The Post Podcast

Forward Ever: Hays USD 489 Superintendent Ron Wilson

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with Hays USD 489 Superintendent Ron Wilson.

Extension district prepares for Wheat Plot Field Day

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Cottonwood Extension District agent Stacy Campbell shares information about the upcoming Wheat Plot Field Day.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
The Cottonwood Extension Districts'  Wheat Plot Field Day is coming up next week. Agent Stacy Campbell stops by to share all the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Stacy Campbell 
On June the first next Wednesday, we're having our annual wheat variety demo plot field day the location has changed. It's not in its place that it's been for over two decades north of Victoria. It's actually going to be a little south and west of Hayes. Neil got chalk is put out the variety plot helped us do that this year, which we very much appreciate. So yes, next Wednesday, to what the June first starting at 6pm. In the evening, like it's always started. The location of the plot is if you turn at the 183 Bypass right at the where the Experiment Station is on 240 a fuel go south to 3.3 miles to mangia road, and then hanger right go west two miles to 220th Avenue, and then just turn on to 20th and go south a half a mile and you cannot miss it.
 
James Bell 
Probably just follow where all the cars are right? Well, hopefully,
 
Stacy Campbell 
like I was just telling you now that it's rained, and that's great that it has, it's my lope it's getting to be Milo planting time. So there's probably gonna be a lot of planners roll in next week. So we'll see what kind of turnout we get at the at the field day. But if anybody's got the time and wants to come out, we've got several varieties, quite a few new varieties. They keep saying that anymore. It seems like the wheat breeders, both in universities and in the companies are cranking out quite a few new varieties each year. So we have several of them in our plot to talk about our wheat specialists will be there. And also our small grains cereal or small grains. Plant Pathologist Kelsey Anderson Onofre will be there and talk about diseases which this year with the dry weather, we haven't seen too many. But still she'll kind of give a a recap or a reminder of some of the diseases that that are out there. And so there's always you know, some some good discussion there and always time for questions for our producers. And so yeah, we invite in you know, and then that could be landlords, too that don't farm but have got ground and tenants They're welcome to come out to next Wednesday, June the first at 6pm. At mangia Road and 220th Avenue at that intersection, just go south a half a mile. We do ask that you I have never asked to do RSVP. But we do ask that we would appreciate it if you'd RSVPs. By this Friday, or even if you're not for sure yet. But come Tuesday morning you decide to come give us a call. So we kind of got an idea for numbers on on feeding. We have a four H club that's doing doing the mail. Oh, very
 
James Bell 
cool. And that's a free meal. Right?
 
Stacy Campbell 
It is a free meal.
 
James Bell 
So there's a good reason to go out just for that. Yeah, I
 
Stacy Campbell 
probably should have brought that my list of sponsors. But we've got quite a few sponsors, several of the banks and so forth here in the county that are always real good about donating to that. So we appreciate them. And so anyway, yeah, everybody's invited. So hopefully we'll see some folks next Wednesday at 6pm.
 
James Bell 
Very good, very good. Well, I know that, you know, you mentioned there's not a whole lot going on down through the extension district right now, this was kind of the big thing, but anything else you want to hit on before we go. Um,
 
Stacy Campbell 
you know, I had kind of mentioned in a newspaper article recently and stuff with this dry weather. If ponds continue to stay dry, you know, I hope they don't, but if they do, it's an opportunity where guys could clean out some of their farm ponds, you know, make them a little bit deeper through the years, you know, dirt sediment gets back into them. Great opportunity to do that if the ponds are dry this summer. Also, if you've got any that are leaking, you can do a just take zero to 60 inch course in the pond area where it normally is and you can bring that soil and we can send it off for soil texture test. If it comes back to having close to or 30% Clay, basically it should pack well enough to hold the water not leak he does probably need to do a better job of packing it's recommended to pack them with with the sheepsfoot roller. And not every farmer has one of those but I think there's some scattered around the country where a guy could get hold of them and you got to really really pack it well. To where basically it's called rolling off or when you take that sheepsfoot roller off of there you really can't see the imprints anymore that it makes.
 
James Bell 
Okay, you know, we talked about that. I think last time you were here that sheepsfoot roller and I'm sorry I was gonna look it up see what it looks like because I'm super curious what that tool actually looks
 
Stacy Campbell 
like the big roller Packer but it's got those the big metal knobs that stick up about I don't know probably
 
James Bell 
a teenager. Oh, yeah. Sure. Okay.
 
Stacy Campbell 
Yeah. So that really helps kind of pack that in. So that is one of the keys that we've had one person that just put up a pond and a couple of years ago and it wasn't holding water and they made the comment. Well we ran you know the scraper across a lot but they didn't do a sheep's foot roller so it was dry. We sent this Soil offer texture test, it came back at exactly 30%. So it's like if you will just pack that with the sheep's foot roller. You know, I'm pretty confident that it will hold water now. Okay, yeah, they did that. So it'll be interesting to see, I think they dug it out some more. That's the other thing if you dig them out then you start to put a little bit dirty and only put no more than six inches at a time and then pack pack pack pack pack and then if you got to put a little bit more in no more than six inches at a time and then pack pack pack again with that sheepsfoot rower. So and I'm not an engineer or contractor I've learned a lot because of this one person and, and trying to help them so you know, it does kind of just make sense that you you know, if you've got enough clay in your soil and our soils have, you know, definitely have some clay in them. So, if you've got a leaky pond, we can share sin, some soil offer soil texture test to see what percentage clay and if it's kind of low, maybe in the 20% area. A lot of people think let's add bentonite clay to it. Well that's the most expensive way to do it. There's rock salt can actually do that. And rock salt is pretty plentiful here in Kansas. You got the salt mines and Hutch and think won over by in Rice County, or yeah over and a lot Rice County Lyons, Kansas. So I think you know, you can get rock salt, rock salt, excuse me, shipped and probably to put that on and we've got information about how to do that. If you don't have enough clay in the soil and get it packed in there. Good. But definitely the cheaper option than the bentonite clay is to use rock salt. If if you don't have enough clay in the soil, for that toe for that soil to be able to hold that water and not leak in your farm ponds.
 
James Bell 
Interesting. Yeah, very cool. Okay. All right, sir. Well, it's good to
 
Stacy Campbell 
see if they Yes, thank you. Yeah. And also, I guess, call us if you're planning to come to the weight plot field day that's 62894306289430. If you're planning to come give us a call by Friday, if we'd appreciate that

As reorganization continues Ellis County Historical Society votes to save historic church

On this episode of the Post Podcas Ellis County Historical Society interim director Amanda Rupp shares the latest from the Ellis County Historical Society.

Hays Chamber to present Dale Carnegie training

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays Chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger stops by to share information about their upcoming Dale Carnegie training.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
The Hays Chamber's, Dale Carnegie workshops are coming up in early June. President and CEO of the Hays Chamber, Sarah Wasinger stops by to share some of the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
When I first started at the Chamber almost three years ago, mind you, back in June of 2019, I was able to go through the Dale Carnegie class on the front end, starting at the chamber. And it was quite frankly, one of the most wonderful professional development personal development opportunities that I have ever had. And looking at, you know, a unique job as the chamber presidents Oh, it was just really a good opportunity to really hone in on better communication skills, and really kind of understand how I can, you know, really stop and pause and listen, and really hear what other people are saying and understand what their needs are. And that's really been one of the biggest tools I've used in my day to day jobs.
 
James Bell 
That's awesome. Yeah, I'm looking at kind of the class notes here. Confidence, competence and enthusiasm is what they're practicing. I love that.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Yes. So if you are the type of person that maybe you're not extroverted, you're introverted, but your job requires you to maybe push yourself outside of your comfort zone couldn't imagine what that's like, I don't know, do we have jobs like that?
 
James Bell 
We may, we may be a public faces of the community? Yeah, well, I
 
Sarah Wasinger 
would say that this is that opportunity to put yourself outside of your comfort zone, you know, it's not just a traditional sit in your chair, you know, from 830 to five o'clock training session, you're actually getting up, you're interacting, you're moving around, and you're going to have to prepare, you know, a couple of minutes speeches here and there. But the cool thing is, is that you're sitting in a room of people that are in that exact same place that you are, you know, they're testing their comfort levels. They're not, you know, probably speaking at the public level on a daily basis, either. People that were in my class ranged anywhere from people in the banking industry, we had folks in education, agriculture, you know, just essentially people that were in the marketing filled, business related, you know, competencies, it really had the gamut of people who, you know, would benefit from this class. So, we also had the opportunity to act out skits, which I'm not one that is very creative, but really, they put you at ease when you're in the class. I'm Amy Gross is actually the facilitator. And for people that listened a couple of months ago, we actually had her on to talk about the class that we had back in April. So she does a great job. And it's my understanding that Tasha Iseman from Nex tech wireless is going to be last year's guest, um, graduate facilitator this year. So she's going to come in and kind of help and keep the class engaged and keep everybody on their toes.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. And I was gonna say, I remember that interview. And for those out there listening, want to go back and listen to that you can find that over the post podcast, I'm sure that's there. Over at Hayes post.com. But the I love that. The exactly you you kind of alluded to this a little bit. But this really this class is not for just business professionals or Chamber members. It's for anybody you there's something that you can take from this, no matter what your job position or life experiences.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
It is absolutely so the thing I like about this course is when we started back in 2018, kudos to Tammy Walbrook, excuse me my predecessor, she's the one who brought this opportunity. And so this is just a really nice way for people to have amazing, you know, communication training, but you don't have to travel away from haze. That's the value of it, right? So where you as you would normally travel out of town for, you know, three to five days for a training like this. You get to have it right in your own back door. We're going to actually have it at the venue at Thursday's. And that will be on June 7 14th. And 21st classes will start from 8:30am and go until 5pm
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. And, you know, first off the venue, what a neat little place. I I've had some meetings in there and I love it. I think that's one thing we still probably need more of venue spaces here. Nice. But anyway, the travel piece of that absolutely to get this world class training. I mean, normally you'd have to go to Wichita, Kansas City to do this but you guys bring it right here to the people in Hays. I love that.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Absolutely. You're not paying gas prices, you're not paying costs to stay overnight in a hotel. You're staying right here in Hays. And, you know, you don't have to be paying us to take the class we have in the past have had people from other communities and counties travel into town to take it. So registration information can currently be found on the Chamber's website. We do have fliers, essentially, that will be coming out. While I guess if you go back as far as I think our February newsletter will have a Dale Carnegie flyer in each of the month's newsletter so definitely go check that out. If for any reason you can't see that. Feel free to call us at the Chamber office at 785-628-8201 and either ask for myself or for Rhonda and Mariah M, we're giving her that some of that information too. So, we will do our best to get you all the information you need. And more than anything, too, we would be happy to connect you with Amy gross, the facilitator from Dale Carnegie at the Kansas heartland.
 
James Bell 
Okay. Now I'm curious, do you have to be a chamber member to get in on this?
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Absolutely not. Now, there is a cool benefit to being a chamber member. However, we will give you a 15% discount for being a chamber member. When you register through the course, there is a code on the flyer at the Chamber's website. And of course, they'll Carnegie will verify that all those who register with that code are true Chamber members. One thing that we haven't talked about is there are three books that come with this training. And I actually, I feel like I use one of the three on a weekly basis, if not more. So the quick and easy way to effective public speaking, I actually read that one, before going on stage at the Chamber banquet my first year. And I think had I not done that I might have just, you know, maybe gotten really red faced and paused and not knowing what to say. But that book really helped me with some personal competence. Just being able to speak in front of you know, 400 of my peers across town, and then how to win friends and influence people and how to stop Worrying and start letting. I think that even though we look at Dale Carnegie as the concept for professional development, and they've been doing this for over 100 years now, the principles still really do remain true. I think the thing I love the most about the books is it gives you a lot of different stories that kind of illuminate some of these different principles that we talked about, to where it's easy for you to internalize as your own self within your own experiences. And you can kind of really pull from a variety of examples for those.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely, yeah, I highly recommend those books. I've never done this class, but I've read those books, or at least a couple of them. Yeah, I don't remember exactly which ones. But yeah, well, I gotta pulled up here, just aside the titles in front of me on the on the web. And they're like, they're $5. I mean, what a what an investment your future, if you don't want to take the time at this, at this point in your career to do a class like this, please read those books,
 
Sarah Wasinger 
at least read the books, they're amazing. Um, so a few of the other things that you will learn in this class are creating a safe and caring environment, managing stress and minimizing worry, obviously, everybody is doing a lot more, with a lot fewer staff right now. So, um, who could benefit from that one, and then energizing and engaging listeners, that's sometimes very difficult, because we consume so much information on a daily basis. And so just making sure that the message that you're sharing is really being taken in by your audience. And then I think the thing that I love the most is building trust and persuading people to take action. So a lot of times, maybe we have that fear point that, oh, maybe I shouldn't act, maybe I shouldn't do this. Because I'm worried about what the possible outcome might be. I think this class really helps you guide your own internal thought process, and really helps you feel comfortable maybe pushing the envelope in certain instances when you wouldn't, you know, not in a bad way. But you know, if you see something that could yield from some positive change, it gives you the courage to act on it.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Yeah. And that's one of the things that I see that, I don't know, it kind of digs at me a little bit is the lack of action. And, and especially, and not not anyone here locally, but around the state in other locations I've been in, I see these towns, and I'm thinking like, goodness gracious, what we've got all these cool things going on in Ellis County, why aren't they doing it here?
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Right. So I think you have to ask yourself that question, you know, are you okay with the status quo. And I think part of what Dale Carnegie teaches you is that, you know, we can be proud of the foundation and the roots that we have, that have built us to be where we are today. But we also have to owe it to ourselves to look forward to, you know, what our futures really need. And one of the questions that I love the most that people will learn about in this course, are, what's the worst thing that can happen? A lot of times, that's the thing that makes us worry the most is we're worried about the worst thing that can happen. Well, if you can identify that elephant in the room, what's the worst thing that can happen? A lot of times, it's just doing nothing. And so doing something is always better than doing nothing. And it takes courage to try different things. And I feel that our county, as you've pointed to James has been very successful as of late because we've been willing to try some different things. And we know that in order to grow, we need to shift a little bit of the way that we've done things in the past. And I'm very proud of our community for doing that.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. lots lots to be proud of here in Ellis County, and Hayes specifically. We've got just a few minutes left, I want to make sure we were telling people again, how do you get registered for
 
Sarah Wasinger 
this thing, so they can go to Hayes chamber.com and access that flyer, so they can go to the news and announcements tab and under our newsletter, link there. They can just click on that. There's an actual link in the flyer itself they can go to and then if they have any issues, registering there or getting that access discount code to work, they can call us at the office and we'll be happy to put that in there and want to make sure folks do now may 31. So next week Tuesday is the deadline to register for the class. And so if you have any questions beforehand, you know, we'd be happy to connect you with other graduates of the class. I know that many of them are always willing to share their experience with others.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And I have never heard anyone that has taken this class have a bad thing to say about it. Not a single person. That's incredible to me. And I've known quite a few that have been through that. Absolutely. All right. Well, Sara, before we run out of time, we got to talk about this. You got a lot going on this week. Well, we always do. It's always busy down the chamber.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
So Wednesday, we have Gracies corner at fhsu Memorial Union, that'll be at 4pm. I'm Grace these corner is actually their new pet line of fhsu Tiger gear that you can purchase for your four legged friends. Oh, that will be kind of exciting.
 
James Bell 
The first dog gracious. Took me a second but yeah, the Masons dogs.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
And then Wednesday as well, we're going to have our H yp MDC meeting that will be held at defiance at 4:30pm. And then Thursday, we're going to have a lunch and learn with the Wild West festival. And it'll be at the press at noon, and lunches available for $12. Such a great opportunity to learn how you can get involved, and an event that really hits almost every corner of Hayes, that we have a lot of people that come visit us that week. So I know that they are definitely high in demand for getting some volunteers and help for that. So if you have an inkling to learn more, as well, as you know, hear some music while you're there, and volunteering. That's a great opportunity. And then Friday, we're excited to have our chamber chat with cathedral roast, and they are going to be at the downtown Pavilion at 9am. We're going to learn about what Jeff Broll has been doing with his new coffee business, as well as talking about the downtown market that will be kicking off that weekend. And then finally, we're going to have our monthly membership lunch at Smoky Hill Country Club that will actually be this Friday at noon. And leadership Hayes will actually be our topic that they can use as a response. So if you're curious to see what our leadership Hainsworth has been doing for their class project, it's a great chance to get involved

FHSU’s Hispanic College Institute helps Hispanic first-generation college students succeed

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Fort Hays State University assistant director of admissions Hugo Perez and Fort Hays State University Alumni Association engagement strategist Carolyn Tatro share information about the upcoming Hispanic College Institute.

Hays Arts Council summer classes return for 2022

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Arts Council executive director Brenda Meder shares information about summer events at the council.

Forward Ever: Gardener’s Supply president and CEO Cindy Turcot.

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with Gardener's Supply president and CEO Cindy Turcot.

Grow Hays hires director of business development

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the hiring of a director of business development.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
Grow Hays has recently expanded by one more team member in order to help continue on in their mission. Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams stops by to talk to us about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
An interesting year with adding people.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, maybe we should talk about that first before we talk about the new new hire because you do have a new hire from a wider No, it was it about six months ago or so you brought on David King and
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Queen joined us January 3, this year, director of business recruitment and retention and spend a great job has jumped right in. And he wrote the grant for the microfactory that we got. He's got all kinds of I say all kinds, but he's got a lot of prospects he's working on in terms of organizations, companies that may be looking to expand and Hayes and so we're in Ellis County. And so he's doing great, but we still had some additional needs. And that leads us to where we are today.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, I gotta say this about David, before we move on to the new guy. Immediately, they have seen him around, I see him everywhere. He says like, it's like, I think he may be sometimes he's following me because it seems like every event I'm at, he's also there, and participating, communicating and, and just being I think it really good representative of the organization.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, actually is following you, James. So you bear watching. But now, he has been very active, he's getting out into community. And he's, he's he's doing what needs to be done. And as I say, we've got we've got more prospects in the pipeline now than we've ever had. And, you know, recruitment of businesses, it's a numbers game, the more you have in the pipeline, some will fall through, you know, most will fall through. It's it's a, it's a rejection game, but you'll get your fair share of them. And that's what we're working hard to do is get our fair share of them.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. All right. So let's talk about this, this a new position. First off, I'm coming into this with absolutely no information. So what is the position
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
where the position is director of business development, and special projects, we like long, complicated titles that grow haze. But essentially it will be his focus will be primarily in the areas of entrepreneurship, business creation, which is the first item in our mission of business creation, business, retention, and expansion and retainment. And then business recruitment, and James Robin, will be joining us in June, the first or whatever day that is, that's the first Monday of June. And he will be in that position of business development and special projects, in part because of this microfactory. That's a big project. And we need somebody looking after that and making sure that the construction phase goes well, but then we also, you know, we have to fill that building when we get to that point. Once it's complete, we want it full of serving its purpose as an incubator for manufacturers. And so he will be involved in that as well as some of our housing initiatives and, and have a lot of areas that he'll be focused on.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Very cool. And you know, if that name sounds familiar, it sounded familiar to me too. But I had to look it up. It didn't immediately strike a strike my memory, but he was a long term, longtime office staffer with Senator Moran, right. He has
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
been he's he's been a district representative for Senator Moran covering I believe it's the Northwest 18 counties in Northwest Kansas. And that has given him I believe, a really good feel for small communities, rural communities like we are and like, our county is in terms of the struggles that they have, and some of the programs that might be available that federal programs as well as even state programs for small communities like ours, that we can take advantage of. So I think he I think his background number one is as the district representative for Senator Moran will serve him well. Number two, he born and raised in western Kansas in the Sharon Springs area. So he has a good understanding of, of what's going on and has that western Kansas work ethic that we like to see and it's so good to have. And so a lot of positives with James I'm very confident he'll he'll hit the ground running and do a lot of good for us.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, that's awesome. You know, you talk about those the extreme western Kansas of communities and they think about the struggles they have and how they compare to some of the things we're dealing with. And oh, my goodness, like, if you can come up with some helpful ideas out there. That's going to be just a easy implement implementation here. I would say
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, that's one of the other areas that I hope to focus on in the future is that even though we are, you know, our, our coverage is Ellis County, we can't be insensitive to what goes on around us and other counties and the struggles that they have. Because those people come to hate they shop and Hayes, they buy cars and Hayes, they go to Fort Hays State, they go to events, and they do have a lot of struggles, you know, depopulation is a real struggle for them. aging populations is a struggle, you know, they have, they have all the same challenges that we have with workforce with housing with childcare. So, if we can help in those areas, I think in the long run, it benefits our community as well. So more and more we look at the region versus just Ellis County, you know, obviously, our focus is Ellis County, we want to do as much as we can here. But we we can't be insensitive to what goes on around us either. Yeah, and
 
James Bell 
you know, in in recent months, years, maybe even I've been hearing a lot more about that collaborative nature. You know, it's, it's, it seems like even professionals, businessmen that have been doing their industry or in their industry for a long time, are kind of coming to that realization that it's no longer that competitive nature out here in western Kansas got to be collaborative one. And I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about how a position like this helps build that. And especially with the entrepreneurship piece, because, you know, again, a lot of conversations I'm hearing is the things that we want out here in western Kansas, they're not going to come to us, we have to build them.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, that's right, you know, creation is a big part of what we are focused on and what we need to be doing. And that's going to be a big part of what James is going to be responsible for. And, yeah, I mean, we we have to help are, we do have to look at it regionally. And we do. And that's, that's one of the reasons why James was such a good fit is because he has such a good familiarity with these 18 counties out here, as to what goes on and what their challenges are. So and, and he knows, and, you know, hopefully he understands the federal programs that might be available, as well as how the system works, you know, government in general, if you if you get into the middle of it, it can be overwhelming, as to okay, we've got this program and this program, and this program will What's that mean to me, and you need that person that understands that that can kind of guide you through that. And that's, that's what we're for. That's why when a prospective business is coming to town, we're kind of their first stop, because as they look for, okay, what programs might be available to us what, what infrastructure needs are we going to have, we're the ones that can guide them through that and, and as we expand and look at Western Kansas as a whole same kind of thing could be the case, a lot of these small communities. They can't afford full time economic development people. I mean, they just can't. So if we can help in some areas with some of the smaller communities, that that's great. And, you know, we can't be so proprietary and so focused on Oh, it's only what's good for hazer it's only what's good for Ellis County. You know, I always I say all the time. What's good for Hays is good for Ellis, Victoria Manjaro Chinchin. By the same token, what's good for Alice or Victoria or Manjaro? is good for AES. Because we need people. And so if attracting them any way we can, it's what we need to be doing.
 
James Bell 
You mentioned, many of these smaller counties out here in western Kansas don't have that elk economic development staff. And I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about that as well how important organizations like grow Hayes in especially with the recent growth that you guys have accomplished down there, how important it is for groups like yours to continue to stimulate economic development?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, it is important and and we fortunately, in Ellis County, we have the resources to engage full time professional economic development people, a lot of counties don't. I've been watching here recently and it's it's there's just a procession of people in different positions out in western Kansas communities that they have an economic development director for a while, but then they move on to something else or they retire, or they're just part time or you know, they're they're part time they work for maybe a a local utility, but they also do economic development on the side, you know, the organization allows them to do that. But the problem with that is they just don't have the opportunity to focus enough time and energy towards what the whole process is. And I particularly see that with housing in some of these rural areas. I mean, they have real challenges, and we do too, but we're able to make some strides and and solve some of these problems, but they they really have an uphill battle. And so I think long term, that's something we want to explore is how we can help Additionally, in some of these smaller communities where they can maybe have some sort of a consulting arrangement with the Ellis, our organization, and we could maybe provide some of those kinds of services, we do have the creda organization, the western Kansas, Rural Economic Development Alliance. And that's a group of Eiken of counties and cities and economic development professionals, all through the western half of the state, that participate in this organization. And they're a resource for each other. And it's a great organization. But sometimes it takes a little bit more than that takes actually boots on the ground to do some of that. And over time, I think we'll we'll be doing some of those kinds of things just out of necessity.
 
James Bell 
You know, on the flip side of this, I wonder if you want to speak to folks out here, I know there's there's there's I think everyone would agree a pretty independent streak and the folks that live in western Kansas, and I think some of them feel that maybe organizations like this that grow it's it's it's I know, it's not a government organization, but it's quasi governmental, you do get government funds. I wonder if you want to speak to that, you know, why? Or how the growth of organizations like this aren't necessarily government more a local effort?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, certainly, one could argue that as organizations like ours grow, and we do get some government funding that, you know, we're, we're one more thing that is on that list of things, it get funded by governments. And, and as I like to think, you know, it needs to be a good investment by the local governments in what they're spending and what their return is, you know, that's why every year we go before them and tell them what we've done, and tell them what our ask is for the coming year, and what our plans are. And, you know, it's up to them to decide if it's been a good investment or not, I certainly think it has locally for all the communities in our in our county, but that's what the elected officials are there to do and make that assessment. But if, if, if we're not there to do it, it simply doesn't get done. You know, that, that company that wants to locate here that wants to go through the process of asking for some economic incentives, or knowing what programs that might be available for him. The reality is that if there's no if we're not there, either the city or the county, somebody's gonna have to hire it done. And they still won't be looking at things as broadly as what we are and the number of services and things that we offer. So but yeah, I hear you on the growth thing. And, you know, part of this, the adding of these two people is, anybody that knows me knows I'm not a spring chicken. And there will come a day where I'm not going to be doing this anymore. And norburn Our organization needs succession planning. Well, when this when James is in place, and David's in place, you know, we'll have a much more secure succession plan, whatever that is, I don't know that it even be either one of them. But whatever that plan is, will be much more solid than it would have been if it was just me doing everything. And if I go out and get hit by a bus or something like that, that would have been problematic. Absolutely.
 
James Bell 
We've got just about a minute or so left. I wonder if we want to share details. When is Jim Seaton started down there,
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
He started June 1, or whatever day that is the first Monday in June. He's, he's I'm, I'm confident that had a little bit of a conversation with Senator Moran. And he's, while he hates to lose James, he feels like it's a positive move for James. You know, I think James James is failing is what he's indicated to me as he'd like to make a difference on a local level versus what he was doing on a federal level. I think you can see the results a little easier on a local level and, and I think he's excited about that. So he starts on June the first and we'll get him going and we'll get some getting acclimated to some projects and some he'll have some definite things he's on his to do list and relate star to partnership, whether it be our youth entrepreneurship challenge, pitch it events, try spec, the Speaker Series, whatever.

Hays Young Professionals plan June Street dance

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Chamber vice president of marketing and communications, along with Advisory Council chair Tom Graham share details of the upcoming Street Dance scheduled for June 17.

Forward Ever: Symphony in the Flint Hills’ manager Kelly Tastove

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with Symphony in the Flint Hills' operations manager Kelly Tastove.

May Ray Day an opportunity to enjoy fun in the sun

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Fort Hays State University's Glen McNeil shares details of the benefits and risks of taking in some sun, on national May Ray Day.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
As the weather gets warmer, more people are sure to be enjoying the sunshine. This May Ray Day, Glen McNeil from Fort Hays State University share some information about the health benefits of sunshine and some of the dangers on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Glen McNeil 
Devil's Food Cake. Yeah, I brought that up. I heard you talk about it.
 
James Bell 
I did. It's Devil's Food Cake day.
 
Glen McNeil 
Yeah. So I want to quiz you now. Because I know you read some things. You're looking at me?
 
James Bell 
I'm I'm nervous. Because all I know I know is it's made a choice. It's called Devil's Advocate. Well, that's a good one. I'm gonna say because it's not angels. fruitcake, it's the opposite. That's probably wrong. I'm sure.
 
Glen McNeil 
That may fit somewhere. But that's not the reason that goes along with that the food history. It was popularized in the 18th century. And at that point in time, deviled was a word used to describe foods in general, that were very dark, rich, spicy, and then had chocolate in them. Okay, very chocolatey food. So a chocolate cake like that people had referred to as a sinful cake. Well, then the food term came in and it became Devil's Food was a sinful cake because it was so rich and chocolatey. And people participate in it so the name became devil Devil's Food Cake became popular in the United States in the 1900s. Okay, moved moved, basically to Europe from here. And it's pretty stable now. And of course, now you can go out and buy a box of deviled foods cake and, and it's it's made from that. But they're, they're originally were two varieties that finit fit into that. Both of them are still with us today. One of them is the very chocolatey dark colored cake that we refer to as the devil's Devil's Food Cake. Can't quite get that out. The other one is a cake that a lot of people eat and that's red velvet cake. I love red velvet cake. Yeah, original cry. Okay, my aunt used to make red velvet cake for all the holiday events. And she would hide one toothpick in it. Okay, and whoever got the piece with a toothpick in it didn't make any difference. Whether it's kids or adults, they had to clear the table and do the dishes.
 
James Bell 
Oh, I thought it was gonna be a pro. No, it was oh, it was not worth
 
Glen McNeil 
So people used to when she would cut the cake. Everybody's looking for the toothpick. And some people even got wise the adults got wise first and they would take a fork and they go through the pieces of cake before. Be sure they didn't take that one. But she always did that. That was always kind of fun. You know, at the holiday times for that. And when we look at it, red velvet cake and devils fruitcake very similar textures. Very similar cakes, except for the color. Okay, red. Devil's Food Cake uses cocoa powder, which is a process it's called Dutch cocoa powder. It's a process process by which they make a richer, less Outland chocolate. So it has a more natural flavor. A you know very smooth texture which red velvet cake. Those two. The main difference between the two if you were to make them at home or make them from a commercial recipe, is that red velvet cake has buttermilk in it. Okay, it tends to give it a little bit more acid flavor. In fact, he has some home recipes have you add buttermilk and then a small amount of vinegar to make it even Tangmere originally when they made the the difference between the two is they added how would you get the color in a red velvet cake. Couple 100 years ago what would you use feats beaches.
 
James Bell 
I knew that one Okay, cuz like because I you know, gross. You think it's gross, but it's actually comes out
 
Glen McNeil 
of beaches, actually, for many, many years was used as red food coloring for for lots of things. Of course, today we got commercial food colorings, it's cheaper. It's easy to use, but they use beet juice and the beet juice in the buttermilk or at that point in time, just the soured milk. That's where vinegar and milk came in to mix the two together give it that sour flavor. Well, the beet juice has soured milk is what makes the difference between red velvet cake and the devil's food cake. So go get your box. Make your cake or if you really want to. There are lots of very simple cake recipes over the internet that you can get are a lot of families have a favorite Devil's Food Cake or a favorite red velvet cake and in terms of that and probably the biggest thing I can tell people these days if you want to try making one from scratch, spend the extra money and get yourself a box of cake flour. Okay cake flour most most homes have are all purpose flour. chairs just as it says all purpose cake flour does not form as as hard to sell. Okay doesn't form as hard to sell it has different levels of of gluten in it and different levels of starch in it and say all purpose flour does. Or bread flour were bread flour has lots of natural gluten in it cake flour has very little. So you get a you get a very nice round soft, tender Aircel and your cake and that's where that sponginess comes from.
 
James Bell 
Interesting. I didn't even know cake flour was a thing, because big I've made cakes but well most
 
Glen McNeil 
people use all purpose flour and most recipes will tell you to sift your all purpose flour, but you can even buy pre sifted flour and by sifting your flour you and you incorporate more air to it and you break up the starch based on the flour a little bit more. So you get a finer granule cake flour is like a pre sifted lower lower protein flour that you can use. It comes in a smaller box, it's not as large but most homes have all purpose flour because you can just do anything with it. Right you know that you want. My other thing today is now that food and cake which just because I like cake, and you brought it up, he doesn't like it. I don't know if I've ever met anybody that doesn't like certain types of cake. Yes. And the other thing has a little bit to do more to do with health. All right. And we always kind of go about you know, what are the days today? What are the different types of things we can do? Do you know what today is healthwise? I do not okay, it's called today is called National. May Ray de may Ray de may Ray day. Yes. Okay. Okay. And national may Ray Day is a day that is designed to encourage people it's not a real widely known one. But it's out there and it's May 19. And it's it's a day to encourage people to go out and enjoy the sunshine. Oh, okay. Okay, makes sense. And also it comes in May and Ray is our names involved with the person who pushed and identify this day, but they call it national may rainy day. So the big thing today is benefits of being in the sun. Now being in the sun today, low caution, supposed to be really hot. Okay, and and we know you know, when you get out and really hot and you want to make sure you're well hydrated. So whether it's water or decaffeinated product that you're drinking, or what's popular with the kids these days are these no sugar, Gatorade, no sugar, all sport, no sugar, whatever, they drink them just just like water, but you know water, water is fine for the process. And what we see so you know, the idea is get out in the sun. Sunday sunshine, vitamin is di D, okay? Sunlight, ultraviolet UV lights to the Sun penetrate your skin, okay, the epithelial near the outside layer of your skin, they convert a form of cholesterol, because a form of cholesterol to change goes to liver and gets converted into vitamin D. Okay, and, and so you get then you get the benefits of vitamin D, good healthy bones, okay, good for all of us doesn't make any difference what their what their age, some association with vitamin D is helping in, in dealing with bacteria within the body on the skin, that type of thing. There's information out there that talks about good levels of vitamin D can help lower your risk for cancer. Now, this doesn't mean you go spend the day in the sun, you're not going to get cancer. That's, that's not it. Because we also know that spending too much in the sun, time in the sun can lead to certain types of melanoma skin cancers. So you gotta get a balance here. vitamin D helps to regulate blood pressure a little bit. And some people will tell you that it can improve your sleeping habits depending upon how much you get a lot of things about vitamin D that are really good benefits there. So that with the sun and the bright sun, you have to have about about 60% Well 40 About 40% of your skin exposed to direct sunlight to get the benefit. So you're wearing a pair shorts and a short sleeve shirt, you're fine. Okay, you're gonna get the sunlight that you need. Now also, depending upon the time of the year, you know, as the Earth tilts on its axis in the sun, the time of year during the summertime, we get a lot better benefit from sunlight vitamin D, than we do during the winter. And we can store vitamin D. So you get out in the sun, you build up your reserves of vitamin D and that helps you get through the winter. Okay for that process. Now, the other side of that is you want to be careful if you're in the sun, especially if you're fair skinned. As you age I mean all of these things we hear about all the time about this Be careful of sun, wear clothes, wear clothes that cover your arms and legs, okay, then that cuts down on your skin exposure, okay to the sun, but if you're very sensitive, you want to do that or you want to spend a limited amount of time in the sun to be able to get the true benefit from it. wide brimmed hat Good idea. Most people, you know, have a tendency to sunburn on their cheeks, sunburn on their ears. Okay, a wide brim hat protects that. And if, if you're like me, unlike you, the top of my head has reached a point where I need to wear a hat. You know, never I used to have a thick head of hair and I never wear a hat. Okay, but I've reached the point where I, I wear a hat. And so that wide brim hat face, face and ears gives you that protection, light colored clothing that will breathe fits into that, if you the recommendation for the last few years has been sunglasses is a good idea to help protect your eyes. Okay, something that can help block the UVA and UVB rays, sunscreen. You'll find various things and recommendations on sunscreen. So I'm going to hit the broad spectrum in this and say you should be at least you least using the sunscreen and 50 Sunscreen of 15 will protect you from around 90 to 92% of those ultraviolet rays up to a sunscreen of say 30 which blocks or higher which blocks up to 97% of those UVB rays. So you know, that gives you protection and sunscreen really is kind of a relatively modern thing when you look at that and, and use for protection. I don't know if you use it.
 
James Bell 
And do you might see I've got a little peeling still on my arms from being out on all weekend. Wish I had to use a little bit more but absolutely I used to not know I didn't either. But it's it's a necessity now.
 
Glen McNeil 
Yes, it is. And especially with young children, and I put it on my ears and my nose and my cheeks. I think my arms may be past that point, you know, and my legs are white all the time. That doesn't matter. But I have a son who's very, like very light skinned. And so he puts it on all all the time and I have a son who's dark skinned, I don't even knows what it is, you know, he just walks outside and turns brown standpoint. So various difference that goes in those. And if you're going to be outside for a long period of time, you're gonna go watch kids baseball game or soccer game wide brim hat sunscreens Fine. Get a sun umbrella, take an umbrella with you. Outside of the fact that gives you shade when the wind blows through that small amount of shade. You may feel cooler, you know, but there's some benefits to do that. So and then the other part of it is which I think is great this time of year. The irises are in bloom. Peonies are in bloom everything else. So you get out and you look what the sun gives us. You mentioned the green grass, everything greens that comes up and it's really beautiful. So may Ray day for your health. Get out enjoy the sun but enjoy it in a positive healthy manner and it gets you outside. So you know, I don't know what else to say go on a picnic. Plant, plant flowers, plant flowers, plant flowers, I like flowers.
 
James Bell 
Trees. Yeah, and some trees trees are good
 
Glen McNeil 
too. My wife and I don't necessarily agree on what flowers should be. But you know, I've learned so long as we can get lots of colors I'm okay with planning whatever there is and, and already I didn't do it too much. I started really got into it about five, six years ago, you know and I put out a few garden plants and had these things scattered all over the yard and it gives me about an hour to two hours of work every day to 10 my flowers, my three tomato plants to cucumber plants. I mean those things and get outside but again Outside, enjoy it. So go enjoy

Area economy likely to benefit from USD 489 bond

On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares thoughts on the economic impact of the USD 489 bond issue.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
The Hays USD 489 bond issue that passed this week will have significant impact on the area economy. Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams stops by to talk about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast. We had a bond pass this week, we're going to talk about some of the economic impacts on that good and bad. But first, from what I understand you just got back from a pretty big trip, right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, I did, there was a western Kansas delegation that went to Washington, DC to visit our elected officials and talk about what's going on in our communities, what challenges we have and potentially what they might be able to do to help those issues. And so we had, I believe they're about 42. And all from Hays, Dodge City, Garden City, Great Bend, liberal. So had a good group. And it was a good trip. Awesome.
 
James Bell 
Although I think for my understanding you you left behind the mayor, he's still sitting up there and try to figure out how to get back to
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
I guess I'm not 100% sure that he was supposed to go to San Diego, and I don't know where he ended up. But he bears constant watching, that's for sure. Because you just never know where he's gonna be.
 
James Bell 
For sure. Yeah. Just they were they were scheduled to be on this morning. And we got that word for last minute. They're still traveling. So okay,
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
yeah, I think we had to go to San Diego for business reasons. So I don't think he's still in DC, unless he wasn't able to get on his flights or whatever. But who knows. But it was a good trip, we were able to meet with some of the representative Mann's staff. And then we also got to meet with Senator Marshall and Senator Moran, and talked about Essential Air Service and things like that, those kinds of issues that that impact our community that they may have some bearing on. And then we talked about a lot of issues that they they don't have any direct impact on our housing situation on our childcare situation, workforce. But we did talk about those things and make them aware of kind of what's going on in our communities.
 
James Bell 
Very good. Oh, and what kind of reception when we were they were they pretty taken aback? Or were they did they already know this? So this was just kind of filling in the details. While
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
they know most of it, you know, they spent some time out here, they know what's going on. Sometimes it's just good, good to get on their turf and talk with them in their environment. And so, but we did share some things with him some concerns that that exist in our communities. And, you know, Hayes is not unique when we talk about childcare when we talk about housing, when we talk about workforce, all of those things are all communities are facing those, not only in Kansas, but pretty much across the United States. Absolutely.
 
James Bell 
And we owe as we talked about here, on the on the segment to the collaboration, the working together figuring out these problems, you know, so we're not it's not the competitive us versus them. It's we all got to get through this. We do.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
And it takes a lot of people involved. And it takes some time, unfortunately, never happens as fast as you would like.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. So moving on to this bond issue. Speaking of things that are going to take a while. It's past, we got the we got the go ahead from the voters to go ahead and revamp some of the schools build a new haste High School. I wonder what your initial and first thoughts are on the economic impact of this thing as it's moving forward?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, as I said before the bond issue, it's my belief, it's our belief that schools are critical infrastructure to a community. And as we work with companies, as well, as individuals who are looking to relocate to our community schools play an important role in that. And I can tell you that we have any number of retailers, you know, 610 12 that we talk to on a consistent basis. And all of them have been keenly interested in what's going to happen with that bond. I'm not saying that now that we've passed a bond, all these people say, this is where we're going to go, and this is what we're going to do. But they have been concerned about it. And they have had the attitude that if we're not willing to invest in our own community, why should they? And so, and the reason they're concerned about it is they have to have a workforce, they have to attract and retain a workforce and schools are important when it comes to a workforce as his housing as his childcare. You know, all of those things are critical aspects of attracting a workforce. But schools are an important part. And I know consistently Hayes Medical Center has struggled to attract physicians, when they look at the conditions of our schools, other health care providers. And the retailers we talk about that we would like to get into Hayes, we'd love to have more retail than we do. Schools are of concern to them. So you know, I said prior to the to the bond vote that there is a cost of not passing the ball On that I believe over time is greater than the cost of the bond. And the cost of the bond is high, no doubt about that. But not passing, it would have put us in a difficult position when we start talking about recruitment of people and businesses. And it's a good thing. That's fast now, now, it's up to USD 49. To execute. I know, not everybody supported it, not everybody thinks it's a good idea. But from an economic standpoint, I will be very positive for our community.
 
James Bell 
You know, you mentioned people move in here and the workforce piece, which I think is on a lot of the business owner minds here in Ellis County. But one of the things that was pointed out to me was the online rankings. And when you go to online rankings, so if you're looking at maybe job boards, job postings, and you see something and he's like, Oh, hey, that looks interesting. The first thing you're going to do is look at Hayes. And if you have children, schools are going to be important. And what was pointed out to me it was if you go to several these ranking websites, where should you live kind of websites, the high schools were D's and F's. And it wasn't based on the education because I think everyone understands, we have a great education system here in the district. But the facilities drag that score down. And I think that'll automatically cut off a lot of people, when they were looking at thinking about hate.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, I agree with you, we do a great job of teaching kids, we just haven't provided a very good learning environment. And when you when you read the data, and it suggests that in the next 10 years, five to 10 years, there's going to be 20 million Americans who choose to relocate away from urban areas. And they're going to look at the choices that they have, because many in almost all those cases, their remote workers or their retirees, and they can decide where they want to go. And so and these are a desirable demographic that we want to recruit to our community. And so we're competing with lots and lots of other communities for these people. And we have so much good going on, and really very little, that's negative, but the schools were one of them, and it's a big one. And so now that we can say we check that box for people, I think we've got a much better story to tell them we did before. And the one before was good. It's just we didn't have all the boxes checked, but I think we do now. So I think that'll make a difference as well over the next five to 10 years in our ability to attract people to our community, whether tase Ellis Victoria, wherever it might be, we've got a better story to tell now.
 
James Bell 
Very good. I'm also curious about your thoughts on the impact, you know, the short term impact because they're going to be spending a lot of money building the schools and doing the construction work. And of course, there's everything that goes along with it. There's the administrative work and the architectural drawings and the all of that that's got to have some sort of impact on the local economy, right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
It absolutely does. I mean, obviously, local contractors will be involved in the construction of the schools and the improvements. They hire people, they pay wages, materials, a certain percentage of them, I don't know what and I don't know what we can supply locally, but a lot of those materials will be supplied to the projects from local vendors. And so it will have a positive economic impact for our community, you know, that the $143.5 million is doesn't go out out of town and never come back. I mean, a lot of that is spent locally, to create those jobs to build those buildings. It creates jobs, heating and cooling people, plumbers, electricians, all of those people will be participating in some of that spending. And it will have a positive economic impact from that standpoint, as well.
 
James Bell 
There's another piece on this that I've heard people talk about, and that's the the the folks that will be running this whole thing is a Kansas City based company. And I think some folks were kind of I mean, maybe annoyed is the right word, but they had concerns that it wasn't a local group that took on the project on in whole. And I wonder if you want to speak about that because there are some really good reasons why someone say like Glassman here, maybe couldn't do that right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, the size of the bond eliminates local contractors from being the general contractor, you know, there are no local contractors that can bond $143.5 million job. That doesn't mean the local contractors won't participate just means that a larger contractor has to be the general contractor, I believe the manager at risk or whatever the term is. And so that is one aspect of it. The other aspect is you know, DLR Group, which is the architectural firm. And I've had people say, you know, do you they questioned them in a lot of different ways, their motivation and their, their capabilities. And you know, they built hundreds, if not 1000s of schools across the country in the world. I mean, they're a large organization. They do this all the time. There's nobody locally that that has that level of expertise. So you have to bring in those type of resources to make this thing happen and manage these projects. And you know that they'll do a good job, I have no doubt. I mean, this is this is what they do. And I have a lot of trust and faith in that organization. And NAB Holtz, who is the general contractor, and then our administration locally, you know, some people have questioned their ability to handle this type of stuff, and I just don't see it, I see a very engaged, capable group of administrators at USD 489. I think it's gonna go well, yeah, there'll be some hiccups. There always are
 
James Bell 
always gonna Yeah. I mean, it's dealt with construction understands that. Yeah, exactly.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
I mean, nothing ever goes quite as planned. But you just you just roll with the punches, when that happens, and make it make it happen. So I have a lot of confidence that this will come off and three years from now, or whatever that timeframe is, we're going to look a whole lot different than we do now.
 
James Bell 
You know, I wonder maybe two there's, there's a piece that I've been hearing a lot of rumblings about on this thing, and it's the even supporters of the bond friends of mine people are speaking to were very supportive. And they they voted yes. They weren't happy to share that they had voted yes. But they did have concerns about the way that the planning was going. So I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about that, why these why some of the fine details are now being considered after the vote after the fact after the election, because that was their thing was like, why are we voting on we don't know exactly what we're doing until after? Why is that?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, it's because you, you can't nail down all those fine details without doing a tremendous amount of work. And spending a significant amount of money with architectural drawings and actual, the actual nuts and bolts of a project, you know, no school bond anywhere that has ever passed, particularly this magnitude. You ever knew everything about what exactly was going into each aspect of it prior to the bond passing. I mean, that's part of the planning and the design phase, you have some broad ideas, you present those broad ideas, you pass the bond, and then you dig in on all the details, doesn't mean it's going to cost more doesn't mean that anybody's got any ulterior agendas. It just means that you can't know all those answers before you actually pass the bond and, at that point, are willing to invest the money to nail down all those details. And it's a significant amount of money. I mean, I don't know if any, if you've ever seen James, the plans for a large building that goes on, but there, it's a roll of hundreds of sheets, technical drawings, and that just doesn't happen before you commit yourself to doing that stuff. You never spend that much money before you even knew that something was going to pass. So that's very much the way these things work. It's not unique to our community at all. It's just the way this process works.
 
James Bell 
You know, on the cost piece, I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about that as well. For my firm, but let me let me back that up. The way that some folks seem to approach this was that the cost was not locked in when we talked about the 143 point 5 million. Yes, that's what we voted on. But that doesn't mean it's actually when it goes what it's going to end up costing the district in the end the taxpayers here, I wonder if you want to speak a little bit to that. Is that a real concern? Or is that just maybe under misunderstanding the circumstances?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, as my understanding the manager at risk has said is not going to cost more than $143.5 million. And so, and they're only going to bond $143.5 million. So that's that's all they've got to spend. So they've got to come in within those parameters. Now. None of us has a crystal ball. We don't know what the future looks like, specifically. And so there may be adjustments and whatnot along the way, I have no idea what those might be. But the hard number is 143 point 5 million. That's what the taxpayers agreed to do. They agreed to have a new high school to have the improvements to these middle school and junior high or the grade schools and that kind of thing. And so those numbers are pretty much locked in stone. It's not like this could go to 170 million, because we just the voters had not approved that. So they've looked long and hard at it. As I said, these people do these kinds of projects all over the country all the time, they know what costs are going to be and it won't be over $143.5 million.
 
James Bell 
Okay, now there's one last piece on this we got to talk about and this is an impact that I think everyone can agree on taxes now that we voted on this are gonna go up and that does have some negative and positive impacts on the community and wonder if you want to speak to those.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, that's the Tough part nobody wants their taxes to go up including me including the superintendent to USD 49 I'm quite sure. But we sometimes have to make investments and the only thing I'll say to that is that I hear a lot of our taxes are way too high and Hayes
 
James Bell 
highest taxes in the country right here in Hays Kansas. I've heard
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
that's simply not true. You know, our mill levy is the second lowest in the state of Kansas by like two hundredths of a 10th compared to Overland Park. So our tax our mill levy is not high now our valuations, I will be the first to admit our real estate valuations are higher than a lot of places. But this this, the same house in DOD city or garden city, as in Hayes, their taxes are higher than ours by a significant amount, even though their valuations may be a little bit lower. Their mill levies are considerably higher in our mill levies, 110 or 109, point something Mills garden or dodge cities 181. And people all the time say, you know, we're tired of these comparisons and that type of thing. But when you say my taxes are too high, you begged the question, compared to what I mean, what do you base that on? And, and I've heard people compared to maybe other states. But that's really difficult to compare to other states, because taxing systems in other states are much, much different. They may have higher income tax, they may have different types of taxes that are charged. So it's really difficult to compare from state to state, but within our state, we can compare and we're we compare very favorably in terms of our mill levy versus everyone else's. Now, the real estate values, that's a that's a component of supply and demand, we don't have enough supply. And as a consequence, the demand is high and values have run up. We're trying to fix that by adding more inventory to the market. But unfortunately, that didn't happen very quickly. You know, we've got the houses going in the Tallgrass second edition, there's what 18 to 20 of them under construction right now, every little bit helps, we've got apartments going up, that'll help but it takes time to do that. But in time, if we add inventory, we will we will see valuation soften as opposed to continue to rise.
 
James Bell 
Very good. And I'm sure a lot of people are excited to hear that.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well you know, I don't have a crystal ball either. So I can't guarantee that but I do know if we had enough supply, we'll even out this balance of supply and demand and properties will not sell for way over the list price and that type of thing like they are now on occasions. And that's not really healthy environment for anybody but the guy who's selling and moving to someplace else. But then again, he's faced with whatever those values are

TMP-M graduation approaching as Hays catholic school year ends

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Thomas More Prep-Marian principal Chad Meitner shares information about the upcoming high school graduation as the end of the year approaches.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
Thomas More Prep-Marian is getting ready for their graduation, principal Chad Meitner stops by to share with us some of the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Chad Meitner 
It's the end of the year craziness. But yeah, nothing out of the ordinary. We have our last days of school, the 18th of May is our last day at TMP, Marian. But actually the seniors get out May 16. Couple days hopefully will bonus for them. Junior High gets out May 17. One day early. So yeah, it's starting to get to that last week.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. And we're gonna talk a lot about that. Before we get there, though, last time, or maybe it was two weeks ago. I know either way, though. The ACE auction wrapped up. And from what you were telling me just right before we went on, it went really well this year, right?
 
Chad Meitner 
Oh, yeah, it goes, it goes well, every year and this year was no exception. And it's, you know, within a lot of economic factors that we all hear a lot about we there's always a question mark, how's it going? How well will it do this year compared to past years? And, you know, we're still getting in bills and donations. So we don't have final numbers. But it's, it's really looking good. And it could possibly be one of the best ever, which is exciting.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, I love to hear that. And I, as I already mentioned to you just a little bit ago, before we got on Erin, we were talking to Sarah earlier in charitable giving right now is is kind of a hard thing for people to do. So it's amazing to hear that people stepped up and really helped out the Catholic school during that HBase auction, because that's one of your big fundraisers for the year, right? Yes, it's
 
Chad Meitner 
for our operations for any capital needs. You know, that's how we have to tackle it. And so for people who've always been so generous, near and far, we just continue to have to just say thank you with humble gratitude, because it's a great school, it's a great asset for our community. And it wouldn't be possible without so many people pitching in what they can, you know, some give a little, some give a lot, but it all helps us achieve our mission.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. So as we mentioned, we're gonna talk a little bit about the year we got, well, gosh, you say, what was it the 16th?
 
Chad Meitner 
Yeah, for the SR 16. Like, one week away?
 
James Bell 
Yeah. What so how's it how's the year went this year,
 
Chad Meitner 
it's been a great year. I mean, of course, it's been a more normal year than the last two, because we've just been able to go about our business without any anything the out of the ordinary particularly. And so this senior class, who's a class who's seen, you know, the, they were sophomores when they lost their their spring like every other student did in the spring of 2020. And then they were part of last year where it was masks for most of the school year. And so this year, it was kind of coming out from all that and more of a celebratory feel, which is good because teenagers tend to not always be the most positive optimistic personalities. And so for them to be so grateful and thankful and take advantage of the opportunities they had is refreshing because we as adults know that you need to be thankful to appreciate those gifts that you're given to make life more enjoyable. So yeah, one week left and well there's a lot to squeeze in and that week, but the graduation will be May 22. So basically a week from this coming Sunday, and they we have to do finals they have to do we have award ceremonies, not just for the seniors but for all junior high and underclassmen students as well coming up this week and concerts and and of course spring sports don't stop they're still rolling all the way through till even Memorial Day weekend. So busy, busy time.
 
James Bell 
You know, I I'm curious. And Pardon my ignorance. Everyone knows I'm not much of a sports fan. I wonder what sports you know, the day you have down there at TMP during the spring? I know baseball is probably one of them. Right? Basically,
 
Chad Meitner 
we have quite a few for school our size, which is which is great for our kids, because you can come to a small school and get engaged in a lot of different ways. And that's I think that's part of the recipe of our success is that the kids almost have to get involved in that pushes them to to better themselves and get out of their comfort zone. But yeah, sports got baseball, softball, we do have a girl soccer. We have boys golf in the spring girls golf in the fall. We have track and field. What am I missing? I think that was everything. So lots of different activities in junior high they have track and field where basically entire student body goes out. Always, school days when we have Junior High track meets is interesting because you only have about 30 kids left in school and the rest of them are at the track meet. But again, those those keep the kids busy and gives them a little reprieve when they can get outside when the weather cooperates and get away from the schoolwork a little bit and just be with the friends and working out and being outside.
 
James Bell 
No, absolutely. Yeah, and that's exactly this year. So it's just been so rough because of the weather has been crazy unpredictable. It's always unpredictable out here but it's been even this year, even a little bit more.
 
Chad Meitner 
I feel like the wind even for Kansas right I think the wind has been even a little above average for us this time of year and early on. It was really windy but dry. but it was still so windy that we had to postpone a lot of events. And then we did start to get some rain, which was much needed. And we're thankful for that. But those that rain did also postpone some events. So we're going to, we're trying to squeeze them in as much as we can here this these last weeks is if they weren't busy enough. But it's good. That's what the what helps us wrap up this school year and style is that everybody can have these these opportunities to show what they can do and have a good finish to the school year. And this graduating class, this the class of 2022 is every year, it's interesting, because each class has their own personality. Well, this class it was, the word that pops to mind is just work ethic hard work this, these kids work extremely hard. And, you know, I look at just the academic is one metric of that this class has just under half of the students have a 96% or higher GPA. That's the equivalent of a 4.0. So when you almost have half of your class, get a 4.0. That, that shell that tells you a lot about how hard they work, because academics is not all about how smart you are. It's about organized. It's about good parenting. It's about our curriculum at TMP, Marian. And it's about how hard these kids work. So we're I'm excited to celebrate the class of 2022. Because of a lot of things, in their, their willingness to work hard is one of them.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, that's incredible. And especially considering what you mentioned a little bit ago, everything that that class had to deal with, over the last four years to build come. That's, it's, it's incredible. I can't even imagine, like how proud everybody is of that group.
 
Chad Meitner 
Yeah. And to think, well, maybe there's a big drop off, the very worst GPA is 82%, which that comes out to over 3.0. So, you know, you could argue maybe grade inflation, but you know, these are the same teachers we've had for quite a few years, these teachers care about kids, but they're not going to let kids just pass on by with gaps in their understanding or gaps in their, their study skills. So, you know, I said it's combination of the curriculum, good parenting, and then just great work ethic. And it's, it's fun to see see him have success and hope that translates into success after high school.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. You know, and for those kiddos that are wrapping up the year, they got to come back I imagine this time of year, they're thinking about all of those things that they accomplished and got out of their way. And then but also thinking about that break. And then what comes up next year as well.
 
Chad Meitner 
Yeah, everyone thinks about the break. And that's our theme this year has been finished strong, particularly for the seniors, because they're the ones that get the senior itis and you know, they've got the most to feel like celebrating. But everybody too. It's like, okay, we've got a week. But that doesn't mean we're done. And you know, a lot of times you get students say, well, well, gosh, there's only like three days left? Can we just not have school, we're not doing as much as we usually do. And it's like, well, there's got to be a last day at some point, no matter when that date is you're going to come up to it thinking can't we just finish. So you've got to get to the finish line. And you know, finishing strong is, is what you will be most proud of a couple of weeks down the road than if you just skip the last couple of days and don't do your work. And then you spend the whole summer looking at how you dropped the ball there at the end. And we don't want that we want them to enjoy their break. And how do you do that you finish strong so that you can really enjoy the break and be proud of what you've accomplished?
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. Again, you want to share those dates, the graduations coming up. I've already forgotten. Yeah,
 
Chad Meitner 
that's may 22. It's Sunday, May 22. The Baccalaureate mass, which is a big part of our graduation ceremony is that Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, and that is at 2pm, on the 22nd. And then we have graduation in the Fieldhouse at 4pm. Two hours later. So everyone is of course invited if you have a graduate or know the families of a graduate, come to the field house and celebrate with us. And there's parties all the weekend before Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the of the weekend. And then we'll have project graduation, which is our safe party site for our seniors. That night of graduation, the 22nd. And we'll have activities and games, they're going to be over at the fort, big shout out to the fort for helping us host our seniors on that night. And we'll keep them busy all the way till two o'clock in the morning. And after that weekend, even an 18 year old will be exhausted. I'm pretty much guarantee that
 
James Bell 
absolutely. But well any other last thoughts or anything else you wanna hit on before we go?
 
Chad Meitner 
No, just you know, again, it's it's such a privilege to be in this community that supports Catholic education and education in general. And we're so we're so excited to be finishing up the year but please come out. If you can't do an awards night. We have the concert, the band concerts, the choir sings and then we have awards after that. So It's a nice evening of just celebrating all the students accomplishments from academics from faith formation to leadership, sports, all those things. It's a great time of year tiring, but it's it's worth celebrating. These kids have done amazing things and we all should be proud of
 
James Bell 
Thomas More Prep-Marian is getting ready for their graduation, principal Chad Meitner stops by to share with us some of the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Chad Meitner 
It's the end of the year craziness. But yeah, nothing out of the ordinary. We have our last days of school, the 18th of May is our last day at TMP, Marian. But actually the seniors get out May 16. Couple days hopefully will bonus for them. Junior High gets out May 17. One day early. So yeah, it's starting to get to that last week.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. And we're gonna talk a lot about that. Before we get there, though, last time, or maybe it was two weeks ago. I know either way, though. The ACE auction wrapped up. And from what you were telling me just right before we went on, it went really well this year, right?
 
Chad Meitner 
Oh, yeah, it goes, it goes well, every year and this year was no exception. And it's, you know, within a lot of economic factors that we all hear a lot about we there's always a question mark, how's it going? How well will it do this year compared to past years? And, you know, we're still getting in bills and donations. So we don't have final numbers. But it's, it's really looking good. And it could possibly be one of the best ever, which is exciting.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, I love to hear that. And I, as I already mentioned to you just a little bit ago, before we got on Erin, we were talking to Sarah earlier in charitable giving right now is is kind of a hard thing for people to do. So it's amazing to hear that people stepped up and really helped out the Catholic school during that HBase auction, because that's one of your big fundraisers for the year, right? Yes, it's
 
Chad Meitner 
for our operations for any capital needs. You know, that's how we have to tackle it. And so for people who've always been so generous, near and far, we just continue to have to just say thank you with humble gratitude, because it's a great school, it's a great asset for our community. And it wouldn't be possible without so many people pitching in what they can, you know, some give a little, some give a lot, but it all helps us achieve our mission.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. So as we mentioned, we're gonna talk a little bit about the year we got, well, gosh, you say, what was it the 16th?
 
Chad Meitner 
Yeah, for the SR 16. Like, one week away?
 
James Bell 
Yeah. What so how's it how's the year went this year,
 
Chad Meitner 
it's been a great year. I mean, of course, it's been a more normal year than the last two, because we've just been able to go about our business without any anything the out of the ordinary particularly. And so this senior class, who's a class who's seen, you know, the, they were sophomores when they lost their their spring like every other student did in the spring of 2020. And then they were part of last year where it was masks for most of the school year. And so this year, it was kind of coming out from all that and more of a celebratory feel, which is good because teenagers tend to not always be the most positive optimistic personalities. And so for them to be so grateful and thankful and take advantage of the opportunities they had is refreshing because we as adults know that you need to be thankful to appreciate those gifts that you're given to make life more enjoyable. So yeah, one week left and well there's a lot to squeeze in and that week, but the graduation will be May 22. So basically a week from this coming Sunday, and they we have to do finals they have to do we have award ceremonies, not just for the seniors but for all junior high and underclassmen students as well coming up this week and concerts and and of course spring sports don't stop they're still rolling all the way through till even Memorial Day weekend. So busy, busy time.
 
James Bell 
You know, I I'm curious. And Pardon my ignorance. Everyone knows I'm not much of a sports fan. I wonder what sports you know, the day you have down there at TMP during the spring? I know baseball is probably one of them. Right? Basically,
 
Chad Meitner 
we have quite a few for school our size, which is which is great for our kids, because you can come to a small school and get engaged in a lot of different ways. And that's I think that's part of the recipe of our success is that the kids almost have to get involved in that pushes them to to better themselves and get out of their comfort zone. But yeah, sports got baseball, softball, we do have a girl soccer. We have boys golf in the spring girls golf in the fall. We have track and field. What am I missing? I think that was everything. So lots of different activities in junior high they have track and field where basically entire student body goes out. Always, school days when we have Junior High track meets is interesting because you only have about 30 kids left in school and the rest of them are at the track meet. But again, those those keep the kids busy and gives them a little reprieve when they can get outside when the weather cooperates and get away from the schoolwork a little bit and just be with the friends and working out and being outside.
 
James Bell 
No, absolutely. Yeah, and that's exactly this year. So it's just been so rough because of the weather has been crazy unpredictable. It's always unpredictable out here but it's been even this year, even a little bit more.
 
Chad Meitner 
I feel like the wind even for Kansas right I think the wind has been even a little above average for us this time of year and early on. It was really windy but dry. but it was still so windy that we had to postpone a lot of events. And then we did start to get some rain, which was much needed. And we're thankful for that. But those that rain did also postpone some events. So we're going to, we're trying to squeeze them in as much as we can here this these last weeks is if they weren't busy enough. But it's good. That's what the what helps us wrap up this school year and style is that everybody can have these these opportunities to show what they can do and have a good finish to the school year. And this graduating class, this the class of 2022 is every year, it's interesting, because each class has their own personality. Well, this class it was, the word that pops to mind is just work ethic hard work this, these kids work extremely hard. And, you know, I look at just the academic is one metric of that this class has just under half of the students have a 96% or higher GPA. That's the equivalent of a 4.0. So when you almost have half of your class, get a 4.0. That, that shell that tells you a lot about how hard they work, because academics is not all about how smart you are. It's about organized. It's about good parenting. It's about our curriculum at TMP, Marian. And it's about how hard these kids work. So we're I'm excited to celebrate the class of 2022. Because of a lot of things, in their, their willingness to work hard is one of them.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, that's incredible. And especially considering what you mentioned a little bit ago, everything that that class had to deal with, over the last four years to build come. That's, it's, it's incredible. I can't even imagine, like how proud everybody is of that group.
 
Chad Meitner 
Yeah. And to think, well, maybe there's a big drop off, the very worst GPA is 82%, which that comes out to over 3.0. So, you know, you could argue maybe grade inflation, but you know, these are the same teachers we've had for quite a few years, these teachers care about kids, but they're not going to let kids just pass on by with gaps in their understanding or gaps in their, their study skills. So, you know, I said it's combination of the curriculum, good parenting, and then just great work ethic. And it's, it's fun to see see him have success and hope that translates into success after high school.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. You know, and for those kiddos that are wrapping up the year, they got to come back I imagine this time of year, they're thinking about all of those things that they accomplished and got out of their way. And then but also thinking about that break. And then what comes up next year as well.
 
Chad Meitner 
Yeah, everyone thinks about the break. And that's our theme this year has been finished strong, particularly for the seniors, because they're the ones that get the senior itis and you know, they've got the most to feel like celebrating. But everybody too. It's like, okay, we've got a week. But that doesn't mean we're done. And you know, a lot of times you get students say, well, well, gosh, there's only like three days left? Can we just not have school, we're not doing as much as we usually do. And it's like, well, there's got to be a last day at some point, no matter when that date is you're going to come up to it thinking can't we just finish. So you've got to get to the finish line. And you know, finishing strong is, is what you will be most proud of a couple of weeks down the road than if you just skip the last couple of days and don't do your work. And then you spend the whole summer looking at how you dropped the ball there at the end. And we don't want that we want them to enjoy their break. And how do you do that you finish strong so that you can really enjoy the break and be proud of what you've accomplished?
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. Again, you want to share those dates, the graduations coming up. I've already forgotten. Yeah,
 
Chad Meitner 
that's may 22. It's Sunday, May 22. The Baccalaureate mass, which is a big part of our graduation ceremony is that Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, and that is at 2pm, on the 22nd. And then we have graduation in the Fieldhouse at 4pm. Two hours later. So everyone is of course invited if you have a graduate or know the families of a graduate, come to the field house and celebrate with us. And there's parties all the weekend before Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the of the weekend. And then we'll have project graduation, which is our safe party site for our seniors. That night of graduation, the 22nd. And we'll have activities and games, they're going to be over at the fort, big shout out to the fort for helping us host our seniors on that night. And we'll keep them busy all the way till two o'clock in the morning. And after that weekend, even an 18 year old will be exhausted. I'm pretty much guarantee that
 
James Bell 
absolutely. But well any other last thoughts or anything else you wanna hit on before we go?
 
Chad Meitner 
No, just you know, again, it's it's such a privilege to be in this community that supports Catholic education and education in general. And we're so we're so excited to be finishing up the year but please come out. If you can't do an awards night. We have the concert, the band concerts, the choir sings and then we have awards after that. So It's a nice evening of just celebrating all the students accomplishments from academics from faith formation to leadership, sports, all those things. It's a great time of year tiring, but it's it's worth celebrating. These kids have done amazing things and we all should be proud of

As USD 489 wraps year, Hays High prepares for graduation

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays High principal, Shawn Henderson shares information about the end of the school year at Hays High.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
Hays High is getting ready for graduation weekend. Principal Shawn Henderson stops by to share some of the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Shawn Henderson 
On the night, we had our big athletic and academic awards night. And what a great time to come together and really see all the great things that our students are doing. It's really fun to see.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, you know, as we're wrapping up the year, I wonder if there's any particularly notable things that come to mind that you want to discuss with us before we move on and talk a little bit about the graduation ceremonies coming up this weekend?
 
Shawn Henderson 
Well, you know, I have an interesting perspective, because I'm the new guy, I always say I have the new guy card, it's just part of part of being the new principal. And so my new guide card is going to wear off soon. And that's great. What it means is, is I've got some perspective, I got to see what, what our school is all about. And what it's about is some really great people and great students, great teachers. And, you know, it's just there's a lot to be proud of. And again, going back to Monday night, that's when you can smile and say look at the scholarships. Look what these students have done. Look what the accomplishments have been. And it's really humbling to see just the amazing thing our students are doing. That's awesome.
 
James Bell 
And some of those students so seniors, they're wrapping it up today, right?
 
Shawn Henderson 
Yeah, really wrapping it up. They did a great job this morning. I have to brag on him in a world where you could Google senior pranks that would be not wonderful. Our students were in the parking lot. They were playing cornhole. Spikeball, I think is that the one that hits off the little trampoline? They're smiling. And, you know, I just, I think that's real. And then they cleaned up after themselves and went right to class. I mean, again, just, we're just proud of them. And I have to say, too, I am the new principal. And I'm also a dad. So I have a senior that's graduating as well. So this will be my first graduation with Hayes high, but it's also I get to be the dad too. So that's exciting. Wow. Yeah,
 
James Bell 
that's a that's got to be just an emotional jumble.
 
Shawn Henderson 
There's a lot of truth to that already got some pictures. So she wanted to take a picture this morning. So anytime the kid asks that you, you roll, so
 
James Bell 
absolutely, absolutely. So yeah. So let's talk a little bit about graduation coming up. I believe that is this Sunday. Right? It is
 
Shawn Henderson 
Sunday. And it is. So we've got Sunday at 130. And it's going to be right there at Fort Hays, our great partner who allows to us gross Coliseum. So yes, Sunday, May 15 2020 to 130 will be our graduation. Very cool. What
 
James Bell 
do people well, you know, what do attendees expect in that event? Is it is it going to be similar to years past? I know. And again, as you mentioned, COVID kind of threw everything into a cocked hat for a couple years. But back to normal this year. Right? It is
 
Shawn Henderson 
yeah. And we're excited to have everybody, everybody back. There are no restrictions in terms of seating or anything like that. We'll, we'll be there and we'll be ready to go. We are trying something new. I think that's kind of neat is the band is going to play basically, in the program that I'm looking at. Right, right in front of me, it says various selections, Prelude concert. So kind of neat. So for 20 minutes prior to graduation, we'll have our fantastic band plan music to kind of set that tone, which I think is really neat. Namely, because I used to be a band director before I was a principal. The more band music, the better. But yeah, so I think that I think that will already add kind of a neat feel to the event.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And then again, is it just the standard kind of graduation you got? You're forgetting the name of it like the the class leader, the valedictorian, valedictorian speeches, and, sorry, go ahead. Oh, we
 
Shawn Henderson 
don't have a lot of speeches like that from students that traditional Hays high is that the students select a speaker and this, this hurts Miss Diane Mason, which is actually really cool, because Diane is retiring at the end of the year. And so the fact that the kids picked her I think is really neat. So to kind of bookend her her career here, she's going to be our, our speaker, and her addresses called what the rabbit knows. So I'm excited to see, see and hear what she has to say. But yeah, it's kind of fun.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, that's interesting. And I love that. So, you know, I don't know her. But most assuming she has been a longtime teacher at Hays high. Yes. That's really cool. I know, like a lot, a lot of schools that a lot of the kids, they all they like to shoot for the moon and think about the famous people, the celebrities and to come and talk but to select somebody from inside the district that that's going to be like it personally rewarding. Yeah, I
 
Shawn Henderson 
think it is. And, and I know she's excited about that. And I think like I said, I think it'll, I think it'll be good for our kids to, to hear her and to, to go out that way. Which I which I think is great. Very cool.
 
James Bell 
You'll probably be sharing a few thoughts too, right?
 
Shawn Henderson 
Oh, yeah. Not too many. But there'll be there'll be a couple. Yeah, a couple of thoughts there. My way I have to smile too is I'm looking at this program. The class model motto is I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22 So Taylor Swift ah, matter of fact, I think when the graduations over or that's what they'll hear is Taylor Swift. It's just kind of fitting for the class of 2022. Yeah, absolutely.
 
James Bell 
All right. Well, what else? Do you folks need to know about the graduation? Or really just about the year in general?
 
Shawn Henderson 
Oh, you know, I, you know, first of all, we're excited that there's gonna be a new haze high school built, so won't dive into that other than to, you know, say thanks, and an appreciation for the community. And I think that's really going to be fun. And even honestly, watching our seniors take part in that and be a part of that civic operation to go vote was was really neat to know, I think it's been a really good year. And I think we've had, you know, going back to these students, you know, we have 26 students, you know, again, on the danger, Hansen, over $330,000 in scholarships, just from that one, one operation alone. We've got students that are going into collegiate athletics and activities, we have folks that are going to be moving on to the armed forces. And like I say, you know, the word I always say is humbling. It's humbling to see what a whole community supporting in and working and helping our students, and then it's this time of year where you you take a step back and say, Wow, look at look at what they've done. So
 
James Bell 
yeah, yeah. Love this time of year. Yeah. Although it's busy, right. It's busy, busy, busy. There
 
Shawn Henderson 
is no doubt it's busy. Yes.
 
James Bell 
All righty. Well, sir, yeah. Any other anything else you want to talk about before we go?
 
Shawn Henderson 
No, I just think it's been a great year. I want to say thanks to the community for again, I will be putting away my new guy card soon. But I just appreciate the opportunity to be the leader of this this great school. Just so proud of the work of our amazing educators, staff and students and community that rallies behind them every day.

Hays Public Library readies for busy summer

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Public Library communications coordinator Callie Kolacny shares information about the library's upcoming summer programming.
 
 

After USD 489 bond election administration looks ahead

On this episode of the Post Podcast, USD 489 superintendent Ron Wilson and public relations director Chrisy Crough. Public Relations speaks with Hays Post reporter Cristina Janney about the next steps follow the passage of a district bond issue.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
The USD 489 bond issue has passed. Now the district's work begins. Superintendent Ron Wilson speaks with Hays Post reporter Christina Janney about that along with public relations specialist Chrisy Crough, on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Cristina Janney 
We're here to talk a little bit about the USD 49 bond that passed on Tuesday night, the $143.5 million bond passed with 53% of voters voting for the bond. In addition, almost 60% of voters approved a half cent suit, hey, city of hate sales tax that will help pay for the bond. Good morning, Ron and Christie, how are you?
 
Ron Wilson 
Great. We're feeling good.
 
Cristina Janney 
So what do you think the passage of the bond means for the future students and staff in the high school districts?
 
Ron Wilson 
Well, I think what what it means I think, as we've looked at this whole process is that it's people have said, we want to invest in our kids want to invest in our educational staff, and we want to invest in our community. And I think that's really what this means is that they said, This is important, and this is what needs to happen in the community. Hey, so from looking at all aspects of it, we're, we just feel that it's going to be a great thing for Hayes for a long, long time, and really gonna pay it forward.
 
Cristina Janney 
So the voter turnout on Tuesday was 38%, which is pretty high for a special election. Were you pleased with the voter turnout?
 
Ron Wilson 
Yeah, extremely pleased that we said from the beginning, that, you know, we always felt like we had more support than opposition, as long as we could get those who supported the bond to go out and vote, we felt like we could get this accomplished. And I think 38% is a, if you look at the history of bond votes, it's pretty high number. So I think that's exactly what we set out to do. We got accomplished.
 
Cristina Janney 
So what are the next steps in the bond process?
 
Chrisy Crough
Yeah, so the next steps will be to meet with the staff on each of the schools, teachers, administrators, kitchen staff, coaches, all that sort of stuff to go over exactly what needs to be done in those buildings, they know better than anybody else, because they're in the building. So they will have the input on that. They'll work with the architects directly. And then they'll go back and forth with the drawings and see what happens, the high school will be the first, the first building that is that's done that's focused on, and then we'll move through the other buildings after that.
 
Cristina Janney 
Just to remind people, so the main tenant of this bond is that we're build a new high school, and then the high school will be renovated into a middle school, and then the current Middle School will be renovated into an elementary school. Roosevelt, and often schools will also have some renovations and additions. And then Wilson will close as an elementary school but still be repurposed for district needs. And Rockwell will be closed completely, and west side will be moved. So do we know when we're going to be able to break ground on that first building on the on the high school?
 
Ron Wilson 
Yeah, well, that's That's the million dollar question, though. You know, like Chris, you mentioned, it's right now, it's just a lot of conversations. We've got approximately a year of visiting with people getting what we feel is the best design, will the architects will draw design will get estimated cost then and always be going back and forth. I would hope. I mean, I don't hold me to this. But I would, I would hope we would be breaking ground a year from now. Or maybe sooner. But I think tentatively we're probably looking at an April May, breaking ground for from the new high school.
 
Chrisy Crough
And I spoke with Sorry to interrupt anybody here, but I spoke with Dr. Last night, we were talking about it. And they were saying that the civil engineers will be out there looking at the ground where the new high school will be built out looking how it slopes, looking where the electrical could go looking at all of the different logistics of it all to make, you know, just before they start really building and designing everything.
 
Cristina Janney 
And for people who may not know the high school, the new high school will be built to the east of the current High School on ground that is already owned by the school district.
 
Ron Wilson 
Yeah, that's that's been a blessing to have already had district owned property throughout this process. And the district purchasing that that additional property, probably way back in the 70s was was just a great foresight for our community.
 
Cristina Janney 
Through this whole bond process. We've talked a lot about How having those two buildings the new high school and what will be the renovated middle school being in close proximity how that'll benefit students? Do you want to talk a little bit about that,
 
Ron Wilson 
I think it just opens so many doors that we currently don't have open because of just the location of the high school, middle school, I mean, naturally, the big thing is, we're going to have an auditorium for our high school, as well as our middle school, the high auditorium will be actually housed at the new high school, but it will have easy access for our middle school students who will be utilizing that for performances, to just walk across their campus, to the to the auditorium and, and whether it's a band concert that evening, they'll be able to practice and then utilize that for the evening performance. So Well, I think it's just those are the things that are that seem logical, but then there's just so many avenues where, you know, what, even high school kids coming, and we're gonna have some things working with maybe some middle school kids and things like that, that just opened doors that we've never even considered. And I think that's what's exciting about this whole proposal, athletic services, of course, that's really something we're gonna have athletic surfaces out there on the on our campus, which will be available for middle school and high school student athletes. And I think that that is something we're really excited about.
 
Chrisy Crough
And to add to that, the middle school, which will be moving into the current high school will have the career and technology classes that they don't have right now at the current Middle School, solely because of space. So they will get those the woods and the metal shop and the the electric car, you know, all of that sort of stuff will be in there that's already in the high school, but now the middle school students will be able to access that.
 
Cristina Janney 
So is there an estimated completion time for the high school building?
 
Ron Wilson 
Yeah, I mean, the estimated timeline is that we're we're hoping to move our high school students into a new building in August at the start of school in August of 2024. That's, that's our target date. We'll also target to have all of our other schools renovated by August of 2025. Now all that information can be found on our USD 49. website, under timeline, under the bond information. So yeah, if you have any questions about timeline, be sure to check that out.
 
Cristina Janney 
I don't we're several years off from the consolidation, and the closing of Lincoln school. But do you want to talk a little bit about how the redistribution of students will work when that happens here and a few years out?
 
Ron Wilson 
Sure, I will be adding sections to each elementary to one section to each elementary, that'll that'll be the increase, that won't, you won't see a huge increase in each building, but I think that's it, we'll, we'll evenly distributed among the three elementaries that will remain in our district and, and give us some, you know, functionality in terms of, of spacing and space available. And when people were still district of choice, meaning they parents get to choose where their kids go to school. So, having that additional space just gives us that functionality to make sure we can we can definitely meet those requests, as best we can.
 
Cristina Janney 
I know through this bond process, some people have expressed some concerns about the increased traffic on 13th Street when the new high school is constructed, what steps will the school district and the city be taking to address that issue?
 
 
So, once Well, obviously, prior to we kept saying once this passes, we will do that, but now it has passed so we can actually speak of it in present tense, but we will meet with the city we will do traffic studies and see exactly what needs to be done how the flow of traffic will work. We have looked into some grants that there that are out there that can help with the with the cost of it because we do know that there will be additional traffic we do understand, you know, we will have to stagger start and dismissal times to help with the flow of traffic but it will be addressed as far as what it is at this point. We don't know once we really look into it, but it will be addressed and and make it function out there.
 
Cristina Janney 
So Christy and Ron, are there anything else that you would like to add or let the our listeners know about the bond now that it has passed?
 
Ron Wilson 
Well, I think the thing is that I want to make sure everyone understand is we're we're really proud of what we do and USD 49. But with the passing of this bond, I think it's it's about how proud we can become on what we can become with with the passing of this bond. It's just gonna Oh Put some things that we have. We've dealt with for a lots and lots of years. And it was it was, it was a tough process. I mean, it's it was been a lot of work and a lot of dedicated, committed people in our community who came together and really rallied together to make this happen. And I'm I'm just appreciative and feel very blessed to be have been a part of that. You know, special shout out to Chrissy Crowe for what she's done for, for getting the right information out, helping educate our community, on really what was was done and what was what is needed. And so we're we're just, it's been a, it's been a really a tough process, but also kind of uplifting in a lot of ways, because we've all learned how together, you know, when people come together, how we can get things accomplished.
 
Cristina Janney 
I know, there's been a lot of discussion about the high cost of maintaining some of these older buildings, which Lincoln by the time this project is completed will be 100 years old. So is there hopes that some of the capital improvement, many that's been having to be spent on maintenance and fixing older buildings will be able to be directed towards other projects?
 
Ron Wilson 
Yeah, that's, that's the thing we're really excited about, because we haven't had a lot of flexibility in our capital improvement spending. I mean, it's basically we've been spending dollars base to keep keep the boat on the water and not have it sink. And so when by passing of this bond, we're going to we're going to take care of a lot of those needs. And that's going to free up a lot of capital outlay funds that we can now look at some of those special projects that the board wants to prioritize and, and really do some really great things for our schools.
 
Anything else?
 
Ron Wilson 
I I'm just just, hi. I'm extremely excited. Bill really blessed that we got this done. And it's been, it's been a long haul but it's gonna be well worth it and it's gonna pay forward for lots and lots of years.

Chamber Checks help stimulate the area economy

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Chamber vice president of membership Rhonda Meyerhoff shares the benefits of Chamber Checks as graduation gifts.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
It's graduation season and that means graduation gifts, Hays Chamber vice president of membership Rhonda Meyerhoff says chamber checks are an excellent option. She joins us to talk about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast. First thing I got to know how the golf tournament go last week.
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Oh James. Oh, it was wonderful. So everyone knows we had plenty of rain last week. So that the Greens even the fairways were they're not watered. They were beautiful and green. A disappointment might be the the ball to get bounced further ahead when he hit it. So that might have been a Debbie Downer. But a golfers were so happy. It was an absolutely beautiful day. I had fun telling people when they commented about what a beautiful day it was that I said it was their chamber hard at work for them. No, gotta take off we can get but no, it was a beautiful day. Absolutely beautiful day. We had 36 teams join us. And that was great. So that was two teams per hole. And they all seem to have a really good time. Spirits were high. I think people were so excited. For one, maybe they were ready for a break from the rain, which I will never complain about rain.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, you weren't. But sometimes you just got to I know what he did. And we need it. We need it. But oh my gosh, it brings it down. Oh, I'm ready for some stuff.  Ialso remember though, Dan and I were very young in our marriage. And we lived in Lincoln, Kansas. And I remember that summer, ranchers were having to haul their cattle off to someplace else other states, because there was no rain. So there wasn't enough grass for their, their cattle. So ever since then. I mean, I was a farm girl, I realized how important rain was. But that that really sent a signal to me that we should never complain about the rain. I don't know how well I would fare in another dirty 30s. James, I'll be
 
 
fair enough.
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Yeah. No, it was absolutely a beautiful day. weather wise, the sun was out. golfers were happy. The patio party went over? Well, the online auction did great. And we had three lucky winners, who I still haven't found out who they are.
 
James Bell 
They know they know they've got the prize.
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Yes. And they're they're picked up. So no, that was great. I actually had to leave the event a little bit early to get down to Wichita to listen to my son grandson playing his first piano recital. So the only reason is that yeah, yes. So it was a great tournament, I would know more about the tournament. But Mariah and I are manning the office. This week, Sarah's in Washington, DC with the western Kansas delegation, talking to our political regime out there and trying to make a difference for this part of the country. And so we're really excited about that for her to represent us. But yesterday morning early, we got in the First Order was for about $5,000 in chamber checks. Wow. Our largest denomination is 20 fives, so you can check. And then we got another order for $2,700 in chamber checks. So we ended up doing chamber checks for most of the day. And that that subject just didn't come up. So yeah, and we were excited to get that order.
 
James Bell 
I was gonna say that's a good problem to have. I mean, although it's a lot of writing of checks.
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Well, you know, those are, those are all all done, they're stamped and Oh, you just gotta like rip them apart. And well don't make it sound like it's just a simple process. James. Well, I don't know.
 
James Bell 
The only only experience I have with chamber checks is I get them and I give them to the clerk at the store and I get my stuff. Yes, as far as my goes,
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
no, they're pre printed and numbered with our own wonderful printer here in town with Northwestern printers, and they're numbered there. But then they have to be stamped with Sarah's signature. And moralists. God bless her heart took really good care of us before she left only I don't know that she was planning on that big of order, which we are again, very happy about. But yeah, it's folding them stuffing them in the envelopes and getting them already. And I am so paranoid James, when it comes to people's money, I counted once and then I counted twice. And I counted a third time as I was stuffing envelopes. You know, gosh, we got that done. And so we have a lot of happy winners from from all the things that were going on at the time. Ultimate? That's for sure. Fantastic.
 
James Bell 
Love to hear it. Yeah. And yeah, absolutely it was what a beautiful day. I don't think could ask for better weather.
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
No, no, not at all. But you know, speaking of chamber checks, James, that's a great way to give graduation gifts, multiple checks that we prepared yesterday. Not all of them were for students a large quantity of them were. But what we need to stop and think, is that money will stay local. The one place where they can't be spent, people can't cash them into their bank account. So that money needs to stay local. And almost $8,000 A little over will stay in Haynes and help our local businesses,
 
James Bell 
not not just once, but then again, yes, because it's cycles. Yes. And I don't reserve shared with me that number one point. I don't remember where it is, but it's in she's currently good with all that. Oh, yeah. It's like a steel trap up there. But yeah, it just keeps going and going to go on. Yeah. Helps me for weeks and months.
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Oh, absolutely. And we need that here in Hays. You know, they can be spent at any chamber member and it helps them to pay payroll tax as then, you know, helps helps them pay employees and, and their, the rent on their building or any all of that. It just really helps. Plus, it's really nice. Because as as someone who's giving, you don't have to worry about getting it to the right store that they like to shop at. So you've taken that worry away. Plus, they're just fun.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, you know what I like about him. And Sara blew my mind a while back with this number. But there's over 400 chamber businesses. Yes. So it's, I don't even know where all 400 of those businesses are. And I was counting because I couldn't come up with them. I had to drive around account. But you've got an incredible assortment of places you can spend those?
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Absolutely, absolutely. Restaurants. We probably don't want any young high school graduates to go to bars yet. But maybe college graduate could go. Yeah, but there's trash shops. There areas in town that a lot of them. The hallmark store, just there's a lot. Yeah. So there's a wide variety of what people could do, absolutely will restore options. Yeah, there's a lot. So they come in denominations of 510, and 25. So one of the orders yesterday was mainly a combination of 20, fives, and 25. And then $50 bundles, and the other one was $15. Set. So we were able to put a 10 and a five together. So and don't be afraid of those small numbers. It's just that many more times that people get to use the chamber check. Oh, now so and it works just like a check for the businesses
 
James Bell 
or if you're not familiar with the check, because I know a lot of younger people don't really have that experience. It's just like cash. Really?
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Absolutely. Absolutely. So that's really fun. So what we would like to ask people is, if they're going to have significant orders, to please let us know, a day or two ahead. It took Ryan, I quite a bit of time to figure out that yesterday. Again, we're happy to do it. But we would rather not have you have to wait around for us as we prepare all of that. Give us a heads up and then it can be ready when you come in to get them and pay for him.
 
James Bell 
Sure. Yeah. Easy, efficient. Love it.
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
It is very easy and efficient. You know, James, today's a big day.
 
James Bell 
I was gonna say we've got just a couple minutes left. We gotta get this in. Yeah,
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
big day today. Today's the last day that you can vote for the USD 49 infrastructure and the sales tax issue. You know, regardless of what your political views are, or what side of this coin, you're flipping on, get out and vote. That's the main thing, vote. You know, we have a lot of veterans and a lot of young men and women now fighting for our country to give us these freedoms. So take advantage of this freedom. Get out and vote. Yeah, so today's today's lot seven o'clock. I
 
James Bell 
believe polls close today.
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Is that what time it is? I voted early.
 
James Bell 
Every day, every day. I said I told my wife told my co workers here I'm like, I'm gonna go vote today. I'm gonna get it in and get it done. And then I didn't and here we are on the day. I'm gonna get it in today, though. Oh, good. Absolutely. I always I always vote. I had the early voting to me. I like it because it's convenient. But it's one of those things that mentally at least for me, I'm like, Well, I can still do But later I can still do. I'm a procrastinator, you see?
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Well, and I in I work in a building where everyone's talking about voting early. And so that helped me this year, or usually I'm in the same boat you are. I'm going to go do it. But there always seems like something better to do. But gosh, today, James, but your voice be heard.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. Everybody get out there and get and the turnout already. I don't know what the number is. But I know it's been an incredible early turnout, far surpassing any of the previous bond attempts. And I think just really good turnout in election in general for for Ellis County so far. And
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
that's great. We shouldn't have that maybe this will be a start of something new. I would love that. And what by new I mean that people will start voting more often reinvigorated.
 
James Bell 
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Well, Rhonda, I tell you, Oh, we got to get over to news and weather. But any other last thoughts real quick before we go?
 
Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 
Thanks to those who support the chamber and thanks to those who came out and played golf with us, who donated prizes who voted at the online auction all of that it was a large community working together and we sure do appreciate everything everyone does for the chamber. Thanks

Fort Hays State University has lots to celebrate as year end nears

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Fort Hays State University chief communications officer Scott Cason shares some of the achievements from FHSU during the year.

Land donation bolsters Hays Microfactory project

On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the Heart of America Development Corporation's land donation to the Microfactoy project.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
The Heart of America Development Corporation has donated land for the Hays Microfactory. Grow Haye, Executive Director Doug Williams stops by to talk to us a little bit about the Heart of America group as well as that factory project. On this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
we had a donation of the land that the microfactory will be located on Heart of America development owns some property out in the commerce Parkway area surrounding Glassman corporation that development is one that heart of America developed and, and they were good enough to donate the lot at the corner of ninth and commerce Parkway to us to construct the microfactory on so that was that was great news.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely, yeah, and these guys have been when we talk about the heart of America, and we're going to talk a little bit about today even, but they really are helping the community. And that's kind of their goal, right to help bring these projects to the marketplace, or heart of America,
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
which was started back in the 80s by a group of visionary people and visionary businesses who contributed some money and raise some capital and purchase some land out on what is now South commerce Parkway by the airport and started basically an industrial park. And they constructed the Sykes building early on and rented it to Sykes and they've been very active in commercial development for a long time. And you know, about a year and a half ago or so they got into the residential development as well with the Tallgrass second edition to the east of the technical college. So their their mission basically is to promote community development in Ellis County. And they have done a terrific job of that over gosh, almost 40 years.
 
James Bell 
Incredible. We want to talk about some of the details of what they do and what they bring to the community. But let's talk first about this microfactory. We talked about it again a couple of weeks ago. And really it from from my recollection, the concept is kind of a co working space, but for industrial efforts, right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Basically, that's the concept. It's an incubator for manufacturing companies. And we received a base grant from the state of Kansas part of the ARPA money for $2.63 million to construct this 30,000 square foot micro factory, it'll be divided into 564, we don't really know yet, because we don't really know who's going to go in there. But it'll be split into sections. And we will we will offer it to prospective or existing manufacturers who are have a, maybe a guy's got a great idea, but he just doesn't have the room to operate and be efficient in his to develop his product, or a bigger company that wants to get a development of a new product off site. And they want a space to do it in. That's what this will be designed to do. It'll be constructed to be very manufacturer friendly, meaning there'll be a loading dock, there'll be high ceilings, high doors, the kinds of things that a manufacturer would need large electrical capability. And so hopefully, the concept is that we offer this at a at a bargain basement rent to these people for a few years. And then they develop their product, they grow their business, and then they move on to their own building, hopefully in the heart of America development where there will be some additional lots and and we roll the next one in. So it's a it's kind of an endowment for a long, long time. And we hope to really enhance the manufacturing capability within Ellis County because this is an area that we don't have an awful lot of we do have some manufacturing in Ellis County, obviously with the EnerSys and Hess and cross manufacturing and several others, but we don't have as much as we would like to have and typically with with manufacturers come good paying jobs. And, of course, workforce is the issue right now. But it hasn't always been and won't always be. And so we need to keep developing companies that are going to employ people and pay good wages.
 
James Bell 
You know, and when I think when when, until very recently, we started talking about this microfactory project I when we when I thought about, you know, manufacturing, I thought about some of the companies you talked about, like Hass, or Rand says those giant companies that do employ a lot of people, but I've also come to realize that there's a lot of small manufacturer small entrepreneurs out here that maybe here's a great example down in lacrosse, the guy that they developed the flame throwers for agricultural use, you know, it's probably not huge operation. I don't know how many people work down there, but I can't imagine it's, you know, more than 20 or so. And this is a perfect project to help bring those people to Hays where we've also already done such a great job on the white collar side.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Exactly. We need to promote manufacturing small manufacturing become big manufacturers. I use this example. If you looked at what they and has his operation in 1990 or 91. relative to what it is today. We want to find the next Dan has who can come in and has an idea or a concept and start developing products need some space to do it in needs some assistance perhaps in going through a patenting process? or what have you, we have a relationship with the technology development institute in Manhattan. And that's what they do they prototype products to help an inventor or a manufacturer patent those products. And so it'll be it'll be the incubator for that type of thing. And we're looking forward to it. I think it'll I think it'll have a big impact over a long, long period of time in our community, because it'll be a building, it'll be there for 50 plus years, for sure.
 
James Bell 
Yeah. And, you know, I think it might also, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but help offset some of those manufacturing operations. Like I think about meat processing, the things that we can't bring to here because of either the geography or in this case, you know, water issues.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
One of the reasons that we don't have a lot of manufacturing in Ellis County is because of some water restrictions. And so some things are just not going to work well here that are large water users. So small manufacturers make more sense. They're typically not big water users. And if we can diversify our economy with multiple small manufacturers, I take that over one large one, you go down to like Salina And historically, they've had large manufacturers down there, Philips Lighting, the what is now Kubota, Tony's pizza, I mean, they manufacture pizzas and food and that type of thing. And Kubota manufactures farm equipment and things and, and they employ, like 1300 people and those type of operations, we're not really looking for that we wouldn't have the workforce to meet that requirement either. But we can sure build our own and then gradually put companies in there that will go from two or three or four employees up to 15 or 20, and then hopefully, move out onto their own building and end up with the two or 300.
 
James Bell 
You know, going back to the heart of America piece on this, you know, that organization, I'm kind of curious, like, how do they come to the decisions to fund like, I like a project like this, like did the land I think you said that they already own the land, or they just donated it to you. But you know, even thinking about the residential project, like how do they make those decisions?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, they have a board of directors that looks at projects and keeping in mind their mission to promote community development. And they see that, you know, that's why they purchased these land purchases they've made both on South commerce Parkway as well as the heart of America edition, by Glassman Corporation. They look for ways that they can promote growth and development. And so a couple years ago, we visited with them and we said, you know, we, historically they had been a commercial developer or industrial developer, you know, they've had land for that use. But our comment was, you know, if we don't solve our housing problem in Hayes, we're not going to have any employees to go into those commercial enterprises. And they were good enough to step up to the plate and invest a lot of money into this housing development, which is going very well so far. So it's turned out well, but so they they have been open to look at different things, but at the bar at the base of it all, is that their interest in community growth and development in our community, and and they've really stepped up in any number of occasions and done that.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, I you know, I wonder how normal is this in municipalities, especially out here in western Kansas, where they have an organization like this a nonprofit that kind of helps spur that economic growth?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
I think it's, it's fairly normal in different ways. A lot of times the municipality itself will own an industrial park, the city will make an investment or the county will make an investment in an industrial park and develop it and, and put the infrastructure in place so that companies can come in there and, and build a building and start less common with a not for profit, like heart of America. The beauty of the heart of America deal is we've we've partnered very well with the city. You've got gro Hayes, Heart of America and the city of Hades or the city of Ellis or wherever it might be that jointly work towards these things. And that makes it a lot easier to make some things happen when you when you've got that many people with a vested interest on a positive outcome.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, and we've talked a lot about the collaborative efforts between you know, Hayes and Ellis County and Ellis County in trigo. County, and really the whole area and everybody has to work together to make this thing work, or we're all going to be in troubled long run, right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, absolutely. I mean, we're all joined at the hip in one way or another. I know each community has their own issues. Each community would like to have their own growth and some retail and some jobs and whatnot, I understand that housing. But at the end of the day, all of us are in this western Kansas ecosystem for lack of a better term. And what's good for Joaquina is good for Hayes. What's good for Hayes is good for wall Keaney, you know, or Ellis or Victoria or Russell, whatever it might be. We are very closely tied together.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, no, I don't think we really actually talked about this, but the heart of America or the heart of America, the group, are they just a MOS county or just hates
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Ellis County? Okay, so their mission is to promote development in Ellis County. And they've they've helped way back when I think they had some role in the wheelchairs a Kansas move to Ellis. When they expanded from I believe lacrosse to Ellis, I was a little before my time in this position. But they were they were involved with that, as was our organization. And so Ellis County as a whole, they they want to promote development throughout Ellis County, and they don't go outside the Ellis County borders, but they do it. They do go beyond the Hayes borders for sure.
 
James Bell 
Okay. And again, as part of that collaborative effort, you know, what's good for us is good for Phillips County and Brooks County,
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
believe it is?
 
James Bell 
Well, you know, Doug, I don't really have anything else on the heart of America thing. I wonder if you have any other last thoughts or anything else we want to talk about in terms of that microfactory project?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, you know, I think for people to understand it better, we've kind of described what it is, the financial piece is somewhat interesting, you know, the state of Kansas, Department of Commerce put out these base grant applications and we and 417. Others applied, believe they granted 33, so we're very fortunate to receive it. But the project is about three and a half million dollars. And so the state wants a match from the organization is doing it. And in the case of gro Hayes, they wanted to match it from us. So of 26%, which is about seven or 800 $900,000. And factor that into the fact that we don't really know where construction costs are for sure today, because it's really a moving target. That's why a donation like the land donation from Heart of America is so important because we're going to scramble to to come up with that additional match money, we may be able to get some grants, we may be able to borrow it, whatever the case might be, we felt it was too important not to happen, when we've got the opportunity to get this amount of funding from from a grant from the state. We're just going to make it happen. And so we've we've dug in and done that, and we're in the process of applying for some other grants and that kind of thing. And, and hopefully those will come through but we're, we're burning our ships on the shore on this one, we're going full speed ahead and going to get this thing constructed. And we'll figure out how we pay for the rest of it. At that point in time. We've we've established the funds, it's just a matter of where they come from and how we do that. And so we're excited to get going on it. As with all projects like this, it's slow to get started. And you've got to get architectural plans, you've got to get bids, you've got to get all kinds of permitting and that kind of thing. But we're eager to get going and keep keep watching it ninth and commerce Parkway, it won't be real quick. But I'm hoping maybe sometime late summer, early fall, you'll start seeing some activity out there. If nothing else, somebody with a bulldozer moving around dirt to get the site ready.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, I love that. And it's a two year timeframe. It has to be done in two years. We need to be done in two years. Yeah. You mentioned the base grant that put that together. That was an interesting list. And we've got just about a minute or so left, a minute or so left. But I wonder if you want to talk about that. I thought it was kind of surprising the projects that they chose to fund out of this thing
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
little bit. You know, it was if you read the the requirements for the grant, it was primarily to be economic development. And I think many, many applications were for infrastructure. And one could argue that infrastructure is economic development, but I think they were looking for more impactful type things. His direct economic development, was also heavily skewed, which probably comes as no surprise to eastern Kansas. I think Johnson County got maybe half the funds, perhaps. But nonetheless, you know, there was great interest in it lots of applications. We were very pleased. I think we had the right project. We put in some applications for some other projects, too, that we did not get. And so in in hindsight, when I look back, I can see why the microfactory was appealing to them because it's pure economic development. You know, when what what develops out of that facility will employ people and provide good quality jobs and that's what at the end of the day, that's what's really important.

Center for Life Experiences director retiring; search for replacement underway

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Center for Life Experiences executive director Ann Leiker and board treasurer Alan Scheurman share information about the search for a new executive director.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell 
Center for Life Experiences Executive Director Ann Leikder is ready to pass the baton to a new executive director. She talks to us a little bit about that, along with board of directors treasurer, Alan Scheurman on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
 
I am looking to retire after well, 20 some years with the Center for life experience as their Executive Director, 30, semi 30 Some years as a social worker in this community, and in a variety of different ways. But yes, I'm looking to take take a little take some time. And so I also bring in some new leadership to the my position. So at the Center for life experience. So that's what Alan is here to talk about today. And, and how someone who might be interested in my position and apply for that, and those kinds of things.
 
James Bell 
Okay, well, Elena, and I do want to talk to that talk to talk to you about that. And we want to get there here in just a minute. But first, before we talk about that, I wonder if you want to kind of maybe talk about what like a day to day operation, you kind of don't know the right word, but you know what I mean? Like, what do you do every day?
 
 
Well, I am I am responsible for the day to day operations of the Center for life experience, and facilitating this different support groups and groups that we have healing after loss for loss of an adults in your life, healing after loss of suicide for families and people who have lost someone to suicide, Healing Hearts for families who have lost a child, and then healing kids hearts, which we had just at the end of March for children from seven to 12 years old. So I'm responsible for kind of coordinating and facilitating all those kinds of things as long as well as making sure we get our bills paid and making sure we welcome people and talk to people. And we will be continuing our support groups. We have Hughley Gutierrez, who's going to be continuing with our to facilitate the support groups for this summer, and she has been doing a super job and with me, and we're and she graduates and will be moot be in doing that, like I said, for the summer as we are as the board is searching to fill my position. So and it's not my position, but it's exciting. It's helping people to cope. The main mission mission is helping people to cope with grief and loss, and the challenges, life challenges that go with that, because there are a lot of them. So and so we'll be continuing in full operation all through the summer. And I'm presuming I'm going to be around now and then helping through the transition. But going to, to AG, I'm turning the big seven zero this year. And so time to take a little time to travel and do some things from just for the fun of it. And for myself and volunteer some in the community and just keep active.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure there's no slowing you down. Even in retirement, you're gonna be just as busy as ever, but, and I take this opportunity to thank you for everything you've done. I know that so many people in the community have been helped by your services and, and everything that you guys do at the Center for life experiences. And thank you so much for all of that. And, you know, as you're moving into retirement, I told you off air to hopefully you pop in once in a while and keep us caught up on what's going on. Oh,
 
 
I you know, I have loved every minute and been so honored to meet and walk with the people that that the center has reached out to and and it's so wonderful to see the center also have having grown and welcoming more people. And you know how work the community is learning that grief and loss is a normal part of life. But there are some challenges with it. And we need to know, people need to know they're not alone. They have other people to help them walk through that and and to grow and to move forward with their life not move on but move forward and not forgetting. But you know, honoring their loved ones.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. So I'm curious and again when Oh, how does this search go? For somebody that's been in that position as long as an ima Ajit, it's probably going to be a challenge to find somebody to replace.
 
 
We don't know how that's gonna work out, and has just done an incredible job in this community, helping people and helping start and continue the growth of this organization. She's just done an incredible job for us. She's so empathetic towards people, and continued to provide her expertise and skill level along with her past life experiences as well. So we're so thankful for her leadership, when we move forward in this as well. And we hope that she can continue to help guide us somewhat off and on, we'll see how that all works out at this point in time, we're actually looking for to replace her and I know that's an impossibility, but we'll see what we can do, we hope that someone will step up and possibly take on responsibilities that her passion that she had towards this type of an organization, she has done an incredible job for us. And that's what we're looking for, for some of this passionate, has the skill level and life experience that might go along with that to help lead this group because we obviously we need someone who's dedicated and passionate about doing this type of work.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. You know, in a practical way, I imagine it's probably a social worker background is what we're looking for. Right?
 
 
Absolutely. And I think that's, that has to be a portion of the requirements so that we can move forward with it. One of the things when we do if you have any kind of that type of background, please send your resume and cover letter to emily@cflc.com. If Ellie, hope hope.org.org, sorry. But yeah, we need that type of leadership. And we look forward to anyone that has that type of passion towards the groups that we have currently in operation. And we're not afraid to expand, but we need someone that's willing to take on that type of organization, that type of passion that goes along with it. Sure, sure.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, imagine that, again, it's probably a pretty specialized skill set that you would want to lead these groups, I would imagine, because it is kind of a delicate topic, sometimes
 
 
as trauma base. And many times it's people don't understand until you've gone through that process. And everyone will go through that process sooner or later live, if you live long enough. That's interesting. Interestingly enough, I mean, it's a it's an interesting topic to cover. And I've been fortunate enough to have been a member of this group in a couple of different ways. And I've been very thankful for that I've been very blessed to have been part of this group. And so I appreciate it every day, which brought me to the border eventually. And I'm thankful that they still want to keep me on the board.
 
 
Very cool, we have a really good board of directors to work with. And I really appreciate all of them, and want to encourage anyone and I think even social work psychology, anything in the human services area that that has some education with it, is what the board is hoping to look for. So social work is a nice fit, because of our skill set. But there are a lot of other there are some other areas too, that the that person can have their education and and have that capacity to, to understand, especially life experience is is helpful.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, I would imagine I give you just Alan, as you say, if you haven't had that experience, it's probably hard to lead someone else through it. It
 
 
really is. But I think there are people that have that commitment and ability, I think there a lot of their education and their background leads them towards that type of a group setting and being able to work with people. And I think that's the main emphasis when we look at people what they can or cannot do, they need to have that type of passion towards that type of work. Okay,
 
 
one of the advantages to my position is that there is some flexibility in the hours that my position can work. And so if you have children in school, or whatever, and there are a few times during the week, when we have our support groups into the early evening, and so, you know, then you adjust your schedule, and we have a terrific office manager assistant who helps with all the other Emily and who does a great job with other things. So it's a it's a great organization to be a part of, and doing well.
 
James Bell 
Very good. And when you know, I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about timelines, are you accepting applications now?
 
 
Absolutely. We'll be happy to take any applications that are said to us, we'll review them. Our board is actively sending out feelers at this point in time, both to the university here in town and to Other places to provide us with possible interested parties.
 
James Bell 
Okay, so no real set time on when you want somebody to be in the position just going to look until you find the right person,
 
 
we hope to find the right person. And I think that's the most important part. I think, yeah, we could set timelines, but we need to be reasonable about it. We need to make sure that whoever takes his position that fits the agenda and the operation that we're currently leading and see if they want to proceed forward and expand upon. So very
 
James Bell 
good. More information on the website
 
 
at WWW dot c, f L II hope i'll lowercase that org.
 
James Bell 
Okay. Now, before we go, we got we got talking about this as the organization continues on, there's always more work to do. And you're you got an event coming up here a little bit later on this month, right?
 
 
Yes, for after 20. Some years, we're still continuing during the memorial day time to do the avenue of pinwheels in honor of children who have died and this is held at Mount Allen cemetery in the children's area. We've also been putting pinwheels in the area of the St. Joseph's cemetery, the children's area as well and at mandolin it's in the children's area. We put anyone is anyone in the communities Welcome to bring to come, we will have pinwheels. And then they can will have a tag that you can put on that pinwheel to say who the pinwheels in honor of. And that stays up through Memorial Day. And so you'll see we've had up to 7580 or more pinwheels in honor of children in our community who have passed, and we do a little dedication ceremony. We all get together. About seven o'clock at Mount Allen on we're going to try for the 24th Tuesday the 24th because we always seem to get into a heck of a hate hailstorm. The one we try this at the first day. So we've said we'll do it the 24th at seven o'clock. And if there's bad weather we're going to try for Thursday the 26th. So and you can call our office for more information at 785-259-6859. Well, we do with like I said, we will have pinwheels, the the group members will be there. It's a way to acknowledge a child of any age that a family has lost and it's and then we get together for some homemade treats as well at the center or right across the street. Very cool. So I want to encourage anybody to come and you don't have to be quote unquote, a member or anything. It's open to anyone in the community.
 
James Bell 
Okay, again, that's may 24, seven o'clock, right. Okay. Well, as long as the weather cooperates.
 
 
Hopefully no, nothing dropping down from the sky. Other than good if it's it might be rain, and we'll take that