Geary County Extension Agent Chuck Otte has announced that the monthly Milford Lake bird walk will be Saturday, Aug. 17 at 8 a.m.  Participants will meet at the parking lot on the south end of Milford Lake  Dam, just across the highway from the Corps of Engineers Office.

This month´s walk will focus on summer  resident species and early migrants. The walks usually last about two to  three hours and involve moderate walking. If you have binoculars or a bird  book please bring them. The next walk will be September 21, 2019.

MAS-HELP will be a new nonprofit wholesale distribution outlet in Junction City that supports the military and the community. The grand opening and ribbon cutting have been scheduled for this Friday, August 16th, at 1216 Grant Avenue. The ribbon cutting will be at 10:30 a.m. and the grand opening will run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

MAS-HELP operates from Atlanta, Georgia and as a U.S. 501c3 works to support the larger military community to drive mutual support for today’s active duty military, retired military, their families and the entire veteran population.

In Junction City the Managing Director for MAS-HELP is Henry Petty.

 

 

 

 

Hundreds of pies are sold every year in connection with the Apple Day celebration at Fort Riley.  This year organizers hope to make more than 17-hundred. As a result volunteers are needed to help prepare all those pies.

One of the pie queens for the event, Theresa Beier, said hundreds of people help make the pies. “It’s a week-long worth of volunteers. It starts Monday and goes all the way through Saturday. ”

The other pie queen. Yvonne Gutierrez, said volunteers are needed. “The way that you would volunteer is get on our website, the Historical and Archaeological Society of Fort Riley. There is going to be a link and it is going to be the sign of genius. We have all the way from September 16 to September 20 with shifts. ” Participants must have a food handlers certificate.

Geary County Ag Extension Agent Chuck Otte will host a program to help explain the new farm bill. It will be at 7 p.m. on August 27.

Otte stated the session will cover the highlights. He noted that the programs that the state ag economists are doing will go into more detail, “than a lot of producers want to go into. We’re going to be hitting the highlights of what impacts Geary County.”

The session will be at the Geary County 4-H / Senior Center.

Landscape Structures will be doing a photo shoot at the site of the new playground equipment in the 5th Street Playground Park in Junction City. It is scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Joy Davis with the Quality Play for All Committee is putting out a call for youth to participate. At least 50 kids are needed. There will be a gift card given to the first 50 who attend.

The playground equipment was installed this past spring, and has been a huge hit with children in the community.

https://www.playjc.org/sports/blog/2019/07/31/playground-park-photo-shoot-invitation/

By Martin Hawver

Time to remind Kansans that a key skill in Kansas politics is distraction.

Yes, remember that you don’t have to be much of a magician if your assistant is sexy enough that she’s the one the audience watches, not whether that rabbit actually came out of the hat the magician is wearing.

Democrats do it, Republicans do it. Heck, even third-party politicians practice distraction. Right now, it’s the Republicans who are getting in gear due to a recent series of events.

The fuses: Last week, it was the need for the Kansas Department of Corrections to contract with a private for-profit corporation to hold at least 360 Kansas prisoners in an Arizona prison because Kansas doesn’t have the space for them.

The week before was the Kansas Department of Revenue demanding that all out-of-state merchants collect Kansas sales tax on sales made into Kansas.

Oh, and then there was the relatively distracting response to the massacres in Texas and Ohio.

It’s early, but so far, the Kansas Legislature and its Republican leaders who are still angry that the state elected Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly to be its governor are doing their best at distraction from the real issues and finding solutions that are politically acceptable to them and their supporters.

The prisoner issue: During the past eight years, conservative former Gov. Sam Brownback consistently cut spending on the Department of Corrections along with other agencies in order to make his dramatic tax-cut program workable, or at least appear to be workable. With years of prison aging and with below-market salaries for prison guards essentially frozen, Kansas prisons filled and then over-filled; the state just ran out of space for prisoners and for guards to manage them.

While lawmakers don’t like the idea of moving Kansas convicts out of state at $75 a day, they’re not really eager to take responsibility for the crisis and instead have special committees which are watching every dollar in spending proposed by Democrat Kelly that has become necessary after years of not spending money on prisons.

The sales tax issue that might well see the state hauled into court for its absolute sales tax collection rule? Well, that’s state law which the Legislature couldn’t get amended this year because it tacked the so-called “safe harbor” amendment exempting those out of state merchants with small sales into the state onto bills with millions of dollars of state income tax cuts for the well-heeled and corporations that the governor vetoed because the state needs the money. So, we’re seeing that sales tax problem become a distraction from the big tax cuts lawmakers voted for but couldn’t get passed.

Oh, and as part of the distraction, there’s the potentially small reduction in sales taxes on food which were part of the bill vetoed by Kelly.  Hmmm…lawsuits and a Democrat not signing a food sales tax reduction. Not a bad political distraction, is it?

And the response to the Texas and Ohio massacres? The distraction here is that the state needs more mental health services for those with guns to keep them from using those guns in hate crime rampages. Nope, no mention of taking guns away from the mentally ill, the hate-mongers, under a “red flag” law, or even making it harder for those people to obtain guns. Let’s instead talk about mental health. Again, not a bad distraction, and one that doesn’t raise the blood pressure of the National Rifle Association.

Distraction? Nope just look over there…

 

The August member meeting and fish fry for the Geary County Fish & Game Association will be held Monday evening beginning at 6 p.m. at Sportsman’s Acres.

There will be a short business meeting and discussion of upcoming activities and projects.

The program for the evening will be Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Fisheries Biologist Ely Sprenkle talking about local fishing opportunities and state efforts to improve fishing. Sprenkle works out of the Tuttle Creek office and was involved closely with the original blue catfish stocking project on Milford lake.  He will be able to provide information on blue catfish and information on other area lakes and ponds.

The fish fry meal begins at 6 p.m. Those who are attending can bring a side dish, but drink and table service will be provided. Guests are welcome.

The 20 mile per hour school speed zones will become effective today ( Monday ) in Junction City. Classes are beginning Monday for USD 475 grades 1-12 and for Kindergarten at Spring Valley Elementary School.

The school zone flashers were activated last week to remind drivers of the upcoming change. Enforcement begins week.