Winter starts, but ahead of schedule a winter snow storm is predicted to hit the state overnight.
According to Peter Carttar, assistant bureau chief of maintenance, this is the time of year when the KDOT crews shine.
“It’s really up to Mother Nature now and we’ve done what we can do at this point and now it’s up to her. This is the time when our crews have the opportunity to do work that we know the public is going to see and they all are very aware of that,” Carttar said. “They work in the communities that they live in.”
As usual, KDOT will join with other state and local agencies to enhance the safety of travelers before, during and after the storm.
“The Kansas Department of Transportation, Kansas Division of Emergency Management and the Kansas Highway Patrol, along with countless local partners, will be out working and monitoring conditions. We want all Kansas travelers to be able to safely arrive at their destinations,” said Col. Ernest E. Garcia, KHP Superintendent.
One of the best ways to stay safe on the road over the next few days and during the holiday travel period is to know the conditions before venturing out. KDOT has a variety of ways to get information about road conditions. Travelers can obtain route-specific road conditions and weather by calling 5-1-1. The same information and more can be obtained by visiting the KanDrive website, https://www.kandrive.org, which also has maps, camera views of many routes and more, and the 511 mobile site, https://511mm.ksdot.org.
Those planning to travel during or after the storm should follow the following safety tips:
• Completely clean frost and snow off all windows, mirrors, and lights, and use headlights to provide optimum visibility.
• Slow down, accelerate and brake gently, and increase following distance between other vehicles.
• Don’t use cruise control.
• Allow for more travel time.
• Always wear a seat belt, and secure children in the proper child safety seats.
• Slow down and move over for stopped emergency vehicles and maintenance crews.
• If involved in a traffic crash, or need assistance, call 911, or contact the Patrol at *47 (*HP) from a cellphone. Call *582 (*KTA) on the Kansas Turnpike.
To find out road conditions, call 511 from a landline or cellphone, or view conditions at: www.kandrive.org.
— Submitted by the Kansas Department of Transportation
The first child still was a gleam in my eye, and it was still easy to see the world as wide open. If they would have me, I could go anywhere.
My process of choice was to give a newspaper-industry headhunter a call and have him ship my ever-so-slight resume around to see if it sparked any attention.
To my surprise, I was almost immediately on the telephone with a publisher from western Kansas who was looking for an editor.
Ron Fields is news and information director at Eagle Communications.
While it wasn’t so long ago that the Internet didn’t exist, it was the day when functions such as maps worked so slowly as to be nearly unusable.
So as I chatted with this Kansas publisher, I called up a map, watching the progress bar grow.
We talked about the philosophy of news. We talked about my experiences. We talked about Bob Dole.
As I watched the map slowly load, I realized western Kansas was big. Really big. Russell, Kansas, appeared as a blip in the middle of the map. As I clicked “expand” once, twice, three times, I cut short the interview.
“I’m sorry. I should have looked at a map earlier. There’s no way I can live that far away from anything.”
Youth is short-sighted.
Years later, I jumped at the chance to accept another publisher’s offer — 30 miles farther west than Russell.
It was the best move of my life — a little older, a little wiser and this time with a wife, a 3-year-old and a newborn in tow. Both kids are Iowa-born, but somehow they have made us a “house divided” by blue and purple. (Neither gives much credence to my wife’s Iowa State red-and-yellow or my Notre Dame green-and-gold.)
We have much to be thankful for in Hays. It’s a remarkable place.
Everyone says that about their town — the difference here is that it is true.
We have negligible unemployment. We have a hospital and a university bolstering an already strong agricultural and energy industry. While crime exists, we certainly do not face the public safety challenges against which most communities struggle.
We have award-winning and consistently exceptional schools. We have a city that commits to our youth through the Hays Recreation Commission and its bevy of activities. We have potholes, but they sure don’t last long.
Too often, it’s easy to berate your community, to find flaws, to bemoan inaction.
And in this season of celebration, we are all free to make that choice.
I choose today to look out at this wide-open western sky and say thank you, Hays.
Thank you for welcoming me into your community. Thank for for offering my children your cocoon of consistency that makes them feel safe and secure. Thank you for opening doors to our family that have allowed us the chance to get to know so many of you.
Thank you Hays Rec, for your untiring commitment to getting youngsters involved, active and learning.
Thank you, city of Hays, for showing government that you can pay your bills on time and still provide for the community’s needs.
Thank you, O’Loughlin Elementary, for being both caretaker and guide to my beautiful daughter and precocious son all these years — and for enduring their often-scowling father.
Thank you, Hays Medical Center, for tending to loved ones with care and compassion when emergency strikes.
Thank you, city, county and state police officers, for letting me sleep soundly and being the buffer between trouble and our front door.
Thank you, my friends, for seeing the best in me and making me glimpse the same on occasion.
Thank you, my fellow Illinoisian transplants, for giving me someone with whom to bemoan my Cubs and Bears.
Thank you, aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins — and friends I consider brothers and sisters.
Thank you, my media colleagues here and across the Midwest, who have both propped me up when I was too low and brought me down to earth when I was too high.
Thank you, Dustin and Shannon and Harry and Rosene and Kathleen for making our little portion of our little block in our little town so neighborly.
Thank you, my family, for all the Interstate 70 travels you endure for the sake of togetherness.
Thank you, my around the corner neighbor Lance Smith, for making our neighborhood the best trick-or-treating spot in town.
Thank you, Hays natives, for allowing this Illinois kid to find a new home in western Kansas.
Remarkable places are made that way not by geography, not by buildings, not by box stores nor restaurants.
Remarkable places are made that way by the people who choose to call it home.
You are remarkable. And I am grateful.
Ron Fields has joined the staff of Eagle Communications as news and information director, overseeing news operations for Hays Post, Eagle Radio and Eagle Community Television. Fields had served as managing editor at the Hays Daily News for the past seven years. An Illinois native, Fields brings 16 years of journalism experience and his work has been honored by press associations in Illinois and Kansas.
MANHATTAN — This year has been monumental for Kansas Wheat organizations. The Kansas Wheat Commission and Kansas Association of Wheat Growers leadership came together to begin industry changing endeavors. Looking back at 2013, it will be remembered as one of the first steps taken in positioning Kansas as a national leader in the wheat industry. Here is the Kansas Wheat Year in Review.
The Kansas Wheat Innovation Center: Construction ended just over a year ago on the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center and the hardhats are back to add more. The building has become a hub for wheat research and soon will play host to more tenants. Two areas are under construction to be finished into a molecular lab and genetics lab. The new space will be used by Wheat Genetic Resource Center and Kansas State University scientists. Throughout the year, the Center has also garnered visitors from all around the world, to see firsthand wheat farmers investing in their future.
Ohio Woman Wins National Festival of Breads: Rosemary Leicht, Bethel, Ohio, won the $2000 Grand Prize at the 2013 National Festival of Breads bread-baking competition in Manhattan June 22. Leicht’s recipe, “Onion Parmesan Cracker Bread” was selected from among eight finalist recipes baked and judged at the public competition. The first ever youth category winner was Mardi Traskowsky from Herington, Kansas with her recipe “Family Italian Bread.” Finalists traveled to Manhattan from across the country to learn more about wheat production and compete in the contest. Meanwhile, hundreds of Kansans came to the National Festival of Breads to attend baking demonstrations.
Wheat Crop Grades Well: Quality of the 2013 Kansas winter wheat crop varied across the state along with production and dramatically differing growing conditions. The crop was most hard-hit by the drought in the western third where it produced lower yields and smaller kernels but noticeably higher proteins. The crop benefited from timely rains in the central and eastern portions of the state producing higher than average yields, with slightly lower proteins but good kernel milling characteristics. Overall, the National Agricultural Statistics Service reported 85 percent of the crop graded #1.
World’s First National Science Foundation Center for Wheat: The National Science Foundation named Kansas State University as the lead institution for the world’s first Industry/University Cooperative Research Center focused on wheat. The NSF I/UCRC Wheat Genetics Resource Center will be housed at the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center where scientists will conduct research on wheat germplasm improvement, using the gene bank of the Wheat Genetics Resource Center. The center is the first National Science Foundation established research center for any crop plant and will focus on improving the production and disease resistance of wheat and serve as a training hub for graduate students and young researchers.
Brazil Becomes Major HRW Customer: The U.S. wheat industry’s biggest hard red winter 2013 year to date customer came as a pleasant surprise to Kansas wheat farmers. Due to a temporary tariff change, Brazil, one of the world’s leading wheat importers, leaned on the U.S. in 2013 to feed their need for wheat purchasing 3.15 million metric tons or 115.6 million bushels. Brazil is South America’s largest wheat importing market, but typically only purchases about 400,000 MT per year from the U.S., instead relying on fellow Mercosur member Argentina for the bulk of its wheat imports. This year, however, both Brazil and Argentina’s wheat crops fell short. That supply situation, combined with concerns of inflation in Brazil, caused exports to South America to skyrocket, up 863 percent from last year’s sales. The next biggest hard red winter purchaser is the traditional customer, Nigeria, at over 1.5 MMT purchased this marketing year.
25 Billionth Bushel State Fair Booth Wins Champion Award: Kansas Wheat’s 25 Billionth Bushel themed booth at the Kansas State Fair took home a champion ribbon for the best inside exhibit. It centered on the growth of the Kansas wheat industry and the productivity of farmers. The booth featured the actual 25 billionth bushel of wheat harvested in the past 100 years of Kansas farming by Mike and Tanner Brown in Colby, Kansas. Located in the Pride of Kansas Building, the Kansas Wheat Booth was a main attraction with a timeline of the progression of wheat farming in the state of Kansas.
LAWRENCE (AP) — Crews are undertaking an annual effort to monitor changes in groundwater levels in western and central Kansas.
The University of Kansas said Tuesday the Kansas Geological Survey will measure 510 wells early next month. The Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources will measure an additional 897 wells.
The monitoring focuses on the massive High Plains aquifer system, which consists largely of the Ogallala aquifer. Data is used by landowners, state and federal agencies, local groundwater management districts, private entities and the public.
From the winter of 2011-12 to 2012-13, water levels in the entire network declined by slightly more than 2 feet on average. Southwest Kansas was the hardest hit area, with an average decline of 3.56 feet.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lottery officials said winning ticket tickets were sold in California and Georgia for the $636 million Mega Millions jackpot, the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history.
The winning numbers were: 8, 14, 17, 20, 39; Mega Ball: 7.
Paula Otto, the Virginia Lottery’s executive director and the lead director of Mega Millions, said $336 million in tickets were sold for Tuesday’s drawing.
California Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso said Tuesday one ticket was sold at Jennifer’s Gift Shop in San Jose, Calif.
The lucky Georgia ticket was sold at a Gateway Newsstand in the affluent Buckhead area of Atlanta. Owner Young Soolee grinned as she arrived this morning at the shop, off the beaten path to the public and frequented by workers from the Alliance Center office building.
The jackpot resets to $15 million for the next drawing, which is on Friday night.
MANHATTAN – A two-way verbal exchange between Kansas’ cattle producers and extension specialists is the new approach to K-State’s 2014 Winter Ranch Management Seminar Series, set to kick-off in January and conclude mid-February.
The series has a history of being a successful stretch of meetings, which are hosted throughout the state of Kansas, said Bob Weaber, beef breeding, genetics and cow/calf specialist for K-State Research and Extension. Unlike previous years where the program has had a Web-based delivery for part of the content, originating on campus or at a particular ranch, this year the specialists will deliver the series in a face-to-face “town hall” meeting format.
Weaber, along with other state, district and local extension staff, will take part in the series to help answer producers’ questions about beef cattle issues surrounding animal health, nutrition, management, genetics and reproduction.
“Because of the wide range of topics and variety of climatic conditions over the past year in Kansas, there are many different issues facing producers,” Weaber said. “This is a great opportunity for us as state specialists to take our expertise out in the country and do a series of ‘town hall’ format meetings, where we don’t have a specific agenda. We want to be responsive to the questions and needs of our producer clientele.”
Weaber said producers should come to the meetings prepared with questions. Some of the hot topics he foresees discussing include drought management and recovery, winter feeding and cow management, preparation for calving season, and, as the bull buying season approaches in the spring, new trichomoniasis regulations (https://www.asi.k-state.edu/species/beef/research-and-extension/finaltrichrules.pdf), bull selection and genetics issues.
Although most of the questions will probably focus on winter issues, Weaber said extension staff is open to questions regarding producers’ plans next year for breeding, calving and weaning.
“January is always a great time for producers, when the weather is bad and after they get chores done, to sit back, think and plan for the coming year, the calves that will be born in the spring and how they might manage those,” he said. “Certainly think about business strategy opportunities moving forward in terms of expansion.”
Northwest Kansas locations include:
Downs: Jan. 23 (evening), Memorial Hall, 500 Morgan Ave. For more information, contact Neil Cates, Post Rock District, (785) 738-3597, or Rachael Boyle, Phillips-Rooks District, (785) 425-6851.
Colby: Jan. 28 (mid-day), 4-H Building, 1100 Cedar St. For more information, contact Kurt Sexton, Thomas County, (785) 460-4582.
Ness City: Jan. 28 (evening), Comm. Bank of Midwest, 210 S. Kansas. For more information, contact Jared Petersilie, Walnut Creek District, (785) 222-2710.
Evening events with start at approximately 5 p.m. with registration, dinner at 6 p.m. and program 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Mid-day meetings will begin with registration at approximately 11:30 a.m., lunch at noon and program 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Participants are asked to RSVP for a selected location by the close of business the Friday before the event. Registration fees, which cover a meal, vary by location. Interested participants should reach out to their local host contact for registration and RSVP details.
More information about the K-State Winter Ranch Management Seminar Series is available at www.ksubeef.org.
TOPEKA — The Kansas Historical Society announced in a press release this week that limestone arch bridges in Gove County and historic districts in Johnson and Sedgwick counties are the newest Kansas properties added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The listings were entered into the National Register earlier this month and brings the total Kansas listings in the National Register to 1,341.
Benson Culvert and Jenkins Culvert, both southwest of Gove, were built in 1938 as Works Progress Administration projects.
The National Register of Historic Places is the country’s official list of historically significant properties. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.
Dr. Tisa Mason, vice president for student affairs at Fort Hays State University, was presented earlier this month with the Robert A. Shaffer Award from the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors.
The award, announced this week by FHSU University Relations recognizes Mason for her involvement with several professional associations. She serves on the Association of Fraternal Leadership and Values board and is also a member of Sigma Kappa Sorority. She served as the Sigma Kappa Foundation executive director from 1994 to 2004.
Mason was nominated by Angela Guillory, who worked with Mason on the Sigma Kappa Foundation.
Guillory, assistant dean of students and director of Greek Life at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, said Mason “has gone above the call of duty to serve” and “brings others together because she values the perspective each person brings to the table.”
Guillory was one of many who recommended Mason.
“You can measure her work not only by what she did and does in her day-to-day life over the last 25 years but the time she gives over and above her professional career to serve the larger fraternity/sorority community,” Guillory said.
Mason also has been active in LeaderShape Institute Inc., the American Society of Executives and the Fraternity Executives Association.
The award was presented at the AFA annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
TOPEKA (AP) — A federal panel says the KanCare takeover of long-term services for the developmentally disabled should be delayed.
KanCare, the state’s privatized program for the poor and disabled, is scheduled to begin providing those services Jan. 1. However, it needs a waiver from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services by Jan. 1.
The National Council on Disability is recommending that Medicaid delay the waiver for one year. The panel said the state has not adequately considered concerns raised by clients, guardians and service providers about the expansion.
The Wichita Eagle reported the state Department for Aging and Disability Services officials disagreed with the panel’s recommendations. They say the panel didn’t spend enough time in Kansas to understand the safeguards KanCare has to protect the rights of the disabled.
DENVER (AP) — The U.S. and Canadian military’s beloved Santa Tracker is facing something new this year — public criticism.
A children’s advocacy group said an animated video on the NORAD Tracks Santa website injects militarism into Christmas by showing fighter jets escorting Santa’s sleigh.
It’s a rare swipe at the popular Christmas Eve program that gives second-by-second updates on Santa’s global whereabouts.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command defended the video as non-threatening and safe for kids.
The kerfuffle erupted two weeks ago when the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood said the video brings violence and militarism to a beloved tradition. Blogs and Twitter lit up with volleys from both sides.
Coalition officials said it’s a “media-manufactured controversy.” They say they hadn’t even known about the video until reporters called.
Many chances to give during National Blood Donor Month
WICHITA — January is National Blood Donor Month, and the American Red Cross invites those who are eligible to join millions of blood donors across the country in helping ensure a stable blood supply for patients in need.
January can be a difficult month to collect donations due to inclement weather and seasonal illnesses. The Red Cross encourages eligible donors to make an appointment to give during National Blood Donor Month by visiting redcrossblood.org or calling (800) RED CROSS.
Upcoming blood donation opportunities: Ellis County
Jan. 2 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at American Red Cross, 208 E. Eighth St.
Jan. 3 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at American Red Cross, 208 E. Eighth St.
Jan. 4 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at American Red Cross, 208 E. Eighth St.
Jan. 7 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at American Red Cross, 208 E. Eighth St.
Jan. 8 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at American Red Cross, 208 E. Eighth St.
Jan. 9 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at American Red Cross, 208 E. Eighth St.
Jan. 10 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at American Red Cross, 208 E. Eighth St.
Jan. 14 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at American Red Cross, 208 E. Eighth St.
Jan. 15 from 1 to 6 p.m. at Knights of Columbus, 1013 Washington, Ellis
Jan. 15 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at American Red Cross, 208 E. Eighth St.
Norton County
Jan. 9 from noon to 6 p.m. at Norton County 4-H Building, 126 E. Park St., Norton
Thomas County
Jan. 7 from noon to 6 p.m. at Colby Community Building, 285 E. Fifth, Colby
Jan. 8 from 7:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Colby Community Building, 285 E. Fifth, Colb
Jan. 14 from noon to 6 p.m. at United Methodist Church, 500 Summit Ave., Wakeeney
