Geary Community Hospital has lifted their visitor restrictions that were put in place in January due to the influenza outbreak.

The Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Nikki Davies,said per the Infection Control Department, influenza testing has finally decreased significantly in the hospital and clinics. The hospital is now able to life the visitor restrictions put in place in January.

The earlier restrictions had ranged from not allowing children under 12 to visit to not visiting patients at the hospital if you were ill or had flu-like symptoms.

A KDOT sponsored street mill and overlay project will begin in downtown Junction City Monday.

The City’s Public Works Director Ray Ibarra, said it will be a 16-block project on North Washington from 6th to Home Streets.

KDOT will pay 80% of the cost of the project and the City 20%. Ibarra estimated the project will take three to four weeks. On the traffic impact he stated, “When they mill it will slow traffic up. You will have one lane to go on. And it will also affect the parking between 6th and 10th Street.” Motorists will can use nearby side streets. Traffic signalization  and control will be used to help direct motorists.

The coordinator of the Jammin in JC blues and barbeque festival, Bob Cevera, has issued a statement saying that after much deliberation, and due to lack of committed funding at this time, the board has “decided to step away from the festival for 2018.”

Cevera stated that they “are dedicated to a quality event and understand that to do the necessary things to accomplish this takes adequate funding well in advance for planning. Bands, vendors, etc. all need plenty of time for planning their calendars. We do not want this event to go away, we just need to figure out how to fund it in 2019.”

Jammin in JC has been a staple in the downtown Junction City Heritage Park area in recent years.

The Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce was the site Monday for a meet and greet for the Chamber’s new Membership Director.

Amy Garner, an Abilene area native, is returning to this area from Texas. “Love this part of the country. My family’s close by. And it’s kind of one of those things that I knew I wanted to move back in the next few years. This job kind of came up and it was just a perfect fit, and I was very excited about it.”

Garner is a 1989 graduate of Abilene High School, and has been working in recent years for  nonprofit organization in Texas. “I have worked in the nonprofit world for the last seven years in Dallas, Texas, worked for a hospice in long term care and did fundraising, sponsorship, relationship building type stuff there. I actually started out there as a graphic designer.”

Garner is working three days this week, three days next week and will then begin work full time with the Chamber in early April.

UPDATE:

According to Captain Brian Hornaday the deceased Soldier has been identified as Ronald Cornelius Church Jr., Fort Riley. Next of kin have been notified. Autopy results are pending.

Fort Riley has issued a news release stating that Church was a Bradley fighting vehicle system maintainer with the 541st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade.

Church joined the Army in November of 2015 and arrived at Fort Riley in Februadry of 2017. He was 23 years old. His home of record was Forest Park, Georgia.

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The Geary County Sheriff’s Department has reported that authorities responded to the area of Ava Road and Rebecca Road on the west side of Milford Lake at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Deputies located a dead man inside a vehicle with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. An autopsy has been ordered to determine the manner and cause of death.

The deceased man has been identified as a 23-year old soldier who was stationed at Fort Riley. His name is being withheld at this time, pending next of kin.

ABILENE, Kan. – Former “Rosie the Riveter” Connie Palacioz will share her story at the next Lunch and Learn program. The program will be held Thursday, March 22 at noon in the Eisenhower Presidential Library Visitors Center Auditorium. This free public program includes a light lunch provided by the Eisenhower Foundation.

	Connie Palacioz with Doc (Photo courtesy Doc’s Friends, Inc.)

Palacioz and Josh Wells, Doc’s Friends, Inc., will share the history of “Doc,” a restored B-29 Superfortress built in Wichita during World War II.

At the age of 17, Palacioz worked at the Boeing plant in Wichita as a riveter, building the 41 section (nose) on the B-29 Superfortress manufacturing line. Connie’s work on the B-29 line included installing the rivets on B-29 Doc when it was built in Wichita in 1944. Sixty years later, Connie returned to Wichita and helped hundreds of volunteers restore B-29 Doc and return the warbird to flight.

The Junction City Little Theater will present The Wizard of Oz on back to back weekends in April at the C. L. Hoover Opera House.

The show dates are Friday, Saturday and Sunday April 20th and 21st at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday the 22nd at 2 p.m. along with Friday and Saturday the 27th and 28th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday April  29th at 2 p.m.

The show is being directed by Little Theater President Ellie Dillon.

Junction City Little Theater season ticket holders can call the Opera House Box Office at ( 785 ) 238-3906 to make reservations.

Executive producers include Gatherings at 3 Thirteen and Central National Bank while the orchestra sponsors are Lacer Motors and The Stroda Family.

The State of Kansas currently provides approximately $4.6 billion per year for public school K-12 funding.

The State Supreme Court has mandated an increase.

Now reports from consultants are laying out three different possible funding scenarios for improving student performance, with the least expensive costing $451 million more per year. the more ambitious option, boosting the graduation rate and vastly improving student scores on standardized tests, would result in a $2 billion increase.

State Representative Lonnie Clark, Junction CIty thought the report would be more conservative. But when it came right down to it, it looks likes it’s going to be a really substantial amount of increase to fund the schools. At this point in time with the state’s situation in revenue it’s going to be an uphill battle.”

Clark noted numerous mistakes were found by legislators in the consultants’ report so perhaps if there are mistakes in one part of the report it may not be as bad as it actually looks. Despite that, on the funding scenarios Clark noted that the report was pretty shocking to most of the people in the House Education Committee. “It was so high. We thought maybe there might be an increase, we were hoping there would be a little bit of a decrease just from the state’s situation side of it. But for these kind of numbers it was kind of a shock to everybody I think.”

The ribbon cutting was held Thursday for the new Children’s Mercy Hospital pediatric clinics located on the lower level of Geary Community Hospital.

Community members in attendance had an opportunity to tour the facility and hear from Children’s Mercy and Geary Community leaders about the project.

Children’s Mercy Vice President Marshaun Butler went back to the beginning of the approximate $1.9 million dollar project, noted it started about two years ago. “We are excited to be here, to be able to bring pediatric specialty services closer to home, closer to your back yard where patients and families do not have to travel just to have their follow up visits. We want to help bring those services closer to patients in central Kansas.”

Geary Community Hospital CEO Dr. Joseph Stratton noted the clinic space is now complete. ” I’d like to welcome Children’s Mercy Junction City to Junction City.”

Donors provided money for the project with the help of the Geary Community Healthcare Foundation and Children’s Mercy development personnel. The idea originated when Bob and Teresa Bramlage approached Stratton in February of 2016, and from there the project eventually became reality.

The clinic space includes 12 exam rooms., two telemedicine rooms, a lab draw room, reception area and two nurses stations. There are currently specialty clinics for cardiology and endocrine / diabetes. Several additional clinics will be offered through telemedicine technology in the coming months, and Children’s Mercy officials anticipate the addition of other specialty clinics throughout the year.

Persons included in this post are innocent of crimes until proven guilty in a court of law. Courtesy Photos.

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