By Dewey Terrill

JC Post

The musical show “Pippin” will be performed at the Warren Settles Auditorium at Junction City High School Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 7 p.m.

JCHS Choral Director Michael Brown explained it’s a coming of age story about a young man trying to find the meaning of life. The Lead Player portrayed by Payton Tabb encourages Pippin played by Nicholas Paradas to try new things to see what he likes, and it all leads up to one final act.

Paradas said, “My role as Pippin, he’s just a lot like many of us in the way that we’re just looking for our place, where or what we belong to I guess. ” Paradas added Pippin is lost and is looking for something fulfilling. Tabb tries to help him through the process.

She said she is basically the leader of a gang of players. “They put on the show. They’re the characters. So like most of the characters within the show. ” Tabb said even the other main characters are players. “They’re characters but they’re playing another role so it’s almost like a play within a play.”

Tickets for Pippin are $5. Email Jodie Riche at jodieriche@usd475.org or call 785-717-4263.

By Dewey Terrill

JC Post

Tornadoes can occur any time and lightning can cause fatalities.

Those were two of the messages conveyed to the public during the Storm Spotter & Severe Weather meeting in Junction City Wednesday evening.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Kevin Skow stated that there are three types of storm categories including the short-lived or Pulse storms which are often non-severe. Then there are Line storms which can have widespread damaging winds and produce occasional tornadoes, heavy rain with some flooding and moderate size hail. The last category involves super cell thunderstorms where tornadoes can occur. Some of those tornadoes have a hook echo at the bottom of the storm.

Skow touched on some myths about tornadoes. “Some of the big myths are that rivers and hills protect you from a tornado. Other myths can be that taking shelter under an overpass is safe. Overpasses are never safe if you’re out driving. ” Skow also pointed out that even and EF0 or EF1 tornado can do damage. The rating scale for tornadoes goes from EF0 up to EF5.

When it comes to lightning do not be under a tree, lightning will seek the tallest object, approximately 40-50 lightning fatalities are reported each year with most of them occurring where people are playing sports. Soccer and golf are the sports that rank one and two in lightning related fatalities. Also, the presence of lighning does not mean there is a severe thunderstorm.  For a thunderstorm to be labeled severe the threats need to include 60 mile per hour winds, or one-inch diameter hail.

When it comes to severe weather safety go underground if possible into a basement or storm shelter. If that is not possible find an interior closet or get underneath anything large or a heavy piece of furniture. Know where your shelter is located ahead of  a storm. Do not try to drive away in your vehicle and if caught in your vehicle get below the windshield and cover your head.

Be prepared for spring and summer severe weather.

Two area state legislators participated in a recent Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce forum where they touched on different issues and topics.

State Representative Dave Baker, a former grocery store owner, referred to a possible one percent decrease in the sales tax on food. “I think that’s a great idea. Coming out of that business I will tell you one percent really won’t move the needle very much because we’ve moved that sales tax number, by the time we put city and sales taxes on there pretty close to nine percent in most town, ten percent in some, it’s way up there. One percent really….nice token but one percent really isn’t going to fix it.”

On the high cost of health insurance Baker noted it’s restricting entrepreneurship. “We are spending $5 per hour for a 40-hour week on health insurance, one thousand dollars a month per person.” Baker added that’s a lot of money and not sustainable.

State Senator Jeff Longbine addressed out migration of Kansas residents to other states. On the basic things needed by people he said they “need an opportunity to provide an income for their family. They need a good education system, they need a good transportation and they need a quality of life. When you start looking at the state of Kansas there are some things that really, really scare me.” Longbine referred to some earlier numbers which showed 27 counties in the state where the average age is 65 or more and that number is projected to grow to more than 50 counties in the next 20 years.

The Chamber hosted the forum at the 12th Street Community Center last weekend.

The monthly meetings of the Geary USD 475 Board of Education are already live streamed online. Now the Board has voted 4-3 to live stream all meetings and work sessions.

Every time we’re gathered together for a meeting, seven of us, we will have a live stream. ” It is possible off-site retreats would not be included in that decision.

The vote on the live streaming decision included Board members Anwar Khoury, Rina Neal, Sara Talley and Jim Schmidt in favor and Tom Brungardt, Dave Walker and LaDonna Junghans opposed.

The Board was informed during their discussion on the topic Monday evening that 31 people were watching the meeting, one of their highest nights since the district began to live stream meetings.

It’s been bitterly cold with snow and ice, but it’s time to begin preparing for the spring and summer severe weather season.  The annual Storm Spotter and Severe Weather meeting is Wednesday night at the Geary County 4-H / Senior Center. It begins at 7 p.m.

Geary County Emergency Management Director Garry Berges said, “Representatives from the National Weather Service in Topeka will do about a 90-minute presentation, what to look for, how to prepare, what you should do if you’re trapped in a storm, they always have some nice video.”

Berges stated that the restoration company, Rainbow International will help sponsor the event. “Like people to come out, learn, we’ll be around, if people need more information we’ll ( Emergency management ) be there.”

There is no charge to attend this event.