The Post Podcast

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

Sunflower Senior Solutions works to help find various insurance products

On this episode of the Post Podcast Sunflower Senior Solutions owner Courtney Dale shares information about their services.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell 
There's never a bad time to have your Medicare coverage evaluated Sunflower Senior Solutions owner Courtney Dale joins us to talk to us a little bit about that and more on this episode of the post podcast.
 
Courtney Dale 
So just a brief rundown of some of our Senior Solutions and what we do and who we are, we are an independent insurance brokerage. And when we started this out about seven or eight years ago, I think it's eight, I say, seven or eight, but I need to go back and double time flies. Time flies when you're having fun. What we do is specialize in Medicare. And so that's how we started and that is still our main focus of products. And so what that means is when somebody is going on to Medicare, we help with the education process, we show them where to go and what to do to enroll in their Part A and B. And then aside from that, we kind of take it from there and help them enrolling all of their supplemental insurance plans, which would be plan G's Plan F, Medicare Advantage Prescription plans, which is the Part D, dental, vision and hearing. So we take it from the point of once they enroll in their A and B we can help someone with every single plant they would need beyond that. What we've done over the years is diversified the products that we offer, and we it's basically just been on a demand basis. So if somebody asked, Hey, do you do this? Or can you help my wife with this? Or can you help my cousin with this? The more questions we get asked about certain products, we go out and we find a solution. So we've added on the Affordable Care Act plans and short term medical plans that sometimes is a huge thing to help someone bridge the gap with a spouse, if one is aging into Medicare, and one is not yet. So we do those. So we we do help people with health insurance that are under the age of 65 as well. We also in the last year have added on long term care. That has been something we've been asked about so many times over the years. And it's a huge growing need. Everyone wants to secure their space, if you will, as far as how am I going to pay for long term care expenses, there are really I'm not going to say inexpensive because that type of insurance is not cheap, but it's not as crazy as it once was. So we do offer some long term care solutions. We also have several different options for life insurance. And that means anything from an annuity to term life insurance to final expense, we offer all of those things. So basically, anything related to health and life insurance we can offer.
 
James Bell 
Wow, that's awesome. You know, I think when businesses like yours develop you, you've really had to Yeah, I think you kind of alluded to this, but you really had to do kind of grasp onto those things because people were asking and needing them. So those services, right?
 
Courtney Dale 
Right, right. So if somebody says, Hey, can you be and we're constantly adding on contracts, that's the beauty of being a broker. So we don't work for just one company, we work for all of the insurance companies. So if somebody says, Hey, why'd we we kept getting asked about long term care. So what we did is we went out and shopped and compared and found out who has the best long term care, and we contracted with those companies and added that product line on we also offer, we can we can get someone coverage in all 50 states, we are not contracted in all 50 states. But if somebody has this has happened, actually quite often. But if somebody has a, let's say, aunt, uncle, cousin sister that lives in Iowa, we can do one of two things. We have a huge network of agents that we can refer someone to we can find someone in that state or two, we simply just go out and get contracted in that state and write the business ourselves. So we do have solutions for pretty much everything. We work really hard at never having to tell someone, no, or I'm sorry, we can't help you. And we we are very, very, very rarely does it happen that we can't help someone with something.
 
James Bell 
That's awesome. That's awesome. And speaking of helping people, you know, we talked about this pretty regularly. When you know this time of year, you're there's not a lot of changes you can do to your regular plan. But if you have a supplemental plan, you can have that analyzed anytime. And you guys do that. Right?
 
Courtney Dale 
Right. So the thing that people don't realize, because there's such a huge emphasis and so much media about open enrollment and Annual Election Period, which is October 15 through December 7. Everyone thinks that that's the only time of year that you can change your plan that only applies to prescription plans, and Part C Medicare Advantage. But if you have a traditional Medicare Supplement whether that's the plan G or a Plan F, you can have that compared and you can actually change it at any time during the year. There are a couple of qualifications that you have to meet as far as health qualifications, but they are, you know, what you think is a major health issue to an insurance company probably isn't. So it is we do recommend that if you've had some rate increases, or you simply want to just save money on your monthly recurring payments that are going out, especially health insurance as a huge expense for pretty much everyone. Let us compare it costs nothing, there's no obligation. And like I said, you can switch those supplements around at any time during the year. A lot of things that people one thing that a lot of people do not understand about Medicare supplemental plans is that they are standardized coverage. So one insurance company can't offer more or better coverage. Plan G is Plan G is Plan G, it doesn't matter if you're with company ABC or company XYZ. If you have a Plan G, you all have the same coverage. So the deductibles the same coverage is the same. They're all accepted everywhere that Medicare is accepted. However, price varies greatly between the carriers and of course service. And we only want to work with companies that offer great service. But there's a good chance. I mean, we do this all the time. We switch people around all year long. And people save anywhere from 2030 bucks a month, we've saved people upwards of $100 a month, but you never know until you have it compared. Yeah,
 
James Bell  
absolutely. And you guys do that pretty regularly. And not only do you compare those plans, but you do workshops, so people can learn more about this, right?
 
Courtney Dale 
Right we have if you are in the listening area, there's a workshop near you. So get on our website. And check out our listing of events, dates, times locations, sunflower senior.com is going to have a full list of that. You can also schedule an appointment on our website. Again, that's sunflower senior.com. Or you can call our office 785301 to 716. Perfect,
 
James Bell 
Courtney, any other last thoughts or anything else you want to hit on before we go?
 
Courtney Dale 
Nope, I think that's it. James, of course. You know, everything we do is complimentary. We do not charge fees. I think everyone who listens to us on a regular basis knows that but just in case you're new, we do not charge anything and there's no obligation to have your plans looked at and compared.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely take advantage of it. Why not? Right. Right. Courtney, thanks. So
 
Courtney Dale 
normally, saving money is something we all want to do right now.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. Absolutely. prices going up. Let's let's trim from the other side. Right

Hays Chamber Golf Tourney set for Friday

On this episode of the Post Podcast president and CEO of the Hays Chamber Sarah Wasinger, along with president and CEO of the First Care Clinic share information about the upcoming Chamber Golf Tournament.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
The Hays Chamber is putting the final touches on their golf tournament set for Friday, President and CEO of the Hays chamber Sarah Wasinger, along with President and CEO of First Care Clinic, Bryan Brady, join us to talk about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
So this week is like the week. It's golf tournament week, which also means it's our silent auction week. And we have her scare clinic who is sponsoring that silent auction this year for us. And we are so excited about that, because it helps us do a lot of nice things, including showcase all of the wonderful auction items that have been donated by our chamber member businesses, and even a few non chamber member businesses. Because this is the one event every year that we allow those folks to participate in our events as well.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. No, I do want to get this out of the way. You sold out on the golf tournament. Right? We have but your team's 30 teams. Oh my goodness, that's a lot to manage. But you've still got tickets for the patio party, right?
 
Sarah Wasinger 
We do. Okay, great. Do so the cool thing about that is tickets are $25 each, it comes with a fiesta taco bar. Let me get that right. So it's literally a day after Cinco Demayo. So we thought that might be a fun play on what's going on. And then we also have a margarita that comes with that too. So you can get to enjoy a margarita out on the patio, some tacos, and have a chance to play the Plinko board. And that Plinko board will come with some great prizes too. So we have anything from T shirts to nice coffee cups to some sunglasses, you name it, you can win it.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Very cool. I love that. And you know, honestly, when we've talked about this a little bit, what an exciting event for the community to be able to get together and really celebrate businesses and everything else going on.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Exactly. So we, of course are excited to have we do have a special guest just dropped in. How are you, sir? Construction?
 
James Bell 
You timed that perfectly? You Oh, yes. What a mess right there at that intersection? Oh, my goodness, I have to do that every day. It's terrible. How are you sir?
 
Bryan Brady 
I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
So Brian Brady is the president CEO at first care clinic. And as we shared, they are our sponsor for our silent auction this year. So Brian, tell us a little bit about you guys. And what you offer at first Care Clinic real quick. we'll segue into that.
 
Bryan Brady 
Sure. So first Care Clinic is what we call a federally qualified health center. And what that means is we take care of everybody regardless of their ability to pay regardless of their insurance status. And we're really proud to do that. And grateful we can do it for the AES community.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
And they've been a well, well trusted chamber member for quite some time now. So and Brian actually also serves on our chamber board of directors. Next year, he will be our board chair. Oh, very cool. Excited
 
 
about that, for sure.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
So, Brian, you guys obviously are playing I think I'm a golf tournament too, right?
 
Bryan Brady 
Yes, I've played in that. Almost every year since I've been in Hays. It's such a great event. We have a great time. And looks like we'll get to great weather tomorrow or Friday as well. Yeah, we
 
Sarah Wasinger 
were looking at that and very excited knock on knock on wood. So one thing that is fun of note, we actually kicked off the Auction yesterday. So ours is a little unique. We start that on Monday morning at 8am. And then that online auction will run until Friday at 3pm. So we actually had the auction link that will go out today in our newsletter, but it can also be accessed online. So feel free to contact us at the Chamber if you have any issues getting onto that link.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. And what what an amazing assortment of items during that auction
 
Sarah Wasinger 
over $13,000. And we're actually getting closer to $14,000 as we speak and shut up. Ah, we're adding a few things here at the last minute. Love it.
 
James Bell 
We're talking about some of the things I'm looking at the list and I figured you would
 
Sarah Wasinger 
come to my office because it looks like the auction actually blew up in there. And it's very fun. We have a plethora of gift certificates from our chamber member restaurants and obviously some good eat options there. So you have to feed your family. So you might as well go online and check. Check those out for sure. Absolutely. One of the other things that we're really excited about is we got a ridiculous amount of coolers this year. And they're also interesting in their own right so we have a couple of Gatorade slash KJ hot coolers, and those were donated by Pepsi Cola. I've got a fully stocked Coleman cooler that is full of neat swag items from five broadband 60 cord Polaris Northstar cooler that was donated by BLS motorsports. And then we've also got some tools, speakers, adult food, beverage and food baskets. So those are really neat because you can kind of buy those. Maybe Mother's Day gifts. Think of Mother's Day.
 
James Bell 
Is that coming up soon? It's I'm just kidding.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Well, the nice thing about our auction is of course we bring all of our items to Smoky Hill Country Club, because many of our golfers do bid on those. And so whether you come to the chamber office throughout this week to look at those items through noon on Thursday or if Do you want to come down to Smoky Hill Country Club and peruse those? You sure can. But you can pick up the items after we close the auction at three o'clock. So you would have them technically in plenty of time to celebrate Mother's Day. Very cool. We have some unique experiences this time around as well. And we were very excited. President and Mason fhsu has provided a dinner for for at her home. We also have for fhsu All sport general admission tickets for the 2020 to 2023 football and basketball seasons. A couple of new ones that we are offering from the chamber this year include our 2023 chamber banquet dessert sponsor. And you might be asking, what is that Sara? Well, you get two tickets to attend the event. We're going to put you in the program, you'll get plenty of advertising leading up to the event and after the event. And what that sponsorship does is allow the chamber to help offset the costs of the dessert at the event.
 
James Bell 
So neat idea.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
I love it. Yeah. So Rhonda came up with that one. So it was a
 
James Bell 
Rhonda. That was a little bit sooner.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
That's It's amazing Sandra kudos. And then we're also going to have a couple of tickets that are VIP tickets actually for the 2022 Wild West fest. So very exciting for that. And then another unique item that we're offering for next year is going to be our 2023 Plinko patio party cocktail sponsor. We've gotten a lot of good feedback already that folks are excited to have a cocktail out on the patio with their meal on Friday. And so we're going to of course, as well give that opportunity that will come with a couple of tickets to attend next year's event. Awesome. Brian, are there any items that you plan on bidding on?
 
Bryan Brady 
I haven't looked through the auction yet. But don't tell my wife there's an auction.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Okay. I'm gonna just Facebook message earlier that
 
James Bell 
sounds like you just found your next Plinko patio pot party cocktail sponsor right there.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
We also have a couple of other awesome items, we have some men's and women's Oakley sunglasses that are donated by EMI specialists associated and Hatton Montero family eyecare has also donated a pair of designer glasses that are Kate young brand. And then you can also bid on different items that are related golf like haste municipal golf course has a round of four for golf. So just want to make sure that people go online, we have some pictures uploaded. And we do have descriptions of each of the items there. I'm starting bids are open, of course right now. And then we have, you can set a max bid if you want. So let's just say you're not good at keeping up with stuff. You can put what you're willing to pay for it. And then as long as no one else bids more than that. You can actually technically be the winner
 
James Bell 
meet. Yeah, I think so many groups that do the do auctions ahead to move it online. So I think everybody at this point had a little bit of experience with an online auction. But
 
Sarah Wasinger 
I think the chamber was kind of a trailblazer in that they've been doing the online format for quite some time since the start of the tournament. So and then of course want to give a shout out to Avalon of Hayes. They are also our big sponsor for our Plinko patio party.
 
James Bell 
Yay. Thanks to them. Yeah,
 
Sarah Wasinger 
next Tech wireless, where would we be without them? There are the actual tournament sponsors so grateful for everything that they do to help us and put on a successful event. And then a final shout out to our ambassador team. And they've gone above and beyond and helping us get some prizes for the raffle for the auction and all those other cool things.
 
James Bell 
Very cool really takes a village to put this thing together. Huh, it does. So
 
Sarah Wasinger 
we've been planning this event since probably February. And I think everyone's ready for a good afternoon to relax and enjoy the day. It's here. It's here it is here.
 
James Bell 
Alrighty, well, we've got just about a minute or so left any other events going on. And this is probably taking the bulk of your week up. But I would imagine get ready for this.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
So for the remainder of this week until noon on Thursday, we are still celebrating childcare provider Appreciation Week. And so we still have probably about 25 appreciation backs and a handout. So if you didn't make it down yesterday, please feel free to stop by our office. If you're a childcare provider. Obviously you're offering care during the day and you can't get away feel free to send someone on your behalf to get your care package for you. We also have leadership pays tomorrow at 830 at the Welcome Center. We'll be celebrating in the carpentry house at NCQA Technical College on Thursday at 10am. Our H yp networking and Engagement Committee will actually meet at 1205 at the Welcome Center on Thursday. And then of course Friday is Game On work around the country clubs so we won't be in the office the office will be closed

Weekend Setlist May 3, 2022

On this episode of the Weekend Setlist host Jeffery Leiker details events around the Hays area this weekend.

Grow Hays shares project updates with city officals

On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares updates presented to the city of Hays during this week's commission meeting.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
Grow Hays can often act as a point of contact for business owners in Ellis County Grow Hays, executive director Doug Williams stops by to talk to us about that and more on this episode of the post podcast. We had the City Commission recap a little bit earlier on the show. And one of the things that came up was user apparently you were at their meeting last time. We're gonna talk a little bit about that today. Right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
We are and I was there.
 
James Bell 
Good stuff. Well, good and bad. I think Sandy Jacobs told us.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, mine was all good. There was some bad there are some challenges. But yeah, challenges.
 
James Bell 
That's a better word for it. Because I mean, we talked about this all the time. There's there, we all know, there are some opportunities here. And hey, so we've got to take on and also some amazing things going on.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
That is true. And we I wouldn't say that it was all good what I talked about, but most of what I talked about was positive, you know, our microfactory housing, that type of thing. And that there was a group of childcare providers at the at the meeting last night, and Sarah was singer who's leading the childcare Task Force spoke and gave an update and, and childcare is certainly a challenge for our community.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, almost unbelievable numbers that we were hearing this morning about parents in need, and students that are children, I guess that can't find a spot.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
That is true. And it you know, that ties back into much of what we do, which is workforce. And if if one of the parents can't work because they have to stay home with the children, because they either can't find childcare, or it's too expensive for them. That takes out of our workforce. And the task force has done a survey which has identified a large number of people that would go back to work if they had childcare. So it's an issue. We're not unique, you know, like many of these problems. It's all over the country that childcare is a challenge, but particularly I think, Kansas, because we actually have some, some pretty antiquated regulations that limit the number of children that can be taken in certain situations. And that just makes the problem worse. So we have some challenges in that area.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. You know, I we did hear about some of the action and activities that are going on locally to address that problem. I wonder if you have any insight on on the bigger picture, the state level stuff? Or if you've even if they've even really done anything with that in the last few weeks? Well, I
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
think there's discussion. You know, a lot of it comes if you talk to, if you talk to childcare providers, the ratios that they have to maintain based on how many children they can look after, at certain age groups and how that affects. If you take so many infants, she can't take some others. So age, children, just just different things like that, which I think that is being looked at that the state, the Kansas Department of Health and Education, I guess is who supervises that. And when you look at Kansas, compared to many other states, the ratios here are, are pretty prohibitive with, say, the number of infants that the number of providers per infant, I believe it's four to one under 18 months. So if you look at the economic aspect of a daycare center or childcare facility, they can take four infants per employee to provide that service. Well, they can charge, let's just say three bucks an hour. For those for infants, maybe that's $12 an hour, and to hire someone to take care of those kids. And that kind of thing may be more than that, not to mention payroll taxes, and that kind of thing. So it's a it's a broken system, because of these ratios. And I understand, Katie, he they, their primary concern is child's safety as it should be. But there's got to be a happy medium in there someplace. And I think when I last look, Kansas was a one of two states in the United States that had that stringent of a ratio requirement. And so we really, you know, they need to look at that, and I think they are.
 
James Bell 
Okay, well, and I looked forward to see you know, what, what results come out of these discussions and what actual action we can take to alleviate some of this need, because it sounds huge. But I wonder if you want to speak about some of the other updates that you gave the city last night? Well,
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
I told him about our microfactory project, you know, we got the base grant, and we're proceeding along with the try and get arrangements made architects engaged to get that project started. That of course, is the 30,000 square foot building that we intend to construct at the corner of ninth and commerce Parkway. And it'll be split into either five or six different areas for upcoming or startup manufacturers who we hope to you know, it's to be an incubator for them. They go in there where they operate for three to maybe up to five years, perhaps trying to get their product established and grow their business. And then we roll them out into a facility of their own, and we roll the next guy in. So it's it's one of these deals that will, that will serve as an endowment for our community for a long, long time. And so I explained that to them and what our plans are there. We hope to get started sometime this summer, on the construction of that we have two years to get it constructed in under the terms of the grant we received. But we hope to be up and running well before two years. So we're getting started on that. I talked about housing, we talked about the apartment situation last week, a little bit in terms of the number of apartments that are being constructed in the area right now. And then also discussed the tall grass addition, the fact that there are currently now there are four homes that are owner occupied, they've been completed and the owners have moved in.
 
James Bell 
so fast that didn't happen. I mean, we talked about how long it takes to get these things to happen. But that actually seemed like it happened overnight. It seems like
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
it it was back in, you know, the fall that they started construction on these and, and so they I give the contractors that are building out there all the credit in the world, because they have had to overcome a lot of obstacles.
 
James Bell 
And we heard about some more of those obstacles that are coming, or at least for one of the builders, I think that they said they wouldn't be able to start the next set until July.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, well, yeah, I mean, the if you go out there, and I encourage everybody to do so. There are eight basements that are in the ground right now. But the framer who the contractor uses is tied up on other projects and can't get to it till probably June. And so there they sit for 30 to 45 days, that just adds to the construction time, it just adds to the time that that home is going to be available for somebody to move into. But we've got activity going there's there'll be four completed in the next 30 I actually another six completed in the next 30 days. And then these eight are going to are already started that have basements, the other contractors plan to start another 11 this summer. So that developments going to be built out pretty quickly. I'd say by year end, you're going to see lots and lots of houses out there. Excellent.
 
James Bell 
And that really ended Sandy Jacobs talked a little bit about your I say famous kind of workforce needs pyramid that you go around the community and share. And that's that's the bottom. So to help us kind of get to the spot where we can develop those other things. And that's really something else we want to talk about today. There's been an effort that you guys have made, and really, I think done a great job within the last few months of promoting Hayes's story, and getting people out here. And we talk a lot about this remote workers, they can pick wherever they want to go. And we hope Hayes is one of those places. But I want to talk about that. As your organization grow Hayes's the Economic Development Group, and connections with so many other organizations, I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about someone that maybe is looking at Hayes from the front range of Denver, and they want to start a business here, what resources are available to
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
well, where they're starting place, obviously, if they want to start a business, we have an E community loan program where we can provide funds to a business startup, they have to involve a bank as well. And that and we've we've actually got a couple of we're meeting today on one application for a business analysis. And we will probably be funding a portion of that one. And then we obviously we kind of know where the sites might be available what either space or building site might be available. So we assist them in that regard. And then we can connect them with all the other resources that they may need. The Small Business Development Center on campus can help them with business plans. We can direct them to the northwest Kansas Planning Commission and some of these people who can help them with some SBA loan things. So we're kind of a connector, we if they start with us, which we hope that they do, we can help them find the resources that they need, and show them why Hays is a good place to come if you're going to start up a business, or why Hayes is a good place to come if you just if you're a remote worker, and you can live anywhere you want to live. We've got a great story to tell here.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. You know, I wonder if we want to talk a little bit of the details and some of those other organizations. I know network Kansas is a big one that you guys partner with a lot and I think they provide some of those resources for potential business owners or entrepreneurs as well.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
They do they're a great partner for us. They're a great resource for across the entire state. They do fund are a community loans. So we work with them and if once we have a loan committee local made up of local people, but once we approve a loan, they send us the money to provide to the borrower and integrate new twist on that is that network Kansas was able to get a grant from the Patterson Foundation. And now, up to 20% of what a borrower, the loan amount from us is available to them in in form of a grant. So if some are our loan limit is $45,000, if somebody qualifies, and if they meet the requirements of the of the grant 9000 of that comes back to them as they don't have to repay it. So that's a great deal not to mention the fact that our interest rates are typically around prime rate, so typically going to be lower than they would expect to pay elsewhere. So it's a great program, I encourage anybody that is starting up a business or wants to do an expansion to to contact us on that. And network. Kansas also does our youth entrepreneurship programs. And they sponsor a lot of entrepreneurial activity. So they're a great organization and a great partner.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, you mentioned the SBDC, down on the Fort Hays campus. And I wonder if we want to talk about this as well. I think really out here in Hays, we've generated this culture of entrepreneurship, that really, I think kind of maybe starts there on the campus and permeates the entire community. But if you're someone that's looking for that kind of place where you can connect with those folks, Haze is a great place for that right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Or it is now the campus, obviously, they're they're very focused on entrepreneurship on campus with the Faulkner challenge and and Hanson Hall are both very entrepreneurship focused, the SBDC that's Rick Felton Berger leads that group, and they're very good at helping a person take an idea and getting it on paper, because you know, a bank, they always want to see it on paper, they want to see your business plan. And, you know, I've always said, a business plan is one of those necessary evils of starting a business. Because the second day, you're in business, everything changes, and you can kind of the business plan may not be as appropriate, as applicable, as it was, when you thought you were gonna get started. But it is, it is something you have to do. And Rick does a great job with working with prospective business owners or business owners who are wanting to expand to actually crunch the numbers and put the components of the plan together, so that the bank can look at it and understand what you're trying to accomplish. And, and it's more likely to fund a deal. Very cool.
 
James Bell 
You know, I wonder if somebody out there is listening, and maybe their local, maybe they are out on the front range or somewhere else in the country. But if they're listening, I think and man, I think he's might be a place I want to check out what's the best and easiest way for him to get those economic resources? Is it just calling or checking out websites? Or a little bit of both?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, a little bit of both. But certainly calling our office is where we start. And that's as a connector to these resources, we're going to, we're going to ask him some questions about what they're trying to do and what their resources are and what their background is. And then from that we can direct them into and put them in the right direction, get them in touch with the right people. We don't do it all we do some of it, but we don't do it all. But we do know who does. And that's the key. And we can save people a lot of time and grief, I think if they would call us and allow us to help them connect with the right resources.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, you know, I think about all those business owners that I've known over the years that when they launch their business or launch a new operation anyway, they try to reinvent the wheel. And I think oh my gosh, guys get go to get the help that is out there. That's what it's for.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Yeah, and we don't charge anything. SBDC doesn't charge anything, you know, this is all free stuff. So why not take advantage of the resources that are available to you, and can ensure your success?
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. Well, Doug, I tell you, we've got just about a minute or so left in the thing else that we want to hit on before we go?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, I think, you know, we talk about brief space all the time. But brace space is the microfactory for office workers. You know, we have space down there and it's really going well down there. We do still have space available for some people if they want to come down and check us out. The usage of the facility just keeps getting more and more the meeting rooms and the various our podcast station and all those things that we have for resources for people. So as always come down, check us out. We'll give you a tour and maybe it'd be the right spot for you

Hays City Commission recap: April 29, 2022

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays Post reporter Becky Kiser recaps this week's Hays City Commission meeting with city commissioner Sandy Jacobs and city manager Toby Dougherty. 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
city commissioners discussed ongoing opportunities and concerns in pays. At their City Commission meeting this week as Post reporter Becky Kiser recaps that meeting with city manager Toby Dougherty, as well as City Commission member Sandy Jacobs, on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
There were excellent discussions last night Sandy have several things going on and recurring in the city and some situations that perhaps the city can help with. One of them was a report actually an update from gro Hayes, Executive Director, Doug Williams talking about what that organization is doing. And actually Doug will be talking to James a little bit lower or later this morning. So we don't want to steal his thunder. But he did have some really interesting things to talk about housing. And that's something that's been a priority for the city in recent times to get more of it. And it looks like we're in a pretty good place right now.
 
Sandy Jacobs 
The momentum is going in the right direction. I'll say that I don't want anybody to think that we need to stop thinking about it. Because there's so much going on, but grow Hayes has and I won't steal his thunder either, because it was the kind of a good news bad news night last night. And he certainly had good news on everything. The housing that's going on in the Tallgrass second edition, the RFID. We did last night, the other buildings that are going up, I think Toby checked how many actual were in construction recently, it was over 100
 
Toby Dougherty 
Your construction and or permitting were about 160 units. Wow,
 
Sandy Jacobs 
that's a big deal. That is a very big deal. And so the we're answering it, developers are stepping forward, the difficult thing that's happening, we have a developer in the Tallgrass edition that's ready to put in eight, and put eight more basements in while we were informed last night, his framework can't start until July. So it's and then then you worry about getting the bit the stuff you need the wood and the concrete and everything else that you need, because everything's backordered. So it's kind of a good news. Bad news
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser  
is we should also explain that and Doug, if you're ever around, Doug, and I'm sure he says it all the time is when he's talking to James is that this foundation of what builds communities and attracts people to haze or other communities, you've got to have housing to begin with before you get people here to accept jobs.
 
Sandy Jacobs 
Absolutely. And it's the basis of his triangle. And as he says, he carries that everywhere he goes. And I think we've all pretty much got that memorized. But he, he he and his organization. And I want to give credit to that board that has given him the liberty to keep moving forward and doing things and encouraging. Because that hasn't happened before with this strongly with economic development. And I've known it for a long time. This is the most active we've been with an economic development director for a very long
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
time. Well, I know over the past few years haven't covered a City Commission, there have been concerns by the City Commission about it, feeling like you know, you're just not doing anything for Should we continue to fund you. And you have seen a big difference. And in fact, last night, I think it was you Sandy, who mentioned that we as Doug said, there is an additional position another person there who really has made a difference in what is happening.
 
Sandy Jacobs 
David clang and has just been outstanding. When Doug hired him. He didn't have any economic development background, per se, but he had a lot of big box background. He'd been with some big box businesses, but he understood retail, he understood the environment. And he was very gung ho to make things happen. And as Doug announced last night, they actually, David wrote a grant that actually was awarded for 2.6 million and I don't want to take that thunder. So
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
Oh, okay. Well, that's good news tokens, right. I mean, we're talking about over in the heart of America area, correct. On the east side of town.
 
Toby Dougherty 
Yes. For the single family homes. We're talking on the east side of town. We do have some infill projects going on the former Washington school that's been converted to apartments.
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
Are they actually not hiring? renting out now? Is that what
 
Toby Dougherty 
I've heard? I know there is an open house sometime early next month, early next month? Yes. I think maybe the 12th or 13th Air landing
 
 
now. Right. And
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
the St. Joseph former school I am and I've seen, you know, some people going in and out of there. So they're hopping around in that building now,
 
Toby Dougherty 
right, that'll be converted to 12, moderate income housing apartments. And then we have, as Commissioner Jacob mentioned, the RH ID for another 34 units. That will be behind Washington School. And that'll be coming coming later in the year. So we have a lot of stuff in the works right now.
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
Let's talk about the RH ID we heard from Finance Director Kim Rapp. And there's always a little bit of a smile on everybody's faces because it is a very long process to make this happen. And just regulations that the city has to fall
 
Toby Dougherty 
it's it's state statute, you know, whenever you whenever you abate taxes for anybody, and that's what this is a tax abatement, it is a redirection of taxes to help fund a development. And so whenever that happens, there is a A lot of due process built in, there's a lot of public opportunity for input. And so it it, it delays the process. So there are publication requirements, there are public hearing requirements or public notice requirements. And that just all adds time to the process. I think it's needed because you shouldn't be able to abate taxes without adequate public input. So it is just a lengthy process. And I think Kim, the finance director said, we should be completed in August if the commission follows the calendar as presented. And then the developer would have to go ahead and start start construction.
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
Another portion of this as he mentioned last night is there has to be justification shown that there is a need for housing and he talked about the housing survey that was done by Fort Hays State stocking Institute.
 
Toby Dougherty 
Yes, that was completed late last year. And it shows an overall lack of of a need for housing in almost all categories. But the types of housing that the archer ideas last night is going to consider as the top of the of the of the needs for housing, so it is definitely the most needed.
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
Sandy The another thing that's part of Doug's Famous Pyramid is childcare. You know, many parents, if not most, are working these days and they need childcare. And at the quote that came from Sarah Wah, singer of the Hayes chamber, who has helped had this childcare Taskforce, one of her quotes was childcare is in a market failure nationwide. I mean, it's just not Kansas, and Hayes is everywhere.
 
Sandy Jacobs 
Well, and you agree, Becky, and it is everywhere, no matter where I travel, I hear the same stories. The only the many good things are happening, though, to try to relegate what's happening there. There's many different entities out there trying to find ways to incent people to begin childcare to start new chalker Whether it's in their home or or a childcare center. We have we have wonderful facilities in Hayes now wonderful homecare. And I think one of the very most important things I heard last night other than we have 800 kids in this community that we need to find childcare for that was important. But we had a wonderful contingency of child childcare professionals in our in our audience last night. And I think that's really important to understand. They made it very clear, they're not babysitters, they're childcare providers. And I think that isn't it, I feel differently, you know, if I'm looking at the process of that job as a childcare provider versus a babysitter. So I think that was important. But there is also part of all of the surveys we've come up with and in Sarah and her group have just done an outstanding job with this. They're really moving through this and they will make a difference. We have 151 people in this community that said in a survey that they will go back to work if they can find childcare for children, and they can
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
and that's, you know, again, it just kind of is this circle because it just about anywhere you look, you see businesses in Hays with signs up on their marquees hiring now. So you know that that just shows it's also Toby something again, it isn't just what's going on locally, there are a lot of regulations, and that the that the daycare providers last night talked about that come from the state, if not the feds, but especially the state that make it kind of difficult to do this in your home. And not everybody's really able to do that
 
Toby Dougherty 
difficult and and sometimes not profitable. So you're not running on high profit margin, I think I think that was one of the prevailing ideas that came out last night from the childcare providers who were in the audience was that they're not getting rich off of this. They are getting by at best, you know, most of them seem to be doing it because they like to do it. And they enjoy it. And they they want to provide the service. So the profit margins are small, it's very difficult. It is a highly complex regulatory environment. Even if you're a single person shop. It's a it's a highly complex regulatory environment. So it's difficult to get into and maintain.
 
Sandy Jacobs 
It is and I think I mean, there are so many things that we really don't even understand. I was saying earlier to Becky, if we don't say it, nobody realizes it's happening. We have no room, no room, we have childcare providers last night, they said their waiting list is three years, their first opening they have is three years from now. Every single one of them has upwards of 2530 on the waiting list. Wow. So I mean, it's it is it is it's getting dire I will say that and because it affects so many areas of the community,
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
one of the stearic talked about some of the things that they've done and and things that they would like to accomplish and ideas that may come into play, one of which is childcare centers, as opposed to someone who's doing daycare in their home. It sounded like some of the daycare providers feel like that might be more of an expensive option for some of their clients if they chose to do that. Maybe not super practical, but I don't and I don't have kids so I don't know but it seems like to me if we had things like that and businesses offering childcare you in their building would be helpful. I
 
 
think there's some of that being looked at right now.
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
Can the city help in any way?
 
Sandy Jacobs 
We don't know. But are we looking? Absolutely. And I think that was made clear to everybody last night. We don't know what we can do, but it is on the table, and we will be having discussions about it with this group and others.
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
I like what you said last night. The city wasn't giving just lip service. You were you promised to the daycare providers that we are looking at. Toby I wanted to give a shout out to when we heard our progress report from assistant city manager. He noted that our parks director Jeff Boyle recently was acknowledged for his work out name is an award named after somebody that has been very had been very active in our haste community.
 
Toby Dougherty 
Yeah, it was named after Jim Strine. Jeff Boyle, the parks director received a forestry award at Arbor Day celebration a couple of weeks ago, and well deserved if there's a bigger advocate for trees in in Hayes and Jeff, I don't know who it is maybe Jim shrine. But you know it Jeff does a good job. We have a tree nursery that was also shown in the progress report last night. Jeff is very good at finding properties around Hayes out in the country where there are cedar trees and other types of trees that can be transplanted to city facilities. And we have a tree spade and it just does a good job. You know, we don't have a lot of trees in the High Plains out here. So it's nice to continually plant those trees and see them grow. And
 
Sandy Jacobs 
everyone if somebody's taking a tree down here with
 
Hays Post Reporter Becky Kiser 
these they, you know, I think that's really that's really neat because a lot of ag people don't like those red cedar trees, but they're good in town for a windbreak and didn't we put some out sports complex to
 
Toby Dougherty 
go Yeah, sports complex golf course we have them all over the place. And I would like to put a plug in for the tree rebate program. Yes. You know, if you are replacing a tree or planting a tree, you can go on Hayes usa.com and look in our parks department. They'll have the brochure for the tree rebate program where you can go to the city clerk's office and ask for it. We'll give you have $50 to help pay for the cost of your tree. And if you have a certain species of tree that is diseased that needs to be removed. We'll actually give you a little money to help you tear that tree out and then give you some money to help you replace it.

Forward Ever: K-State president Richard Linton

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with K-State president Richard Linton.

Warmer outdoor temperatures brings fire danger

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays Fire Department chief Ryan Hagans shares tips on staying safe during spring and summer.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
As summer approaches new fire dangers also pop up paced Fire Department Chief Ryan Hagen's stops by to share with us some ways to stay safe this spring and summer as well as share updates from the department on this episode of the post podcast that we hit on this a little bit last month the fire hydrant testing was going on. I think that's still kind of wrapping up in it.
 
Ryan Hagans 
Yeah, it's still going on, we usually start that the first part of March because he knows well as I do. Springtime in western Kansas, flip a coin on the weather conditions. It's either gonna be nice, or it's gonna we're gonna have some cold weather. So we we just kind of picked march to get started on that so we can get it wrapped up before water restrictions kick in place. We're probably about three quarters away done. So we go around and pressure flow test every hydrant in town to make sure that they're working properly and kind of helps out to our water resources department by getting water quality back where it should be.
 
James Bell 
You know, I It's funny, you mentioned that you guys were over in my neighborhood the other day and did it and the the water went from it had kind of a murky gun, a fishy taste to that super chlorinated taste, is there backfill in the lines? And then now Yeah, absolutely. There's quite a bit better than a headache. And even really,
 
Ryan Hagans 
it's just the water moving throughout the town. Yeah, it definitely improves the quality.
 
James Bell 
And it's always good to have those ready and know that they work. If you're in an emergency. That's not the time you want to find out, hey, we don't have the proper pressure here.
 
Ryan Hagans 
Right. And so we want to make sure that the hydrants themselves are in good, good condition.
 
James Bell 
Yeah. Speaking of being prepared for emergencies, you guys recently conducted your the FFA Turner FAA. Yes, fire training.
 
Ryan Hagans 
On April 20. We conducted our annual our live burn requirements which are for AR f f, which is airport rescue and firefighting. That is training as mandated, like I said, by the FAA, and several years ago, we partnered up with the DoD City Fire Department and they they'll send anywhere between eight and 12 other staff up to join us as well. So that's a it's a good time it's an all day event but it's it's good training hot
 
James Bell 
that's what I went out there one year maybe not this last one but went out there one year to photography you guys working out there and holy smokes the the that simulated airplane fire you can feel it from so far away. And I can even imagine and all that gear, how hot that is. Even on a nice day.
 
Ryan Hagans 
You get the gear on then you go inside the plane and all that heats just trapped in its little warm.
 
James Bell 
Yeah. Let's see what else you also did some. What is this fact training?
 
Ryan Hagans 
Yeah, that was put on by Fort Hays State. And yes, and Debbie K. Fact was dead for a first responder art, collaboration and training. It was a four day event and what it does, it was a good interaction between how do how to interact with people with some cognitive disability. So we really enjoyed that. All of our guys have went down narratives and all that we had so much fun with the DSM Debbie Kay clients, for Hey, students, it was a good time.
 
James Bell 
Very cool, very cool. I know you guys really love to be out in the community and make your or be a positive presence in the community. And you got some events coming up to that kind of a center on that day idea as well. Right, right.
 
Ryan Hagans 
Earlier this week, Lieutenant Tim de tree, was invited to speak with the Hays High School jag class, which that jag J G stands for jobs available for graduates. He did an excellent job, I was up there with him and watched him do his thing. And just did an outstanding job and I think he is going to try and go back again next week.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. You know, I remember as a kid, I had a desire to be a fire firefighter. I think a lot of kids do and it's really cool that you can go in there and interact with them and maybe help keep that dream alive a little bit.
 
Ryan Hagans 
You know, was one thing that was interesting. When they were getting this all planned out, you know, they got it. How do how do you get involved in the fire service and Lieutenant d3 That gave a chance to tell his story you know, and what what led him into it? And it was it was it was good to hear it I got to witness his journey also but it was as good hearing his side of it. And as the kids I think really appreciated him sharing his story.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And as picking up kiddos bringing back the front door Fridays we were talking a little bit before we got on here I got to bring in my four year old down there check out the trucks because what a cool way to interact with the department
 
Ryan Hagans 
Yeah, every starting in May through October the third Friday of every month 7pm to 9pm we'll be down in the apparatus Bay down there station one 1507 main doors will be up stop on by this for a quick drop into are we be glad to have anyone everyone come by.
 
James Bell 
Yeah love that. and it is that time of year that you know, the weather's getting nicer school is coming to an end those kiddos is going to be out more and more, aren't they?
 
Ryan Hagans 
Oh, yeah, we just want to monitor but just be paying a little bit more attention. Obviously the weather's turning Nice. Kids are going to be outside riding bikes running down the sidewalks out in the parks. Yeah, we can get to some days the winds not blown, though beyond about even more. This one reminder, buddy, it's that time here. Let's be on the lookout. And it's a crazy thought. But here we are about to wrap up another school year. You know, just be prepared. Once again, graduations are coming up. So we'll see an increase in traffic throughout the community.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And you know, with the weather warming up to people will be out celebrating cooking barbecues and parties and all that as well. Right? That's
 
Ryan Hagans 
right. You know, this is if you haven't already, but a good reminder to make sure that that barbecue grills in good clean working order. Gas Grill, you have no leaks and everything. Just reminded Don't, don't try barbecuing in the garage unless you got some really good ventilation, but it still can build up carbon monoxide. So we want to just want everybody to be safe and have a good time.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And if you're on a road trip, right, you need to be maintained on that vehicle.
 
Ryan Hagans 
Oh, that's that's for sure, too. We don't want to have anybody break down alongside the road. So if you got a good family vacation planned, now's a good time to make sure that vehicle is go get checked over. That way you know your road ready? Absolutely.
 
James Bell 
Already, sir. Well, we've got just about a minute or so left. Any last thoughts where we go?
 
Ryan Hagans 
Yeah, we still have a funny smoke alarms to give away. If you're interested in that program, and to see the qualifications for that. This give us a call at the office at 628730 glad to help you out.

FHSU Music depart wraps semester will final concerts for the year

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Fort Hays State University choirs director Terry Crull shares information about upcoming university concerts.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
For the State University choirs are preparing for their last show of the academic year. Director Terry cruel stops by to share with us a little bit about what they're going to be performing and when, on this episode of the post podcast
 
Terry Crull 
and of the year concerts Yep, we're preparing last night the orchestra and I worked on our last piece. The Hayes Symphony Orchestra is the company my choirs on Frances pool onx Gloria, beautiful setting. And then hey, Symphony Orchestra will play. Very famous piece. Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique are very cool. Yeah, great piece, very picturesque, kind of the start of programmatic music where you tell a story with it, too. So they've been working hard on it. It's a it's a, it's a big bite for them to choose, hey, symphony orchestra, but they're working their tails off. So it should be a fun concert Sunday night 730 and beach Schmidt, free to the public.
 
James Bell 
I love that all of the concerts down there Fort Hays and you see me down there for almost every one I hit drag my kids down there probably two or three. It's such a great assets of the community to have those free concerts. And, you know, while it's not quite could not quite professional level, those students sure get darn close.
 
Terry Crull 
We think we think our kids are on the road to that if that's their career choice. And we hope people will come and hear it and say, Wow, those kids got some stuff going on because they do they work hard. And a lot of talent fun to work with them every day. So
 
James Bell 
yeah, it seems like this year you've had you had a really great group. I mean, every year is good. But this year, I don't know. It seems like there was just really a few field
 
Terry Crull 
trip like two why kind of bonds a group together. So he developed a spirit of esprit de corps that it's really fun to see they're working hard. No complaints in that group hardly ever. I mean. That's that goes to the concert choir and our bands and our jazz groups to Brad just gave his last performance. He's given up the jazz bands, turning them over to our new percussion and band instructor Ryan Pearson. So
 
James Bell 
young guy I don't know, guys
 
Terry Crull 
just out of graduate school. He's been here a year on part time, and now we hired him full time. And his wife was out. They did their joint recital. He's a percussionist, of course, she's a clarinetist. She played amazingly well, too. And I think they bought a house and hey, so hey, they're coming here.
 
James Bell 
They're here. They're stuck. Yeah, very cool.
 
Terry Crull 
Pass the bond issue they'll have a nice new school for when their kids get there. Yeah, well, we'll see how that goes.
 
James Bell 
But But yeah, so suddenly, so is all this piece is going to be set with the orchestra is just
 
Terry Crull 
the orchestra is grand finale concert, and every other year we join them for a combined orchestral work. And the concert is called voyage to France because Hector Berlioz for the orchestra and Francis Poulenc for the choirs, and we did his Gloria wants 10 or 12 years ago, was a guest conductor. Dr. availa Allen or soprano is doing the soul. The soprano solo work three of the six movements. So we'll start off with that plonk, Glory acquires behind the orchestra. And I bail out front and meet conducting. And then after intermission the symphony fantastic. It's 5055 minute work as long five movements but it's great story. If you know that piece. It's about a artist in France who goes into a drug induced trance and has this horrendous dream. When they first played Symphony fantastic. It caused a riot. I mean, they had to bring the police in because they really aren't used to that kind of grotesque in your face music you know, some of the harmonies some of the blasts of sound. The famous DS era that you hear do you do at the beginning of shining Jack Nicholson movie is a is from that work? The big brass sound. So it's a big orchestra, powerful orchestra. And the Poulenc is just sublime. I mean, it's beautiful melodies, great harmonies by the choir, they've had fun working on it. So we're excited. 730 Sunday night, voyage to France, free to the public. Love it. Love it. To the public. Do we say free to the public? Be free to them? Well, I don't know. Yeah. Military. I'm not used to this hour later time I spent the hour calling my 3200 listeners tell them I'm on at 845 instead of 740.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, there's a little bit different but but, you know, I also I wonder I count how much work has to go into put in one of these shows. And, and everybody knows, I think that you know, I was a music student. So I was on the band side. But for choir, you know, of course, the band side there's that little bit of rivalry sometimes Right, like, they have that
 
Terry Crull 
advantage of, you know, being able to pick stuff up more quickly. Although they have the disadvantage of not having all the parts in front of them, I'm singing a choir music, you've got the soprano part there as well as your tenor part or whatever. And when you're a bassoon as long as you have as your part in front of you, so you've got to listen hard and work beforehand to get familiar with the work so that you know how your, your part fits with the other parts. So there is that but yeah, the orchestra has been working, I think six rehearsals for this concert, which isn't very many four pieces complexes of the symphony. Fantastic. We even the choirs have been working while since our spring concert, which was March 10, I believe. So 340 minutes, 45 minute rehearsals a week and and to learn that it's in Latin. So the language presents a challenge, although it's pretty common Latin. So a lot of the kids have some of
 
James Bell 
like any Latin is common lap, rock breaking in Latin
 
Terry Crull 
text. I mean, Gloria in Excelsis day, I mean, every Christmas time. So they haven't had too much trouble with that. Poulenc is a little bit post romantic, a little bit modern, 20th century and that his style is classic in form. But his harmonies are more colorful, and lots of use of the woodwinds and the horns. And that's a great orchestra. They work so well. Brian buxted is our orchestra director, he's done. marvelous job at getting that orchestra, you know, up to snuff, so to speak, and, and playing consistently. Well always enjoyed their concerts. So
 
James Bell 
yeah, and he was I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but he came in right before that pandemic, right. And then
 
Terry Crull 
a lot of big concerts with them. Since he came in right at the end of that, yeah, so this year has been his debut year, I guess you could call it and they've done some great stuff. Of course, they have their children's concert in Halloween. We got that again next year. On Sunday, whatever, October 3 Year 29th, or whatever is close to Halloween. It's always a fun event. There'll be with us under cathedral concert next year, which was December 11. The strings Anyway, do some combined work with the choirs and then they always do their grand finale concert with some large works like this. And then every other year we joined them. So next year, I'll do my own masterworks choral concert with the choirs, and he'll do something with his orchestra. I don't know yet if he's got programming ideas, but for this year, it's voyage to France. Very cool. Again, it's Sunday at 730. Don't miss free,
 
James Bell 
free and free no excuse not to go.
 
Terry Crull 
No excuse not. Yep. NBA Playoffs aren't anywhere close to the end yet. So who's watching those? I didn't even know that was going on. Honestly, other in the early stages, you know, 28 teams that make the playoffs out of 29 teams. Oh, yeah. So yeah. Everybody makes up like not to select. But anyway, I watched when it gets down to the semis. There you go.
 
James Bell 
So well, already. Certainly anything else you think folks need to
 
Terry Crull 
know? Well, the last week of classes, the percussion ensemble will have their concert, and the bands will have their concert? Oh, let me see. What's the date? I think it's Thursday, which would be the 12th nor the fifth. So we exam week. Yeah, that's the last exam. So the fifth will be the band's concert. And I think the night before and Wednesday, the percussion will be in beach Smith. And those are all free as well. So wrapping up the year yeah, kids are excited the ball teams are trying to make the playoffs softball and baseball got a few those kids in my class. I gotta get to here in a few minutes. So it's always exciting at the end of the year when the weather turns nice guy. I wish we had some rain to soak us down a little bit good, but at least it's windy. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, in Kansas with my big motorcycle on the road with those windy. Oh, yeah. So always good to be with you, James. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. So he's kind of like, Hey, we got a contract this week. Can I get on tomorrow or the next day and you always accommodate me. So thanks a lot. I love your music program. I know you're a student there percussionist were Yeah, I was. Yeah. So you enjoy. Did you happen to come down when Ryan gave his faculty recital
 
James Bell 
didn't I was I was wanting to I was so
 
Terry Crull 
remember, he's fun to watch to kind of dances up there. My wife turned to me and said, you know, you could lose some weight. If you were a percussionist. He's going to workout Oh, yeah. So having been an athlete, I know that sometimes. I work just as hard in certain aspects. You know, we'll have conditioning that it didn't was a basketball player. But you work hard when you sing. We could play an instrument because

Extension districts plan tractor safety course

On this episode of the Post Podcast Cottonwood Extension District agent Stacy Campbell shares information about upcoming events.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
The area extension districts are getting ready for wheat feel the plot days cottonwood extension district agent Stacy Campbell stops by to talk to us about that and much more on this episode of the post podcast going on. But we want to talk about this first. We've been talking about this here on the go morning show for the last few weeks. This is the tractor farm safety course. Now this week, we haven't been talking about it because the deadline had come. Yeah, but you say there's a few spots left. You're gonna squeak some more kids. Oh, yeah.
 
Stacy Campbell 
Yeah, we can squeak some more kids in right. We put the deadline was last Friday. But you know, you kind of gotta have a deadline. I mean, we will still take more kids. Yeah. For that we actually call it hazardous occupation, safety training and agriculture. The acronym is hosta. But basically, yeah, tractor farm safety course that extension service offers every year around the state. For youth that are 14 to 15 years of age, if they're going to be working for somebody on a farm, especially other than their parents, or even if their parents I believe are in like a corporation or partnership. by federal law, if they're 14 or 15 years old. They're supposed to take this tractor farm safety course we have at this Saturday in Hill city, I'm going to be going, I am going there to to teach so I can gladly haul any kids that still need to get signed up and go to that. Very cool. And it was if I remember, right, it's like $10. Yeah, it's just $10. Right? In the end, yeah, I actually people's state bank, out of Hoxie is one of our sponsors, so that with them sponsoring, it's help reduce the cost. And then there's a manual that the kids get, actually, it's a big manual on loan that will take back, but they could still get registered, we just encourage them to do that today. Tomorrow, they can call the extension office at 6289430. For that tractor farm safety course this Saturday in Hill city, it is an all day event. And like I say, I'm gonna go so I can gladly haul any kids that that need to go. Very cool. Very cool.
 
James Bell 
But that's just one of the many things you've got going on down there this time of year, right?
 
Stacy Campbell 
Well, yeah, it's kind of always there's always, it's always busy. There's always something going on. Of course, we'll have the fair coming up this summer. And that's already on our books. And we're working on it getting the last of our judges and superintendents and you know, working all the details out on that. But also, we plot field days will be coming up here in May. Our first one is in Barton County on Monday, May the 23rd, starting at 830 in the morning, and the 23rd is a Monday, that's not a good time to be having a field day first thing Monday morning, but that our specialists have those all over the state. So they're quite busy. So I worked with them this year and said, Sure, I'll take Monday, I'll take the the bad day to kind of have a field day on Monday morning. But in Barton County, it's going to be Monday, May 23, at 830. And you know if which of course, I'm sitting here talking to Ellis County, folks, so they're probably not too interested in that one. But the next one is in Ellis County, and it's going to be on Wednesday, June the first. So that's Wednesday, June, the first will be our annual Ellis County wheat demonstration or wheat variety plot field day, it's going to be in the evening at 6pm. We do have it at a different location. It's south and little west of Hayes at mangiare and 230th Avenue. And we're going to kind of do the same thing. We'll have a meal afterwards. So we do ask that you RSVP that's appreciated by Tuesday, May 31. For our wheat Demonstration Field Day on Wednesday, June the first and then our number is 6289430.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Very cool. You know what those wheat field days I imagine a lot of the folks are listening probably either they're their producers, and they already know these events are happening and they're going or they're not. I'm curious, you know, is there is there any benefit for those that aren't maybe producers to check this? So
 
Stacy Campbell 
I mean, it's a good question. Actually. Sometimes we have a landlord's you know, they're not farming the ground and they have it rented out, but sometimes they'd like to come and listen and hear what's going on and, and just kind of visit with other farmers and stuff they know, in all oftentimes, you know, landlords may be in what's called a crop share leasing arrangement with their tenant to where they actually get a percentage of the crop. So it is good for them to try to you know, stay up on things and understand about diseases and insects and, and the new varieties and things like that. So yes, we welcome anybody to come to those to our wheat demonstration plot field days and yeah, sometimes we have landlords come to those. Very cool. Yep. Well,
 
James Bell 
what else could have going on? Well, one of the things I
 
Stacy Campbell 
might mention is just kind of did a newspaper article about it. But unfortunately, since we're, we've been dry and looks like we may continue to stay that away. So quite a few of our farm ponds are getting pretty dry, if not already dried up. So this is a good opportunity to if you need to clean that farm pond out to do that. If it's leaking. I would advise you After you've cleaned it out, or maybe before you clean it out, you could take some soil course around on the pond area about zero to four to six inches down and you can bring those into the extension office, we can send them off to get a soil texture test. And that soil texture test will tell how much clay is in the soil. So if your ponds been leaking, I would advise you to do that. Because if it comes back and it's got close to 30% clay content or higher, you can alter I mean, you can take care of that leaking problem after you've cleaned that pond out by just really really packing it well with what's called a sheep's foot roller. I mean, that's really what needs to happen. So if you've got enough clay in the soil, but the pond is leaking, take a soil texture test, bring it into the extension office, give us a call, we might be able to help you there in that, you know, maybe it's just the deal where you really need to pack it really, really well while it's dry. And then that may take care of any leaking problems. And you don't have to go and try to dig a new pond. And then there's some products you can use to put into the soil, but they get kind of expensive. So that's why I encourage folks to clean out their farm ponds. And then if they're leaking to do a soil texture test, also when you're cleaning them out, sometimes people don't think about that it's very advisable to put that dirt that you're taken out on the backside of the of the dam. Because sometimes you see of just they clean it out and they put it all kind of around the pond. Well, where's it going to ultimately go down the road? Yeah, it's gonna go back in we hard rains and the cattle and stuff. So put it on the back of the dam, okay. Plus your dam usually needs a little extra work and some in some, you know, dirt work and things like that to shore it up. So anyway, if you if you want some more information about that soil texture test for your leaking pond, give us a call at the extension office 6289430 We can gladly send that soil land and do that just recently had somebody do that. It was leaking. We discovered that it had I think exactly 30% CLAY So it was dry. So they got that sheep's foot roller on it and packed it really good. So I'm anxious to see once it fills up if it won't leak anymore. I suspect it won't. Yeah, very cool. Yeah. Yeah.
 
James Bell 
Well already, sir. Well, we got less than a minute left. Any
 
Stacy Campbell 
other last thoughts where we go? I think that's it. Yeah, the tractor farm safety courses this Saturday and Hill city. If you got a kid that's 1415 years old got to be working on a farm they need to take the course they can still get signed up. Just give us a call today at the extension office 6289430 We'll get him signed up. I'm going to it so I'll gladly take any kiddos with

Weekend Setlist April 29, 2022

On this episode of the Weekend Setlist host Jeffery Leiker details events around the Hays area this weekend.

Hays Chamber begins search for next Administrative Assistant

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger, along with vice president of marketing and communication Mariah Leglighter, share information about the search for the Chamber's next administrative assistant.
 
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
 
James Bell 
The Hays chamber is on the hunt for their next administrative assistant from the chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger along with Vice President of Marketing and Communications Mariah Legleiter stops by to talk to us about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Our dear friend Marlis Fletcher, she's our current administrative assistant is taking a position at a chamber member location. So we are actually in the process of looking for a new administrative assistant.
 
James Bell 
Okay, well, I mean, okay, well, this is great. She's amazing. And it says over here, and you guys, there's no replacing her?
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Well, you know, they say everyone's replaceable, she just holds a very special place in our heart. She's literally the glue of our office. And she's that first point of contact when people come visit us at the chamber. So definitely will be difficult to replace her. But we feel like we have a pretty fun team. I mean, I'll say that I brought Mariah so she could actually validate if
 
James Bell 
you're the boss to say like, yeah, we have a great time at work. Everybody loves me.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
I can I paid Mariah extra, she'll say nice things.
 
Mariah Legleiter 
It has been, it has been fantastic. Um, the last, what, five months, six months has been just, it's gone by incredibly fast. I've learned so many new things. And I've just gotten to dip my toes in a lot of different aspects of the community. And I've gotten to talk to a lot of different people and learn new things. And it's just been really fantastic. And, you know, working with Sarah, and working with Rhonda and working with Marlise has just been fantastic, too. I mean, they're fun. I don't think I've had a day that I haven't laughed, probably for half the day. I mean, it's it. Yeah, it's a great environment. And it has been fantastic.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. You know, and I got to imagine much like kind of my job here. It's one of those positions that it changes everyday, it's a little different.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Yes. If you don't like what you're doing just sneeze and you'll be doing something different. Yes. That's for sure. Yeah,
 
Mariah Legleiter 
I would like to say it changes by the day, but sometimes it's by the minute.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Wow. But we get to work with a lot of wonderful people, I think the biggest thing that I wanted to communicate about this position is we are in a very special place in our community that we get to impact a lot of different things by the work that we do. And so it's not just how you get paid by the benefits. But I think internally, the paycheck that you get to sign right at the end of the day for doing things like addressing child care, helping get the school bond passed, all those different things, the work that we get to do on a daily basis, supporting our local businesses, advocating on their behalf, really desperately your bucket.
 
James Bell 
So yeah, and I think you know, especially for young folks, when I say young, I'm thinking younger than us, we're Sarah, we're about same age, Mariah is clearly younger than
 
Sarah Wasinger 
obviously, she has less wrinkles.
 
James Bell 
But for younger folks, it's a lot of it's about that it's about the difference you can make in the community paychecks are great, and everybody you know, at the end of the day, has to make money to live. But you know that that sense of belonging that the ability to make a difference is tremendous.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Absolutely. So I just wanted to kind of point that out. Um, you know, we did talk about Marlis being the glue for our team. And that's very much true, I'm just kind of wanted to give a glimpse as to what maybe the average day looks like. So obviously, you're the first point of contact when coming into the office. Um, she Marlise currently does a wonderful job answering the phones. So this person would help be that first point of contact, we have chamber checks, of course, and this position would kind of manage that program, and assist in doing the bulk of processing those orders for folks, when they come in. We do have a software called chamber master. It's kind of our database that we use to track our Chamber members, excuse me, I've got a frog in my throat this morning, that they would be taught how to utilize that system to kind of keep track of different events and things of that nature. Obviously, we're very event driven at the Chamber, because about 45% of our total budget comes from the income that we earn from those events. So they would definitely help us assist and organize and coordinate those things that we have going on. Whether it be an appreciation and appreciation the banquet, so and then of course our regular events that we have to like chamber chats, ribbon cutting and some membership lunches, they'll help get those things on the calendar for us and make sure that we're not overlooking any important details.
 
Mariah Legleiter 
Yeah, we, um, you know, working working at the Chamber has been really fun. And being able to work with Marla. She's been really organized and really great. And I feel like that's also something that that's really important to this role is just being really organized and being able to keep us kind of organized and help With our calendars and just kind of do those, those things for us and keep us on our toes as well,
 
Sarah Wasinger 
yeah, someone who's an effective communicator and fearful of a fast paced work environment would definitely probably thrive in this position. So,
 
James Bell 
and correct me if I'm wrong, too. But we have we, as I've watched the you fill positions like Moriah, here over the last few years, the job is kind of also tailored to the individual, right? Because it's a small team, there's only the four of you folks down there. So it kind of builds around that skill set that they might bring in, right?
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Absolutely, we definitely want to make sure that people are fulfilling their purpose. I'm at the chamber. So we had this defined set of job descriptions. But if there's a passion that someone brings to the table that maybe we haven't considered or done before, and they're going to be a part of that team, they're going to be given the opportunity to give feedback to help really guide and mold the purpose of our direction going forward. Okay, cool.
 
James Bell 
Well, we got to probably talk about some of the specifics here, because it is pretty, some pretty good list of benefits that come with this job.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Absolutely. So some of my favorite things are, you know, we pay full coverage for a single person's insurance. So that definitely is a strong benefit right now, because the cost of health care is significant. And we also have the 3% retirement contribution match. And one of my favorite things is a flexible work schedule. Mariah, you're a young mama, do you want to talk a little bit about that.
 
Mariah Legleiter 
So we actually open at 730 Every morning, but I can't drop off my kid at school until 730. So they've been really, really great about working around that schedule. I'm able to drop Olivia off and then go straight to work. And I mean, it's been seamless, like it's just worked out really, really well. And yeah, we, anytime Olivia Has anything at school, or if there's something in the community that we need to go do, as long as you know, we're communicating with each other. And that comes back to that good communication. As long as we're doing that, then we make it work. And it's very flexible. It's been really fun.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Work life balance is a very important thing that I always want to provide for my team. Because I feel that the more that you can take advantage of enjoying your family, the better position that you are to be effective at work. So that's definitely something that we've tried to champion over the past couple of years. Another thing that is wonderful too, speaking of family time is our paid holidays off. We have New Year's Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, the day after Thanksgiving. So if you want to shop local, you can do. And then hint hint, wink wink there. And then also Christmas Eve New Year's Day, we actually get that full kind of week and a half off, and from our chamber board of directors. So we also accrue sick leave on a regular basis. And after six months of consecutive employment, you earn one week of paid time off. And after one year, you get two weeks of paid time off. And then of course every year after that, I think five years you get to move up. But that's definitely something wonderful just so you can have that work life balance. Like I said, it's really nice to be able to enjoy the time away with your family, and then be refreshed and come back ready to work.
 
Mariah Legleiter 
And I know that you know, talking about the week off, um, that was super, super helpful for us. Because then you only had to find one week while the kids are out of school for Christmas break. You only had to find one week of childcare versus two weeks of childcare or we can you know, two and a half weeks. And it just made everything run so much smoother. Oh, I bet yeah.
 
James Bell 
One thing we hear it's Oh,
 
Sarah Wasinger 
yeah, we're working on an issue. The biggest thing I would take away though, too, that surprised me I think the most about this job is really the friendships that you make, and the connections that you make that are truly lasting. And I've met some of the most wonderful people that I've ever met in my entire life just by working at the chamber. And so getting to work side by side with people who are like minded and want to make a difference in our community has been so empowering and just a blessing really,
 
James Bell 
very cool. Now, before we run out of time, we should probably tell people, you know, if they're interested how they can apply for the position.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Absolutely. Thank you for nice segue there, James. So they can call the chamber office that 785-628-8201 If they want to ask specific questions, we would request that folks who are interested that they email, Hey, CeCe at Hayes chamber.com with a resume and a cover letter. And then we're asking for at least three references, not reference letters, we would be happy to call and get the references from those folks over the phone. But yeah, the information can be found on our chamber website at Hayes chamber.com/news-announcements. Very
 
James Bell 
cool. And while you're there, check out all the events you guys got going on this week because you do have a lot going on, right?
 
Mariah Legleiter 
Oh, yeah, we do. So tomorrow, April 27. At 4:30pm There's an H yp MDC meeting at defiance the downtown location on Thursday, April 28 at noon, the is going to be a ribbon cutting for the Kiwanis Club at the Welcome Center. If you RSVP to Sarah at Hayes chamber.com There is going to be a lunch served for that one, but we need a headcount to let everybody know or to know how much food to make. Also on Thursday at 5:30pm, the H yp is having an X yp event at Siena's massage, education and retail at 106 West wealth. Alyssa Owens is going to be talking about self care. Friday, April 29. At 9am. There's going to be a chamber chat for the TMP Marian ace auction at 1701 hole Street,
 
Sarah Wasinger 
and that is one of their biggest fundraisers for the year and talking about the importance of quality schools and the facilities that we have a wonderful opportunity to support them and all the good work that they do to educate our area's children. Absolutely.
 
Mariah Legleiter 
Yeah. And after the chamber chat on Friday, April 29. Well, during the chamber chat at 930 will have the Dale Carnegie self awareness, insights on personal leadership and workshop at the Rose Garden banquet hall and catering 2350 East eighth and Friday, April 29. At noon, we will have our monthly membership luncheon at the Rose Garden banquet hall and catering at 2350 East eighth.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
And one final plug tomorrow is administrative professional state. So if you have an administrative professional like our Marlis Marlis if you're listening we love you and thank you. Please make sure that you thank them for everything that they do to support your organization your business