjoyed bierocks and green bean dumpling soup, facilitator Betty Johnson, Lawrence, polled the group for their top topics. Many of the people had been at the first meeting and others were there for the first time.
The voting yielded eight more areas of interest.
• More after-school activities for middle and high school students
• Decreased domestic violence and human trafficking
• Increased volunteerism in Ellis County
• Reaching out with help and understanding of mental health and anxiety
• More childcare providers
• Improved cultural diversity
• A multi-generational center
• Mentoring young entrepreneurs.
The nine groups spent more than two hours talking about what they could do. Discussions began with broad suggestions and then narrowed to specific action items with deadlines.
A spokesperson from each group explained the purpose of their project and the plan to move it forward.
The group working on a strategic plan for the future of Ellis County.
“Our next steps through April of 2020 is to create a visioning process,” said Henry Schwaller, referring to the Ellis County strategic plan. “It will begin with a large meeting to get as many (residents) to the table as possible to tell us what they want this community to look like over the next five years.”
A much smaller group of three people is working on providing fun hands-on STEM learning projects after school for students in sixth grade through high school.
Many students participate in sports after school, but there’s a gap in other activities, according to the group, and they want to help fill the void.
“We want to ask kids if they’d rather learn how to build a video game instead of just playing them,” said Alan Wamser. As the IT manager at HaysMed, Wamser has a vested interest in the project.
“If we can get a college intern with IT experience and bring them in, they’re the most successful,” he said.
Alan Wamser, Amanda Legleiter and Shae Veach coordinate the date for another group meeting within 30 days.
“And kids love to make YouTube videos and podcasts,” added group member Amanda Legleiter
The career exploration opportunities would involve teaching by local IT professionals as well as students and instructors at Fort Hays State University and NCK Tech.
“It could be similar to 4-H with the older kids or students teaching the younger ones,” Legleiter said.
“With mentoring, the kids may go on to FHSU to major in computer science or graphic design,” said the group’s spokesman, Shae Veach, HaysMed vice president of regional operations. “STEM activities can lead to scholarships, empower these students with confidence and possible local careers.”
The trio also tossed around ideas for funding and sustainability of the program as well as who will be stakeholders.
MacKinzie Foster outlines “Can We Just Talk?”
The group interested in mental health issues is working on “Can We Just Talk?,” bringing together people who are willing to listen and people who need to talk about their problems.
Kansas has had a record number of domestic-related homicides, according to Shaelin Sweet, community advocate for Options, who spoke for the group wanting to curtail domestic violence and human trafficking.
“That’s not a record we want to be breaking. The ultimate goal is for domestic homicides to go down and that will happen through education of law enforcement in the community,” she said.
Hays Police Chief Don Scheibler is a member of the group.
“I’m walking around this room and the focus in these groups is just amazing to me,” said Sandy Jacobs, HCF executive director. “We want to be all the resource to you we can. If you need help finding meeting sites, if you need help getting information out, anything you need just call our office.”
By 8:30 p.m. each table had talked through and filled out a Strategic Doing Action Pack from Purdue. The university’s Agile Strategy Lab offers training and certification in Strategic Doing.
According the to university’s website, Strategic Doing enables people to form action-oriented collaborations quickly, move them toward measurable outcomes, and make adjustments along the way.
Johnson is a certified facilitator in the Strategic Doing process.
“It’s been tried and proved. It’s used globally. We have used it in so many large, large operations as well as small,” she told the crowd. Johnson’s position is funded by the Hansen Foundation.
Erin Hughes, HCF assistant, looks at the plan from the mental health/anxiety awareness group with Jayne Inlow and Patrick McGinnis.
Erin Hughes was hired in June as a part-time assistant to Jacobs. Hughes will compile information completed by the groups. The results will be presented and project work updated at the next Strategic Doing meeting six months from now.
In the meantime, the nine groups are to meet every 30 days or so to review their progress.
Jacobs also encouraged the groups to invite other Ellis County residents to join their causes.
“If you know people that want to get involved after you begin talking about it in the community, for goodness sake, bring them into your group and get it started,” she urged.
On Oct. 5, the Thomas More Prep-Marian cheerleaders had the opportunity to dance at halftime of the University of Kansas football game.
Varsity Spirit hosted a Spirit Day at KU for schools across the state of Kansas. The cheerleaders had the opportunity to practice with the KU cheer squad before the game in which they learned a dance and the “Rock Chalk Jayhawk” chant.
Fort Hays State University’s College of Education will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Plymouth Schoolhouse moving to FHSU’s campus during Homecoming festivities at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 11 on the first floor of Forsyth Library.
Originally constructed in Russell County, the hard, post-rock limestone schoolhouse was transported to FHSU’s campus in 1977 to undergo restoration. It was completed and dedicated in 1979.
“It took them two years to get the schoolhouse here. They moved it stone by stone,” said Dr. Elodie Jones, assistant professor of advanced education programs.
Members of Phi Delta Kappa as well as Bill Claflin, Dr. Allan Miller, and Dr. Nancy Vogel were instrumental in proposing and leading the restoration process.
The celebration is open to the public and will include speeches from both Miller and Vogel as well as the opportunity to explore the inside of the schoolhouse.
Inside the school house are three original desks and the original school bell. An original diploma that was received by a student when the schoolhouse was in Russell County also will be dedicated on Friday.
“There are tons of primary artifacts within the school, many of which have been donated,” said Jones. “My students were jazzed looking through the repository of books stored at the schoolhouse as well as some cool historical maps dating back to the early 1900s.”
Freshman and sophomore students from the Opportunity Through Education living and learning community helped clean and prepare the inside of the schoolhouse for the festivities.
During the year, the schoolhouse is used by faculty on campus and other educators in the area who take their students there to experience the roots of American public education.
The reception will be held inside the library with refreshments to follow in the schoolhouse. The schoolhouse will be open from 9 a.m. to noon for visitors to explore.
Following the schoolhouse celebration, attendees are invited to walk over to Forsyth Library’s South Study Area and visit the smart classroom exhibit featuring the Plymouth Schoolhouse as well as other archival materials on display.
Using a 3D model of the schoolhouse created at FHSU’s Institute for New Media Studies and digitized archival photos and documents from the library, the two units have collaborated to create a special exhibit about the schoolhouse in the portable smart classroom, a new grant-funded immersive space.
“The goal of the smart classroom project is to make immersive spaces affordable, portable, and low-cost,” said Claire Nickerson, learning initiatives and OER librarian at FHSU.
A separate exhibit containing artifacts from the University Archives will also be on display at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, in the Memorial Union’s Pioneer Room.
Nickerson and Dr. Gordon Carlson, associate professor of communication studies who oversees the Institute for New Media Studies, were the primary investigators on this project after receiving funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
“I hope that attendees will come away with not only more knowledge and appreciation of the importance of one-room schoolhouses in Kansas history, but also more curiosity and enthusiasm about the smart classroom technology that makes the exhibit possible,” said Nickerson.
“Expectations of teachers really have not changed as much as we think,” said Jones. “They were seen as advocates for education on the prairie and teachers continue to be advocates today for their students.
Those wishing to attend the celebration can park in the lot west of the Memorial Union. A shuttle will transport people from the Art and Design Ribbon Cutting to the Plymouth Schoolhouse.
Author Dan Kois and his two daughters, Lyra and Harper, during their three months living in Hays in fall 2017.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
After spending three months in Hays as part of an around-the-world trip to learn new ways to be a family, author Dan Kois is back to promote his book “How to be a Family: The Year I Dragged My Kids Around the World to Find a New Way to Be Together.”
Kois, accompanied by his daughter, Harper, will speak and sign books at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Hays Public Library.
Kois, an editor for Slate magazine, his wife, Alia Smith, and two daughters, Lyra and Harper, left their home in Arlington, Va., for the grand experiment on being a family.
They also spent three months each in New Zealand, The Nertherlands and Costa Rica before ending their journey with a stint in Hays, America.
“The book is about our epic 2017,” he said. “As the title suggests, we spent time in four different countries to try to shake ourselves out of our family rut, our parenting rut, to see what family living was in places other than where we lived before, which was Arlington, Va., a suburb of D.C.”
The Koises chose Hays in part because they wanted to learn a different way to be American parents. They are also friends with playwright and Hays resident Catherine Trieschmann, who Dan knew from college.
“We were looking for the real small-town experience,” he said. “Where we live, it is a suburb of a big city. It is very stereotypically fast-paced. Our kids are over-scheduled, and we are overworked. We thought a kind of closeness of community and a more deliberate pace of life might be great for us to experience.”
Kois said he did find that to be the case in Hays.
“We immediately made a lot of friends. We became very involved in our community in our three months here in service and in church and in neighborhood activities,” he said. “We really did find we were a lot more relaxed and chilled out here than we found ourselves to be in Arlington.
“Our kids found school a wonderful place with great friends, and we found the pace of everyday life just a lot more manageable than what we had been previously doing.”
The final quarter of the book is about Hays in which Kois talks about the glut of parades the family experienced in the fall and how it immediately gave them a sense of community and belonging.
He also describes the showing of the French documentary of “A Quiet America,” which was filmed in Hays in April 1976.
He writes about the Hays Symphony’s Halloween performance, where his daughters were drafted to act alongside the symphony with other children and adults.
Kois said he learned from his family’s international travel there is no one way to do things.
“You can go to New Zealand where kids have enormous amounts of independence and kids are encouraged to take huge risks with their bodies and their educations,” he said. “You can go someplace like The Netherlands where the entire society is built around cycling and cars aren’t used by most families and where children are prized for their independent thought, but just coincidentally all behave the same way like very traditional Dutch people.”
In some cases, the Koises found the communities in which they lived had things they can bring back and use in their family, and in other cases they found they didn’t fit in at all.
“In The Netherlands, our older daughter had a huge problem fitting in and never really felt completely at home,” he said. “Our younger daughter fit right in and immediately transformed herself into a tiny Dutch woman.”
As a parent, Kois said he brought home a lot of humility from the experience.
Some aspects of the trip turned out just as he imagined. Other aspects were so difficult he wondered why they ever attempted the trip.
“I also think both me and my wife have found a real new closeness with our kids and a sense that all four of us, all of us as team can really set out and accomplish things that we might never have thought we otherwise could do.
“One of the big problems we had that I hoped we could address on the trip was this sense that each one of us in our family lived our lives in sort of separate little pathways or lanes. We each had our things that we were worried about. We each had our school or work or home or whatever that was our concern, but we rarely all four of us got out in the world and challenged ourselves and challenged each other in ways we had to overcome all together. A year on the road definitely gives a chance to do that.”
Lyra and Harper both weigh in on the adventure in the book. Lyra at the end of the book is asked about how her dad portrayed her in the book. She answered she thought he was wrong.
Kois said the girls, who were fifth and seventh graders at the time, say in the book there were some very challenging times during the trip, but they grudgingly admit it was kind of cool.
“I’m going to take that as a huge win for me,” Kois said.
The family has moved back to Arlington, and they are trying to apply the lessons from the trip to their old life.
“In big ways and small, it is making our old life feel a little bit better and a little bit easier and a little bit new. Taking for example the lessons I learned about community here in Hays—the way that people in this smallish city make this the city they want to live in.”
He gave the example of Cathy Drabkin, who learned how to bake bread and now has her own bread business and Catherine Trieschmann, who wanted more theater in Hays, so she created pockets for that to happen.
“We’ve taken those lessons and tried to bring them back to our big community to make Arlington the place we want it to be instead of complaining about the things that it isn’t,” he said.
Kois’ book is available anywhere books are sold. They will be for sale at the signing. The Hays Public Library has copies for checkout pending availability.
Whether it’s for the holidays or a class reunion – coming home is such a special time to rekindle relationships, share joyful (and sometimes mischievous) memories, and take time to reflect on our growth. A university, like a family, provides roots for that growth. And like a family, there is often a lot of planning, preparation and heart that accompanies traditional coming-home events.
And so I begin this column expressing my deep gratitude to everyone who will work hard throughout this weekend to create a wonderful homecoming celebration.
Homecoming also provides us with an extra special opportunity to recognize our alumni through our awards programs. Celebrating their success is especially important. In fact, if you pay special attention to our mission, our work with our students is not really measured by their success while they are students. Our mission is about developing engaged global citizen leaders. Thus the true measure of our success is how our alumni live their lives after they graduate; how they serve their professions, their communities, and our world.
I really value how our awards align with that mission. The Alumni Achievement Award, established in 1959, honors graduates of the university for outstanding accomplishments through career and profession, meritorious service in community betterment, philanthropic activities, and educational achievements.
Past recipients of this award include George F. Sternberg, a 1933 graduate whose first paleontological discovery was of a nearly complete plesiosaur at the age of 9. He became a world-renowned paleontologist and is credited with discovering the famous Fish-Within-A-Fish fossil. John C. Thorns Jr., a 1950 graduate, is also a past recipient. In addition to serving as a faculty member and Art and Design Department chair, he also founded the Hays Arts Council and was a leading force in establishing the on-campus art gallery now named the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art.
Oh!, and by the way: Don’t miss the ribbon cutting for our beautiful Art and Design Building at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
The Distinguished Service Award, established in 1974, recognizes individuals, alumni or friends of the university, who have demonstrated a continuing concern for humanity on a universal, national, state or community level; who support spiritual, cultural and educational objectives; and who endorse and exemplify the highest standards of character and personal attributes. This truly mission-centered award has celebrated the compassion of people like Earl and Winona Field (Earl was a 1937 graduate) and Steve Shields, president and CEO of Action Pact Development and an emeritus member of the FHSU Foundation Board of Directors, who is relentlessly focused on positively impacting the quality of life and healthcare for senior citizens.
The Young Alumni Award, established in 1977, recognizes the outstanding achievement and recent accomplishments of 10-15-year graduates. The award is based on professional and educational achievement, community activities, honors and awards received and other noteworthy items of merit since graduation.
Last year’s recipient, Jennifer Lapka (a 2003 graduate) really touched my heart, and we have remained in contact throughout the year. Jennifer is the founder of Rightfully Sewn, a charitable organization with two special purposes. One is to provide seamstress training for at-risk women so they can enter, and thrive in, the fashion industry. The second is to re-establish Kansas City as an “epicenter of garment manufacturing” and then market Kansas City fashion designers in the production of “affordable, high-quality, American-produced garments.”
I am so eager to meet this year’s award recipients and hear the amazing stories of how they delivered big on our mission.
The four recipients of this year’s Alumni Achievement Award are:
• Buck Arnhold ’74, ’76, ’80, a retired artist living in Olathe whose commercial work has included art for Boulevard Brewing Co. and the Kansas City Chiefs.
• Kevin Faulkner ’83, ’83, a retired investor relations officer who lives in Pebble Beach, Calif.
• Dr. Leigh (Bunn) Goodson ’94, president of Tulsa Community College in Tulsa.
• Michael R. Miller ’85, ’86, ’93, Kansas City, who is a retired special agent with the FBI.
The two recipients of this year’s Young Alumni Award are:
• Dr. Cole Engel ’07, ’07, ’09, Hays, an assistant professor of accounting at FHSU.
• Joshua W. Snider ’05, an attorney and the managing shareholder for Gordon Davis Johnson & Shane P.C. in El Paso, Texas.
Dr. Christie (Patterson) Brungardt ’01, and Dr. Curt Brungardt ’81, ’84, Council Grove, both emeritus professors of leadership studies at FHSU, will receive the Distinguished Service Award.
Their accomplishments and generosity are truly inspiring, their impact profound. The stories of their contributions, in large part rooted in the strong relationships and learning developed at The Fort, will be recounted and celebrated.
And I, like all of the presidents before me, will take great pride in how generations of faculty and staff have facilitated the fulfillment of our mission, and in doing so, made this world a better place.
