JUNTION CITY – Two people were injured in an accident just after 11:30 a.m. on Friday in Geary County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Chevy pickup driven by Kevin Grant England, 53, Silt CO., was eastbound Interstate 70 just west of the U.S. 77 Junction.
The driver rear-ended a 1998 AMGE Truck driven by , Wendy Marie 47, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Zahn and England were transported to Geary County Hospital.
England was not wearing a seat belt according to the KHP.
This years Westwood Elementary School students will always be a part of the new addition currently being built on the schools north side, after they all signed a beam that will be placed somewhere in the addition.
Kimberly Dressman, Westwood Elementary School Principal explained that the Hutton Construction crew came up with the idea of letting the students sign one of the beams.
“I was so excited that they had thought about the Westwood students and the community here because it gives the kids here a chance to be involved in whats going on and they can remember this. When they look in that new addition they will see that beam and then they will remember this,” said Dressman.
The new addition is adding four classrooms and a music room with additional bathrooms. It will also double as a storm shelter.
When asked what the best part of the new addition will be 10 year-old Brianna Hyler, a 5th grader at Westwood Elementary said it’s the added space.
“It means we’ll get more space and we wont’ be so crammed into classrooms,” said Brianna.
The new addition is expected to open in November.
The movement has begun in Riley County to begin studying how to address the problem of not enough beds, or lack of a facility to treat the mentally ill. Some people are having to be housed in jails. It is a challenge faced by other counties as well.
During a joint city – county meeting in Manhattan on Thursday,there was a consensus to begin addressing this issue.The Riley County Mental Health Task Force will begin to look at this issue and bring back recommendations to the elected officials at a future point. Robbin Cole, Executive Director of Pawnee Mental Health Services, hasvolunteered to provide the leadership on this issue.
During the meeting on Thursday there was some sentiment for possibly making this a regional collaboration. JC Post contacted Florence Whitebread, a member of the Geary County Commission, for her reaction and thoughts on the subject. “Yes I would be interested in learning about it. It’s going to be extremely expensive however you look at it.”
Whitebread serves on the board for the regional juvenile detention center. “When we have the medicine that they take… in fact I signed a voucher the other day, one prescription was $819. That was just one fill. So regardless of whether it’s the medication or the doctoring it’s going to be really expensive, so it’s got to be a collaboration somehow. But I don’t know where you go on it. And I know it’s going to take some deep study by Robbin and her group over there.”
Cole expects the process to take several months to gather all the necessary information and make recommendations.
The auditions for the Fall Musical, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderalla,” at the Chapman High School Auditorium are Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 24 and 25.
Auditions for grades three through eight are scheduled at 5:30 p.m. and for high school students at 7 p.m.
Call backs if needed, will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27.
TOPEKA -The unemployment rate ticked up in July after three months of remaining relatively flat, according to information from the Kansas Department of Labor.
The jobless rate in Geary County went from 6.8 percent in June to 7.6 percent in July –the highest unemployment rate in the region.
Riley County saw a jump from 4.0 to 4.3 percent in July. Pottawatomie County also saw an increase from 4.2 to 4.6 percent.
Wabaunsee County was up slightly from 4.3 in June to 4.5 percent in July.
Jobless numbers dropped in Dickinson County from 6.1 to 5.8 percent.
The mining and logging category — which includes the oil and gas industry — saw a significant decrease statewide, with 6.6 percent, or 700 jobs, disappearing in July.
The state’s July seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.6 percent, up from 4.5 percent in June and up from 4.4 percent in July 2014.
Click the map above for a county-by-county look at the July figures.
The August labor report is scheduled to be released Sept. 18.
Geary County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the area of U.S-77 Highway 77 post 161 Thursday morning for a single vehicle minor injury accident with a deer. A Lincoln Town Car driven by Loretta Shandy, Milford, was traveling southbound when a deer ran out in front of the vehicle. Shandy was treated on the scene by EMS, and transported to Geary Community Hospital by her husband.
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Deputies responded to the area of K-18 Highway mile post 179 Thursday night for a single vehicle non injury accident. A Honda CRX driven by Cody Hanna, Ogden, was traveling southbound when he struck debris laying in the roadway.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — School superintendents seeking supplemental state funding are responding to lawmaker’s request to outline how they’re saving money.
Superintendents Robert Shannon and Jeff Bollinger worked Thursday to respond to the request by four Republican legislators for evidence of budget austerity ahead of a meeting in which more than three dozen Kansas districts will seek supplemental funding.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Shannon, the top administrator in the Manhattan-Ogden district, says the district in Riley County was justified in filing a request to address enrollment growth after slicing into cash reserves, raising property taxes and reducing expenditures for personnel and supplies by $1 million.
Bollinger, the superintendent in Satanta, says the district is saving money by delivering curriculum in language arts, science and social studies via iPads rather than traditional textbooks.
There is a belief in Manhattan that there needs to be an effort to address the lack of available mental health treatment facilities. There is sentiment for this to potentially become a regional issue, involving Geary, Riley, and Pottawatomie and possibly more counties.
A reduction in state funding, and available beds at the Osawatomie State Hospital has left it up to counties to fend for themselves in many cases, with some patients needing mental health treatment winding up in jails because there is no other bed space for them.
The consensus at a joint meeting in Manhattan attended by city, Riley and Pottawatomie county, Via Christi, and law enforcement, called for the Riley County Mental Health Task Force to go to work on this issue. Pawnee Mental Health Executive Director Robbin Cole volunteered to provide the leadership. That agency serves a 10-county area.
“There does seem to be a consensus of will that the Riley County Mental Health Task Force needs to extend beyond Riley County, and particularly into Pottawatomie and Geary County, and maybe even beyond. So the Riley County Mental Health Task Force may be due for a name change.”
Cole noted inpatient services are needed, but perhaps beyond that, some sort of crisis stabilization facility. “Something that isn’t necessarily staffed 24-hours by nurses, that isn’t necessarily staffed heavily by doctors or advanced registered nurse practitioners, but something that is staffed by mental health technicians who work under the direction of psychiatrists, who work in collaboration with advanced practiced registered nurses who are helping patients stabilize, helping manage them, making sure they are taking the medications they need to take.”
Wynn Butler, Manhattan City Commissioner, expressed his ideas, saying that there are many mental health facilities that do different things, but inpatient care is missing. “But what we have to do is partner with the hospital, and a government – private partner combination, regional that we’ve go three-four counties involved to drive the cost down. We’ve got to pool the resources and fill that hole.” Butler added, And I think it exists both in Riley County, and in Geary County, and Pottawatome County, and this is a good event for regionalism, and partnership of government and private enterprise.”
Butler feels the hospital would have to take the lead with an inpatient medical facility, and their administrators will know what the cost is to undertake that process. “Now the problem is they can’t run it at a loss. So the way I see it is the medical system is going to get some amount of funds from insurance and the government, and then there’s going to be a deficit. Well that deficit has to be picked up by the local government agencies.” Butler added that would be a “combination of the City of Manhattan and various counties.” He noted if the hole isn’t plugged it will cost more because patients will end up in jail and there will be other problems.
The Riley County Mental Health Task Force will define what is needed, and do related research. They will report back at some future point on necessary steps that need to be taken and cost estimates. There was strong support for making this a regional issue since other counties are dealing with the problem. Geary and Pottawatomie were two counties that were specifically mentioned, but it could include more.
The northern two zones of Milford Lake, Zones B and C, are under a blue green algae warning, while Zone A is clear.
RJ Harms, Corps of Engineers Project Manager at Milford Lake
confirmed Thursday that the test results from Monday showed that the cell counts in Zone C remained above the “warning” level and had increased above the “watch” level and into the “warning” status level in Zone B.
“The good news is Zone A cleared up pretty well. Samples taken at the Milford State Park beach and the East Rolling Hills beach area both came back under the watch level, so Zone A is now considered clear,” said Harms.
New warning signs will be placed at the boat ramps and beachs in Zone B and the signs and baricades will be removed in Zone A.
With the “Warning” status body contact with the water (swimming, skiing, tubing, jet skis) will be strongly discouraged but wording on the signs provided for 2015 will not prohibit the activity.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment will be taking samples at the lake again on Monday.
A bond requirement prohibiting Dr. Allan D. Holiday Jr. from having contact with any child under the age of 18 remains in place.
According to Michelle Brown, Assistant Geary County Attorney, Holiday, who is an orthopedic surgeon at Geary Community Hospital with Flint Hills Orthopedic / Sports Medicine, has now been formally charged in Geary County District Court with one count of Aggravated Sexual Battery. After police arrested him on that allegation in late July they reported that they had received a complaint in the case on July 26 involving a 16-year old juvenile.
Brown confirmed during a status check hearing in Geary County District Court on Thursday ( August 20 ) that Holiday, through legal counsel, sought to have the bond requirement that had been imposed at the time of his first court appearance lifted. Brown noted that she responded by telling the court authorities are in the process of investigating this case as well as other potential cases, and are in the process of executing search warrants in relation to those cases. She objected to the bond requirement being lifted. The court refused to modify the bond conditions.
Holiday remains free on $50,000 bond. A check with Geary Community Hospital confirmed he remains temporarily suspended.
Another status check hearing has been scheduled for Holiday in Geary County District Court on September 24 at 9 a.m.