Rural Water District 1C is having a special meeting at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12, in the Antonino Church basement.
Category: Local
St. Mary’s school in Ellis reopens after storm damage repaired
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
ELLIS — St. Mary’s Catholic School in Ellis opened for classes earlier than expected Thursday after a July 25 storm ripped off a portion of the roof, damaging the gym and many of the school’s classrooms.
In mid-August, volunteers were still scraping damaged floors and painting walls.
“Without their help, we would not be open today, so we are very grateful” Peggy Seibel, fourth-grade and head teacher, said of the many volunteers who helped with the repairs.
A portion of the school’s gym collapsed during the storm. That has been repaired, but work still needs to be finished before the gym can reopen to students. School officials now anticipate work on the gym should be done by Nov. 1.
The permanent roof still needs to put on and other projects are still in the works. Repairs also are still ongoing at the rectory next door.
However, Father Dana Clark said he has been amazed at the progress.
“I have been really impressed how many people volunteered and got done in six weeks what some people thought would take three months to complete,” he said. “It’s been amazing to get the work done that needed to get done.”
Students were set to return to classes on Monday, but repairs were completed ahead of schedule. Students started school with new flooring, new coats of paint on most of the walls and new school materials, as many items in the classrooms received water damage when the high winds damaged the roof in July.
“It’s great,” Seibel said of the school’s new look. “The kids are excited to be back. The little extended holiday was not actually as appealing as they thought it might be. They were happy to get back to see their friends. They are really liking the new look in the classrooms and happy to be here.”
School hours have been changed to make up for the late start. Students will begin classes at 7:55 a.m. Students will also be attending on days that had been designated as in-service and snow days.
Monetary donations can still be made to the school through Equity Bank, Attn: St. Mary’s, PO Box 255, Ellis, KS 67637.
Cloudy, cool Friday with a chance for rain
Today Scattered showers with a slight chance of drizzle between 2pm and 3pm, then scattered showers after 3pm. Areas of fog before 9am. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 70. North northeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Tonight Scattered showers, mainly after 1am. Cloudy, with a low around 61. North wind 8 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Saturday Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 71. North northeast wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 57. East southeast wind 3 to 8 mph.
SundayMostly sunny, with a high near 76.
Sunday NightMostly clear, with a low around 58.
MondaySunny, with a high near 81.
Enter for chance to win more than $1,500 in prizes in Cerv’s Gridiron Glory!
Football season is upon us, and that means it’s time to get your picks in.
Don’t miss out on the fun and a chance to win over $1,500 in great prizes by entering Cerv’s Gridiron Glory.
Prizes include:
• Rechargable Rock Star Energy Drink Cooler on Wheels ($150)
• Dr. Pepper Mountain Bike ($300)
• $300 in Kansas Lottery Tickets ($300)
• $150 Hyrdo-Cerv Gift Card
• $250 Phillips 66 Gas Card
• 1 Year Supply Of 20 oz Sno-Balls – That is one a day for a year! ($420)
• And MORE!
Click HERE to enter!
FHSU Foundation names 9 new trustees; $64 million for Journey campaign so far
FHSU University Relations
The Fort Hays State University Foundation recently appointed nine new members to its Board of Trustees: Dr. Marcy Aycock, Jay Bach, Daryl Craft, Dr. Jeff Curtis, Maisha Dible, Coleen Ellis, Todd Sandoval, Shaun Weaver, and Tim Werth.
This group of dedicated Tiger alum and supporters are part of a 55-member Board of Trustees, with each serving a four-year term. Each trustee actively participates in a variety of activities contributing to the educational and financial success of the university and the FHSU Foundation.
Trustees come from a variety of education and industry backgrounds, representing 26 majors and all five colleges at Fort Hays State. Current trustees live in a variety of states including Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Texas and California. For a full list of trustees, visit https://foundation.fhsu.edu/
Each trustee personally contributes to the area of FHSU that means the most to them on an annual basis. Forty-one percent of the trustees have documented a planned or estate gift to Fort Hays State. Over the course of their lifetimes, the group has collectively contributed $22.7 million to FHSU, with $6.9 million contributed during FHSU’s current Journey campaign.
The Journey campaign is a $100 million fundraising effort, impacting all areas of Fort Hays State. With three years remaining in the campaign, the FHSU Foundation’s fiscal year-end reports showed $64,018,495 in contributions. Totals for each pillar of the campaign:
• Scholarships $18,264,038
• Academics $34,858,623
• Athletics $6,141,404
• Student Life $4,754,428
At the Foundation’s recent annual board meeting, President and CEO Jason Williby announced that in the last fiscal year the Foundation distributed $6,063,850 to FHSU scholarships and university support. Williby also said that the Foundation’s total assets amount to $98,293,840. Total assets include real estate, oil interest, property and investments such as stocks and bonds.
The FHSU Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization established in 1945. The mission of the Foundation is to support and advance FHSU by actively seeking monetary gifts and bequests and to receive and administer those contributions in a prudent manner in accordance with donors’ wishes.
As the fundraising arm of the university, the FHSU Foundation raises and manages all funds that are entrusted to it for the benefit of various needs in support of the university, and works closely with FHSU to support the university’s initiatives.
To learn more about the Fort Hays State University Foundation and the funding needs of Fort Hays State, visit https://foundation.fhsu.edu, call 785-628-5620 or email[email protected].
Burglary suspects from Victoria caught after vehicle stuck in mud
BARTON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and have two suspects in custody.
Just before 1p.m. Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the 900 block of west K4 highway approx. 9 miles west of Hoisington after citizens had reported two individuals walking on the highway and a vehicle pulled into an abandoned farmstead, according to Sheriff Brian Bellendir.
Deputies arrived at the location, contacted the individuals who were walking and learned their vehicle had become stuck when they pulled into the farm.
Sheriff’s officers went back to the vehicle and located what appeared to be freshly cut copper pipe and copper wire, according to Bellendir.
Upon investigation of the farmstead it was evident these individuals were in the process of burglarizing the location when the vehicle became stuck. Deputies arrested at the scene Brett D. Woods, age 47 and Aundria M. Pasek, 44, both of Victoria.
There was also an active warrant for Woods arrest from Russell County.
Both were transported to the Barton County Jail without incident. Upon arrival at the jail it was found that Pasek also had a suspected meth pipe in her possession. She was booked on charges of burglary and possession of drug paraphernalia and is being held in lieu of a $10,000 bond. Woods was booked on burglary and possession of drug paraphernalia and is being held on a $20,000 bond as well as the Russell county warrant.
Dodge City officials given update on potential medical college with FHSU ties
By VINCENT MARSHALL
Dodge City Globe
DODGE CITY — An update was given to Dodge City officials recently regarding the University Center for medical providers.
The University Center refers to any program that is not offered in area community colleges and not medical school.
Therefore the mid-level college will be coined as University Center, which would possibly go into the Hennessy Hall facility in Dodge City.
The update stated that 30-39 percent of education attainment takes place in southwest Kansas, which is for those who go beyond a high school education.
The partnership with the medical college will be with Fort Hays State University, Wichita State University and University of Kansas, as well as community colleges in Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal.
“The areas we will be focusing on are what our paths would look like in western Kansas,” consultant Terri McLain who was hired by city officials to collect data, analysis and assessments said. “We want to make certain we don’t have any overlap between any programs the universities may offer.
“When we think about Fort Hays what we are focusing on are their nursing programs, their radiology, and other areas they specialize in.
“When we talked with KU were focusing on respiratory, health information management and hopefully some longer terms as far as nurse anesthetist and with Wichita State we focused on two different levels of Bachelor’s in healthcare and then long-term hopes of physician assistant programs.”
As potential students go through high school programs, when wanting to go forward to either a university or community college, the programs a student would need that are not available by schools in the area, would be made at the University Center.
“We are now going to be identifying students,” McLain said. “What were focusing on is the working adult that wants to go back to school and obtain a degree to work in healthcare as well as the traditional high school that isn’t going to KU, Fort Hays or WSU and really doesn’t understand what is available beyond community college here.”
Some concerns have been raised by the Kansas Board of Regents with retaining students as the programs begin.
“When we were doing our research,” McLain said, “we were really trying to focus on showing that we can have this flow of students and I can do that through the employers.
“It is very difficult to get any idea of who those working adult students could be when you don’t have the mindset that there’s access to education in southwest Kansas.”
According to economic development director JoAnn Knight, another step that will be taken is setting up a community coalition for western Kansas.
“We feel it will be extremely important to build community coalitions across the region,” Knight said. “We’ve had conversations with Kansas Health Foundation and they haven’t specifically told us what they can do but are very interested in this.
“We also met with Network Kansas which they primary objective is to grow entrepreneurs and help businesses to expand in thinking of that it meets this goal too.
“WKREDA (Western Kansas Rural Economic Development Alliance), which is the 55 counties of western Kansas, we have a community development group through that organization that is very interested in helping with this as well.”
Knight went on to say the coalitions need to be built in the western counties to pull the communities together that will need to be a mix of citizens, Adult Learning Center, community colleges and a lot of the employers.
“How do we get the employers to look at an individual that give them the opportunity to get the time and financial assistance to help them to grow,” Knight said. “The partnerships would also need to be with the physician leadership and the universities out here.”
Another aspect to the University Center would be that the classes would not be done online.
“We really feel that the center needs to be a support center,” Knight said, “because a lot of these are first generation students that need that classmate, that even if they get together once every week or two, they still have that resource and support place to go to to really help each other and have that live person whether on TV or in person to connect with.”
The plan would be to have each of the 28 counties that make up southwest Kansas to have a community coalition in place.
To contact the writer, email [email protected]
— Republished with permission
Russell substation repairs completed; switchover on Friday
CITY OF RUSSELL
RUSSELL – The transformer equipment failure that occurred Thursday, August 30, for Russell electric customers at the Sunflower Interconnection substation required a mobile transformer from Liberal, Kansas, to re-establish the interconnection tie to the transmission grid while the failed equipment was replaced.
Sunflower Electric / Western Cooperative have completed repairs on the permanent transformer. Final testing is being conducted.
The switchover from the temporary transformer to the permanent transformer is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday, September 7. A service interruption is not anticipated during the switchover. However, an outage is possible. Please make necessary arrangements.
We thank you for your patience during the prolonged outage on August 30th and your understanding as we make the necessary repairs safely.
Golden Griddle to host first United Way Dine-Out Day
UWEC
The United Way of Ellis County will be hosting their first Dine-Out Day this year with the Golden Griddle on Friday, September 7 from 7 a.m. to noon at 230 W. 9th Street in Hays.
Come join in the social media fun and start your day off with a great breakfast from the Golden Griddle. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the United Way and their 15 partner agencies.
Watch for upcoming Dine-Out Days with participating restaurants online at www.liveunited.us or Facebook at United Way of Ellis County.
Call 785-628-8281 for more information.
Driver hospitalized after he falls asleep in Rooks County
ROOKS COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just after 10a.m. on Thursday in Rooks County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Chevy Suburban driven by Jerome L. Anderson, 81, Bogue, was eastbound on K18 four miles southeast of Palco when the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
The SUV entered the north ditch, struck a culvert, vaulted over the field entrance and rolled.
Anderson was transported to the hospital in Plainville. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
INSIGHT KANSAS: Will the real anti-Kobach please stand up?
Bill Graves, the last moderate Republican governor of Kansas, endorsed Democrat Laura Kelly in the gubernatorial race this week — his first public endorsement of a Democrat ever for statewide office. Sure, Graves and Kelly are both relatively centrist, but the shocker was Graves endorsing at all, especially after sitting out the 2014 election.
One compelling question in the governor’s race is which contender — Kelly or Independent Greg Orman — is best positioned to challenge Republican Kris Kobach. Who is the viable anti-Kobach? The Graves endorsement gives Kelly credibility for that title, especially with unhappy moderate Republicans.
Bluntly, Orman would have loved to get the Graves endorsement. It would have been a coup for him, and I would not be writing this column. But that did not happen. And with Election Day rapidly approaching, Orman is running out of time to convince Kansans that he is a viable candidate.
The two major non-Kobach’s in the race have had roughly nine months since they announced to get traction with voters. Nine months to march in parades, air television ads, and sway us. Yes, there are two critical months left, but most of this campaign is behind us. And those months have put Orman in the role of spoiler, not leading contender.
We only have two public polls of the race. One shows Kelly 36%, Kobach 35%, and Orman 12%. The more recent poll shows Kobach 39%, Kelly 38%, and Orman 9%. In English, that means that Kelly and Kobach are effectively tied, with Orman in distant third. That second poll shows that among Independents, Kelly leads with 42%, Kobach 26%, and Orman pulling up the caboose with 12%.
Now, Orman has countered with polls of imaginary elections where only he or Kelly are on the ballot against Kobach. The problem for Orman is that those matchups are pure electoral fanfiction, and impossible fantasies since Kansas law prevents him and Kelly from coming off the November ballot.
What Orman has not done is release any polling showing himself as viable. No numbers on the three-way race. No polling showing he has strong appeal with Independents. No data contradicting the two public polls that showed that Kansans dislike Orman more than they like him. Complete silence.
Things were supposed to be different for Orman. Or so his fans said. Voters were supposed to rally to his Independent experiment. Kansans were supposed to swoon at the wealthy businessman (always a man, isn’t it?) who swoops in to fix government and upend politics (hello, Donald Trump). Orman’s money was supposed to make him viable. Moderate Republicans were supposed to back him. Democrats were supposed to nominate a different and weaker candidate — something that Orman’s dark money allies pushed when they attacked Kelly in her primary. Orman was supposed to be the anti-Kobach. But right now, that all looks like more electoral fanfiction.
Maybe Orman thinks that he can turn things around by November. Perhaps, though time is not on his side. Or maybe Orman miscalculated his political appeal? Maybe his strong Senate run in 2014 was more about Pat Roberts being unpopular than it was about Orman being appealing?
For anti-Kobach Kansans, do you have the luxury of choice in a state as Republican as Kansas? Orman guaranteed divided opposition to Kobach on the ballot, and Kobach would love for you to think that you can vote for the third place spoiler with no consequences. Unless this race changes dramatically in Orman’s favor by November, you can choose to divide yourselves in the voting booth, but you may discover that a Kobach governorship will not be just more electoral fanfiction.
Patrick. R. Miller is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas.
Oborny mail fraud trial rescheduled
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The criminal trial of a woman who allegedly forged the a codicil to her employer’s will in an attempt to gain millions of dollars from his estate has been pushed back.
The new trial date for former Hays bookkeeper, Wanda Oborny, has been rescheduled to 9 a.m. Feb. 19 in Wichita before Judge J. Thomas Marten.
The case had been set to go to trial Sept. 18, but was pushed back during a court conference in late August.
Related story: Woman involved in multimillion-dollar probate case in Hays indicted for mail fraud
A civil court earlier ruled against Oborny, who was seeking a portion of her former employer Earl O. Field’s $20 million estate.
Oborny alleged her employer signed a codicil to his will shortly before his death in 2013, leaving half of his estate to her with a quarter of the estate going to Fort Hays State University and the rest going to Field’s attorney, Joseph Jeter.
However, a district court and appellate court both found the codicil and Field’s signature on it were fakes, clearing the way for FHSU to receive the bulk of the estate, which is supposed to be dedicated to scholarships.
Oborny also sought more than $1 million in attorney’s fees from the estate. However, an appellate court found she acted in bad faith and she should not receive the attorney’s fees.
Related story: Court rules in FHSU’s favor; bookkeeper denied millions in Field will case
🎥 City to consider bids for sewer line cleaning, manhole rehab
By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The Hays Department of Water Resources has a multi-year program to clean sewer mains to ensure proper operation and maintenance.
If the collection system is not cleaned, sewers can backup and manholes can overflow, exposing the public to raw sewage and causing the city to be subject to regulatory fines.
Each year the city contracts to clean approximately 20 miles of sewer lines. City employees do emergency sewer backup removal and clean problem lines on a biannual basis.
During their work session tonight, Hays city commissioners will review a recommended low bid of not more than $150,000 from Professional Pipe Services, Denver, for light sewer cleaning with video inspection.
“Based on the work that gets done, we continue to work on our sewer replacement program and get it planned for the future,” said Jacob Wood, Assistant Hays City Manager.
Commissioners will also look at the recommended bid for the 2018 manhole rehabilitation program. The low bid was submitted by Utility Maintenance Contractors, LLC of Wichita, in an amount not to exceed $60,000.
“Basically, this is just going in and taking a look at some of our older manholes that are degrading and doing a kind of face lift on them,” Wood explained.
Manhole rehabilitation is generally considered to have a 50 to 60-year lifespan at a cost of about $3,000 each, he added.
Other agenda items include review of the new pay plan and job classification for city employees and a look at bids for the purchase of three new automated refuse trucks.
Chad Ruder, Director of Information Technology, will also present an overview of the city’s IT (Information Technologies) operations. The department recently relocated from the downtown city hall to the Hays Welcome Center, 2700 Vine.
The complete Sept. 6 agenda is available here.
The work session begins at 6:30 p.m. in Hays City Hall, 1507 Main Street.