Junction City Commissioner Phyllis Fitzgerald is working with city staff to put hanging baskets in the 600 block of North Washington Street. It’s a beautification project for downtown.

Fitzgerald said there will be ten hanging baskets, five on both sides of the street. “It will be the start of what I hope will continue and our whole downtown with the next year or two will have hanging baskets.”

Fitzgerald said the baskets are 18-inch metal baskets with a lining inside. She wants to hang the baskets for permanent display in May and they would stay up until sometime in September.  The City staff would provide the necessary watering for the flowers and maintenance. Private and business donations are financing the project.

Fitzgerald said there has been a suggestion to put petunias in the baskets. They are a hardy type of flower in the Kansas weather.

 

Geary USD 475 plans to move freshman from the Freshman Success Academy building to the Career Academy Campus building next school year. That in turn will allow the Boys & girls Club, Parents as Teachers program and some programs from the Larry Dixon Center to be moved into the FSA building.

Those moves will allow the school district to expand their early childhood program at the Heim Building, explained the Chief Operations Officer for USD 475, David Wild.

The Board of Education provided the necessary authorization for the moves during their meeting last week.

There are still some possible plans being considered as well for the Larry DIxon Center. Wild confirmed officials at looking at the possibility of moving the Information Technology Department to that facility just off West Sixth Street.

The American Red Cross responds to approximately 64,000 disasters each year and most are home fires. Red Cross Disaster Action Teams are the first line of care, comfort and compassion for those affected by a disaster.

In fiscal year 2018 there were 483 DAT responses in Kansas and demand for those services is rising. To meet those demands the Red Cross is making an urgent call for new volunteers.

No previous experience is required. Volunteers will be trained to respond to a scene of a disaster and properly assist those affected. The Red Cross is offering special disaster volunteer training sessions this spring.

Training sessions are scheduled March 12th and 14th from 1-5 p.m. at the Topeka Red Cross office at 1221 SW 17th Street in the capitol city, and on March 23rd from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Manhattan Public Library at 629 Poyntz Avenue. For information on those sessions, contact Sarah Wickham at Sarah.Wickham@redcross.org.

By Dewey Terrill

JC Post

Kansas State ( 24-7 )  has captured a share of the Big 12 men’s basketball championship with a 68-53 win over the Oklahoma Sooners ( 19-12 ) at Bramlage Coliseum.

K-State took a 10-point lead to the locker room at halftime and then expanded the lead to 29 points in the second half enroute to the win. As the game ended confetti fell on the floor, the Big 12 championship trophy was presented to the team. and the players and coaches cut down the nets. It was also Senior Day for three Wildcats who played their final home game, Dean Wade, Barry Brown and Kamau Stokes.

Following the game K-State coach Bruce Weber said it couldn’t be a better story as he referred to the team. “To have that group be honored like they were and then to win the game like this and to celebrate it was special.”

Weber commented that he was so proud of the seniors, the whole team, their resilience. K-State lost their first two games in Big 12 play as they dealt with injuries, but would later reel off nine consecutive victories in Big 12 play. “for them to continue to fight and battle, this is about them, them to enjoy it. It’s so great that, to be part of it. It’s a thing you dream about for them.”

Kansas State will share the Big 12 regular season championship with Texas Tech, who defeated Iowa State on Saturday in Ames 80-73. Both teams finished 14-4 in conference play.

For Kansas State it was their first Big 12 regular season title in six years.

K-State will get the number one seed in the Big 12 Tournament at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri next week. The Wildcats will have a first-round bye on Wednesday and then meet the winner of TCU and Oklahoma State on Thursday. The tournament runs through Saturday.

The Environmental Services team at Geary Community Hospital ( Crothall Healthcare ) has received awards for their work at the hospital. They keep the facility clean in every capacity, and cleanliness is often a major factor in the hospital’s patient satisfaction survey scores.

According to a news release from GCH, the patient satisfaction survey is the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, and is required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for all hospitals in the United States.

The GCH – Crothall EVS team received awards for highest HCAHPS survey results of a quarter in the region for the fourth quarter in 2016, second quarter in 2017 and third quarter in 2018, highest HCAHPS survey results in all 500 hospitals that Crothall Healthcare North America manages for the second quarter 2017 and third quarter 2018, and highest improvement of HCAHPS survey scores since the contract start and sustained ( 13% increase under three years ).