GEARY COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just before 11a.m. Saturday in Geary County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Ford Explorer driven by Edwards Rolfs, 93, Junction City, was eastbound on K18.
The driver fell asleep and the SUV entered the north ditch, partially traveled up the embankment and rolled.
Rolfs was transported to Geary County Community Hospital. He was wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
TOPEKA – To meet Nebraska’s legal obligation to increase the flow of the Republican River into Kansas, the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District has proposed creating a connection in Nebraska between the Platte River Basin and the Republican River Basin. After entering northcentral Kansas, the Republican River feeds into Lovewell Reservoir and Milford Reservoir before joining the Kansas River near Junction City. The Republican River also connects with several other waterways in northcentral Kansas.
The State of Kansas opposes this project because invasive Asian Carp and White Perch in the Platte River could enter the Republican River (along with other nuisance species) if the two rivers are connected. As a result, the project could severely impact Kansas’ sportfish and native aquatic species, water-based recreation, tourism and the state’s fishing economy. There is no evidence that those two species currently live in the Republican River.
Asian Carp can grow to more than 40 inches long and weigh more than 50 pounds. One Asian Carp species, the Silver Carp, is known to leap up to 10 feet in the air when boats or personal watercraft pass over. They pose a risk of serious injury to boaters and skiers who may find themselves surrounded by dozens of large, heavy fish leaping wildly from the water. Asian Carp and White Perch also compete with sportfish, so Kansas’ $210,000,000 recreational fishing industry would be at risk from declines of sportfish such as bass, crappie and walleye. Asian Carp are filter-feeders that compete with other fish for food and space. They are prolific breeders, grow fast and can quickly become the predominate fish species in a lake or river. In other states, some lakes with Asian Carp have experienced sportfish population declines of more than 80 percent with corresponding damage to their fishing and tourism economies.
White Perch are native to the east coast of the United States, and they can produce overpopulated, stunted populations in reservoirs. Stunted White Perch are too small to be sought after by anglers and can be so numerous that they can clog cities’ water intakes if there is a die-off. In addition, these fish eagerly eat the eggs of other fish species.
Changes to the Republican River could also impact critical habitat for the Shoal Chub and Plains Minnow which are threatened species in Kansas. Both species release their eggs into flowing water where they would be susceptible to being eaten by White Perch.
To comment on this proposed project, submit written comments to: Department of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 94676, Lincoln, Nebraska 68509-4676. Your written comments must be received by 5 p.m. August 16, 2018. Be sure to include:
1) The application number about which you are commenting (A-19594)
2) An indication that your comment is offered under Option 1 (written comment)
3) Your name, address, and contact information
4) Your written comments
For complete information on submitting your comments, see A-19594 NOTICE.pdf at:
https://dnr.nebraska.gov/notice-interbasin-transfer-application-19594
The ribbon cutting and grand opening for the new Gordmans store at 437 East Chestnut Street is set for Thursday, August 16th at 8:45 a.m.
In addition, Gordman’s has partnered with Junction City High School and will present Business and Technology Academy Principal Kale Katt with a $2,500 check.
The U.S. Army Installation Management Command is hosting the annual Mission Training Complex Users Workshop at Fort Riley this next week Tuesday through Thursday ( Aug. 14-16 ).
More than 130 representatives from MTC’s from the United States, Japan, Europe and Korea will tour Fort Riley’s MTC, discuss challenges and best practices, explore software and reporting updates, take part in demonstrations and strengthen the relationships with their peers.
The MTC on part is part of the Seitz Regional Training Campus on Custer Hill. In addition the event showcase the efforts of Fort Riley employees through their development of a fully integrated Training Environment, which enables Soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division to build and maintain readiness.
This is the first time the Mission Training Complex users workshop has been held at Fort Riley.
Smithfield Foods has honored several of its facilities and employees with environmental and sustainability awards for their innovation and dedication to sustainability. Their efforts saved the company over 1.1 billion gallons of water, more than 8.8 million kilowatts of electricity and more than 21.1 million pounds of solid waste generation in 2017 alone.
Among the facilities honored was the Smithfield plant in Junction City where an engaging employee training activity was implemented to identify intentionally created errors in refrigeration system flow charts.
The Division Review highlighted the troops and the history of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley.
The 1st Infantry Division Band performed, the Revolutionary War era cannon “Old Thunder” was fired, and there was the historic cavalry charge across the Calvary Parade field. Troops from different units and brigades on post carried the different unit flags, and marched in review past the commanding general Major General John Kolasheski.
Kolasheski spoke to the troops on the parade field. He talked about a key requirement “to fight and win America’s wars.” He said priorities must be established and prioritized. “First we must stay laser focused on building and sustaining individual and collective readiness, to include boosting our capacity to quickly project forces anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice.”
Kolasheski outlined numerous other priorities with some of those including development of leaders to have the knowledge, skills and aptitude to effectively lead under any conditions and in any environment. He stated they must care for their Soldiers, families and civilians, and they must be good professionals and first class teammates.
Kolasheski told the Soldiers they are all ambassadors for the 1st Infantry Division, the Army and the nation. The Division Review capped off the end of the Victory Week celebration at Fort Riley.
Team Home Away from Home in the Adopt a Soldier program in Junction City is seeking host families to adopt a soldier, and provide a home away from home for Soldiers just out of basic training and new to the Army.
It is an opportunity for Soldiers to create friendships within the local community and gather support beyond the formal work environment.
To participate contact Phyllis Fitzgerald at 785-307-1472.
Economic development recruitment will be one focus for the Junction City delegation attending the annual AUSA convention in Washington D.C. this year.
Mayor Pat Landes reported this week that the EDC Director Mickey Fornaro-Dean will be attending the meeting again this year, and there is an attempt to try to get the new Military Affairs Director, Craig Bender, to attend as well.
Landes stated, “We will be holding an economic development reception for all the vendors there at the meeting to try to get them to look into moving their business or coming to Junction City, and turn that Military Affairs Director position into kind of a position that assists EDC.” Bender’s hiring was just announced this week and it is expected to be late this year or early next year before he can begin working in Junction City. He is still an active duty service member but will be retiring in the near future.
The AUSA meeting in Washington D.C. will be in October.
Year to date rainfall in Geary County currently totals 13.04 inches, which compares to a year to date average of 24.68 inches.
According to data compiled by Geary County Extension Agent Chuck Otte the total so far for the month of August is 0.24 of an inch, spread between two light rainfall totals on August 4th and 7th. In June the total for the county was 1.99 inches, and for July 4.44 inches which so far is the wettest month of the year and slightly above the normal July average of 4.07 inches.
There was some progress in the attempt to restore email and other virtual services for the City and Sheriff Department Thursday evening. Just after 6 p.m. the City’s IT Director Jim Germann reported that a partial repair had been completed. Work to make repairs to a pair of additional data bases continued.
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Efforts are under way to restore email and other virtual services for the City and Sheriff’s Department.
According to the city’s IT Director Jim Germann, an electrical transformer near the Sheriff’s Department had an outage and that caused a power surge at the Municipal Building. “And it threw some of our virtual machines off line. Unfortunately one of the them happens to be one of the servers that houses our email data base. We’ve got them back on line, but we’re trying to get the data bases working so that email can flow.”
Germann is hoping to complete repairs by late Thursday evening or later Thursday evening.
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A brief power outage on Wednesday has caused some problems for county and city email.
Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf noted when the power returned their network had been knocked off online. We tried to get back onto the network and were unsuccessful. ”
As of 10 a.m. Thursday they were still down off of the network. “We have no email, we have no access to any of our files that are kept on the network. We’re just kind of doing it the old fashioned way right now, doing everything on paper. ”
As a result of the problem the normal booking photos submitted by the Sheriff’s Department are not available for JC Post.com. Once the service has been restored we will post the booking photos.
UPDATE: