The last renovations to the Girl Scout house in Junction City were in 1969 – until now.
In an open house scheduled for August 28th, the refurbished Girl Scout House at 928 W. 4th Street will be unveiled.
Renovations were done to the inside and outside of the house and toward the beautification of that area of the park.
A new storage shed and sidewalks were added to the site in addition to new ceiling lights and flooring.
Thanks to the efforts of Ellen Westerhaus, a former Girl Scout and longtime volunteer, just short of $20,000 was raised toward the renovations. There were donations vauled at about $35,000 as well – one of which was a new roof from Flint Hills Roofing.
Located inside the 5th Street Playground Park, the Girl Scout House open house will be on August 28th.
The Junction City Blue Jay Marching Band performed their Family & Friends Preview Show at Al Simpler Stadium Friday evening.
The band performed a series of songs including the first segment of their Red, White and Blue Show, Stars and Stripes Salute, and Chants and Cheers.
T. J. Taylor, Band Director, felt the performance helped prepare the band for performances in the future. “Absolutely, because you have to learn how to deal with performance anxiety, especially when you go to contest.”
The performance wrapped up a week of Band Camp at JCHS. “Really a pretty good week, considering everything that we learned. We kind of start from scratch every year. ” Taylor noted there are approximately 80 freshman in the band, out of 150 total.
The fall show for the band, A Matter of Red, White and Blue is a patriotic show. Some of the tunes will include Stars and Stripes Forever, the Army Song, National Emblem March, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, a segment that includes a combination of Taps, Amazing Grace, and America the Beautiful, and the Band will close with the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The Marching Band will perform in the National Memorial Day Parade in next May in Washington D.C. Fundraising continues for that trip.
In a partnership with the Geary County Convention & Visitors Bureau, a division of the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce, and Thunderbird Marina & RV Resort, the Young Professionals of Junction City (YPJC) are hosting a Color Dash on Saturday, August 20th.
Color Dash is a family friendly 5K fun run. Participants begin the race with a white t-shirt provided to each “dasher”, and at every kilometer participants run through different colors.
The “color” of the Color Dash is non-hazardous, food-grade cornstrach, which means that it is biodegradable and non-toxic to the environment.
The race will be at the Thunderbird Marina & RV Resort, located at 4725 W. Rolling Hills, Junction City at 9:00 am. Racers should be there at 7:00 am for Race Packet Pick-up.
Registration for the event is open now and the cost is $40 per person, however, there are family and group rates available.
To register for the Color Dash visit https://bit.ly/CD5K-YPJC.
Volunteers are needed for the Color Dash to assist with preparations and race check points.
Vendors are welcome on the day of the event for a $25 booth space fee.
To volunteer or sign up as a vendor, please visit www.junctioncitychamber.org/color-dash-by-ypjc.
Sponsorship levels are also available for area businesses. The levels are as follows: Legendary, $5000+; Epic, $3000-$5000; Champ $1500-$3000; Hero, $500-$1500; and Family and Community, $50-$500. For more information on sponsorship contact ypjc@ypjc.org.
Coinciding with the Color Dash, there will be a full day of activities at the Thunderbird Marina & RV Resort. At 12:30 pm the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce will present a ribbon citting and grand opening ceremony for the Thunderbird Marina & RV Resort under new ownership.
The Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Annual Float Your Cardboard Boat Races hosted in Milford Lake will begin at 2:00 pm the same day – August 20th.
The Young Professionals of Junction City was started in 2007 to provide networking and educational opportunities to young professionals in the Junction City area.
The latest Kansas Department of Health & Environment test results for blue green algae are out.
The Corps of Engineers has reported that the south end of Milford Lake, Zone A, is under a watch where limited exposure to the water is encouraged.
The middle portion of the lake, Zone B, is clear.
The north end of the reservoir, Zone C, is in a warning. Direct contact with the water such as swimming or jet skiing should be avoided. That does not impact boating and fishing.
Boat ramps at the Clay County Parks and the Ft. Riley Marina will be opened.
Junction City police are reporting the arrest of a suspect identified as Daniel Genson, 22, Junction City, in connection with the stabbing of two people on Wednesday.
According to the Geary County Booking Photo report released Thursday morning Genson was arrested on suspicion of two counts of Attempted Murder in the 1st Degree, seven counts of Aggravated Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer, and two counts of Aggravated Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer.
Police Detective Lieutenant Jeff Childs reported that officers were dispatched to the area of the 900 block of East 4th Street. They found Charles Stebbins, 22, Junction City, who had received multiple injuries from being stabbed or cut, and Ester Fink, 69, Junction City, also was cut during the altercation. Stebbins was transported to Geary Community Hospital where he underwent surgery, while Fink refused to be transported and sought medical treatment on her own.
Childs told JC Post that when officers arrived on the scene they located the suspect in the case, “who still had the knife in his hand, wouldn’t follow directions, ended up had to be tased and forced to the ground, and taken into custody.” Genson is expected to have a first appearance in Geary County District Court on Thursday.
Super pacs, billionaires and more – Congressman Tim Huelskamp speaks out on the smear campaign and big money investors that contributed to his defeat in in the August 2nd primary election.
Huelskamp attended a telephonic media press conference where no subject was off limits and his frustration was evident.
Congressman Tim Huelskamp
“Roger Marshall attacked me for not getting anything done, and that’s a lie and a smear if I guess you don’t count the Veterans and count the military,” said Huelskamp.
Huelskamp says that his work for Veterans and the military will continue until he leaves office.
Many times Huelskamp noted that he was a “5th generation farmer” and stated that Marshall – “an OBGYN” doesn’t care about farmers, as he has famously campaigned for.
“3 million dollars spent against me, much of it from outside the state of Kansas – super pacs and billionaires from Chicago, and Florida and Washington, D.C. insiders put in an incredible amount of money….I’m very confident that if the super pacs that wanted to control my vote and tell us how to vote hadn’t put in money then we would have won this race,” said Huelskamp.
Huelskamp added that his votes for or against various things always were made while keeping Kansans in mind, and that these controlling money pots, or so to speak, became upset with him for not going along with their agendas.
“It’s a sad indictment of Washington [D.C.] where you have a Speaker [of the House], now a former Speaker who decides he’s going to tell members how to vote; and I didn’t vote the way John Boehner told me how to vote and he punished me and three other members,” said Huelskamp referencing why he was kicked of the House Agriculture Committee.
Huelskamp said that he couldn’t hurt Kansans in order to support “big money guys”.
“These guys don’t care about the AG Committee, you know the U.S. Chamber of Commerce never did score the vote on the AG Committee and if that was such an important vote – why did they support Pat Roberts? And if the Kansas Farm Bureau thinks the Farm Bill vote is so important why have they endorsed Pat Roberts…why did they endorse Kevin Yoder, Lynn Jenkins, Mike Pompeo and say it was all about the Farm Bill…that was just an excuse to use against me,” said Huelskamp who doesn’t know why such intense efforts were made by outside investors to get him out of office.
Huelskamp adds, “At the end of the day, they don’t want a principled conservative, they don’t want a principled anything actually – they want someone who will do exactly what they say, and I’m pretty confident they’ll get that in Roger Marshall because they bought his seat for him.”
Huelskamp alleges that this is one of the top, if not the most money spent on a primary election in Kansas history.
“Call Marlene Ricketts and say ‘What’s your interest in Kansas?’; call this Christopher Saddler whoever he is, you can go to the FEC and look up his contributions….his corporate office is in London, England. All I know is, they weren’t from Kansas, their interests were not agriculture – my guess is that the Wall Street folks want to continue to get bail outs…I’m not up there to look out for the Wall Street guys, the big money guys – at the end of the day I’m worried about ‘main street’, that’s where we have problems here in America.”
In addition to the Ricketts family, Huelskamp name dropped “uber billionaires” like Paul Singer, the U.S. Chamber and “corporate cronyism types” backing Roger Marshall with some sort of underlying special interest in Kansas.
Huelskamp added that there are no sour grapes, saying that he received more votes this election that the ones previously won; but he is frustrated that the people of the 1st Congressional District in Kansas fed in to the “smear campaign” and “flat-out lies”.
What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.
1st District U.S. House of Representatives – Statewide Total
Tim Huelskamp (R)
Roger Marshall (R) NOMINATED
Geary County – 68th District House (4 county race)
Nicholas Allbritton (R) 392 (768 total)
Dave Baker (R) 327 (1,795 total) FINAL
Vance Donahue II (R) 19 (291 total)
Geary County Commission – 3rd District
Keith Ascher (R) 220 – FINAL
John Moyer (R) 199
Riley County – 64th District House (2 county race)
Susie Swanson (R) 387 (1,544 total) – FINAL
Kathy Martin (R) 333 (1,130 total)
Riley County Commission – 2nd District
Marvin Rodriguez (R) 1,058 – FINAL
Robert Boyd (R) 758
Dickinson County – 68th District House (4 county race)
Nicholas Allbritton (R) 73 (768 total)
Dave Baker (R) 79 (1,795 total) FINAL
Vance Donahue II (R) 82 (291 total)
Clay County – 64th District House (2 county race)
Susie Swanson (R) 1,157 (1,544 total) – FINAL
Kathy Martin (R) 797 (1,130 total)
Clay County Commission – 2nd District
Eric Carlson (R) 358 – FINAL
Randy Rundle (R) 269
Jack Wallace (R) 96
Morris County – 68th District House (4 county race)
Nicholas Allbritton (R) 177 (768 total)
Dave Baker (R) 824 (1,795 total) FINAL
Vance Donahue II (R) 124 (291 total)
Morris County Commission – 2nd District
Vernon Hay (R) 138
David L. Fox (R) 234 – FINAL
Chase County – 68th District House (4 county race)
Nicholas Allbritton (R) 126 (768 total)
Dave Baker (R) 565 (1,795 total) FINAL
Vance Donahue II (R) 66 (291 total)
*Results compiled by Matt Barnes
**Results available after the Polls close at 7 p.m.
The new teachers breakfast at the Convention Center Tuesday morning boasted an impressive turnout.
There were 125 teachers that RSVP’ed to the event; there are 135 new teachers to the district this school year.
At the Monday, August 1st Board of Education meeting Bridget Seeman, the Director of Human Resources for USD 475 said that the district is still short 8 teachers.
The breakfast this morning was sponsored by Jim Clark Chevrolet-Cadillac in Junction City and hosted by the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Monday, August 1st Board of Education meeting for Geary USD 475 largely focused on understanding and approving for publication the proposed budget for the upcoming school year.
Geary USD 475 remains under block grant funding for the 2016-17 school year with the mill levy staying flat at 43.525.
This means that taxes will not increase. The district will continue to be “fiscally responsible”, as Dr. Corbin Witt, Superintendent, says – in order to keep taxes low or the same.
The proposed mill levy rate of 43.525 will provide an estimate $9,017,548 in local funding to the District.
Geary County USD 475 had the lowest mill levy rate out of the top 20 large schools in Kansas during the fiscal year 2015-2016; neighboring Manhattan had a mil levy of 55.960.
With the funding debacle in the state, USD 475 was fortunate enough to see only a $40,000 loss in funding, compared to the nearly $400,000 figures projected.
The district budget is the “legal authority” for spending and actual figures may be different than budgeted. In previous years, actual figures were lower than or equal to budgeted amounts.
Special education state aid increased by $156,762 for the District.
The budget was approved and will be published for 10 calendar days and then considered for final approval following a budget hearing at the August 15th meeting.
The final budget then goes to the County and State of Kansas by August 25, 2016 per state law where it is cemented and approved.
The proposed total budget for 2016-2017 is $23,715,000.
( Back row L-R Raye Wilson and Christien Ozores, and L-R Coaches Randall Zimmerman and John Davis kneeling with Shriners Hospital for Children patients during the Shrine Bowl week. )
Four representatives of the Blue Jay football program participated in the Kansas Shrine Bowl football game Saturday night in Emporia.
Randall Zimmerman served as the head coach for the West team, while John Davis coached the offensive line for that squad. Raye Wilson played at running back and Christian Ozores at safety for the West team.
Wilson rushed for one touchdown and caught a pass for another touchdown, while Ozores intercepted a pass in the contest, won by the East over the West 48-27.
The Shrine Bowl raises funds to support Shriners Childrens hospitals.
