The 3rd annual Blue and Gold market at Saint Xavier’s Catholic School will be Saturday, March 11th.
Rebecca Cronander, Counselor, said that the event is a great way to bring the community into the school.
“Anytime that we get a chance to have community members in our school it’s really special; and one of my favorite parts about this is that our kids are still super involved…so people get to see how great our kids are, but they also get to have a good shopping experience at the same time,” said Cronander.
The event will feature a variety of vendors inside the school’s Bradley gym.
“We have some vendors that are very popular that we have not had before – we have two LuLaRoe vendors coming because they have so many different items that you can purchase; and also new this year that we haven’t had before is Britt’s Farm coming from Manhattan with plants and starter plants for your garden and thing like that,” said Cronander.
In addition to the new vendors for this year’s event there will be several direct sales vendors which are favorites among attendees.
“We do love direct sales vendors – which are anyone like Tupperware, Mary Kay, Scentsy – and we have all of those great companies being represented; we also have ‘crafters’ coming, [and] we have some woodworking coming our way,” said Cronander.
The market is from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm on Saturday, March 11th at Saint Xavier’s Bradley gym.
Members of the Geary County Schools Board of Education along with students and staff from the district dedicated several Flint Hills Maps and Exhibits that are currently mounted in several area schools on February 20th at the Board of Education Celebrations meeting.
“this map helps our students realize they live in a very special place — the largest expanse of tallgrass prairie left in the world,” said Executive Director of Communications, Mat Droge.
The in-school map exhibits and accompanying on-line Flint Hills-based education program were given to Geary County Schools at no cost — funded by private donations to the map program through the Flint Hills Discovery Center Foundation.
Created by a grass roots team of Flint Hills teachers, scientists, ranchers and experts. the program’s goal is to “deepen students” knowledge, pride and commitment to their place in the world — the Kansas Flint Hills — the last four percent of tallgrass prairie in North America,” stated Project Director Emily Hunter Connell. Over 180 schools across the Flint Hills have joined in the program.
In addition to the exhibits, the program offers over 250 place-based learning activities on the Flint Hills Discovery Center website.
Program Coordinator and former teacher Annie Wilson said, “The idea is to give teachers exciting, relevant ways to present basic skills they are already teaching – by providing easy access to hundreds of customized, Flint Hills-based activities not available in standardized texts.”
Moving full steam ahead, lawmakers in the Nation’s capital are closing in on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Congressman Roger Marshall, 1st District of Kansas, said that a significant repeal could occur in the next few months.
“The President is very motivated to get something done, like even in March, so we’re going to keep moving forward on a reconciliation plan where we repeal a significant portion of the Affordable Care Act,” said Marshall.
Many are worried that repealing the health care act commonly referred to as Obamacare too soon, will create chaos in the insurance and healthcare sector.
“I want to reassure my people back home that we’re not pushing anybody off the cliff, we’re not going to pull the rug out from anybody – there will be a transition time where we can help and get people that are on any one of these exchanges now an opportunity to find a better plan over the next year,” said Marshall.
In addition to repealing the ACA, there is a big push in Washington, D.C. to eliminate federal funding for abortion procedures.
As an obstetrician, this issue is close to Marshall.
“These same babies that I’m fighting for, other people are taking their lives; so the big push at the Federal level the last two weeks is making sure that no federal money is spent on abortions,” said Marshall. “I’m very proud that the House is pushing these issues through and we expect the Senate to follow-up and we expect this President to sign them; so, hopefully there will be a permanent stop to any federal funding for abortions.”
President Trump has been outspoken early in his Presidency about groups that perform abortion procedures; even signing an Executive Order in January halting federal funds from agencies like Planned Parenthood and others that perform abortions.
Quiet Riot will be the headline performer for Sundown Salute 2017.
Nikki Londene, Sundown Salute Committee Chair, said the group performs classic rock and they were a well known band in the 1980s.
“[They’re] known for being the original punk rock band; one of their major hits is Come on feel the noise, it’s just pretty much 80s classic rock,” said Londene.
The group is set to release a new album in April.
“We’ll obviously appeal to that 35 and over demographic [but] I feel like classic rock really kind of appeals to a wide range of people; my mom made me grow up on it, so it’s something that I can relate to and I feel like there’s a lot of people younger than me that can relate to that as well – plus, you’ve got that age group that lived during the time frame,” said Londene.
Quiet Riot will perform on Saturday, July 1st in Heritage Park.
Sundown Salute 2017 runs from June 30th through July 4th.
The tentative schedule is as follows:
June 30th: Street dance, with DJ headliner
Saturday, July 1st: classic rock, rock bands leading up to Quiet Riot
Sunday, July 2nd: Christian music during day, country music at night
Brig. General Patrick Frank, Acting Senior Commander 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley
Members of the media were invited to witness two live battalions, and a third virtual battalion face off against a “near-peer” enemy.
Unlike the live fire exercise a few weeks ago, this training exercise employed the use of a multiple integrated laser engagement system, or MILES.
CPT Brian Kossler, Battle Captain for Division Operations Center, described the event as a sophisticated game of laser tag.
“The simulation is pretty refined, for instance, the tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles use a complex laser system to determine who’s in and who’s out; if [your] vehicle gets hit, there will be a voice in your radio that goes right into your ear that will tell you the status of your vehicle” said Kossler.
The various statuses range from catastrophic kill – which means the vehicle is completely out of the fight, mobility kill – which means that you can’t move but you can still shoot, or firepower kill – which means you can move but you can’t shoot.
“That’s how the game is adjudicated and refereed, and whoever seizes and takes their objectives wins,” said Kossler.
The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team conducted the training exercise in “towns” complete with a hotel, church and bank to simulate potential combat zones.
Brigadier General Patrick Frank, Acting Senior Commander 1st Infantry Division, said they leverage technology at Fort Riley. “Our Department of the Army Civilians that work here at Fort Riley help us to do [that]; they’re the experts on these systems, they help us to put them on our Bradleys, our tanks, all of our vehicles out here so that when we are in a force on force engagement [like this], we can provide realistic feedback to the soldiers and to their leadership.”
As of part of Danger Focus II, which prepares soldiers for the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, CA, the Brigade is being evaluated in phases.
“We had three different phases here – a preparation phase, that we’ve templated exactly after the National Training Center so what those Commanders will experience when they go to NTC, they’ve already done it here at Fort Riley; then we moved into situational training exercises in our combined arms live fires…we did over 20 rotations of those combined arms live fires,” said Frank. “Now [you’re seeing] phase three – the maneuver phase.”
Fort Riley is known for its training capabilities with 77,000 acres of usable training space.
“We’ve had several senior Army leaders come in and watch Danger Focus, they’re impressed by our ability to get an entire Brigade Combat Team in the field, but not only that, but then bring our Sustainment Brigade – they’re all in the field; so all of our combat operations that we would expect to see a Division doing if they were to employ it in theater, we’re actually doing [it] out here in the Fort Riley training area,” said Frank.
More than 3500 soldiers have been trained as a result of Danger Focus II.
Videos shot by JC Post are for our use only. (playlist below)
Junction City firefighters responded late Thursday morning to 115 West Spruce Street for a reported fire.
As of 1:30 pm Thursday afternoon, Terry Johnson, Junction City Fire Chief, said that investigators are still working to determine the cause of the fire.
“We had a fire in the middle area (of 9 apartments), we had two apartments involved and as we were working to extinguish the fire it grew on us,” said Johnson. “We do have a lot of smoke exposure, or what we call smoke damage so everyone that’s here is going to have to be displaced; [we] have the Red Cross on the way.”
The building’s structure lent no favors to the firefighting effort.
“Our guys did an excellent job and knocked it out, and basically it was a roof built on top of a roof and that causes a lot of changes when the fire gets between there, it’s got a free run up and down the building – so that’s what we were battling; it made things a little difficult, but we got it,” said Johnson.
The Junction City / Geary County Drug Operations Group assisted by the Riley County Hazardous Materials Response team executed a search warrant at 1303 Spring Hill Road in Junction City on Wednesday after a month long investigation into the alleged manufacture of methamphetamine occurring at that residence. The Manhattan and Junction City Fire Departments also assisted with the investigation.
Police reported the arrest of Joshua D. Grilliot, 24, Junction City and Nicholas E. Bird, 28, Junction City on suspicion of Unlawful Manufacture of Methamphetamine. Both were confined without bond at the Geary County Detention Center pending their first appearance in Geary County District Court.
Nicholas Bird
The Drug Operations Group seized components used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
The Junction City / Geary County Drug Operations Group is a joint task force composed of members of the Junction City Police, Geary County Sheriff’s and Grandview Plaza Police Departments.
The Junction City Fire Department also issued a statement on the case saying they were notified by local law enforcement to assist with a possible hazardous materials incident as a result of the investigation for a potential meth lab cleanup in the 1300 block of Spring Hill Drive. They provided support for the Regional Hazardous Materials Response team from Manhattan Fire Department. The Junction City Fire Department was released from the scene 8 p.m. Wednesday. No injuries or damage was reported in connection with the incident.
Every 80 seconds a woman falls victim to heart disease; that is 1 in 3 women that will die due to complications surrounding heart disease each year according to the American Heart Association.
Geary Community Hospital (GCH) officials are recognizing Women’s Heart Health Month and the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign to bring awareness to those statistics and treat local women to a fun evening.
“We came up with the idea of a ladies night out to get away from the monotony and the ‘rat race’ of running the kids around and cooking dinner, and kind of be a pampering night for ladies, but tie in an educational aspect with it as well of the importance of living heart healthy lifestyles,” said Nikki Davies, GCH Director of Marketing and Public Relations.
According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women; Davies said that many are aware of the risks for men, but often leave out women.
“The reason for the Go Red for Women campaign, is because people think that [it] is just a killer in men; but cardiovascular disease and strokes causes one in three women’s death each year…those are staggering numbers that I think people don’t realize, that cardiovascular disease affects all of us in some form or another,” said Davies.
Local heart attack survivor Heather Ryan will share her story as the keynote speaker; and the first responders that saved her life will be on hand to share not only the story of how they were able to save Ryan, but their experience with those affected by the disease.
“This is a great way for us to reach out to the community and to promote heart healthy lifestyles and education about living heart healthy,” said Davies. “We have all different types of vendors ranging from small boutiques, clothing boutiques, salons that will be there providing massages and facials and different fun things for the ladies.”
Ladies Night Out, sponsored by GCH is on Tuesday, February 21st at 5:30 pm at the Courtyard by Marriott Convention Center in Junction City.
Door prizes, swag bags, and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be available. Women are encouraged to wear red.
Tickets to the event are $25; the last day to reserve tickets is Friday, February 17th. To reserve a ticket call the Marketing and Public Relations office at 785-210-3307, or stop by the hospital.
image courtesy Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, TourismIn just 24 hours, two different coyotes have caused vehicle accidents in Geary County.
The first accident was around 6:30 am on Monday, February 13th on Highway 77 mile marker 167. Geary County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a single vehicle non-injury accident where a coyote ran in front of a vehicle driven by Georgeann Wilken of Clay Center and she was unable to avoid striking the animal.
On the same day just after 10:00 pm Deputies responded to a Interstate 70 mile marker 311 where Dalvin Drinkard, Fort Riley, overcorrected and struck a guardrail in order to avoid a coyote.
What in the world is going on?
Jesse Gehrt, Kansas Wildlife Parks and Tourism Game Warden, said that the incidents aren’t an immediate cause for concern.
“Normally it’s really cold this time of year, but now it’s a little warmer – my personal opinion is that [they] are probably just out getting a jump on a little bit of hunting, and seeing what’s going on,” said Gehrt.
Coyotes are generally considered to be an intelligent animal – why are they running toward moving traffic?
“From what I’ve seen, most of the coyotes accidents happen at night and I don’t know if it’s just the warmer weather that’s causing them to move around a little bit more…I think it’s just by chance that they get hit, they are a very smart animal…but it’s just like anything, you know – they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Gehrt.
Gehrt said there’s no immediate risk of increased coyote sightings.
“From what I’ve seen [they] are pretty uniform really, especially out in the rural areas you’re going to see them – where you’re really not going to see them, but in theory you’ll see them pretty evenly dispersed; but in Geary County, not necessarily,” said Gehrt. “A lot of times they’re concentrated more around food sources like a cattle feedlot, or a farmer’s cow died out in the pasture – you’re going to see them frequent that area a lot more; as far as around town, it’s kind of the age old thing – we as a people are moving out into their territory, especially west of Junction City where it’s really expanding – their territory or their home ground is slowly getting taken away.”
According to Gehrt, the two accidents involving coyotes were nothing more than a coincidence.
It is worth noting that both accidents occurred during dark or early morning/evening hours.
The 3rd annual Blue and Gold market at Saint Xavier’s Catholic School will be Saturday, March 11th.
![image courtesy Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, Tourism [https://ksoutdoors.com/Hunting/Furharvesting/Furbearers/Coyote]](https://www.jcpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/coyote.jpg)