The Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce has endorsed the continuation of the one percent sales tax to reduce Junction City debt.  The one percent sales tax fr debt service was approved by voters in 2010 and has played a significant role in the recovery from a serious financial crisis for the City.

But the current one percent tax is due to expire on December 31, 2020, and the City is asking voters to extend it in the Nov. 5 election. The loss of the one percent sales tax for debt service would either increase property taxes or require the City to make cuts in services.

The Chamber points out that the sales tax shares the tax load with not only property owners in the city, but to all who live in Junction City and enjoy everything the community has to offer. Increasing the property tax to offset revenue currently being generated by a sales tax would be devastating to industrial, commercial and residential taxpayers and limit the ability for the community to grow.

The Chamber Board, and the EDC, Military Affairs Council and Membership Enhancement all support the continuation of the one percent sales tax and efforts being made to lower the City debt by voting “Yes” on the Nov. 5 ballot.

The Corps of Engineers have increased the outflows from Milford Lake to 2,000 cubic feet per second, and an increase to 3,000 cfs is anticipated for Friday.

The Corps said the current lake elevation is 1163.09, which is 18.69 feet above conservation pool. Downstream gauges on the Missouri River are starting to decrease.

On any given school day the weight room at Junction City High School is a beehive of activity. Hundreds of students work out and train in  the facility under the watchful eye of JCHS teachers and coaches including Randall Zimmerman.

Zimmerman estimated that more than 500 students use the weight room every two-day period. “Over one-third of our student population goes through the weight room in a two-day period. ”

Some of the  equipment in the facility ranges from ten power racks and ten platforms to leg curl machines. “We’re all about free weights. Really our philosophy is we want ground based, mobile joint explosive type lifting. We lift to be better athletes.” Zimmerman added there are also a couple of recreational strength classes for non-athletes as well. “That’s just to learn how to lift correctly as a lifetime activity.”

The current weight room is a big step forward from the facility that existed when Zimmerman arrived at JCHS in 1994. Then it was upstairs at the high school in Room 202, which is now a health classroom. “We had two classes with less than 20 kids per class. We didn’t have a lot of interest there. Two years later we were outside in the mobile, which was the old wood shop. ” At that time there were six periods per day and every one of the classes filled up. ”

Zimmerman said former superintendent,  Dr.  Mary  Devin, recognized the interest in strength and conditioning, and the numbers were growing tremendously. “We ran out of room out there and that’s when she built on.” The current weight room is located on the site of what used to be a driveway on the west end of the high school building.

Photos have been provided by Javon George of JCHS.

 

 

New members of the management team were introduced at the monthly Geary Community Hospital Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday.  They work for the company called Community Hospital Corporation, brought in to help deal with the financial challenges facing GCH.

Along with Interim CEO Don Smithburg,  they include Interim Chief Financial Officer Mike Johns and Interim Chief Nursing Officer Frank Corcoran. Corcoran will replace the longtime Chief Nursing Officer at Geary Community, Dawn Engel.

Smithburg said Engel recently announced her retirement. ” Dawn announced her retirement a couple of weeks ago and we expect that she’ll be able to stay here until about 1 Nov.” Corcoran is currently from the New Orleans area and Johns is from Nashville.

Geary USD 475 schools participated in a Walk a Mile event on Friday. Students, teachers and some parents walked a mile to help encourage and develop fitness habits.

The names of two grand prize winners from the event were announced on Monday morning on 107.9 FM and 1420 KJCK. In the student category Taylor Kennedy of Morris Hill Elementary School was the winner of an Xbox and two games. In the adult category Janet Bailey of Franklin Elementary won a Fit Bit.

Sharolyn Adams with the Geary Community Healthcare Foundation drew the winning names and announced them during the morning show on the radio with Mark Ediger. A total of 34 other students received either a scooter and helmet or a bicycle and helmet.

The R2B4 Bramlage Family Foundation sponsored the event, and Safe Kids Kansas provided some helmets.

The Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade presented by Eagle Communications will be Friday, Nov. 29 at 5:30 p.m.

Parade Coordinator Mark Ediger said the theme for the parade will be “It’s a Wonderful Life.,” taken from the classic Christmas movie with that title. “The thinking was there, the theme you could produce something on a float that is around the movie “It’ a Wonderful Life,” or just referring to life today as being wonderful at Christmas time.”

The parade will begin in the parking lot at Junction City High School, travel down Eisenhower and then down 6th Street to 6th and Washington Street downtown, and then back north to 8th Street. Following the parade Santa Claus will turn on the holiday lights in Heritage Park.

To enter the parade you can pick up entry forms at KJCK Radio, the Chamber of Commerce, or go online to JCPost.com where you can click on a tab for the parade and fill out an entry form. Forms have also been sent out to those who have entered the parade the last couple of years.

Ediger said a staple of the parade is the amount of time participants put in to decorate their floats.

This is the 24th year for the Christmas Parade which will include five cash awards for top entries.

 

Topics ranging from possible refinancing of bonds to an update on the early childhood program in the school district will be on the agenda when the USD 475 Board of Education meets in a work session Monday evening at the Devin Center. The session begins at 5:30 p.m.

Other agenda items range from a facilities reminder about the upcoming JCHS construction celebration on Friday ( Oct. 25 )  to a visit by federal Office of Economic Administration officials Oct. 28 and 29. The OEA visit is part of the effort to obtain federal grant funding for a new elementary school on post.

There will also be a trending items discussion. According to the work session agenda the Board President Rina Neal wants to discuss what has been happening across the nation and state with other districts so USD 475 can take a more proactive approach, and can let the community know that the district is aware of what is going on and what local officials are doing to address those items.

 

 

By Dewey Terrill
JC Post

Kansas State covered 95 yards in 11 plays to score the winning touchdown against TCU in a 24-17 Wildcat victory at Bill Snyder Family Stadium on Saturday. The win was the first ever in Big 12 play for a Chris Klieman coached Kansas State team, and the victory prompted the coach to run to the sidelines and hug the man who hired him, Athletic Director Gene Taylor.

On the drive for the winning score Thompson had a 61-yard run, and then followed up later with a 3-yard scoring run. . “I knew it was just a matter of time because we were finally getting in a rhythm offensively,” said the quarterback. “It was a great play call, but they gave us the look we were expecting on that touchdown and we executed the play.”

The K-State defense then held the Horned Frogs to sew up the victory. During the last TCU drive a sack by Wyatt Hubert was big for the Wildcats. Klieman stated Kansas State called a pressure and let the ends go upfield, “and he dipped the corner really well and you’re right to get them into a 2nd and 19 or whatever it was after they had thrown a couple of passes to number one, who’s a great player, and we were able to at least get them off schedule on the chains.”

The win snapped a two-game losing skid for Kansas State, who improved to 4-2 on the season and 1-2 in the conference.  TCU fell to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in Big 12 play. The Horned Frogs compiled 366 yards of total offense compared to 266 for Kansas State.

Attendance at Bill Snyder Family Stadium totaled 48.298 on Saturday.

The Wildcats host Oklahoma at 11 a.m. next Saturday while TCU meets Texas.

 

By Dewey Terrill

JC Post

UPDATE:

Jeff Underhill finished fourth in the Kansas Strongest Man competition in Salina on Saturday. Congratulations to Jeff!

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He’s known to many as a member of the Junction City Commission, but Commissioner Jeff Underhill has another focus as well. This Saturday ( Oct. 19 ) he will compete in the Kansas Strongest Man competition in the Driven Fitness Center in Salina.

Underhill has been training for this type of competition for a long time. “I did power lifting for a couple of years. I set a couple of state records, I got tired of doing the same three basic lifts and strong man training seemed a little bit more fun, and it has been.

Underhill explained that there are four separate events within the Strong Man competition. “It has an overhead press medley where you lift a log over your head, an axle, things like that. You also have to carry stones and sand bags and other things. So it’s really going to kind of an endurance thing as well as a strength event.”

Underhill will compete in the Open Super Heavyweight class. He enjoys this type of competition, and traces his beginning interest to the strength training he received in high school. He works out four days with two days a week of stretching and sees a chiropractor a couple of times a week for different treatments.

If he wins the event on Saturday he will be Kansas Strongest Man. “this event is also a United States Strongman sanctioned event so I’ll be qualified for nationals as well. The top three in this event, and another one that I’m competing in in April will qualify me for nationals and that’s in June up in Minneapolis. I’m hope to at least get an invitation to that.”

The competition in Salina Saturday begins at 10 a.m.

The Corps of Engineers have decreased the outflows from Milford Reservoir from 3,000 cubic feet per second to 500 cfs.

The Corps said the decrease is required for them to remain compliant with Phase One flood pool guidance. They have just dropped out of Phase Two.

Substantial releases will require the gauge at Waverly, Misouri to hit 140,000 cfs or less. Currently, Waverly is showing 162,000 cfs. Releases could be bumped back up a bit if inflows increase.

The current Milford Lake elevation is 1163, which is 19-feet above normal pool.