By Dewey Terrill

JC Post

Every year the Junction City – Geary County Crimestoppers sponsor a banquet to honor and recognize members of the law enforcement community for their good work.

A total of 17 members of the law enforcement community were honored and keynote remarks were delivered by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt during the fifth annual banquet Friday night at the convention center. He stated the KBI has approximately 20 new agents, and is on a path to get to 94 this year, the number authorized for the agency.

Schmidt noted there has been success in working with the legislature during the past year to get the new northeast Kansas child victim’s task force created. He called criminal misconduct involving the exploitation of children is astonishing.  “We simply as a state have not been where we need to be in terms of having sufficient assets to deal with that very specialized sort of child exploitation. We still don’t have sufficient assets but we’ve got more than we had a year ago at this time, and we have a platform that should allow us to serve I’ll call it the northeast quadrant of Kansas including the territory we’re standing in right now over the next decade in a much more integrated and robust fashion.” Schmidt called that good for local enforcement, kids  and communities.

The Attorney General added there is also an effort by the KBI to work with the legislature to try and get some capacity to help on white-collar criminal misconduct matters.

Detective Sergeant Joshua Brown was named the 2018 JCPD Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. He was assigned to be the lead detective on two homicides and worked to apprehend those responsible, and worked numerous other felony cases.

Deputy Sergeant Kirt Nichols was the 2018 Geary County Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. He is also a shift supervisory in the Patrol Division and consistently one of the first employees to respond to requests for extra patrol, extra duty assignments or for shift rotation at minimal or no notice.

Officer Wyatt Charlson was named the Grandview Plaza Police Department’s Law Enforcement of the Year.

Milford State Park Ranger Clayton Swanson was the 2018 State Park Ranger of the Year. He was one of the people who helped save the life of a Manhattan man who was choking in Milford.

Marsha Rich, who is the JCPD Investigation Division administrative assistant was recognized as  the 2018 JCPD Support Staffer of the Year. She just celebrated her 40th year with the department.

B.J. Solander, who serves as the lead chaplain for the

Sheriff’s Department and Detention Center, was recognized for the support he has provided.

–Master Trooper Mario Rios was the 2018 Kansas Highway Patrol Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.

Others recognized included:

–Tammy Washsnicht, administrative assistant in the Sheriff Department Corrections Division, as the 2018 Geary County Corrections Employee of the Year.

–Dominic Anderson, member of the Geary County Sheriff’s Posse as the 2018 Geary County Sheriff’s Posse Member of the Year.

–Dr. Jimmy Jenkins for his support of law enforcement agencies and personnel in Geary County.

–Cassandra Thomas of the JCPD was named the 2018 Geary County Dispatcher of the Year.

–The Emergency Service Dispatcher for the Fort Riley Military Police Department was honored as the 2018 Fort Riley Dispatcher of the Year.

–Lt. Paul Davis was the 2018 Fort Riley Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.

–Corps of Engineers Park Ranger Blake McPherren was the 2018 Army Corps of Engineers Park Ranger of the Year.

–Dwight Bradley was the 2018 Juvenile Corrections officer of the Year. He is employed at the North Central Kansas Regional Juvenile Detention Center.

–8th Judicial District Court Services Se

cretary was the 2018 Community Services Officer of the Year.

–Kim Graham, Intensive Supervision Officer with 8th Judicial District Community Corrections was the 2018 Community Corrections Officer of the Year.

 

 

 

 

 

By Dewey Terrill

JC Post

Contractors interested in working on the new Junction City High School project had an opportunity on Friday to meet with officials from the general contractor, Hutton Construction, gain information about the overall project, the bidding timelines, ask questions and engage in networking. The event was a vendor fair that was held at Junction City Middle School.

David Wild, Chief Operations Officer for USD 475, noted there was not as much turnout for the vendor fair as officials would have liked, but there were positives. “But we did have some interest to include some local interest.” There was interest from contractors in the Junction City, Manhattan, Topeka areas in fields ranging from mechanical, pest control, custodial maintenance support to concrete and structure construction. “So we had quite a diverse group, just not the quantities we probably would have liked to seen.”

The next step will be for officials to continue to work through the bidding process for the new high school project.  Wild noted, “Paving and utilities is coming up next. That package is wrapping up today ( Friday ),  being delivered to Hutton by the architects. They’ll bid it out in the next couple of weeks, we’ll do the evaluation on it. and present it to the Board of Education on the 8th of April.”

The new high school will be built on the west side of Junction City at a location north of K-18 Highway. Static display cameras were installed on the site Friday. They should be operational in about a week-and-a-half so the public can go online and view the work on the school site.

Because of winter ice and snow the beginning of the earthwork at the new JCHS location has been delayed. That work could begin within a few days, depending on when sun and wind conditions can have an impact.

The goal is to have the new school built and in use by August of 2021.

The Past Chair of the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Rich Jankovich, was recognized Thursday evening for his work as chairman during the past year.

During remarks at the annual Chamber banquet he noted there is a hard working group of people to insure that businesses are as successful as possible, “representing you in a very professional way with Fort Riley and the 1st Infantry Division. ” Jankovich added they work hard to bring new business to the region.

Jankovich pointed to partnerships with Manhattan and Wamego to build a greater community,”Because no matter what you think there is one thing that binds us together, and it’s the Big Red One.”

Jankovich will serve as Past Chair of the Board of Directors in the next year. Mark Powers will be the Chairman of the Board of Directors.