( Photo on roof L-R ) Dewey Terrill and Randy Stewart )
Callers to 1420 KJCK, The Talk of JC, pledged more than $1,400 on Friday during a Sundown Salute fundraiser.
News Director Dewey Terrill broadcast from atop the roof at Coach’s Grill and Bar at 720 Caroline Avenue to help raise awareness about the annual Fourth of July celebration in Junction City, while Program Director Jerry Brecheisen took calls from donors in the The Talk of JC studios during the hours 10:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.
One of the callers who made a pledge was was one of the founders of Sundown Salute, John Summers, who now resides in the Kansas City area. Summers, Bill Deppish and Ed Birney developed the idea in 1976 that turned into the annual Fourth of July celebration. They were assisted by the Economic Development Director in Junction City at that time, Jack Lacey.
The Sundown Salute Committee for 2018 is co-chaired by Terry Heldstab and Mark Ediger. Mick Wunder is Event Coordinator, Barbara Wunder Secretary and Michelle Stimatze Treasurer.
MANHATTAN — The Chapman Center for Rural Studies at Kansas State University, directed by Bonnie Lynn-Sherow, associate professor of history, has been selected as one of 15 “high impact” National Endowment for the Humanities recipients by the National Humanities Alliance.
The center is featured in a new National Endowment for the Humanities, or NEH, brochure that will be distributed to members of Congress and donors nationwide.
In addition, the center, an interdisciplinary undergraduate research center in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, is one of five featured units on the alliance’s new website, nehforall.org. This interactive site helps users find NEH projects in their respective states.
The featured projects and programs illustrate the endowment’s primary goals, including engaging youth, reaching rural communities, serving veterans, catalyzing local tourism and preserving cultural heritage. The Chapman Center for Rural Studies is noted as an institution safeguarding the country’s historical and cultural legacies.
The brochure and website feature the center’s Lost Kansas Communities project, a digital archive of the state’s lost and disappearing places. Students comb through archival information, create maps and collect oral histories to ensure the stories and people of Kansas’ small towns are not forgotten. Student research recently supported a major exhibition at the Flint Hills Discovery Center from September 2016 through January 2017.
Longtime Junction City Police detective Jeff Childs has wrapped up a 32-year career with the JCPD. He was honored during a retirement reception in Heritage Park on Thursday.
Childs will move to a teaching job at Junction City High School where he will teach about law enforcement, beginning in November.
( Photo L-R ) – Lloyd Graham, Steve Opat, David Platt
Former Geary County Attorney Steve Opat was recently presented the Kansas County and District Attorney’s Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
He received that honor during the Association’s annual fall conference in Lawrence.
Opat served two different stints as Geary County Attorney before deciding not to seek reelection last year. The award is presented to an Association member for his or her longevity as a prosecutor. Today Opat continues to serve as the Geary County Counselor for the Geary County Commission.
Also in attendance at the conference in Lawrence were two former assistant county attorneys during Opat’s tenure, David Platt and Lloyd Graham. Platt later became a District Court Judge before retiring, while Graham continues to serve as an Assistant Geary County Attorney.
Geary Community Hospital is hosting a bake sale Friday to help raise funds for the family of former GCH employee, Patricia “Shelley” Humes. She died recently in a fire in Enterprise.
The funds raised will help family members with funeral costs, clothing and other upcoming expenditures.
The bake sale will go from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the main lobby at the hospital. If you would like to provide baked goods for this effort bring them to the Fegan dining room at GCH from 7-9 a.m. Friday.
The Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce will host a general election candidate forum at 5:30 p.m. Monday ( Oct. 23 ) at the C.L. Hoover Opera House.
The forum will be broadcast on the 1420 KJCK, The Talk of JC.
Candidates for Junction City Commission and Geary USD 475 Board of Education will make opening comments and field questions from those attending the forum.
The Central National Bank main bank in downtown Junction City will be the site of a fundraiser for the Junction City / Geary County United Way.
There will be a cinnamon roll and chili feed on Wednesday, Oct. 25 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the basement of the main bank.
You can get a bowl of chili for $6 and a second bowl for $1. A drink and cinnamon rolls will be provided. The cinnamon rolls are being donated by Rock Springs 4-H Center.
You can get your food to go. All proceeds will benefit the Junction City / Geary County United Way.
DICKINSON COUNTY — Four teens were injured in an accident just before 8:30p.m. Wednesday in Dickinson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1999 GMC truck driven by Benjamin J. Shafer, 18, Abilene, was traveling at 2400 Road and Eden Road three miles West of Abilene.
The driver failed to stop at the T intersection and drove into hay bales that were in a field.
Shafer and passengers Angel G. Garcia, 17; Hayden J. Ricker, 16; and Emma E. Allen, 15, all of Abilene were transported to Memorial Hospital. Garcia was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have announced that 84 minors were recovered and 120 traffickers arrested as part of Operation Cross Country XI. It was a nationwide effort focusing on underage human trafficking that ran from October 12-15.
Over the course of those four days the FBI Kansas City Division, along with its local, state and federal law enforcement partners conducted the operation in 10 cities throughout areas in Kansas and Missouri. Junction City was one of those cities. The others included Kansas City, Independence, Lee Summit, Riverside and North Kansas, Missouri plus Overland Park, Olathe, Topeka and Wichita. The results of the combined operation led to the recovery of three minors ranging in age from 16 to 17 and the arrest of 10 traffickers.
Multiple law enforcement agencies partnered with the FBI Kansas City during Operation Cross Country XI. Some of those included the Junction City Police Department, Geary County Sheriff’s Department and Riley County Police Department.
Junction City Police Chief Dan Breci confirmed his department assisted the FBI in a human trafficking operation last Friday night in Junction City. “They set up at a local hotel, last count I saw was 30 plus people from around the state including Junction City, Grandview Plaza, Geary County SO, and FBI agents out of Kansas City and their task force. From my understanding they did this operation in several cities, and while here they arrested six individuals last Friday.” Breci confirmed there were various charges against those arrested, ‘but they all had to do with the sex trade. ”
Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf said his department supported the entire operation with a couple of deputies from the Sheriff’s Department assisting in the investigation. “It was kind of like a prostitution sting situation where individuals were caught that were soliciting the sexual favors from minors.”
The 11th iteration of the FBI-led Operation Cross Country included 55 FBI field officers and involved 78 state and local forces across the nation, including hundreds of law enforcement partners. There were coordinated operations with international partners including Canada, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines.
As part of the operation, FBI agents and task force officers staged operations in hotels, casinos and truck stops as well as on street corners and internet websites. The youngest victim recovered during this year’s operation was three months old, and the average age of victims recovered was 15 years old.
According to the JCPD Tour Log report the six people arrested in Junction City included Timothy Paul Meyer, 52; Patrick Tisolona-Nakoa, 25; Alexander Michael Jacobs, 24; Randy Sharone Carter, 24; John Earnest Frazee, 40; andJeffery Wayne Young, 33, all from Junction City. A check of the booking photos from the Geary County Sheriff’s Department revealed all six were being held on suspicion of Solicitation Promoting Prostitution. Young was also held on suspicion of Possession of Depressants, Depressants, Stimulants or Hallucinogenic Drugs – Felony. Formal court charges had not yet been filed.
