|
High
|
71° | Warmer. Mostly sunny. Highs in the lower 70s. West winds up to 5 mph. |
Category: Local
Tim Testa returning home to coach Lady Jay basketball
Former Junction City High School athlete and coach Tim Testa will become the next Lady Jay head basketball coach.
The hiring of Testa was announced Tuesday evening by the Executive Director of Communications for the school district, Matt Droge.
Testa is currently the head Track and Cross Country coach at Southwestern College. He will begin teaching in the Physical Education Department at Junction City High School at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year.
“I am excited to be back in Junction City and working with its youth. The girls basketball program has a strong history and it is my goal to help the girls regain some of that. Being able to run a program in my hometown is a tremendous honor. I cannot wait to get to work!”
Testa is returning to Junction City where he competed for the Blue Jays in multiple sports. Prior to his coaching opportunities at Southwestern College he taught physical education at Junction City Middle School and coached boys basketball, track and cross country at both the middle and high school levels.
Kevin Willmott first speaker in the Hoover-Koken Foundation Lecture Series
Film director and and Oscar-winning screenwriter Kevin Willmott will speak Sunday April 28th at 2 p.m. at the C.L. Hoover Opera House. A professor of film at the University of Kansas, WIllmott is the first speaker in the new Hoover-Koken Foundation Lecture Series in Junction City.
Willmott grew up in Junction City and received a Bachelor of Art degree in Drama from Marymount College in Salina. He received a Master of Fine Art degree in Dramatic Writing from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
The topic of his speech will be “Why I Love Junction City.” After the lecture he will be available for a meet and greet in the Walker Reception Hall at the C.L. Hoover Opera House.
Admission will be free on the 28th, however, those attending will be asked to make a free-will offering to a local charity or charities designated by each speaker. The two local charities designated by Willmott to split the proceeds of the free-will offering from audience members will be St. Francis Xavier Catholic School and the Junction CIty – Geary County Martin Luther King Committee.
Willmott received an Oscar Award for BlackKkKlansman along with co-writers Spike Lee, Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The R2B4 Bramlage Family Foundation and the Hoover-Koken Foundation are jointly sponsoring the lecture series that will be held at the C.L. Hoover Opera House.
Lt. Governor to visit hospital and attend regional conference
Kansas Lt. Governor Lynn Rogers will visit Junction City on Wednesday for two event.
From 9:30 until 10:30 a.m. he’ll be at Geary Community Hospital for a brief discussion on medicaid expansion in the Women’s Center Conference Room followed by a tour of the hospital.
On the subject of medicaid expansion the Hospital CEO Joe Stratton said the bill is in the Kansas Senate right now, “Possibly a bill become an act that might go to the governor, Governor Kelly to consider signing. For this hospital that means approximately $1.7 million more revenue in the course of a year. That’s real money to us, that’s real money to the patients and families we serve. ” Stratton added it’s also important to the local economy,
He doesn’t think medicaid expansion is the “panacea to solve everything but it certainly would be a big plus for Geary Community Hospital without a doubt.”
At 11 a.m. Wednesday Rogers is scheduled to speak during the annual Flint Hills Regional Conference at the Courtyard By Marriott convention Center. Topics ranging from regional health and demographics to collaboration between military installations and surrounding communities will be discussed.
Fire hydrant service & testing to begin
The Junction City Fire Department will begin fire hydrant testing throughout the city beginning Monday, April 29th during the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The hydrants in the city will be tested to ensure they’re operable and able to produce the required water pressure when needed to supply water for firefighting purposes.
Fire Chief Terry Johnson said because the testing must be done during normal operating hours, it is impossible to know in advance just where or when exactly the testing will occur in any specific area.
Opening hydrants can sometimes cause a temporary discoloration of water in nearby homes. The discoloration is not harmful in any way and can be cleared by running the water for a few minutes.
The testing ensures the protection of local residents and is an evaluation indicator used by the Insurance Services Organization which rates cities according to the fire protection they offer. The recent Insurance Services Organization resulted in the elevation of the City to a Class 3 protection rating. By maintaining a system of checks and maintenance on the City’s fire protection assets, the department is working to maintain and potentially lower the overall Insurance Services organization’s current rating.
Registered sex offender jailed for allegedly exposing himself
RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a registered Kansas sex offender on new charges after a Monday arrest.
Just after 9p.m. Monday, the Riley County Police Department received two reports of an unknown man exposing himself at separate locations in central Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department activity report.
The first incident listed two 22-year-old women as the victims. The second incident was reported at 9:45p.m. listed a 15-year-old girl and 44-year-old woman as the victims.
Police arrested Curtis Fry, 57 of Udall, in the the 1100 block of Moro Street in Manhattan.
He is is being held on a $17,000 bond for two counts of lewd and lascivious; exposing sex organs to another =>16, lewd and lascivious; exposing sex organs to another <16, and possession of opiate, opium, narcotic or certain stimulant, according to the Riley County Police Department arrest report.
Frey was convicted in July 2012 for “criminal attempt internet sexual exploitation of a child,” according to the KBI offender registry.
Walk & Lunch event
You can join Live Well Geary County and thousands of other Kansans across the state Wednesday for a 30-minute walk during lunch.
This National Walk @ Lunch Day event will take place at Playground Park at 5th & Eisenhower in Junction City from 12:15 – 1:15 p.m.
A limited number of free T-shirts available.
Clock and bell tower renovation at the C.L. Opera House
The renovation of the clock and bell tower at the C.L. Hoover Opera House in downtown Junction City began Tuesday.
Opera House Co-Director Joe Markley said they hope to have the renovation work completed before the end of the month. The lift was on-scene and equipment was being put in.
“We’re real excited to see this iconic part of Junction City being restored,” he said.
Markley said David Seay of Manhattan and Regulator Time is doing the work.
The cost estimate for the project was approximately $25,000, but foundation and private donations are covering all of the cost.
( Photos courtesy of C.L. Hoover Opera House )
Fort Riley Soldiers to evaluate virtual reality training technology for the Army
Members of the U.S. Army’s Synthetic Training Environment Cross Functional Team and industry partners will provide 1st Infantry Division leaders and Soldiers an opportunity to test cutting edge virtual reality training
systems and provide feedback during a user assessment at Fort Riley April 22 – 26.
systems and provide feedback during a user assessment at Fort Riley April 22 – 26.
Soldiers will assess a prototype virtual reality system designed to replicate the wide range of ground combat vehicles in the 1st Infantry Division, including the M1 Abrams Tank, M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the”Humvee,” as well as dismounted Infantry Squad Operations. The Synthetic Training Environment Cross Functional Team is part of the Army Futures Command and recently conducted an aviation user assessment at Fort Carson, Colo.
Soldiers at Fort Riley will be assessing the Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainer-Ground, which – when fielded — would allow units to conduct collective training from squad through the battalion level. These assessments are intended to get the developing technologies in the hands of Soldier-users to provide feedback early in the process and help developers build the requirements. Soldiers will be assessing prototypes that are early in the development stage.
The STE Cross Functional Team, based in Orlando, Fla., is one of the Army’s eight cross functional teams designed to reduce the delivery time of new capabilities by integrating critical functions up front in the acquisition process.
Kirk Hutchinson
Public Affairs Specialist
Keynote speaker set for Celebration of Teaching banquet
Warren Schlichting will be the keynote speaker at the Celebration of Teaching banquet in Junction City on May 6 at the Courtyard by Marriott convention center.
The President of the Geary Community Schools Foundation, Margie Pinaire, said Schlichting is the President of Sling TV, a division of Dish Network. He is a 1979 Junction City High School graduate, who attended Harvard after high school. “He’s excited to revisit his past. He said he had a lot of good stories to share with our teachers about how he got where he is today.”
Schlichting attended school in USD 475 all the way from Kindergarten through the 12th grade. He attended Milford Elementary School.
The Celebration of Teaching banquet recognizes teachers in the school district for their work.