Geary County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to mile marker 91 on K-177 Highway just before 4:30 a.m. Tuesday for a single vehicle accident.
The Sheriff’s Department reported that Jeremy Williams, Wilsey, was driving a 2013 Chevrolet S-10 when the vehicle blew a tire and he lost control. The S-10 left the roadway and went into a ditch. There were no injuries reported.
The timeline for the new ALDI grocery store planned for 520 East Chestnut Street in Junction City will be moved back a short time.
The Geary County Planning and Zoning Director, Troy Livingston, said initially the company had been shooting for an end of July – first part of August store opening. “They’ve had to relocate some water lines that were under concrete. They’ve got those done now. It was just causing a small delay, but now they’re shooting for the last of September – first part of October for an opening date.”
Livingston indicated that the water line improvements were expected, but there was a need to relocate the lines to tap into the city water main from their original construction plans.
The Geary Community Hospital Auxiliary is sponsoring their annual Used Book & Bag (purses) Sale Wednesday, July 10, in the main lobby at the hospital.
All hard cover books are $1 and paperbacks are 50 cents. The sale will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
United Way has announced that Geary County has been chosen to receive $13,137 to supplement emergency food and shelter programs in the county. The selection was made by a national board chaired by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency. The board was charged to distribute funds appropriated by Congress to help expand the capacity of food and shelter programs in high-need areas around the country.
A local board will how determine how the money awarded to Geary County will be distributed among the emerency food and shelter programs run by local service agencies in the area.
Geary County has distributed Emergency Food and Shelter funds previously with the food pantry, Junction City Caring Place and Open Door participating. Those agencies were responsible for providing food and lodging.
Development of a precision planting system, offering producers the ability to plant large areas of acreage rapidly while maximizing yield per acre, will be the goal of a research team at Kansas State University.
Deere & Company has invested more than $300,000 in the project., “Precision Planting System with Hydraulic Downforce Technology for Seed Placement Uniformity, ” headed by Ajay Sharda, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering in the Carl R. Ice
College of Engineering, and co-investigator Ignacio Ciampitti, associate professor of agronomy.
According to Sharda and Ciampitti the project will focus on evaluation of a planting system control response to manage real-time seed spacing and depth uniformity during diverse field and operating conditions.
Graduate students involved in the project will work with new equipment provided by Deere & Company.
The annual collection of school supplies for needy children begins this Saturday, July 13th, and runs through Saturday, July 27th.
United Way Executive Director Nicole Mahder says they will be at Walmart on East Chestnut and Dillons on Sixth Street this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The public may drop off school supply donations at those locations to support needy children in Geary USD 475 and St. Xavier schools.
Mahder said a wide range of supplies can be donated. “Crayons, pencils, color pencils, markers, paper, notebooks, book bags, headphones, glue, chlorox wipes. You name it you can donate it because kids will use it.”
You can also drop off donations at the United Way office at 139 East 8th Street or at several businesses. They include Central National Bank, KS State Bank, Sunflower Bank, Landmark Bank , Karen-Jameson State Farm, Geary Community Hospital, Exchange Bank Walmart and Dillons during the week. There will also be collections.
The Live Well Geary County Coalition meets Wednesday at noon in the basement of the Junction City Municipal Building. The agenda includes numerous topics ranging from updates on the community garden and food policy council to summer picnic parties and the Geary County Health Council.
The coalition will also consider executive board nominations, a Pathways to Fitness event on September 21st and Back to School Fair by Konza Prairie Community Health Clinic on August 9th.
By Martin Hawver
Now, that’s not unexpected. Both cases have drawn considerable coverage in recent weeks, so the next obvious move was to put them up for review.
The topic specifically proposed for the 11-legislator summer study is pretty simple: “Review the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions on the citizens of Kansas.”
It’s, of course, not specific, but look for abortion and look for that damage cap to become high-profile issues for the upcoming election-year legislature, when members of the House and Senate all stand for reelection, and there isn’t a hotter issue among Republicans than abortion, and there isn’t a hotter issue for everyone else than insurance rates.
And the seldom-called topic of “impact of recent Supreme Court decisions” falls at a time when along with all House and Senate seats, only two Kansas Supreme Court justices will be on the ballot next November, when they stand for retention to another six-year term on the high court.
Those justices? Two former Democrat Gov. Kathleen Sebelius appointments to the court, Eric Rosen and Lee Johnson—both of whom were on the majorities in the abortion and noneconomic damage cases.
Now, the committee’s hearings may sprawl to other issues, but the keys are abortion and noneconomic damages.
The abortion decision? It essentially rejected a state law that prohibits the most commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation to the medical world, but as “dismemberment abortion” to antiabortion activists.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe, and Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, are hoping that the interim committee meetings and study will eventually lead to a Kansas constitutional amendment that will either prohibit abortion in Kansas or allow lawmakers to specify a range of limits that can be applied to the procedure.
That special committee can ponder just what’s possible in the way of restrictions and keep alive the politically hot issue for the upcoming elections.
The noneconomic damages issues, well, that stretches across a lot of political lines, mostly for businesses which buy liability insurance, and for nearly everyone else in Kansas who drives a car and must carry liability insurance for damages that can be caused in a vehicle accident.
It’s not the easily computable damages—repairing the car or the house that it might crash into which can be assessed by adding up receipts. It’s the effect that a wreck or mistake can have on the lives of those who are victims of a wreck.
Is the damage of a wreck adequately compensated when the car is fixed and the bruises and other injuries healed, or does it have a psychological effect that causes suffering every time a survivor hears tires squeal, or sees a car headed in his/her direction? The Legislature initially figured $250,000 would cover those noneconomic damages, raised it to the current $325,000 and headed to $350,000 by July 1, 2022.
It is that uncapped potential liability that has insurers worried. They can compute what a fixed cap on noneconomic damages will cost them—and their policyholders, plus enough profit to stay in business. But no cap? What should insurance rates be to cover those unlimited damage costs?
That’s the “impact of recent Supreme Court decisions” that will probably show up in the Legislature next session, while lawmakers search for the bullet points on their election brochures that they can aim at voters.
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com
By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
Geary County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Director Michelle Stimatze said it takes everyone in the community to make an event like Sundown Salute happen. “I believe there were probably about four to five thousand ( attendance ) per night.” Stimatze added that they filled the park, there were no problems and the later starting time each evening also helped.
The performance by the headliner group, Hairball, drew extremely positive reviews. Stimatze said, “For the last couple of years we’ve been eyeing that band. Some of us had gone to a concert and watched them. We thought this is something, great entertainment, a two-hour show and was really really wonderful.” Stimatze confirmed she would like to bring them back to Sundown Salute at some point in the future.
Stimatze noted that some on the Sundown Salute Committee have been talking about the possibility of a four-day celebration next year running Thursday through Sunday, with July 4th on Saturday. No final decisions have been made at this point.
Here are some of the photos from Sundown Salute. Sarina Irwin was a contributing photographer.
Area churches joined forces for a community service Sunday morning in Heritage Park. Pastors from multiple churches spoke on topics ranging from a celebration of what God has done for Jesus Christ to urging the adudience to lift up prayers for the Soldiers serving overseas and the struggles that their families go through.
Two pastors who grew up in Junction City and now minister at churches in other communities were welcomed back, Jeremy Leithoff and Travis Roberts.
Other speakers included Ronnie Roberts, B.J. Solander, Brad Siefert, Doug Brown Tom Swihart. Ty Zimmerman and the JC Naz Worship team alsoperformed.
The church service is an annual event at Sundown Salute. On Sunday evening Christian music performers Kaylee Keller and Josh Wilson will perform on the stage downtown adjacent to Heritage Park.
