The new Commanding General of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley has included Public Partnerships in his new mission statement.
Maj. Gen. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr. had the attention of the Flint Hills Regional Council Friday morning in Junction City after being asked about public partnerships. He explained that he’s currently adjusting the mission statement at Fort Riley and part of it does include working in the environment of the Joint Intergovernmental Multinational Environment.
“You’re the intergovernmental environment, so it’s in my mission statement now that we’re going to do that, and be better partners at that. I put it in the mission statement, it’s in there, that’s how important it is,” said Grigsby.
He went on to explain that he recently returned from an 17 month deployment to east Africa and it was all about working with intergovernmental environments.
“If we’re going to do it away, wouldn’t we do it here? It would kind of make sense.”
Possible partnerships include purchasing road salt in bulk, line striping roads, and other maintenance projects that Fort Riley and the surrounding communities could possibly work together on.
Zone A of Milford Lake remains in the clear status while Zone B has fell back in to a watch status and Zone C remains in a warning status following this weeks blue-green algae tests.
RJ Harms, Corps of Engineers Project Manager at Milford Lake explained that overall the lake did see improvement this week.
“Really overall conditions are really improving. The cell counts are way down. The only reason that Zone C remains in a warning is because of the toxin levels at Timber Creek Ranch,” said Harms. “Cell counts are down considerably from last week, the toxin levels are down considerably. With the weather and a couple of fronts coming through, I really kind of expect we’ll continue to see improvements, and hopefully before long everything will be worked out.”
Last year the algae hung around the lake through September but was no longer an issue after the first week of October. Harms is hoping that will be the case again this year.
Geary Community Hospital officials confirmed on Wednesday that Dr. Allan Holiday Jr. is no longer employed by the hospital. He was an orthopedic surgeon in the Flint Hills Orthopedic and Sports Medicine clinic for the past five years.
Holiday was arrested in late July, and in August was formally charged in Geary County District Court with one count of Aggravated Sexual Battery. At the time of his arrest police said they had received a complaint in the case in the case on July 26 involving a 16-year old juvenile.
A status check hearing is scheduled for Holiday in Geary County District Court on September 24 at 9 a.m. Holiday is free on $50,000 bond.
In a news release Wednesday GCH officials confirmed there are currently temporary orthopedic physicians seeing patients in the Flint Hills Orthopedic and Sports Medicine clinic, and different strategies are being explored for permanent coverage in the clinic, the continuance of orthopedic surgeries, and other forms of outpatient care.
“Our number one priority is to put our patients and families first and provide excellent care at Geary Community Hospital,” said Joe Stratton, GCH Chief Executive Officer. “We will move forward and continue to have a positive impact for the communities we serve in central and northeast Kansas.’
Last Thursday was the deadline to submit a sealed bid on 25 land bank lots in Junction City, and only two bids were received on two of those lots.
On Tuesday the Land Bank Board of Trustee’s accepted the proposal to purchase the two lots for $6,180 to New Horizons Home LLC of Manhattan. The two lots are side-by-side lots in the Sutter Highlands Addition north of K-18 Highway and west of U.S. 77 and Spring Valley Road.
Dr. Pat Landes, Trustee and a member of the Land Bank Ad Hoc Committee explained that he thought the sale of the two lots was a start.
“We just got the neighborhood Revitalization Plan approved for it from three different entities, the City, County and the school district. We’re just starting to get the word out now about it, the lots that are available,” explained Landes.
He went on to explain that he does know of developers out there that are interested in purchasing specific lots that are included in the land bank, but were not included in this particular sale.
Moving forward Landes said that he hopes that they look into better ways of marketing the lots to potential developers.
An Ad Hoc meeting is expected to be scheduled in the near future to further go over the results of the sale and determine what steps to take next with the remaining 23 lots.
A Great Bend, Kansas bank, Farmers Bank & Trust, is suing the City of Junction City and Homestead Community Development operated by Thomas Bishop in Holton, Kansas. Homestead owns the Bartell House in downtown Junction City.
The lawsuit alleges that on Jan. 26, 2007, Junction City executed a loan guaranty agreement to induce the Bank to enter into a loan agreement with Homestead in the principal amount of $600,000. On Feb. 27, 2007, the Bank and Homestead entered into a commercial security agreement for the $600,000 amount.
The loan dealt with funding for the renovation of the former restaurant area in the Bartell House.
Farmer’s Bank and Trust alleges that Homestead and the guarantor, the City, have refused and failed to make the required payments on the note as they became due, and defendants are in default.
According to court records as of April 1 of this year Homestead and the City were obligated to pay all amounts due under the loan documents including principal totaling $418,963.11, unpaid interest totaling $14,576 which continues to accrue, late fees totaling $1,680, and attorneys fees and expenses to be determined by the court.
Farmers Bank & trust is also seeking to foreclose on the mortgage, and that if the principal and interest due the plaintiff remains unpaid within 10 days after the date of judgement that the court order the Geary County Sheriff to advertise and sell the property.
Also named as defendants in the case are former Junction City Mayor Terry Heldstab, whose signature is on the loan guaranty in the court records provided by the Bank; former City Clerk Colleen Woodruff who allegedly attested to Heldstab’s signature, and former City Attorney Charles Zimmerman.
According to court records current Junction City Attorney Katie Logan in April of 2014 told the Bank that it is her opinion the Guaranty is void and unenforceable under Kansas cash-basis law. She cited state law that it is unlawful for the governing body of any municipality to create any indebtedness in excess of the amount of funds actually on hand in the treasurery of a municipality for such a purpose. Logan noted that she had been informed by City staff that the City did not have $600,000 on hand in its treasury for the purpose of paying the Guaranty in January or February of 2007.
Logan also noted that there was no evidence in City files or in records of City Commission meetings that any provision was made by the City for payment of the Guaranty by issuance of bonds, temporary notes or no fund warrants. In fact during the 2006 early 2007 time frame there is no evidence that the Guaranty was ever approved by the City Commission at all.
A new conference center is being built at Acorns Resort at Milford Lake.
The new conference center will hold up to 275 people and is scheduled for a January 2016 opening. It will the first conference center of it’s type to be built at a Corps of Engineers operated lake.
Children and adults had an opportunity on Saturday to view up close the big trucks and rigs used by local agencies ranging from police and fire to the U.S. Army.
The Touch A Truck event was sponsored by the Dorothy Bramlage Public Library in the parking lot at Goody’s Plaza in Junction City.
Lincoln Elementary School students in Junction City conducted a Mini Concert in Heritage Park on Friday as they kicked off their Money for the Monument community service project.
According to USD 475, their goal is to raise money to restore the World War I monument in the southeast corner of Heritage Park. The monument was dedicated to Geary County World War I veterans by the Geary County chapter of American War Mothers on May 25, 1928. The urn on top of the stone has been missing for years and students want to help fund the reconstruction of the urn.
According to the Fort Riley 1 ID Public Affairs Office, after a 911 call around 7:30 p.m. a teen was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound at Fort Riley.
At this time it is not known if it is a homicide or suicide.
The situation is currently under investigation by the Fort Riley Criminal Investigations Division.
The JC Post will update when more information becomes available.
Fort Riley is advising at this time that there is no active shooter.
There is not an active shooter situation on Fort Riley.
It’s been 14 years since the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks forever changed our nation.
U.S. Military forces are continuing to fight the longest continuous fight on foreign soil in the history of our nation, but this year Fort Riley and the 1st Infantry Division recognized a special milestone. This year is the first year that they have not had to add the names of any fallen soldiers to the Global War on Terrorism Monument.
Maj. Gen. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., 1st Infantry Division commanding general, was this years speaker during the ceremony. He paid special tribute to all ‘Big Red One’ Veterans and active duty Soldiers.
“Our Army has had Soldiers in the field for 14 years, and so to the Veterans of the ‘Big Red One’ and all of the other Veterans here today, thank you for what you have done,” said Grigsby. “Your service to our great nation continues through the actions of the ‘Big Red One’ Soldiers today currently serving around the world.”
Following his remarks Maj. Gen. Grigsby and Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston placed a wreath at the Global War on Terrorism Monument in honor of the 213 ‘Big Red One’ Soldiers that’s names are forever etched into the monument.
Regional Council Friday morning in Junction City after being asked about public partnerships. He explained that he’s currently adjusting the mission statement at Fort Riley and part of it does include working in the environment of the Joint Intergovernmental Multinational Environment.
