The C. L. Hoover Opera House will be the site of a Trek to the Tower on Sunday, January 31 from 2-4 p.m.

In this activity the Opera House staff will provide a tour of the Opera House all the way to the top of the Clock Tower. Participants must be confident in their physical fitness, including the ability to climb vertical ladders, numerous stairs, and going through smaller openings. The new second floor Art Gallery will also be on display.

Reservations for the Tower Trek are free but are required, and are available for those 18 and older. Call ( 785 ) 238-3906 to reserve a time.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid ( FAFSA ) Form required by most colleges and technical schools annual program will be held at Junction City High School Monday evening. It will be in the school cafeteria from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

A financial aid expert from Cloud County Community College will be a guest presenter, and will be able to answer questions. The rules for FAFSA have changed this year.

The program is for high school juniors and seniors, parents and guardians.

According to the National Weather Service of Topeka, quiet and cloudy weather continues today as snow cover helps temps stay on the cooler side in the lower and middle 30s. Confidence in freezing drizzle for portions of the area is increasing after midnight Sunday, continuing intothe day on Monday. Areas north and west of Topeka and Emporia will see the best chance for light icing and slick roads to occur. After Monday, dry and much warmer temps are in store for the week!

Hazardous Weather Outlook

Today: Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the mid 30s. South winds 5 to 15 mph.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 20s. South winds 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday: Partly sunny. Highs in the lower 40s. South winds 5 to 10 mph with gusts to around 20 mph.

Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of light freezing drizzle after midnight. Lows in the upper 20s. Southeast winds up to 5 mph shifting to the west with gusts to around 20 mph after midnight.

Monday: Cloudy. Chance of light freezing drizzle in the morning…then chance of light freezing drizzle or snow in the afternoon. Highs in the mid 30s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts to around 30 mph. Chance of precipitation 50 percent.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy in the evening then becoming partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 20s.

Tuesday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 30s.

Tuesday Night: Mostly clear. Lows around 19.

Wednesday: Sunny. Highs in the lower 40s.

Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 20s.

Thursday: Sunny. Highs in the mid 40s.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 20s.

Friday: Sunny. Highs in the lower 50s.

RILEY COUNTY- A Fort Riley man was injured in an accident just after 2 a.m. on Saturday in Riley County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 GMC Sierra driven by Brandon Scott Tucker, Fort Riley, 28, was westbound on K18 three miles west of the Manhattan airport.

The vehicle left the roadway entered the median, struck a culvert and overturned.

Tucker was transported to Via Christi in Manhattan.
He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

The Annual Regional Leaders’ Retreat in Overland Park gives local leaders the opportunity to sit down and discuss issues facing everyone in the region. Day one of this year’s retreat focused on workforce development and an update on Fort Riley from Fort Riley’s leadership team.

On workforce development the discussion focussed on the human resources side of things and what local businesses look for when it comes to recruiting employees. In order to have continued economic growth and attract more businesses and industries to the region, the region must first be able to provide a strong workforce. Developing the workforce can’t be left up to only the schools in the region, and the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce Economic Development division is teaming up with the schools in Geary County, as well as, Fort Riley to provide another tool to for students and employers in Junction City and Geary County.

“The Chamber is working with partners in the community to become an ACT Work Ready Certified Community,” said Susan Jagerson, Economic Development Specialist with the JCACC. “ACT Work Certified is a way that we can designate that we understand our workforce by being able to issue certificates for doing assessments on learning and skill levels.”

Essentially by becoming a work ready certified community students in the community can take the assessments and receive a certificate that shows what skills they have.

“This is just something that a worker can use as a credential to be able to show an employer what level they’re at in looking for a job. So an employer can use it either as placement for somebody or it can also be used for current workers as retention to make sure they’ve got a person in the job that they’re going to be satisfied with.”

Representatives of the chamber and school district are still working to become a certified community, they are wrapping up their first of two years of training.

On the Fort Riley update Maj. Gen. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., Commanding General of Fort Riley went over his Camplan 2020, and Col. Andrew Cole, Fort Riley Garrison Commander gave an update Fort Riley’s infrastructure and projects currently underway on post. A key topic had to do with housing on Fort Riley.

Mick McCallister, Junction City Mayor has made it a priority in 2016 to work with Fort Riley to get its housing back to levels that were promised in 2006 and 2010. In 2010 the goal for Fort Riley was to only have 3,827 houses on post, as of right now the inventory of housing is sitting around 4,300.

Fort Riley officials have gone back and looked at those numbers and the plans made back in 2010 and a plan is in the works to begin reducing that number.

Col. Cole told the Leaders’ Retreat that they have reinstituted a demolition plan,”In which we will see about 160 plus units coming down in our Warner/Peterson area on the installation. Here in probably the next three to four months we’re going to start that process.”

A long-range plan is in the works to continue reducing the amount of housing on a type of glide path deemed suitable.

McCallister explained what getting back to the 3,827 inventory level will mean for the region.

“As we get closer to that number, the 3,827, that means there’s 600 more families that will live off the installation, which is in our communities. Whether it’s Manhattan, Junction City, Chapman, Abilene, it doesn’t matter. It puts those families back in our community, and that’s where we get our tax dollars, that’s where we need for them to be.”

The retreat continues Saturday morning with sessions focused on workforce solutions and an update on the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility currently under construction in Manhattan.

By MARY K. PYLE

Kansas State University’s Office of International Programs, with cooperation from Career and Employment Services and the College of Agriculture and K-State Research and Extension, announces the hiring of Becky Carnes as the new campus representative for the Peace Corps.

“I am excited and looking forward to connecting with professors, campus groups, community organizations or individuals who would like more education, information and opportunities on Peace Corps service,” Carnes said. “This is a unique partnership with Career and Employment Services, the College of Agriculture and the Office of International Programs to have three campus organizations collaborate in hosting and presenting the Peace Corps office on a university campus.”

After potential students or others who are interested in applying to the Peace Corps are identified, Carnes will answer their questions and assist them with the application process.

Carnes served the Peace Corps as an HIV/AIDS volunteer in Botswana, Africa, from 2013 to 2015. She assisted the Ministry of Health in developing a Monitoring and Evaluation strategy to respond to the growing crisis with evidence-based programming. Carnes worked in grant writing, IT training for health care professionals and youth development to address gender-based violence — the leading driver of HIV in Botswana.

Grant Chapman, assistant provost for International Administration in the Office of International Programs, along with Steven Graham, a former Peace Corps volunteer and assistant to the dean of agriculture and director of K-State Research and Extension, and Kerri Day Keller, director, Career and Employment Services, were successful in responding to a request for quote announcement last winter to fund a part-time campus Peace Corps representative.

Keller indicated that over the three years that the university previously had a campus recruiter, 2005-2008, there were 21 new K-State graduates who joined the Peace Corps.

“As many countries in the world face the effects of population growth and climate change on their agriculture and environment, Peace Corps is called upon to provide volunteers to address those challenges,” Graham said. “People with this special knowledge are fairly hard to find. That is why Peace Corps wanted a representative at the nation’s first land-grant university.”

As the preeminent international service organization of the U.S., the Peace Corps sends Americans abroad to tackle the most pressing needs of people around the world. Peace Corps volunteers work at the grassroots level toward sustainable change that lives on long after their service — at the same time becoming global citizens and serving their country. When they return home, volunteers bring their knowledge and experiences — and a global outlook — that enriches the lives of those around them.

Carnes grew up in Manhattan, and has Bachelor of Arts degrees in African studies and anthropology from the University of Kansas and a Master of Arts in sociology from K-State.

Carnes can be contacted at bcarnes@k-state.edu; 785-532-7068, office phone; or 785-226-5149, cellphone. Her office is in 103-A Waters Hall.

WYANDOTTE COUNTY – A Junction City man was involved in an accident just before 2p.m. on Friday in Wyandotte County.

The Kansas Turpike Authoritiy reported a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Kenneth Randall Long, 59, Junction City, was westbound on Interstate 70 at Bonner Springs.

The driver lost control of the vehicle. It traveled into the ditch, crossed back across two lanes of traffic, collided with the center barrier, rolled back across both lanes of traffic and hit the guardrail.

Long, who was not wearing a seat belt, was not transported for treatment, according the KTA.

The Geary County Sheriff’s Department said Deputies responded Thursday morning to K-177 Highway and mile marker 93 for a single vehicle accident.

Dagoberto Lugo, manhattan, was southbound on K-177 when he lost control of his 1998 Ford Expedition, causing it to overturn. Lugo suffered minor injuries.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A report for the Kansas Board of Regents says a total of 815 students who don’t meet minimum admission requirements are enrolled in the state’s universities.

The report says the exceptions to the standards made up between a fraction of 1 percent up to 7 percent of each university’s 2014-2015 in-state freshman class. The exceptions comprised between 1 percent and 10 percent of universities’ out-of-state freshmen admissions.

The annual report on admissions is forwarded to the Kansas Legislature. The Lawrence Journal-World reports  Wichita State had the lowest percentage of exceptions, with two-tenths of a percent of in-state freshmen and 1 percent of out-of-state freshman.

Fort Hays State University had the highest rate, with 6.9 percent of in-state freshmen and 9.7 percent of out-of-state freshmen.