The Hays USD 489 school board will conduct its annual budget hearing at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Rockwell Administration Center.
Total proposed expenditures are $52 million, which is up from last school year’s budget, which was $43.9 million. This includes capital outlay and bond debt.
The total mill levy for 2019-20 will be 42.116 mills, which will be down from last year, which was 42.792. The capital outlay mill levy remains at 8 mills.
The district’s assessed valuation is up this year at $326.7 million compared to $316.1 million last year.
The regular board meeting will be called to order following the conclusion of the budget hearing.
In other business, the board will
Hear a report from Commerce Bank on investment strategies.
Hear a report from Marie Henderson and Kyle Carlin on flex learning/professional development
I saw an old friend in town the other day and he asked how I had done trapping last year. I told him I hadn’t set as many traps as I’d wanted and thus hadn’t caught as many coyotes as I had planned. I’ll never forget his reply; he told me “I was never a very good trapper. I had a friend that was very good, and I would set twice as many traps as him and I would catch twice as little!” I chuckled at his wording, but it got me to thinking. If I had thrown in the towel every time I hadn’t gotten a deer, or trapped as many coyotes as planned, or caught all the fish I’d wanted I would probably have ceased even going outdoors years ago.
There have been plenty of years when I haven’t harvested a deer or trapped as many critters as I’d wanted, but my biggest challenge has always been my fishing skills, or better yet my lack-thereof. Growing up in Ohio, we enjoyed Lake Erie and one of the many islands in Lake Erie is named Kelley’s Island. Our neighbor was pastor at one of the churches on Kelley’s Island and stayed there in the parsonage during the weekend, and lived next door to us during the week. Because of our friendship, if we went to Kelley’s Island on week days, he let us stay in the church parsonage, so each year we planned a short fishing trip there during the week. One of the fish Lake Erie is known for is the Yellow Perch. They are nothing like our invasive species White Perch here in Kansas and in my book are nearly as good as Walleye as far as eating quality. In the fall the perch would be biting around the island so we planned our trips around that. We sometimes fished from the ferry dock alongside native islanders. I always bought the same bait from the same bait shop and used the same tackle as the native islanders, but sitting 3 feet away on the dock, they would catch 12 fish to my one.
Some years back when Joyce and I still had a boat, we went to Kannapolis fishing with another couple who were both avid fishermen, they in their boat and Joyce and I in ours. They had numerous brush piles in the lake marked on their GPS, so we anchored on each side of a long narrow brush pile. Joyce and I both rigged our rods exactly like theirs, and our boats were so close that at one point they tossed us the exact jig they were using. They caught crappies left and right and the only thing we caught was the rope anchoring the marker buoy.
My points here are, number one, I’m a lousy fisherman, seemingly almost cursed at times, but yet I still go when I can. Point number two is, that although harvesting fish and game is usually the goal when in the field or on the lake, the harvest should not be our sole purpose for being there. On one particular deer hunt during my youth, I was standing in a pre-determined spot in a large woodlot awaiting other hunters walking toward me. I heard rustling in the leaves, and watched as a mother red fox and her family of half-grown kits ran past me just a few feet away. As I recall, I didn’t harvest a deer that year, but would have missed that once-in-a-lifetime-sight had I not been there anyway.
I could fill pages with other stories like that of bobcats that peered at us from a few feet away, or hawks that cruised past us mere feet above the ground and only a stones-throw away, or the beaver that swam beneath my feet under the ice of a frozen creek. The bottom line is that all that would have been missed had we not been there, successful harvest or not. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors (successful harvest or not!).
Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].
Midwest Energy is asking its Hays customers to conserve electricity on the afternoons of Monday and Tuesday between the hours of noon and 7 p.m.
The request is being issued following the downing of several key power lines in northwest Hays during a storm the evening of Aug. 13.
With several key lines out of service, Hays is being supplied using powerlines from the South and East.
Bill Dowling, Midwest Energy’s Vice President for Engineering and Energy Supply, said that under normal conditions, these other lines can easily meet the city’s power needs. But on Monday and Tuesday, with forecasted temperatures near 100 degrees, the company is asking customers to conserve power between peak hours of noon to 7 p.m., to ensure these lines don’t become overloaded.
“We would ask that people set their thermostats a few degrees higher than they normally would during those noon to 7 p.m. periods,” Dowling said. “If you can delay chores like using the clothes dryer, and maybe cook dinner on the stovetop instead of in the oven, those simple things will go a long way in helping us avoid overloading these lines.”
Most of the poles downed during the storm were replaced within 24 hours, but the 25 transmission poles downed along 230th Avenue are 65 to 75 feet tall, nearly double the size of the 40-foot tall poles seen throughout town. Spring and summer storms have damaged an extraordinary number of tall structures within Midwest Energy’s service area, depleting the company’s normal supplies of tall poles.
Midwest Energy will continue to monitor weather forecasts and alert customers if any additional conservation measures are needed until the line is back up.
Studies show people spend 36% of their life at work. Why not spend that time enjoying your work while becoming an owner?
Eagle Communications is growing and we are looking for motivated individuals. Openings range from customer service to I.T. to account executives to radio announcers to field service technicians.
To learn more, attend our job fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Eagle Media Center, 2300 Hall.
Eagle is an employee-owned company and an E. E. O. employer.
Serving up extra helpings of its signature hospitality in honor of the National Waffle Day holiday, the Hays Comfort Inn & Suites is hosting its 3rd annual free waffle breakfast for first responders 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Wed., Aug. 21.
The Comfort Inn & Suites, located at 1001 E. 41st St., has joined a brand-wide #ComfortSaysThanks movement, with similar National Waffle Day celebrations taking place coast to coast.
During this annual event, Comfort brand hotels invite local “hometown heroes” and community groups—such as first responders, teachers and volunteers—to enjoy a complimentary breakfast, featuring the brand’s signature fresh-baked waffles, to thank them for their service to the community.
A robotic arm operating at Flame Engineering in LaCrosse. Flame has achieved 18 years with no loss-time accidents. File photo
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Flame Engineering employees at their safety recognition luncheon on Friday.
Flame Engineering in LaCrosse celebrated 18 years with no loss-time accidents during a luncheon on Friday.
Flame, which is locally owned, has been in LaCrosse for almost 60 years and sells its products all over the world. Flame manufactures LP gas equipment. This includes torches for home, agriculture and tar roofing among other products.
Flame Engineering is currently recognized by the Kansas Department of Industrial Safety & Health along with OSHA as a SHARP (Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Program) company. This recognition was accomplished in October 2000 and maintained to date. Companies who are SHARP designated must renew their SHARP every two years.
SHARP is a national program. Kansas has the second largest number of SHARPs only behind Texas. Flame is one of 157 companies in the state to hold the prestigious SHARP designation. It has held that designation longer than any other company in the state.
Flame has held OSHA’s SHARP (Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Program) designation longer than any other Kansas company.
“Achieving SHARP means that you are the best of the best for safety and health for your employees,” said Allen Vinyard, Kansas Department of Labor consultation program manager. “It means you are following all the rules and regulations, that you have all your written programs in place. It is very prestigious to achieve SHARP recognition. It is also very difficult to achieve SHARP recognition.”
Representatives of the Kansas Department of Industrial Safety and Health, the company’s insurer, Insurance Planning, and Sen. Jerry Moran’s office were all on hand to help the company celebrate its accomplishment.
“They have built a very good safety and health culture here,” Vinyard said, “and that starts at the top. It has to start at the top and work its way down to the employees.”
Both the representatives of the state and Insurance Planning said they routinely use Flame’s safety procedures as a model when working with other companies.
“We will point to Flame as a shinning star that, ‘Yes, look what they’ve done. Look how they maintain it every single year,'” Vinyard said. “We definitely use them as an example. If you want to achieve this, look at what this company has done.”
Stan Jackson, executive vice president at Insurance Planning, said one of the company’s annual trainings is a fork lift rodeo. Although the company was not able to shut down the plant for the annual rodeo this year because they were so busy, usually the rodeo is a fun day of training and competitions, which Jackson officiates, compete with a flag an officials jersey.
Although the company has had 18 years with no claims, it has only two claims in the last 30 years.
Flame Engineering has a Safety Committee. Members of that committee rotate every year so everyone has an opportunity to serve on the committee. It meets monthly and sets yearly goals. Mike Pivonka, owner and founder of the company, said any person in the factory has the authority to shut down a piece of equipment if they believe it is not being operated safely.
File photo
Pivonka said safety is not only good for the well-being of the employees, but it sustains productivity and decreases the company’s insurance costs.
He said he has had good buy in from the company’s 30 employees on the company’s safety initiatives.
“We probably have 95 percent buy in from our employees. They all realize they are the ones who are going to get hurt,” Pivonka said. “I’m not in the shop that much. I don’t have the exposure they do. I know everyone of our employees, most of their kids, know their wives and family, and I don’t want to have to call and say, ‘Hey, you have to go to the hospital because so and so got hurt. They all realize that it is their finger and toes and eyes.”
Although he does not spend much time on the plant floor these day, Pivonka said his employees will call him out if they see him without his safety glasses.
In addition to a luncheon, a half day off and T-shirts, the employees can also earn cash safety bonuses.
Pivonka said the company could operate anywhere in the country, but his family likes central Kansas and has found quality employees here.
“I am extremely proud of the employees that we have,” he said. “They just couldn’t be a better group of people.”
VICTORIA — Construction is set to begin soon on a $4.5 million water system revitalization project in Victoria that will replace the town’s water tower, revitalize two of their wells and replace aging water lines throughout the town.
The project will also connect the town’s supply to the Trego 2 Rural Water District.
The first stage in the project that is being completed by EBH Engineering is the replacement of the water tower.
“The water tower is 20 years past its estimated life span,” said Brad Schmidtberger, city superintendent. “We are going from a 50,000 gallon to a 150,000 gallon above ground. That fulfills the needs of growth for the town.
“The grant was approved, and the engineering firm is doing all of the surveying,” Schmidtberger added.
Bidding for construction should start soon and he said tower construction could start in September.
Waterline replacement is likely to come next as stage two of the system overhaul and will replace approximately 14,000 feet of waterlines and adding waterline loops to many existing lines.
“We have done water projects over the years and replaced a lot of the water lines around town naturally, and this would replace some of the ones that were not replaced in the most recent water project in the 1980s,” Schmidtberger said.
Adding loops to waterlines will help with water flow and water quality.
“We have some waterlines that are very dated, and we have a couple that are not looped in some lower-use areas. We are going to loop those in. That will produce much higher quality water in those lower-use areas,” Schmidtberger said.
Repairing two of the city’s wells and connecting to the rural water district will complete the project and will help ensure the water supply is sufficient for the expected growth in Victoria.
“We would have basically new wells,” Schmidtberger said. “They are both very dated and in need.”
“By offsetting these and re-drilling with new screens, new casings and so forth, it’s going to give us a better and a more efficient quality of water and a more efficient supply of water,” he said. “With the repairs, we will be able to capitalize more on what’s there.”
Adding water from the rural water district will add another water supply to the system and ensure the supply remains sufficient for future growth.
“That will allow us to feel comfortable with the amount of water we have, long term,” Schmidtberger said.
The decision to connect to the Trego 2 Rural Water District was based on location as the district runs lines through Ellis County and the properties of the water.
The rural district’s water is “the best match for our water,” Schmidtberger said. “It will blend very well with our water and our existing well field.”
Having water that is similar in makeup to the city well makes it the most cost-effective method of adding to the water supply, he said, as they can blend the water with the well water as it will not need additional treatment.
Once the connection is made, the water from the district will be added to the central reservoir for processing.
Beginning Monday, Hays city crews will be doing a one-time collection of downed tree limbs as a result of the recent wind storm.
All limbs are to be placed curbside. Limbs will not be collected from alleys. Please do not pile limbs on sidewalks or streets.
Collection will start Monday and continue until a sweep of the city is complete.
Crews will not come onto private property to collect limbs. If a resident has a large tree or limb on their property, they can utilize the services of a professional tree trimmer to either have the tree removed or moved to the curb.
As a reminder, city residents can haul their limbs to the Ellis County Sanitary Landfill for disposal free of charge. Limbs can’t be taken to the city compost site.
Landfill hours are Monday-Friday 8-5 and Saturday 9-4. Limbs CANNOT be taken to the city compost site.
Any questions should be directed to the City of Hays Public Works office at (785) 628-7350.
Before the formal opening of its 2019-20 season, the Hays Symphony at Fort Hays State University is inviting youths to help conduct the orchestra during its Movie Music Pops Concert on Friday, Aug. 23, at the Downtown Pavilion during the annual Fall Gallery Walk.
Dr. Jeff Jordan, director of FHSU bands, will give a short conducting lesson for kids at 6:30 p.m., before the concert begins at 7 p.m. Participants will then be invited to conduct the concert’s final piece.
“We wanted to take advantage of being outdoors, out of the auditorium,” said Hays Symphony publicity chair Cathy Drabkin.
“And we wanted to capitalize on the family focus of the Gallery Walk, so we decided to invite area children to help conduct,” she said.
The concert will feature music from “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Star Wars,” “Jurassic Park,” “E.T.,” “The Wizard of Oz” and other popular movies.
“I think kids will recognize the music they’ll get to conduct,” said Drabkin. “It will be a blast for the kids, and definitely a video-worthy moment for mom and dad.”
In keeping with the movie theme, the Downtown Hays Development Corporation, which is hosting the Symphony’s performance, will provide popcorn and drinks for concertgoers. Guests are welcome to stay for a single piece or the entire show.
Dr. Brian Buckstead
The concert will also be an introduction to the orchestra’s new conductor, Dr. Brian Buckstead, who comes to FHSU from Duluth, Minn. Buckstead is also the new violin and viola professor on the FHSU Department of Music faculty. He will be joined by Jordan and Dr. Peter Lillpop, assistant director of FHSU bands, as conductors for the pops concert.
The concert will last about an hour.
The Hays Symphony has been entertaining and educating audiences for over 100 years. Its musicians are FHSU students, faculty and staff, local music teachers, community members from the area, and guest musicians from around the state.
Rehearsals are on Tuesday evenings when the university is in session. The orchestra performs four to six concerts a year.
All Hays Symphony’s concerts are free of charge, thanks to its donors and supporters. Information about the upcoming season’s concerts and ticket reservations can be found at hayssymphony.org.
NORTON – Three physicians have signed contracts with Norton County Hospital and will begin employment in summer 2020. The contracts were formally approved at a special meeting of the hospital’s Board of Trustees on Friday, Aug. 16.
All three physicians are family practice and obstetrics providers. This means the hospital will bring back its labor and delivery program with the onboarding of these new physicians. The three physicians are also native rural Kansans.
Joshua Gaede, MD, is originally from Hoxie, Kansas. He is currently a resident in the Cox Family Medicine Residency program in Springfield, Missouri.
Miranda McKellar, MD, was raised in Sycamore, Kansas. She is currently a resident in the Smoky Hill Family Residency Program in Salina, Kansas.
Theresia Neill, MD, grew up in Severy, Kansas. She is currently a resident in the Smoky Hill Family Residency Program in Salina, Kansas.
By JAMES BELL
