Star-Argosy 03-15-18

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Star-Argosy Home & Garden Pages 5-6

Conway Springs Star and

$1.00 March 15, 2018

The Argonia Argosy

Your weekly newspaper serving northwest Sumner County

School leaders discuss safety By Sam Jack Star-Argosy sjack@tsnews.com Last month, an armed intruder took the lives of 17 people at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., drawing renewed national attention to the issue of school shootings and violence. Clay Murphy and Dr. Julie McPherron, superintendents, respectively, of the Conway Springs and Argonia school districts, said that the possibility of a violent incident is something that their teachers think and talk about, especially in the days after a tragedy elsewhere. “When you hear those kinds of reports... you do think about it,” McPherron said. “It does make you think about what we would do if that happened here.” McPherron said that Argonia schools have conducted intruder drills in the past. The current plan in the event of a crisis is for schools to lock down, with staff and students remaining in place. “We have a crisis team, and we’ve been talking about that. The thing is that right now, there are so many different ways that people say is the best way to respond to an intruder. Do you fight, flee, hide? So we’re spending some time researching.” McPherron noted that several nonprofits have developed protocols and training programs. “We’re kind of researching the one we feel would be a best fit for us, and then we want to train the staff, and then, of course, the students.” In a message to district patrons, Murphy wrote that the district plans to bring in detection dogs, something

See SCHOOLS, Page 10

March Madness hits Wichita Staff report Star-Argosy

Wichita will get a fair amount of national attention this week as a first- and second-round host city for the NCAA Tournament. Two sessions will be held in Thursday’s first round at INTRUST Bank Arena. The first session will feature No. 1 seed Kansas vs No. 16

Pennsylvania at 1 p.m., followed by No. 8 Seton Hall vs. No. 9 North Carolina State. The second session will have No. 6 Houston (a conference foe of Wichita State) vs. No. 11 San Diego State at 6:20 p.m., followed by No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 14 Montana. Two second-round games will be

See MADNESS, Page 10

Going to the game? If you’re going to any of the NCAA games this week at INTRUST Bank Arena, snap a selfie and share it with us! Email photos to news@tsnews.com, or share it with us on our Facebook page or Twitter feed. We’ll publish the best of your photos in next week’s paper.

Conway Springs talks about PRIDE

By Michelle Leidy-Franklin Star-Argosy

While running for mayor, Jessica Gerlach talked to residents of Conway Springs about her vision for the town. She said she is excited to move forward and bring new programs to improve the town and help it grow. Recently, Gerlach put together a community meeting open to the public that took place at the local community center. On the evening of March 8, city leaders met with partners of the Kansas PRIDE Program. “I knew there was a group out there helping other communities achieve goals in a unified way. A friend of mine noticed my mention of it on social media, and reached out to me. Jan Steen is an old acquaintance… He is now with K-State Research and Extension, and the Kansas Pride Program. We talked a bit about what the program offers, the other communities that have utilized it, and the outcomes. I mentioned it to the city council, and then invited him down to give a presentation on it,” said Gerlach. The Kansas PRIDE Program is a joint effort by Kansas PRIDE, LLC, K-State Research and Extension, the Kansas Department of Commerce, and more recently,

Dale Stelz/Star-Argosy

the Kansas Masons. This program works with small communities throughout the state of Kansas to help them make a plan and set goals for city growth and development. There is a rigid course of action to use the program; each community chooses its own path. Leadership and boards are set up to help organize projects and volunteers to make necessary improvements. Resources and grant opportunities are offered through the Kansas PRIDE Program to help make the improvements that are important to each community. Projects are planned, executed and recorded by local leaders and reported to Kansas PRIDE. The Kansas PRIDE Program also offers education classes to help local leadership sharpen their skills. Cities can participate in grant writing courses, volunteer recruitment and retention presentations, and get assistance with controversial or political issues the community may be facing. This program has been in Kansas for more than 40 years. It covers a broad range of possibilities for the communities it serves. Through this program, communities have been able to engage government, city leaders,

See PRIDE, Page 10

Wellington hospital will make way for smaller replacement By Sam Jack Star-Argosy sjack@tsnews.com

INTRUST Bank Arena will host first- and second-round games in this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. The tournament is drawing additional local interest because the Kansas Jayhawks are playing in Wichita. The Wichita State Shockers will play in San Diego, while the Kansas State Wildcats are off to Charlotte, N.C. The Jayhawks play Thursday, and the Shockers and Wildcats will play Friday.

Vol. 134 No. 22

Last week, the city of Wellington approved leasing Sumner Regional Medical Center to Rural Hospital Group (RHG). According to the lease agreement and an accompanying memorandum of understanding, RHG will operate the medical center until it can be replaced by a new facility owned by RHG. The new hospital will be much smaller and will likely offer more limited services. It will have between five and 15 beds, compared to 80 beds in the Sumner Regional Medical Center. According to the memorandum of understanding, the new hospital will be a one-story, approximately 29,000-square-foot

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building, with “quality and finish substantially similar to the recently-completed hospital facility in Hillsboro.” The hospital in Hillsboro offers an emergency room, surgery facilities, radiology services, and an eight-bed inpatient unit. It does not offer maternity care, something that is currently available in Wellington. A news release from Sumner Regional Medical Center states that “RHG intends to maintain the same clinical services and hospital departments currently in existence at the hospital,” but it makes no mention of RHG’s plans to build a smaller new facility. The release goes on to say that RHG will establish a local advisory board “to

See HOSPITAL, Page 10


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