Santa Claus flipped the switch and the Christmas lights came on in Heritage Park at the end of the 23rd annual Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade.

There were 50 entries in the parade ranging from the Shriner’s mini-wheels to the the 1st Infantry Division Band and the Junction City High School marching band. But the highlight when Santa Claus arrived in a horse-drawn carriage, spoke to the crowd, and flipped the switch on a platform in Heritage Park to turn on the lights. Then children had a chance to meet with Santa in his house in the park where they could convey their Christmas wishes and pose for pictures.

Multiple awards were presented to entries in the parade. They included the Mayor’s Award to the Junction City Little Theater, The Youth Award to the Girl Scouts, the Chamber of Commerce Award to the Exchange Bank, Founders Award to Lyons Creek 4-h Club and the Geary County Commission Award to the FIlipino American entry.

By mid-afternoon Thursday a total of 341 people were served a free Thanksgiving meal courtesy of volunteers who spent hours and in some cases days preparing the food which ranged from turkey and candy yams to mashed potatoes, ham, pumpkin pie and cakes.

The location was the First Presbyterian Church at 113 West 5th Street.

Margaret Kilpatrick has coordinated this dinner for 17 years, but she has a lot of help. “Oh my goodness, at least 50 people helped in different ways, serving, cooking, cleanup. So we had a lot of good volunteers.” As for the dinner itself she said, “I think it went well. When we opened we had so many people here. it’s nice looking at the dining room with people in a happy mood.”

Kilpatrick stated they prepared 100 pounds of mashed potatoes and candy yams, and she prepared 14 turkeys.

Some of the meals were served at the church and others were delivered to homes in the community. Kilpatrick also confirmed she plans to put this dinner on again next year, and added she will be putting out a plea for more help.

 

The second annual Hometown Christmas will be held in downtown Junction City on December 7th. Activities will occur at various locations ranging from the C.L. Hoover Opera House and Bartell House to the Dorothy Bramlage Public Library.

Here is a list of activities.

The 23rd annual Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce parade will begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

The theme this year is Characters of Christmas. The parade will start at Junction City High School and follow a route down Eisenhower to 6th Street and then go east on 6th to Washington Street downtown.

The parade will be broadcast on 1420 KJCK AM and FM 107.9.

At the conclusion of the parade Santa Claus will arrive in Heritage Park to participate in a lighting ceremony and will then meet with children.

 

Exploratory merger talks between Geary Community Hospital and Salina Regional Health Center have come to an end with a decision not to proceed any further.

According to Michael Terry, CEO of Salina Regional Health Center, “After review of the study, the board has decided that is not the right time for the Salina Regional Health Center to continue down the path of negotiations with Geary Community Hospital. We continue to wish them success in the future.”

Geary Community Hospital CEO, Joe Stratton , remarked, “Over the past year Salina Regional and Geary Community Hospital have spent a notable amount of time in the study of a potential partnership, yet in the end we’re just not able to move ahead.”

The exploratory phase began in August 2017 to examine the potential of a long-term strategic alliance between the two hospitals.

The due diligence was completed by Eide Bailly LLP, a regional certified public accounting and business advisory firm. A consultant with Eide Bailly presented its study to the Salina Regional Board of Trustees at its November 15th Board meeting.

Shop local is a key message coming from the Tuesday night Junction City Commission meeting.

Mayor Pat Landes has signed a proclamation declaring this coming Saturday ( Nov. 24 ) Small Business Saturday in Junction City. The mayor told the city commission audience it’s easy in this day and age to purchase items online.” A lot is lost when you do that, when you don’t give a fair shot to the local guy that pays rent, pays taxes, has employees working for him. doing his best he can to make things work or you can save two bucks by buying it online.”

Landes noted every dollar spent in Junction City supports families and businesses and all sorts of things in town. “So that dollar that you spend gets recycled time and time again by spending it local.”

The proclamation was issued as the Christmas holiday season approaches.

D.E. Lacer of Lacer Motors in Junction CIty was featured on the History Channel program American Pickers Monday evening.

A crew from the show came to the Junction City area about four months ago and filmed a segment on the classic car collection owned by D.E. Lacer. The collection was put together over the years by his parents, L.L. and Darlene Lacer. “It was more about my mom and my dad, the story behind the collection. That’s one thing about American Pickers, they kind of make it more about the story of the collection, not so much the collection which made me happy.”

D.E. enjoyed his time on the program. which consisted of a segment approximately 20 to 25 minutes in length. “I did, it was kind of fun. Plus it was good for Junction CIty to bring something like that to Junction City.”

The car collection at Lacer’s auto warehouse ranges from a 1955 Manta Ray to a 1964 Cadillac Coupe DeVille.

The state revenue picture in Kansas is looking better, but there are a lot of areas that will need future funding.

State Representative Lonnie Clark of Junction City expects some working across the aisle on both the Democratic and Republican sides in the legislature this upcoming session. He noted he did not have any real concern about a positive working relationship between the new Democratic governor Laura Kelly and the Republican majority in the House.

Clark expects some accomplishments. He noted the big issued will be funding and how to pay for it. “We’re above projected on the revenues so that’s a good thing, but there are so many things that we’ve said that we’re going to get done from the Republican side in terms of revenue increases such as refunding KDOT, refunding KPERS.

Clark was a guest on the JC Now program on 1420 KJCK AM.

DEWEY TERRILL – JC POST

Windy Hancock had an idea. On Monday, the first day of fall break in USD 475, it blossomed into a big success.

School was out of session in the district, but when JC Post checked Monday morning 104 Junction City High School students were taking advantage of the opportunity to obtain tutoring in their classes where they wanted to excel, or those where they’re struggling and needed extra support.

Hancock is a computer based learning online mentor. “Over the years I’ve had a lot of students who asked me for help. And I stay after work to help them, sometimes I’ll meet them at Fro Yo or somewhere else and help them study, But a lot of kids were asking me to work with them and help them with their classes, so then I was like well why not do a whole day of it.”

There were also efforts to provide food to the students during the tutoring. ” I also wanted to feed the kids because a lot of our kids in our community…..it’s hard times for everybody.” The students were fed breakfast from Panera, a snack provided by the Boys & Girls Club, and Coach’s and Cracker Barrell restaurants also provided food.

Hancock works with students in subjects ranging from math and english to science and social studies. She noted 14 teachers and some school principals volunteered their time to help the students. The entire effort was organized in about one week.

Hancock wants to continue sessions of this type in the future.  ” I hope so. I hope so. This is what I love. I love helping students, I love learning new things, and to show the students how much that means to me, and how much it means to me that they all came today. ” She is hopeful this will inspire the students to continue and to get to know their teachers, and know that they can ask them for help.

Windy Hancock will talk about this tutoring effort more on the JC Now program on 1420 KJCK AM at 8:20 a.m. Wednesday.

 

Santa Claus will visit the Starcke House Museum on Saturday, Dec. 8 from 1 to 4 p.m. to take holiday photos with local families and children. The photos will be $10 with that price including both a print and a digital copy. All proceeds will support the Geary County Historical Society.

Santa Claus will bring his Christmas train for more photo opportunities, and some of Santa’s elves will help with crafting a family ornament.

Historical Society Executive Director Katie Goerl noted that if you are still looking for holiday gifts for your loved ones, you can visit the museum gift shop in December for a holiday sale. All merchandise will be 10 percent off from Dec. 1 to Dec. 23. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m.

For more information contact the Geary County Historical Society at 785-238-1666.