Officers of the Junction City Police Department will be conducting DUI Saturation patrols throughout the city on Friday night and Saturday morning, July 28th and 29th.
According to Police Chief Dan Breci there will be five additional patrol cars on the streets to detect and deter drunk driving.
The patrols are designed to identify intoxicated drivers. Those motorists stopped for traffic violations who are suspected of intoxication, will be given an on-site field sobriety test. Confirmed impaired drivers will be arrested.
Breci said the purpose of the patrols is not to harass motorists, but increase overall motorist safety.
MANHATTAN — The Kansas State University Foundation has successfully secured funding derived from New Markets Tax Credits and an economic development agreement with the City of Manhattan for Phase II of the K-State Office Park.
This phase of the office park expansion will cost $15.8 million and will add 59,000 square feet of partner-tenant space, doubling the existing development. Phase II will accommodate more than 30 flexible incubator spaces for companies and partners on Kansas State University’s Manhattan campus and create a home for up to 250 jobs when fully leased. Tenants are required to have an affiliation with the university that supports its mission.
Phase II comprises the second of four buildings planned for the K-State Office Park. With the eventual completion of the fourth phase, the office park will total 240,000 square feet and 1,000 new jobs as part of the combined 56-acre world-class ecosystem of innovative research and academic growth adjacent to the university in the office and research parks.
Central Bank of Kansas City provided $10 million and National Community Investment Fund provided $5 million in tax credits to the project. Intrust Bank is the lead bank for the lending component, partnering with Central Bank of Kansas City and the National Community Investment Fund on the financing package. U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp., a subsidiary of U.S. Bank, capitalized the New Markets Tax Credits allocations.
In addition, the Manhattan City Commission has committed to the research and academic ecosystem by approving $800,000 in economic development loans and incentives toward the project.
The construction team consisting of McCownGordon Construction, general contractor; Hoefer Wysocki, architect; and Eskie & Associates, owners’ representative, has mobilized on the site and started work. The project is on schedule for tenant occupancy on Aug. 1, 2018.
“We are thankful for the bold vision of our board of directors, President Myers and our funding and construction partners to advance the research and academic presence of K-State,” said Greg Lohrentz, KSU Foundation senior vice president of operations and finance. “We are confident in the total economic development impact of $93 million in economic benefit over the next 20 years to the region.”
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Repairs have been made and water restored to N. Monroe St. area water main break.
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Junction City Public Works has announced that water will be shut down for the next 4-6 hours due to water main repairs. The 1600-1900 blocks of N. Monroe St., 16th Street Circle, and the 200 block of E. 17th St. will be affected.
WABAUNSEE COUNTY – Two people were injured in an accident at 11:30a.m. Sunday in Wabaunsee County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2012 Ford passenger vehicle driven by George Wesley Hedrick, 50, Parker, CO., was at the bottom of the Interstate 70 Westbound off ramp.
The driver attempted to cross Kansas 99 and stuck a 2004 Buick Lesabre driven by Bernard D. Budden, 79, Wamego, which was southbound on Kansas 99.
Budden and a passenger Marcella L. Budden, 79, Wamego, were transported to the hospital in Wamego. All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Over the past four decades, Americans have cumulatively lost about $2 trillion in retirement savings by failing to transfer their 401(k) retirement accounts when transitioning from one job to another. To help address this problem, U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) sent a letter to Department of Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, requesting the Department clear the path for implementation of 401(k) auto portability that would make it easier for Americans to save for their future. The letter was led by U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
“Too many Americans do not have enough information about how to best save for retirement and lose thousands of dollars in penalties from ‘cashing out’ their 401(k)s when they change jobs,” said Senator Roberts. “We are requesting an auto portability option that would allow workers to keep their savings in retirement accounts instead of having to pay significant penalties each time they move jobs.”
On average, approximately 14 million Americans change jobs each year, and about 40% of those individuals opt to “cash out” their 401(k)s instead of transferring those funds to another retirement account. These “cash outs” incur penalties and taxes, which ultimately lead to a $70 billion annual loss in savings. The highest “cash out” rate occurs with workers with the smallest account balances, $5,000 or less.
The letter specifically states, “Retirement plan cash out leakage at the time of a job change is harmful to workers’ retirement… With an estimated 14 million workers with 401(k) plans changing jobs each year, reducing leakage and consolidating low-dollar accounts through greater use of auto portability will set millions of working Americans on a better path to a secure retirement.”
The auto portability option could result in more than two million employees opting to keep their savings in retirement accounts instead of “cashing out” and incurring losses that carry long-term consequences.
Groups supporting the auto portability option include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Financial Services Roundtable, American Benefits Council, American Retirement Association, Investment Company Institute, and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
Additional signatories of the letter include Senators Steve Daines (R-MT), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tom Cotton (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Todd Young (R-IN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and David Perdue (R-GA).
The 4-day run of the Geary County Free Fair will occur Monday through Thursday at the fairgrounds on South Spring Valley Road.
The 4-H Food & Food Preservation judging is scheduled at 1 p.m. Monday with the 4-H Food Sale beginning at 1:30 p.m. Open Class Arts & Crafts, Textiles entries are accepted from 3-7 p.m. and Open Class Photography entries from 4 – 6:30 p.m.
The signup for the Youth Pedal Pull is scheduled from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.. The 4-H Horse Show is at 7 p.m. and the Pedal Pull at 7:30 p.m.
The annual 4-H Project & Livestock auction is scheduled at 7 p.m. Thursday. It will be preceded by the 4-H Barbecue and Watermelon Feed from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
TOPEKA – (July 2017) – An automated system designed to notify crime victims when an offender has a change in custody status has been implemented in more than half of the counties across the state, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today.
County-by-county implementation of the Kansas Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) system began in March 2016.
“Kansas VINE is an important source of information for victims of crime,” Schmidt said. “Having it available in more than half of Kansas counties is significant progress, and I look forward to the day when it will be available for crime victims statewide.”
VINE is a free and anonymous service provided through the collaboration of the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, the Kansas Department of Labor, and the Kansas Sheriffs Association. The VINE system allows victims of crime to use the telephone or internet to search for information regarding the custody status of their offender in a county jail and to register to receive notification when the offender’s custody status changes, such as when the offender is released from jail. Types of offender information available are name, offender number, current offender custody status, location of the offender and scheduled release date if available.
The Kansas VINE system is currently for offenders housed in county jails. Although operation of the state prison system is centralized through the Department of Corrections, the county jails are separately operated by individual counties. Currently, 59 counties have been activated. Over the next year, remaining counties across Kansas will complete the data management integration and become activated. Before VINE, there was no central source of information available to crime victims about offenders held in county jails.
Kansas VINE is available in English and Spanish with multiple language support through victim service representatives. Kansas VINE is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
A series of regional trainings are scheduled for August 15-17th in Olathe, Emporia and Hutchinson. Participants will learn the history of VINE, how Kansas VINE works and how to register for automated notifications. The trainings are open to the public. Additional trainings are being planned across the state.
Information about the upcoming training dates and registration can be found at www.ag.ks.gov/vine. Additionally, general information about the VINE system and how to register can also be found by visiting the attorney general’s website.
Rodeo clown John Harrison will provide the comedy during this year’s Abilene rodeo. The Oklahoma man has been selected to work the “super bowl” of rodeo, the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, six times. Photo by Ken Stein.
Abilene, Kan. – Abilene rodeo fans are in for a special treat.
John Harrison, the six-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR) specialty act and barrelman, will entertain rodeo fans during each performance of the rodeo.
The Soper, Okla. man is no stranger to making people laugh. When he’d get sent to the principal’s office in high school, he was still cracking jokes. “Every time the principal busted me, I’d shake his hand and say, ‘Thanks for making me a better person,’” John remembers. “It aggravated him when I did it.”
Now Harrison has turned his school troubles into a full time career. The grandson of world champion bull rider Freckles Brown, he has clowned rodeos across the nation, from West Coast to East Coast, and from North Dakota to Texas.
When he was six years old, he saw rodeo entertainers Leon and Vicki Adams at his hometown rodeo, and decided that’s what he wanted to do. His dad bought him a trick rope, and taught his son how to use it – in the family living room. “We tore up everything,” Harrison recalled. “I broke lamps, hit the ceiling, knocked plaster off the wall. Mom was always cussing us.
Harrison learned how to trick ride as well, and practiced every night after school with his dad’s help.
After high school, Harrison attended college but the rodeo bug bit. He ventured into the rodeo world, doing the trick riding, trick roping and roman riding at rodeos in the Midwest, then branching out across the nation, and adding rodeo clowning to his repertoire.
Now, nearly two decades later, he’s recognized as one of the best in the nation.
His acts range from trick riding to his magic act, to being “Miss Rodeo Universe” and jumping an old-time car on horseback.
He loves bantering with the crowd, using current events as topics. And he loves to point out people in the crowd. “I like to have fun with what’s going on,” he said. “Somebody on a cell phone, talking during the rodeo, everybody can relate to that. I do a lot of off-the-cuff stuff, and ad lib, and it keeps it fresh for me as well.”
John and his wife Carla, who married in 2006, have four children: daughters Addison (nine), Billie (who passed away from kidney failure in 2014 at the age of seventeen months old), and Charlee, (one), and Caz, who is six. The family is on the road with him as soon as school is out, and he’s working on putting together an act that the kids can do with him.
Caz, who is in second grade, has worked with his dad twice at the WNFR. John has been selected to work the WNFR six times: three times as a specialty act (2001, 2002 and 2008) and three times as a barrelman (2013, 2015 and 2016). Caz, dressed in a matching yellow shirt with red fringe, like his dad, rolled out a mini yellow barrel. At the last WNFR, they did backflips, cartwheels, and the “worm”, and the pressure of being at the “super bowl” of pro rodeo never bothered Caz. “He doesn’t get nervous,” John said. “He’s so calm and chill.” Being in the spotlight in front of 18,000 people didn’t make him anxious. “He told me, ‘Dad, (the WNFR) isn’t even that big of a deal. They don’t even have mutton bustin’ at this rodeo.’”
John occasionally runs into his former high school principal, and when he does, the principal shakes his head and laughs. John realizes the grief he might have caused his teachers. “I see my (former) teachers now, and I apologize to them. And if they’re at a restaurant, I buy them lunch.”
It’s a small price to pay for success.
The Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo runs August 2-5 with performances at 7:30 pm each night. Tickets range from $7 to $13 and are sale online at www.ckff.net, at the Central Kansas Free Fairgrounds, and at area businesses.
The Junction City Police Department will join various law enforcement agencies across Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma to stop what has been an epidemic for the past several years – increased speeding on our streets and highways.
In an effort to change this trend, law enforcement across the six-state area will be extra-vigilant during July 21st through 23rd when patrolling city, rural state and federal highways.
As vehicle speeds increase the severity of crashes increase including deaths.
Officers will issue citations to any individual who refuses to obey the traffic laws, whether it is for speeding, texting, driving while impaired or failing to buckle up.
Junction City Police Chief Dan Breci said, “Even one death is unacceptable. Please slow down, put the phone away or turn it off, and always buckle up.”
Officers of the Junction City Police Department will be conducting DUI Saturation patrols throughout the city on Friday night and Saturday morning, July 28th and 29th.
