The Geary County Sheriff’s Department has reported the arrest of five Salina residents at I-70 eastbound mile marker 308 on drug related charges.
Arrested at 4:34 a.m. Thursday were Juan Rivera Jr., Janelle Nicole Milleson, Anthony Q. Lopez-Garcia, Ricardo A. Lopez-Garcia and Erick O. Abrego-Salas. The allegations ranged from Possession of a Controlled Substance to Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
Rivera was also arrested on suspicion of Interference with Law Enforcement and on a Jackson County warrant alleging Failure to Appear while Abrego-Salas was also arrested on a Maximum Speed Limits allegation.
WABAUNSEE COUNTY—One person was injured in an accident just after 7:30p.m. Wednesday in Wabaunsee County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1984 Honda motorcycle driven by Todd Edwin Lewis, 53, Eskridge, was southbound on Kansas 99 eight miles west of Bronc Rider Road. The driver lost control of the motorcycle and traveled into the northbound lanes.
A northbound 2011 Chevy Impala driven by James Robert Urton, 37, Eskridge, struck the motorcycle.
EMS transported Lewis to Stormont Vail in Topeka. He was not wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.
Urton was not injured and properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
A local board has completed their work on determining how just over $13,000 in Emergency Food and Shelter Program money will be distributed to local agencies and organizations in the Geary County community.
A total of $2,700 will go to the Open Door homeless shelter, $1,000 apiece to both the Salvation Army and Breaking Bread, $2,000 to Wheels of Hope, $674 to the Junction City Caring Place, $1,500 to the 1st United Methodist Church and $4,000 to the Food Pantry.
United Way Executive Director Nichole Mader said this is a grant program with both United Way world wide and federal money.Each organization gets a certain amount of money each year, according to their needs. The local board consists of representatives from organizations such as Catholic Charities, Red Cross, Salvation Army plus county and city officials. Applications from nonprofit agencies that provide emergency food or shelter are reviewed and then funding decisions are made.
This funding program has been operating on an annual basis.
Handy’s LLC has received a mini-grant from Live Well Geary County Pathways to a Healthy Kansas funds to purchase point of sale basket stands to make fresh produce available to patrons. The funds will be used to purchase 3-tier wicker basket stands to be placed in the checkout areas at Handy’s store in Grandview Plaza to provide customers the opportunity to buy fresh healthy produce in an accessible location.
Handy’s president, Angie Wallace said “the purchase of the basket stands will allow the store to provide options to encourage healthier eating and depending on the success may result in a more permanent solution to stocking fresh fruits and vegetables in the store.”
Handy’s has been a fixture in the Junction City area for many years. There are currently four Handy’s locations including 1734 West Ash, 1101 Whitney Road and 1124 South Washington in Junction City and 113 West Flint Hills Boulevard in Grandview Plaza.
The Geary County Sheriff’s Department and Junction City Fire Department have taken the initial steps to building a joint Public Service Dive Rescue and Recovery team.
According to a news release from Sheriff Daniel Jackson there was a SCUBA orientation assessment of prospective members of the team from both departments. That training will continue Thursday evening with another group of prospective members from both departments. After that assessment the potential team members will complete a swim assessment and then the most qualified candidates will be selected to be members of the team.
At that point those who are selected will obtain certifications in Open water and Advanced Open water diving followed by certifications as Public Safety Dive Rescue and Recovery divers.
The training and assessments conducted this week was provided by Jeff and Anita Freeborn of Flint Hills Scuba.
The Big Brothers / Big Sisters program helps match youth with adults.
Sarah Adams, a Match Support Specialist with the organization, works in both Geary and Riley counties. She informed the JC Breakfast Optimist Club Wednesday that “there are currently 160 active matches between “Bigs and Littles,” however there are also 80 “Littles” on a waiting list to be matched with “Bigs.”
In her role with Big Brothers / Big Sisters Adams receives referrals of youth who are struggling in school, are in a home where there is domestic violence and / or abuse, are living in poverty and in need of an adult mentor for a minimum of one year. She then matches the youth with an adult mentor or a “Big.”
Adams is working on a school based program with area school counselors and social workers to identify students who could benefit from the Big Brothers / Big Sisters Program by having a mentor to help with school work, encourage youth and be a positive influence in the life of a young person.
Big Brothers / Big Sisters volunteers must be 18 or older, pass a background check, be a high school graduate or have a GED and commit to working with a youth for at least one year.
The Breakfast Optimist Club donated $200 to Big Brothers / Big Sisters.
By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
Could the extension service do for health what it has done for agriculture through the years? During the past century, American agriculture – with assistance from agricultural research and extension – has been transformed from subsistence farming to an agricultural system that is the envy of the world. Could similar progress occur in the health arena? To do so would require a deep cultural change that would value health as a priority. In short, we might say it requires a culture of health.
Dr. Paula Peters is associate director of extension programs for K-State Research and Extension. The term “extension” refers to the state- and county-based educational outreach programs which extend helpful research results from the nation’s land-grant universities to the public.
“For years, (extension) has done work on nutrition, foods, and physical activity,” Paula said. In a larger sense, extension has worked to support the health of families, farms and communities since the extension service was founded in 1914.
In 2014, the national Extension Committee on Policy supported the development of a national framework for extension work in public and community health. That report included the aspirational statement that extension could do for health what it has done for agriculture.
In Kansas, even before that time, the Kansas Health Foundation provided an endowment to support extension work in health. Those funds supported an Office of Community Health for several years.
“We wanted to build the capacity of our local extension agents to work in the health area,” Paula said. Funds were redirected to support grass-roots health-related extension initiatives.
This initiative reflected the fact that a deep, cultural commitment to health was needed. The initiative was called Culture of Health. “People think of improving physical health, but we are looking more broadly than that,” Paula said. “It’s also mental health, financial health, the health of the community itself.”
The initiative began with a series of facilitated community conversations with extension professionals and community partners around health issues. Then grants were offered to county and district extension units. The grant applications required that a local needs assessment be completed and that the work be implemented through collaborative coalitions.
In February 2019, K-State Research and Extension awarded $170,000 in grants for 32 projects in 51 counties across the state. These supported multiple kinds of health-related projects, such as healthy food access, physical activity, mental well-being, anti-poverty, and much more. Because they were implemented through local coalitions, agencies worked together in beneficial ways.
As a person who loves a good acronym, I appreciated projects with titles like Johnson County EATS – Easy, Affordable Tasty Solutions, Atchison County’s BOOK – Believing in Opportunities for Our Kids – and Meade County’s CATCH – Coordinated Approach To Community Health. Meade is a rural community of 1,721 people. Now, that’s rural.
Beyond the, um, catchy titles, this work dealt with serious, long-term issues. For example, the Marais des Cygnes Extension District worked on suicide prevention and mental health intervention. The Twin Creeks Extension District worked on a produce buying incentive program for low income buyers at a local farmer’s market.
In addition, the state extension team sponsored adult mental health first aid training for more than 100 extension professionals in spring 2019. “We’re not counselors but we can connect people to the resources they need.”
Another training was held in June 2019 on policy systems and environment. “We need to do more policy work to assure that healthy behaviors are supported and sustainable,” Paula said.
Most of all, this has led to a new level of collaboration on health issues. “It’s been fun to watch our agents reach to their collaborators and also each other,” Paula said.
Can extension do for health what it has done for agriculture? If Paula and her team have their way, it will. We commend Paula Peters, her specialists, and all those extension agents who are making a difference by improving our healthy behaviors. They remind us that health isn’t just going to the doctor. This is about a culture of health.
And there’s more. Next week we’ll learn about a local initiative for a basket-full of health.
The Junction City High School Marching Band will perform Friday evening at Al Simpler Stadium at 7 p.m. This is their Community Preview where they will demonstrate band fundamentals and the new music they have learned this summer. They will do their first performance of their 2019 Halftime show, “Batman!”
The students have had three weeks of summer band rehearsals. They plan to try and live-stream their performance Friday evening from the JCHS Blue Jay Bands Facebook page.
Former 1st Infantry Division Soldier Alex McKay has been presented with a barn quilt recognizing his service in the Big Red One. He was presented the quilt by Military Affairs Council Chair Phyllis Fitzgerald.
McKay was a member of the 1st Military Police Company from 1973 to 1975.
The Geary County Sheriff’s Department has reported the arrest of five Salina residents at I-70 eastbound mile marker 308 on drug related charges.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1984 Honda motorcycle driven by Todd Edwin Lewis, 53, Eskridge, was southbound on Kansas 99 eight miles west of Bronc Rider Road. The driver lost control of the motorcycle and traveled into the northbound lanes.
