Approximately 160 people, including 88 expectant mothers attended the third Luke’s Community Baby Shower at the Shenk Gym at Junction City High School on Saturday.

The event was sponsored by Delivering Change: Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies, in partnership with the Kansas Infant Death and SIDS Network.

The Director of Marketing for the Geary County Perinatal Coalition, Ashley King said those in attendance were taught the ABC’s of Safe Sleep alone on their back and in a crib. That was the focus of the shower, to promote safe sleep.

Numerous community resources were on display to those in attendance through a variety of booths. This was the first baby shower held at the Shenk Gym. The next one in November will be at the same location.

Two people were taken to Geary Community Hospital in Junction City following a two-vehicle accident Saturday night on Interstate 70.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol a Ford Focus driven by Sharaya L. Bearman, Topeka, was westbound on I-70 at mile marker 302, one mile west of the K-18 exit. A Kia Optima driven by Taniesha L. Ray, Junction City, was in front of the car driven by Bearman. Bearman failed to slow down for emergency vehicles and her vehicle struck Ray’s car in the rear bumper.

KHP reported that both Bearman and Ray were injured and taken to Geary Community Hospital.

MANHATTAN — The Kansas State University Police Department is currently investigating the death of a K-State student. On Saturday, April 2, at approximately 11:09 a.m., the Kansas State University Police Department was notified of a possible deceased person in a parking lot on the Manhattan campus. Upon arrival, officers found a male student deceased in a vehicle of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The investigation is ongoing and the name of the student is not being released pending notification of family.

JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Local property taxes could rise across Kansas under an education funding bill approved by legislators.

Critics also contend the distribution of state dollars would become less fair to poor school districts.

Republican supermajorities in both the House and Senate passed the plan last month to comply with a state Supreme Court order in February to improve funding for poor schools.

They hoped to head off the court’s threat to shut down schools statewide if lawmakers didn’t fix education funding problems by June 30.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has until Friday to act on the bill.

The bill redistributes $83 million of the aid already promised to 286 local districts for 2016-17. It also allows local districts to increase their local property taxes further to supplement state funds for general operations.

It’s a cool start this morning with temperatures near or below freezing, but according to the National Weather Service of Topeka, a beautiful spring weekend is in store for the region! Expect abundant sunshine this weekend with moderating temperatures. Highs today will get into the 60s with temperatures soaring into the mid/upper 70s on Sunday. The combination of warm, dry, and windy conditions on Sunday will result in elevated fire danger concerns, so avoid burning on Sunday!

Today: Patchy frost before 9am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 65. West wind 10 to 15 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.

Tonight: Clear, with a low around 41. North wind around 5 mph becoming south in the evening.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 79. Breezy, with a southwest wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.

Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 48. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest after midnight.

Monday: Sunny, with a high near 69. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 45.

Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75.

Tuesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 49.

Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 67.

Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 41.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 65.

Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 41.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 70.

The annual drug testing update for Junction City High School is one agenda item for the Geary USD 475 Board of Education on Monday.

The Board will be in session at 5 p.m. Monday at the Devin Center.

According to the JCHS Principal Melissa Sharp at this time the vendor has conducted 112 tests, with 104 returning negative and eight positive for a 92.8% negative rating.  JCHS has had 11 referrals for this behavior code with one of those being coded as alcohol possession.

It was noted that some of the negative tests are from students who initially tested positive as well. After testing positive they came back at a later date to reestablish their “in good standing” and had no drugs in their system.

Also reported was that the administrative team at JCHS believes they are making a strong statement to the learning community that they will maintain a drug-free school, and they fully support the initiative to continue the testing based on the availability based on the district’s partnership with the City.

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Another issue to be discussed at the BOE meeting will involve elementary school playground considerations. An assessment has revealed that a number of elementary schools have significant structural challenges with swing sets and and inadequate playground surfaces that need to be addressed in the short term. Staff is recommending that swing sets at seven schools be replaced and associated be updated at seven schools this summer. The cost estimate is $100,000. Money is available in the capital outlay fund.

For the second straight month temperatures were well above normal and precipitation was well below normal. The warmer and drier than normal events, coupled with windy conditions have created a very high fire risk across much of the state which will only become potentially more concerning as we move on through April and early May.

The average daily high during March was 62.2, which was 6.5 degrees above
normal. The average daily low was 39.7 which was 7.8 degrees above
normal. This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 51 degrees, 7.2
degrees above normal. This made March 2016 the third warmest March on
record. The warmest March on record was in 2012 when we had a monthly
mean temperature of 57.5. The second warmest March was 2007 with a
monthly mean temperature of 52.1 degrees. The coldest March on record
was during the very snowy winter of 1960. The monthly mean temperature
that March was a chilly 31.3 degrees. The highest temperature during the
month was 79 degrees on the 30th. The lowest temperature in March was 26
on the the morning of the 24th. There were several temperature records set
during March. The high of 75 on the 7th broke the old record for that date of
73. The old record was set in 1992 and tied in 2000. Three overnight low
temperature readings set new records for high low temperatures. 52 on the
5th broke the old record of 49 set in 1956; 61 on the 6th broke the old record
of 58 in 2006 and the low of 59 on the 22nd broke the old record of 59 set in
1994. Based on past years of record warm February readings, an unusually
warm March was expected. However, in past years like this, April often
returned to normal with no direct correlation to average, above or below
normal temperatures the rest of the spring and summer.

With warmer weather March usually brings us more precipitation as we move
out of the dry winter months, and head towards our wet season in late spring
and summer. Such was not the case this year however. Long term average
March precipitation is 2.34 inches including 3.1 inches of snow. We managed
one measurable snowfall event of less than an inch, 0.8 inches, bringing our
season to date snowfall total to 7.4 inches, less than half of our normal. Total
liquid precipitation for the month was 0.57 inches at Milford Lake and 0.60
inches in Junction City. Year to date precipitation at Milford Lake is 1.73
inches and in Junction City 1.80 inches. Normal through the end of March is
4.11 inches meaning that for the first three months of the year we are at
about 43% of normal. The driest March on record was in 1966 and 1968
when no measurable precipitation fell. The wettest March was in 1974 when
8.04 inches of precipitation deluged the region. While additional snowfall can
not be ruled out in April, it is unlikely that we will see additional significant
precipitation meaning we will have ended our second winter in a row with
less than half of normal snowfall.

April normally brings us an increase in rainfall as we experience those April
showers. Average April rainfall is 2.95 inches. Given the past two months
weather patterns it is hard to know what temperatures will do in April but we
would expect that daily highs would increase from 62 on April Fool´s Day to
72 by the month´s end. Night time lows range from 37 on the first to 48 on
the 30th.  If the trend continues we might even start flirting with record daily
highs which would often mean temperatures in the high 80s or low 90s, but
hopefully we won´t be seeing that just yet!

Chuck Otte
County Extension Agent, Ag & Natural Resources
Geary County Extension Office, PO BOX 28