The old Abilene town Gunfighters will be performing at Sundown Salute in Junction City this year.

Their performances are scheduled at 12:30 and 3:15 p.m. Friday in heritage Park, and at 12:45 and 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Heritage Park.

Sundown Salute activities are in full swing the latter part of this upcoming week.

Christian Night performances Thursday will include Todd Agnew at 7 p.m. and Among the Thirsty at 8:15 p.m.   Also on Thursday evening the Junction City firefighters will conduct their Hot Dog feed from 6-7 p.m.   It is free for the first 500 people.

The Ottaway Carnival opens its five day run at 6 p.m. Thursday in the downtown area.

The concerts Friday through Sunday range from Boogie Wonderland at 9 p.m. Friday to Thunderhead – A Tribute to Rush at 9 p.m. Saturday, and to the Sundown Salute headline performer Bret Michaels at 9 p.m. Sunday.

A full day of activities are also planned on Monday July 4, including the Coors Freedom Run 5K and 10K at 7 a.m., the annual parade at 10 a.m., the Veteran’s Ceremony at noon, evening performances of H3O at 6:45 and Hells Bells at 8:45, followed by a fireworks extravaganza at 10:15  p.m.

The U.S. Army is facingan environment with fewer resources while readiness requirements remain constant.

The Director of the Military Affairs Council for the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce, John Seitz, released information he has received  showing that the Army has tasked all major commands to examine requirements, establish priorities and reduce funding and manpower. Resources re-purposed by that effort will be used to buy back critical areas associated with maintaining Army readiness.

Seitz feels this could be an opportunity for Junction City and Geary County partnerships with Fort Riley. “It’s an opportunity for the communities to work closer with Fort Riley, because Fort Riley will have to do less because they’re just going to have less resources.” Seitz noted there are many places where they can work together, “and improve efficiencies in both directions.  And I think this is an opportunity we ought to explore and take advantage of.”

Seitz feels city and county officials need to get with their Fort Riley counterparts, “and say hey, where can we work together to make this better.”

The weather cooperated and mother nature held back her storms, and all was well at the 2016 Kicker Country Stampede.

Held at Tuttle Creek State Park, the event boasted an impressive crowd for the opening night of music.

“Actually, someone was telling me today that they looked at the Billboard Top 20 and the artist we have booked this year have six of the top 20 hits,” said Wayne Rouse, Director of the Kicker Country Stampede – the state’s largest music festival.

Rouse didn’t have the official numbers for the evening but anticipates 25,000 to 30,000 people daily attending the stampede.

Amongst the crowd swooning over Sam Hunt and Dierks Bentley, there were plenty of activities in the park for festival goers to enjoy.

Jacob Alexander, operating the Human Foosball event said the lifesize game is much more successful than he could have anticipated.

“It’s been going awesome….it’s been a great success. Everybody loves it – you can bring your drink in there- the only problem is some people are getting hit by [other player’s] boots, but other than that everybody loves it,” said Alexander.

In addition to the games and music there is plenty of beer.

Drayson Cherry, Owner of Elite Hockers and in charge o

f the Miller Lite tents at the festival anticipates going through 100 cases of beer before the weekend is over.

With the abundance of drinking, there are likely to be some health related incidents involving alcohol.

“Today we haven’t had any alcohol related patients,” said Larry Couchman, Director of Emergency Services for via Chrisit Hospital in Manhattan and Riley County EMS.

Couchman said there were two incidents at the campgrounds on Wednesday night – one was alcohol related and the other heat related.

There were three trauma incidents Thursday night – one was a domestic issue and the other two were lacerations, none of which required transport to the hospital.

With the large number of people, it is difficult to “police up” everyone, but Pottawatomie County Sheriff Greg Riat says they are heavily staffed with law enforcement that are all working hard to prevent major incidents.

“We’ve got a very strong law enforcement presence; we’re very fortunate to have good neighbors to help us – the Wamego Police Department, Riley County Police Department, Kansas Highway Patrol, the FBI – and I know I’m leaving a lot of agencies out, but we have a lot of folks who come in here and help us,” said Riat.

Riat said Thursday was a decent day with only the domestic incident and a few alcohol related incidents.

“We have a very strong law enforcement presence, and you can’t stop everything but at the same time we’re hopeful with the stronger presence we have,” said Riat. “So far the crowd is really good, and the concert has been really good, so hopefully it’ll be a pretty quiet year this year – that’s what our hope is.”

Friday night features Tim McGraw, and Saturday is Jake Owen – both artists at 10:00 pm on their respective nights.

 

Today – Thursday, June 23rd – marked the first day in a Legislative Special Session that will surely be one for the history books.

The state Supreme Court gave Legislators a June 30th deadline, the last day of the fiscal year, to fix the funding or face the prospect of schools across the state closing.

In day one, House and Senate leaders worked together and advanced bills that would cut school funding by one-half percent and recycle those dollars, along with other funds, to provide the $38 million Governor Brownback previously referenced in the days before this special session in equity school funding.

On Friday, Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 2001 – identical measures – will face off for possible votes before the full House and Senate.

Both bills would cut all school districts by an equal one-half percent and then trickle those funds, along with other funds, into Local Option Budget aid, to provide property tax relief in poor districts.

Many superintendents, notably from Wichita, Blue Valley, Olathe and Shawnee Mission, testified in favor of the proposal even though some of them may lose funding.

Others, like Kansas City USD 500 urged legislators to find other options rather than across the board cutting all schools.

The half-percent cut to all schools would total $13 million dollars, and the bill would be funded by using $10.5 million in tobacco lawsuit settlement funds, and reducing extraordinary needs funding by $7.2 million; which leaves $8 million, using $4.1 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and lowering virtual school aid by $2.8 million.

The measure was approved with a 9-2 vote by the Senate Ways and Means Committee and OK’d by the House Appropriations Committee on a non-recorded voice vote.

Outside, protestors could be heard chanting:  “Fix this mess.”

 

The Corps of Engineers at Milford Lake tell JC Post there have been several reports received of blue green algae on Milford Lake over the past week. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has been contacted and plans to test the lake next Monday. Results are expected back on June 30.

The Corps said visual observations reveal high concentrations of blue green algae in Zone C…the north end of the lake along the causeway, Timber Creek Park and the Fort Riley Marina, plus other areas to the south.

KDHE has recommended posting a warning for Zone C, a watch for Zone B which is the middle part of the lake, and clear for Zone A on the south end of the reservoir.

The Corps of Engineers and Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks and Tourism employees will be placing signage at boat ramps and other lake access points Wednesday.

The Geary County Sheriff’s Office is looking into a Cold Case that will require the public’s assistance.

Sheriff Tony Wolf reported that on April 2, 1989 skeletal remains were discovered in Geary County on a sandbar of the Smoky Hill River near Grandview Plaza just south of Interstate 70. Following the examination of the remains by a Forensic Anthropologist, it was determined that the remains belong to a white man who was between 36 and 49 years old at the time of death.

The deceased was approximately 5’5 and died sometime between 1985 and 1989. The help of a Facial Reconstruction Expert was enlisted who was able to provide a clay molding of what the person looked like prior to death.

It is possible that the remains could have washed down the river, so communities west of Geary County are of special interest.

The Geary County Sheriff’s office is seeking the public’s hkelp in identifying these remains. If you have any information on this case, contact Lt. Brian Hornaday at 785-238-2261.

The crime rates are high, jail populations are reaching startling numbers, and arrest records are showing an alarming number of drug related charges – what is going on in Geary county?

Tony Wolf, Geary County Sheriff said that, “I think the crime rate has gone up a little bit, but I don’t think it’s as bad as other parts of the country; but the guys with the Sheriff’s Department agressively pursue the criminal element and if we catch them, we bring them to jail – and that’s how this things works.”

As of Monday morning, the jail population was at 159 according to Wolf who cites that several factors may be at play regarding that number but most notably “the old-fashioned police work that [the Sheriff’s Department] is doing is cause for the numbers to go up.”

The legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado has had an interesting effect on the our area.

“We have received a large influx of marijuana coming to our part of Kansas, we’ve gotten several loads of marijuana headed for other parts of the country – and even headed for right here out on the interstate; it’s spreading across the country very, very rapidly,” says Wolf.

The efforts being made to track down drug offenders aren’t going unnoticed, per the arrest records.

On patrolling and keeping our streets safe Wolf says, “we identify certain areas within the community that are higher in drug traffic and we patrol those areas, we work those areas quite frequently, and just spending enough time [in those areas] you will see what’s going on.”

When it comes to making arrests on the interstate, often times the criminals are just too dumb for their own good.

“It boils down a lot of times to simply the people that are in the car – their stories don’t match up. Or they’ll say they’re going to spend a week in Denver, Colorado and they don’t even have an overnight bag within the vehicle; there are several different indicators that you look for and once you get several of those indicators then you can pursue the searching of the vehicle a little harder,” says Wolf.

Although efforts in reducing drugs in our area are strong, Wolf notes “that there is no great science to it, the guys that do it a lot are very good at it, and they know how to do their job.”

With our small community being right off a major highway and relatively in the “middle of nowhere”, it’s prime for drug trafficking – but could nature also play a role in the spike in crime and more notably – drugs.

“We always use to say that the warm weather would bring them out of the woodwork, and when the weather does change and more people are out and about it does increase the people moving around, but I don’t think that’s a real big factor in this,” said Wolf.

Coincidentally, the jail populations were at record highs last week during an intense heat wave that plagued our area.

If you are a witness to a crime this summer call the Junction City- Geary County Crime Stoppers at 785-762-TIPS.

 

The number of  inmates currently in the Geary County jail has reached record highs.

Last week there were well over 160  people jailed according to Geary County Commissioner Florence Whitebread.

The jail populations were amongst one of the topics discussed at today’s Geary County Commission meeting.

“I don’t know what’s creating such a big influx in our jail, but this is more people than we’ve had in jail at anytime around here, so it’s surprising,” said Whitebread.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf says there is an “ebb and flow with the number of folks we’ll have in our jail…but lately, we’ve been staying consistently high.”

“The agressive stance that we have against the criminal element [out here] has something to do with it, I’m sure; just the old-fashioned police work that we’re doing is a cause for the numbers to go up,” said Wolf.

Another factor into the abnormally high jail population is the absence of the Municipal court for the past week.

“The Municipal Court has been on recess for the last week or so; so that’s caused a back-up there ,” said Wolf who noted that once they get back running, “we’ll see the numbers drop quite a bit.”

Sheriff Wolf says that the crime rate is up in our area but still much lower than other cities across the country.

“With the Sheriff’s Department, we agressively pursue the criminal element and if we catch them we bring them in [to jail] and that’s how this whole thing works,” said Wolf.

 

 

The Kansas Legislature has been ordered by the Kansas Supreme Court to find more money for public schools.

They meet in special session beginning Thursday June23 )  in Topeka to try and accomplish that mission. If they do not the Court has threatened to close schools June 30.

State Senator Jeff Longbine, Emporia,  said they’ll find a solution to keep the schools open. “Now whether the Court accepts our recommendation is a little bit worrisome to me. That’s why I’m advocating we go back to the old LOB ( local option budget ) formula, we fully fund it at the full $38 million. That’s what the Court has suggested in their briefs would be the best safe harbor remedy. And that’s certainly what I’m advocating for.”

Legislators attending a Flint Hills Regional Council meeting in Manhattan indicated it’s possible that the session could run into next week.