The Post Podcast

Weekend Setlist Nov. 26, 2021

On this week's Weekend Setlist host Jeffery Leiker checks in with Santa and his plan in the area.

Forward Ever: Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times, host Gary Shorman speaks with Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Small steps keep food safe during Thanksgiving holiday

On this episode of the Post Podcast Fort Hays State University's Glen McNeil stops by to talk about cooking and eating a safe Thanksgiving meal.
 
Transcript
James Bell 
Small steps can help keep food safe during the holiday weekend, Glen McNeil, from Fort Hays State University stops by to talk to us about that on his nutrition health and wellness segment on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Glen McNeil 
We are a social people, you know, they call social animals we are because we like to get together. And one of the things that generally happens when we get together is food. Because food shows comfort, it shows love, it shows respect, you know, it shows that we like and enjoy the people we're around. So we offer them something, and then that encourages them to stay for longer periods of time. And, and visit and so you know, we have a lot of food and holidays and, and a lot is what tends to be there and it tends to be around quite a bit. And since you know we're off, so to say work, or we're with family, we tend to spend a lot more time sitting in the same locale. And that's when we find more snacking going on. And a lot of times, especially when you look at Thanksgiving, somebody does a really good job on making a particular order or a particular dessert or whatever that that food item it is. And we as individuals feel whether we acknowledge it or not, we feel a little bit of responsibility to eat something of everything. Now, except me, I don't eat sweet potatoes. So I don't like sweet potatoes. So how can you not okay, well, we'll talk that would be a whole two or three days.
 
James Bell 
We got to know the story behind that.
 
Glen McNeil 
Well, they're good for you. Okay, we're good for well, they're good for you in the fact of like any potato, they're good for you if you just eat the potato. But when you put all those other toppings and sweets and marshmallows and brown sugar, you sort of take away the good from it, and they're good source of vitamin A good, they're good source of beta carotene if you skins are a good source of fiber. So you know all of that I know that I just don't really like sweep. So okay, why do you do that? And I guess that's true. I tell my wife that. So she makes it every year. And they she says they're good. So I'll buy into that. But in other words, we we feel a responsibility to eat something that people repair to show that. Oh, well, thank you for bringing it. Yes, it's, it's good. Yes, I respond to the love and time you put into that food product. And so at Thanksgiving, of course, you know, it's traditional Turkey in a traditional meal. So first thing is, if you have not yet been to Turkey, good luck. Okay, they're tough to get right now the stores have them. Prices are up a little bit. We haven't seen any of these fantastic Turkey sales we've seen in the past, but kind of like everything else that's going on right now. It's tough to get items and products like that. So if you haven't watched turkey for, you know, a week from in essence a week from today, probably got to get your shopping done, okay to do that. And then if you're going to cook your turkey, next Thursday, take it home and put it in the refrigerator. Okay, don't put it in the freezer, it's gonna take a while for that to thaw out. Right. And we usually say about seven days, okay. And depending upon the size of the bird, you know, if you get a, if you get a, you know, a 15 to 20 pound bird, it's probably gonna take about seven days, in the average refrigerator, when you put it in the refrigerator, put it on a pan, put it on the bottom shelf. Okay, make sure there's no raw food product or anything below it, just in case those juices would have to spill over the pant would spill over the pan a little bit because like any poultry, you have the concern of salmonella, okay. But they're usually you know, in a plastic case or whatever. And part of the reason it takes so long for them thaw out, they're big. They're frozen all the way through, and you leave them encased in that wrapping. Okay, you don't want to unwrap it and put it in the refrigerator laying out, you leave it in case in the wrapping. So that kind of traps some of that cold in there in that process. So give it a good, I mean, now's a good time to put it in there. Give it seven days or so to thaw out. And if your refrigerator is not one that gets opened frequently, it may take a little longer than the recommended time that's on the turkey or the information because the temperature of the refrigerator doesn't go up and down very much. Terry and I learned that a few years ago with the kids all gone. You know the refrigerator doesn't get open as much as it used to. So it takes an extra day or two for our turkey to thaw out. So ours is sitting in the refrigerator now getting ready for we're going to host it next weekend. So we're giving it about 10 days to get good and thought out and you're okay so long as it sits in there and thaws. Depending upon how you're going to cook it then that that has an effect to the popular method these days is deep frying your turkey. Biggest key when you deep fry that Turkey is make sure it's completely thawede out. Okay, there's no water and there's no ice crystals. Ttapped in the cavity of that Turkey, because if there are, you're going to get a, not just a foaming of that oil, when you put it in there, you're gonna, you're gonna get a little pop that goes a big pop that goes along with it. And that the immediate thaw of that moisture coming out through the cavity where the neck is causes that oil to shoot up. Okay, and so it's very dangerous process. So it's a good idea to make sure it's really thought out, you know, open the cavity, take the giblets out of there, there in the giblets and make sure the cavity is somewhat dry and thought out on the inside. If your bird is not completely thought out, okay, you can thaw it out under running water, don't put it on the counter, you can use a microwave. I've never been real fond of, of using the microwave to thought that big of an item. Okay, in terms of that, but she thought under cold running water, you don't throw it under hot water, because that causes part of the bird to come up to a warmer temperature. And if there's bacteria present, it may allow some minor growth there. So you just put it in a pan big enough that it can stay submerged in, let the turn the faucet on cold and get it full, get that pan full, and then turn it down to just a little bit of a dribble so that the water continually runs off of it. And you'll find that it will fall very quickly. You know that that water is considerably warmer, it's cool to the touch, but it's considerably warmer than the bird. And so that will thaw your bird out relatively quickly. Okay, I mean, it's not super fast and don't use hot water. Okay, from from that process, and then it comes down to how you're going to cook it, whether you're going to smoke it, you're going to barbecue it, you're going to bake it in the oven, you're going to defend fry it, you know, I don't know whether never I've never thought about air frying, full size Turkey, but I suppose you could do it these days? Probably a little bit, it's probably a little bit big and thick. To actually air fry, you could use your air fryer, I suppose if your oven has an air fryer in it, you could use it to crisp the outside of the turkey. Okay, I don't know, I have not researched that part hadn't thought about that. And the other reason that brought up is we just our oven of 30 some years died. Oh, so we had to replace it here. And we got one with an air fryer in it. And you know, I hadn't thought about that. But you know, we're usually not big on that. If you do not have a $2 stick thermometer, go by. Right it is worth it. And it'll tell you I'm not going to say temperature. What I'm going to say is right on that thermometer, it's going to say Turkey. Okay, you cook it until it reaches turkey. Alright, until you reach that point get out. If you buy one that has one of those pop up thermometers in it. You know, the little pop up stick thermometer is when the birds done it, it pops up. I still say go get you a stick thermometer. And it's a you know, they're about five inches long with a dial on the end. And don't do not I had a friend of mine one time called me says Glenn I went out bought one of those thermometers, but it's just I don't understand it, it melted in the oven. Well said they're not designed to be used some of them. That's a pretty special thermometer, not the $2 one not to $2 one and he said oh, okay, but you know, put it in, I usually encourage people to put a right in the center of the breast, okay, and the largest part of the meat, make sure that that is up to temperature. When you take that bird out of the oven or out of the fryer or whatever, let's meet continues to cook for approximately five minutes, the temperature will continue to rise for approximately five minutes after you take it out. Now you can take it out and what I think is good, you take it out, you cover it with some aluminum foil, and you put a towel on top of it and you just let it sit there on the pan for about five minutes. So many people take it out of the oven set on the table and slice it right away. Wow, look at the juices run that's going to be so good. And then what they find out is it sits there for a while it gets dry. Okay, well, the meat, the protein that cooks when you cook protein, meat butter is forced out of it. And then when you let it sit and as the temperature starts to drop, some of that water is pulled back in. So then when you slice it after about five minutes, yes, you're still gonna see some of the juices run. But your meats gonna be more tender, it's gonna be juicy from that standpoint so that that's a good process. Recommendations these days if you're going to stuff your turkey you know whether you make your stuffing or you use stovetop or whatever it is you do, smart thing to do is cook the turkey when it's nearly done, okay stuff or wait until it's done and then put the stuffing in it and let it sit in there for that five minutes or so and absorb some of that taste. Problem is that sometimes in the cavity especially the bigger birds, the as The juices cook out of the turkey during during the heat process, they get absorbed by the stuffing, sometimes that stuffing doesn't reach 165 degrees. So you have a little bit of an issue there. So that you know, just the safe thing is to fix your stuffing separately. And then stuff your bird if you want, but most people I know now just make a pan of stuffing and put it on the table. You know, and of all things left over after Thanksgiving.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, yeah, I mean, who doesn't?
 
Glen McNeil 
Well, some people,
 
James Bell 
I well, I don't want to associate with them. People I'm sorry. I'm sorry, folks,
 
Glen McNeil 
Kind of like sweet potatoes. Some people don't like stuffing, you know, leftover stuffing. So you know, if you're going to do that make your bird so you know, you can display it. And it looks really good in terms of that process in which you're going to do. So we've got turkey and we've got stuffing and then you know, cranberry sauce, if you really, if you want to go along with it, you know make it and some people make their own cranberry sauce or they buy real cranberry sauce or, you know what's popular is the jelly cranberry sauce and they can that's the good stuff. That's the good stuff. You know why it's the good stuff. For sugar? Yeah, there we go. So that's, that's one of those things you want to be a little bit careful with about how much you're going to consume as a commercial product, it does have some more sugar in it. And whether you do mashed potatoes or twice baked potatoes, or just plain baked potatoes, you know, that's that's up to you and how you fix them and fresh and to get the most nutritional value out of your potatoes leave the skins on. Now a lot of people don't like mashed potatoes with the skins on him. But you know, that's the the fiber component component of the potato, that's also the little little piece in there between the skin and the potato itself where the true nutritional value is. And, and I understand that, I mean, I like my mashed potatoes to be real fluffy and soft. And you kind of don't get that if you leave the skins on that process. But I know some people who basically bake their potatoes first, and then peel the skins off and make mashed potatoes that way gives a different tastes a little bit different texture, and then they fry the skins and eat the skins later, you know, as a snack later in the day. So there's a lot of things that you can do. Remember, the two hour rule, okay, from the time you put it out, two hours needs to be after that two hour time period, it needs to be broken down into smaller portions put in the refrigerator or the freezer, you know, because the longer you leave it out there past that two hour time period, the longer it's in that danger zone that 40 to 140 Danger Zone for bacterial growth. And that's true as appetizers you set out ahead of time. You know, if you set things out ahead of time, like you know, we like to put cheese and crackers and vegetables and dip out kind of the first thing in the morning. So those things to snack on, you know, while you're fixing the dinner and everybody's The kitchen is the center place because everybody's around the food the kitchen in the dining room, you know, so we have those kinds of snacks out you just want to be careful that you don't leave them out too long. I know it's it's it's tough to throw food away. So you always kind of need to watch the times a little bit and and some things that are smoked or fermented you know, can last a little longer because they're in essence they have enough preservatives in them but I always remind people that the two hour time limit you know just when you get past that that's the real safe side can go somewhat past that but usually with a and especially with colds and flues on the way up COVID still around. The fact is you don't want to leave all that food out exposed so people can read on it. It's gonna happen you know, and hopefully nobody gets sick but but you want to do that. What else we need?
 
James Bell 
I think that's it.
 
Glen McNeil 
You're quiet today.
 
James Bell 
Well, your have given us so much good information. I keep writing notes. I notice that you're just checking them off as I'm I don't even have to ask your just on it.
 
Glen McNeil 
Desserts. You know, whatever your favorite dessert is. Mine's called butter finger dessert and it's made with pool whip and ice cream mixed together pushed, put on a graham cracker crumb crust, and then cooled it put on top and then crushed Butterfinger candy bars put all over it.
 
James Bell 
I'd never heard of that. I would eat that.
 
Glen McNeil 
My mother in law made makes it all the time. And my wife makes it and I just think it's.  Pumpkin pie is okay, I like pumpkin pie tube of Oh yeah, it's got French vanilla pudding in it too. Okay, so by the time you're all done, and you get all that together, I really don't mind if nobody else eats any of it because it's really good in the refrigerator for three, four or five days, you know as the flavors plan but that's that's my favorite but we always have pumpkin pie and we have like a fruit pie and apple pie or a cherry pie that that goes along with it. And so you you know if you spend the time to bake them yourself. You can do those things ahead of time. Do what you can ahead of time so the The person in the kitchen also has the time to interact with everybody else. You know, that's, that's a key don't don't lock somebody away in the kitchen. But some, some people want to be, you know that, that their this is their meal to fix yeah playing the role of the host. And yeah, you know, this, this is their meal to fix this is in our house, this is my wife's meal to take care of, I can help if she wants me to go get something or peel some this or peel some of that, but, but she's in charge in charge of the meal and the food because that's something that, you know, this she likes to do now when it comes to Christmas, and we're doing primary ever ham or something like that. And that's my part. Besides we don't get along in the kitchen, you can believe that. She does things her way. And I do things my way, which we've just learned, you know, from that, so we get along pretty good. And I will admit, she's a better baker. Much better. I'd rather eat her cookies and pies and cakes than mine.
 
James Bell 
Nice.
 
Glen McNeil 
So you know, a selection of variety of foods and desserts and what goes on the probably one of the biggest things is just watch how much you eat. Remember, the key one of the keys is, the smaller the plate you use, the fuller, it looks with smaller portions, right. So if you're trying to moderate that, always think of it in this way, I'm going to take a small portion, because I can always take more, there's plenty there, I don't need to fill my plate up here, you know, and really do this, what I can do is I can have a small portion, I can leave a little bit of everything I want. And then I can go back and have more of the things that that I really want, what we run into so often holiday times is is is people lose the awareness of what they're eating, there's, you know, so much communication, people who see having a good time, we just don't think about how long we've been snacking, how many times we've dipped into the dressing, or you know, the the sauce that goes along with the chips that are out there, or how many different types of cheese and sausage we've had with the four different types of crackers that are sitting there before and after the meal, you know, all of that thing, we tend to get lost in it and, and that's really that's good for us to get lost. You know that social aspect is good. But you need to have a little bit of awareness and spread out your your food intake during the day, you know, you're going to eat a big meal. It's just hard to do with all that food sitting around. It's not do that. But then you also know that there's going to be things brought out for the afternoon while you're around. Okay, and then there's going to be that evening meal that comes back. And for many people, it's tricky. You know, okay, well that's okay, so long as when you're done with lunch, you get that turkey broken down into smaller packages, put it in the refrigerator, so it can cool. And then when you pull it out in the evening, it's safe to, to eat from that standpoint. So you know, you that's that's what you do in that process is be able to do those things. And a lot of people say that, you know, the best part of Thanksgiving is two three days afterwards.
 
James Bell 
That's when my wife is she cooks way so much to eat way too much food just so we have it or so she can have it.
 
Glen McNeil 
Well yeah, you can eat it after break it down into small meals, you know, and just watches things cool, cool things in your refrigerator properly, don't leave things sitting out. That's what you really want to be careful of, you know, you want to think of the meal and at the same time, you want to think of what what's going to happen the next few days or time period where you're going to eat all those leftover foods and enjoy it. I mean, that's that's pretty much what we want to do. Especially the way things have been the past few years, make your favorite foods, take your favorite foods along with you snack just be careful. And it's a good idea for the afternoon while you're watching football and you're doing all those things and you have those chips and depths and vegetables and all of those things set out have small plates for people to use. That will help them eat less than if they just go and dip
 
James Bell 
Then you end up just standing there right watching.
 
Glen McNeil 
So you put it on a plate then you move. People tend when they put it on a small plate like that they tend to move away from the food and then he eat what's on their plate now maybe they go back but there's less likelihood that they will consume more so you can help your guests you know in in terms of that.

Chamber Cheques help keep gifts local

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays Chamber administrative assistant Marlis Fletcher and Nathan Rohr, from Rohr's Carpet Cleaning talk about Chamber Cheques.
 
Transcript
James Bell  Chamber checks from the Hays Chamber can make an excellent gift to keep your money, local administrative assistant, Marlis Fletcher stops by to talk to us about that in more on this episode of the post podcast, and I'm got a special guest with us today. I'm excited to see him as well. I'll let you introduce your friend here.
Marlis Fletcher  So this is Nathan Rohr. And he is owner of Rohr Carpet and Sales. And he's going to talk to us a little bit about what they have to offer.
James Bell  Very cool, very cool. I'm excited to get into that. So, you know, we were talking a little bit before we got on air carpet cleaning, obviously is a some that I'm interested in, which is weird, but we'll talk more about that. But first, before we get there. One of the things we're gonna talk about right now a moralists is shopping local. How important is this time of year, especially in Ellis County?
Marlis Fletcher  You know, our businesses depend on us to shop local, we want to thrive in this town. And so, and we want our businesses to thrive. So let's keep them around and let shop local. And a good way to do that is come to the chamber and see us and buy chamber checks. Yes. Okay.
James Bell  So we're going to talk about these chamber checks. We've talked about them in the past, but in case somebody is listening, like wait a minute, I don't know what this is, I've heard the term, maybe you want to tell us a little bit about what these things actually are.
Marlis Fletcher  So they look kind of like a check. They come in 45, $10 and $25 increments. They spend it any chamber member business just like a checker like cash. If you buy $199 or less, there's a $1 fee. If you buy $200 or more in chamber checks, there is a $5 fee. They come with an envelope with a wire in it to tell you a lot of the businesses where you can spend that money. So we try to make it really easy and really nice. And that way you can give a gift and you don't have to pick something out for somebody that they have to take back you can just give them the gift and they can shop local and spend keep the money in a nice
James Bell  Yeah, I love that. And you know, unlike any other thing you might do if you get a gift card to a restaurant, you know, chain restaurant at one of the big stores here or if you buy some online. That's great. But I mean as a gift, but also not local this way, it's it's guaranteed to stay right here in the community.
Marlis Fletcher  It's guaranteed and you're not stuck at one. Like if you go buy a gift certificate to a certain restaurant, not that that's not a great thing if it's in haste. But this you can go to like a number of businesses and spend that money. You're not tied to just one certain business.
James Bell  Yeah.  I know Sarah has told me in the past how many members you guys have, but it's a lot. You know?
Marlis Fletcher  It's around 500. Yeah. Okay. A little bit over 500. 
James Bell  So you got some options to spend this chamber check you do. That's incredible. It blows my It blows my mind. I think the first time she told me that I was like, what? How are there even 500 businesses in Ellis County, let alone over me and Chamber members. I love it. One of those Chamber members that we're going to talk to here is is Nathan right.
Nathan Rohr  Yeah, thanks for having me.
James Bell  So chamber checks, like, you know, you guys would have to take them but I guess the question is like, what what would you what would you use a chamber check for it roars carpet cleaning.
Nathan Rohr  So we offer a lot of services. The first thing with the holidays coming around is we're offering 10% off gift certificates. So if you want to give the gift of a clean house for any family member or friends, you can come down to our store and we can give you a gift certificate and you get 10% off. You could use a chamber check for those. We are offering air duct cleaning specials, a new service we added an epoxy specials for epoxy floors. And of course we do our carpet cleaning and carpet sales that you could use the the chamber checks on for two.
James Bell  Very cool what's in it? What's an epoxy floor? Um, yeah, that far out of the trends. I don't know what that is.
Nathan Rohr  Yeah, so they're pretty new. You can do a lot of different things with them. You got your flake epoxies quartz, metallic floors. They're getting very popular. You're seeing them in some of the restaurant bathrooms. We've done a few garages, a few porches. They're pretty new, and they look really really cool when they're done. So you
Marlis Fletcher  Can use those indoor or outdoor? 
Nathan Rohr  Yes, you just got to watch what type of epoxy you're buying them make sure that you're getting the UV resistance. The help that way it's not fading.
Marlis Fletcher  So if I want to come down there and I want to look and see what different kinds of epoxy floors Do you have samples I can look at.
Nathan Rohr  Yeah, so at our showroom at 722 E 7th I have a whole show room where we have it all broke down into our luxury vinyl plank flooring, our carpet sales, our epoxy flooring. And then we also have some deodorizers and different cleaners if you're wanting just a basic cleaner for your home on your carpets or hard surface flooring.
James Bell  Very cool. You know and as we were talking a little bit before on air, you know what I think with your new With your basic service, your carpet cleaning service. But the time you know for most folks, you get the machine and the chemicals. And then you got to move furniture and do all that work you what you guys offer and I don't want to throw prices out there for him. But what you guys offer he, to me, it seems like almost a better deal. It's cheaper when you factor in all that other stuff to have a professional do it. And it's gonna do a better job. Oh, well, you're telling me right?
Nathan Rohr  Yeah. So I always tell my customers you pay for what you get. You know, there's nothing wrong with using a Rug Doctor, but it's not gonna be a deep clean. Yeah, there's my system quick like
James Bell  In between maybe like, if you're if you guys come out once a year, you do the Rug Doctor thing every six months or so. Right?
Nathan Rohr  Yeah. So if you actually look into your carpet manufacturer, when you buy new carpet, it's recommended that the carpets cleaned every 12 to 24 months. So and everybody does that, right? Yes, everybody. And actually, when you buy carpet from us, we give the first carpet cleaning for free, you just have to use it within that period to help keep your manufacturer's warranty. And our carpet cleaning machines get up to 200 degrees. So compared to when you were in a rug, doctor, you're not going to get near as hot water, so you get a better sanitizing effect out of your cleaning.
James Bell  If it's relatively quick to you guys, I think go into a house and you're there for a couple hours maybe?
Nathan Rohr  Yeah, I mean, depending on the size of the house, it usually if it's just a few rooms, you know where something we can do in the morning compared to a whole house may take us till you know, three quarters of a day or depending on the house, it may take us all day. But if you call me I can definitely you know talk about it. The other thing is we also have fans available to rent. So if you're worried about slow drying, I do run out my turbo fans to help speed up the drying process.
Marlis Fletcher  Very cool. Very good. Thank James You don't have to haul it to your house and then holla back.
James Bell  Yeah, really that's that's where it comes in. You know, for for some folks. I'm sure it makes sense. And maybe some folks do like doing it. But that's really where the value comes in is the time because you're doing that on your own. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, it could. You're talking about half a day, three quarters of a day. It will take me a full weekend. Yeah, doubt.
Nathan Rohr  Yep. Well, we definitely have the equipment that we're set up, you know, where we can go in and do a job, click quickly but efficiently and make sure that your carpets look great when they're done.
James Bell  Very cool. Okay, well, guys, we've got just another minute or two left. I don't know any last thoughts. Marlis. Do I know I know. There's no real events going on this week because of the holiday now at the chamber. 
Marlis Fletcher  So yes, and we're actually close Thursday and Friday, but we'll be back on Monday and we'll be there tomorrow too. So we'll be here today and tomorrow. We're closed Thursday and Friday and back on Monday. So come by some chamber checks.

USD 489 Board of Education recap: Nov. 22, 2021

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays Post reporter Cristina Janney recaps this week's USD 489 Board of Education meeting with superintendent Ron Wilson.
 
Transcript
James Bell  USD 489 will soon be soliciting feedback from the community for an upcoming a bond issue campaign. Hays Post reporter Christina Janney speaks with USD 489. Superintendent Ron Wilson about that and more as they recap this week's Board of Education meeting on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Cristina Janney  Well, one of the things that was discussed last night that's been kind of hovering around Headstart for a while, is the federal mat vaccine mandate. The board finally approved a policy that was going to give guidance to those employees. You want to tell our listeners a little bit about that? You bet,
Ron Wilson  Christina. You know, I think it was back in September where we, we received a letter from the Office of Headstart and this only applies to our all our employees' audit. This does not apply to all of our USD 49 employees who work in other buildings, but the office of a headstart is requiring that all of their employees get vaccinated by January 1. And so we have been working since September to try to put together, some guidance for employees on how best to handle this. And so Donna Hudson-Hamilton, who is the director of ECC, along with her team spent a considerable amount of time putting together a policy just to help navigate this kind of uncharted territory for us in terms of staph vaccinations. And I think what they did was they put together a policy that gives everyone opportunities to, you know, do what they feel is best for them. And so we are requiring vaccinations However, within that policy, we are all also offering a medical exemption or a religious exemption, should they choose not to get the vaccination. So I guess all in all, it's it's a good thing. It's like I said, this is something we've not dealt with, as a school district. It's not what was approved last night is not a board policy that will continue for district employees, but it will continue for the ECC employees, as long as this mandate is in place by the Office of Head Start.
Cristina Janney  And Donna Hudson-Hamilton, who is the director of early childhood connections, who this is affecting, said about there's about 90 employees that the mandate will affect in the number of roughly fit for about half of those have received all vaccinations at this point.
Ron Wilson  Yes, that's the information that we've received. You know, going forward, we anticipate there could be some that choose to get the vaccination or we hope that those that don't will file exemptions, either religious or medical, and will be able to go forward and continue as is.
Cristina Janney  And it's also my understanding that there will be no test-out option for anyone who is not vaccinated. You're either vaccinated or you're you have filed for an exemption.
Ron Wilson  Yeah, that's that. And that, once again, that is not a district policy. That is what the office of Headstart has indicated for their employees. And so it's kind of a unique situation because we do employ every as a district, USD 489 does employ these DCF employees. But the funding comes from the federal division to help support the Early Childhood Development Center.
Cristina Janney  So will employees who do not wish to comply with the vaccine mandate? Will they have any opportunity to be reassigned elsewhere in the district?
Ron Wilson  You bet we have, we've made it a statement to all the employees out there that we're going to work with everyone, should someone not meet the exemption list, we'll we'll try to find the spot within our district that that maybe they can work and not have to have a vaccination. So we're gonna do everything we can to keep employees working. And that's that is a priority for us. And it's a priority to have our full staff out at ECC.
Cristina Janney  If you want to read more about this. There's a story up on the Hays Post this morning about that. Moving on, I think there is another important thing that the board discussed last night, and that was a survey being released to the general public about some possible bond options. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about that?
Yeah, I mean, we're we're getting into a little more in depth in terms of what we're looking for. out as far as scopes of work for, for the bond issue, and once again, we're just looking for feet more feedback. As we move forward throughout this process, we have spent considerable time working with the community group that has met since the summer, about once or twice a month on, depending on what month it is. We've met with educators many times throughout the same period as the administrative group. And we've, we're really, we've worked so hard to try and whittle down and build this scope of work, which we feel are our most important needs in the district. And so now, what we're asked we're going to do is we're going to put it together this survey, and we're going to get it out in into our community. And so we'll be sending that out here, the first of December, we just appreciate everyone's feedback, of course, also won't be just a survey of as the only feedback opportunity or first event for the community to start commenting and giving us feedback, we'll start December 15. That will be at Rockwell Administration Center on December 15. And that will take place in the auditorium. And I think it'll be a great opportunity just for everyone to look and kind of get an idea and ask some questions if they do.
Well, nothing definite has been decided on any scope or any specifics. But do you want to talk a little bit about some of the options that will be discussed in that survey?
Sure. What many options and just like you said, none of the options are what we know was going to happen, we have just listed about seven options. And I don't know if I'll be able to pick all of them off the top of my head. But all of the options are just themes that have risen to the top. As we have progressed since starting this back in June. And working with the community, the educator group and the administrator group, these are there are certain themes that have risen. Of course, one of the options as we've that has risen to the top is that Lincoln Elementary is a school that's 100 years old, has a lot of needs and how we can move forward without Lincoln as one of our schools. So we're looking at possibly that as that could be an option to close Lincoln Elementary. We've we've talked about re-purchasing Hays Middle into an elementary school, and looking at how we could move students into there. And then possibly in a combination of, of even maybe looking at how we could move Hays metal, whether it's moving them out to Hays High School and looking at a new high school or building a new middle school and repurposing. You know that Hays High for some for some future needs. So lots of different options. Another option that is out there. Of course, Wilson Elementary is a great school. The one thing that if you look at our facility score scorecard of the school's Wilson Elementary, as far as educational scoring, it scores low. And it's basically because of space Wilson is a very small school, it would take a considerable amount of money to add space. And so there is a thought that maybe we could move Wilson and Lincoln students into the middle school, and then figure out what we can do with the middle school because of course, the middle school is our is a nemesis in itself because we're just squeezed at the middle school. And we definitely need more space at the middle school. So it's a combination of a lot of different things. We're just we're asking for feedback. And what we still don't know what's going to happen or what's going to be what would be brought to the board for consideration. But we're this is just the process and just throwing a lot of ideas out and some of them will stick and some of them won't.
Cristina Janney  Yes, and that's going to be available sent out to parents through your online alert system is going to be available on social media is going to be available on the district website online. So it's not just parents or teachers that get to take this survey. It's anybody in the community.
Ron Wilson  Yes, we want to give the opportunity for everyone to comment and give feedback. And so yes, if you like I said last night at the board meeting, if you have any type of social media, you will have the opportunity to see this, this survey.
Cristina Janney  Run. Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about in terms of the bond issue right now?
Ron Wilson  Well, I think the thing is from a bond perspective, you know, I, I feel really good about where we're at. I think it's it's been obvious that there's been a lot of support for, for, you know, a need to support the bond. It's been 30 years since Hays has passed a bond issue. I, one of the things that I do want to highlight is last, at last night's board meeting, we spent quite a considerable amount of time talking about some of the great achievements going on academically and within our district. And it's just, it is amazing how we're doing this with really a very condensed space, and we're packing kids in and we're really not we don't have opportunities to do some of the things that we really feel would be beneficial to student achievement. And so I think it just be another piece where we could just push our district further moving them to greatness.

Hays Chamber working to find solutions to lack of child care in Ellis County

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger speaks about the new Childcare Taskforce for Ellis County.
 
Transcript
Sarah Wasinger 
We have a very important community topic that keeps circulating. And it is so critical that we started addressing this before things get even much worse than they are already. So absolutely. Childcare.
 
James Bell 
Childcare.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Yes.
 
James Bell 
It's a problem. And we were talking right before we went on air. Oh, you provided me some numbers.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
I did.
 
James Bell 
Startling numbers, terrible numbers. Yes, it looks bad.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
So in 2019, we Child Care Aware of Kansas are a chamber member, they work across the state to help connect resources to childcare providers. But also they try to connect families with childcare providers who are looking for them. And the point in time survey that they do every year is usually January 1, the last survey that they did showed that we have in 2019, the extent desired capacity meets potential demand was 64%
 
James Bell 
Sixty-four. That's the number that blew me away. And it's right there on top. And I'm thinking oh my gosh, I don't think it's any secret that we haven't need for more daycare here in Ellis County. But I mean, that's slightly over a half the need.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Yes. So the other alarming fact is that we've lost 16 childcare providers since that same point in time count. And we have been meeting so the chamber in Hays, Kansas has started a Childcare Taskforce for Ellis County, we had our first meeting of the last week of October, we just had another meeting yesterday, actually. And this is just the discussion that we're having on how do we start to address the needs for childcare in our community, because we know they're vast, we're very excited, because we have a lot of different partners that we have kind of connected with. And in a short time already. So um, we have parents who are a part of that, obviously, Child Care Aware of Kansas, and they're a part of that conversation to early childhood education providers, we obviously would be remiss to not have childcare and daycare providers. So we have several folks representing them too. And then of course, our school districts need to be a part of this conversation, because obviously, they have a big role to play in the education of our kids and possibly have resources that maybe we haven't considered yet. Or if there are ways that we could partner further. We talked just before we got on air to James on legislative process and how our regulations in Kansas, are so stringent in comparison to our cohorts across the United States. And we have Barb Wasinger our representative from the 111th district has started to be a part of that conversation too, from the get go. And she's taking note, um, during these meetings and trying to very much listen to the challenges that are shared from a daycare provider standpoint. And, you know, we talked about, you know, as a childcare provider, if you have a shower in your house, obviously, you have to have a bathroom to be a childcare provider.
 
James Bell 
You can do it hope so.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Yeah, you can't have things like shampoo or conditioner within five feet reach of children. And those are just some of the things that you know, you scratch your head at, well, why is that the case, you know, if you have your own kids in your home, you're not going to put the shampoo and conditioner out of reach. If you have a pet dog or a cat, you can't have the pet food on the ground for the pet to eat during the day. So these are just some things that make you scratch your head. And for our childcare providers. I can't imagine what they must be going through when they share some of their concerns on the issues that they face. And, you know, that probably adds to the fact of why people don't want to be in that industry in the first place.
 
James Bell 
I'm sure it doesn't help. But you know what I think maybe we want to speak a little bit about this. One of the eye opening things that I've had an experience with recently is these aren't daycares are not profitable.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
They are not.
 
James Bell 
It's really hard to make any money. And oftentimes, the discussion goes towards we need a facility we need a building. And that's not the problem.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Right. So facilities are usually the easier fix to a solution. It's finding the actual people to run them. So there are two different models for childcare. There's obviously the for profit side, which you scratch your head on all day long, because if people are finding a way to make it profitable, and we need you to be a part of this conversation number one, so please come find me.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, if you've got the solution contact Sarah. Yeah, right away.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Yes, but number two, there is the not for profit model. And that tends to be where most of them are aligned. Because, you know, just we're limited on the resources that we have. So, obviously, this problem isn't going anywhere. So there's the daunting question, well, where do we start? We just had a pick a point and start. So the other people that have been a part of the conversation, and we have the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Heartland Community Foundation, The Hays Area Children's Center, of course, the city of Hays and Grow, Hays are a part of it. I know Doug has some things he's working on with his seniors facility that they have going on the north side of the Hays Med campus, which they are a part of the conversation to, and then Fort Hays State University as well as some of our local nonprofits. So those are the people who we've kind of pulled together as a chamber so far to start this discussion. Um, so if you can think of anyone else who maybe isn't represented in that list, who you feel would have strong resources and good conversation to add to what we're going through right now, please, by all means, connect them with us.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, very cool. I like that everybody seems to be coming together and realizing that, hey, only worked by working on this with everybody, are we going to find a way out of this solution. And we should also mention, it's not necessarily just an Ellis County problem. This is a statewide, this is a national concern, too.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
It very much is, you know, when we talk about workforce and how we as a chamber can support workforce, we know that there are parents out there who are actually paying for childcare before they even have a child in the womb. Staggering. We also have families that are driving from Stockton to bring their kids to Hays for childcare, and then they're going back and working a full day. And then they're coming back to Hays again, to pick up their children. So this is such a huge issue for, like you said, our whole entire region, I'm so we asked ourselves the question, well, how do we get a full grasp of what's going on here. So as a committee, we've been working with Bradford Wiles from the Kansas State Research and Extension agency. And they have done community based surveys all across Kansas. And he's working with our committee to put together survey questions specific to Ellis County, the hope is that we will have those questions and that survey finalized by the end of next week. And then we would as a chamber and community, roll those out. And for folks, the biggest thing that people need to keep in mind with this survey, we know that everybody's time is precious, however, we're not going to address this issue. If we don't get some concrete data for what our true needs are as a county. With that data, then that gives us the flexibility and puts us in a position as a county to start applying for grants and things of that nature that could possibly use bees to start incentivizing childcare. So this is a huge, huge opportunity for us. And if we don't start finding ways to make the finances work for these folks, we're gonna struggle.
 
James Bell 
Yeah. So are these going to be these surveys mailed out? Or do people need to go get them from like a website or something.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
So we will be doing this survey digitally, we will have essentially a QR code attached. And of course, we'll do a media release. And we'll be working with you as the chamber to hopefully be doing some extra promotion for that through your guys's Hays Post. But all the agencies that I shared, will also be sharing that data in that survey across their communication channels. And then ideally, we'll have that survey wrapped up by the end of December. We know that timing, there's no great time to try to get a survey done. We know that people are busy with the holidays.
 
James Bell 
It's busy every day. Yeah, that's be real.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
So we're ripping off the band aid and we're just gonna get it done. And then once we had that survey data that really puts us in a good position. So Dane G. Hansen Foundation has a significant amount of funding right now available to give to communities for childcare purposes, as well as USDA. And then I believe there are still some ARPA funds that are set aside for childcare for communities. So bringing that back to our workforce, if we can start getting childcare addressed, you know, maybe that flexes some people who aren't currently in our workforce, it puts them in a position to where they can come back and work again.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, you know, that's one thing I wanted to ask about. Because we talk about unemployment, we see you know, every business in Hays almost seems like they're hiring. But if you don't have childcare, it doesn't matter. You could offer him $50,000 A year, $100,000, $200,000. You don't have childcare, you can't take the job.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Moms and dads need to feel good about where they're sending their kids for childcare during the work day. So and to be fair, I just want to give a big shout out. If you are listening, and you were at home, or you are at a center and you're providing childcare, thank you for what you're doing. I don't think people really have a full appreciation of all that is required to do that. So know that we're here working on things in the scenes and behind the scenes, if you will, and we do have a Facebook group. I do want to put a little plug in there. For Tori Ruder Thank you. She provides childcare here in Ellis County. She put together a child care task force of Ellis County Facebook page. So if you want to follow this conversation, and be a part of that, from a provider standpoint, by all means go find that group on Facebook. If you aren't able to jot that down, feel free to give me a call at the Chamber office at 785-628-8201. Or email me at Sarah S-A-R-A-H at Hays Chamber dot com. And we'll start connecting you with that dialogue.
 
James Bell 
Excellent. And you know, I think maybe it's also important to mention you provided here I've got some of the survey questions. It's nothing, it's not, you know, complicated or hard. It's just a little bit of time to get that in to help everybody out.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
That's right.
 
James Bell 
Excellent. Well, before we move on, or guess anything else on that topic, before we move on, we got a couple other things we want to hit on there a little bit more fun.
 
Sarah Wasinger 
Well, I did want to just share, we do want to make sure that folks remember on that and we are going to do the survey anonymously. So know that the information that you share is not going to be broadcast with anyone, your information will be just essentially pulled together with everyone else who fills out that data survey. And then the final reporting will be what we use to apply for grants and really start assessing where we go from here.
 
James Bell 
Okay, very good. Now, as I mentioned, a little more fun. You've got somebody new in the office.
Sarah Wasinger 
We do! Her name is Mariah Legleiter.
James Bell 
Yay! And she is taking the Vice President of Marketing and Communications job, right?
 
Sarah Wasinger 
She is. She is hitting the ground running already. And we are so excited for her, she is going to be a dynamo. Um, we, when Scott told us he was going to move on to Fort Hays State University, sat down and looked at it as a team, you know, what is our next step for that position. So um, she brings a very, very strong communications background with her. So we're very excited for her to join. Um, she has that video experience. She enjoys doing graphics and design. And she's really very creative. So we're very excited to have her start, and just be a full part of the team. So if you see a new face around, be sure to say hello to her and welcome her to the team.
 

Forward Ever: Hays City Commissioner Shaun Musil

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times, host Gary Shorman speaks with Hays City Commissioner and restauranteur Shaun Musil.

Forward Ever: KIOGA President Ed Cross

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times, host Gary Shorman speaks with KIOGA President Ed Cross.

FHSU set to celebrate veterans during Military Appreciation Week

Transcript
James Bell 
Fort Hays State University is set to celebrate Veterans this week, President Tisa Mason talks to us about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Tisa Mason 
We're really excited. And actually, I would say a year or so ago, when the fabulous Senator Jerry Moran was on our campus, we talked about what we were doing with the National De-escalating Training Center, which we started actually in August of 2020. And we're a part of a national network that is definitely working on education to provide both in person and online, law enforcement professionals with some new skills in their toolkit and techniques to defuse potentially dangerous situations, which we know happens all the time. Or more often than we want. And not just with law enforcement, it happens in all of our lives. And so these are really, you know, great skills. And we're really excited about that. So this grant is going to help us as the $1.25 million grant from the Department of Justice, and really, Senator Moran was very instrumental in facilitating the awarding of this grant. So we're excited we're going to have on campus to celebrate his efforts and our ability to move forward. He'll be here on November 23, when we will, officially and ceremonially accept the grant.
 
James Bell 
Love it. Um, is there? Is there an event planned yet? Or is it still kind of in the works a little bit
 
Tisa Mason 
It is planned.
 
James Bell 
Okay. Well, we'll keep an eye out for some details there. Um, oh,
 
Tisa Mason 
4 p.m.
 
James Bell 
Yes. Okay, there we go.
 
Tisa Mason 
4 p.m. at the Fischli Wills Center.
 
James Bell 
I love that, because officially wills what a perfect opportunity, if you haven't yet to get in there and see that new building that thing is amazing.
 
Tisa Mason 
It's fun to have it there too, because it's about success. That's a building about student success. And this is about world of success.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And from my understanding, you had some contributions that kind of helped technology-wise with that whole thing, right?
 
Tisa Mason 
Well, you know, I'm a huge fan of our Teaching Innovation and Learning Technologies team, which are our instructional design teams that build and work with faculty on all our outstanding distance learning. And so the team that is working with the De-escalation Training Center, matched up with TILT the Teaching Innovation and Learning Technology so that they could create really immersive safe paced scenario based learning experiences for the people that will be going through this program. So again, we're I'm we're married, marrying, so to speak, rich content and skill building with a history of strong online learning platforms. And that's one of the things that we're really good at.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, I was gonna say online education. When you think online education, at least in the Midwest, I think Fort Hays is always the top of that conversation. Oh, very cool. Well, moving on. Also, you know, it's we're coming up on Veterans Day. Oh, I think it's a, you know, week or so week and a half away from now. And you're going to be celebrating that as well down at Fort Hays State.
 
Tisa Mason 
Yeah, I love the opportunity to say thank you to our military and of course, Veterans Day gives us the ability to do that, especially for those who are serving now. And we're going to have lots of activities on campus. Participants can see a flag in a poster display that celebrates our heritage with the connection to the military. We have a strong connection with military, military programs, and other ways that we work with our service members of whom we for whom we are very, very grateful for. That will happen in both the Memorial Union and Fishchli Wills Center for Student Success. We also have an opportunity to folks to leave messages in recognition of family members who have answered the call to duty. Again, very grateful I'm and the daughter and the sister of a veteran so it hits home with me for sure. On Thursday at 11 o'clock. We're going to host our annual Veterans Day ceremony on the quad side of the Memorial Union. And then at our outstanding we're going to win football game on Saturday. We will have a Military Appreciation and a Senior Day. I understand from Matt Cook will be managing horses, people and motorcycles for that game so it should be a fun football game.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Yeah, go out it very least cheer on the Tigers and help us celebrate those military professionals that yes, are very important to us. Every, all of us really. There's one other thing we want to hit on before we go. And that's, you know, the COVID thing. Fort Hays State, you know you guys have done a pretty good job. I think down there you we haven't seen a whole lot of activity there. But one of the things that I think is been huge in the news is the D-one schools, the vaccine mandates they are mandating, but Fort Hays is going a different way, right?
 
Tisa Mason 
Yeah, we have not implemented a vaccine mandate. We did have an incentive program I think we talked about at this point, I think we are a little above approximately 80 percent of our faculty and staff. I don't recall the percentage off the top my head for the students, but I know that it's over 50 percent of our students as well. Most importantly, we have to be careful of our residential students, and isolation and our high has been well, it was three students till the other day, we're up to four students. But it's been very minimal. We've really done really well with people making local decisions. But what happened recently is the federal government said that they were going to put language in federal contracts. So research institutions are particularly going to have to make decisions about a vaccine mandate whether they wanted to do one or not, and turning down contracts from the federal government because there's a lot at research institutions. For Fort Hays State right now, although we have grants and contracts. At this point, we reviewed all of them, not one of them, includes the language. So we are watching, we are studying, if we get a contract that hasn't, we'll have a conversation about whether we turn it down or move forward. And our hope is not to have to do a mandate. It's really unfortunate, quite frankly, that we've been put in this position but so far, we're holding strong we do not have to mandate and we are going to continue with our excellent success on mitigating the spread of the virus on our campus. Another shout out to the doctors and Student Health and the faculty and the staff and everyone who has come together, our students to make our environment safe.

Lincoln Elementary plans Veteran‘s Day Celebration

Transcript
James Bell 
Lincoln Elementary is set to celebrate Veterans Day this week. Principal Kerri Lacy talks to us about that and more. On this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Kerri Lacy 
Our school is going through a process called redesign where we're looking at how we do things at school and getting our community involved and our parents involved. And so we reached out to community members and we have several businesses that have adopted our classes. So I can name a few of those golden belt bank and Farm Bureau, the Hayes Police Department, Hayes, recreation taco shop, you know, if any other have others of you at businesses that would like to sponsor a class, you can sure just give us a call at our office and we would love to have you.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah. And we talked about this a lot here on the go morning show, but the sense of community around you know, as county it's just I think, tremendous, but it really takes a village to kind of make these things work. And one of the things I think that we're gonna chat hit on here is the Fall Festival that you talked about, or that occurred, I guess, last week, right?
 
Kerri Lacy 
Right. Um, instead of a Halloween parties, the traditional costumes, and costume parties and things like that. We a few years ago, before COVID, of course, we started what we call a Fall Festival. We invite community members to come in and share their talents with us. So there are several different stations around the building and the entire afternoon right after lunch. The kids rotate for about 20 minutes sessions and you know, we have ever this year we had Halloween bingo taco shop brought in the famous chili or queso and chips our kids loved that.
 
James Bell 
Who doesn't like CCQ from Taco Shop, right. No, I think everybody in the region knows what that is.
 
Kerri Lacy 
Absolutely. And if they are from Hays, and they come back to visit, that's usually one of the staples. Absolutely, yes. On the punch list. I agreed. Yes. We had the Fort Hays State discipled group Sternberg Museum, Hays Public Library, they did a story walk. Our girl scout group came in and they built pumpkin catapults and had little pumpkins that they were shooting across the hallway upstairs.
 
James Bell 
Just the little ones not a massive like you see on the TV with a no. No, that would be cool. I think maybe next year, we should have them bring in a couple of big ones and we'll take them outside and see how far we can get them to go. So. You got if you're gonna if you're if that happens, call me because I want to be there to see that.
 
Kerri Lacy 
Alright, I will try Lincoln home in school. They sponsored the missus Lacey, human Banana Split challenge. That was fun. They challenged me to name every student in the school by name. Oh, man. And if I could not do that, then I was in a banana suit. They could get chocolate syrup, whipped cream, sprinkles, cherries, and decorate me as a human banana split. Although I did name every single student in the building, you got them all. I got them all. That's amazing. But I still let them decorate the Oh, that was fun. And Midwest standard. She brings out their money machine, which is really cool. We put real money in there real dollar bills. And I always tease the kids and say, did you know want to get that $100 bill? And they're like, no, no, no, I want to go again. So we have the money machine, which is a lot of fun. And then we have a dance party. So pretty cool.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, that's awesome. And that's, that's really cool that they those area businesses, they stepped up and helped make that possible. Because without those guys, you know, things like that really can't happen. Right?
 
Kerri Lacy 
Absolutely. And it's really cool to have them connect with our kiddos. And when our kids see them out. You know, these people from the businesses, they see them out maybe it's shopping the Dylan's or something and they recognize them and they're excited. And they tell their parents that this is what happened. And they were at my school. And so it really is a partnership and it really helps out everyone. Very cool.
 
James Bell 
Well, looking ahead a little bit. You've also got a veterans day of celebration coming up, right?
 
Kerri Lacy 
Oh my gosh, we are so excited about this. This is the first time for us to try this. But on Tuesday, November 9 from 6 to 7pm. Back on our playground, we are having what we call a Veterans Day celebration for active military. Community members are all invited to join Lincoln students and their families for the celebration. We will have free refreshments. There will be a local food truck there for food purchases. We will have live music by 80 Proof Alice for that hour. It's really going to be a fun time. We are also at that time taking donations for the Fort Dodge Soldiers Home. They greatly appreciate those donations that are needed, you know non perishable food items and things like that.
 
James Bell 
Ah, you know, I'm not familiar and I don't know that maybe maybe we want to share what is the Fort Dodge soldiers home?
 
Kerri Lacy 
Well, it is, I want to say kind of a place where they can where soldiers can go and, and get help if they need it. Their families can get help if they need it. You know, we are not close to a commensarry type, you know, on base, things like that. So they have a place where soldiers can reach out and get the help for their families.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Very cool. So, you're looking for donations, or yes, you're looking for donations for the Fort Dodge Soldiers Home.
 
Kerri Lacy 
Oh, yes. Okay can bring donations that night. You know, things like non perishable food items. Kleenex, toilet paper, dish soap, laundry, soap, T shirts and sweatpants. Usually large, extra large, double extra large, those can be brought that night or if you can't come that night. You can also drop those donations for the soldier house to Lincoln at any time.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Very cool. And I think one last thing we want to hit on tonight you got some going on as well, right? Oh, yeah.
 
Kerri Lacy 
If you come out to the north McDonald's from five to eight, our teachers will be selling to cookies for $1 and then also the proceeds of all the food sales comes back to our school for this event, so it's called Big teacher night I think about every elementary school has big teacher night here and we love it that McDonald sponsors us every year.

GUNS AND CAKE: Ellis Co. Historical Society celebrates 50 years

By JAMES BELLHays Post
As the Ellis County Historical Society continues to reinvigorate facilities and programming, the organization is set to host a 50th anniversary celebration Saturday, with historical re-enactments, presentations and more. 
"We've got (a lot) planned down there at the historical society," said curator Adam Conkey. "We're opening up our stone church. We're gonna have all of our outbuildings open."
But more than just an opportunity to explore buildings on the society's grounds, he said attendees would also experience history first-hand with gunfight reenactments and historical presentations.
"We'll have gunfights every two hours, 10 o'clock, noon, two o'clock, and four to close it out," Conkey said.
Throughout the day, a variety of speakers will discuss local history.
"We're going to have speakers on historical events, including Kansas history, Indian wars and Kansas forts," he said, including a representation of one of Ellis County's most famous residents George Sternberg and sessions about the Bissing Family.
"And we'll have Bukovina German immigrants, we'll have a discussion on that. Of course, we'll have Q and A after all of those as well."
He said the headline event would be James Drees talking about Jim Curry and vigilante violence.
"So if anybody wants to hear some real story about those gunfights, he's there to provide that," Conkey said.
Wrapping up the evening is a celebration from 7:30 p.m. to midnight at the Hays Community Theatre building, 121 E 8th.
"We're having a dance party, come in costume if you want, any, any timeframe," Conkey said. " It's the Historical Society, so you come from the 1980s if you wanted to. It's more of a celebration. We'll have cake there, and we also have a raffle for our Henry repeater rifle there as well."
All of the day's events are come and go and free to the public.
While the activities are a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the society, Conkey said it would also help kick off a new era, as work is ongoing to strengthen the society's connection to the community.
"We just want to remind everybody we exist," Conkey said. "It's been a difficult, rough, kind of few years. We haven't had our museum open for three years now, I believe, other than special events, and we're aiming to push forward and try to get our museum back on track.
"This 50th is our restart, if you will, for the museum," he said.
Most notably the society has struggled to open to the public as their main building, the Presbyterian church on the corner of 7th and Main has been closed due to water damage and then COVID and now will require significant investment before it can be reopened to the public.
"It's coming together. It's a process," Conkey said. "We are course writing a lot of grants to try to get things working again. And of course, we need a lot of community help as well."
He said in the last few months, many have stepped up from the community to help the society regroup.
"Even from high schools, high school age people are just as interested in this as the older people in the community," Conkey said. "So it's just more, more than I thought would happen in the last few months."
But he said more volunteers are welcome as work and planning continues.
"We want to get our main gallery situated, at least put back together," Conkey said. "That's a tough process. We've got plaster kind of crumbling into dust in there. So we're trying to get our walls repaired, getting our archives put back all together in the basement and everything. It's just going to be a process, that's going to take time."
He said while work in the main building continues, the stone church will serve as the main exhibit.
"As far as our grand design, there's still always going to be that need for a building," Conkey said. "We have that whole block on the north side of Seventh and Main. So we have a lot of room to expand. That's another exciting feature. Once we get the funding to do that."
"But there's a lot of plans in the works. They've had plans since the 70s to go forth with a reconstruction of old Front Street, kind of make it like a Dodge City type of deal. Our gunfighters are excited to be a part of this too. And all of it's just really going to grow from here."
Along with revitalizing their facilities, he said future events would also help solidify society as a valuable part of the community.
For more information or to volunteer for the society's efforts, email director@echshays.org or call 785-628-2624.
"We're happy to find places for everyone," Conkey said.

Showcase offers opportunity to explore local businesses

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger shares details of the ongoing Business Showcase.
 
 
By JAMES BELLHays Post
The latest Business Showcase Challenge is currently underway in Hays offering area residents an opportunity to explore local businesses, while at the same time offering the chance to win prizes from participating locations as well as from the Chamber.
"It just started last week Friday, so from October 29, to November 19," said Hays Chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger.
While this is not a new event for the chamber, she said this showcase features two premier sponsors, giving more opportunities to win prizes in time for the holidays.
"We are very excited because Adams Brown, and Sunflower Bank are actually our sponsors, our premier sponsors for the events that we get to we have to this time," Wasinger said. "So we figured with it being Christmas time, it would be nice to give away more money."
With the two sponsors, she said the chamber will have additional Chamber Check prizes given out.
"We'll be drawing for four $100 Chamber Check prizes, and then two $50 Chamber Check prizes on November 22."
Anyone interested in participating can visit any of the locations, or the Chamber office, 2700 Vine, to pick up a card that lists the participating businesses and relevant information for the showcase.
"This card has all the locations listed as well as the addresses for the participating businesses, and of course, their hours of operation," Wasinger said. "So we take the guesswork out for you, you know exactly where to go and when to go."
She said many of the businesses will also be offering their own prize drawings or discounts.
And while the chance to win prizes or save money is important, the aim of the program is to entice area residents to explore area businesses.
"So why we love Business Showcase so much is like you said there may be a business that you're not familiar with, you wouldn't normally have the opportunity to go in there or wouldn't perhaps think of that depending on what you're in the market for, for purchasing yourself or for your family," Wasinger said. "So these businesses would love to have folks come in."
With the selection of participating buisnesses, she said the time required to complete the showcase is minimal.
"If you have some extra time, it'll literally take you probably no more than an hour and a half to go visit all these nine different locations," Wasinger said. "And within that time, you're going to get a lot of different promotions and offerings, a chance to win extra prizes when you go to their locations, as well as just a great opportunity to do some early Christmas shopping."
And the participants also offer a diverse representation of operations in the area.
"So ABC Seamless, I know they're going to be having some discounts on their items in store so they are located at 1507 East 27th Street," Wasinger said. "Diamond R Jewelry is another one of our businesses this go around and they are going to be offering 20 percent off jewelry repair services through January 1 with a presentation of (the) card."
"Hays Med is one that I am very excited to go to because with COVID they of course have been limited on who and how they're letting people into the hospital. But their gift shop is back up and running. So the Hays Med volunteer corner gift shop, they have such a wonderful variety of different items in there."
In conjunction with the Business Showcase, they also have an open house planned on Nov. 11 and 12.
 "So you can go in there and actually register for a gift card while you're doing the business showcase too," Wasinger said.
"And Nex-Tech Wireless is another one. ... They're gonna have some special promotions on the Samsung S 21 and iPhone 13. And they're going to also have some in-store giveaways for participants. So they're located of course at 1101 East 43rd Street.
After celebrating a special anniversary at Rohr's Carpet Cleaning recently, she said she is excited they participated in the showcase as well.
"They're gonna have a lot of different sales on in-stock items and different promotions," Wasinger said. "Plus, they're doing a drawing for a mop kit that can be used to keep your house clean during the holidays. ... They're located at 722 East 7th Street."
"And then Sunflower Bank, their North location.  ... So you'll visit the North Branch at 4720 Ross Avenue and they're going to be actually doing a special drawing for different branded items, as well as doing different chamber check giveaways. I think they're doing a $25 giveaway, a $20 giveaway. And customers can also get $100 if they open up their first personal checking account and get rewarded with extra perks."
Thirsty's Brew Pub and Grill is also featured, in both the showcase, as well as on the chamber's Hot Deals.
"They are always great about having a Hot Deal every month," Wasinger said. "And I believe this month it includes a very tasty steak with some sides. So you'll have to go check out Hayschamber.com and hit the Hot Deals and you'll be able to see that special."
Rounding out the businesses is Vyve Broadband.
They're going to be doing an in-store drawing for branded products valued at $50," Wasinger said. "So they're of course located at 1007 West 27th Street and are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m."
"But United Way of Ellis County is also going to be joining us this go around and this is a special one because the end of the year is really such an important time for them. So they'll be doing some different raffle tickets for purchase and for their dine-out day. So visit them at 205 East 27th Street Suite 111."
Once participants receive the stamp at each location, they can then return the filled-out cards to the chamber office.
"You'll have to make sure that you do that by November 19," Wasinger said. "And then, of course, on Monday, November 22, we're going to be doing that chamber check drawing on via Facebook Live."
For more information visit the Hays Chamber website hayschamber.com.
 
 
 

Foundation donation to benefit Imagine Ellis County

On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams talks about a $50,000 donation from the Schmidt Foundation given to the Imagine Ellis County committee.
 
TRANSCRIPT
 
James Bell  The Imagine Ellis County committee recently benefited from a large donation from the Schmidt Foundation, Grow Hays, Executive Director, Doug Williams talks to us a little bit about that, and more on this episode of the post podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Well, it's a committee that was formed out of the strategic doing initiative that is kind of town meetings sponsored by the danger Hansen Foundation, where people in the community come together for kind of a town hall meeting and talk about things that they'd like to see happen in their community, whether it be parks, you know, recreational type things, business type things, all types of things. And then out of that, committees are formed. And they kind of work on these initiatives. And so one of the things that came out of this strategic doing session was imagined Ellis County, you know, what, what do we want Ellis County to look like, five years from now 10 years from now, 30 years from now. And so that's kind of what this committee has been working on. We started and then boom, the pandemic hit. And so we kind of lost our momentum for the committee. But as of late, we have, we have kind of picked up the momentum again, and we're starting to work on some things, and we've got some direction. And I think we're making good headway.
James Bell  Excellent. Yeah, it seems like, you know, when it comes to planning, you have to think so far in advance that and I wonder if you want to speak a little bit to like, is there a lot of differing opinions? Or are we kind of seeing some consensus? And some, you know, cuz, I don't know, some general ideas moving forward.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  I think, you know, we, we interviewed, we had all a number of business leaders come forward, you know, business owners come forward and give us a five minute presentation as to what their plans were and what their challenges are. And, obviously, they're all a little bit different. But there's certainly some recurring themes among all of their discussions and things like housing, things like child care, you know, those kinds of things continually come up workforces a huge one, which is kind of tied to childcare and housing as well. So while each organization has some specifics, the underlying themes are very much, you know, you hear the same things again, and again.
James Bell  You know, I wonder going forward how, how do these committees or these groups, you know, after I problems have been identified, how do they affect change?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Well, you know, you, you identify the problem, and then you work the problem. So it's, you know, housing is been a problem in Hays, I've, we talked about it all the time, you and I, and I talked about it with lots of people. But at some point in time, you have to quit talking and start doing and that's what we're trying to do with the project, the tall grass project out of 22nd. Wheatland with the retiree. project that we envision north at the hospital, as well as trying to help some people with some construction of apartments and that type of thing. The project analysis for the 40 lots in south Ellis, you know, those are the type of things that you have to start doing and then childcare the same way you've got to, okay, identify the problem, and what can we do about it?
James Bell  Okay, it's feeding on the housing. No, real quick, we might have talked about this yesterday that we just had the Hays City Commission folks in with us, but they passed the RHID public meeting date was speaking of the housing piece, how does that kind of work into how this committee is getting put together? You know, if they want to help, I don't know, spread the word for that or become available, I guess you might say, for the community that wants to talk about this project. Well, that's
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  That's the type of project that this committee would support. And go to the City Commission and the commissioners individually and indicate the support for those types of projects for the city to approve, you know, those type of incentives for the developer. Because the the reality is, in some cases, the marketplace, we'd all like to think that the open market always meets a need, but it doesn't. And it doesn't always meet it in a timeframe that is that the community needs it to meet it in childcare would be a good example of that as well. So that this committee will focus on. Okay, what what type of housing do we need? How do we help get that done? How do we encourage the city to award incentives to potential developers to make it attractive for them to develop in Hays instead of someplace else? And so that's the type of work that we would do on housing initiatives. And that's what this committee will be focused on things along those lines, along with many others, you know, that could be parks, it could be retail recruitment, you know, they're just this good go a lot of different directions as we, as we try and figure out what we really want a Hays to look like one of the things we're going to do is a community survey. You know, we, while we have a broad representation of the community, we believe on our committee, and we've talked to lots of business people who have a broad understanding of what's going on in the community, at some point time, you need to go out and ask the citizens, what they would like to see. And so we've got a quote from the Docking Institute, and we're attempting to raise some funds. So we can conduct that survey and ask the public what they'd like to see in the community, what kind of community they want to do, what they want the community to look like, in 5, 10 or 20 years.
James Bell  How do you deal with all the folks and not to disparage any particular business? I know one of the things that I hear a lot come to Hays is target. Everybody wants to target here, and it would be great. But how do you kind of temper those expectations when you have a survey like that, and and you get responses that say 60, 70 80 percent want that, but it's really not feasible for the Hays market?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Well, I think you have to temper it with the understanding of what these companies requirements are in terms of population in a community, you know, they require 40,000 people in a community and we have 28, we really can't spend a lot of time talking to them. Now, yes, we want to, we would like to think we're a little bit different than we are from a trade area standpoint, we have a larger trade area, then then a lot of communities and we have pull factor that a lot of communities don't have, you know, where people come from outlying areas to shop. But these companies study very closely. Excuse me, the the market conditions that exist, the population, the amount of dollars that are spent, they know, I would guess the target knows very well what Walmart sales are here. And so they know what level of sales they would be able to attract here. And so we have to have realistic expectations and think that okay, target may not be a good fit, but who is and then we go focus on that particular company to recruit as opposed to a target, just as an example. Okay.
James Bell  Well, the one thing that I think all of these efforts require a little bit of capital. And this donation is probably going to help you with that. I would imagine when I talk first, a little bit about the gift from the Schmidt Foundation,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Yes, well, we, the Schmidt Foundation was good enough to recognize that the this is an important initiative in the community to to get this going. And obviously, if we're going to recruit people, and figure out what we need to be doing, it does take some dollars. And the Schmidt Foundation was good enough to give imagine Ellis County a $50,000 donation to be used for the projects that we're envisioning. One would be the Community Survey. Another would be we produce some videos of our community, we've got, I think, four or five different videos are short, one minute videos about our quality of life, basically, why people live here, we've targeted different types of people in the community in terms of younger people, retired people, people who move back here, people who moved here and bought a business. And so we're trying to tell the story in a lot of different ways about why Ellis County is such a great place to live. And the next step with once you produce these videos, and they're great videos, we'll get them out there so people can see them in the very near future. But we got to get enough people in the right places to see him. So we've gotten some proposals from some marketing organizations as to, we can do these types of social media marketing and things in the eastern slope of Colorado, which is kind of a ripe area for people who are wanting to relocate. 
James Bell  Can't imagine why prices, you want to read one bedroom apartment, it's four or $5,000 a month, very
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Expensive to live in very, the traffic is horrible. And in a lot of people out there looking for a simpler life and a more cost effective life. And we think housing prices are high here. Just go out there. Yeah. But so we're going to be targeting those marketplaces and trying to get our story told in the right places, and you need funding to do that. It's it doesn't come for free. And so the Schmidt Foundation, which is terrific. I mean, they're wonderful organization, very supportive of our community and always have been very supportive of grow Hayes, was good enough to step forward and give this $50,000 donation. We're seeking some other grants for the same type of thing so we can expand our efforts in this marketing of Ellis County, and that's a great start with what the Schmidt Foundation was willing to step up and give us.
James Bell  Yeah, that's very cool. And you know, it does really, I think, impact those that recruitment has But also, you know, the piece on this that I think maybe people don't realize is how quickly those dollars get eaten up. When you're talking about marketing, it's so expensive.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  It really is, I mean, the production of the videos, you know, doesn't seem too bad. But then you've got, and I'm not, I'm far from an expert on these things, but geo fencing and all of these terms that come up and, and Google search engines to optimize those. So your Sir, your information comes up when a search is done, just on and on and on. It's very expensive. And, but we're looking at a combination of social marketing, even some billboards, different types of ways to reach people, because we know not everybody's walking around with a smartphone, we recognize one demographic that we think we offer a lot to our retirees, with the health care facilities we have here, as well as a safe community and a lot of the other amenities we have. And so we we have to figure out ways are our marketing people have to figure out ways to target that audience, make sure they know who we are and what we have to offer. So, but it all costs money. And that's the that's for sure.
James Bell  Is there going to be any of it set aside to help spread the word locally? About the committee?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Yeah, we're, we're we're doing we're hoping we're doing some of that by talking to people like you. And we have set up a Facebook page, we haven't done much with it, but we will be setting up a Facebook or a meta page, whatever he called today. And in some other efforts will be done for local marketing as well. You know, we'll try and, and spread the word locally, because you know, word of mouth is the best advertising you can have. And obviously, the people in Ellis County, if they can talk to the people they know outside of Ellis County, tell our story. Tell people where to go to watch these videos, or to see what imagine Ellis County's doing. At the Imagine Ellis County website, which will be developed it isn't there yet. But it will be. So that's that's another way where we'll reach out to people and and you bring up a good point. I mean, the best salespeople, for any community are the people that live in the community.
James Bell  Absolutely. The Shifting gears a little bit. We always like talking about what's going on down there. aggro Hayes, we've got just a few minutes left. I want to pretend like I don't know what's going on. But you have had the Ice House series entrepreneurship class that's wrapping up next Wednesday.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Yes.
James Bell  Cool class, because I'm in it. You know, cuz I'm in it. I'm a it's a I know, it's a cool class, because when you can get the points to graduate, we're not sure about you. 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Yeah, it's if I throw a real stick in the mud, I think a lot of times because I'm not the business entrepreneur, you know, I'm not out there trying to launch into a successful enterprise, you know, what might happen? Well, that's exactly the thing. And that's one of the things I really appreciate about this is it's not it's not what I was expecting going in, which was that real that you know, concrete, Do this, do this, do this. It's more about opening your eyes to possibilities, A little bit more theoretical, I think, probably and covering the, the traits of an entrepreneur and the things that an entrepreneur needs to think about. We are next week, it'll wrap up, that'll be week seven. We've got I think, 12 or 13 participants. So it's a couple online, so I you know, I've done online attendance. So I'm, I get a little fuzzy, I see the people in the room, but I forget about the ones that are online, and spent a good class different than the class we did a year and a half ago, you know, a different set of people kind of a different dynamic in the class. And that's okay, that's good. And I you know, we typically try and bring in a speaker from outside last week, we had Chris Munch come in and give his sticks presentation, which is always good and powerful. Presentation. And they've, they've talked me into giving a little talk next week, which should be interesting. It's, I'll keep it a top secret topic. But all I'll be there to wrap the whole thing up and then you guys will be graduated and we'll be on to the next one. But it's it's a really good class. I think it it makes you think, and hopefully get you thinking outside the box. And if you have some entrepreneurial, yearnings, it is an opportunity to understand what it might be all about and the things he maybe need to put in place in order to fulfill those dreams or yearnings or whatever they are. Absolutely.
James Bell  And you know, to I think in a lot of ways, it just it also kind of opened your eyes to the realities in the marketplace now, because it's quite a bit different than for a lot of folks than it was 3040 years ago where you went on a career path and that was the expectation and that's just not necessarily the case anymore. 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you look at the trends and the number of job changes, people entering the workforce today will have over their career, you know, used to be you go to work for the railroad or IBM or somebody and you stay with them for life. That's just not the way it works. Now, it's people changing all the time. And I've, I've noticed that you know, another topic we talked about, we're we're currently we accepted applications for Director of Recruitment and retainment. And we cut those applications off last Friday, but if you look at some of the end, we've had 19 and all of them good people and that kind of thing. But if you look at the work history, people change a lot. It's amazing how often a lot of people change. And I'm not saying that's bad, it's just the way our world works right now is there's a lot of movement that goes on in careers.
James Bell  Absolutely. Well, Doug, we've got just about a minute left anything else going on down there you want to share with us
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  We've got one thing I would mention, you know, advanced real estate had sold their location on East 27th street and are now full time officing out of brief space so it's cool it's kind of interesting turned down there you know, we we have always said that we believe that it can be an alternative office space and most people we have are individuals and that that come in there at certain times and off and on and on the road salespeople or what have you, but this is a case where a business has looked at our environment and said hey, you know, we can carve out this little spot for ourselves. It works for us we have access to the high speed internet to the meeting rooms and copier, scanner all of those kinds of resources and so at a fraction of the cost that it was where they were located before So that's been an interesting development down there we welcome that we welcome others and it's kind of cool to see that happen.
James Bell  Yeah, I you know, I love about brief space down there is a you you kind of get that environment I imagine if you're working on your own you know, your sole proprietorship you know you don't get that interaction with other business professionals or you can do that it brief space, you can go in and get in amount of interaction that you want, whether it be a little bit or a lot, you hang out there all day or hang out there for 20 minutes, make your do your whatever and then go.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams  Yeah, it it's whatever. It's what you make of it really and but but there is interaction with others. I think that's an important part of it. It's just been interesting to see that kind of evolution in the facility to have somebody in there grow. Hays has always been in there but now we've got another full time scenario as well as multiple people so I have a cool trend.

School attendance important for learning

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Wilson Principal Anita Scheve talks about school attendance as USD 489 wraps up the first quarter of the year.
 
 

Holidays present a perfect time to document family histories

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Cottonwood Extension District agent Susan Schlichting shares information about Family History Month.
 

Hays Arts Council brings free performance of Alice in Wonderland from the Wichita Children‘s Theatre

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Arts Council executive director Brenda Meder shares details about Thursday's Wichita Children's Theatre performance of Alice in Wonderland.
 
Transcript
Brenda Meder  
You know what we've got a lot of good stuff I wanted to share this morning. The first one of which is next week Thursday. Students in Hays don't have school on Friday. So we thought it would be a good night, next week, Thursday, at seven o'clock. In the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center. We have a family theater production of Alice in Wonderland from the Wichita Children's Theater. We've got Wichita Children's Theatre, making their regular one day, one day, you know, Hays visit that we do. And so I believe it's the first graders that we can do a little spacing and Beach/Schmidt instead of two grades, the first graders from around this area, a number of them will be attending a production of Alice during the day, I believe theirs is in the afternoon. And we've also got a production from which Children's Theatre of Schoolhouse Rock live for fourth grade. I love that show. Yeah. And so fourth graders will be attending that in the morning. So we really tried to get we haven't had students in Beach/Schmidt for live theater events, obviously for quite some time. And we're doing some spacing. So we're having less students in there, still trying to really work our, our way through this, you know, as responsibly as we can, but trying to, you know, integrate these things again, and get back a little bit to normal. But what we always do on those days, since so few students are able to attend no matter how we do it. And we know we've got some really little ones that love the family theater, families who love to bring them. So when Thursday, October 28. That's next Thursday. at seven o'clock. These productions are only about 45 minutes, we have a family theater production of Alice in Wonderland, a delightful stage adaptation. You know, the classic story of a little girl with the imagination ends up down the rabbit hole, meeting the White Rabbit, the caterpillar, the Dormouse, and then being invited by the Mad Hatter, to a tea party with the crazy Queen of Hearts. You know, it's all about imagination, and just the worlds that we can create in our mind through imaginations and the power of creativity. And that's what's really the story here with Alice. And we just we love being able to bring that and one of the things that we're really excited about. Ordinarily, even though these companies cost is quite a bit of money, through different underwriting and things and just our desire to reach out. And because we also have the other things paid for during the work, you know, underwritten during the day. Our admission fee for the family productions has always been very minimal, really low ticket prices. Well, I'm really excited and happy to say although we spent 1000s and 1000s of dollars for the company to be here that day, due to an incredible generosity of Memorial gifts given in the name of a wonderful lady named Aletha Denning, whose family some of which live here in Hays, but she loved the arts, she loved creativity, fostering that, especially in children. And we were just so honored that we were the designee for a Aletha's Memorial donations. And we decided that a good way to share this with the larger community instead of just tucking it into a general budget was to have admission be free that night. So I'm really I know and when I mentioned it to her family, they just, they just were thrilled you know because often those things like I said just get tucked into a general budget. So because of the generous Memorial gifts given in honor of Aletha Denning. In fact, her daughter Margie Hammerschmidt was one of our summer gallery exhibition features Marjorie's first big big feature and beautiful paintings by Margie. But it's Marjorie Hammerschmidt's mom, because I had just been there, but there will be no fee, no admission charge for anyone, children or adults to attend that production. And like I said, these these are wonderful professional productions done by a, a touring company out of the Wichita Children's Theater. They've got larger big shows they do down there, but when they traveled there a little bit smaller shows, but no less amazing professional, well done. Great sound systems, but that is on Thursday, October 28 7pm. After the show. The cast always comes out front there's a meet and greet because it is part of the big holiday Halloween weekend with no school the next day, any children that want to wear their Halloween costumes get one more shot to put those beauties on where your Halloween costumes, because we will have some goodie treat bags for all the children when they leave that evening. But again, no fee to attend because of that generosity, and says nothing about the quality of the productions just because of generosity. So seven o'clock next Thursday, October 28. In the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center, Alice in Wonderland for children, and the people who love them.
James Bell  Do people that want to go do they need tickets or anything or since it's free, they just,
Brenda Meder  They just show up. And what's great is it works out perfect. We never have a huge crowd for the evening production. It's great if we do but we usually don't, because so many kids do get to come during the day. But it's wonderful when they're not being assigned seating in any way. When people come, we're there greeting them, but just allow them to go in, we only open the floor because that's always most sufficient for the audiences we have. And it's great because in the times that we're still living in, and some people still being a little cautious. You can just sit wherever you want in there. So if there's a space and it's like, let's just sit over here, we're a little more to ourselves or no, we want to take the kids down front more, or whatever it might be. Families get to make that call because there's nothing assigned when you come to the theater. And again get to go for free because of this gift. But yeah, so it's it's easy. Nobody's got to fumble with money. Nobody's got a fumble with tickets. Just come and enjoy this wonderful production. That is a gift on behalf of the Hays Arts Council, and the memorial of Aletha Denny for just the community to enjoy again, no school the next day, everything will be over plenty early, even with the meet and greet after. But still, it makes it nice when there's no school and another excuse to wear those cute Halloween costumes.
James Bell  Absolutely love it. Oh, well, that's very nice. But I'm wondering to like what's going on down at the gallery because you always have something together
Brenda Meder  There is. there's so much more. And while we're in the strain, first of all, this the thought process of children. As I know, I think you guys have been promoting it. It's certainly the you know, the D.H.D.C has, there is the Trick or Treat downtown again, for children. And that is next Friday, October 29 from three to 5pm. And I just wanted to remind everyone that the Hays Arts Council will be participating. But we're we're so glad that event takes place through through the bricks in the DHDC organization. And it's from three to five. But instead of coming to the Hays Art Center main building, which is always what we've been out of, we're going to have our Trick or Treat event be on our annex facility. So right on Main 1010 Main. And many, many years ago, one of the Hays High prom believe it or not, was his high prom, use the theme Candyland. And because they needed to repository for all these incredible things they'd made. They've been at the Arts Council, they've actually been loaned out and shared with people, but they were just, they were just, you know, entrusted to us. And so I thought well, let's have a little fun. So I'm going to set up this wonderful giant Candyland theme right inside the front door. So a great photo op as well. So it'll be pretty and fun. And so come in and see our giant Candyland display and instead of candy, we will have a little my little take home. A little complete little packet of a little craft project instead of candy. So stop by take home your little craft project that you can have fun doing later while you're eating your candy. But again, that's from three to five on the bricks in downtown Hays. Friday the 29th so another thing we're participating in and Halloween, but you'll come to our annex 1010 Main Street Hays Art Center annex. Enjoy our giant Candyland display inside and get a take home craft project. And then for our main gallery. We've currently got an exhibition by Frank Nichols. Frank was a longtime instructor at Fort Hays State University's Department of Art and Design. He retired in 99. Frank actually passed away in 2013. But we often get requests and inquiries about his work. He was a brilliant printmaker, and painter, an award winning artist. And I love Frank and we had a great relationship with him at the gallery. And so we still there were still a large body of his work, that his son, it's still been housing. And it hadn't been back in Hays for a long time. So I just thought that would be a really cool thing to do. The colors are rich and warm. It just was a very appropriate thing that felt right on so many levels for this time of the year. Not to mention, it's just amazing art. So that will be up through November, the I think it's the 24th whatever the Wednesday is before Thanksgiving. We'll have it up literally right before the day before Thanksgiving up to that date. And so it's up now. It's our daily feature on Saturdays. And not only are there a lot of wonderful large frameworks, that and the prices are amazing. They're they're less expensive than they were when Frank was alive, and they're gorgeous. A lot of them are framed. And, but we're also have a lot of things that are unframed. In fact, anything that's in a frame, if you said Oh, but I'd want to reframe it anyway, we will take it out of the frame, and you can get it, you know you so you can buy it framed or unframed. And there's a whole big stash of things that aren't framed both the the exquisite hand colored etchings, as well as the ink and acrylic paintings that he was doing later that we're still in that same style, when laborious after he just didn't want to deal with printmaking anymore. But Frank Nichols work at the Arts Council, through the day before Thanksgiving, come in and see that really wonderful, wonderful work. And then want to remind everybody, three weeks from yesterday is the deadline for the big Five State Photography. And we're starting to get some things and they roll in slowly at this point, the flurry comes in that last week. And of course, with everything you know, that's how I am, too. But the call for entries is ongoing three weeks from yesterday is the deadline and go to our website for any information and the details on this project. It's open to any photographer of any age, background experience, preference of subject and process in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Colorado, through the support of our sponsors, were able to give out $1500 in cash awards across the three categories of nature, people and open and last year we instituted it through the through the pandemic process. But we're doing it again this year because it worked so well in the exhibition looked amazing. You just submit 8 x 10 photographs on paper, and your entry fee and and you know and form and all that kind of stuff. So it's not actual big works matted and framed, where you spend all this money and don't even know if it's going to get accepted or not. It's just eight by 10s, on paper not digitally submitted your photograph on paper. That way you know exactly what the judge is going to look like. Look at those are placed in clear plastic sleeves with rigid cardstock. We put them in large binders, and then I hand deliver those to the judge. The gentleman this year is Mike Sinclair. He is an instructor at KU and a professional photographer. And in fact, he did a workshop this summer here in Hays. Great gentlemen, I think he's going to judge us a great show. And then when those come back to us, we mount them and frame them. And I have had a couple of people ask about specifics, we're very, very aware of what could be cut off or or hidden, their standard commercial cut eight by 10 mats, which means that the opening itself is actually seven and a half inches by nine and a half inches. So if people want to be very much aware of what might get trimmed off, you certainly want to have that overlap. But that standard and for an eight by 10, you know, it's a quarter inch allowance all the way around. And that is the actual window opening of them. And then we put them in these really nice black wood frames, these slightly off white mats, and we put up all the pieces in our gallery. So everything you need to know other details, reiterating what I've said even some other things, they're online, but the deadline is November, the ninth, that'll be the entry submission deadline. So we have time to get them processed in a couple of days, fire them off, and still get them back in time. So we can get those notification cards mailed out. So check that out. If you are a photographer, if you know someone who is. And again, it's all about the image, no reputation, no bio for who the artists are the judges just seeing the images. And however you do it and process it. And what you choose to shoot is up to you. And so we want to make everybody aware of that. And then one of the other things I wanted to mention just to give people a heads up, we've talked we talked about it actually last month already, the Winter Art Walk will be Saturday, December 4, we're moving it to a Saturday like we did with the Spring Artwalk. It worked out beautifully. It gave people more time to really enjoy and engage. Also an opportunity to you know, stroll in and out of some of our downtown businesses through the course of this wonderful day. Eat at one of our fabulous eating and drinking establishments. And it doesn't have to just be downtown locations. But that's always the core area. But again, that will be 10am to 4pm on Saturday, December the fourth and the five state photography show I just talked about, which is always a huge hit with photographers and just our attending audience. That's the day it opens. The photography show always serves as the anchor of that Winter Art walk. And again, that will be Saturday December the fifth from 10 to four. And the reason I'm mentioning it now is not so much for the guests who come but for artists or locations who want to participate. There's no fee as a site as an artist. Nobody's got to send Commission's back to us. It is just a wonderful opportunity for our community to be engaging in the arts. And with it being in December we get to do it during the daylight hours when maybe it won't be quite as frigid as we've had a lot of that those evening you know first Friday in December exhibitions, it'll be light, hopefully a little warmer with a whole lot more time to just enjoy engage and make your way through our community. 
James Bell  Very cool. Is that the same day as the frost Fest Parade?I know that's like no, no, 
Brenda Meder  No, the Frost Fest Parade. I believe is the next weekend. The tree lighting for downtown is the Friday night before and that's often been a part of our of the Winter Art Walk is the tree lighting, but we've moved it to Saturday but what is cool one of the events will be the downtown farmers art market, you know the art market the art and craft market that they do every year. I think it's indoors I'm not sure where but I know that that event will be on the Saturday so it will be part it will be one of the features of the Art Walk the winter Art Walk on Saturday, as well as a lot of other really cool things that are shaping up. So it's going to be a wonderful day tree lighting the night before and the frost Fest Parade I believe the following weekend. So yeah, amazing things in our downtown and across our community really at the holidays. I will even give a plug I know Terry Crull was in a great thing coming up this next Friday night with the concert down town the symphony on Sunday, I'll even give them a shout out. They've got their children's symphony concert on Sunday afternoon, check their Facebook page and website. It's just so wonderful, all the great arts, things that go on in our community, for children, for adults, for the community as a whole. And a lot of times I promote those on our Facebook page, whether they're our events or not, because anything that makes our community better and richer. We're all in this together. And so you can definitely follow our Facebook page because I try to share all the good news from all these arts and cultural things. And go to our website for more information that's just haysartscouncli.org but between our Facebook page and our website, we will get the word out as best we can if not come by or give us a call.
 

Creepy Classics concert from the Hays Symphony to celebrate Halloween

The Hays Symphony Orchestra is set for this year's Haloween concert: Creepy Classics. Conductor Brian Buckstead shares all the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Submitted
The Hays Symphony at Fort Hays State University will be presenting Creepy Classics: A Children’s Halloween Concert, featuring loud noises, creepy sounds and the scary stories music can tell, on Sunday, October 31, 2021, 2:30 p.m. in the FHSU Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center. The ensemble is under the direction of Dr. Brian Buckstead, assistant professor of violin and viola at FHSU.
The program features Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens, Night on Bald Mountain, by Modest Mussorgsky, In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, by Edward Grieg, Suite from Psycho, by Bernard Herrmann, March to the Scaffold from Symphonie Fantastique, by Hector Berlioz, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Suite, by John Williams.
In addition, a host of music and Halloween themed pre-concert activities will be offered starting at 1:30 p.m.
“We think it’s important for kids to get their hands on instruments and to make connections between the music they’re hearing and how it’s created,” said Buckstead.
Symphony musicians and members of the FHSU Chapter of the National Association for Music Education will assist with pre-concert activities which include:
·  Spooky Music Tour—costumed statues come to life playing clips of the scariest sounds and music kids will hear in the concert
·  Drumming Circle—bongos, tam-tams, and other rhythm devices for making lots of loud noise
·  String Instrument Petting Zoo—hands-on guided experimenting with violins, violas and cellos
·  In the Hall of the Mountain King—tiptoe past the troll….run for your life in this retelling of the Mountain King story full of music, story and action
·  Meet the Family: Winds & Brass—flutes, trumpets, tubas, clarinets and more. FHSU students demonstrate their instruments from the wind and brass families
·  Creepy Arts and Crafts—create a variety of Halloween characters and props with a treasure box of arts supplies
·  Halloween Costume Parade—follow the brass leaders as costumed children parade around Beach-Schmidt and into the auditorium for the start of the concert
·  Free Trick-or-Treat Bags to the first 250 kids
The concert and treats are sponsored by a generous donation from Werth Wealth Management.
All Hays Symphony concerts are free and open to the public.
Attendees are encouraged to reserve tickets in advance on the symphony’s web site. Tickets may also be picked up in advance at the Hays Convention Visitors Bureau and the Downtown Hays Development Corporation, or at the symphony table in the lobby 30 minutes before the performance.

ECHS COVID-19 update: Oct. 27, 2021

On this episode of the Post Podcast Ellis County Health Services Director Jason Kennedy shares recent information about COVID-19 in Ellis County.
 
Transcript
 
James Bell 
COVID-19 booster shots are available in Ellis County. Ellis County Health Services director Jason Kennedy talks to us about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Jason Kennedy 
Last Friday, late last Friday, they approved booster shots really kind of for anybody that was able to get the additional shot. So right now that is individuals over 12 If you're looking at Pfizer, and then adults if you're looking at Moderna, J&J, so over 18, for those two, so I will tell you, this is probably one of the most I think COVID hasn't been confusing enough. But the FDA, the CDC and the KDHE have decided to make this booster rollout about as confusing as they possibly can so that the public is just generally has no idea what's going on, which is which is great. So
 
James Bell 
Makes your job easier, right?
 
Jason Kennedy 
Yeah, it does. It does. Um, so I think the easiest way to say this right now is boosters are approved kid vaccines or not, as of right now, and the primary focus is still getting primary vaccines into people that it's approved for. So the booster doses Yes, sir. there if you want one, absolutely. Come get one we have posted. We posted a couple of different locations or different options for people in town on our Facebook page, but essentially the private pharmacies, Dillons, both Dillons locations Walgreens, Walmart, pharmacy, and then Ellis County Health Department, we are all providing booster dose vaccines as well as primary vaccines. So if you if you're able to jump on our Facebook page, or if you give the office call, we can kind of direct you to not every location has every vaccine. But the health department does have every vaccine we have we have Pfizer, we have Moderna and we have Johnson and Johnson. So right now, if you want a booster dose, come get one. The boosters are safe. It is I've seen some misinformation about this, that it's a new formulation or it's a new there's new chemical there is there is nothing different or new about the booster doses it is the exact same same thing that was that was given as an initial primary dose. And so if if you didn't have any issues with with the initial shot, come get your booster shot if you want it. I will say that there is not a time critical crunch to getting booster doses done right now. We we don't see waning immunity with the initial vaccinations, we actually see them still very highly effective at that reduction in hospitalizations and really reduction in deaths. So yeah, we're giving them Yes, absolutely. Go get one if if it makes sense for you, if if you talk to your doctor, your doctor wants you to get it the patients that we still see some breakthrough infections that are leading to issues are the immunocompromised, And likely that is not due to waning immunity, it is just due to the fact that the vaccine just didn't work for them because they are unable to mount an immune response because of their their pre existing medical conditions. So boosters are a good thing. It is the exact same dose, there's there's nothing different about it, it will increase your level of immunity. It will hopefully you know continue to keep us safe here through the winter. But if if you're not able to get one today, it is not a it's not a giant thing like it your your your current vaccine is working. And it's working well. And we're not seeing any changes to that. So the people that aren't vaccinated, the vaccines work. The vaccines are safe. I know there's there's a there's a large political following with with with vaccines and they've really been attached to a political agenda, a political party. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Not that there's anything that says you're a bad person if you're unvaccinated. The unvaccinated people are not creating problems for people. They're creating problems for themselves. They are they are increasing the risk of hospitalization. They are increasing the risk of death, but they're not hurting anyone else. If if you want to be vaccinated, be vaccinated. I do highly encourage anyone that's eligible, be vaccinated. They are they are working and they work really well.
 
James Bell 
You know, on the on the booster note, you know, I've heard a little bit about that they're they're looking at mixing the vaccines. So if you got Maderna you could maybe get a Pfizer booster to help boost up the little bit of remaining  efficacy that might be missing. I'm wondering if you want to share with us the latest you've heard on that.
 
Jason Kennedy 
So yeah, you can you can mix boosters. Primary doses you still don't want to mix. So if you if you're on your first shot to Moderna get your second shot of Moderna. If you're on a first shot of Pfizer get your second shot of Pfizer if you're fully vaccinated with either Moderna, Pfizer or J&J, you can mix and match booster doses, you can get a booster dose of an mRNA if you had the J&J, you know, they asked the head of the CDC this weekend on the news, you know, what, what did she recommend? And she not duck the question, but but wisely said, hey, you know, we don't really have a recommendation of a better vaccine. I share that sentiment, we I don't have a recommendation of a better vaccine, they all work. They're all highly effective. We're not seeing, we're not seeing hospitalizations, and deaths of any vaccine. So it really is up to you, I would say, you know, if you didn't have issues with your first vaccine, stay with it. If you had issues with your first vaccine, call your doctor, talk to your doctor, see what they recommend as far as moving forward with a booster dose. But if if you had no issues with the first one, all these vaccines are safe, they're all effective. We really are seeing great response with the vaccine. So there's not a huge issue to fret over which one I got? Or did I get the right one that I get the wrong one? No, because they all work. And so if you didn't have any issues, stick with it. If you have questions or you you really are concerned you would you would like to get one over the other because you've read this call and talk to your doctor about it, they're gonna be the best people to guide your medical decision. You know, we don't rarely, it's pretty rare that that someone just decides like some internet research and then they're like, oh, you know what, I'm gonna start treatment on my own cancer. Like, you know, we go we go to the doctor, we trust the doctor to make the best decision, because it's, that's what they do. That's, that's what they're good at. And so same thing with this, if you if you have questions, give your doctor.
 
James Bell 
Excellent. You know, I wonder if you want to talk a little bit to I'm hearing some new treatments are maybe coming down the pike or or are getting, I don't know what the right word but certified? I don't know, if you have anything there you'd like to share as well.
 
Jason Kennedy 
Sure, um, you know, it's still pretty early on well, not not really, actually they, they've studied it there, there are effective treatments, they are still in the approval process. So as far as you know, running out and get them or anything like that they're not available. I do think that all in all, we've the medical system has gotten better at treating COVID-19. We know that some of the early on things that we were doing were leading to poor patient outcomes, they have they have changed that treatment course they have returned to kind of a standard course of treatment for other viruses. And then with these new over the counter treatments coming out, they they are effective. However, the most effective way to battle any viruses to not get it. So the best way to help yourself is to not get COVID then you don't have to worry about whether the treatments effective or not just don't get it. And so it's right now the best way to do that is really be vaccinated. And, you know, kind of just take those basic hygiene measures and live your life but there are there are some some good treatments on the horizon or some good evidence to support that. At least the treatments will will have a reduction in hospitalizations, deaths and that kind of stuff.
 
James Bell 
Excellent. Well, sir, we've just about that time got to get over to news but any last thoughts before we go?
 
Jason Kennedy 
No, you know, it's right now it's confusing for everybody. We understand that. If you if you have questions, talk to your doctor. If you have questions, call the health department. If you want to be vaccinated or want to if you want to get your initial vaccine, absolutely do it if you want to get a shot there. As far as the kid vaccines almost there, they're still in the process but likely in the next couple of weeks.

Holy Family Elementary raises over $80,000 during Cajetan Cash fundraiser

On this episode of the Post Podcast Cajetan Cash fundraising chair Olivia Becker shares the results of the fundraiser.

Fort Hays State University choirs to present Fall concert

On this episode of the Post Podcast Fort Hays State University director of choral activities, Terry Crull shares details from the upcoming fall choirs concert.