MANHATTAN — Terry Franz, founder and executive director of the Cars4Heroes Foundation of Kansas City, will present a car to Antonio Pipkin, a part-time veterans affairs consultant to the Kansas State University Military Affairs Innovation Center, at 10:45 a.m. Monday, March 18, in front of the east side of Anderson Hall. Richard Myers, university president, will participate in the ceremony.
Cars4Heroes is a nonprofit organization that gives used cars to military veterans in need of personal transportation as a way of re-entering the workforce after their service. Cars4Heroes has given more than 1,000 cars to veterans in 25 years. More information on the organization is available atcars4heroes.org/.
Pipkin is a May 2018 graduate of K-State with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He earned his degree after medically retiring from the Army as a sergeant due to injuries sustained in combat in Afghanistan. Pipkin spent two and a half years in the Wounded Warrior program before his discharge and was awarded a Vocational Education Rehabilitation Grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs to attend K-State and develop new skills. He will use the car to help develop and grow his photography business.
CPA Calvin Pottberg has been honored by the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce as the Volunteer of the year.
The recognition was received at the annual Chamber banquet at the convention center Thursday night. Pottberg stated, “this is humbling. I came to Junction City 48 years ago, and it’s been really good for me and my family. But it’s a good time to also volunteer, so I felt like as well as profiting from being here in Junction City we needed to give back.”
John and Sue Kollhoff of Kollhoff Pharmacy were honored with the Eldon L. Hoyle Economic Development Award. Sue stated,”This community has been so supportive of us since we opened our business and we really appreciate that. And because of your support we’ll be celebrating our five-year anniversary in just a few weeks.”
The Lady Trooper organization was recognized with the Seitz Family Military Community Award. Paula DInkel, speaking for all of the Lady Troopers said, “I know these ladies have done a fabulous job and continue to do a fabulous job so thank you very much. Among their functions are the greeting and farewell support given to Fort Riley Soldiers in connection with their deployments.
The Past Chairman of the Chamber Board of Directors, Rich Jankovich, was also recognized for his service in 2018 as the Chairman of the Board. “He described the past year as humbling, an honor, and a privilege to do it.”
Lady TroopersCalvin PottbergJohn and Sue KollhoffRich Jankovich
The funeral service for Enoch Franklin ” Frank ” Drew, 72, is Friday at 10 a.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Covenant at 4th and Adams in Junction City.
Drew, known for many years as a prominent Blue Jay sports fan and honorary coach of the football teams, passed away on January 23rd at the Valley View Senior Center. For many years Frank led the Blue Jay varsity football teams onto the field at the beginning of their games.
He was also a member of the Fraternal order of the Eagles Aerie 830 in Junction City, the Catbackers of Kansas State University, and was active with Relay for Life.
RILEY COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities continue their investigation of three reports of apparent drug overdoses that have been related to the use of heroin containing fentanyl over the past week and released additional details Thursday.
Just after 12:35p.m. March 2, the Riley County Police Department responded to a medical emergency in Ogden, Kansas where a 27-year-old man from Emporia was transported to a medical center for treatment and has since been released.
On March 5, at 8p.m., the RCPD responded to a medical emergencies in Manhattan involving a 50-year-old man of Manhattan who was transported to a medical center and later died. Just before 11p.m. the same evening, the RCPD responded to a medical emergency in Manhattan and found a 35-year-old man of Manhattan deceased.
Authorities have not released names of those involved as they continue to investigate. The Riley County Police Department has not received any similar reports since March 5,
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top leaders of the U.S. military services apologized to Congress on Thursday for allowing substandard living conditions in military family housing. They acknowledged failing to have fully understood the problem earlier and promised to fix it.
Army Secretary Mark Esper testified before the Senate committee Thursday -image courtesy CSPAN
At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, the civilian and uniformed leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps laid blame largely on the private contractors who built the homes and are obliged to keep them in good repair. The officials vowed to renegotiate the long-term, multibillion-dollar contracts to ensure more accountability.
“I want to start by first apologizing personally on behalf of the Department of the Navy to any sailor, Marine, soldier, airman, Coast Guardsman that was affected by the housing malady,” said Navy Secretary Richard Spencer.
The issues include lead poisoning hazards, mold and pest infestations in some military housing across the country. The problems have been raised before by government auditors and others but have come to a head in recent weeks amid increased news coverage and congressional testimony last month by military family advocacy organizations.
“What’s happened here is criminal,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. He urged the service leaders to ask the Justice Department to consider opening criminal or civil investigations of conduct by the housing contractors, whose arrangements with the military housing authorities, Blumenthal said, are “a risk-free cash cow.”
Army Secretary Mark Esper told the committee his service had failed to properly supervise the housing issues.
“In too many cases, it is clear the private housing companies failed to uphold their end of the bargain, a failure that was enabled by the Army’s insufficient oversight,” Esper said. “We are determined to investigate these problems and to hold our housing contractors and chains of command accountable.”
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said the three military departments are drafting a “tenant’s bill of rights” to make the contractors and military commanders more accountable and to give military families more leverage in dealing with housing problems that affect their health and safety.
Sen. James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican chairman of the committee, read portions of a report that the panel’s staff had written after visiting several military bases to get a first-hand look at the problems, which they concluded are worse than initially believed. Commanders at the bases were not uniformly aware of the depth of the problems, the report said.
“Where they thought they had a good understanding of current housing conditions, most came away embarrassed that they were not aware of some of the dire situations,” the report said. “Specific issues included absolutely no quality assurance from the services, which the chain of command admits is a problem.”
Inhofe took aim at the military leaders sitting at the witness table in front of him.
“The chain of command failed to take care of its own and lost their trust,” he said.
TOPEKA, Kan. –The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has issued a boil water advisory for the City of Hillsboro located in Marion County.
Customers should observe the following precautions until further notice:
If your tap water appears dirty, flush the water lines by letting the water run until it clears.
Boil water for one minute prior to drinking or food preparation or use bottled water.
Dispose of ice cubes and do not use ice from a household automatic icemaker.
Disinfect dishes and other food contact surfaces by immersion for at least one minute in clean tap water that contains one teaspoon of unscented household bleach per gallon of water.
Water used for bathing does not generally need to be boiled. Supervision of children is necessary while bathing so that water is not ingested. Persons with cuts or severe rashes may wish to consult their physicians.
The advisory took effect on March 7 and will remain in effect until the conditions that placed the system at risk of bacterial contamination are resolved. KDHE officials issued the advisory due to a loss of pressure. Failure to maintain adequate pressure may result in a loss of chlorine residuals and bacterial contamination.
Regardless of whether the public water supplier or KDHE announced a boil water advisory, only KDHE can issue the rescind order following testing at a certified laboratory.
If you have questions, please contact the water system or you may call KDHE at 785-296-1317. For consumer information please visit KDHE’s PWS Consumer Information webpage: https://www.kdheks.gov/pws/emergencyresponse/water_disr
The Devin Center, site of the Monday Board of Education meeting
Due to the increased amount of potentially dangerous inclement winter weather days this year, JCHS seniors and elementary school students will be short on school time, a requirement of the State of Kansas. In order to meet this requirement, USD 475 has approved and will implement the following plan.
Elementary Schools
Elementary schools will add ten minutes to the end of their school day starting on March 18, 2019, following Spring Break. By following this plan, elementary school students will not need to make up additional days of school at the end of the year.
Elementary Schools (Junction City, Grandview, Milford) – School now ends at 3:25 PM
Fort Riley Elementary School – School now ends at 3:10 PM
Seitz Elementary School – School new ends at 3:40 PM
Junction City High School
Junction City High School will host Parent Teacher Conferences for all grade levels from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM on Friday, March 8, 2019. JCHS will also hold mandatory graduation practice for JCHS seniors onlyon Friday, May 17, 2019. By following this plan, JCHS seniors will not need to extend their school day or make up additional days of school at the end of the year.
Students attending the Larry Dixon Center will follow the JCHS plan as appropriate.
Early Childhood Center students are not impacted.
Junction City Middle School and Fort Riley Middle School are not impacted.
If additional inclement winter weather days are taken this school year, the aforementioned plan may be modified.
Matt Droge – Executive Director of Marketing and Media Relations – USD 475
