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Haysville
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Thursday March 15, 2018 Volume 12, No. 11
Published by Times-Sentinel Newspapers LLC PAGE 1
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Folks go hog wild for pet pigs By Sam Jack
Haysville Sun-Times sjack@tsnews.com
A recent discussion on the Haysville Happenings Facebook group showed that quite a few Haysville area residents keep pot-bellied pigs as pets. Ten people replied with photos of their pigs. Stacey Storlie, who owns a pig named Essie, started the discussion thread after seeing a bumper sticker in Haysville: “I love my pig.” She said she was surprised by the amount of local response. “Surprised for Haysville, yes, but in general, no. I am in multiple groups on Facebook for pig parents and groups of rescues to find homes for others,” she said. Local pig owners compared their pets to dogs, noting that the animals can be playful and affectionate. If anything, they said, pigs are smarter than dogs, and are often more emotionally complex. They also can apparently hold a grudge, in a way dogs generally don’t. Lori Thompson’s pig, Miss Piggie, is about 18 months old and is fully house-trained. But when Thompson and her husband Christopher left town for a weekend, they came back to a sullen swine. “When we came back, she was so mad that she looked us straight in
the eye and peed on our floor. She was retaliating on us for leaving her,” Thompson said. Among other forms of mischief, Miss Piggie also enjoys getting into the trashcan, knocking over chairs and stealing the straws out of people’s drinks. But despite rambunctious behavior at times, Thompson said she gets a lot out of having a pig. “She runs through our house, just like a dog, and she actually plays with our dogs,” she said. Miss Piggie is strongly attached to the Thompson family. She lives inside most of the time and even shares a bed with the humans on occasion. “If she doesn’t see us and interact with us every day... pigs can actually die of a broken heart,” Thompson said. “They’re like dogs, but way more emotional, and way smarter. If somebody were to just take her from us and have her live outside, she would be very depressed.” Tabatha Fitzsimmons also lets her pigs, Oreo and Puumba, sleep in her bed and hog the couch. “They’re pretty spoiled,” Fitzsimmons said. “Just like a 2-year-old, they can throw fits if they don’t get their way. But they’re pretty used to us.”
See PIGS, Page 7
Contributed photo
Miss Piggie, pictured, is very attached to her owner, Lori Thompson. Pigs are highly emotional animals, several owners said, and they can have complex personalities.
March Madness hits Wichita Staff report
Haysville Sun-Times
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 7
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.
Dale Stelz/Haysville Sun-Times
INTRUST Bank Arena will host first- and second-round games in this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. The tournament is trying 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.
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Woof!
Dog park coming to Haysville By Nancy D. Borst
Haysville Sun-Times
Spring is in the air and so are improvements to two Haysville parks. On Monday, council members approved construction of a new dog park in the Randal L. Dorner Park Complex. The threeacre dog park will include a patio area, shade structure, drinking fountains for dogs and their people, eight benches and four dog waste stations. Public works director Tony Martinez said the dog park will include separate areas for large and small breeds. Also planned in the park complex is completion of eight soccer fields, construction of an access road and parking. Funding for the Dorner Park work will not exceed $205,508.58 and will come from street sales tax revenue, park sales tax and capital improvement funds. The city also approved a bid to remodel the band shelter located in Riggs Park. Repairs will include replacing siding, trim and any damaged sheathing and wall studs. The project
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also will include new steel doors and handrails and fresh paint on all new siding and trim. Martinez said these repairs will be the most extensive work done to the structure since it was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1996. Only one bid was received for the work, in the amount of $18,615 from Quality Builders Construction LLC. In other business, the council accepted a low bid from Flint Hills Materials for Phase 1 paving and drainage improvements in the Country Lakes 2nd addition. A total of five bids were received but Flint Hills’ bid of $280,423 won the job. That was well below the engineer’s estimate of more than $400,000. Spring is coming but summer and swimming season are not far behind and the council approved new proposed pricing for the city’s swimming pool. The pool is scheduled to open Saturday, May 26 and close on Sunday, Aug. 12. Recreation director Georgie Carter proposed
See CITY, Page 7