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Category: Local
August primary election only for residents of Junction City
Mark your calendars – if you are not already registered to vote, the deadline to register in order to participate in the August 1st primary election is Tuesday, July 11th.
Rebecca Bossemeyer, Geary County Clerk, said that the same election rules apply for those wanting to vote in August.
“If you are not registered, you will have to prove your citizenship; if you are a registered voter there’s nothing additional that you need to do unless you’ve moved or changed your name then you should update that registration,” said Bossemeyer.
The August primary is only for Junction City residents, as the candidates for Junction City Commission will be the only candidates on the ballot. Current law states that if more than three times the number of candidates as open positions file for election, then a primary election is required.
“Just the City of Junction City is having a primary, not everybody; so if you happen to live in the rural part [of the county] or Grandview Plaza, or Milford, you do not have anything to vote for on August 1st,” said Bossemeyer.
New this year, ballots that are sent by mail do not have to be received by the County Clerk at the previous 7:00 pm on election day deadline.
“If someone puts their ballot in the mail and it gets postmarked on or before election, and is received in my office by the Friday after election, we will now be able to count those [ballots],” said Bossemeyer.
The deadline to request a mailed ballot is the Tuesday before the election – July 25th.
“If you are wanting a ballot mailed to you, there is a form that you have to complete.” The form can be mailed, scanned and emailed, faxed or brought into the Clerk’s office in-person.
After the August primary, the Junction City Commission candidates will be cut down from ten to six that will go on to the November general election. Candidates for Geary USD 475 Board of Education will be on the ballot in November.
Corps of Engineers Increases Milford Lake Outflow
The Corps of Engineers at Milford Lake has increased the outflow from the reservoir from 3,000 cubic feet per second to 4,000 cubic feet per second.
The Corps reported on Tuesday that the current lake elevation is 1,147.82, which is 3.42 feet above conservation pool.
The inflow at the Clay Center gauge is 965 cfs.
A higher release is planned for Wednesday.
KHC TALK Series Continues with ‘Sod and Stubble’
ABILENE, Kan. – Join the “Ike Book Club” in discussing Sod and Stubble on Monday, June 12 at 7 p.m. in the Visitors Center Auditorium. This Talk About Literature in Kansas (TALK) program is free and open to the public.
Jim Hoy of Emporia State University will facilitate the discussion. Hoy is an authority on the folk life of ranching, a topic on which he has lectured throughout the world. His publications include 12 books and more than 100 articles. He is the coauthor of Plains Folk, a syndicated newspaper column and charter member of the KHC Speakers Bureau, serving since 1985, and has been leading TALK discussions since 1986.
Hoy received his PhD in medieval English literature from the University of Missouri-Columbia and is a professor of English and the Director of the Center for Great Plains Studies at Emporia State University.
The TALK series is conducted through a partnership with the Kansas Humanities Council, the Abilene Public Library and the Eisenhower Presidential Library. “The Best of the West” theme celebrates the Chisholm Trail 150th and Eisenhower’s love of western novels.
All of the books in this series are available to check out from the Abilene Public Library or purchase at the Eisenhower Presidential Library Gift Shop. The complete series schedule is available at www.eisenhower.archives.gov.
Gate hours changing at Fort Riley
FORT RILEY, Kan. – Hours of operation at two of Fort Riley’s access control points will change in July.
Starting July 10th at 2 p.m., hours of the Grant Street gate will be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, closed weekends and federal holidays.
Following July 8th operations, hours of 12th Street gate will be 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday only, closed weekends and federal holidays. The final Saturday of operation for the 12th Street gate is July 8.
The changes are necessary to maintain Soldiers’ readiness for future training and deployment requirements.
Four additional access control points – Estes, Henry, Ogden and Trooper – remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
For more information about visiting Fort Riley, go to https://www.riley.army.mil/ and click on the yellow “Accessing Fort Riley” tab on the right-hand side of the page.
Questions about visiting Fort Riley can be answered by the Directorate of Emergency Services security branch; call 239-3138 or 239-2982.
Symphony in the Flint Hills – Saturday, June 10th
Symphony in the Flint Hills 2017 will be at the Deer Horn Ranch in Geary County on Saturday, June 10th.
Ben Bennett, County Commission Chairman, noted that the event will bring thousands of people to the community. “There will be seven or eight thousand people here from all over the country.”
The Kansas City Symphony Orchestra will perform just after 6:30 pm on the ranch in southeast Geary County.
“There will be a dance afterward, so don’t have to hurry [after the symphony performs],” said Bennett. “Michael Martin Murphey is supposed to be there – he’s a well known performer who has a lot of ties to this region.” Murphey is an iconic country western singer and songwriter.
Educational presentations will begin at 1:30 pm, which includes food and other vendors. This year’s theme is the celebration of the Chisholm Trail and it’s 150 year history.
There is no cost to park. “There will be plenty of people working and directing traffic, and helping to keep that moving,” said Bennett.
Gates open at noon, for a complete schedule visit: https://www.symphonyintheflinthills.org/
Johnson Cancer Research Center provides half-million dollars for Kansas State University research and education
MANHATTAN — Cancer research at Kansas State University has gotten a large boost from the university’s Johnson Cancer Research Center through the help of private donors.
“Saving lives through cancer research is expensive,” said Stephen Keith Chapes, Johnson Cancer Research Center interim director and professor of biology. “And unlike cancer treatment providers who can charge fees to cover their costs, researchers are constantly competing for funds to support their work that leads to such treatments.”
Funds raised through private donations allow the cancer research center to provide faculty and students hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in competitive awards supporting innovative cancer research, equipment purchases, mentoring of student researchers and more. All awards are listed on the center’s Award Programs webpages.
In fiscal year 2017, the center’s awards totaled $505,912. The Innovative Research Award program, the center’s largest, provided $203,000 to faculty for studies into such things as toxicity levels of potential anti-cancer agents, tissue growth regulation, deriving new canine tumor cell lines and a canine cancer treatment clinical trial.
“We are grateful to our many allies helping us conquer cancer, and pleased to redistribute their gifts to our most promising faculty and student researchers,” Chapes said. “Those dollars are making a big difference, often being leveraged into large extramural grants.”
Richard Myers, university president, sees great potential in the Johnson Cancer Research Center’s work.
“With our groundbreaking stem cell, virology, immunology and nanotechnology research and point-of-care innovations, K-State is making its mark in cancer research and getting ever closer to becoming a Top 50 public research university,” Myers said.
The Johnson Cancer Research Center currently has 100 affiliated faculty researchers conducting multidisciplinary cancer research in 20 departments at Kansas State University. Its programs are supported by private donations. More information about the center is at cancer.k-state.edu.
Less emphasis on state testing, more focus on post secondary readiness
Student achievement in Geary County Schools peaks between grades three through five and then falls off during the middle school years.
Dr. Beth Hudson, USD 475 Associate Superintendent, said presented state assessment results at the Monday, June 5th Board of Education meeting.
“We’re real strong at those primary grades; we have concerns about where we are at those other levels and we’d certainly like to have our students performing at higher levels,” said Hudson. “That’s a concern for us, we want our students to be mastering concepts at those higher levels.”
The current assessments are ranked on a scale of 1 through 4; 1 being below grade level, 2 at grade level, and 3 or 4 is mastering or exceeding the grade level. Hudson noted that middle school, specifically 7th grade seems to be the time where assessment scores drop dramatically.
“I think if we knew what [the reason] was, we would be able to address it; I think it is a combination…you know in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade you’re with the same teacher all day – now suddenly you’re with different teachers who have different expectations,” said Hudson. “I think it’s a difficult adjustment for [students].”
Another difficult adjustment for some has been the Common Core Curriculum. Hudson noted that there was an increase in parents opting out of the state testing for their students, which may be linked to anxiety surrounding Common Core.
“People still have that misconception about Common Core being a bad thing; I think it’s a great thing because students are being expected to meet higher levels of rigor,” said Hudson. “There’s still that myth out there that Common Core has bad things…I would challenge anyone to show me which pieces would be bad pieces.”
USD 475 is also a transient District, which has an effect on teachers populations; Hudson noted that this affects student achievement.
“We’re constantly training new teachers each year they come on board, particularly at Junction City Middle School is a good example…that definitely affects us because we don’t keep teachers long enough in some cases to be develop those skills at teaching before they move on.”
Hudson maintains that there is no cause for concern about student achievement and test scores in the District. Randy Watson, the Kansas Commissioner of Education, has been working to shift the focus away from state testing as the benchmark for achievement and has championed other pathways for gaging knowledge. This shift places less stress on educators to master a test, and thus allows flexibility to make sure students excel.
Hudson added that Geary County Schools are in line with or exceeding state averages in many cases.
D-Day Focus of JC Now Tuesday Morning
The 73rd anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II is Tuesday.
Commemorating the anniversary, the Director of the Museum Division at Fort Riley, Bob Smith, was a guest on JC Now with Mark Ediger on Tuesday.
Smith discussed in-depth the role of the 1st Infantry Division in the Allied attack, and the audio comments of General Dwight D. Eisenhower to the troops before the landing were aired. The 1st Division led Force “O” in the assault on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day. The show is available on a podcast at JCPost.com.
Sunny Day on Tuesday
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High
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81° | Sunny. Highs in the lower 80s. East winds 5 to 15 mph. |