There will be a seminar on Healthcare decisions Friday at Valley View Senior Life.
The event begins at 11:30 am with presenters from Accord Hospice on advance directives, State Farm on Life Insurance, Penwell Gabel on funeral arrangements, Edward Jones on financial planning and Valley View Senior life on long term care.
Lunch will be provided.
To reserve a seat call 375-0346, ask for Nikki or Tammy.
There will be a Breakfast for Alzheimer’s event on Saturday, April 8th in Junction City.
Breakfast will be from 7:00 am until 10:00 am at the Faith Lutheran Church on McFarland and Eisenhower in Junction City.
Menu items include biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage and a beverage.
A donation of $6 is requested for the breakfast.
For more information call 238-6567.
From numbers around 160 to numbers as low as 112, the inmate population in Geary County has slowly decreased.
Tony Wolf, Geary County Sheriff, said that the decrease in population is just an ebb and flow.
“I’ve seen, over the many years that I’ve been there, the jail population will have a lot of folks in there for a while and then it’ll come back down and then you won’t have a lot of folks in there for a while – it’s like the tides,” said Wolf.
Reports to the County Commission have indicated a steady decrease in the inmate totals in recent weeks.
“If someone gets arrested, most of the time most of the crimes have a bond that they can actually bond out; sometimes the crime does not have a bond – it depends on what crime is committed,” said Wolf. “The folks that don’t bond out, that end up staying with us, those are the ones that go into general population and then they go on the [inmate] numbers and stay with us for more than just a day.”
There is no pinpoint reason for the decline, other than to say the overall criminal element is decreasing in Geary County.
“It’s a revolving door there at the Sheriff’s office, and at the jail; there’s a lot of folks that come in/come through there, we have our frequent flyers that are in [jail] seems like all the time, but then there’s the ones that come in that we’ve never seen before – but they’re still coming and going,” said Wolf.
Junction City Police Chief Dan Breci also noted a seven percent decrease in crime in the first two months of 2017.
Factors contributing to the decrease in crime and thus the jail population as well are varied, but likely boil down to good old fashioned policing and the hard work of local law enforcement.
There will be a Fort Riley Community Forum on Friday, April 7th from 11:30 am until 1:00 
pm at Riley’s Conference Center.
The event is designed to encourage soldiers and families to explore the surrounding areas and learn more about regional attractions and events.
Community participants include the Abilene Chamber, Council Grove Chamber, Junction City Chamber/Geary County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Manhattan Chamber, Paxico and Wabaunsee County Chambers, Wamego Chamber, Fort Riley Family and MWR, and the Fort Riley Environmental Division.
Following the information fair, which is free and open to the public, community participants will inform 1st Infantry Division leaders and Fort Riley’s newest soldiers about regional events and attractions.
MANHATTAN — Kansas State University is celebrating the sight of a lifetime: the Great American Eclipse of 2017.
On Aug. 21, the moon will completely cover the sun and portions of the U.S. — including northeast Kansas — will experience a total eclipse of the sun. It is the first total eclipse of the sun visible in the U.S. since 1979 and is the first total solar eclipse visible in Kansas in 99 years.
Kansas State University will host a series of speakers, events and classes to prepare for the eclipse. The events begin with the 2017 Neff Public Lecture in Physics at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11, in 101 Cardwell Hall. The lecture, sponsored by the physics department, will feature Fred Espenak, scientist emeritus of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and is open to the public.
Espenak is known as “Mr. Eclipse” because of his work predicting and observing solar eclipses.
Before the lecture, Espenak will host an astrophotography workshop at 3 p.m. in Room 101 in Cardwell Hall. He will help amateur and professional photographers learn how to use cameras, including cellphone cameras, to shoot wide-angle photos of totality; how to capture partial phases, the diamond-ring effect and Baily’s beads; and how to shoot bracketed exposures to capture the inner, middle and outer corona. Espenak will offer tips on the best telephoto lenses, telescopes and solar filters. Participants should bring their cameras, lenses and questions.
During the lecture, Espenak will discuss the solar eclipse phenomenon, where the moon covers the disk of the sun. For the total eclipse of 2017, the moon’s shadow will move across the U.S. from Oregon to northeast Kansas to South Carolina. The movement will leave a 68-mile-wide path of totality where the moon will completely cover the sun for two minutes and the sun’s corona will be visible.
Espenak has written more than a dozen books on eclipses, including his most recent “Eclipse Bulletin: Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 August 21.” Throughout the past 45 years, he has witnessed 26 total eclipses of the sun. Espenak lives in Portal, Arizona, where he operates Bifrost Astronomical Observatory.
A lecture live stream will be available at www.phys.ksu.edu/alumni/neff/
Other eclipse events
Several Kansas State University organizations — including the physics department, K-State Global Campus, the K-State Alumni Association, the Office of Student Life and the Division of Communications and Marketing — are partnering with the Flint Hills Discovery Center for a series of outreach events to celebrate the 2017 solar eclipse.
“In Kansas, this eclipse is even more special, because not only is it an alignment of the sun, the moon and the Earth, but it is an alignment of the sun, the moon and Kansas to make it a very special event for us,” said Chris Sorensen, Cortelyou-Rust university distinguished professor of physics and one of the organizers of the events.
The events include lectures, classes and community activities. More details will be provided and additional events may be added in the coming months. All of the following are open to the public:
• Astronomy in Color Lunch and Learn, noon Monday, April 24, McVay Family Town Hall in the Leadership Studies Building. This event is sponsored by the K-State Alumni Association and will explore the influence of astronomy in Black, Asian and Pacific Islander cultures.
• Astronomy viewing nights, 9 to 11 p.m. Friday, June 2, and Friday, July 14, Flint Hills Discovery Center. Sorensen will help visitors view the moon, the planets and the stars through telescopes at these free events.
• Community Day, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6, Flint Hills Discovery Center. This free day will feature astronomy-themed and community activities.
• Go See It! Total Solar Eclipse by Professor Chris Sorensen, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, Flint Hills Discovery Center. Sorensen will give a lecture to prepare for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse.
• Eclipse watch parties and bus trips. Aug. 21. More information to come.
K-State News and Communications Services
Division of Communications and Marketing
The newest facility at Kansas State University’s Veterinary Health Center offers a full range of services to horse owners and enhances equine education for veterinary students.
The grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $2.8 million Equine Performance Testing Center was March 29.
Nearly 50 percent of the roughly 2,500 services provided annually by the Veterinary Health Center equine clinicians involve performance-related disorders. The Equine Performance Testing Center provides safe, year-round access to consistent footing and shelter for patients, clients, students and clinicians.
The advanced facility offers an indoor riding arena with hard and soft footing to optimally evaluate and diagnose lameness or performance limiting issues affecting equine patients. Also included in the facility are an indoor examination area, radiology suite, farrier space and consultation room.
Private donations have funded more than $800,000 of the project, but Beth Davis, interim head of the clinical sciences department in the College of Veterinary Medicine, said there are still opportunities to help purchase important equipment and support the equine program.
The Geary Community Schools Foundation along with the USD 475 teachers and students will host an art show and silent auction beginning Friday evening from 5 to 7 p.m., and continuing Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
According to Margie Pinaire with the Foundation, anyone who attends may place bids on the artwork. The minimum bid is $20 and 60% of the sale will go directly back to the student artist. The remaining 40% will go to the Geary Community Schools Foundation to support the USD 475 Student Art Scholarship given each spring to a qualified graduate.
The turnout for the open house at the Dorothy Bramlage Public Library Wednesday evening has been estimated by Library officials at 100 people.
Members of the public had a chance to learn about the services offered and the need for more space at the library.
One of those in attendance, Scott Stuckey, Junction City, touched on services. “Like for my mom, the ability to learn how to use her Ipad better. Certainly all the online databases that are available for free through the library.”
City Commissioner Jim Sands noted there was a lot of information in the facility. “It’s packed in. It truly is. And there’s a greater need for a library, you can clearly see it.”
Library Director Susan Moyer touched on drawings that were on display. “They have some enlarged drawings of the building concept, so it’s an opportunity for people to see what we’re thinking about in terms of at least the building footprint.”
There is a proposal to expand the library to a total square footage of 26,000 square feet. At this point a Nebraska based firm Paul J. Strawhecker Inc. is working on a financial feasibility study for the project.
The fireworks show for Sundown Salute on July 4th in Junction City is set.
Wald & Company from the Great Bend – Larned area will handle the job, said Sundown Salute Committee Chair Nikki Londene. “We’re looking at between 20 to 25 minutes ( length of the show ) probably. The great thing about this company is they’re up to date with their technology so everything is done, like the charges and everything are done eletronically. So we’re not going to worry about the risk of injury like we’ve had to worry about in the past.”
Last year’s show was cut short when an errant fireworks shell injured the owner of a different company that was providing that show.
Londene indicated the cost of the 2017 fireworks show with Wald & Company will be approximately $5,000 and they will also handle tents and tables for Sundown Salute, bringing their total cost for Sundown Salute to about $7,000.
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