Juneteenth is one of the oldest and biggest celebrations of freedom in the United States.

Two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Texas learned of their freedom. How the message became so delayed is debatable – but some  historians have said that messengers on their way to deliver the news were intentionally murdered, and others claim that slave owners intentionally withheld the news to maintain their workforce.

Flash forward 152 years, and that moment when all became free is still commemorated throughout the United States. Delilah Hamilton, Juneteeth Community Association, said that the celebration came to Junction City 24 years ago.

The celebration in Heritage Park complete with music, food trucks, vendors and “bouncy houses” was a community celebration of equality and freedom. Hamilton noted that there is a lot of black history tied to Kansas and specifically Junction City.

“Duke Ellington did a performance here in Junction City back in the ’50s, and in the ’40s – he came here more than one time,” said Hamilton. Ellington and Count Basie would perform at the Black USO in Junction City, which was located at the corner of 18th and Madison Streets.

“We celebrate being free and being emancipated and just freedom itself,” said Hamilton. “If you ever thought about the things that slaves went through, all the breakups of families and being sold away from your family – it was terrible.”

Hamilton said that for the slaves that learned of their emancipation, it was as if they were finally “able to breathe.”

A 7,000 square foot pediatric specialty clinic will be located in the lower level area of Geary Community Hospital.  Construction will begin in the next few weeks, with a projected completion date of spring 2018.

This will be a joint project of Geary Community and Children’s Mercy Kansas City. The clinic will include twelve exam rooms, three dictation pods, two treatment rooms, height / weight rooms, a nurses station and reception area.

Stacy Doyle, Vice President, Ambulatory Services at Children’s Mercy told JCPost.com that they have been in Junction City for quite awhile. “We’ve seen patients from the endocrine and diabetes clinics, also our cardiology clinics. So we’ve been in the community and wanted to expand in the community.”

Doyle reported last year Children’s Mercy saw more than 800 children from Junction City for a total of about 2,600 patient visits. “In the past year about six percent of Junction City kids have actually used our services. We want to be able to provide those services close to home. We feel like we can provide more specialties to more patients and really make an impact in the community.”

Dr. Joseph Stratton, CEO Geary Community Hospital, stated by the time construction begins it will probably be the beginning of August. The project completion date is spring 2018.

The four major project partners are Children’s Mercy Kansas City, Geary Community Hospital, the R2B4 Bramlage Family Foundation and the Geary Community Healthcare Foundation. Other community members have also donated to the project. Stratton said donations and pledges so far total $1,925,000. “Our figure for the project is right around there. We’ve had some discussion of raising more dollars if we could to have an endowment if you will, for future needs for these type of pediatric clinics.”

Doyle, Stratton, Bob and Theresa Bramlage and Geary Community Healthcare Foundation Executive Director Jolana Montgomery – Matney were all among the speakers during the press conference in the lobby of Geary Community Hospital.

 

The forecast on Saturday looks sunny and clear for Symphony in the Flint Hills in Geary County…but this is Kansas, and pop-up storms are common.

Garry Berges, Geary County Emergency Management Director said that officials have created an action plan in the event of inclement weather.

“We have no shelter out there at the Symphony, so if we have a severe weather possibility coming in there’s a special action plan that takes place between the Weather Service, event promoters, myself and my staff as to what we do with the event,” said Berges.

The plan calls for different options such as postponing the event, or sending people to their cars for a period of time. So far, the weather forecast looks clear for Saturday.

“We started last Wednesday meeting with the Weather Service…we started that as they were doing the setup because we didn’t want them trying to out tents up or anything because it’s wide open,” said Berges who noted that the concern during setup was if there would be lightning strikes in the area.

“The Weather Service has been talking to us everyday, and tomorrow they will be bringing a meteorologist on-site in the afternoon to monitor the weather,” said Berges.

The National Weather Service in Topeka often sends meteorologists to big outdoor events.

“They had somebody out here last weekend at the biplane fly-in,” said Berges. “Anytime there’s a major event, especially where there’s people and not a lot of shelter area [we call them in]; we’ve got no shelter out there [at Deer Horn Ranch], technically there’s one road in and one road out.”

Over 7000 people are expected to attend the Symphony in the Flint Hills tomorrow at Deer Horn Ranch in Geary County.

Temperatures are expected to be around 90 degrees, with heat indexes near 97; those in attendance should wear hats and sunscreen, and drink plenty of water.

It was a difficult but necessary vote. 

That’s the sentiment of Senate Vice President Jeff Longbine, just two days after the historical override of the Governor’s veto to enact the largest income tax increase in Kansas history. The legislation not only increased income taxes to close a $889 million budget shortfall through 2019, it also provided a $293 million increase in public school funding over two years.

Longbine said that a vote to raise taxes, is not an easy vote for anyone.

“I don’t know of a single Legislator that wants to raise taxes; unfortunately we found ourselves in a budget deficit over ’18 and ’19 of almost $900 million, and on top of that the requirement to do a new school finance formula,” said Longbine. “So we really had very little options.”

State lawmakers worked throughout the Legislative Session to find a tax plan, school funding formula that Governor Brownback would agree with and ultimately sign.

“The Governor has been critical of the Legislature in passing [that], but we really had very few options.”

Longbine noted that going forward, he is optimistic for Kansas and that it’s citizens “will have options.”

“We can start restoring highway funds, we can make sure that we do fund K-12 education, we can hopefully keep tuition increases down at our higher ed institutions, and make sure that we’re taking care of our infrastructure,” said Longbine. 

The tax increase, albeit monumental for the future of the State, was met with criticism from more than 330,000 farmers and small business owners who benefitted from Brownback’s tax exemptions he championed in 2012 and 2013.

Longbine noted that the re-establishment of the LLC is difficult, but it’s not necessarily negative. “In previous tax policy, the state of Kansas no longer allowed loss carryovers, so if a small business or a farmer had a bad year they couldn’t carry those losses forward and couldn’t write off those losses; with the new tax legislation that’s been passed, those losses will flow through…I don’t think the impact to allow those losses to flow through will be as big as people think it will.”

Nonetheless, adjournment for the Legislature is near.

“The Senate has passed our two year budget and we’ve also passed what is called the ominous bill – which is kind of the cleanup bill that comes after revenue estimates are finalized in April.”

Longbine noted that the House is debating their version of two year budget bill today; if the bill in the House passes today negotiators between the House and Senate will begin conferencing on the differences and similarities between the two bills to come to a compromise.

Once the House and Senate have come to a compromise on a budget, legislators should be able to adjourn. Longbine is hopeful this will occur on Friday (June 9th).

by: DeAngela McDougald

Since the liberation of the city of Cantigny, France to the liberation of Mosul – the second largest city in Iraq – the First Infantry Division (1ID) has led and continues to lead the nation to victory.

On June 8, 1917 the First Expeditionary Division (as it was called then) was officially organized in New York City. Since it’s inception Big Red One soldiers have led the nation in battle in nearly every major conflict.

The First Infantry Division led the charge in World War One, World War Two, and Vietnam; they were also the first to return to Iraq in 2014. Aside from being the first, the Division went to battle in nearly every other conflict since 1917.

Today, that storied history was celebrated – on the 100th anniversary of the Big Red One.

“We started off with a Division run today, all the soldiers were fired up across Fort Riley; and then we had our Victory with Honors today, really marking the history of this great Division,” said Fort Riley and 1ID Acting Senior Commander Brigadier General Patrick Frank.

The Victory with Honors ceremony this morning recounted the history of the Division with visual representations through uniforms and streamers representing the various conflicts throughout 100 years.

“We are the nation’s oldest Division; so Blackjack Pershing knew exactly what regiments he wanted to form into the First Division for the nation as they went into World War One,” said Frank. “In fact he said ‘Lafayette we are back’ as they arrived in France – that’s a pretty powerful statement for our young nation at the time as the First Infantry Division went into battle against the enemies in Europe.”

For those witnessing the ceremony, it was powerful and inspiring – for Frank, he said he feels a great deal of pride in representing and being a part of the Big Red One.

“That type of pride, and knowing that we have soldiers that are out there in harm’s way impacts all the 10,000 soldiers that were in the run this morning; and you can see that unit pride in the Big Red One come out [of them] from PT (physical training) in the morning to final formation at night.”

The 1ID has fought in five wars with 35 Medal of Honor recipients and more than 35 campaign participation credits.

No Mission Too Difficult, No Sacrifice Too Great, Duty First!

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“The pressures of serving a community are very high for firefighters.”

June is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD month.

When many think of PTSD and those that suffer from it the common references are men and women in the armed forces, or children that may have survived horrific childhood experiences; but it’s your local heroes that are often a forgotten piece of the conversation surrounding post traumatic stress disorder.

Terry Johnson, Junction City Fire Chief, said that the stress of your job – to help, save others – can sometimes consume you.

“We see people hurt, homes destroyed, you’re dealing with illnesses that you don’t know what it is; and you do this day in and day out,” said Johnson. “Every third day for 24 hours, you’re answering the call for help, and it wears on firefighters quite a bit.”

According to the American Journal of Psychology, about 18 percent of firefighters experience post traumatic stress disorder symptoms. And approximately 27 percent of all firefighters suffer from some form of mental illness related to ptsd.

“We used to call it ‘burn-out’, but really it’s traumatic stress; that’s what we do – deal with traumatic incidents all the time,” said Johnson. “We need to be aware of the signs and be aware that the stresses do get to us.”

The National Center for PTSD identifies the following symptoms for someone whom may be struggling to cope with a traumatic incident:

• Reliving the event: nightmares, flashbacks, smells or sounds may be triggers
• Avoiding situations that remind you of the event
• Negative changes in beliefs and feelings
• Feeling ‘keyed’ up, or hyper-arousal: hard time sleeping/concentrating

Symptoms disrupt your life or make it hard for you to get through the day.

“One of the great things about firemen is they always look out for each other; so when someone starts to have a hard time and starts to show those symptoms, we try to get them help,” said Johnson. “The fire service is a brotherhood, it’s a family.”

And PTSD doesn’t only affect firefighters; many of the men and women who work in public safety are exposed to traumatic or devastating events multiple times throughout a career. Johnson noted that sometimes just “opening up” and having a conversation about whatever you’re feeling can help the healing process and allow time for a vacation or break from duty if necessary.

If you or someone you know is struggling, there are several ways to get help. Talk with a doctor, seek treatment. There are also several crisis hotlines available depending on your need. For more information visit: https://ptsdusa.org/get-help/hotline-crisis-numbers/.

*feature photo courtesy JCFD

Mark your calendars – if you are not already registered to vote, the deadline to register in order to participate in the August 1st primary election is Tuesday, July 11th.

Rebecca Bossemeyer, Geary County Clerk, said that the same election rules apply for those wanting to vote in August.

“If you are not registered, you will have to prove your citizenship; if you are a registered voter there’s nothing additional that you need to do unless you’ve moved or changed your name then you should update that registration,” said Bossemeyer.

The August primary is only for Junction City residents, as the candidates for Junction City Commission will be the only candidates on the ballot. Current law states that if more than three times the number of candidates as open positions file for election, then a primary election is required.

“Just the City of Junction City is having a primary, not everybody; so if you happen to live in the rural part [of the county] or Grandview Plaza, or Milford, you do not have anything to vote for on August 1st,” said Bossemeyer.

New this year, ballots that are sent by mail do not have to be received by the County Clerk at the previous 7:00 pm on election day deadline.

“If someone puts their ballot in the mail and it gets postmarked on or before election, and is received in my office by the Friday after election, we will now be able to count those [ballots],” said Bossemeyer.

The deadline to request a mailed ballot is the Tuesday before the election – July 25th.

“If you are wanting a ballot mailed to you, there is a form that you have to complete.” The form can be mailed, scanned and emailed, faxed or brought into the Clerk’s office in-person.

After the August primary, the Junction City Commission candidates will be cut down from ten to six that will go on to the November general election. Candidates for Geary USD 475 Board of Education will be on the ballot in November.

Symphony in the Flint Hills 2017 will be at the Deer Horn Ranch in Geary County on Saturday, June 10th.

Ben Bennett, County Commission Chairman, noted that the event will bring thousands of people to the community. “There will be seven or eight thousand people here from all over the country.”

The Kansas City Symphony Orchestra will perform just after 6:30 pm on the ranch in southeast Geary County.

“There will be a dance afterward, so don’t have to hurry [after the symphony performs],” said Bennett. “Michael Martin Murphey is supposed to be there – he’s a well known performer who has a lot of ties to this region.” Murphey is an iconic country western singer and songwriter.

Educational presentations will begin at 1:30 pm, which includes food and other vendors. This year’s theme is the celebration of the Chisholm Trail and it’s 150 year history.

There is no cost to park. “There will be plenty of people working and directing traffic, and helping to keep that moving,” said Bennett.

Gates open at noon, for a complete schedule visit: https://www.symphonyintheflinthills.org/