Members of the Kansas Legislature attended Friday’s Flint Hills Regional Council meeting held in Alma and discussed the upcoming legislative session.

Multiple topics were discussed but the tax “lid” imposed last session had the focus of the members of the FHRC. 

“After listening to all of it, we’re going to have to pay attention to what’s going on in the Legislation this year. But before it starts we need to start working at a grass-roots level on projects we need to take care, number one being the tax lid,” said Mike Ryan, Junction City Commissioner. “If we don’t start working at home the tax lid is probably going to, not just stay there, but it may get worse.”

Republican legislators inserted the property tax “lid” into the $400 million tax bill this past June as a sweetener for colleagues who were loath to vote for a tax increase. It requires local governments to get voter approval to take in any tax revenue above the rate of inflation that comes from increased property values.

It is the biggest issue in the upcoming session, as far as, funding at the local level according to Ryan.

“Because the state programs continue to shut down and they put the expense on the local communities to pay for, and if they put a tax lid on us, then we won’t be able to fund any projects at home either and things just won’t happen.”

Democratic Sen. Laura Kelly of Topeka noted that she does have a bill in the works that would repeal the tax lid. She is currently seeking co-sponsors of the bill and said she has a few lined up and plans to introduce it when the session opens in January.

Other issues facing the legislature include continued revenue shortfalls, the need to develop a school finance formula and a looming decision from the Kansas Supreme Court concerning whether or not the State is adequately funding K-12 education.

The 2016 Kansas Legislative Session will kick off on Monday, January 11th, 2016.

The 2015 Extension Appreciation Award in Geary County has been presented to the Garry & Linda Berges family.

This family, including Garry and Linda, plus their children, Travis and Janelle, were involved in 4H for many years, and even today Garry and Linda are still supporting the program.

Garry stated it’s been good for his family. “We like with everything we do to give back and that’s why we stay in 4H and do what we do.” In recent years Garry has continued to serve as the superintendent of woodworking and electrical at the free fair.

Linda called 4H a wonderful opportunity. “4H has been a great thing in our lives, and it just taught our kids so many wonderful life skills that they can use throughout their whole life.

Janelle is a teacher today at Franklin Elementary School in Junction City. She remembers her 4H projects. “I was involved for 12 years with different projects….foods, crafts, photography, clothing.”

Travis is a firefighter for the Junction City Fire Department. He noted the award means a lot. “Entire family has been in 4H for many years now and just means a lot putting back into the community.”

This is the 33rd year the award has been presented in Geary County. The initial recipients were JC Livestock Sales — Howard & Vern Langvardt in 1983.

During a memorial ceremony Thursday morning at Fort Riley the 62 German and 11 Italian POWs buried at the Fort Riley Cemetery were remembered.

Representatives of both the German and Italian militaries were present and placed wreaths in honor of their fallen comrades.

COL Carsten Treder, German LiasonOfficer to the US Army at Fort Leavenworth spoke during the ceremony and said that remembrance is also a warning.

“This is another reason of why we mourn the casualties of war and the victims of dictatorship. It reminds us that we have indispensible responsibility of our history,” said Treder.

Fort Riley was one of about 600 prisoner of war camps in the United States. From 1943 to 1946, about 4,500 POWs were incarcerated at Fort Riley, where they performed farm work, road work, laundry services and building maintenance for a stipend of 80 cents per day. After World War II, some of the POWs stayed in the local area and were later buried at Fort Riley.

Dr. Allan D. Holiday Jr. has been bound over for arraignment and trial in Geary County District Court on one charge of Aggravated Sexual Battery.

That developed followed a preliminary hearing that lasted just over one and a half hours in District Court on Wednesday.  Holiday is accused in connection with a July 26 case involving a then 16-year old and now 17-year old teenage boy from Herington.

During testimony at a preliminary hearing in the case, the boy’s father, Robert Clark, explained that he received a call in the early morning hours from his son asking him to come and get both his son and a friend, both of whom had been staying at Holiday’s house in Junction City. He stated that when he asked what happened, he was informed that Holiday had put his hand on his son’s penis.

Clark drove to Junction City and picked up the two boys, who had been hiding in bushes behind the McDonald’s Restaurant on South Washington Street waiting for him. They had left Holiday’s house, called Robert Clark, who then drove to Junction City from Herington to pick them up. They then went to the Junction City Police Department and filed a report.

Robert Clark stated the next morning Holiday contacted him and asked if he could come to his home to speak to him, Holiday arrived, and the two men talked on the front porch of the residence. Clark said Holiday told him he believed he had inappropriately touched his son, said he was sorry, and asked for forgiveness. Clark noted he was sure Holiday was sorry, and had unknown to Holiday recorded him on a cell phone during the conversation. “So everyone know he came over to my house and admitted he touched my son inappropriately.”

Clark, who is a former Herington police officer,  said he told Holiday that he didn’t believe the doctor needed to be around little boys any more, and the doctor agreed he had a problem and didn’t need to be around them anymore.

Later during the preliminary hearing the teenage victim in the case, testified about the incident, describing in detail Holiday’s alleged actions.  The second teenage boy who had been staying at Holiday’s residence also testified, explaining how he had gone to turn down a thermostat and when he returned was informed by the victim what had occurred.

Defense attorney Bob Pottroff initially moved to have the proceeding closed but that motion was not granted. During his examination of the two youth, there was a discrepancy on the length of time involved in the specific incident with the victim at one point saying Holiday had touched him for ten minutes, but the second witness saying he had been informed of Holiday’s alleged action, but not that it had happened for 10 minutes.

In a second case authorities confirmed Holiday was arrested Wednesday night at his Junction City home on suspicion of a bond violation for allegedly contacting a juvenile witness two times. Holiday has been bound over arraignment and trial on the Aggravated Sexual Battery charge and a hearing on the bond violation count on December 4, but that is expected to be moved to another date.

Holiday is a former orthopedic surgeon at Geary Community Hospital, but in September Hospital officials confirmed that Holiday was no longer employed there.

It’s still not clear when the Junction City Municipal Court and City Commission will move into its new location.

The contract to renovate and expand the building at 701 N. Jefferson into the new home of the Junction City Municipal Court and Commission Chambers was awarded to Cheney Construction in August of last year, and completion of the project was slated for April of this year.

Seven months later Cheney Construction is still working on a punch list that still had 200 items on it last week. The delay is being attributed to delays in getting materials on site.

“It sounds like the same old record over and over again,” said Mayor Mick McCallister about the reasons for pushing back the move in date. “But you just have to make sure that things are done, and done right before you cave and move into something that’s not ready yet.”

McCallister went on to say that there are penalties in place and the Commission is looking into those.

Allen Dinkel, City Manager explained that the penalties built into the contract with Cheney Construction were for liquidated damages for up to $100 per day.

“Now the question will be, when the project finally gets done, is what percent do we assess the penalties? Will part of the penalties have to go to repairing stuff that we’re not happy with? There’s just a lot of things to do, but ultimately we’re looking at $100 a day going back to, I believe, April 1,” said Dinkel.

Commissioner Pat Landes voiced his frustration not only with the overrun of the project but with the commission as well.

“Well six months is a long time to be off course, and from the size of the list of things that still have to be corrected I think it’s going to be quite a bit longer,” said Landes. “I still stand by my original vote that we probably should have gone with someone else as a contractor. That’s really all I have to say, and I reminded my commissioners of that tonight. It’s not always the lowest bid that’s the best bid.”

Cheney Constructions bid did come in 20.4 percent less than the architects estimate last August.

It remains unclear when the City will be able to occupy the building, but Mayor McCallister did go out on a limb and say,”that I think we’ll be in there by the end of the year.”

Over the past week the Geary County Sheriff’s Office has received numerous reports from citizens who have been contacted by an unknown person claiming to be a Deputy with the Geary County Sheriff’s Office.

The caller advises the victim that they have an active warrant for their arrest and states that the victim must send money in order for the warrant to be withdrawn.  Neither the Geary County Sheriff’s Office nor any member of the Court will contact a citizen and request a monetary payment.  If you are contacted, please record as much information as you can, including the phone number of the person who contacted  you, and report it as soon as possible to the Geary County Sheriff’s Office in person at  826 North Franklin Street in Junction City, or by calling 785-238-2261.

Brian L. Hornaday

Lieutenant, Detective

Geary County Sheriff’s Office

Over 300 patrons of the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce turned out for Junction Function at the Geary County Convention Center Thursday night.

After taking a year off the chamber brought back the fundraising event and they weren’t disappointed. Dennis Beson, Chamber CEO explained that they still had people calling as of Thursday morning to attend the event pushing the attendance over 300. And the money raised exceeded the $12,000 mark.

“I know we’re probably above $12,000,” said Beson. “When we total everything up between the sponsors and everything I think we may be probably closer to $16,000.”

The money was raised through various games and auctions. During the live auction a man cave package that included a leather chair, mini fridge, signs, 55″ LED HDTV, and 12 packs of soda fetched over $1,000 for the chamber. Other items auctioned off included a KSU Football signed by Head Coach Bill Snyder, and a package to Prairie Band Casino.

The event was a big hit among those in attendance including Calvin Conary, Owner of Frontier Spirits.

“This was my first year here, and I will definitely come back. It was great, so much fun. Everyone just laid back having a great time, great thing, great experience for everybody,” said Conary.

The money raised benefits the operations of the chamber, and will in ways make its way back to the community through the chambers support of events such as Sundown Salute.

 

The Operations Project Manager for the Corps of Engineers at Milford Lake, R. J. Harms issued the following statement Thursday on blue green algae testing at the reservoir:

As a result of samples collected on 9 November, KDHE has lifted all restrictions at Milford Lake and all zones (A,B,C) are considered “Clear”. 

As the 2015 HAB monitoring season ended on 31 October, KDHE continued to collect samples on 2 and 9 November to monitor microcystin levels only as the Algae bloom appeared to be winding down and finally ended.  We have removed all watch and warning signage and posted “All Clear” signs that will remain up throughout the winter/spring season.

No additional testing or sample collections are anticipated for 2015.

The Geary County Veterans Alliance put on the annual Veterans Day Program Wednesday morning at the C.L. Hoover Opera House.

This year keynote speaker was Mary T. Burnham, of Junction City. Burnham is a retired US Army Nurse who served in the Army Nurse Corps. During her time in the Nurse Corps she served at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, Ft. Hood, Texas, and Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii.

“Towards the end of my year in Hawaii I received orders for Fort Riley, Kansas,” Burnham said which drew laughter from the crowd. “I really was. I wanted to go to Vietnam. I was there, I knew people that were already over there so I wrote a letter to Washington, wrote several letters, but the replies were always the same, they needed someone with my MOS at Fort Riley, Kansas.”

She said during her time at Fort Riley she cared for active duty soldiers and their dependants. She was up for promotion to become a Major but traded being on the Majors list for a “Mrs.”; resigning her commission to remain in Junction City and to marry her husband Tom.

Following her speech Burnham was presented with a Quilt of Valor from the Central Flint Hills Quilt of Valor Project.

Donna Martinson, Quilt of Valor Project Coordinator explained,”Mary’s Quilt of Valor is the 116th quilt awarded through the Central Flint Hills Area Quilt of Valor 2015 Project.”

A photo montage put together by Bobby Whitten was then played showing 108 of the quilts that had been presented this year. A number of the quilts were also on display at the Opera House.