The Scott County Record

Lake Scott has a record-setting start to the summer season Page 27

34 Pages • Four Sections

Volume 21 • Number 42

Commission fails to reach settlement offer with county appraiser Unable to negotiate a settlement with County Appraisers John and Lisa Reeder, county commissioners decided on Tuesday to terminate their contract with the couple.

The commission’s decision was in response to John Reeder entering a guilty plea on April 8 to drug charges in Trego County.

The commission offered to compensate the Reeders for eight months - or $33,000 - of their remaining contract which extends through mid-June of 2017.

“We can’t accept that with three years remaining on the contract,” said Lisa Reeder.

The Reeders turned down that offer, but said they would accept compensation for half of the remaining contract or 18-1/2 months - equal to $76,312.50.

“That will stop this all together,” said John Reeder, indicating there would be no legal challenge to the county’s decision.

Commissioners rejected the counterproposal, opting to terminate the appraisal contract with the Reeders.

The county’s decision regarding the Reeders has no impact on the two employees currently working in the Scott County appraisal office.

“They are our employees,” said Commission Chairman Jim Minnix.

He said the commission has been in contact with another appraiser who can begin working in the office immediately.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Published in Scott City, Ks.

$1 single copy

slip-sliding summer

Another appraiser is interested in signing a long-term contract with the county.

By state statute, appraisers are under contract to a county for four years. The Reeders had been employed by the county since 2005.

Commissioner Gary Skibbe said he would prefer hiring someone to fulfill the three years remaining on the contract with the Reeders.

Tuesday’s action does not mean the Reeders are entirely out of the picture. Trego County took similar action in April and that’s being challenged by the Reeders in court.

Temporary County Attorney Laura Lewis said she wouldn’t be surprised to see similar legal action filed against Scott County commissioners.

Reeder Pleads Guilty Reeder, 52, was sentenced to 22 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections for marijuana distribution and 15 months for possession of methamphetamines.

At the time, the judge suspended the sentence and placed Reeder on 36 months of probation to be supervised by the KDOC. The Reeders had been appraisers in Trego, Ness, Lane and Scott counties. Their contract in Ness County was not renewed prior to the arrest.

In February, Trego County commissioners voted to terminate its contract with Western (See APPRAISER on page two)

Seven-year-old Libbie Beaton, Scott City, emerges from one of the four tunnel slides which are a new attraction this summer at the Scott City swimming pool. The slides saw use for the first time when the pool opened on Monday.

(Record Photo)

Council reviews policy Plans getting underway for June Jaunt for employee sick leave When should sick leave be considered as vacation time? Or does it even matter?

Those questions were debated by the Scott City Council in determining whether or not changes regarding sick leave policy need to be made to the employee policy manual.

Currently, city employees earn two weeks of annual vacation time in each of their first 10 years of employment, which increases to three weeks after 10 years. They are allowed one sick leave day per month, up to 12 for the year.

“We don’t want to hinder sick leave for people who truly need it, but we don’t want it abused either,” said City Clerk Brenda Davis.

(See COUNCIL on page two)

Music, barbeque, history and bargain hunting will all be part of the annual June Jaunt weekend that begins Fri., June 6.

The annual three-day event will include a full slate of activities in Scott City, along with seven other communities along K96 Highway from June 6-8.

Recording artist Carter Sampson will be the featured entertainment in Scott City’s Patton Park on June 6 starting at 7:00 p.m.

Her performance is sponsored by the Scott County Arts Council.

The SCAC is also hosting from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. a barbeque dinner in the park There will be another fundstarting at 6:30 p.m. Cost of the raising meal in Patton Park meal is $10 per plate. to benefit Relay for Life on Saturday starting at 6:30 p.m.

City-Wide Garage Sale If you’re looking for a chance Museum Programs to do some final spring cleanThe El Quartelejo Museum ing - or searching for bargains and Jerry Thomas Gallery will - there will be garage sales give a program, “Famous Folks throughout Scott City on Sat., of Scott County” on June 7-8, June 7. at 2:00 p.m.

A list of participants will be The popular history tour of available at the Chamber office. Battle Canyon and the Duff bufShoppers can also find sav- falo ranch will be held on Sun., ings during the sidewalk sale June 8, starting at 1:00 p.m.

(See JAUNT on page two) sponsored by local merchants

LEMA vote begins June 9 in GWMD No. 1

After about 18 months of gathering input from across Groundwater Management District No. 1, a plan to reduce water usage by 20 percent will be going to a vote the week of June 9-13.

Voting is limited to those individuals who own water rights or are a designated “water rights correspondent” with the Kansas Division of Water Resources

(KDWR). Voting sites will be set up in each of the five counties within the GWMD. Voting will begin in Lane County on June 9 and conclude in Greeley County on June 13, with polls open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The election marks the culmination of numerous meetings in which GWMD board members and officials listened

406 Main, St. Scott City • 620-872-2090 www.scottcountyrecord.com

Thomas retires after 24 years in Scott County schools Page 11

to producers and water rights holders and then formulated a plan that would address water conservation for irrigators, feedlot operations and municipalities. The plan also includes enforcement of the reduction goals and penalties for violators.

During the upcoming week, those individuals who intend to vote in the election need to

make sure they are eligible and their name is on file with the KDWR in Topeka. To assist with that process, individuals can fill out a pre-voter form available at the GWMD office in Scott City.

“We can do the research and make sure a person is properly listed as the water rights owner or correspondent,” says GWMD Director Jan King.

406 Main, St. Scott City • 620-872-2090 (See WATER on page 10) www.scottcountyrecord.com Opinion • Pages 4-6 Calendar • Page 7 Lawn/Garden • Page 8 Youth/Education • Pages 11, 18 LEC report • Page 12 Health • Pages 14-15

Deaths • Page 16 Church services • Page 17 Sports • Pages 19-26 Farm section • Pages 28-29 Classified ads • Pages 31-33

She advises area landowners that when ownership of land is filed with their local register of deeds “that doesn’t mean the deed was filed with the Division of Water Resources.”

The GWMD will use the KDWR listing to determine the official list of eligible voters.

“IF someone wants to check it out we can let them know (See LEMA on page two)

Tremendous comeback keeps SC girl’s 4x400m relay hopes alive Page 19

The Scott County Record • Page 2 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

LEMA who the state shows as the current owner of record,” explains King. “They may find, for example, that their grandfather is still listed as the owner of record and it hasn’t been changed.”

King says that it will assist her office if landowners will fill out the pre-voter form in advance.

“If they show up to vote and there are problems with who is listed as the water rights owner, we’ll work with them and try to get it resolved,” King says. “But if we have to go through the DWR in Topeka that’s going to take time and it could affect their ability to vote.”

Regardless of how many water rights an individual has, they are entitled to just one vote.

Likewise, if they have water rights in different counties within the GWMD, they still get only one vote.

“This was the general consensus from meetings we held across the district,” says King.

Monitor Violations Landowners will be allotted water over the entire six-year period including the 20 percent reduction.

(continued from page one)

After the initial year of the LEMA, the amount of authorized water that wasn’t used will be added back into remaining allocation over the next five years. In this manner, landowners can use their six-year allocation of water as they choose over the course of the LEMA. “However, if you choose to exceed your authorized annual quantity, you must enter into a LEMA term permit,” says King.

This must be approved by the GWMD board of directors before being submitted to the KDWR. There is also a filing fee.

Consolidated well units will be deemed as one well for the purpose of assessing penalties for violations, according to the LEMA policy. The KDWR will be responsible for monitoring water usage and assessing penalties. Violations include: •Exceeding the total LEMA allocated quantity within the six-year allocation period shall result in a $1,000 fine for each day each well is pumping in excess of the allocation.

The combined pumping rate of all wells in a consolidated well unit (CWU) will be used to

Council She said sick leave days are being used in situations that aren’t directly related to the employee’s health, such as taking family members to the dentist. She wanted direction from the council as to what falls under the definition of sick leave.

“You hate to change the guidelines for everyone when only one or two abuse the system,” noted Police Chief Chris Jurgens.

Appraiser

(continued from page one)

LEMA Voting Schedule Dighton

4-H Bldg.

Tues., June 10

Leoti

Community Bldg.

Wed., June 11

Sharon Springs Sunflower B&B

Thurs., June 12

Scott City

Wm. Carpenter Bldg.

Fri., June 13

Tribune

4-H Bldg.

Voting in each county from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

calculate the number of days in which they were pumping in excess.

•In addition to monetary finds, anyone exceeding the allocated quantity by more than four feet, up to eight feet, shall result in a one year suspension of water rights beginning with the final year of the six-year LEMA. •Exceeding the authorized quantity by more than eight feet will result in a two-year suspension of water rights.

Fines will be collected by the KDWR. Most Seem Supportive From the outset, it appeared that the GWMD board and a huge majority of landowners were focused on a 20 percent reduction - following the conservation plan that had been established by the Sheridan 6, which is the first LEMA established in Kansas.

A warning which has been echoed at various

meetings by GWMD and state water officials is that if local irrigators don’t take effective measures to reduce water consumption then the state will step in and impose its own guidelines.

“I don’t know that the state wants to step in.

They would prefer that the guidelines be established at the local level,” says King. “I think most people within the district agree. If this isn’t the plan they want then I guess we’ll start again and try to determine exactly what they do want.”

In addition to polling sites in each county, eligible voters can cast ballots at the GWMD office in Scott City from May 27-30 during regular business hours.

Votes will be tabulated by the county clerk in each county and results will be presented to the GWMD board at its regular meeting on Tues., June 17, at 9:00 a.m.

(continued from page one)

Council members noted that if an employee is taking advantage of the sick leave policy that can be reflected during the annual job performance review which determines how much of a pay raise, if any, an employee has earned. Jurgens pointed out that the policy manual specifically prohibits the evaluation process being used as a “punishment tool.” In other words, whether an employee uses their sick leave - and how

Jaunt

Mon., June 9

much they use - can’t be a factor in their job evaluation.

“You’re saying that somebody can abuse the sick leave system and still be getting an incentive pay increase,” said Councilman Everett Green in disbelief.

“We’re not saying it’s being abused,” said Davis.

“It’s being used.”

“Why are we debating sick leave?” wondered Mayor Dan Goodman.

Appraisal and Mapping, consequently terminating Reeder as the county appraiser. That decision is being challenged by the Reeders in court.

In April, John Reeder submitted his resignation as the Lane County appraiser, but the county commissioners appointed Lisa Reeder as the new appraiser.

Scott County commissioners say they have been hearing from people in the community who refuse to have Reeder enter their home on appraisal matters and had asked them to relieve Reeder of his duties.

“I’ve heard from several people who don’t want him to continue as our appraiser,” said Commissioner Jerry Buxton during a recent meeting.

Commissioner Gary Skibbe said he has been hearing similar comments.

Western Appraisal and Mapping, which is the company owned by the Reeders, is under contract with the county through June 30, 2017.

If the contract with the Reeders is terminated, Commission Chairman Jim Minnix says they do have other options.

“We have one individual who’s interested in being our appraiser and another who could begin immediately,” he says.

“We can’t be judge and jury.”

Davis said there are some “tough questions” regarding how the policy is meant to be applied and she was looking for guidance from the council.

“We need to define what qualifies as sick leave and if it’s being abused then we’ll deal with it,” said Goodman.

City Attorney John Shirley said he will come up with policy options for the council to consider.

(continued from page one)

Other Communities Leoti will also have a city-wide garage sale on Friday and Saturday.

There will be tours of the Washington Ames House (110 N. 3rd) from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sat., June 7. The home was recently nominated for the

National Register of Historic Places by the Kansas State Historical Society.

Dighton will have garage sales throughout the community on June 7.

Tribune will have community-wide garage sales on Friday and Saturday, along with a car show on Saturday.

Summer reading kickoff at the Scott County Library Tues., June 3, 7:00 p.m.

What’s for Lunch in Scott City?

Sun. - Sat., June 1-7

Majestic Theatre 420 Main • 872-3840

Hours

Lunch • Tues., Wed., Thurs., Fri. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Evenings • Thurs., Fri., Sat. 5:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m.

Tues. • Open faced prime rib sandwich with french fries.

Wed. •BBQ sandwich with potato salad.

Thurs. • Spaghetti dinner with salad.

Fri. • Chicken enchilada dinner.

What’s for Supper?

The Broiler

102 Main St. • 872-5055

1211 Main • 872-3215

5Buck Lunch 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

• Chili Cheese Dog • 1/4 lb Cheeseburger • 3 Piece Chicken Strips

Includes Fries, 21 oz. Drink and Small Sundae

1304 S. Main • 872-5301

6

$

Mon. • Sat. 5:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Sun. • 5:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Mon. • Chicken fry

49

Buffet

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Tues. • Hamburger steak with mushrooms and onions Wed. • Fried chicken Thurs. • Mountain oysters Fri. • Seafood specials Sat. • Prime rib

Breakfast specials every night.

The Scott County Record

Community Living

Page 3 - Thursday, May 29, 2014

There are many ways to enjoy cherry harvest From June to July, sweet and sour cherries will be ready for picking and to enjoy in a variety of ways. But you have to pick cherries quickly as birds can devour a cherry crop before you know it!

Bing cherries were named after a Chinese man who worked in an Oregon cherry orchard in the late 1800s. The worker discovered a particular tree with the beautiful cherries. Most are grown in the Pacific Northwest.

Cherries don’t ripen further once they’re picked. They are very delicate fruit and need to be treated with care.

Select firm, red cherries with bright green stems. Avoid any cherry that is soft, shriveled or blemished. The darker the cherry, the riper they will be.

Choose cherries with stems still attached; this helps them maintain their freshness. Look at the stems of the cherries: those with plump, bendable stems have been

picked recently. If the cherry stems are shriveled and brittle, the cherries are older and will be past their prime before long.

Store cherries in a plastic bag with holes in it and keep separate from strong smelling foods. You can store sweet cherries unwashed in the refrigerator up to 10 days while sour cherries, unwashed in the refrigerator, are best used in 2-3 days. Plan on buying only what you can quickly eat.

slight discoloration and brown spotting. This indicates they are higher in sugar content. Avoid decaying fruit.

They are sweeter than bing cherries and have a slightly shorter season.

Lamberts are heartshaped beauties with dark red flesh and skin. Their sweet, rich flavor and juicy, meaty flesh make them a favorite for eating fresh as well as for cooking.

Sour cherries are a favorite in pies, preserves, syrups, sauces and pair Types of Cherries Rainier cherries are well with meats. Dried red with a creamy white cherries make tasty snacks coloring. They may have and add color to salads,

Brown bag fundaiser Sun.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Buehler, Scott City, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on Sat., May 31, with a come-andgo reception hosted by their children and families.

The reception will be held Saturday, from 2:004:00 p.m., at the Masonic Lodge, 600 Cedar Drive, Scott City.

The couple requests no gifts.

Cards may be mailed to: 901 West 6th, Scott City, Ks. 67871.

Friday is tag deadline

Persons whose last name begins with the letters E, F or G are reminded that license tags must be purchased by Fri., May 30, to avoid a penalty.

Tags are due for autos, light trucks, motorcycles and motorized bikes.

Tags must be renewed during June for persons whose last name begins with H or I.

recipe accordingly.

There are several easy ways to get your cherry fix. Make some trail mix with dried cherries, almonds, whole grain cereal and if you need the chocolate, toss some mini chocolate chips in with the rest of the ingredients.

Toss some dried cherries on your cold or hot cereal. Add them to salads to give color and tastes.

Switch out the blueberries in your favorite recipes for cherries. Fresh, canned or dried all work well.

You can also add them to your best cookies recipe instead of other fruits or chips.

Births

The Scott City Middle School cheerleaders will be sponsoring a brown bag fundraiser on Sun., June 1, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., in the Scott Community High School parking lot.

For a free-will donation, persons can get a bag lunch containing a hamburger, chips, cookie and drink.

Proceeds will be used to cover the cost of cheerleading camp.

Buehler anniversary reception Sat.

stews and rice dishes.

Sour cherries (Prunus cerasus, named for the Turkish city of Cerasus) are rarely available fresh; most are immediately processed. Sour cherries are smaller and rounder than sweet ones and do not keep well once they’ve been picked.

When sour cherries are at their peak, most of them are picked and pitted, then immediately frozen, canned, or dried. When buying frozen or canned sour cherries, check the label to see if they have already been sweetened so that you can adjust the amount of sugar in your

A young Mae Hillery

Reception to honor Hillery on 90th birthday

A come-and-go reception will honor Mae Hillery, Scott City, who is celebrating her 90th birthday.

The reception will be held on Sat., May 31, 2:00-4:00 p.m., in the parlor of the First United Mr. and Mrs. Don Zook Methodist Church, Scott Zooks to observe 60th anniversary City.

Cards are welcome, but Mr. and Mrs. Don Zook Angeles, Calif., and Dana she requests no gifts. will celebrate their 60th Bob, Middle East. wedding anniversary on June 14.

Don Zook and Natalie Zink were married June 5, 1954, at the United Methodist Church, Scott City.

The couple has two children: Tamara, Los

The couple will be honored with a come-and-go recepion on Sat., June 14, 2:00-4:00 p.m., at the Larksfield Place Retirement Community Auditorium, 7373 E. 29th St., Wichita, Ks. 67226.

PARENTS OF DAUGHTER Rylan and Stephanie Woolfolk, Protection, announce the birth of their daughter, Addalyn Ann, on Dec. 27, 2013, 4:52 p.m., at St. Catherine’s Medical Center, Garden City.

Addalyn weighed 7 lbs., 1.5 oz. and was 20 inches long.

She was welcomed home by her three-year-old sister, Emerie.

Grandparents are Steve and Flossie Kough, Scott City, and Kent and Stephanie Woolfolk, Protection.

Maternal great-grandparents are Conrad and Betty Kough, Scott City, and the late Joe and Florence Zellner. Paternal great-grandparents are Wayne and Marlene Woolfolk and Gary and Charlotte Filson, all of Protection.

The Scott County Record

Editorial/Opinion

Page 4 - Thursday, May 29, 2014

editorially speaking

LEMA:

GWMD’s plan is a small, but long overdue, step

In just over a week, those individuals who own water rights within Groundwater Management District No. 1 will be voting on a plan to reduce usage by 20 percent annually.

It’s hard to imagine that this proposal won’t pass.

The steady depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer is undeniable and there’s no doubt that we - meaning all of us who live above this resource - are responsible. We can blame state policies that allowed for the overappropriation of water wells, we can blame farming practices that have allowed the production of water-intensive crops, we can also blame a mindset that, for too long, believed this was a never-ending resource which was ours for the taking.

There are plenty of reasons why we find ourselves in this situation.

It can also be argued that a 20 percent reduction in usage will only delay the inevitable - that depletion of the Ogallala will continue, that we’re only affecting the time frame in which it occurs.

That may be true, but that’s not an excuse to do nothing. The formation of a LEMA in Sheridan County and, if it happens, in GWMD No. 1, isn’t a solution but a start.

Hopefully, GWMD No. 3 in southwest Kansas will soon follow our lead.

Maybe a 20 percent reduction in water usage will buy us a little more time as we look at cropping options, develop more drought resistant varieties and learn ways in which we can be more careful with our water consumption.

We can’t look at the formation of a LEMA as the final solution. It’s just a beginning to what will be a never-ending and, hopefully, evolving plan to protect and extend the life of the Ogallala for future generations.

For most of the past five decades we haven’t done a very good job of that. It’s well past time that we started.

A better VA:

Some would rather play politics than find solutions

Ongoing problems within the Veterans Administration have certainly grabbed the attention of politicians in Washington, D.C. No one wants to be seen as not supportive of our troops - and rightfully so, provided that sentiment is sincere.

The growing chorus asking for the resignation of Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki ignores the fact this isn’t just the failure of one man.

It’s a failure for which we can all share responsibility.

We can’t start two wars and not be prepared for costs on the back end when our military men and women return home and are in need of medical care and mental health services.

As Sen. Bernie Sanders remarked this week: “If you are not prepared to take care of the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend this country, who came back wounded in body, wounded in spirit, if you’re not prepared to help those people then don’t send them to war in the first place.”

But wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have only magnified a problem which exists on two fronts: •The VA is facing a deluge of aging Vietnam War veterans.

•Just as we’ve seen elsewhere in the medical community, the VA is suffering from a shortage of primary care physicians These are legitimate problems we must be focused on addressing. Instead, there are too many individuals who are looking for political gain rather than solutions.

After Senate Republicans filibustered a bill to expand veterans’ benefits in February, Sen. Sanders accused the GOP of failing to “understand the real cost of war and what it means to the people who fight in these wars.”

In the eyes of Republicans, the problems within the Veterans Administration represent another Benghazi, or IRS scandal or Obamacare . . . something to be capitalized upon for political gain and to exploit between now and the fall election and, if all goes well, until 2016.

If the GOP is really interested in solving this dilemma then ask them what their solution is. Then wait for the silence.

We have legitimate problems within the VA. There’s no doubt that our veterans deserve better than they are receiving. While firing Shinseki might play well on the campaign trail and on the floor of Congress it isn’t a solution. It’s not even a quick fix.

That’s fine with Republican lawmakers. They aren’t interested in either.

Hypocrisy in just 140 characters

You’re dining in a local restaurant some evening when a couple of people enter and start reading the Bill of Rights. Perhaps they read from the Book of Genesis. Maybe they even read the Gettysburg Address.

Annoying? Maybe. Offensive? For most people, probably not.

Free speech, right?

First Amendment and all of that.

Okay, a skinhead walks into that same restaurant with a swastika tattooed on the back of his head.

Or perhaps an individual enters the restaurant waving a Confederate flag.

Maybe a couple of individuals start reading from the Koran.

Do the rules of free speech change?

Does a business owner have the right to declare whether something is offensive to his customers?

Does he have a right to remove those things - or individuals - whom his customers find offensive or, perhaps, who his customers feel are a threat?

Congressman Tim Huelskamp has some

simple advice for those customers: Deal with it.

According to the Kansas Congressman, there are apparently no limitations when it comes to the First or Second Amendments.

That became evident when some members of the Dallas County chapter of the gun rights activist group Open Carry Texas brought their militarystyle assault rifles into a Chipotle restaurant. After all, you can’t beat the taste of a burrito and a beer while an AK-47 is slung over your shoulder.

Chapter members proudly told reporters that, in addition to AK47s, they also had AR15s. Openly carrying rifles (but not handguns) is legal in Texas. Of course, the rifles were loaded.

“There’s no reason to carry an unloaded weapon. It wouldn’t do any good,” one member told a reporter who obviously

couldn’t see the danger that lurked behind the counter for anyone unfortunate enough to ask for extra guacamole on their salad.

Chipotle’s management, in a blatant attempt to deny customers the right to eat a burrito with one hand while exercising their Second Amendment right to take aim with an AR-15 in the other hand, did the un-American thing by asking its customers not to bring any more weapons into their restaurants. That effort was supported by the totalitarian group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America which has denounced similar events that took place in Starbucks and Jack in the Box. Really, a latte without your finger on the trigger of an assault rifle? What next? Are they going to tell us we can’t take a gun to our son’s basketball game?

Not in Kansas where we know what the Second Amendment is all about.

Thankfully, we have Congressman Huelskamp who is more than eager to

stand up for our constitutional rights. Huelskamp, who is famous for tweeting long before his brain is fully engaged, was quick to respond to Chipotle’s request of its customers.

“You serve food with integrity? How about serving people with integrity? 2nd Amendment.”

That was followed by another thought-inspiring tweet.

“Now that you’ve shown your disdain for the 2nd Amendment . . . when R U taking away the 1st?”

That’s our Congressman of few words. If it can’t be said in 140 characters or less it isn’t worth sending.

Well, not exactly.

While the Congressman was criticizing a private business for its views on guns in its restaurant, he had a slightly different view when petitions were being circulated on the KU campus urging the university to boot Chick-Fil-A off its campus because of company president Dan Cathy’s opposition to gay marriage.

(See HYPOCRISY on page six)

What is the new populism?

What is the new populism? The Princeton dictionary defines populism as “a political doctrine that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite.”

Not bad for a dictionary.

The New Populism arises from the stark truth about today’s America: Too few people control too much money and power, and they’re using that control to rig the rules to protect and extend their privileges.

This economy does not work for working people.

This isn’t an accident. It isn’t an act of God. It isn’t due to forces of technology and globalization that can’t be changed. It isn’t a mistake. It is a power grab.

Decades of deregulation and top-end tax cuts, of soaring CEO pay and

Where to Write

another view by Robert Borosage

assaults on unions, of conservative myths and market fundamentalism have recreated Gilded Age extremes of wealth and power. Once more a new American plutocracy is emerging, doing what plutocrats always do - corrupting government to protect and expand their fortunes.

Americans don’t tolerate self-perpetuating aristocracies easily.

Opposition to aristocratic wealth is as American as apple pie, dating back to the American Revolution, to Jefferson who warned about the “aristocracy of monied corporations.”

The Populist Tradition The movement that gave populism its name

Gov. Sam Brownback 2nd Floor - State Capitol Topeka, Ks. 66612-1501 (785) 296-3232

swept out of the Plains states in the late 19th century as small farmers and steelworkers, day laborers and sharecroppers came together to take on the trusts, the railroads, the distant banks that were impoverishing them.

They railed against a government that handed public lands to the railroads, kept interest rates high, coddled monopolies and cracked the heads of workers trying to organize.

But in challenging the corrupted government, they came to a profound realization: that in the emerging industrial economy, simply cutting back government and limiting its powers would only free monopolies and banks to gouge even more from workaday Americans.

They concluded that they had to take back the government, turning it

Sen. Pat Roberts 109 Hart Senate Office Bldg.

Washington, D.C. 20510 (202) 224-4774 roberts.senate.gov/email.htm

from the arm of the privileged to the people’s ally.

This led to two other challenges. First, they had to mobilize people to counter what Roosevelt called “organized money.”

And second, protest wasn’t enough. They had to invent new ideas, sweeping reforms to make the economy work for working people.

That populist movement lasted only a few years as an independent party, but the reforms it championed set the agenda for progressives for more than half a century - the minimum wage, the eight-hour workday, antitrust laws, the progressive income tax, a flat ban on subsidies to private corporations, and worker cooperatives.

It mobilized millions around a new monetary (See POPULISM on page six)

Sen. Jerry Moran 141 Hart Senate Office Bldg.

Washington, D.C. 20510 (202) 224-6521 www.house.gov/moranks01/

Shinseki still the right person to lead the VA

The Scott County Record • Page 5 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

by Col. M. Thomas Davis (ret.)

After Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki appeared before a Senate committee last week, one television commentator indicated that when Shinseki said he was “mad as hell” about problems within the VA hospital system, he didn’t actually look all that mad.

True, he didn’t. But those of us who have known and served with Shinseki realize that this lack of outward emotion should not be read as a lack of passion.

I first met Shinseki 20 years ago, when he was the Army’s chief of training. He had a lowkey personality, but he was a passionate advocate for obtaining the facilities, equipment and modern concepts that would keep our Army the best in the world. I was impressed.

Shinseki was soon gone

from the Pentagon and headed to Fort Hood to command the 1st Cavalry Division, a choice assignment for a young major general. But in a little more than a year he was back in Washington as the Army’s assistant deputy chief for operations, yet another select position. He did not like coming back to Washington; he preferred to be with the troops.

In speeches, he used to introduce himself simply as, “My name is Shinseki; I’m a soldier.”

During this time, we were headed back to his office after one rather contentious budget meeting, and I noticed that he was walking slowly and limping slightly. Upon arriving, he gingerly placed a foot on the coffee table and was clearly uncomfortable, although he said nothing until I asked if he had injured himself.

“No, some days it just hurts

(The Department of Veterans Affairs) may need to change its focus when processing claims from veterans, shifting from an attitude that “care will be provided when you prove you need it” to something closer to “care will be provided until we determine you don’t.”

a bit,” was all he said. After the meeting, his executive assistant told me, “You know, he lost most of that foot in Vietnam.”

He’s never mentioned it to me.

The foot, to him, was only an obstacle to overcome. His expression may not change - but neither does his determination.

Ric Shinseki is passionate about those who have served in the military. The screen saver on his office computer used to have the patch of the 1st Cavalry Division constantly scrolling across it with a caption beneath saying: “No soldier goes into harm’s way untrained.” It was

his daily reminder of the responsibility of command that he saw as highly personal.

None of us were surprised when he became the Army’s 34th chief of staff - a Japanese American from Hawaii occupying the seat once held by Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower, among other great soldiers.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is a sprawling bureaucracy, operating under procedures largely developed in another era. It may need to change its focus when processing claims from veterans, shifting from an attitude that “care will be provided when you prove you need it” to something closer to “care will be provided until we determine you don’t.”

As in a court of law, it is often important where the burden of proof lies.

The agency also desperately

needs a major investment in its antiquated case-processing system. Today it must deal with the expanded burdens of a decade of conflict - one that has left the nation with the responsibility to care for wounded who in past wars would never have survived their initial injuries, and others with forms of post-traumatic stress disorder that we are only slowly learning to identify and treat.

Running the VA has been a difficult, daunting task for all who have attempted it. The care it provides veterans is superb; but the process by which it determines that care is woefully in need of repair and updating.

These fundamental, structural issues will not disappear should Shinseki resign or be forced to leave. They would be left to any successor, and the results would be similar.

(See SHINSEKI on page six)

The private burden of public colleges

by Catherine Rampell

Samsung’s broken apology app

by Jim Hightower

Sometimes, corporate chieftains actually step forward to apologize for the abuse they inflict on workers, consumers, communities, and the environment.

The word “sometimes” makes such apologies seem more common than they are. Also, “apologize” suggests contrition and a willingness to accept responsibility, neither of which they mean when they use the word. In corporate-speak, apologize is a slick synonym for dodge, duck and divert.

A fine demonstration of the art of corporate apology recently came to us from South Korea. While that country is an ocean away from America, the company involved is

quite close to us: Samsung, the world’s largest maker of smartphones and memory chips, is a leading purveyor of tech gizmos and their components.

Most smartphone buyers may not realize this, but those devices are being made with a cancer-causing mix of toxic chemicals. Samsung’s Korean chip-factory workers have suffered leukemia and other cancers linked to those poisons.

For years, a South Korean grassroots movement has pressed the corporation and government for compensation to victims - and an apology. In May, activists finally scored a victory . . . sort of.

Under pressure from the public, legislators, and the courts, a top Samsung executive promised pay-

ments to victims and offered “our sincerest apology to the affected people.”

However, the apology was no mea culpa, no expression of penitence. Indeed, Samsung made clear that it does not admit that there’s any link between the chemicals it uses and the illnesses and deaths of workers. Rather, the corporation is simply expressing vague sorrow that workers get cancer for whatever reason.

Basically, the message is: “Sorry you’re dead. Not our fault. Here’s some money. Now, go away.” But that doesn’t make the cancer problem go away.

Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker and author

Look at the damage in Kansas The Legislature made some responsible decisions on taxes this year, lending a hand to low- and middle-income Nebraskans while rejecting calls to recklessly slash the income tax.

Nonetheless, income tax cut advocates are gearing up for another push next year, as outlined recently

by Barry Kennedy, president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Despite claims that Nebraska has a reputation as a “high tax” state, it actually ranks around the middle of the pack in nearly every serious ranking of state tax rates. The Legislature’s Tax Modernization Committee recognized that, particularly after traveling the state to listen to the concerns of farmers, business owners and other residents.

Simply put, income tax rates were not a top concern voiced to the committee by Nebraskans.

It’s true that Nebraska has not been among the states engaged in a race to the bottom on income taxes. Nor should we want to be, because that would ruin our tradi-

behind the headlines

by Renee Fry

tion of investing in the things that truly create a strong economy: good schools, a sound transportation system, a skilled workforce, and safe and healthy communities.

The vast majority of Nebraska’s tax revenue goes to support those services, which are important to both families and businesses. These investments have served us well, as our strong and healthy workforce helped Nebraska weather the last recession and emerge in much better shape than most states, including nearly all of the so-called “low-tax” states.

Most credible research shows that good roads that help get products to market and top-notch universities that build an educated workforce are far more important to a state’s economy than taxes.

Businesses also want good public schools for their workers’ children

and strong law enforcement to help create safe and stable communities.

The fact is, if lawmakers were to cut income taxes, they would have to offset that revenue loss by increasing other taxes or cutting funding for education and other vital services.

Neighboring Kansas is providing a real-time look at what that could mean here. The income tax cuts that the state enacted in 2012 failed to improve Kansas’ economy and have damaged its schools, colleges and universities, and other key services.

The tax cuts mostly benefited high-wage earners and did little to help middle-income families. In fact, Kansas raised taxes on lowincome families.

Kansas’ struggles prompted a major bond rating firm, Moody’s, to lower the state’s credit rating. While that may sound like inside baseball, it could cost Kansas by boosting the amount of interest the state has to pay when it borrows money to build and repair roads and make other long-term investments.

(See DAMAGE on page seven)

Climbing walls, Jacuzzis, exotic chefs.

There are lots of (misguided) explanations for skyrocketing tuition costs at public colleges and universities, which educate about threequarters of America’s postsecondary students.

Of course, very few schools actually offer any of these country-club-like amenities, despite the attention and mockery they’ve earned in the press. So on to the latest scapegoat: greedy executives, or so suggests the coverage of two recent reports about highly paid college presidents.

Their outsize compensation is supposedly yet another sign of bloated, bureaucratic colleges’ inability to control runaway spending.

You can definitely debate whether public institutions are spending on the right things (including compensation for both executive and athletic personnel; in most states, the highest-paid public employee is a college athletic coach).

But these days it’s hard to complain that public colleges are spending too much overall, or even that their spending is rising. Total spending per student at public schools has actually stayed about flat over the past decade, once you control for inflation.

So why, then, is tuition climbing so quickly at public schools?

The biggest driver isn’t lavish rec centers or fat-cat presidents or overstaffed career counseling centers. It’s politicians: State legislators have shifted the burden of paying for college away from taxpayers and onto the shoulders of students.

Public colleges have gone from being “statefunded” to “state-supported,” and now, finally, just “state-located,” as one university president quipped.

Over the past five years, educational appropriations per full-time-equivalent student have fallen by nearly a quarter, according to a recent State Higher Education Executive Officers report. Faced with declining public subsidies, schools have been forced to raise tuition dramatically.

Even those tuition hikes, though, have not fully offset public funding cuts: Appropriations have fallen by about $1,800 per student over that time, while net tuition revenues have increased by “only” $1,100. Schools have dealt with the funding shortfalls by different means, including increasing class sizes; shifting more of their teaching loads onto poorly paid adjuncts; deferring maintenance and repairs; and, in some cases, restricting enrollment in the disciplines that are most expensive to teach (even though disciplines that are resourceintensive, such as nursing, often happen to be the ones that offer better job prospects).

Some of these changes, you’ll note, suggest that students are paying more but getting less.

(The same may not be true of private schools, which are also raising tuition sharply but adding lots of staff.)

State legislators have been paring back higher ed funding for a few reasons. One is obviously the financial crisis, which led to steep drops in tax revenues. But the declines in college subsidies are actually part of a trend that long predates the Great Recession.

Over time, mandatory spending on things like prisons, pensions and health care has crowded out discretionary funding for higher (See COLLEGES on page six)

The Scott County Record • Page 6 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Unequal pay does exist in the world of education

by John Schrock

How can pay be unequal for male and female teachers of identical experience when there is only one uniform pay scale at each unified school district?

Each Kansas school district negotiates a salary base for teachers.

The starting salary for a teacher fresh out of student teaching establishes this base.

This scale then extends downward in steps adding increments, often $500 each year. Horizontally, the scale adds a roughly similar amount for increases in college credit,

usually with steps at bachelors degree plus 15 and 30 hours, master’s degree, and 15 and 30 credit hour steps up to a doctorate.

Larger, rich school districts may load more pay for advanced degrees because they want a more highly trained and specialized faculty.

Rural schools that need broadly-trained teachers often load their salary scale with greater increments for those who stay a longer period of time.

But there is only one salary scale - not two separate scales for men and women teachers. Therefore, why do surveys of public school teachers -

Hypocrisy “Kicking out a private business that is operating legally on the grounds that its leader holds a particular set of religious and political beliefs different from yours or any other official would violate the University’s commitment to non-discrimination,” Huelskamp wrote.

“The University of Kansas has a proud tradition of allowing people of differing views to express those views; to discrimi-

ed, even as college enrollment has swelled and as postsecondary credentials have become an increasingly common prerequisite for getting a job.

“If you’re a state legislator, you look at all your state’s programs and you say, ‘Well, we can’t make prisoners pay, but we can make college students pay,’” Ronald Ehrenberg, the director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute and a trustee of the State University of New York System, once told me in an interview.

policy. It pushed to expand democracy through direct elections of senators, initiatives and referenda.

There’s a direct line from the Omaha Platform of the People’s Party in 1892 to FDR’s Four Freedoms and Economic Bill of Rights, to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, whose 50th anniversary we honor this week.

Today’s new populism stands in that tradition.

People aren’t worried that the rich have lots of money. This isn’t about envy; it is about power - that the privileged and entrenched interests rig the game, so the economy does not work for working people.

Billionaires like Sheldon Anderson toy with politicians as if they were miniature plastic puppets. Millionaires pay

hold “a particular set of . . . beliefs” with which Huelskamp doesn’t agree, or if customers are asked to show respect for other customers by not coming armed to the teeth into their place of business, the First Amendment is set aside.

In the world of Huelskamp and the NRA, the Second Amendment supersedes everything else.

If you don’t like it, then shut up.

That becomes a prob-

lem for Huelskamp and conservative ideologues who feel they own the moral high ground and every decision can be cast in white or black. It doesn’t take long before they are ensnared by their own hypocrisy and inability to consider the rights of others.

But give Huelskamp credit. He only reveals his ignorance 140 characters at a time.

Rod Haxton can be reached at editor@screcord.com

(continued from page five)

State budget cuts also seem to reflect changing public attitudes toward higher education.

From the days of Benjamin Franklin, through the foundation of land-grant colleges during the Civil War, and then up until quite recently, higher education (just like primary or secondary education) was seen as a sort of public good: a service whose benefits were shared among the entire population and whose costs should therefore be borne by the entire population.

Populism

But salary surveys also exclude those ancillary duties.

Some years ago, a veteran female teacher sat down and explained her situation to me. Her husband was in an industry that moved its offices.

She therefore had to leave the school where she had been an exemplary science teacher for over a decade. She applied in the new district where she now lived.

This is common for teaching spouses. Teaching is considered a portable occupation. And science teachers are in demand nearly everywhere.

In her interview, the

(continued from page four)

nate and undo that tradition would be a travesty.”

So, if a restaurant owner holds views that Huelskamp agrees with he comes to their defense, arguing that it would be a “travesty” to take any punitive action against the restaurant because of the moral or political views of the management or owner.

The restaurant’s ownership is protected by the Constitution.

Should a restaurant’s ownership, however,

Colleges

based on the same years of experience and education - show an average lower pay for women teachers doing the same job?

The answer is not in added pay for coaching or sponsoring student government or other activities because those are paid “add-ons.”

And while historically more money was available for coaching boy’s sports than girl’s sports, that disparity is shrinking due to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. That statue prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.

This makes sense. Yes, most of the perks of higher ed likely accrue to the individual who gets the degree. But college-going also has huge spillover effects for the rest of the economy. Research by Enrico Moretti, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, shows that having a greater density of college grads raises everyone’s wages - especially, in fact, the wages of workers without degrees.

College is also one of the best tools we have for promoting upward economic mobility among

(continued from page four)

lower taxes than their secretaries. Multinationals stash profits abroad and pay lower taxes than mom-and-pop stores.

After all, as hotel magnate Leona Helmsley famously said, “only little people pay taxes.”

Wall Street bankers the folks whose excesses blew up the economy and cost millions their homes and their jobs - were bailed out. Now they are back, posturing as masters of the universe once more, apparently immune from prosecution for the epidemic of fraud they profited from. Jails, after all, are for little people.

The top one percent is capturing fully 95 percent of the nation’s income growth. CEO salaries are up and corporate profits hit record heights, while workers incomes are stag-

nating and insecurity is rising.

discussion went as follows: “Mrs. Smith (not her real name). We really are impressed with your teaching record and really need you here at suchand-such high school.

But we have two applicants fresh out of student teaching. We know they will not bring your experience. But our school is on a tight budget and we simply cannot afford you at your level of twelve years experience. Now if you would only claim two years of experience, we could offer you the job.”

So she was faced with a dilemma. If she wanted a job teaching in her new

home district, she would have to take a pay cut that would cost her over $5,000 each year. And she would be shorted that amount on the pay scale, compounded for the rest of her career - over $50,000 each decade.

This practice is wrong.

Unethical. Despicable.

And that school district was not in financial exigency.

This coercion does not occur when men teachers move to new districts. This reflects the male chauvinism of an older generation of male administrators who only see the man as the “bread winner.”

(See UNEQUAL on page 7)

Obama’s controversial policy of not invading countries for no reason

by Andy Borowitz

WEST POINT (The Borowitz Report)— President Obama raised eyebrows with his West Point commencement address Wednesday by offering a defense of his controversial foreignpolicy doctrine of not invading countries for no reason.

Conservative critics were taken aback by Obama’s speech, which was riddled with incendiary remarks about only using military force for a clearly identified and rational purpose.

Obama did not shy away from employing polarizing rhetoric, often using words such as “responsible” and “sensible” to underscore his message.

Harland Dorrinson, a fellow at the conservative think tank the Center for Global Intervention, said that he was “stunned” to see Obama “defend his failure to engage the United States in impulsive and random military adventures.”

“History tells us that the best way to earn respect around the world is by using your military in a totally unpredictable and reckless manner,” he said. “Today, President Obama showed once again that he doesn’t get it.”

the poor, as research by Pew’s Economic Mobility Project has demonstrated.

Which is exactly why shifting the burden of college costs away from taxpayers and onto students Andy Borowitz is a comedian and author is so shortsighted.

It means that attending college, or more important, the prospect (continued from of actually graduating, is page five) stretching further out of the reach of the workers There are times when organizational failures require who need to upgrade their skills most - and whose a thorough look at the organization itself rather than skills the country’s future those trying to manage it - and this is one of those times. depends on.

Ric Shinseki is “mad as hell.” Trust me. His anger Catherine Rampell is an doesn’t show; he doesn’t make for riveting television. opinion columnist at The But there is no one better prepared, by both profesWashington Post sional and personal experience, to attack the problems of running such a complex organization.

Lee Iacocca once ran commercials saying, “If you can find a better car - buy it!” The nation cannot find a better man to tackle the challenges of the VA than Ric Shinseki.

They won’t tolerate it for And, by the way, I am sure while he was seated at long. It will take muckrak- that Senate committee hearing table, his foot was still ing, organizing, teaching, hurting. protests and demonstrations, new ideas and new M. Thomas Davis is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army allies. It will face fierce resistance. The wealthy and entrenched interests will spend lavishly to defend their privileges.

Our system is designed to clog change, not facilitate it.

But when the people speak, politicians listen.

And this new populist movement has only just begun. The stakes are fundamental - whether the democracy can in fact check the power of great wealth and entrenched interests. This is the challenge facing our democracy and for each one of us privileged to be its citizens.

The Challenge Washington is gridlocked by Republican obstruction, so people are driving reforms from the bottom up. The minimum wage is being hiked from Hawaii to Maryland to Seattle, where it is headed to $15 an hour.

Californians voted to tax the rich to invest in schools.

Over a hundred cities have joined the call for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

Elites in both parties warn against a new populism, as if the old politics held any answers for people.

The pressure for change is only beginning. People Robert Borosage is founder are waking up to the fact and president of the Institute that the game is rigged. for America’s Future

Shinseki

Unequal

The Scott County Record • Page 7 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Damage

(continued from page six)

Yesiree! Nursin’ and teachin’ is “women’s work” in their eyes.

This attitude deserves contempt. I suspect, and hope, that this practice is becoming less common as this 1800s attitude retires off. As more women move into administrative positions, this practice should decline.

But even if this practice were to stop today, it would take 40 years for the pay disparity and injustice that it causes to flush from our system. Unfortunately, there are simple-minded politicians today who wave the single pay scales and proclaim that there is no distinction on paper between pay for men and women teachers and therefore no discrepancy.

Their ignorance of what has occurred in the field perpetuates this injustice.

One of the problems Moody’s cited was Kansas’ inability to keep adequate reserve funds on hand because of the income tax cuts. Here again, Nebraska has taken the wiser course.

A strong cash reserve helped our state weather the Great Recession.

Without it, the significant cuts that the state made to education and support for

(continued from page five)

cities and counties during the recession would have been even worse.

And because Nebraska still has a robust reserve expected to soon hit $693 million, which is just above the level recommended by the Legislative Fiscal Office - we’ll be partly insulated against the next downturn.

Yet, the Chamber’s Mr. Kennedy laments

that lawmakers chose to protect the reserve rather than embark on income tax cuts.

Tax cut proponents in Nebraska often point to other neighboring states when making their case, particularly Wyoming, Colorado and South Dakota. But they fail to note that, unlike those states, Nebraska lacks some important sources of revenue, notably abun-

dant natural resources like coal and natural gas, along with major tourism.

If Nebraska goes down the tax cut road, it will look more like Kansas, not those other states.

Nebraska lawmakers and our next governor should to be mindful of this as the drumbeat for income tax cuts sounds again.

Renee Fry is executive director of the OpenSky Policy Institute

John Schrock trains biology teachers and lives in Emporia

HUK

872-2090

June We’re here for you

872-5328 Sunday

Turner Sheet Metal 1851 S. Hwy 83 Scott City, Ks 67871 (620) 872-2954 • 800-201-2954

Monday

1

Wednesday

3 SCHS Girls BB summer camp, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

SCHS Girls BB summer camp, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

SCHS Girls BB summer camp, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Thursday

4

Friday

5 SCHS Girls BB summer camp, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Al-Anon meeting @ Pack 66/Troop 149, Community Christian 5:00 p.m.

Church, 6:30 p.m.

Mad Science @ Scott City Council meeting, County Library, 7:00 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

Attend the church of your choice.

Famous Folks

Tuesday

2

SCMS Cheerleaders brown bag lunch @ SCHS , parking lot, 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

No charge for community events

8

Meditation Moments

9

10

11

St. Joseph Parish Center 7:00 p.m.

12

Saturday

6

7

SCHS Girls BB summer camp, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Scott City Stars swim meet (pool closed)

Aviation Camp @ Spencer Flight and Education Center, 8:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m.

Famous Folks of Scott County @ El Quartelejo Museum, 2:00 p.m.

June Jaunt 6:30 p.m., BBQ @ Patton Park 7:00 p.m., Music by Carter Sampson Dusk, Movie in the park

June Jaunt All day Community-Wide garage sale 8:00 a.m., Car Club cruise to Tribune 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., Sidewalk Sale

13 Craig Stevens @ VIP

OK Kids Day

14

Billy Allen Products, Inc. The complete

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207 E. Bellevue Scott City 872-2111

with quality ingredients and consistency guaranteed with every sack.

Box 460 • Scott City

872-2778

The Scott County Record

Lawn and Garden

Page 8 - Thursday, May 29, 2014

Trees that beat extreme summer heat in Kansas Prolonged and recordsetting heat has created a historical drought in many areas of the United States.

This has affected different facets of the horticulture industry, but not all the effects have been negative.

Jason Griffin is director of the John C. Pair Horticultural Center of Kansas State University, a K-State research facility near Wichita. The center works to introduce and evaluate woody landscape plant material for the region.

Griffin said the seasonal drought, rapid temperature changes, scorching summer heat and perpetual drying winds make this facility an ideal location to stress test woody plants. In the past couple of years, the importance of this research was made evident.

This unusual weather pattern provided an opportunity to observe the effects of heat and drought on mature, established landscape plants, said Griffin. The stress test was a real-world situation a greenhouse, growth chamber and artificially induced drought could replicate.

According to the National Weather Service in Wichita, 2011 and 2012 recorded some of the warmest temperatures in weather history.

•The 2011 summer was the hottest on record with

92 days above 90 degrees, 53 of which were above 100 degrees. This set the all-time record for number of days the temperature was at or above 100 degrees.

•The following year was no different, as 2012 became the warmest calendar on record with an average temperature of 61 degrees.

•The annual precipitation for the area also fell below average by 13 inches over the two-year period.

Results from the stress testing showed that 10 specific trees stood above the rest, as they survived the extreme climate with little or no observable effects.

“While I am nearly certain that somewhere across the region stricken by this drought, readers will be able to point to an incidence where each of the following (trees) has failed,” Griffin said.

“However, when wellestablished and otherwise healthy, each of the species performed admirably and deserve consideration in areas with regular periods of extended heat and drought.”

League of Extraordinary Trees Chinese Pistache With a USDA Hardiness Zone 6, this is a widely used landscape tree in Phoenix that thrives in the continental climate of

the southern Great Plains where rapid temperature shifts are common.

Fall color can range from none, to yellow, to orange, to brilliant red and some with hues of purple.

This tree can be invasive. In the southern plains from Kansas through Texas, Chinese pistache can be found invading fence rows, abandoned fields and empty urban lots.

Fortunately, the species is dioecious (can be male or female), which makes selecting seedless trees rather simple. Male trees with brilliant red fall color and a growth habit that lends itself to nursery production would be desirable.

Caddo Sugar Maple Originating from a disjunct sugar maple population in western Oklahoma, the Caddo sugar maple’s genes make it one of the toughest shade trees in heat and drought prone areas and grow well in soils with a pH of up to 8.

During drought conditions when other sugar maple cultivars were scorched and dying, the Caddo sugar maple was able to push a mid-summer flush of growth.

Shantung Maple This maple has no observed pest problems, a purple flush of spring growth, gorgeous fall color and is drought tol-

Taking precautions to avoid bites from brown recluse spiders We have received a number of reports recently regarding brown recluse spiders.

Though these spiders are reclusive, hence the name, they will bite if they are against your skin and their movement is restricted. For example, if you put on a shirt with a spider in the sleeve.

Unfortunately, their bite may be serious.

Brown recluse spiders vary in color with abdomens that may be strawcolored, pinkish-gray, pale- to medium brown or slate gray.

They have one distinctive characteristic: a dark, violin-shaped pattern on the front part of the back.

The neck of the violin points toward the rear of the arachnid.

Though structurally tight houses are less likely to have populations of brown recluse, any home may be invaded.

Houses with a number of unreachable spots may have standing populations that are difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate.

In such cases, we seek to

reduce numbers and minimize the chances of being bitten.

There are two strategies that may help. Take advantage of the spiders’ daily rhythm.

Brown recluse normally hide during the day and don’t come out until an hour or two after dark. So a search and destroy strategy may prove effective if timed to coincide with their activity.

Carry a crawling insect spray with you as you search for the spiders within a foot or two of walls.

After destroying any spiders you find, look for a crack they may have been using to hide. Spray the insecticide into that crack and make note to caulk or otherwise seal it.

Caulking shut the crack is best but if caulking will ruin the aesthetics of the room continue to spray

into it every 10-14 days.

You may want to log the number and date of spider kills to see if you are making progress in elimination.

The second strategy involves the use of roach or mouse glue traps.

Place these in spots the spiders are likely to be, such as dark areas, around boxes, and close to walls and room corners. Check them frequently.

Again, track the catch to see if you are having an effect on numbers. You may use any household insecticide labeled for homeowner use, but it’s best to study the problem and develop a strategy before beginning control measures.For people short on time, and not quite sure how to handle the problem, it might be time to call a local pest control company. For more specific information refer to our entomology publication (MF771) “Spiders and Scorpions.”

You can find it on K-State website at http:// w w w. k s r e . k s u . e d u / library/entml2/mf771.pdf.

Caddo Sugar Maple

erant. It has dependable cold hardiness and reliable fall color.

The size is appropriate for suburban lots and the trees are not messy.

Chinese Fringetree Widely recognized for its incredible bloom and excellent bark characteristics, this tree’s leaves remained dark emerald green throughout the growing season despite the dry, hot conditions.

One local nurseryman commented that in the middle of the drought, this was the only plant in his fields still pushing new growth.

Seven-Son Flower The bark of this tree is eye-catching; its flowers light up the landscape the first week of September in Wichita and are visited by more species of pollinators than can be counted.

The sepals keep the show going for two to three more weeks when they change to a rosy pink.

Its dark emerald-green

Chinese Fringetree

leaves persisted through making it even more popexceptional drought com- ular. pletely unscathed.

The species transplants well, establishes quickly Shumard Oak and grows rapidly even This widely adapted during the drought. species is native to moist bottomlands, yet handles Osage Orange drought extremely well. A As a windbreak and fibrous root system makes living fence, this spetransplanting fairly suc- cies has no competition. cessful.

Attractive bark and clean Fall color can be out- green foliage, combined standing, ranging from with impressive stress tolburnt orange to red. erance, makes it a good shade and urban tree.

Chinkapin Oak Its thorns and fruit are Often found growing undesirable, but several on elevated limestone cultivars exist that are outcroppings, this spe- thornless and fruitless cies is right at home in (male). well-drained, high-pH soil. Chinkapin oak is a Arizona Cypress large tree with attractive This species will easbark, clean green leaves ily handle the heat and and acorns that are high- drought of the southern ly prized by all forms of Great Plains and regions wildlife. routinely plagued by extended high summer American Elm temperatures and drought.

The American elm’s New cultivars with adaptability has made it blue foliage, improved a very common landscape cold hardiness, pyramidal and urban shade tree, and growth and that root well now new cultivars with from stem cuttings would disease resistance are be desirable.

The Scott County Record • Page 9 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

HHS valedictorian Ariana Rodriguez hugs a family member during the commencement program.

(Record Photo)

Small school doesn’t limit expectations for Healy grads Even though he was only in Healy for half of the school year, there was little doubt that the smallest school district in Kansas made a big impression on Francesco Di Maio.

“I was astonished because I’d never seen a place so small,” said the foreign exchange student about his arrival in Healy in January.

“But I’m really happy about where I ended up.

You have welcomed me into the community,” he

told those who filled the auditorium for the Healy High School graduation ceremony on May 18. “And you have contributed to my personal growth.”

Di Maio said he chose to become an exchange student in December because he wanted to “broaden my horizons” and Healy helped to make that happen in a unique way.

“You have taught me never to give up, never quit learning,” he said.

Wheatland sponsors youth tour of capitol Two youth were sponsored on May 20 by Wheatland Electric for a day-long tour of historic sites and points of interest in Topeka.

Selected for the tour were Skyler Hembree, a student at Wichita County High School, Leoti, and Danica Mercer, Conway Springs High School.

The day included a guided tour of the State Capitol; a visit to the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site; an afternoon trip to Ward-Meade Park, which included a session in a one-room schoolhouse; and a visit to the Kansas Museum of History.

Both students were recommended to apply for the Washington, D.C., Youth Tour by a high school staff member.

Bailey Harris, Tribune, was selected for the trip to the nation’s capital.

Wheatland Electric employees Sheila Helm

and Shawn Powelson chaperoned the Topeka event.

“Wheatland got to know the students during the application and interview process for the D.C. Youth Tour and wanted to reward the students not selected with a tour of Topeka to give them a taste of the legislative process and Kansas history,” says Powelson.

Dave Holthaus, Vice President of Government Relations at KEC, spoke to the students prior to the State Capitol tour, which both students said gave them an understanding of the importance of rural representation within the state.

Hembree, who was visiting the capitol for the first time, said, “I learned so much about the state’s history and how the state capitol works to make this state better.”

Hembree and Mercer participated in the Kansas capitol dome tour, climbing 296 steps to the top.

The Healy High School graduate also said he learned not to “judge a place by its appearance.

People make the place.”

Class salutatorian Maria Coker, who was one of four graduating seniors, thanked the teachers and community for “giving me the opportunity to graduate from here and for the foundation you have provided.”

That thanks was echoed by valedictorian Ariana Rodriguez who said the school and community “are a family who has

SCES summer lunch menu Week of June 2-6 Lunch Monday: Pizza quesadillas, celery and carrot sticks, pineapple.

Tuesday: Sub sandwich, lettuce and tomatoes, oven fries, fresh fruit.

Wednesday: Corndogs, green beans, fresh fruit.

Thursday: Pizza, hot veggies, applesauce.

Friday: Hot dog, tator tots, fresh fruit.

Free lunches for anyone 18-years and under served at Scott City Elementary School from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Backing the Beavers!

taken care of each of us.”

She also praised the teachers for setting high standards which encourages students to develop their potential for success.

Rodriguez encouraged her classmates and other Healy students to think of life as a big adventure.

“So live it. Be you . . . and make the world a little brighter,” she advised.

Supt. John LaFave added that despite Healy’s size, the school district and community “can hold your heads up high.

You’re awesome.”

The Scott County Record • Page 10 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

‘Is it worth it?’ not a question to be asked of patriotism The question of “Is it worth it?” is a question that can be asked in business and economics.

But it’s one that can’t be asked when it comes to doing what’s best for your country, reminded former U.S. Marine Capt. Skip Numrich during Monday’s Memorial Day service at the Scott County Cemetery.

Flags barely fluttered in the calm breeze as a large number of people gathered for the morning service. In addition to the honor guard, members of the National Honor Society at Scott Community High School carried the colors.

NHS members also read the prayer and gave

a reading prior to placing a flower at the base of the American flag as the names were read of those Scott County men killed in military combat.

During his speech, Numrich acknowledged that Memorial Day means different things to different people, the bigger question is “What should it mean to us?”

Numrich said the 27 Scott County men who died in combat for their nation would want to be remembered as more than a name engraved on a plaque.

“They would want to look at the world and our country and know that their sacrifice was worth

it and that we, as a people, revere and respect their service,” he said.

Just as importantly, he noted, they would want people to understand what motivated them to put their lives at risk. While the ultimate goal is to protect equality and preserve individual liberty, those are “fuzzy concepts” in many parts of the world, said Numrich. And, all too often, Numrich noted that Americans “take for granted the blessings of freedom.”

“I believe these honored dead, and all who have served, searched their inner being and determined that such concepts were, indeed, worth it,” said Numrich.

(Top left) SCHS National Honor Society students (from left) Ellie Irwin, Christina Tilton and Melanie Tilton carry the memorial wreath while accompanied by former Marine Capt. Skip Numrich. (Top right) Clayton Smith, 3-1/2, Scott City, holds his hand to his heart during the playing of the national anthem. (Left) John Fisher (left) and Harold Irwin were part of the honor guard at the Monday morning service.

(Record Photos)

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The Scott County Record

Youth/Education

Page 11 - Thursday, May 29, 2014

Thompson retires after 24 years in Shallow Water, SC schools Teaching wasn’t Theresa Thompson’s first career choice when she entered college, but after nearly three decades in the profession she can’t imagine anything else she could have enjoyed more.

“Little kids keep me happy. They keep you feeling young,” says Thompson, who retired after 28 years in education - the last 24 with USD 466 (Scott County).

Thompson, 58, admits that her original plans were to become an accountant when she graduated from Pretty Prairie High School and enrolled at Southwestern College, Winfield. But Thompson decided she “didn’t want to be in a cubicle all day” and made the switch to education.

Following graduation, she accepted her first teaching job at Udall for a year before her husband, Mike, decided to return to the family farm in Lyons County. She taught in the Chase school district for two years before Mike accepted a job offer from Security State Bank in Scott City in 1982.

“We weren’t very serious about it at first. We kind of had our minds made up that we weren’t going to live west of Great Bend,” recalls Thompson. “But we decided to come out anyway and take a look. We liked the town and the people we met at the bank were so friendly.”

The timing was also right since Mike was ready to get out of farming and enter into banking full-time.

At the time, Theresa wasn’t quite ready to resume her teaching career full-time.

Kristin, the first of the couple’s four children, had been born at Lyons and this was followed by Cassie, Clayton and Chase who were all born in Scott City.

She did accept the job as director of Golden Rule PreSchool for four years which gave her some flexibility

Caitlin Beckman, Scott City, was named to the spring semester President’s Honor Roll at Washburn University, Topeka.

To be named to the list, a student must be enrolled in at least 12 credit hours and attain 4.0 grade point aveage.

Nicole Walker, Scott City, and Trevor Bollinger, Dighton, were named to the Dean’s Honor Roll.

The honor list includes full-time students who maintained a gpa of 3.4 to 3.99.

Barnett participates in service learning at Virginia Beach

SCES first grade instructor Theresa Thompson is retiring after 24 years as a teacher at Shallow Water and Scott City.

(Record Photo)

while starting her family.

Thompson returned to the classroom as a substitute during the 1989-90 school year.

The following year she began teaching at Shallow Water School as a Title I instructor for grades 4-8. That transitioned into a half-time kindergarten teaching job for several years.

Teaching at SCES Thompson began teaching full-time at SWS when first grade teacher Ivadelle Cotton retired. When SWS closed its doors, Thompson accepted a second grade position at Scott City Elementary School 11 years ago, teaching this year’s class of Scott Community High School graduates.

Over the years, Thompson has made the switch between first grade to second grade wherever she was needed by the district.

While she says teaching

first grade can be particularly difficult, it’s also the most rewarding.

“At no other grade level do you see so much change in a student from the start of the year to the end of the year,” she observes.

She also credits the switch to all-day kindergarten with having the young students better prepared.

At the same time, she wonders if all the changes that have occurred in education over the past 20 years have been for the better.

“I worry that kids don’t have a chance to be kids,” Thompson says. “There’s so much pressure on them to learn so much at an early age.

The state gives us so many regulations. And there’s so much testing.

“When you have kids at this age there’s so much you can do as a teacher to make learning fun, but we’re losing

some of that because we have to focus so much on getting kids ready for tests,” she says.

“And I worry that we’re not doing all we can to help kids become self-thinkers. It’s our responsibility to help kids develop this ability.”

As for the decision to retire, Theresa admits that she was encouraged by her husband to “start taking it easy and work fewer hours.”

“But I’m not sure I can do that,” she adds with a smile.

“It will be nice to have a little more free time, but I’m sure I’ll be back in the classroom and subbing.”

Of course, the most difficult part of retirement is being away from her young students.

“They’ve made it so much fun to teach for all these years,” Thompson says. “The little ones are so honest. And every day is different, which I have loved.”

Youth aviation camp in Scott City June 6

The Spencer Flight and Education Center, Scott City, will be sponsoring an Aviation Camp for all youth from kindergarten through high school seniors on Fri., June 6, at the Scott City Airport.

The camp is free for everyone. Each participant will receive a t-shirt.

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Camp sessions will include: 8:30-10:00 a.m.: Grades K-3.

10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: grades 4-6.

1:30-4:30 p.m.: grades 7-12.

Youth will have an opportunity to fly the simulator,

learn about aviation careers, learn about the weather and more.

There will be an evening barbeque for the entire family from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Featured speaker will Jeff Sandusky, regional sales director for Cirrus Aircraft.

Volunteers are needed

to assist with the event.

Interested persons can contact Andy Hineman (ahineman@mymetrogolf.com) or call (913) 484-7116.

For the camp agenda or other information visit the website at www.spencerflightcenter.com.

Alicia Barnett, Healy, was among 18 Southwestern College students who participated in the college’s annual service learning trip.

This year’s destination was Virginia Beach, Va. Focus of the trip was environmental stewardship.

Barnett is a member of Leadership Southwestern.

“Good leaders are stewards of both people and resources,” says Lindsay Wilke, assistant director of Leadership Southwestern. “The outdoor world around us is one of those resources. So every four years, the Leadership team takes a trip focused on outdoor service efforts.”

While on the trip, the team toured and worked for the nationally-recognized nonprofit EquiKids Therapeutic Riding Program.

Students helped to prepare running and riding trails for a 5K fundraiser and they also did maintenance work on the grounds.

In addition, the team spent two days building fire pits in Virginia’s First Landing State Park.

The team also visited Colonial Williamsburg, in addition to area beaches and cypress swamps.

Walker inducted into WU’s criminal justice honor society Washburn University student Nicole Walker, Scott City, has been inducted into Sigma Lambda, a criminal justice honor society.

A sophomore, Walker is majoring in criminal justice with a specialization in corrections.

Membership in Sigma Lambda is based on academic merit and restricted to criminal justice majors who have completed 12 hours of criminal justice course work with a minimum 3.2 grade point average.

Early enrollment at GCCC

Next early enrollment session for fall semester classes at Garden City Community College will be held Mon, June 2. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. and activities conclude about 3:00 p.m.

While regular enrollment is offered on a walk-in basis, these special days require reservations that can be made by calling 620-276-9608 or emailing admission@gcccks.edu.

Registration is also available at the Student and Community Services Center Monday through Thursday (8:00-6:00) and Fridays (8:00-4:30).

Phone enrollment is available Monday through Thursday by calling 620-276-9653.

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For the Record Don’t fall prey to medical identity theft The Scott County Record

Jason Alderman

By now, most people know about the perils of identity theft, where someone steals your personal or financial account information and makes fraudulent charges or opens bogus accounts in your name.

Lately, a not-so-new twist has been getting a lot of attention - medical identity theft. That’s where someone gains access to your health

The Scott County Record Page 12 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

insurance or Medicare account information and uses it to submit phony insurance claims, obtain prescription drugs or medical devices, or get medical treatment in your name.

Besides its high cost, medical ID theft also can have deadly consequences: Suppose someone poses as you and gets an appendectomy; if you later entered the hospital with abdominal pain, your

Scott City Council Agenda Mon., June 2 • 7:30 p.m.

City Hall • 221 W. 5th

medical file would show that your appendix was already removed and you could be tragically misdiagnosed.

Here are a few tips for avoiding medical ID fraud and steps to take if it happens: Your medical files are often full of information ID thieves crave: account numbers for Social Security, health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, contact information, email address, etc.

All it takes is one stolen employee laptop or an intercepted piece of mail or email to leave you vulnerable.

Sophisticated thieves will also hack computer networks of insurance companies, pharmacies, medical equipment suppliers and others who have access to your medical records. And unfortunately, the black market for stolen information is so tempting that employ-

Scott Co. LEC Report

Scott City Police Department May 13: A report of a burglary was taken in the 100 block of Church Street.

•Call to Order May 16: Dylan Stegman was southbound on Main Street, south of Fairground Road, when he struck a •Approve minutes of May 19 regular meeting traffic sign and left the scene.

May 16: Dylan Stegman was arrested for possession •Report on nuisance abatement extension at of a stimulant, use/possession with intent to use drug 1513 Myrtle and 1524 College paraphernalia and operating a vehicle without liability insurance. He was transported to the LEC. •Travel and Tourism: approval of employee hours May 18: Jordan Delgado was arrested for possession of an hallucinogenic drug, use/possession with intent •Open agenda: audience is invited to voice ideas to use drug paraphernalia, criminal use of a weapon, or concerns. A time limit may be requested and possession of a firearm by a person addicted/use contraband. He was transported to the LEC. Pool Department 1) Pool update May 19: Aggravated criminal threat was reported in 2) Stars swim meet on June 7 - Pool closed the 300 block of Albert Avenue.

May 22: Danae Wright was arrested for battery, Police Department criminal deprivation of property and disorderly con1) Misc. business duct. She was transported to the LEC. May 23: Carlo Alvarado was arrested for driving Parks Department under the influence, refusal to submit to testing for 1) Misc. business drug/alcohol and transportation of an alcoholic beverage. He was transported to the LEC. Public Works Department May 26: A report of battery was taken in the 100 1) Report on Well No. 9 block of South Church St. 2) Discuss LEMA voting May 26: Melanie Aguilera reported criminal damClerk’s Department age to property.

1) Misc. business May 26: Ryan Powell was arrested for battery and assault. He also had an out-of-county warrant. He was transported to the LEC. Scott County Sheriff’s Department Public Notice May 27: Hector Sanchez Estrada was southbound (First published in The Scott are reasonable and should on US83 when the lid from a portapot struck the windCounty Record Thur., May be allowed; the costs be de- shield of a vehicle belonging to Maria Romero.

29, 2014; last published Thur., June 12, 2014.)3t IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF SCOTT COUNTY, KANSAS IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF H. EDWIN CHENEY A/K/A HOWARD EDWIN CHENEY AND HOWARD CHENEY, deceased No. 13-PR-05 NOTICE OF HEARING THE STATE OF KANSAS TO ALL PERSONS CONCERNED: You are notified that a petition has been filed in this Court by Lauretta P. Cheney, duly appointed, qualified and acting Executrix of the Estate of H. Edwin Cheney, deceased, requesting that Petitioner’s acts be approved; account be settled and allowed; the heirs be determined; the Will be construed and the Estate be assigned to the person entitled thereto; the Court find the allowances requested for attorney’s fees and expenses

termined and ordered paid; the administration of the Estate be closed; upon the filing of receipts the Petitioner be finally discharged as the Executrix of the Estate of H. Edwin Cheney, deceased, and the Petitioner be released from further liability.

You are required to file your written defenses to the petition on or before June 19, 2014, at 4:00 p.m. in the District Court, in Scott City, Scott County, Kansas, at which time and place the cause will be heard. Should you fail to file your written defenses, judgment and decree will be entered in due course upon the petition.

Lauretta P. Cheney, Executor Jake W. Brooks Attorney for Petitioner 101 E. 6th PO Box 664 Scott City, Ks. 67871 620-872-7204

Public Notice (First published in The Scott County Record, Thur., May 29, 2014; last published Thur., June 12, 2014.)3t IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF SCOTT COUNTY, KANSAS IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF ALTA JEANNINE SCHMIDT, deceased Case No. 2014-PR-14 NOTICE OF HEARING AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS You are hereby notified that on the 21st day of May, 2014, a Petition was filed in this Court by Gary G. Schmidt, an heir of Alta Jeannine Schmidt, deceased, praying: That descent be determined of the following described personal property owned by the decedent: Pioneer Fund A, Account

#902088057 and all real and personal property and any Kansas real estate owned by decedent at the time of her death.

You are required to file your written defenses thereto on or before the 21st day of June, 2014, at 3:30 o’clock p.m., in said Court, in the City of Scott City, in Scott County, Kansas, at which time and place said cause will be heard. Should you fail therein, judgment and decree will be entered in due course upon the Petition.

Gary G. Schmidt, Petitioner WALLACE, BRANTLEY & SHIRLEY 325 Main Street - P.O. Box 605 Scott City, Kansas, 67871 Attorneys for Petitioner

ees have been known to steal data.

Common signs of medical identity theft include: •Provider bills or insurance Explanation of Benefits (EOB) forms that reference medical services you didn’t receive. (Verify all dates, providers and treatments and look for duplicate billing.)

•Calls from debt collectors about unfamiliar bills.

•Medical collection

notices on your credit report.

Just as you shouldn’t hesitate to ask your doctor or nurse whether they washed their hands, so you should feel free to ask what security precautions their business office takes to protect your information. Here are a few preventive measures to take: •Never reveal personal or account information during unsolicited calls or emails.

(See THEFT on page 13)

Scott County Commission Agenda Tuesday, June 3 County Courthouse 3:00 p.m.

County business Approve minutes, accounts payable and May payroll

3:15 p.m.

Emergency Preparedness Director Larry Turpin to discuss building for emergency management

3:30 p.m.

District court 2015 budget request

4:00 p.m.

Sheriff’s Dept. 2015 budget request

4:30 p.m.

City on a Hill 2015 budget request

5:00

Scott County Development Committee 2015 budget request

5:30

Public Works Director Richard Cramer

Agenda may change before the meeting. Contact County Clerk Alice Brokofsky for an updated agenda (872-2420) or visit www.scott.kansasgov.com

The Scott County Record • Page 13 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Theft •Be suspicious if someone offers you free medical equipment or services and then requests your Medicare number.

•Never let people borrow your Medicare or insurance card to obtain services for themselves.

Not only is this illegal, but it could be disastrous if your medical histories become intermingled (think about differing allergies, blood types, etc.)

•Regularly check your credit reports for unpaid bills for unfamiliar medical services or equipment. This could indicate someone has opened a new insurance

(continued from page 12)

policy using your identity and is running up charges.

•If you suspect or know your information has been compromised, ask for copies of your medical records from each doctor, hospital, pharmacy, lab or health plan where a thief may have used your information. Also request a copy of their “Accounting of Disclosures” form, which lists everyone who got copies of your medical records.

Next, write them all by certified mail explaining which information is inaccurate, along with copies of documents supporting your posi-

Public Notice (Published in The Scott County Record Thurs., May 29, 2014) 1t

SCOTT COUNTY COMMISSIONER’S PROCEEDINGS APRIL 2014 GENERAL FUND SALARIES ............................................ $ 85,348.54 COMMODITIES ....................................

11,449.25 CONTRACTUAL SERVICES .................

73,902.26 CAPITAL OUTLAY..................................

275.33 OTHER...................................................

181.95 COUNTY HEALTH FUND SALARIES .............................................

COMMODITIES .....................................

CONTRACTUAL SERVICES .................

CAPITAL OUTLAY .................................

OTHER...................................................

12,107.36 3,299.53 2,507.97 80.30 0.00

NOXIOUS WEED FUND SALARIES...............................................

COMMODITIES ......................................

CONTRACTUAL SERVICES...................

OTHER ...................................................

5,647.77 417.32 395.80 0.00

ROAD AND BRIDGE FUND SALARIES ..............................................

COMMODITIES.......................................

CONTRACTUAL SERVICES....................

CAPITAL OUTLAY....................................

35,643.60 33,265.59 3,393.82 21,444.98

FIRE DISTRICT FUND SALARIES ..............................................

COMMODITIES ......................................

CONTRACTUAL SERVICES....................

CAPITAL OUTLAY ..................................

389.28 0.00 5,035.90 0.00

TREASURER’S SPECIAL FUND SALARIES ...............................................

COMMODITIES .......................................

CONTRACTUAL SERVICES ....................

CAPITAL OUTLAY.....................................

OTHER .....................................................

JAMES M. MINNIX Chairman

tion. Ask them to correct or delete all errors and to inform everyone they may have sent records to (labs, other doctors, hospitals, etc.) Keep copies of all correspondence and logs of all phone calls or other related activities.

You can also file a police report and contact the fraud units at the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You may want to place a fraud alert or freeze on your accounts.

Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s Identity Theft site for more information (www.consumer. ftc.gov).

Public Notice (First published in The Scott County Record Thur., May 29, 2014; last published Thur., June 12, 2014.)3t IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF SCOTT COUNTY, KANSAS IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF MELVIN LEON KIRK aka MELVIN L. KIRK, deceased NO. 14-PR-13 NOTICE OF HEARING THE STATE OF KANSAS TO ALL PERSONS CONCERNED: You are notified that on the 22nd day of May, 2014, a Petition was filed in this Court by Thomasiana Brown, an heir of Melvin Leon Kirk aka Melvin L. Kirk, deceased, requesting Informal Administration.

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You are required to file your written defenses to the Petition on or before the 19th day of June, 2014, at 4:00 p.m. in this Court, in the City of Scott City, in Scott County, Kansas, at which time and place the cause will be heard. Should you fail to file your written defenses, judgment and decree will be entered in due course upon the Petition.

Thomasiana Brown, Petitioner Jake W. Brooks Attorney for Petitioner 101 E. 6th PO Box 664 Scott City, Ks. 67871 620-872-7167

208 W. 5th St., Scott City 620-872-2103 800-886-2103

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The Scott County Record • Page 14 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Orientations, workshop on adoption Have you ever thought about adopting a baby?

It’s no small decision. Couples wonder: Can we adopt? Why should or shouldn’t we adopt? What are the different kinds of adoption? What does it entail? What kind of protections and support would we have?

How much does it cost? What information do we need to know about raising an adopted child that’s different from raising a child that was born to us? How do we respond to our adopted child’s questions later on?

While there are many unknowns, it is also possible for couples to be armed with some of the most current information available so that they can make the best decision about adoption for themselves and their family.

Catholic Social Service will be hosting two orientation sessions and a workshop for couples who would like to know more.

The free orientations will be held at Neumann University in Dodge City (236 San Jose) on Sat., May 31, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, and at the Catholic Social Service office in Great Bend (2201 16th St) on Tues., June 3, 6:00-7:30 p.m.

For couples ready to take the next step towards adoption, a more intensive Open Adoption Workshop will take place on Sat., June 21, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Neumann University in Dodge City. There is a $500 fee for the day-long workshop.

“We are always in need of adoptive families,” said social worker Amy Falcon. “There is a perception that there are too many families wanting to adopt but this is just not the case. Our goal is to find families for the children who need homes.”

Catholic Social Service is licensed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and has been providing adoption services in southwest Kansas for almost 50 years.

For more information or to register for the adoption workshop series, contact Angela Schawe at aschawe@ catholisesocialservice.org, or call 620-792-1393.

Wilkens completes certification for Astym treatment

KJ Wilkens, a physical therapist at the Scott County Hospital, recently completed Astym certification.

Astym treatment is an evidence-based rehab program specifically designed to treat degenerative tendinopathies and scar tissue that can interfere with recovery after surgery or injury. Astym stimulates the body to regenerate and heal, decreases pain, enhances mobility and keeps patients active.

Astym therapy has proven effective in the treatment of tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, plantar fasciitis, chronic ankle sprains, shin splints, and post-op joint replacements, to name a few.

State plans to spend additional $9.5M for mental health services Dave Ranney KHI News Service

Gov. Sam Brownback announced on Wednesday that his administration will spend an additional $9.5 million on services for the mentally ill in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Most of new money - up to $7 million - will come from the state’s federally funded Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant.

The remainder will come from other sources including: •$2 million from a fund tied to the dissolution of Kansas Health Solutions, a managed care company that

was phased out after the launching of KanCare; •$500,000 from a Governor ’s Budget Amendment tied to savings from the KanCare program.

Brownback said the increase in spending was in response to a long list of recommendations he received from a task force in the wake of the elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn. The 16-member task force filed its report last month.

“These initiatives . . . will help improve mental health services across the state of Kansas,” he said.

The governor’s plan includes spending $350,000 on a comprehensive review

of the state’s mental health efforts, $500,000 on grants for programs aimed at keeping the mentally ill out of jail, $500,000 on 81 additional beds in drug treatment programs and $1 million on grants that community mental health centers use to offset the costs of caring for the uninsured.

Kansas Department for Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore said her agency plans to use most of its $7 million to expand services for at-risk families.

Many of the families, she said, include parents who are mentally ill, abuse drugs or alcohol, or both.

Their children often times

are in foster care.

“The children bear the brunt of their parents’ problems,” Gilmore said. “In the current fiscal year – since July 2013 – more than 3,000 children have been removed from home for a wide variety of reasons, including behavioral problems, neglect and physical abuse. Mental health issues are often at the root of the problems in the home.”

A portion of the money, she said, would be spent on vocational programs aimed at helping the mentally ill find and keep work.

Gilmore said DCF officials hadn’t decided exactly how the additional money (See MENTAL on page 15)

KanCare on slippery ground after $110M loss in first year The three companies that provide health care services to those in KanCare – the state’s privatized Medicaid program – all saw net losses during the first year of the program, according to a report by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

The losses have some concerned about the viability of the program and whether the companies will continue to work in Kansas.

“What’s Plan B if one or more people pull out?” asked Rep. Jim Ward (D-Wichita) who serves on the legislative joint com-

mittee on KanCare oversight. “(The companies are) not going to subsidize the Medicaid program if it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work, they will leave.

Fundamentally, at the end of the day, they have to make profit. They have shareholders and stockholders that hold them accountable.”

But state officials and others say one year is too short a time to make a judgment about the KanCare program, which was implemented in 2013.

State officials also note

that the companies are contractually obligated to provide services for three years, starting with 2013.

“That’s not a concern of ours,” said Kari Bruffett, director of health care finance at the KDHE. “The idea, the very concept of KanCare, is an investment in preventive services and other services and care to reduce costs.

It’s a long-term investment not only in savings but in better outcomes,” Bruffett said.

According to reports from the National Association of Insurance

New developments offer opportunities for growth Amy McGrath Russell Child/Development Center

Exciting developments are taking place at Russell Child Development Center.

This year has brought a significant amount of growth and change to the agency. Beginning July 1, RCDC will be assuming responsibility for providing Tiny-K Early Intervention services for infants and toddlers with developmental delays and their families in Seward County, bringing the total number of counties we serve with this program to 13.

The board is also the recipient of 2014 Early Childhood Blocks Grants (called “Building Blocks”) funded by

the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund through tobacco settlement dollars, providing a variety of early childhood programming in 18 Southwest Kansas counties.

In order to meet growing Tiny-K program caseload needs, to carry out new Building Blocks grant initiatives, and to fill vacancies due to three retirements and three resignations, we have been actively recruiting and hiring new staff members, while also facilitating several in-house transfers.

New hires to date include: Tiny-K Program: Two early childhood special education teachers, a speech language pathologist, a Registered Nurse, a social worker, (See GROWTH on page 15)

Commissioners, the companies lost more than $110 million collectively.

“It’s not unusual for first year to see operating losses,” Bruffett said, but it’s also “not about just one year.”

The state uses the NAIC reports, along with reports from the companies, to ensure that the companies are on solid financial ground, Bruffett said.

“All three have sound financial parent entities and have enough capital on hand to ensure meeting the (See KANCARE on page 15)

The Scott County Record • Page 15 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Mental would be spent. But parts of the initiative would focus on reducing needy parents’ dependency on government benefits, reducing out-of-wedlock pregnancies and promoting two-parent families.

Brownback said his plan did not call for expanding the state’s Medicaid program to include low-income, childless adults, many of whom are thought to be mentally ill.

Instead, the governor said his administration is focusing most of its efforts on eliminating waiting lists for commu-

(continued from page 14)

nity-based services for the physically and developmentally disabled, and on coping with the everincreasing numbers of people - children, pregnant women and frail elders, mostly - who are eligible for Medicaid.

In its report, the governor’s task force stopped short of urging expansion of Medicaid eligibility.

But it noted that consumers’ access to “the correct service at the time that it is needed” often depends on whether they are insured. Those with insurance are more likely to be treated than those

KanCare requirements of the contract,” she said.

Amerigroup representatives refused to be interviewed for this story.

Centene, the parent company of Sunflower, did not respond to interview requests.

Molly McMillen Malat, director of public relations for UnitedHealthcare, did not respond to requests for an interview but said in an e-mail that “it is difficult to forecast financials on any new business so we would expect some level of financial volatility in the first year of a program as robust and comprehensive as KanCare.”

She also said that, “Programs focused on

Growth and a bilingual paraeducator; and Building Blocks: Early childhood mental health consultant, Dodge City community liaison, two regional Triple P Positive Parenting Program coaches, and a regional outreach consultant.

When all vacancies are filled, we will employ 45 highly qualified individuals whose responsibilities require them to travel

without insurance.

Medicaid, or KanCare as it is known in Kansas, offers health coverage to the poor who are elderly or disabled and pregnant women.

According to the report, “A significant number of Kansans who lack health insurance are currently ineligible for Medicaid (most of these are working poor).“ A National Alliance on Mental Illness analysis last year found that more than 21,000 Kansans known to be mentally ill and uninsured would be eligible for Medicaid

if lawmakers agreed to expand the program.

“I think it’s pretty clear the (Brownback) administration is not interested in that right now,” said NAMI Kansas Executive Director Rick Cagan.

“But NAMI is still committed to an expanded Medicaid program because there’s a whole segment of the population that simply will not have access to quality mental health services without some type of insurance coverage.”

The task force also encouraged the governor to increase state aid that

(continued from page 14)

preventive services and engaging individuals on Medicaid in their health care will ultimately lead to better health outcomes and lower costs for the state.”

Track Record All three companies have a history of leaving Medicaid programs in other states amid financial and contractual problems.

In the fall of 2012, Kentucky Spirit Health Plan, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Centene, announced it was terminating its contract as a provider for Kentucky’s Medicaid program after one year with steep losses.

Court documents showed the health plan lost more than $120 million during its contract with Kentucky.

“Clearly, with this level of experience with Medicaid managed care, the Commonwealth expected that Centene and its state-based subsidiary Kentucky Spirit had a sound and tested business strategy,” Audrey Tayse Haynes, secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said in October 2012 about the contract termination.

“I am deeply frustrated that this publicly traded, Fortune 500 company has chosen to put profits

above people and will not honor the terms of its contract. The managed care model is working in many states and is working here in Kentucky.”

Centene currently operates as a managed-care organization in about 20 states.

Also in 2012, Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare announced it was dropping its contract for BadgerCare Plus, Wisconsin’s Medicaid program, because it said the state wasn’t paying enough to cover claims.

Earlier this year, the company announced it would return to the Medicaid program in Wisconsin.

(continued from page 14)

throughout the service area in order to meet the needs of children and families in their homes and other community settings.

Nine of our staff members reside in outlying communities while the rest are based out of our central office in Garden City. This steady growth brings with it opportunities to improve child outcomes, while also meeting the challenge of deliver-

ing high quality services across such a large, rural and diverse area.

In order to be successful we must recruit and retain talented staff, offer professional development opportunities, secure adequate resources, and provide functional work facilities.

We depend heavily upon our community partners to make the connections necessary to be successful. We appreciate the

financial support and leadership of those throughout our regional service area who have, and continue to, partner with us for the benefit of our youngest citizens.

If you would like more information on RCDC, our programs or services, visit us online at www. rcdc4kids.org, tweet us @RCDC4Kids, or follow us on facebook.com/ RCDC4Kids.

Kickoff summer reading at the Scott County Library by attending “Mad Science” • Tues., June 3, 7:00 p.m.

community mental health centers use to offset their costs of caring for the uninsured.

This state-funded support was cut from $31 million in fiscal year 2007 to $10 million in fiscal 2014. The governor’s plan will set aside an additional $1 million in fiscal 2015.

Cagan called the additional $1 million “inadequate,” noting that 60 percent of adults known to have a serious mental illness in Kansas currently are not receiving services.

“You would have to

perhaps double the size of the mental health centers’ budgets just as a starting point for being able to get all those people into treatment,” he said.

“Expanding Medicaid is the way to close that gap.”

Ric Dalke, executive director at the Area Mental Health Center in Garden City and a member of the governor’s task force, said the additional funding was a welcome development.

“This’ll be a great first stab at where it is that we need to be going,” Dalke said.

Pastime at Park Lane Church services last Sunday were led by the Gospel Fellowship Church.

Monday evening’s activity was Wii bowling.

Bible study on Tuesday morning was led by Jared Young. Elsie Nagle lead the singing and Doris Riner played the piano.

The entertainment on Tuesday afternoon was provided by Naomi Teubner who played patriotic songs in honor of Memorial Day. Jewell Unruh furnished cookies.

Trivia was played on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday morning Bible study was led by Warren Prochnow of Holy Cross Lutheran Church.

Wednesday afternoon bingo helper was Barbara Dickhut.

Thursday evening Bible study was led by Russell and Mary Webster.

Catholic mass on Fri-

Residents take bus tour of town

On Thursday and Friday afternoon several residents from Park Lane and Park Place went for a drive around town.

Transportation was provided by the VIP Center which offered the use of their buses. Bus drivers were Dan Wiedes and Linda Parks.

Pitch, dominoes played Monday

Helpers with pitch and dominoes on Monday afternoon were Madeline Murphy, Dorothy King, Mandy Barnett, Hugh McDaniel, Wanda Kirk, Charlotte Utley from Oklahoma and Kliford Kirk from Florida. day morning was led by Fr. Bernard Felix.

Park Lane thanks Irmalee Eggelston for playing the piano and Paul Binford for the flowers brought from his garden.

Lorena Turley was visited by Neta Wheeler, Tracy Hess, Roy and Tina Turley, Doug and Bert See, Phyllis See, Madison Braun, Arlene Cauthon and Rex Turley.

Vivian Kreiser was visited by Larry and Sharon Lock.

Albert Dean was visited by Nancy Holt, and Brian and Charlene Geist.

Richard Kirk was visited by Wanda Kirk, Doreen Kirk, Klifton Kirk, Marleigh Kirk, Renee Garcia, Dustin Kirk, Roy and Mary Kirk, Devin Kirk, Devin Holder and Steven Kirk.

The Scott County Record • Page 16 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Thelma Branine was visited by Allen Branine, Jackie Branine, Debbie Hawkins, Bob Cooper, Rick Wilson, Rhonda Wilson, Stephanie Harms, Nadley Harms, Chandler Hornbostel, Sherrie Smith and Hunter Smith.

Dottie Fouquet was visited by Jon and Anne Crane.

Cecile Billings was visited by Ann Beaton, Larry Billings, Jerry Ribbing and Edith Ann Oxford.

Prim Suppes was visited by Wayne and Nancy Gerstner, Karen Gibbs, Ron and Shirley Suppes, Julie and Brayden Gibbs, Madison Westergard, Riley Suppes, Mike and Debbie Reystead, Kim and Jami Simmons and Ben and Jake Simons.

Dona Dee Carpenter’s visitors were Roger and Jackie John, Gloria O’Blenness and Larry LaPlant.

Deaths

Bonnie Pickett was visited by Gloria Wright, Ila Head, Jo Jones, Larry and Philene Pickett, Justin and Elizabeth Wright, and Eli and Ethan Wright.

Clifford Dearden ws visited by Kirk and Janet Ottoway.

Jake Leatherman was visited by Otto Harp.

Lucille Dirks was visited by Cathy Graff and Vickie Dirks.

Geraldine Graves was vistied by Charlene Becht, Gus Sheley and Howard Sheley.

Boots Haxton, Melissa Jasnoch and Debra Carlson were dinner guests of Rod and Kathy Haxton. Debra is a cousin of Kathy Haxton and is here for a visit. Rod took Boots to the cemetery at Oakley and they also visited Bob and Edith Clark.

Earl Gorman was visited by Loretta Gorman and Charlene Becht.

Edith Norman was visited by Doris Riner, Ron and Sue Riner, Sara Shane and Kambra Dearden.

Ann Tedford was visited by Doris Riner, Mary Plum and Darla Luebers.

Harriet Jones was visited by Nancy Holt, Rev. Don Martin and Mary Plum.

Herb Graves was visited by Emily Wright and Tina Turley.

Mike Leach was visited

by Rev. Don Martin.

Verna Willman was visited by Nancy Johnson and Bob Willman.

Darlene Richman was visited by Debra Farr, Gus Sheley and Cristine Nicholes.

Jim and Yvonne Spangler were visited by Yvette Mills and Les and Mary Ann Spangler.

Delores Brooks was visited by Nancy Holt, Charles Brooks and Cheryl Perry.

Sr. Citizen Lunch Menu

Raymond Dale Winter

Jeremy Kol Grubb

Raymond Dale Winter, 95, died May 27, 2014, at the Garden Valley Retirement Village, Garden City.

H e was born on May 23, 1919, in Scott City, the son of Raymond Winter Harmon Duncan and Katherine J. (Arnold) Winter.

A Garden City resident since the mid 1970s, he had been the owner and operator of Winter’s Cleaners, Scott City, for many years.

Raymond was a member of the VFW, Finney County Senior Center and a past member of the Eagles Lodge, Garden City, and was a US Army veteran of WWII. He married Donna Teeters, and later married Peggy Hartley Ferris on October 20, 1979, at Garden City. She survives.

Other survivors include: one son, Raymond

Jeremy Kol Grubb, 36, died May 21, 2014, in Wichita.

H e was born Nov. 1, 1 9 7 7 , in Scott City, the son of Jeremy Grubb William and Patricia (Dizmang) Lorg. Bryon Grubb formally adopted Jeremy as his son.

A lifetime resident of Tribune, he was a farmer and partner in Grubb Custom Harvesting.

Jeremy was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tribune.

On Dec. 31, 2001, Jeremy married Ashley W. Morgan in Tribune, she survives.

Other survivors includes: two sons, Brodey and Rowdy, Tribune; father, of Tribune; mother, Patricia Harrison, and husband, Donald, Arvada, Colo.; three brothers, Shannon Dizmang, and wife, Kara, Thornton, Colo., William Grubb, and wife, Skyler, Tribune, and

Adair, and wife, Gail, Borger, Tex.; three daughters, Peggy Elaine Unger, Scott City, Denise Eileen Breitenbach, and husband, Rick, Broomfield, Colo., and Marlene Annette Winter, Wichita; two step-sons, Ron Ferris, and wife, Nancy, Hutchinson, and Alan Ferris and wife, Sandy, Ephrata, Wash.; one step-daughter, Linda Setter of Tennessee; 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by two brothers, Homer and Harold; and three sisters, Karoline Sweeney, Dorothy Brattin and Virginia Vogt.

Graveside service will be held Sat., May 31, 11:00 a.m., at the Scott County Cemetery with military honors.

There will not be a public visitation.

Memorials may be given to the Raymond Winter Memorial Fund in care of Price and Sons Funeral Home, 620 N. Main, Garden City, Ks. 67846.

Joe Louis Lara Joe Louis Lara, 63, died Feb. 23, 2014, in Sante Fe, N.M. H e was born Sept. 23, 1951, in Lubbock, T e x . , Joe Lara the son of John and Lilly (Sanchez) Lara.

Raised in Scott City, Joe was a carpenter by trade.

He was a veteran of the Vietnam War, earning a Silver Star.

Survivors include: his mother, Colorado Springs;

by Jason Storm

one brother, Shorty Lara and wife, Jamie, Scott City; one step-brother, Joey Lara, and wife, Judy, Colorado Springs, Colo.; two sisters, Lori Thalcher and husband, Jim, Colorado Springs, and Josie Trujillo and husband, Steve, of Nebraska; one uncle; two aunts; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his father, grandparents and three uncles.

Cremation has taken place.

Memorials may be sent to 1105 Elizabeth, Scott City, Ks. 67871.

Dustin Grubb, Tribune; father and mother-in-law, Alan and Loretta Morgan, Amarillo, Tex.; grandparents, John and Edna Grubb, Tribune; sister-inlaw, Lindsey Morgan, and John Zavala, Austin, Tex.; and five nephews.

He was preceded in death by his birth father, Bill Lorg; one uncle, Gary Grubb; a grandfather, Virgil Lorg; grandparents, Chuck and Patricia Dizmang; and aunt, Kathy Dirks.

Funeral service was May 27 at the United Methodist Church, Tribune, with Rev. Rick Kingham officiating.

Burial was at the Greeley County Cemetery.

Memorials may be given to the Brodey and Rowdy Grubb education fund in care of Price and Sons Funeral Home, 322 2nd St., Tribune, Ks. 67879.

Condolences may be sent to the family through the funeral home website at priceandsons.com.

Week of June 2-6 Monday: Meat loaf, Romanoff potatoes, winter mix, whole wheat bread, mandarin oranges.

Tuesday: Deli sandwich, three-bean salad, deli fixins, apricots.

Wednesday: Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, whole wheat roll, fruit gelatin.

Thursday: Baked fish, potato salad, perfection gelatin salad, whole wheat roll, strawberries and pears.

Friday: Chicken salad sandwich, peas, creamy cole slaw, whole wheat bread, rosy applesauce. meals are $3.25 • call 872-3501

The Scott County Record • Page 17 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

AARP of Kansas tackling Medicare, discrimination, safety

In the midst of Older Americans Month, AARP Kansas visited Capitol Hill to urge their elected representatives to back bills, including the Older Americans Act, that can help Americans live their best lives.

AARP representatives visited each member of the Kansas Congressional delegation.

“This Congress has an opportunity to pass bipartisan legislation that benefits older Americans from Kansas including the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act, the landmark 1965 law that helps provide essential services to millions of our most vulnerable seniors,” said AARP Kansas State President Glenda DuBoise.

The issues that AARP Kansas raised with members of the House and Senate include: •Reauthorization of the bipartisan Older Americans Act provides an array of programs and services to assist, protect and provide seniors with dignity and independence.

•Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR): Also known as the “Doc Fix,” Medicare beneficiaries and doctors shouldn’t have to deal with the uncertainty of short-term solution after short-term solution.

Doctors and their patients deserve a stable, predictable reimburse-

ment system that will encourage doctors and providers to deliver highquality care.

AARP supports a permanent repeal of SGR and a move toward a reimbursement system that promotes quality and value without shifting costs onto beneficiaries through higher cost-sharing or reduced benefits.

•Responsible Solutions for Medicare’s Adequacy and Solvency.

This can be achieved without shifting costs onto beneficiaries through higher cost-sharing or reduced benefits.

•The Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act. Passage would protect workers by reestablishing the principle that unlawful discrimination should not play a role in workplace decisions. A recent Supreme Court decision made it more difficult for older workers to prove claims of illegal bias based on age.

•The Safe Streets Act. Passage would ensure that planners and traffic engineers design, construct, and operate roads with the safety of all users in mind by directing states and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to create a “safe streets” policy within two years of enactment.

The policy would be different for each community.

Attend the Church of Your Choice

The Rebel Yell

Often, at this time every year, many of us are reminded of the cost of the freedoms we enjoy. Almost all of us, if we have not had a family member in the military, know someone that has.

We are called to reflect on those brave men and women that have given their lives in order for us to indulge in the lives we have. At the end of every May we remember the fallen and rejoice in the freedom by gathering together for some sort of food and fellowship with those that are like us.

Have we ever really considered what it was that the blood and sweat of so many American lives was intended to purchase?

Was it the right to own three cars? Or was it the privilege to destroy the family because we no longer “feel” the same way? Maybe they bought us the desire to live life the way we want with no regard for anyone but ourselves.

A solider is chosen to answer a call that is, for the most part, voluntary. They are tasked with protecting the freedoms and lives of others with little regard for their own. Upon entering the armed service a person’s freedom is stripped from them. Their right to decide for themselves where they will go and what they will do is held in the iron grip of the government.

Their lives are no longer their own but are now the property of a self-righteous, self-indulgent society that is more concerned with their own lusts than in honoring the reason these men and women willfully sacrificed their own desires, freedoms, and lives. So what was purchased?

The liberty to do what we ought; not the right to do what we want was what so many have given their lives for.

That is true freedom. Real and lasting freedom is not built on the whims of the many but on the vision of the few.

Peace is not purchased by the desires of the flesh but by the blood of the fallen.

Wants, desires, lusts, whims, and urges do not makes a strong foundation, but sway and vacillate with time and thought. However, honor, valor, humility, and commitment do not change like the wind and when these are in line with a vision that is beyond ourselves, a vision that requires sacrifice, than we achieve true freedom.

“We are persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the dying of the body of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” 2 Cor. 4:9-10 Jared Young, youth pastor First Baptist Church, Scott City

Scott City Assembly of God

1615 South Main - Scott City - 872-2200 Ed Sanderson, Senior Pastor 9:00 a.m. - Pre-Service Prayer 10:00 a.m. - Sunday Worship Service and Children’s Church Wednesday: 7:00 p.m. - Bible Study and Prayer

St. Joseph Catholic Church

Prairie View Church of the Brethren

4855 Finney-Scott Rd. - Scott City - 276-6481 Pastor Jon Tuttle Sunday School: 10:00 a.m.

Morning Worship: 11:00 a.m.

Men’s Fellowship • Wednesday mornings Breakfast at 6:30 a.m.

Held at Precision Ag Bldg. west of Shallow Water

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

A Catholic Christian Community 1002 S. Main Street - Scott City Fr. Bernard Felix, pastor • 872-7388 Secretary • 872-3644 Masses: 1st Sunday of month - 8:30 and 11:00 a.m.

Other weekends: Sat., 6:00 p.m.; Sun., 11:00 a.m.

Spanish Mass - 2nd and 4th Sundays, 1:30 p.m.

1102 Court • Box 283 • Scott City 620-872-2294 • 620-872-3796 Pastor Warren Prochnow holycross-scott@sbcglobal.net Sunday School/Bible Class, 9:00 a.m.

Worship every Sunday, 10:15 a.m.

Wed.: Mid-Week School, 6:00-7:30 p.m.

Pence Community Church

Community Christian Church

8911 W. Road 270 10 miles north on US83; 2 miles north on K95; 9 miles west on Rd. 270 Don Williams, pastor • 874-2031 Wednesdays: supper (6:30 p.m.) • Kid’s Group and Adult Bible Study (7:00 p.m.) • Youth Group (8:00 p.m.)

Sunday School: 9:30 • Morning Worship: 10:30 a.m.

12th & Jackson • Scott City • 872-3219 Shelby Crawford, pastor Sunday School, 9:30 a.m.

Sunday Morning Worship, 10:45 a.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday: God’s High School Cru, 7:30 p.m.

First Baptist Church

Immanuel Southern Baptist Church

803 College - Scott City - 872-2339 Kyle Evans, Senior Pastor Bob Artz, Associate Pastor

1398 S. US83 - Scott City - 872-2264 Robert Nuckolls, pastor - 872-5041

Sunday School, 9:30 a.m.

Sunday School: 9:45 a.m. • Worship: 11:00 a.m.

Sunday morning worship: 8:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.

Wednesday Bible Study, 7:00 p.m.

Gospel Fellowship Church

1st United Methodist Church

Morning Worship: 10:30 a.m.

5th Street and College - Scott City - 872-2401 Dennis Carter, pastor 1st Sunday: Communion and Fellowship Sunday Services at 9:00 a.m. • Sunday School, 10:30 a.m.

All Other Sundays • Worship: 8:30 and 10:45 a.m.

Sunday casual 6:30 p.m.: “The Way” contemporary gathering Sunday School: 9:30 a.m. • MYF (youth groups) on Wednesdays Jr. High: 6:30 p.m. • Sr. High: 7:00 p.m.

First Christian Church

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

120 S. Lovers Lane - Shallow Water Larry Taylor, pastor Sunday School: 9:30 a.m.

701 Main - Scott City - 872-2937 Scotty Wagner, pastor Sunday School, 9:30 a.m.; Worship, 10:45 a.m.

Wednesday is Family Night Meal: 5:45 p.m. • Study: 6:15 p.m.

Website: www.fccscottcity.org

Elizabeth/Epperson Drives • Scott City • 872-3666 Father Don Martin Holy Eucharist - 11:45 a.m.

St. Luke’s - 872-5734 (recorded message) Senior Warden Bill Lewis • 872-3347 or Father Don Martin - (785) 462-3041

Scott Mennonite Church

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

12021 N. Eagle Rd. • Scott City Franklin Koehn: 872-2048 Charles Nightengale: 872-3056 Sunday School Worship Service: 10:00 a.m.

Sunday Evening Service: 7:00 p.m.

9th and Crescent - Scott City - 872-2334 Bishop Irvin Yeager • 620-397-2732 Sacrament, 9:30 a.m.

Sunday School, 10:50 a.m.

Relief Society and Priesthood, 11:20 a.m.

YMYW Wednesday, 8:00 p.m.

Peregrino among top ed grads at Kansas State Miriam Peregrino, Scott City, is among five College of Education graduates recognized for outstanding work at Kansas State University.

The college’s Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award was presented to five graduates who demonstrated outstanding leadership and scholarship. In addition, Peregrino was honored as a Teacher of Promise She graduated with a degree in elementary education with an emphasis in English as a second language.

She was a member of Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society; the American Red Cross Club; the Bilingual Education Students Interacting to Obtain Success, or BESITOS; the Bilingual Education Student Organization, or BESO; and was a BESO Education Council representative.

Peregrino was a university semester honors list student.

A 2010 graduate of Scott Community High School, she is the daughter of Elisa Moreno and Sergio Peregrino.

The Scott County Record • Page 18 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Farm Bureau poster winners

SCORE 4-Hers learn about Barnyard Olympics

The New Horizons 4-H Club helped make the last week of school a little more fun for the SCORE kids by hosting AfterSchool 4-H. Our club couldn’t think of a better way to promote 4-H and the upcoming fair than to show the kids one of our favorite events - the Barnyard Olympics! We had fun and we think the SCORE kids did, too.

The Barnyard Olympics course consisted of a stick horse race through cones, a dig through a pan of steer feed to find a small black and white cow, a search of the duck pond to find duck No. 4, a wagon ride to the bucket toss, and a wheelbarrow crawl to the finish line where the team members had to use pool noodles to make a human fence.

I hope everyone practices up their Barnyard Olympic skills and heads out to the fair! It’s a fun time!

Kylee Logan, reporter

County winners in the Scott County Farm Bureau safety poster contest were: (Top) Division 1 - grades 1-2 (from left) Brevin Nightengale, 1st; Waylon Ricker, 2nd; Taylor Koehn, 3rd; and Erin Koehn, honorable mention.

(Right) Division 3 - grades 5-6 (from left) Elle Nightengale, 1st; and Paige Prewit, 3rd. Not pictured are Kaely Capps, 2nd, and Annie Stratmeier, honorable mention.

(Below) Division 2 - grades 3-4 (from left) Evan Koehn, 1st; Wyatt Ricker, 2nd; and Chelsi Rose, honorable mention. Not pictured is Jerika Nightengale, 3rd.

Brevin Nightengale and Evan Koehn also earned honorable mention at the state level.

(Record Photos)

County Plat Maps

McDaniel earns degree from Southwestern

Scott

Logan

Ness

Wichita

Gove

Wallace

Lane

Greeley

Finney Kearney

Sam McDaniel, Scott City, graduated from Southwestern College, Winfield, with a bachelor of arts degree in business administration.

He is the son of Tom and Pam McDaniel.

406 Main • Scott City 620 872-2090

Kasselman wins statewide bookmark art contest

Emily Kasselman has a gift for creating winning artwork.

The Scott City student was a first place winner in the second grade division of the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (KFAC) and the Kansas State University College of Agriculture Bookmark Art Contest.

Kasselman had previously been a statewide winner in a postcard contest sponsored by the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom.

4-H Club News

Kasselman was among eight elementary students in grades K-6 who attended the Bookmark Art and Teacher of the Year celebration in Topeka.

Assistant Kansas Secretary of Agriculture, Jake Worcester, and Associate Dean for Academic Programs for the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University, Don Boggs, recognized the students. They also had a photo opportunity with Gov. Sam Brownback.

Kasselman was award-

ed $50 and a framed copy of her artwork.

More than 900 students from across the state entered this year’s contest by designing a bookmark around the theme “Plants on the Plate.”

The Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom has been

hosting the contest since 1999. Winning entries can be viewed on the Foundation’s website at www. ksagclassroom.org, under the “Students” tab.

Packets of winning postcards are available for a $10 donation to the foundation. The order form is available online.

Sports

Statebound

what a finish

The Scott County Record

www.scottcountyrecord.com

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Brother, sister from Dighton High School are regional champs • Page 21

Page 19

Wycoff’s anchor keeps 4x400m state hopes alive A gold medal sweep in the 100m, 200m and 400m wasn’t a surprise for Scott City’s Kelly Wycoff at Friday’s Class 4A regional track meet in Abilene.

But what the Scott Community High School senior did in the 4x400m relay may have cemented her position as one of the top female sprinters in school history.

Wycoff ran a career best 56.5 anchor split in the relay, taking the relay from eighth place to third place in Abilene regional, qualifying the squad for this weekend’s state meet

in Wichita.

Wycoff’s performance brought hugs and tears from her relay teammates who thought their chances for a return trip to state were all but gone when she had so much ground to make up.

“I wasn’t sure I could do it,” admitted Wycoff in one of the rare moments when she may have doubted her own ability.

Even though Scott City entered regional with the second fastest relay qualifying they fell behind early and were unable to (See WYCOFF on page 26)

SCHS senior Kelly Wycoff leans for the finish line following a tremendous anchor leg that saw her taking the 4x400m relay from eighth place to third and qualifying for the Class 4A state meet in Wichita.

(Record Photo)

Wycoff breaks 400m record; Nickel qualifies in hurdles, triple jump

Rod Haxton, sports editor

Athleticism is nothing without heart There are lots of athletes who have the physical skills and talent to compete, and compete well. We have the opportunity to see it all the time at the high school and even junior high level.

But, how often have you heard someone remark, “They have all this god-given talent and they aren’t even using it.”

There’s an intangible that sets some athletes apart from the rest - call it mental toughness . . . or heart.

Make no mistake about it, a coach will take someone with less talent and the heart to compete over the more talented athlete any time. And when you have an athlete who combines both qualities well, then you have someone special.

Anyone who saw Jackie Stiles, the phenom from Claflin, during her high school career had the privilege of seeing such a competitor. Even when she had lost a step in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m by her junior and senior years, she made up for it with her desire. Even against athletes who were faster and, perhaps, more talented, Stiles found a way to win.

Scott Community High School has had the good fortune to have many athletes who possessed that intangible ability to dig deep within themselves and win.

Lucas Fox, for example, was a major underdog in his state championship wrestling match, but he found a way to become a state champion.

Trace Kendrick was a cross-country state champion and claimed four gold medals in state track his senior year, not only because he was a talented runner, but because he refused to lose.

There was a time when SCHS head coach Jim Turner wasn’t sure whether Wyatt Kropp would be able to secure a spot on the 4x400m relay.

The Scott Community High School sophomore put those doubts to rest with a career best 400-meter split during Friday’s Class 4A regional track meet as the relay easily claimed a gold medal and earned a trip to the state track meet this weekend in Wichita.

The relay posted its fastest time of the year at 3:29.27 - improving on their previous best by 1.3 seconds - and coasted to a first place finish by nearly two seconds.

“Wyatt’s a competitor. Give him someone to chase down and he’s going to try to find a way to win,” says Turner.

In addition to Kropp’s 52.63 split in the No. 3 spot, senior Brayden Strine (51.52) ran his fastest relay split of the season in the leadoff position. They were joined by sophomore Drake McRae (53.63) and anchor runner Brett Meyer (51.22).

Even with Strine’s strong opening split, the Beavers were about four meters behind Goodland following the first exchange. By the time Kropp completed the final exchange to Meyer they had built a three meter lead.

(See HEART on page 22)

(See RELAY on page 20)

Scott City’s Bailey Nickel races to a third place finish in the 100m high hurdles at the Abilene regional and qualifies for state.

(Record Photo)

Kelly Wycoff’s track career has reached the point where gold medals are the standard and, when she does break a school record, it probably belonged to her already.

That was the case in Friday’s Class 4A regional track meet where Wycoff had little trouble claiming gold medals in the 100m (12.68), 200m (25.64) and 400m (57.88).

The Scott Community High School senior ran a career best in the 400m, breaking her own school record of 57.96 that she set two years ago.

While her winning times in the 100m and 200m were respectable, they weren’t great - not by Wycoff standards. And that was just fine with head coach Jim Turner.

“She was clearly better than anyone else.

There’s no sense in taking a chance with a false start,” noted Turner. “She was conservative coming out of the blocks which was smart.”

It didn’t hurt either that track officials, because of an hour-long rain delay, decided not to have any prelims but to have all heats running against the clock. That meant instead of five races - and possibly more had there been semi-finals in the 100m or (See NICKEL on page 26)

4x400m relay, Meyer claim regional titles

SCHS sophomore Cooper Griffith takes the baton from Brayden Strine in the 4x100m relay at the regional track meet.

(Record Photo)

The Scott County Record • Page 20 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Outdoors in Kansas

by Steve Gilliland

Pest hunts are useful recreation

When I was 16, I had that all-too-common “doesn’t work to his potential” syndrome.

FFA (Future Farmers of America) could have stood for Famous Fruits of Arabia, Fat Farmers of Australia or Flying Felines of Armenia for all I knew. But FFA was okay in my book because we had pest hunts!

Pest hunts started in the fall and ran for a couple months. We divided into teams of four or five and for that brief time we killed all the pests we could kill.

Everything had a point value: starlings and blackbirds were two points each; pigeons were five; and so on and so forth. It was a simple competition to see which team could accumulate the most points by the end of the time period.

As proof of “capture,” the heads of all birds were kept, and the tails were kept from mice, rats, opossums and most everything else.

Since all “trophies” were accumulated until the contest was over, they naturally had to be housed in the freezer. And since most folks only had one freezer back then, it was the same freezer where all the frozen meat, vegetables and fruit were kept.

Yup, more than once I remember mom screamin’ my name in capital letters when she came up with a bag full of bird heads or opossum tails instead of the frozen corn or hamburgers she was after.

The pest hunting game plan was fairly straightforward. We were all farm kids so mice and rats were killed as we saw them around the barn.

We were also hunters and trappers so opossums were found squashed along the road or caught in our coon’ traps, in which (See PEST on page 22)

Relay (continued from page 19)

Russell (3:31.07) slipped into the runner-up spot just ahead of Goodland (3:31.79).

It helps me when I have someone to chase,” said Kropp about his career best time. “You know that Brett’s such a strong runner that if we can give him the baton with the lead or at least in a tie that he can finish it off from there.”

Meyer easily protected the lead and was able to coast home the final 100 meters.

McRae, who also earned his spot on the relay late in the season, was just off his season best of 53.51.

“I’m really proud of how much I’ve been able to improve and help this team,” says McRae. “We have some great runners and you have to work hard to earn a spot on (this relay). Now we’ll see what we can do at state.”

4x800m Earns Silver The Beavers also had their fastest time of the season in the 4x800m, but had to settle for a silver medal in 8:19.99. While SCHS improved on their season best by 5.4 seconds, that was no match for Abilene which sliced more than 10-1/2 seconds off their previous best to claim the regional title in 8:15.89.

Meyer ran a career best 1:58.54 opening split in the relay, giving his team a 10 meter lead at the exchange with Irvin Lozano (2:07.57). That was followed by junior Miguel Chavez (2:07.69) who gave the Beavers a brief lead again with 200 meters remaining in his third leg, however he had slipped about 10 meters behind the leader when he gave the baton to Strine (2:05.57).

Even though the Beavers entered regional with the fastest qualifying time in both relays, Strine said

SCHS sophomore Irvin Lozano heads for the finish line in the 400m for a sixth place at the regional track meet. (Right) Sophomore Wyatt Kropp finishes sixth in the 300m intermediate hurdles.

(Record Photos)

they couldn’t take anything for granted.

“You don’t want to take any chances of not getting to state,” he said. “You have to have the mindset that you aren’t going to leave anything on the track.”

But the senior knows they will have to run even faster this weekend.

“We’ve been improving in both relays and today we finally got our times to where we thought they should be. Now we just have to cut a few more seconds off (at state),” Strine says.

Meyer Wins 800m After he “chilled” for the first 500 meters, Meyer made his move on the back stretch and pulled away to win the 800m gold medal in 2:01.36 nearly a full second ahead of Goodland’s Adam Simmerman (2:02.31) who he has dualed with throughout the season.

Even though Meyer was in third place at the midway point and didn’t

take the lead until about 240 meters remaining, there was little doubt that the junior was in control of the race.

“I felt good about how I was running and where I was at in the race,” Meyer says. “I just chilled until I was ready to make a move. I was confident I could take (the two leaders) at the end.”

“It helped that he ran a 1:58 split in the relay earlier,” says Turner. “That showed he can do it and he was able to relax a little more (in the 800m) and not worry about breaking two minutes.”

Strine (3rd, 51.75) also qualified in the 400m just 8/100 of a second off his career best. He finished behind sophomores Noah Gfeller (Russell, 50.85) and Andrew Schwarting (Abilene, 51.18).

SCHS had sixth place finishes in three events - Kropp in the 300m int. hurdles (42.97), Lozano in the 400m (53.82) and Wyatt Eitel in the discus (127-0).

The 4x100m relay appeared to be headed for their fastest time of the season and a possible state qualifying berth until Cooper Griffith and Meyer failed to make a connection on the final exchange.

“I think they could have had a 45.1, which would

have gotten them to state.

They were looking pretty good,” says Turner.

Other members of the relay were Kropp and Strine.

Goodland (72) won the team title, followed by Hoyt-Royal Valley (58) and Buhler (53). SCHS (37) finished seventh.

Hutchins fires 87 at Class 4A state tournament

The strategy was pretty simple for Marshal Hutchins during Monday’s Class 4A state golf tournament.

Keep the ball in play and avoid hazards.

In order to do that the Scott Community High School junior left his driver in the vehicle and opted for a hybrid three wood off the tee over the difficult Firekeeper Golf

Course near Topeka.

It paid off as Hutchins missed just two fairways while firing an 87 over the 18-hole layout.

While it didn’t put him into the medals, Hutchins was still pleased with his play.

“I felt good about how well I was hitting the ball,” says Hutchins. “If you didn’t keep the ball in the fairway you were

going to pay for it. Even in the first cut you just had to try to get the ball back into the fairway. You couldn’t think about hitting a big iron.

“In the second cut you were lucky to find your ball.”

After competing in his second consecutive state tournament, Hutchins has his sights set on returning next year and climbing

higher on the leaderboard.

That also means some work during the summer with his driver.

“My length off the tee is one of the keys to my game,” he says, “but I need to control my drives better. That’s something I’ll be working on this summer.”

Topeka Hayden (314) won the team title, followed by Buhler (329)

and Ottawa (333). Larned (340), the regional runner-up from Western Kansas, finished fifth while regional champion Goodland (355) finished in 12th place.

Medalist was Marc McLain (Bonner Springs) with a three under par 69.

Gage Ihrig (Goodland, 74), finished third.

There were 106 golfers in the field.

The Scott County Record • Page 21 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Speers are gold medalists in regional track The Speer duo of Ben and Jordan had their best efforts of the season in claiming gold medals at the Class 1A regional track meet in Hays last Friday.

Ben Speer, a senior, easily outdistanced the field in the discus with a mark of 158-3 which gives him the No. 1 seed in the state meet this weekend in Wichita.

Speer failed to advance to state in the shot put with a toss of 44-0 3/4, which was good enough for eighth.

The only other DHS boy who will be competing at state is sophomore Wyatt Habiger who’s toss of 158-11 in the javelin was also a season best and earned him a bronze medal.

That puts Habiger in the No. 6 spot at state.

Habiger also competed in the discus where he finished 10th with a distance of 127-10.

J. Speer is First J. Speer clearly established herself as the athlete to beat in the shot put following a great performance at regional. The freshman’s toss of 39-10 1/2 not only gained her a gold medal,

Dighton freshman Jordan Speer competes in the discus earlier this season.

but is 1-1/2 feet better than the No. 2 competitor in the Class 1A state field.

Speer fell shy of qualifying in either the discus (8th, 92-5)

or javelin (9th, 99-2).

Two other state qualifiers Sophomore Payden Shapland from a year ago failed to make earned a berth in the state meet return trips. with a runner-up finish in the Dakota Hoffman (5th, 64.9) 3200m (13:21.63). missed a fourth place medal

(Record Photo)

and state berth by 81/100 of a second in the 400m.

Likewise, Kiara Budd, a state finalist in the 200m last year, also finished fifth in 28.86.

Mehl, Kenfield are Class 2A regional champions Wichita County High School senior Josh Mehl claimed a gold medal in the 800m and added a silver in the 1600m to earn yet another trip to the Class 2A state track meet this weekend.

Competing in the regional meet at Smith Center, Mehl survived a very competitive 800m with a winning time of 2:03.

Only 44/100 of a second separate the top four runners.

The senior was on the other end of a very close race in the 1600m with a runner-up time of 4:32.17 - just 3/100 of a second

behind long distance standout Pedro Montoya (Ellinwood) and only 22/100 of a second ahead of Forrest Dreyer (El Saline).

Senior Jantz Budde (2nd, 24.25) qualified for state in the 200m, just ahead of teammate Jacob Schumacher (3rd, 24.32).

After posting the third fastest time in the 100m prelims, Budde slipped back into sixth place in the finals with a time of 11.97.

The Indians were hoping to send two relays to state and

they accomplished that goal with the 4x400m (4th, 3:38.42) and the 4x800m (3rd, 8:27.6).

Members of the 4x800m are Jorge Gallegos, Layton Tankersley, Mehl and Thomas Ridder. Competing on the 4x400m will be Budde, Gallegos, Mehl and Schumacher.

Freshman Juan Alvarado is the only other state qualifier among the WCHS boys after placing fifth in the high jump with a height of 5-8.

Sophomore Gabe Fletcher (5th, 42.85) was just 83/100 of

a second out of fourth place in the 300m int. hurdles.

Senior Thomas Ridder finished fifth in the 1600m (4:46.65) and was sixth in the 800m (2:08.52).

Junior Bryson Bloedorn was fifth in the shot put with a distance of 42-11.

Kenfield Wins 200m Junior Vallie Kenfield ran away from the field for a gold medal in the 200m in a time of 26.95 - 41/100 of a second ahead of the runner-up.

After winning a state medal

in the javelin last year, Katie Bailey won’t have a chance to duplicate that achievement after finishing ninth on Saturday with a toss of 104-2. Kenfield had a toss of 113-4, but had to settle for sixth place.

Bailey will be going to state in the 800m (4th, 2:42.11) and will be joined by sophomore Hannah Martin in the high jump (4th, 4-8).

Martin was also sixth in the 1600m (5:53.32) and seventh in the 300m hurdles (53.05).

Kinzie Bangerter was sixth in the pole vault (6-6).

No room for error with SCHS thinclads Qualifying for state was only the first major hurdle for Scott Community High School thinclads.

Getting on the awards stand by finishing among the top eight at the Class 4A track meet this weekend will be the next big challenge for SCHS - even for the five regional champions.

“We can look at how our kids rank in the state and try to figure our chances of getting a medal, but at the end of the day you just have to go out and compete,” says head coach Jim Turner.

The Beavers have qualified for state in 11 events - seven by

the girls and four in the boy’s division.

Senior Kelly Wycoff has the potential for a huge weekend as a regional champion in the 100m, 200m and 400m along with being a member of the 4x400m relay.

Despite having never lost a race this season, Wycoff will face a huge challenge in keeping that streak intact.

She is sitting in the No. 6 spot among regional qualifiers in the 100m with a time of 12.68. Leading the field is KC Piper’s Tristian Davis (12.37).

However, Wycoff has a sea-

son best of 12.21.

Wycoff is the No. 2 seed in the 200m (25.64) behind Coffeyfield-Kindley’s Andre’a Newton (25.54). However, Wycoff has run a 25.25 this season.

Perhaps the feature race in the Class 4A girl’s division will be the 400m where three girls had sub-58 second times in their regional.

Leading the group is Morgan Lober (Baldwin, 56.8), followed by Courtney Griffith (57.54) and Wycoff (57.88).

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see all three girls in the low 56 (second) range,” says Turner.

“It could be a great race.”

Nickel 6th in Hurdles Senior Bailey Nickel enters state with the sixth fastest regional time in the 100m high hurdles (16.21) and is seeded 11th in the triple jump (33-0 3/4).

However, Nickel has the potential to be one of the major surprises in the hurdles.

“It all comes down to her trail leg,” says the head coach.

“She does a great job in practice of bringing it over the hurdle and striding out. If she’ll focus on that during state I think she

can shock the field and possibly place as high as second.”

Talia Highbarger (TowandaCircle) is favored to win the gold medal with a regional best of 15.62. However, less than 3/10 of a second separates the No. 3 through 6 qualifiers.

A state medal is also within reach of Nickel in the triple jump where her season best of 33-8 would put her among the top six.

After barely slipping into state in the 4x400m relay with a time of 4:11.41, the Lady Beavers still earned a spot in the (See THINCLADS on page 23)

Attend the annual OK Kids Day at Lake Scott State Park • Sat., June 14 • 10:00 a.m.

Svi is a major recruiting coup for the Jayhawks Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, once again, pulled a very special rabbit out of his recruiting hat when Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (68, 175) from Cherkasy, Ukraine, signed a late national letter-of-intent to play for the Jayhawks.

Self was by ecstatic over Mac his recruiting Stevenson coup which landed the soon-to-be 17-year-old.

“Obviously, this is great news for us . . . his skill level, knowledge and aptitude for the game are way beyond his years. I think that he will be an immediate impact guy,” said Self.

He can play all three positions on the perimeter.

At 6-8, he can play point, shooting guard or small forward.

“He allows us to be more versatile next year and certainly there would be few people that would shoot it better than him,” said the KU head coach. “We got a lot better today.”

Mykhailiuk won’t arrive until the fall because he’s going to play with his national team this summer, which Self says he strongly encouraged. But, he added, the Ukraine star “wants to be a player and really wants to do it here in the states.”

Mykhailiuk (hereafter to be called Svi) shared Self’s fervor in his decision to play at KU. “I liked everything about KU - from the history, the strength program and especially the coaches . . . everything. It’s Kansas. KU has players every year. Coach Self has had so many players go to the NBA. That’s an important thing.”

Svi’s mother is a high school biology teacher in Ukraine and his father is a university history professor.

Mykhailiuk has taken many English classes and speaks the language fluently. That’s vital and will be invaluable in his acclimation to an unfamiliar country.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest that Svi’s family might accompany him to the US. Ukraine is a dangerous place right now.

Kansas is loaded again, but they won’t have to depend so much on freshmen next season.

(See HAWKS on page 24)

Heart The 2012 SCHS state championship football team collectively willed itself to a win after trailing Silver Lake 21-0 in the first half of the Class 3A title game.

These are just three examples of countless SCHS athletes we’ve had the experience of watching during the past two decades. There’s no doubt that without great coaching championships don’t happen, but it also takes athletes who are capable of finding something extra within themselves when even they aren’t sure it’s possible.

We witnessed something special during last week’s

Pest case we clubbed them dead instead of holding them by the tail and punting them over the fence onto the neighbors like usual.

Bird hunting gigs were the trickiest. Most barns where I grew up were three or four stories tall with hay lofts on each end. There was always a window high in each end of the barn with a ladder running up the inside wall to the window.

One hunter would climb each ladder up to the window, turn around and prepare to swat birds as they headed toward the window, all the while somehow holding onto the ladder for dear life. Now that doesn’t sound all that dangerous, but here’s the thing - it was all done in the dead of night.

Here’s how the process worked. Our team would quietly converge on a barn around 10:00 pm or so. (Of the whole process, the “quietly” part was the toughest.) Remember this was winter so everyone was dressed in old army jackets and mud boots, except the designated “swatters” for that night’s offensive, who had to

The Scott County Record • Page 22 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

(continued from page 19)

regional track meet in Abilene when senior Kelly Wycoff again showed why she is one of the top track athletes to ever compete for SCHS. She revived a 4x400m relay team whose hopes of returning to state appeared all but dead when she took the baton in eighth place with just 400 meters remaining.

“She was at least 40 meters, maybe 50, behind first place,” noted head coach Jim Turner who is still angry with himself because they didn’t film the race due to rain throughout the day.

After sidestepping one runner who had fallen down in the

exchange zone, Wycoff began picking off one runner at a time just hoping to eventually climb into fourth place and get her team to state. Even Wycoff, despite her talent and speed, wasn’t sure she could make up so much ground in such a short time.

After all, this was a regional meet.

“She was running against some pretty fast anchor legs,” added assistant coach Aaron Dirks.

Not only did Wycoff get her team to state, but the relay finished in third place. Another 10 or 15 meters and Wycoff probably would have put the Lady Beavers into first place.

Her time of 56.5 was no error.

“We had three coaches with the same time,” noted Turner.

It was one of the top achievements we’ve ever witnessed in high school track - and this was only a regional meet. It further shows that not all great accomplishments have to be rewarded with a gold medal.

Moments like this are why we love high school sports . . . not just to see athletes achieve great things, but to see young people find something within themselves that they didn’t know they had.

It’s a reminder of what separates athletes from champions.

ing onto an old, rickety ladder that you just hoped would not crumble into pieces and dump you into the hay below. These were still the days of small square bales of hay and straw which might have been only a few feet below you, or 20 feet below you depending on how much the farmer had used already.

It was still pretty dark up there and with birds often coming at you several at a time, it was impossible to swat them all. The ones you missed either flew around, coming back for a second try, or just hit you in the face from the get-go.

It was pretty cool when you clobbered one square as its lifeless chassis would sail across the barn, leaving a big poof of feathers in the air. In the midst of the assault it could be raining dead bird carcasses down on the floor and it wasn’t out of the question to get whacked up side the noggin with the corpse of a deceased pigeon or starling if you were down there.

We always tried to make sure the guys on the ground with the pellet guns were the most even-tempered of the

group, thereby lessening the chance that one of the swatters would get shot in the butt for inadvertently beaning someone with a bird cadaver.

After all forms of pest-life seemed to be vanquished from a barn, out came the flashlights and it was time to collect the spoils. We’d yank off all the bird’s heads, stuff em’ into a bag and go on down the road to the next barn, leaving the neighborhood barn cats quite a feast indeed for allowing us to invade their territory.

How many times have you looked back upon crazy things you did as a kid and wondered how in blazes you ever survived past the age of nine?

Every time I drive past a tall barn with windows in each end I stare up at the windows and ask myself, “Did we really used to do that?” Another part of me has to wonder if the world would be a better place today if we just had more pest hunts.

Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

(continued from page 20)

dress warmly, but in clothing that fit loosely around the shoulders so as not to impede their swing once they got into place at the top of the ladder.

Clubs for the battle ranged from top-of-the-line gear like tennis or badminton rackets to more simple weapons like a scrap board with a handle nailed to it. Once the climbing swatters were inserted and in place, the rest of the militia on the floor would turn on lights and make as much noise as possible, attempting to roust any birds roosted inside, which would inevitably head for the windows which were now guarded by the “swatters.”

Snipers (with pellet guns) would begin picking off any drowsy birds still clinging to their perches after the melee started.

Meanwhile, at the tops of the ladders startled birds were flying into a trap, and the action could be fast and furious as flustered birds of all shapes and sizes tried to fly out the windows.

For starters you only had one hand available to swat as the other was rather busy hold-

Scott City Stars to open season at GB

The Scott City Stars swim team will open their summer season at Great Bend on Sat., May 31.

Other teams competing in the Western Kansas Swim Club divisional meet are Hays, Leoti, Lakin, Dodge City and Holcomb.

The Stars will host their annual swim meet on Sat., June 7. Teams competing will include Hays, Dodge City, Leoti, Lakin and Holcomb.

The city pool will be closed to the public.

Other meets on the schedule include: June 14: at Leoti.

June 21: at Hays June 28: at Lakin July 12-13: Combined meet at Guymon, Ok.

Steve can be contacted by email at stevegilliland@idkcom.net

Free fishing is June 7-8 What’s better than a day of free fishing? Two days of free fishing, of course.

Across the state, anglers of all ages can enjoy a full weekend of free fishing on Saturday and Sunday, June 7-8, on

any Kansas waters.

Although some parks may require a vehicle permit, no fishing license is required of anglers during the two-day period.

Lake Scott State Park will be among those offering free vehicle admis-

Thinclads fast heat, which should pay off against a very tough field.

Baldwin is the clear favorite with a regional time of 4:02.21, but after that it’s wide open. El Dorado is sitting in the No. 2 spot with a 4:06.36, but Turner feels the Lady Beavers are capable of challenging that time “if we can get off to a good start.”

Barring an illness or other factors, senior Megan Thornburg will rejoin the relay this weekend.

She, along with Nickel, Wycoff and Aubrey Davis were members of the same relay that placed in state a year ago.

“Relay teams have come into state with the fastest times and we’ve beaten them. We’ve also had relays and kids we thought would do great and things don’t turn out the way you expect,” Turner says.

“Sometimes things happen on the track and you get boxed in and it takes

County Plat Maps By

Western Cartographers Available:

Scott Ness Gove Lane Logan Finney Wichita Wallace Greeley Kearney

Pick them up today at:

406 Main • Scott City 620 872-2090

sion on Saturday, June 14, when they are also hosting their annual OK Kids Day event.

Hiking, fishing and other activities are planned with events to begin at 10:00 a.m. It’s open to all youngsters.

(continued from page 21)

you out of a race. Or it can “We cut five seconds be the heat, or something last weekend at regional you ate or it’s just not your and I think we can still cut day,” he adds. another two or three seconds,” Turner says. “If we Meyer, Relay Eye Gold do that, we can challenge Even though junior for first or second. The Brett Meyer enters state key is for our sophomores as the No. 11 seed with a to continue running con2:01.36 at regional, that sistently like we’ve seen doesn’t mean he isn’t the last couple of weeks. among the favorites to fin- If they can do that, we ish in the medals on Sat- should be in the mix.” urday.

Members of the relay “Brett knows he can are Brayden Strine, Meybreak two minutes. It’s er and sophomores Wyatt just a matter of being Kropp and Drake McRae. pushed for the entire 800 Scott City’s 4x800m (meters),” says Turner. relay (8:19.99) comes “He needs to make sure into state with the ninth he doesn’t get boxed in fastest regional time. Reand he’ll need a first lap of around 56 or 57 (sec- lay members are Meyer, onds),” he noted. “If he Strine, Irvin Lozano and can get good position on Miguel Chavez.

Strine (51.75) is sitting the cut-in and break out to the front, I like his chanc- 12th in the 400m.

“It will probably take es.”

The same is true of the the low 50s to medal,” 4x400m relay which is Turner says. “Brayden’s currently in the No. 7 spot capable of doing that if (3:27.27). This could be he will push it hard on an outstanding race with the back stretch and then nine teams breaking 3:30 see what he has left at the at regional. end.”

The Scott County Record • Page 23 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Hawks Veteran guards Wayne Selden, Frank Mason and Conner Frankamp return along with experienced inside players Perry Ellis, Jamari Traylor, Landen Lucas and Hunter Mickelson.

Incoming freshman besides Svi are Cliff Alexander (6-8, 245), Kelly Oubre (6-7, 210), and point guard Devonte Graham (6-1, 180).

That’s 11 players who will be competing for spots in the rotation. Self might have to use more than seven or eight players in his rotation, particularly early in the season.

This KU team will be greatly improved at ball handling and three-point shooting - two glaring weaknesses on last year’s team. The 2013-14 team will be better than the

The Scott County Record • Page 24 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

(continued from page 22)

2012-13 crew.

Time for Yost to Go Ned Yost is in his fifth year of managing the Kansas City Royals baseball team. Before that, he managed Milwaukee for six years. His overall record is 741-831 - a .471 winning percentage.

Yost’s current team makes terrible base running decisions and they are often costly. His hitters take perfect pitches and then swing at pitches well out of the strike zone.

It’s a subjective opinion, but his handling of pitchers is certainly open to conjecture. Yost leaves pitchers in too long in close games when they are being pounded. He has an effective bullpen and should use it in crucial situations.

SCHS Track Class 4A Regional May 23, 2014 • at Abilene Girl’s Division Team scores: Concordia 49, Scott City 51, McPherson 51, Buhler 49, Colby 49, Chapman 40, Wamego 40, Goodland 34, Clay Center 33, Smoky Valley 31, Hoyt-Royal Valley 30, Abilene 29, Russell 25, Larned 20, Holton 17 Triple jump: Bailey Nickel, 4th, 33-0.75.

100m: Kelly Wycoff, 1st, 12.68.

200m: Wycoff, 1st, 25.64.

400m: Wycoff, 1st, 57.88; Paige Winderlin, 5th, 1:03.17.

800m: Megan Thornburg, 6th, 2:34.17.

100m high hurdles: Nickel, 3rd, 16.21.

300m low hurdles: Nickel, 6th, 49.08.

4x400m relay: Nickel, Davis, Winderlin, Wycoff, 3rd, 4:11.41.

4x800m relay: Thornburg, Cami Patton, Kylee Trout, Winderllin, 6th, 10:23.55.

Boy’s Division Team scores: Goodland 72, Hoyt-Royal Valley 58, Buhler 53, Abilene 50, Holton 45, Smoky Valley 42, Scott City 37, Russell 36, Wamego 32, McPherson 32, Clay Center 27, Chapman 21, Nickerson 20, Concordia 17, Colby 15 Discus: Wyatt Eitel, 6th, 127.

400m: Brayden Strine, 3rd, 51.75; Irvin Lozano, 6th, 53.82.

800m: Brett Meyer, 1st, 2:01.36.

300m int. hurdles: Wyatt Kropp, 6th, 42.97.

4x400m: Strine, Drake McRae, Kropp, Meyer, 1st, 3:29.27.

4x800m relay: Meyer, I. Lozano, Miguel Chavez, Strine, 2nd, 8:19.99.

Fishing Report Scott State Lake Updated May 18 Channel cats: good, up to 6.5 lbs. Cutbait, shrimp, nightcrawlers and prepared baits still fished off the bottom in shallow water on flats and in coves has been good for all sizes of fish up to 5 lbs.

Crappie: fair/good; most up to 9 inches. Warm weather over the past week caused fish to move back shallow to finish up spawning activities. Fishing jigs in shallow water along rip-rapped shorelines, around laydown trees, and along the edges of the cattails should be good for spawning fish. Look for post-spawn fish to move back to the fish attractors where they can be caught vertically fishing jigs or minnows or try drifting minnows in the main body of the lake for fish suspending in open water.

Walleye/saugeye: saugeye, fair; up to 3.6 lbs.; walleye, good; up to 6.1 lbs. Jig and nightcrawler or minnow combos drifted or slow retrieved over well defined points or over gravelly shelves.

Largemouth bass: good; up to 5.5 lbs. Casting spinnerbaits, swimbaits, and other fish imitating baits around the fish attractors, laydown trees, overhanging bushes, and cattails adjacent to deeper water has been good for fish of all sizes up to 6 lbs.

Sunfish: good; up to 8 inches. Vertically fishing small jig heads tipped with small pieces of nightcrawler or whole mealworms around the fish attractors and along rip-rapped shorelines and edges of the cattails.

General comments: Release all walleye/saugeye and largemouth bass less than 15 inches.

Bottom line is that Kansas City needs a new manager. Yost’s record speaks for itself. He’s an average manager and the Royals need a leader who will make the team play sound fundamental baseball.

Rex Hudler is one of the main TV broadcasters for the Kansas City Royals. From here, there’s no doubt that Hudler is a good guy who would be fun to be around playing golf or downing a beer. However, he’s driving most of us up the wall with his broadcasting style.

Hud is knowledgeable about baseball. We’re convinced. He doesn’t have to talk incessantly throughout every game to prove he’s an expert.

Many of us would solve this problem by turning on the radio and putting

the TV on mute, but the baseball broadcast is way out of sync with the TV. Hudler is also absorbed in talking about himself and his playing days - usually several times every game. Rex should eliminate that from his repertoire.

This isn’t a call for Hudler to be fired. He can be entertaining and he knows his baseball. But it is a call for the Fox TV administrators to take charge of installing a semblance of moderation to Hudler’s broadcasting style.

The person in command of the broadcasters should sit Hudler down and insist that he shift his talking from fast forward to slow, which would make viewers much happier.

That would be a “beautiful thing.”

The Scott County Record • Page 25 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

! k c u L Good

and congratulations to the Class 4A state qualifiers at Scott Community High School

State golf qualifier Marshal Hutchins

Event Triple Jump

Qualifiers Bailey Nickel (4th)

100M

Kelly Wycoff (1st)

200m

Kelly Wycoff (1st)

100m High Hurdles

Bailey Nickel (3rd)

400m

Kelly Wycoff (1st) Brayden Strine (3rd)

800m

Brett Meyer (1st)

4x400m Relay 3rd place

Kelly Wycoff Megan Thornburg Aubrey Davis Bailey Nickel Paige Winderlin (alt.)

4x400m Relay 1st place

Brett Meyer Brayden Strine Drake McRae Wyatt Kropp Irvin Lozano (alt.)

4x800m Relay 2nd place

Brett Meyer Irvin Lozano Miguel Chavez Brayden Strine Jess Drohman (alt.)

SCHS state track qualifiers and alternates are (front row, from left) assistant coach Aaron Dirks, assistant coach Jenny Rose, Aubrey Davis, Kelly Wycoff, Paige Winderlin, Bailey Nickel, Macy Berning, Megan Thornburg and assistant coach Kevin Reese. (Back row) Head coach Jim Turner, Brayden Strine, Brett Meyer, Miguel Chavez, Drake McRae, Irvin Lozano, Wyatt Kropp and Jess Drohman.

These SCHS boosters congratulate you on a successful season and wish the track qualifiers good luck at the Class 4A state meet in Wichita!

Chambless Roofing, Inc. 1102 S. Main St., Scott City 872-2679 or 800-401-2683

Helena Chemical Company 1711 S. Main St., Scott City 872-2156

Turner Sheet Metal

MTM Siding & Glass, Inc.

1851 S. Hwy 83, Scott City

1130 W. Hwy 96, Scott City

872-2954

872-2315

State Farm Insurance Michael Trout, agent

Berning Farms

872-5374 • michael@troutagency.com www.troutagency.com

Spencer Pest Control PO Box 258, 200 E. Rd 140, Scott City 872-2870

First National Bank

3171 W. Hwy 96, Scott City

Norder Supply, Inc. 250 N. Pawnee, Scott City 872-3058

Stevens Veterinary Services 210 W. Meadowlark Lane, Scott City 620-872-2727

Best Western El Quartelejo Inn & Suites

872-5503

1610 S. Main, Scott City • 872-7373 scottcitybw@yahoo.com

Gifts, Etc.

Wheatland Electric/Broadband Services

424 Main St., Scott City • 872-2222 mail@giftsetcks.com

Percival Packing

501 S. Main, Scott City • 872-2143 www.fnbscott.com

710 W. 5th St., Scott City • 872-7199

Bartlett Grain

J&R Car and Truck Center, LLC

305 W. Bellevue, Scott City

208 W 5th St., Scott City • 872-2103

872-3456

JRCARandTRUCK.COM

Heartland Foods

Western State Bank

1314 S. Main • 872-5854

1425 S. Main St., Scott City

www.heartlandfoodsstores.com

872-2227 • www.wsbks.com

Scott City Chiropractic A Prohealth Wellness Center

Richards Financial Services

110 W. 4th St., Scott City • 872-2310

872-5949

411 S. Main St., Scott City

416 S. Main, Scott City 872-0006 www.wbsnet.org

Revcom Electronics RadioShack 1104 S. Main St., Scott City 872-2625

HRC Feed Yards, LLC Scott City • 872-5328

Platinum H Insurance

Midwest Mixer Service, LLC 40 E. Rd 160, Scott City • 872-7251

AgMax Crop Insurance

Scott Cooperative Association

410 East 1st St., Scott City 872-5823 • 800-931-COOP www.scottcoop.com

Precision Ag & Seed Services

815 W. 5th St., Scott City Phone: 872-2900 • Fax: 872-2902 www.hughbinns.com hugh.binns@agmaxinsurance.com

1550 W. Rd. 70, Scott City

Eisenhour & Graff, LLC

Faurot Heating & Cooling

872-5242

224 N. 4th St., 509 Church, Leoti

910 W. 5th, Scott City

375-2272 • 872-3471

872-3508 • 800-720-5997

Z Bottling, Corporation 907 W. 5th St., Scott City

Wallace, Brantley & Shirley

872-0100

325 Main, Scott City • 872-2161

Networktronic, Inc.

J.F. Beaver Advertising Joe and Jay Beaver

402 S. Main, Scott City • 872-1300

Scott City • 872-2340

Midwest Energy

Braun’s Butcher Block

800-222-3121

417 Main St., Scott City

www.mwenergy.com

872-7238

40 Pitman Ln, Scott City 872-7222 • Darrin 214-0653 • Michelle 214-0652 habiger@wbsnet.org

American Implement

Dec-Mart Furniture

807 N. Main, Scott City • 872-7244

408 S. Main, Scott City • 872-2449

Scott City HealthMart Pharmacy

Sourk Veterinary Clinic

Suzy Bs Flowers & More

1801 S. Hwy 83, Scott City 872-7211

901 W. 5th St., Scott City 872-5336

102 Albert Ave., Scott City 872-2146

The Scott County Record • Page 26 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Wycoff

(continued from page 19)

early and were unable to make up much ground during the rest of the race.

The team really dug itself into a hole on the second exchange between Aubrey Davis and freshman Paige Winderlin who was competing with this group of relay girls for the first time.

It was obvious that five or six of the teams were going to be making the exchange at the same time and Winderlin jumped to the inside of the row of girls awaiting the baton.

That put her out of position and out of view of Davis who was approaching the exchange zone.

“I was dead tired and I was looking for a blue uniform,” said Davis.

“I was trying to keep my head tucked so I wouldn’t lose my form, but with about 50 or 40 meters left I looked up and was wondering ‘Where’s Paige?’ I was guessing she would be at the end (of the line).”

By the time Davis was finally able to find Winderlin and make the exchange the Lady Beavers were dead last. Winderlin was able to keep from losing ground on the leaders, but was unable to improve Scott City’s overall position in the field at the final exchange.

Wycoff was in seventh place when she got the baton, but had to sidestep a Wamego girl who had fallen down on the track.

Ironically, Wamego had entered regional with the fastest qualifying time, but now found themselves in last place coming out of the exchange zone. Entering the first curve, Wycoff was 10-12 meters behind the fourth and final state qualifying spot.

“I was running every-

Nickel 200m - Wycoff had just three races prior to the 4x400m relay.

“It definitely helped not having to worry about prelims,” says Wycoff.

“This kind of turned out like a state meet where I’ll have prelims on the first day and finals on the second.”

Nickel in 2 Events Senior Bailey Nickel qualified for state in the 100m high hurdles (3rd, 16.21) and the triple jump (4th, 33-0 3/4), but was just shy of a state berth in the 300m low hurdles (6th, 49:08) with her fastest time of the season.

Nickel was less than six inches out of first place in the triple jump and just 19/100 of a second behind the winner in the high hurdles.

Lady Beavers celebrating their runner-up finish at the Class 4A regional track meet are (from left) Macy Berning, Madison Braun, Rachel Anliker, Aubrey Davis, Megan Thornburg, Kelly Wycoff, Bailey Nickel, Paige Winderlin, Kylee Trout and Cami Patton.

(Record Photo) Regional Standings Concordia 59 Scott City 51 McPherson 51 Buhler 49 Colby 49 Chapman 40 Wamego 40 Goodland 34 Clay Center 33 Smoky Valley 31 Hoyt-Royal Valley 30 Abilene 29 Russell 25 Larned 20 Holton 17

thing through my head. I didn’t think I could catch the leaders,” said Wycoff.

“I was focused on trying to catch fourth place.

I could see I was making up a little ground, but I wasn’t sure I’d have enough time.”

With about 200 meters remaining, Wycoff seemed to find yet another gear and was able to overtake Concordia with just over 100 meters remainSCHS seniors Bailey Nickel (left) and Aubrey Davis have hugs and tears for Kelly Wycoff at the conclusion of the 4x400m relay.

(Record Photo) ing which put her into fourth place. As the group of anchor runners were with 50 meters to the fin- finish it was Smoky Val- ly able to hold off the late Beavers their fastest time coming down the home ish line she slipped ahead ley (4:10.62) in first charge by Wycoff whose of the season at 4:11.41. stretch the SCHS senior of Colby into third place. place, followed by Russell tremendous closing 400 Colby (4:11.95) gained slipped to the outside and In an extremely tight (4:11.36) which was bare- meters gave the Lady the final qualifying spot.

(continued from page 19)

They turned in a time of 10:23.55 - improving on their previous season best of 10:44.53 - but had to settle for sixth place.

Senior Megan Thornburg started the relay with a 2:31.33, but that was only good enough for sixth place when she handed the baton to Cami Patton and SCHS was unable to climb any higher than fifth place the rest of the race. The three freshmen - Patton (2:35.09), Kylee Trout (2:37.28) and Paige Winderlin (2:39.38) - each had their fastest splits of the season.

“The girls ran hard, but they were in chase mode most of the race,” says Turner.

It would have taken

a tremendous effort for SCHS to gain a state qualifying spot. Goodland was fifth in the event with a time of 10:05.69.

Thornburg (6th, 2:34.17) missed out on a return trip to state in the 800m, followed by Winderlin (10th, 2:51.68).

Winderlin (5th, 63.17) narrowly missed out on qualifying for state in the 400m, despite turning in her fastest time of the season by almost 60/100 of a second.

Sophomore Madison Braun had a tough day in the javelin (8th, 94-8), which was 11 feet shy of her season best. A toss of 105-feet would have earned Braun a trip to state.

Scott City Community Learning Center 620-872-3785 708 Washington

Relay Shaves 21 Seconds Even a 21 second improvement in the 4x800m relay wasn’t enough to qualify the Lady Beavers for state.

Southwest Plains Regional Service Center

Your Future Awaits!

The Scott County Record

Page 27 - Thursday, May 29, 2014

leaping into summer Visitors pack Lake Scott over Memorial weekend

Six-year-old Dayton Banuelos enjoyed a weekend at Lake Scott State Park for his birthday.

But the youngster was given a birthday bonus when he showed off the stringer of nine crappie that he, his younger brother and father had caught off the spillway on Saturday.

“He caught most of them himself,” said his father, Miguel, of Garden City, who said this was the family’s fifth or sixth trip to Lake Scott.

“This is our lake of choice, especially since we’ve been catching fish,” said Banuelos.

They weren’t alone as the lake enjoyed a record turnout over the Memorial Day weekend thanks to ideal weather and great fishing opportunities.

“I’d say this is the biggest weekend we’ve ever had. It’s certainly the biggest since I’ve been here,” says Park Manager Greg Mills, who has been employed at the park for 14 years.

Attendance over the four-day weekend was pegged at 6,156, up from last year by about 200.

“People were still coming in Sunday to camp and we even had people coming on Monday to camp overnight,” Mills says.

The 120 primitive camping sites were filled to overflowing from Friday through Sunday.

All 57 sites with utility hookups were filled Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“We never had to turn anyone away, but it was very tight,”

says Mills. “We’ve never had a weekend before where more people kept coming every day and no one was leaving.”

Mills says there seemed to be a lot of first-time campers along with more than the usual number of Scott City visitors. There were also campers from as far east as Wichita and Lawrence, in addition to Colorado.

Even with the huge attendance, Mills says there were very few law enforcement problems. The park manager was equally impressed with the appearance of the park afterwards.

“You’d never know by looking at the camping sites that we had as many people as we did,” he observes. “It seems that people were being very respectful of the park. Hopefully, it means they’re taking ownership of the park and looking after things a little better.”

Family Tradition Trips to Lake Scott became a tradition for Glenda Shepard while she was raising her family. Now it’s a tradition for her grandchildren, including twoyear-old Claire Montoya who enjoyed playing on the beach and testing the water on occasion.

“Coming to Lake Scott has become a family tradition ever since I was a kid,” says Bonnie Montoya, Glenda’s daughter and Claire’s mother.

They all live in Johnson.

“We try to get up here once

Scenes from Lake Scott State Park over the Memorial Day weekend are (top) Jordan Wagner, 13, leaps off the dock into the Beach House swimming area while Jordan Smith, 14, gets ready to follow. Both boys are from Scott City. (Above) Fishing activity was brisk and successful over the weekend. (Bottom right) Claire Montoya, 2, runs away from the swimming area after getting her foot wet. (Bottom left) Six-year-old Dayton Banuelos, Garden City, celebrates his birthday with a stringer of crappie. He is joined by his father, Miguel, and four-year-old brother, Aiden.

(Record Photos)

a year and maybe twice,” Montoya says.

“We’ve come up here to the (Easter) pageant before and we like going to Battle Canyon and the Steele Home,” Shepard says.

The family arrived on Friday and didn’t leave until Tuesday.

Beach House Busy Record-setting attendance also meant a record weekend for the Beach House which is operated by the Friends of Lake Scott State Park.

“This is the best weekend

we’ve ever had,” said FOLS President Larry Eberle.

Even with a few hours left on Sunday, the Beach House had enjoyed an $8,400 weekend - well in excess of $6,000 to $6,400 in receipts for a typical holiday weekend.

That also included barbeque sales by Roy Schulz. Even without the barbeque sales, Eberle says it would have still been a record weekend. In addition, the Beach House nearly sold out of bait.

“The fishing has been terrible good,” says Eberle with

a grin. “People are catching a lot of crappie in the 3/4 to one-pound range and they’re getting a lot of bass. We’re even hearing reports of some nice walleye.”

This isn’t just a one-weekend phenomenon.

“We’ve already had two weekends in May which were our best ever for the month for a Saturday and Sunday only,” adds Eberle. “When you look at the great fishing, the good water level and high gas prices, we could be looking at a very, very good summer.”

The Scott County Record

ag briefs

Scott County wheat plot tour Thursday The Scott County wheat plot tour will be held Thurs., June 5, starting at 9:00 a.m.

The plot is located four miles north of Scott City on US83 Highway. Turn west on County Road 90 and travel two miles to Juniper Road and then 1/2 mile north.

Speakers with K-State Extension will be Lucas Haag, northwest area agronomy specialist, and Sarah Zukoff, southwest area entomology specialist.

Those attending are asked to RSVP to the Scott County Extension office (872-2930) by Wed., June 4, or e-mail jbeckman@ksu. edu.

Coffee and cinnamon rolls will be served after the tour at the Richard and Glenda Randall residence.

Disaster loan deadline in June

Farmers and ranchers in Scott, Wichita and Gove counties have until June 23 to file applications for emergency disaster loans.

Those needing farm credit as a result of severe storms that took place between July 22 and August 16, 2013, and who believe they are eligible for FSA assistance, should file their applications at the FSA office in Oakley.

Loans can be made covering physical and/or production losses. The current interest rate is 3.25%, but is subject to monthly changes until the loan is approved.

Loans covering physical losses may be used to replace installations, equipment, livestock, or buildings (including homes).

Farmers and ranchers can contact the Oakley FSA office at (785) 672-4861 for additional information.

Grain sorghum groups reach co-op agreement

The Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission and the Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association have joined into a cooperative agreement to share office space and staff.

Under a contractual arrangement, KGSC will be administrator of the two organizations. KGSC and KGSPA will now share staff with Jill Barnhardt, administrator of the commission, serving as executive director for the association.

KGSC and KGSP say joining the two groups means a more unified voice for Kansas sorghum producers.

The Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission receives checkoff funds through the USDA administered Sorghum Checkoff for research, market development, promotion and education. The association was established by Kansas grain sorghum growers to represent members in legislative and regulatory issues.

The commission and association will continue to have separate boards and budgets.

Farm

Page 28 - Thursday, May 29, 2014

U.S. farm policy is missing the point with crop insurance

As our present multi-year drought grinds on and on, I’m beginning to wonder if we missed the point - by a country mile - in our current farm policy.

Yes, we farmers were able to beef up expenditures in crop insurance. And believe you me, crop insurance is dearly appreciated.

But, the bottom line is, while crop insurance supports farm income, it does little or nothing in solving food secu-

Wheat and more . . . or less

by Vance Ehmke

rity or energy security issues.

In short, we are doing things to replace lost farm income, but what are we doing to guarantee our food supply or to replace the half of the wheat crop that is vanishing before our eyes?

In a recent conversation with Gary Friesen, manager of the Scott City Co-op, he pointed out that the Co-op normally

takes in more than four million bushels of wheat each year.

“We could easily be just half of that this year. And that follows over a 30 percent reduction in 2013,” he said.

Friesen goes on to say that this year’s fall crop outlook is even more troubling.

To me, current farm policy is applying a short term fix while ignoring a much more serious and entirely different long term problem. We’ve got the right answer, but it’s for the wrong question.

Here’s the deal: Why do we keep paying over and over and over again for the same crop losses year after year?

Maybe we ought to take a large amount of that money and put it into research designed to defeat the causes for crop loss. Then, with less crop loss, we’d spend less on crop insurance. And we’d have something to show for it in terms of higher grain production.

(See POLICY on page 29)

Level of drought is reaching historic proportions across U.S.

The United States is currently engulfed in one of the worst droughts in recent memory.

More than 30% of the country is experiencing at least moderate drought as of last week’s data.

In seven states drought conditions were so severe that each had more than half of its land area in severe drought. Severe drought is characterized by crop loss, frequent water shortages and mandatory water use restrictions.

“This drought has dragged on for 3-1/2 years in some areas, particularly (in) North Texas,” says USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey.

While large portions of the seven states suffer from severe drought, in some parts of these states drought conditions are even worse. In six of the seven

states with the highest levels of drought, more than 30% of each state was in extreme drought as of last week.

Additionally, in California and Oklahoma, 25% and 30% of the states, respectively, suffered from exceptional drought, the highest severity classification. Under exceptional drought, crop and pasture loss is widespread, and shortages of well and reservoir water can lead to water emergencies.

Drought has had a major impact on crops such as winter wheat.

“So much of the winter wheat is grown across the southern half of the Great Plains,” Rippey said, an area that includes Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, three of the hardest-hit states.

Kansas is No. 4 in drought severity 1) California •Pct. severe drought: 100.0% •Pct. extreme drought: 76.7% (the highest) •Pct. exceptional drought: 24.8% (2nd highest) Drought in California has worsened considerably in recent years. The shortage of potable water has been so severe that California is now investing in long-term solutions, such as desalination plants. A facility that is expected to be the largest in the Western hemisphere is currently under construction in Southern California and another desalination facility is under consideration in Orange County.

2) Nevada •Pct. severe drought: 87.0% •Pct. extreme drought: 38.7% (5th highest)

(See DROUGHT on page 34)

Steer, heifer slaughter at lowest level since ‘65

Commercial cow slaughter has run at historically low levels so far this year, partly due to short supplies but also indicating ranchers intend to stabilize or expand their herds. The situation remains volatile though, and with drought appearing to be expanding in the West and Southwest, weather conditions will help determine the direction of herd numbers, according to the April Livestock, Poultry and Dairy Outlook report from USDA. The report also notes that firstquarter commercial steer and heifer slaughter is on track to be the lowest since 1965. Slaughter weights have helped offset some of that loss of numbers, and first-quarter beef production will likely be the lowest only since 2005.

Other key points in the report include: •Corn prices have moved roughly $1 per bushel higher from postharvest lows and were given an additional boost in the intentions to plant fewer acres this year.

•Cow-calf producers should continue to see attractive cow prices for the near term because of low cow inventories and continued demand for ground beef products from culled cows. Those cow prices could be

tempting to producers concerned with drought.

•Feeder-cattle prices could decline in the short term as grass-fever ebbs and fed-cattle values likely move lower seasonally, but short supplies suggest continued high calf and feeder prices later in 2014 and 2015.

•With feeding costs in the range of $129 to $130/cwt. and fed-cattle prices around $150/cwt., cattle feeders are seeing positive margins of around $200 per head. Prices could decline through the summer as large placements of heavy cattle from December through February reach market weights.

•Retail beef prices increased by four percent from $5.35 per pound for Choice beef in January to $5.58 in February. All-fresh beef prices increased by almost five percent, from $5.04 to $5.28 over the same period. Continued increases in beef prices could drive consumers toward alternative proteins.

•U.S. beef exports were up four percent through February 2014, while imports of beef were down six percent. The report increases the forecast for U.S. beef exports to (See STEER on page 29)

(See SEVERITY on page 34)

Market Report Closing prices on May 27, 2014 Winona Feed and Grain Bartlett Grain Wheat..................

$ 7.15

Wheat..................

$ 7.15

Milo ....................

$ 4.37

Milo (bu.).............

$ 4.38

White Wheat .......

Corn ...................

Soybeans ...........

$ 7.20 $ 4.75 $ 14.39

White Wheat .......

Corn....................

$ 7.15

Milo (bu.).............

White Wheat .......

Corn....................

Soybeans ...........

Sunflowers..........

ADM Grain

L

P

May 20

88 56

$ 4.37

May 21

85

57

$ 4.75 $ 14.39

May 22

85

58

.20

May 23

73

59

.02

May 24

81

58

May 25

78

57

May 26

80 50

$ 16.25

$ 7.18

Corn....................

$ 4.68

Sunflowers..........

$ 16.80

Soybeans............

H

$ 7.15

Wheat..................

Milo (bu.).............

$ 4.77

Weather

Scott City Cooperative Wheat..................

$ N/A

$ 4.41 $ 14.14

.01

Moisture Totals May 2014 Total

.23 1.95

Lots of hope, little result from slow moving storm front Week of May 17-23 The previous week’s multi-day precipitation event turned out being pretty disappointing for a significant portion of southwestern Kansas.

This is especially WKWMP true given the strong Update level of drought we Walt Geiger find ourselves in and meteorologist because it’s certainly not that often a slow moving storm system passes through this area providing for a chance of multiday moderate to high precipitation probabilities.

According to precipitation maps provided by the NWS Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, the precipitation estimate shows a noticeable dry spot stretching from about Hamilton County, eastward to about Great Bend. More accurately, the following counties averaged in the range of a tenth to one-half inch: Hamilton, Kearny, Scott, Grant, Finney, Gray, Hodgeman, Ford, Ness, Kiowa, Edwards, Pawnee, Barber, Pratt, Stafford and Barton.

The rest of Western Kansas fared pretty good for the period with county precipitation averages running from one-half inch to 1.75 inches. Across Kansas, the areas which received the most was across nearly all of the northern half of the state and then within a semi-triangular shaped region from Wichita to Salina to Topeka.

Operations: There were no operational days this week.

Slow Start to Summer It has indeed been an extremely slow start to notable thunderstorm activity across extreme western Kansas even for a drought year.

As of May 28, five weeks have passed since our last seeding day. This marks the first time in program history that no seeding flights have been carried out over a continuous 30-day period during the first half of the seeding season.

Half of State in Extreme Drought Roughly 53% of Kansas now resides in extreme drought. An area of exceptional drought has popped up in Kansas along the Oklahoma border in Morton, Stevens, Barber, Harper and Sumner counties.

Exceptional drought is the strongest classification of drought for the Drought Monitor Map. Unless we start experiencing more than a few significant weather events soon, we may likely end up just dry as last May when the majority of southwest Kansas was in exceptional drought.

Steer

(continued from page 28)

2.515 billion pounds due to strong demand for beef in Asia.

•Pork production is forecast to decline about 2 percent in 2014, largely as a result of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea. Prices of both hogs and pork will increase as a consequence. Reduced pork production will likely reduce U.S. pork exports and increase pork imports this year.

•The milk production forecast is raised in April.

Given favorable milk-to-feed price ratios, cow numbers are expected to increase later in 2014; however the 2014 forecast number is unchanged from March.

Continued robust domestic and export demand for dairy products tightens ending stocks and suggests higher dairy-product prices, except for nonfat dry milk, which is unchanged from last month in the report.

Policy As it is, all these annual crop insurance payments to farmers are nothing more than rent. At the end of the day, we have nothing. We need ownership and we need equity. We need to make an investment.

Our biggest cause for crop loss is drought. Give us more drought resistant varieties and hybrids, better salt tolerance, better pest resistance and help in making more efficient use of remaining irrigation water supplies.

Why do we need untold billions of dollars in crop insurance subsidies if we have better adapted varieties of wheat, for instance, that yield 4-5 bushels more per acre and that produce more crop residue - all in the face of drought?

The Scott County Record • Page 29 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

(continued from page 28)

My urban cousins, who already have a great deal of trouble understanding farm subsidies, could easily understand this and see the benefit to them. This is being seen in public as doing the right thing.

What is wrong with reducing the amount of money we are paying for crop loss when we can cut those expenditures by addressing the real problem - not only reducing crop insurance payments, but keeping food prices low and reasonable at the same time?

As it is, the consumertaxpayer gets it coming and going. They pay for crop insurance losses and resulting food price increases when production drops. That’s lose-lose, not win-win.

But is this what we’re doing? Hardly.

Gary Pierzynski, head of Kansas State University’s Agronomy Department, says he and other land-grant university scientists proposed taking a small portion of the reduction in federal direct payments to farmers to use for funding increases in ag research.

“It went nowhere.”

KSU president Kirk Schultz is equally as frustrated with what’s happening on the state level.

“Instead of increasing the investment in ag research, the State of Kansas is forcing cuts in our budget,” he says.

John Floros, KSU Dean of the College of Agriculture, agrees.

“In the last decade, dra-

matic budget cuts to the college have forced the reduction of 30 faculty positions and 60 Extension educators along with a 40 percent reduction in staff.”

A case in point is the current state Extension wheat specialist Jim Shroyer who will retire in July. His position is “on hold” pending budget outcomes.

I’d like to end this on a positive note, but there isn’t any. What has happened to our ability to think independently, to take the long view or to think beyond our own short-term self interest?

Drought or not, what we are doing is not good for business.

Vance Ehmke farms and lives in Lane County

EHM a reminder to take precautions It’s springtime and for many horse enthusiasts, that means heading out to horse shows and rodeos. But two recent cases of Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy, after a barrel racing event in Nebraska should serve as a reminder that good biosecurity practices can help prevent illnesses, according to a Kansas State University veterinarian.

Beth Davis, a professor of clinical sciences in K-State’s College of Veterinary Medicine referred to two cases of EHM that were diagnosed after a large barrel racing event in Lincoln, Nebr., April 10-13.

One of the horses, from a farm in northeast Kansas, became ill after its return to Kansas, according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture. It was euthanized and samples tested by the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and Equine Diagnostics Services in Lexington, Ky., confirmed EHM. The other confirmed case was a horse from Wisconsin that also was present at the Nebraska event.

“EHM can be highly contagious,” said Davis of the neurologic disease associated with equine herpesvirus infections.

“If we’re not careful, this virus can spread and can be life-threatening.”

The virus that causes

EHM is called EHV-1.

EHV-1 is common and can be present in a horse for years, causing a minor illness when first contracted and in most cases never develops into EHM. Most commonly EHV-1 causes mild to moderate respiratory disease, abortion in pregnant broodmares, illness in young foals. Fortunately,

only rarely EHV-1 actually causes EHM. In some cases and especially in times of stress, however, the virus can be reactivated and shed to others.

Stressful situations such as strenuous exercise, long-distance transport or weaning can be the trigger for viral shedding.

“What determines whether a horse gets sick

is its immune system,” Davis said.

“If a horse’s immune system is not strong and the animal is under stress, EHV-1 can develop into EHM. We usually see this after horses have been in a large group, such as at horse shows, rodeos or race tracks.”

(See EHM on page 34)

$

7

The Scott County Record • Page 30 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Call 872-2090 today!

Per Week

The Scott County Record Professional Directory

There’s no better way to reach your potential customers in Scott County and the surrounding areas.

Agriculture

SPENCER PEST CONTROL

Preconditioning and Growing

RESIDENTIAL – COMMERCIAL

• 45 Years Experience • Managed and owned by full-time DVM • 2,000 Head capacity Office - 872-5150 • Scott City

Termite Baiting Systems • Rodents Weed Control • Structural Insects Termite Control

Stuart Doornbos Home - 872-2775 Cell - 874-0951

Box 258, Scott City • (620) 872-2870

Construction/Home Repair

Sager’s Pump Service CHAMBLESS • Irrigation • Domestic • Windmills • Submersibles

Cell: 874-4486 • Office 872-2101

ELLIS AG SERVICES • Custom Manure Conditioning • Hauling and Spreading • Custom Swathing and Baling • Rounds-Net or Twine • Gyp and Sand Sales • Pickup or Delivery Call Brittan Ellis • 620-874-5160

ROOFING Residential

All Types of Roofing

Commercial

Cedar Shake and Shingle Specialists Return to Craftsmanship Attention to Detail and Quality Guaranteed 620-872-2679 • 1-800-401-2683

Dirks Earthmoving Co. Precision Land Forming of terraces and waterways; feed lot pens and ponds; building site preparation; lazer equipped

Richard Dirks • Scott City, Ks. (Home) 872-3057 • 877-872-3057 (Cell) 872-1793

Automotive

Walker Plumbing, Inc. Backhoe & Trenching services • Irrigation & gas leak repairs • Full-line irrigation parts T-L center pivot dealer Floor heat systems Pump & install septic systems Boring equipment

Willie’s Auto A/C Repair Willie Augerot Complete A/C Service Mechanic Work and Diagnostics Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

423 S. Mesquite Rd. • Scott City • 872-2130

Medical

404 Kingsley • Scott City • 874-1379

Charles Purma II D.D.S. P.A. General Dentistry, Cosmetics, and Insurance Accepted

We welcome new patients.

324 N. Main • Scott City • 872-2389 Residence 872-5933

Horizon Health For your home medical supply and equipment needs!

We service and repair all that we sell.

Landscaping • Lawn/Trees

Berning Tree Service David Berning • Marienthal

620-379-4430

Tree Trimming and Removal Hedge and Evergreen Trimming Stump Removal

Fully Insured

1602 S. Main • Scott City • 872-2232 Toll Free : 1-866-672-2232

Red

Specializing in

all coatings t Paint i or any other color

Paint inside and out residential, commercial, and industrial.

Free estimates and 16 plus years of experience.

PC Painting, Inc. Paul Cramer 620-290-2410 620-872-8910 www.pcpaintinginc.com

Pro Ex II

Over 20 Years Experience

Professional Extermination Commercial & Residential

• Termites • Rodents • Soil Sterilization • Pre Treats • Lawn Care • Fly Parasites

John Kropp, Owner • Scott City 874-2023 (cell) • 872-3400 (office) • prox2@live.com

Call today for a Greener Healthier Lawn

Owner, Chris Lebbin • 620-214-4469

Dr. Jeffrey A. Heyd Optometrist 20/20 Optometry

Treatment of Ocular Disease • Glaucoma Detection Children’s Vision • Glasses • Contact Lenses

Complete family eye center!

106 W. 4th • Scott City • 872-2020 • Emergencies: 872-2736

$

7

Call 872-2090 today!

Per Week

Professional Directory Continued

Scott City Clinic Daniel R. Dunn, MD Family Practice

The Scott County Record • Page 31 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

872-2187

Fur-Fection

Matthew Lightner, MD Family Practice

Christian E. Cupp, MD William Slater, MD Family Practice

Libby Hineman, MD Family Practice

Josiah Brinkley, MD Family Practice

General Surgeon

Megan Dirks, AP, RN-BC Ryan Michels, PA Mindy Schrader, PA

Scott City Myofascial Release Sandy Cauthon RN

105 1/2 W. 11th St. Scott City 620-874-1813

Call me to schedule your Myofascial Release

Retail

Gene’s Appliance

Northend Disposal

COMPARE OUR PRICES!

Sales and Service Days • Mon. - Sat. Deliveries • Mon.-Sat.

Largest Frigidaire appliance dealer in Western Ks. 508 Madison • Scott City • 872-3686

Networktronic, Inc.

Computer Sales, Service and Repair Custom computers!

Networking solutions!

Help Wanted

Truck Driving

FT POLICE OFFICER for Anthony, Ks. Must be 21. Salary DOQ. Law enforcement certification required. Excellent benefits. More information: www.anthonykansas.org/ jobs. Open until filled.

EOE. ––––––––––––––––––––– PRESS OPERATOR. Experience with a Goss Community press and Kansa insert equipment and the ability to manage press and mailroom staff is helpful. The position is full-time with benefits, paid holiday and vacation.

Reply to: T.Hobbs@thedailyunion.net in Junction City.

––––––––––––––––––––– CHEF/COOK/GRILL COOK. Competitive wages, health/dental insurance, year-end bonus program, 401K, possible relocation assistance.

Family housing available.

Excellent benefits. www. mitteninc.com or 785-6722612.

EXPERIENCED DRIVER or recent grad?

With Swift, you can grow to be an award-winning Class A CDL driver.

We help you achieve Diamond Driver status with the best support there is. As a Diamond Driver, you earn additional pay on top of all the competitive incentives we offer.

The very best, choose Swift. • Great Miles = Great Pay • Late-Model Equipment Available • Regional Opportunities • Great Career Path • Paid Vacation • Excellent Benefits Please Call: (602) 714-9455.

––––––––––––––––––––– PARTNERS IN EXCELLENCE. OTR drivers. APU equipped PrePass EZ-pass passenger policy. 2012 and newer equipment. 100% notouch. Butler Transport, 1-800-528-7825. www. butlertransport.com ––––––––––––––––––––– TRAIN AND WORK for us. Class A-CDL. Professional and focused CDL training available. Choose between company driver, owner/operator, lease operator or lease trainer.

(877) 369-7885. www. centraltruckdrivingjobs. com.

––––––––––––––––––––– COMPANY DRIVERS and independent contractors for refrigerated, tankers and flatbeds needed.

Plenty of freight and great pay. Start with Prime, Inc., today. Call 800-277-0212 or apply online at driveforprime.com

Education

Over 200 appliances in stock!

We have Reverse Osmosis units in stock.

Remember us for parts in stock for all brands of all appliances.

Kansas Classifieds Ad Network

The classified ads below are appearing in 147 Kansas newspapers with a total circulation of 500,000 the classified display ads appear in 142 Kansas newspapers with a total circulation of 457,000. KCAN line ad is $300 for up to 25 words and $12 each additional word. A 2x2 display ad is $800 per insertion and a 2x4 display ad is $1,650 per insertion. To find out more, contact The Scott County Record at 872-2090.

A garbologist company.

Scott City • 872-1223 • 1-800-303-3371

PC Cleaning Services, Inc. We'll clean your home, business or do remodeling clean-up Available seven days a week!

Paul Cramer, Owner

620-290-2410

Mon. - Fri. 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

402 S. Main, Scott City • 872-1300

Brent Rogers

Sales Consultant b.rogers@officesolutionsinc.biz

Office (620) 276-3131 Toll Free 1-800-794-9052 Cell (620) 874-0014 Fax (620) 276-8876 1007 N. 8th, Garden City, KS 67846 www.officesolutionsinc.biz

Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

www.reganjewelers.com

412 N. Main • Garden City • 620-275-5142 All Under One Roof

Revcom Electronics

Your RadioShack Dealer Two-way Radio Sales & Service

HEAVY EQUIPMENT operator career. 3-week hands-on vocational training. Bulldozers, backhoes and excavators. Hands-on training and certifications offered. National average $18-$22 hourly. Lifetime job placement assistance.

Veterans benefits eligible.

1-866-362-6497.

––––––––––––––––––––– MEDICAL BILLING trainees needed. Become a medical assistant.

No experience needed.

On-line training at SC Real Estate Train gets you job ready.

High school diploma/GED USE YOUR LAND or and PC/Internet needed. trade in as a down pay1-888-926-7884. ment. New, used and repos available. Singles, doubles and modulars.

For Sale Less than perfect credit CANADA DRUG OK. 866-858-6862.

CENTER. Safe and ––––––––––––––––––––– affordable medications. MOBILE HOMES with Save up to 90% on your acreage. Ready to move medication needs. Call in. Seller financing (sub1-800-908-4082 ($25 off ject to credit approval). your first prescription and Lots of room for the price, 3Br/2Ba. No renters. 785free shipping).

––––––––––––––––––––– 789-4991, VMFhomes.

PIANO SHOPPING? com.

Let us help. We offer a high-quality selection of new and like-new pianos that are kind to your wallet. Mid-America Piano, Manhattan, 800-950-3774. piano4u.com

Locally owned and operated since 1990

1104 Main • Scott City • 872-2625 Find us on Facebook

Dining

District 11 AA Meetings

Scott City

Unity and Hope Mon., Wed. and Fri. • 8:00 p.m.

SharpsShootingSupply.com • (620)398-2395 • Healy, Kansas

Services

Berning Auction “Don’t Trust Your Auction to Just Anyone”

C-Mor-Butz BBQ

Barbecue, the only sport where a fat bald man is a GOD...

& Catering

Kyle Lausch 620-872-4209

For all your auction needs call:

(620) 375-4130

Russell Berning Box Q • Leoti

Bryan Mulligan & Chris Price 620-874-8301 & 620-874-1285

www.cmorbutzbbq.com • cmorbutzbbq@gmail.com

807 Kingsley Last Sat., Birthday Night, 6:30 p.m.

All open meetings, 874-8207 • 874-8118

Dighton

Thursday • 8:30 p.m.

535 Wichita St. All open meetings, 397-5679 • 397-2647

The Scott County Record • Page 32 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Classifieds Buy, sell, trade, one call does it all 872-2090 ot fax 872-0009

Classified Ad Deadline: Monday at 5:00 p.m.

Classified Ad Rate: 20¢ per word. Minimum charge, $5.

Blind ad: $2.50 per week extra. Card of thanks: 10¢ per word. Minimum charge, $3. Classified Display Ad rate: $5.50 per column inch.

Classified advertising must be paid in advance unless business account is established.

If not paid in advance, there will be a $1 billing charge.

Tear sheet for classified ad will be $1 extra.

ONE LEVEL LIVING!

BEAUTIFULLY REMODELED

Pine Village Apartments 300 E. Nonnamaker

Apartments available for qualifying tenants 62+ or disabled with rental assistance available.

Hours: Tuesday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. by appointment Call Steve 872-2535 or (620) 255-4824.

Lawrence and Associates

Deb Lawrence, GRI Broker Shorty Lawrence, Sales Assoc.

513 Main • Scott City 872-5267 ofc. 872-7184 hm. lawrenceandassocrealty.com Sheila Ellis, Broker Assoc.

872-2056 Kerry Gough, Sales Assoc.

872-7337 Russell Berning, 874-4405 www.berningauction.com

2009 home in central location, can be 3 bedrooms, 1 3/4 baths, large double garage with additional 876 sq. ft. of living space

EASTRIDGE

Buy lots in the Eastridge addition for your new home location.

5 Lots in NW Webster 3rd addition.

Thomas Real Estate

www.thomasreal-estate.com

914 W. 12th Scott City, Ks. 67871 (620)-872-7396 Cell: (620)-874-1753 or Cell: (620)-874-5002 42tfc

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS If you want to drink, that’s your business.

If you want to stop, that’s ours.

Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Tuesday nights at 8:30 p.m. at the United Methodist Church basement (use west door).

412 College, Scott City.

Al-Anon at same time and location.

Contact: 874-0472 or 872-3137. 30t52

WANTED TO BUY. Stored corn. Call for basis and contract information.

1-800-579-3645.

Lane County Feeders, Inc. 32tfc ––––––––––––––––––––– WANTED TO BUY. Wheat straw delivered.

Call for contracting information. Lane County Feeders. 397-5341. 44tfc

For Sale 19tfc

Very nice 3 bedroom, brick with large double attached garage! Great location, shed and fenced in back yard!

Agriculture

BLACK ANGUS BULL, registered, tested, 2 year olds, yearlings, heifer bulls, delivery, conformation, performance. Contact: Black Velvet Ranch, Aaron Plunkett, Syracuse, Ks. 620-384-1101. 33t19c ––––––––––––––––––––– SEWING MACHINE in cabinet, in excellent condition, recently cleaned and adjusted $125. See Margaret Surprise at 307 N. Main, Scott City. 41t1p

Real Estate 2 BEDROOM, 2 BATH home. New FA/CA with double garage. Call 62040tfc 338-6436.

County Plat Maps Scott

Logan

Ness

Wichita

Gove

Wallace

Lane

Greeley

Finney

Kearney

406 Main • Scott City 620 872-2090

Help Wanted

Services

PART-TIME COOK WANTED: Yards to mow wanted. Apply in person at and clean up, etc. Trim The Broiler, 102 Main. smaller trees and bushes 25tfc too. Call Dean Riedl, ––––––––––––––––––––– DRYLAND FARMING (620) 872-5112 or 87434tfc OPERATION in Scott 4135.

––––––––––––––––––––– County is seeking a full time non-smoking em- FURNITURE REPAIR ployee. Must have or able and refinishing. Lawn to obtain a Class A or CDL mower tune-up and blade license and have one year sharpening. Call Vern general farm experience. Soodsma, 872-2277 or Late model John Deere 874-1412.

36tfc equipment, no livestock. ––––––––––––––––––––– Call 620-874-0274. 39t4p MOWER REPAIR, tune––––––––––––––––––––– up and blade sharpening.

AUTO BODY SHOP Call Rob Vsetecka at 620needing help. Must have 214-1730.

36tfc experience, full-time, im––––––––––––––––––––– mediate opening. Dave’s METAL ROOFING, Body Shop, Oakley. Call 785-671-4707 days or SIDING and TRIMS at direct-to-the-public pric785-671-4055 evenings.

41t2p es. Call Metal King Mfg., ––––––––––––––––––––– 620-872-5464. Our prices OFFICE MANAGER will not be beat!

37tfc for Royal Beef. Experi- ––––––––––––––––––––– ence with turn key com- “JEN’S GROOMING” puter system. Call Richard Jennifer Milner groomor Mark at 620-872-5371.

42t2c ing at Fur-Fection. Please ––––––––––––––––––––– call for an appointment MUST BE 16 yrs. or 620-214-0097. Hours are older, have valid driver’s Monday-Thursday 8:00 license and able to lift 40 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.

32tfc lbs. repeatedly. No phone ––––––––––––––––––––– calls please. Apply in per- BERRY LAWN MOWson at Z Bottling, 907 W. ING now accepting new 42t1c customers. Evenings and 5th St., Scott City. weekends. Call for estimate 214-1135. Leave a 30tfc message.

HIDE AND SEEK ––––––––––––––––––––– CHOICE STORAGE SYSTEMS. GRAND Various sizes available. RENOVATIONS Now Virgil and LeAnn Kuntz, Serving Scott City and all surrounding areas! FREE (620)874-2120.

41tfc ––––––––––––––––––––– walk thru and Quote!

817-629-0221 • Cell:6201 BEDROOM APART214-2502 Interior and ExMENT $475 a month. Interior Home Renovating/ cludes all utilities except Remodeling. The RIGHT electricity. Call 620-521- way, the Grand Choice 0039.

42t4c way!

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Rentals

GARAGE SALE Fri. and Sat., May 30-31 Garage Sale 1204 Santa Fe, Scott City Friday: 4:00-7:00 p.m.

Saturday: 8:00-11:00 a.m.

Entrance to garage is in the alley.

Two Party Garage Sale 609 S. College, Scott City Fri., 5:00-8:00 p.m.

Sat., 9:00 a.m.-noon

We Have Buyers!

We Need Listings!

Call us to get your home listed.

Jana Brittain-Paragons & Poppycocks Tag Sale-Inside House 805 Era St., Scott City Sat., 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Nice Quality items. Excellent vintage dinnerware, nice pieces of furniture and lots more.

Relay for Life Fundraiser/Garage Sale 511 Monroe, Scott City Friday: 5:00-8:00 p.m.

Saturday: 8:00 a.m.-noon Dog house, workout equipment, men’s XXL, kids, women’s and teen clothing, games, kitchen stuff, roller skates and ice skates.

Yard Sale 1006 Cedar Dr., Scott City Saturday: 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Lots of miscellaneous marked very low and lots of FREE stuff in good condition.

Garage Sale 1214 Steele, Scott City Saturday: 7:00-10:00 a.m.

Girls clothes and toys.

Bring in your garage sales by The Record office no later than Monday at 5:00 p.m.

(No rainy day refunds)

The Scott County Record • Page 33 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

Employment Opportunities

HOUSEKEEPING

For applications and additional information please contact: Rusty Lindsay Board of Education Building 704 College, Scott City, Ks. 67871 (620)-872-7655 USD #466 is an EOE Employer.

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KIDS ARE YOUR PARENTS HOUNDING YOU THIS SUMMER?

!

G et. .

SEEKING PROPOSALS

Unified School District No. 466 is looking for a qualified applicant for a full-time (August 1-May 31) school nurse position.

Application deadline is June 6, 2014.

For applications and additional information please contact: Susan Carter Board of Education Building 704 College, Scott City, Ks. 67871 (620) 872-7600

Scott County Commission is seeking proposals for the demolition of the vacant Scott County Hospital building located at 310 East 3rd St., Scott City, Ks. This facility is 23,100 sq. ft. on the ground level and 5,625 ft. of basement.

Bid should include demolition and removal of all debris. There will be no charge for debris hauled to the Scott County Landfill.

Bids should be submitted to the Scott County Clerk 303 Court St., Scott City, Ks. 67871 before noon on June 30, 2014.

USD #466 is an EOE Employer.

Unified School District No. 466 is looking for a qualified applicant for a full-time housekeeping position at Scott City Middle School.

it Fi x

SCHOOL NURSE

41t3c

SECRETARIAL/ACCOUNTING Must have: Good communication and phone skills. Bookkeeping experience and knowledge of accrual accounting with attention to detail.

A working knowledge of computers, specifically MS Office – Word, Excel and Outlook.

Experience with Quickbooks software.

Contact: Susan Boulware 620-874-0964

.

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406 Main•Box 377 Scott City, Ks. 67871 620-872-2090

McCarty Farms Scott City is accepting applications for a full-time Administrative Assistant.

Good verbal, written, and organizational skills are required. Computer knowledge of Microsoft required.

To apply, submit an application and resume to: McCarty Dairy, P.O. Box 968, Colby, Ks. 67701; or call 785-460-0596.

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PRN DIETARY AIDE/COOK POSITION PRN DIETARY AIDE/COOK POSITION. Scott County Hospital is seeking a dependable, motivated person for the nutritional services department PRN Dietary Aide/Cook.

Responsibilies would be on an as needed basis.

Job duties include food preparation and other departmental tasks.

Applicants must have a high standard of cleanliness and be able to read, speak and understand English. Experience preferred but will train the right person. Pre-employment physical, drug screen and TB skin test required. Scott County Hospital is a tobacco free facility.

Applications are available through Human Resources at Scott County Hospital 201 Albert Ave. Scott City, Ks. 67871 620-872-7772 or online at www.scotthospital.net

PARK LANE NURSING HOME Has openings for the following positions: Full-time CNA/CMA (evening shift) PRN-LPN/RN Full-time LPN/RN Full-time Restorative Aide/CNA

Please apply in person at:

Park Lane Nursing Home

210 E. Parklane Scott City, KS 67871 Or visit us at our website: www.parklanenursinghome.org “Quality Care Because We Care”

PHYSICIAN CLINIC PRN RN/LPN NEEDED. Scott County Hospital is seeking a PRN RN/LPN to work directly with the providers.

Responsiblities would be to fill in when full-time staff is taking vacation, or would be called in on short notice if someone is ill, and other times as necessary. Responsible for triage calls, working with patients and doing medication refills per protocol.

Applicant must be neat, organized, have strong communication skills and be computer literate.

Confidentiality is mandatory.

Take advantage of this opportunity to be part of a progressive professional practice and to make a difference in people’s lives!

Applications are available through Human Resources at Scott County Hospital 201 Albert Ave. Scott City, Ks. 67871 620-872-7772 or online at www.scotthospital.net

SUDOKU

Subscribe to our online paper and you can enjoy reading The Scott County Record wherever your travels may take you.

Online Subscription: $30 a year

406 Main, Box 377, Scott City, Ks. 67871 www.scottcountyrecord.com 620-872-2090

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PHYSICIAN CLINIC PRN RN/LPN

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Get your news anywhere you go!

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Shift differential pay offered for evening and night shifts!

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Advertise in our Kids Korner!

FREE for all school kids.

The Commission reserves the right to accept or reject all bids.

42t1c

Drought Texas alone had nearly a quarter of a million farms in 2012, the most out of any state, while neighboring Oklahoma had more than 80,000 farms, trailing only three other states.

In the Southwest, concerns are less-focused on agriculture and more on reservoir levels, explains Rippey. In Arizona, reservoir levels were just twothirds of their usual average. Worse still, in New Mexico, reservoir stores were only slightly more than half of their normal levels.

“And Nevada is the worst of all. We see storage there at about a

(continued from page 28)

third of what you would expect,” Rippey said.

The situation in California may well be the most problematic of any state. The entire state is suffering from severe drought, and 75% of all land area is under extreme drought.

“Reservoirs which are generally fed by the Sierra Nevadas and the southern Cascades (are) where we see the real problems,” Rippey said.

Restrictions on agricultural water use has forced many California farmers to leave fields fallow.

“At (the current) usage rate, California has less than two years of water remaining,” he warns.

Severity

(continued from page 28)

•Pct. exceptional drought: 8.2% (4th highest) According to the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD), the main cause of the drought this year has been below average snowfall in the Rocky Mountains.

Melting snow from the Rocky Mountains eventually flows into Lake Mead, which provides most of the Las Vegas Valley with water.

John Entsminger, head of both the LVVWD and the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said that the effects of the drought on the state has been “every bit as serious as a Hurricane Katrina or a Superstorm Sandy.”

EHM Symptoms usually start with a fever. The illness may progress and show signs of weakness and a lack of coordination.

Urine dribbling and lethargy may also signal the disease, and sometimes the illness progresses to a horse going down, Davis said. In the worst cases where the animal can’t rise, also called recumbency, they can die or are so ill that they will be euthanized.

She provided tips and facts for horse owners.

EHM is easily spread by direct horse-to-horse contact. It can also be spread by contact with contaminated objects such as tack, grooming equipment, feed and water buckets, and people’s hands and clothing.

Contact your veterinarian if your horse’s temper-

The Scott County Record • Page 34 • Thursday, May 29, 2014

(continued from page 29)

ature is 101.5 degrees or higher. A normal, healthy temperature for a horse is 100 degrees.

Currently, there are vaccines available to boost a horse’s immunity.

They’re labeled to fight respiratory disease and abortion, but they’re not labeled for the prevention of EHM. Some horses recover from EHM but not without treatment. In some cases, even treated horses can die.

People cannot get sick from EHV-1, which causes EHM so there is no threat to humans. It is most commonly an equine disease, although it can occur in camelids, such as llamas and alpacas.

Davis said she is not recommending that horse owners stay home from competitions.

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3) New Mexico •Pct. severe drought: 86.2% •Pct. extreme drought: 33.3% (6th highest) •Pct. exceptional drought: 4.5% (5th highest) More than 86% of New Mexico was covered in severe drought as of last week, more than any state except for Nevada and California. However, conditions were better than they were one year ago, when virtually the entire state was in at least severe drought, with more than 80% in extreme drought conditions.

4) Kansas •Pct. severe drought: 80.8% •Pct. extreme drought: 48.1% (3rd highest) •Pct. exceptional drought: 2.8% (6th highest) Like several states running out of water, 80% of Kansas was engulfed in at least severe drought, an increase from one year ago when roughly 70% was covered by severe drought.

Compared to last May, however, when exceptional drought covered nearly one fifth of the state, just 2.8% of Kansas was considered exceptionally dry last week.

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