High

80°

Partly sunny. Chance of sprinkles in the morning, then showers and thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. Some thunderstorms may be severe. Highs around 80. Southwest winds 15 to 20 mph shifting to the west 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. chance of precipitation 70 percent.

CENTRAL CITY, Neb. — When catastrophic flooding hit central Nebraska this spring, Eagle Communications employee-owners went into action — both in the field during recovery efforts and over the airwaves collecting money for the American Red Cross.

Eagle operates broadband, television and telephone systems in 29 Nebraska communities, as well as radio stations and broadband services in Kansas, Missouri and Colorado.

As part of the fundraising effort, Eagle’s Kansas radio stations kicked off Eagle Cares, a cash drive that will result in $16,515.12 being donated to the American Red Cross to aid recovery efforts in the Midwest. The donation also includes a generous contribution from the Robert E. and Patricia Schmidt Foundation.

Cares really started as soon as our broadband field teams in Nebraska set out to work to ensure our communities stayed connected in the midst of the flooding,” said Travis Kohlrus, vice president of broadband. “Those teams inspired our employee-owners, company wide, to come together to give back to our friends and neighbors in the communities we serve.”

As part of a check presentation at Eagle’s Central City location Tuesday, Rachelle Lipker, executive director for the American Red Cross Central and Western Nebraska area, expressed her gratitude.

“We are certainly proud of the work the Eagle staff has done to rally Kansas communities to help those affected by the recent flooding. Donations of time and money are vital in ensuring the Red Cross is able to mobilize quickly and help those during times of need,” she said.

”Besides the cash donation, Eagle employee-owners put in countless hours working to restore critical broadband services in the flooded region. Crews quickly restored services to the community of Silver Creek, where a washed-out bridge cut the fiber-optic network.

“We worked as fast as we could, constantly assessing the safety of our teams, to ensure we could get our communities back up and running,” said Kelly Bandt, Eagle system maintenance technician.

We are thankful for your patience and hopeful our communities will recover quickly. We are proud to be Nebraska Strong.”

About Eagle Communications
Eagle Communications, Inc. is a Kansas-based Broadband Services and Media Company with more than 290 employee-owners. The company operates 28 radio stations in Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri as well as broadband, TV and phone services in 59 Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado communities. The company also offers business solutions, including technology as a service, broadband, telephone, TV and advertising in most service areas. For more information visit www.eaglecom.net.

Disclosure: Eagle Communications is the parent company of JC Post.

CASA of the 8th Judicial District will celebrate that organization’s 30th birthday and CASA Volunteer Advocates on Friday, April 26th from 5-6:30 p.m. at the Dorothy Bramlage Public Library.

There will be fun, games and cake.

RSVP to casa@8thjd.com

CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates, and serves as the voice of children in the court system.

Geary County residents can take their tree and shrub residue to the former county landfill site south of I-70 this Saturday free of charge.

County Commission Chairman Charles Stimatze stated there will be a brush pile at the old landfill. It will be open Saturday from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.  and will be free of charge.

MANHATTAN — An internationally prominent and honored scholar and researcher will serve as Kansas State University’s 2019-2020 Coffman Chair for University Distinguished Teaching Scholars.

David C. Poole, university distinguished professor in kinesiology and in anatomy and physiology, has been appointed to the chair, which was created in 1995 to highlight the university’s commitment to excellence in undergraduate teaching and learning. Each chair is an acknowledged leading teaching scholar and conducts a research project or develops programs to improve educational methods at the university.

“I thoroughly enjoy teaching and learn at least as much from our students as they from me,” Poole said. “The Coffman chair, as I see it, will permit me to better leverage K-State’s resources to promote teaching excellence by more effectively integrating the processes of scientific discovery into the classroom.”

Poole will spend his year as Coffman chair evaluating which practices of the Association of College and University Educators are producing the best results with Kansas State University students, including those who go on to professional schools. The analysis will survey the up to 160 K-State faculty members who have completed or are currently enrolled in the Association of College and University Educators course to improve teaching and learning.

Poole’s project will examine the following: whether the ACUE course has improved teaching quality and efficacy at the university; what are the primary techniques implemented and which are most effective; what challenges are present with these techniques; and how the university could maximize the value of any teaching improvements across all colleges and departments. He will use the data and survey information collected to present the best teaching practices at the university, build a digital repository of these practices and publish them in peer-reviewed literature.

The highest obligation or responsibility of Kansas State University and any other university, Poole said, is to teach effectively and make students think, often beyond what they and their previous aspirations allowed.

“I take that charge very seriously,” Poole said. “To facilitate a truly transformational process for our students, we must embrace the most proficient methods and the latest in scientific discovery.”

Earning the university’s highest academic ranking of university distinguished professor in 2018, Poole’s research has helped define how oxygen is transported from the lungs to be used by tissue mitochondria. Using innovative models at rest and during exercise, Poole has identified key sites of metabolic control in health and disease. These observations have driven a paradigm shift in the understanding of how capillaries function and advanced novel therapeutics for heart failure.

He has been awarded more than $5 million as principal investigator and $17.9 million as co-investigator in research grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the American Heart Association. His h-Index is 69 with more than 17,000 citations.

The author of more than 300 research publications and reviews, and three books, Poole has been editor/ associate editor for four scientific journals and currently serves on nine editorial boards. Poole has won top awards for research and teaching from the College of Human Ecology and the College of Veterinary Medicine, as well as the university’s Commerce Bank and W.T. Kemper Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award. He was honored by the British first lady Cherie Booth Blair in 2000 and the Danish National Academy of Sciences in 2010. He was the 2018 Edward F. Adolph Distinguished Lecturer at Experimental Biology. A fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, Poole served as president of its Central States Chapter from 2001-2002. He also is a fellow of the Association of College and University Educators for K-State and councillor for the Exercise and Environmental Physiology section of the American Physiological Society. He is a 2019 American College of Sports Medicine Citation Award winner.

Poole has taught more than 5,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate/professional students at Kansas State University, and mentored more than 70 master’s and 16 doctoral students as co-director of the Clarenburg Cardiorespiratory Laboratory.

Poole earned his bachelor’s degree in sports science/ applied physiology from Liverpool Polytechnic, England, and his master’s degree and doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, with postdoctoral training in medicine at the University of California, San Diego. He was the first recipient of the higher Doctor of Science in physiology from John Moores University in Liverpool in 2000.

Information was released at the Geary County Commission meeting on Monday that the County’s Public Works personnel are monitoring two roads near Milford Lake for potential flooding,

Commissioner Keith Ascher said the roads are Houston Road and Auld Road. “Auld is a dead-end. There’s only one residence on that road. Water is already encroaching, but there’s still one lane open on Houston Road.

The lake level is high because water is being held in the reservoir to prevent downstream flooding.

No substantial release of water is expected from Milford Lake between now and the end of the month. According to the Corps of Engineers there will only be low flow releases of 25 cubic feet per second while the inflow is expected to run from 1,000 cfs on Monday to 255 cfs on April 30th.

The current lake elevation as of Tuesday is expected to be 1154.67 and by the end of the month 1155.19.

As of last week the lake was approximately 9.7 feet high. Water is being held in the reservoir to prevent downstream flooding.