The Post Podcast

Upcoming report to highlight ongoing housing shortage in Ellis Co.

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the upcoming 2021 Ellis County Housing Report.

Additional development north of I-70 in Hays approved

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Post reporter Becky Kiser recaps this week's Hays city commission meeting with vice-mayor Michael Burgess and city manager Toby Dougherty. 

Weekend Setlist Jan. 28, 2022

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

Forward Ever: Hays Symphony director Brian Buckstead

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with Hays Symphony Orchestra director Brian Buckstead.

Upcoming Extension District events to assist ag producers

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Cottonwood Extension District agent Stacy Campbell shares information about upcoming programming.

Sen. Moran says situation in Ukraine ’a test of American resolve’

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays Post reporter Cristina Janney speaks with U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) about a variety of situations facing Kansas and the nation.

Finding help through humor: Event seeks to raise funds for disaster relief

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Has Humor emcee Jeff Leiker shares information about the upcoming Four-county wildfire relief show.

Forward Ever: Hays Med president and CEO Edward Herrmann

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with Hays Med president and CEO Edward Herrmann.

USD 489 school board hears bond recommendation from community committee

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Post reporter Cristina Janney speaks with USD 489 superintendent Ron Wilson about the proposed USD 489 bond plan presented to the Board of Education at their regular meeting this week.

Major elementary school fundraiser scheduled for Sunday

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Holy Family Elementary Annual Chili Supper and Bazaar co-chairs Ryan Pfannenstiel and Jessica Acosta stop by to talk about the event, scheduled for Jan. 30.

Hays group seeks community feedback about future of Ellis Co.

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger, along with Imagine Ellis County committee member Ryan Benton share information about an upcoming town hall.

Upcoming Imagine Ellis County town hall seeks to inform the future to the county

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the upcoming Imagine Ellis County committee town hall. 
Transcript
 
James Bell 
The Imagine Ellis County committee has set up a town hall to solicit community feedback, Grow Hays executive director, Doug Williams stops by to talk to us about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
We're having this meeting on February 7, at the Hilton Garden Inn, from 530 to 8 pm. And it's a town hall meeting that's put on by our Imagine Ellis County committee. And this is the committee that was put together a large group of cross-section of the community, very diverse in terms of age group in terms of occupations and backgrounds, to try and take a look at where we want to be in Ellis County 510 25 years from now. And we're in the input gathering state where we're trying to get feedback from the community. And that's what this town hall meeting is part about is to get people from the community to come to this event and tell us what they'd like to see what they think Ellis County should be.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, and you know, this is kind of what we talked about quite a bit the economic development here in Ellis County. But as the committee starts firing up and starts having events like this, really what kind of feedback are you looking for? I mean, are you wanting to know what we're looking for in retail, what kind of sectors we need to build on? Or is it really just open to whatever you think, Ellis County might be in 20 years 30.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
It's kind of all of the above, we initially brought in the larger employers' business in the business community, and have them each give five minutes on what their strategic plan is, and where they're headed, and what their challenges are. And, and we've gone through that we've heard from them, there are some recurring themes, and all of those things. And I'm sure there'll be some recurring themes and from the public in general. But we're kind of taking this to this next step where we want to hear from the general public, what they would like to see how they feel about things. And it could be retail for some it could be, you know, better-paying jobs for others. And the ones we hear time and again, you know, housing, and childcare, and workforce, and all of those kinds of things. But we don't have any preconceived notions about where this might lead and what people might come up with. We're just eager to get input. And that's what it's all about.
 
James Bell  
And I understand, you know, as little incentive for people maybe to go if you want to share an idea, but try game ideas, not that great. Can we give away some free food right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
To feed everybody? Does that always hopefully helps a little bit, get people to come and participate? So hopefully, that increases attendance and people come and give us their thoughts. Yeah, you know, I think we want to keep it positive, but we're not we want to look at what some of our our weaknesses might be as well, I think in the community, because we know we have some every community does. But we really need people are to participate. This summer, we're going to do a community survey that we're going to send out the docking Institute has been contracted to do a community survey, asking some specific questions of as many participants as they can get, as to, you know, some of the things that people would like to see what they would like to what they would like Ellis County to look like in the future.
 
James Bell 
Doug, I'm curious, do you know when the last time that something like this was either attempted or done in haste? I know that the Imagine Ellis County committee has been around for a couple years now. But what kind of got derailed with COVID. But previous to that, as there have been similar efforts?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, this, this committee comes out of the strategic doing process, which is a process that the Hansen Foundation has supported across western Kansas, where they have had, they got a facilitator who comes in and hosts a meeting like this, and lots of ideas come out of that this is this Imagine Ellis County group came out of that strategic doing initiative. And it's it's similar in what it does this just bores down into more specifics, you know, they imagine or the strategic doing sessions are really broad-based, you know, nothing's off the table, nothing. You know, just what would you like to see, you know, do you think Ellis County or rooks, county or wherever they're holding needs, needs a theme park, you know, something like that, just to let your imagination run wild? We're kind of honing in on some things right now and trying to be a little bit more specific. Okay, what can we do in our community, that's going to make it a better place to live. And yes, it's going to be broad in some senses that it may include retail, it may include housing, it may include lots of different things, but we want to make sure that we're addressing those things and find, you know, come up with some what might be some great ideas. So I would say that to answer your question that Strategic Soing was kind of the first event that I'm aware of, and that was probably three or four years ago. And this has kind of been the ongoing effort from that initial event.
 
James Bell 
Okay. You know, in the economic development word world, I'm kind of curious how important our strategic sessions like this, because I think of other cities that, you know, have seen like a pretty good explosive growth over the last few years where Hayes's relatively stagnant in its growth and the county in their region, I should say, are losing people. So they're not even seeing growth. Does this really make an impact on that? Or is this just a kind of cherry on top?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, we hope it makes an impact on that. I mean, we're, we believe that we have an amazing community and a great place to live, we have a lot to offer, whether it be companies that might move here, whether it be the local companies that want to expand, or people that want to retire here, people that want to relocate here, because they work remotely. But we have to identify the type of things that people want, and see what we can do about delivering those type of things. If we want to be successful in those efforts, and in attracting people and keeping people in our community.
 
James Bell 
And as we've talked about in the past, this time, right now, there's so much urban fly, people are looking for, hey, cities, like Hayes to move to. And if we can get everybody involved and start to develop those ideas, we could see some potential economic development in a really big way in the next few years. Right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
I think we can I mean, I've read different statistics. One of them is that there's 20 million people in the next 10 years will migrate away from these urban areas. They're looking for places to go. If you watched, there was an episode on 60 minutes last week, and a lady named Karen Kimbrough, who was the chief financial officer, chief economist for LinkedIn, which is the largest job hunting site, that there is online. She said pre-pandemic, one in 67, of the jobs they had posted, was for remote workers. Today, it's one in seven. Wow, that's a huge transformation of the workplace transferring to knowing that they have to accommodate people in different ways. So one in seven jobs now on LinkedIn is, for a remote worker, they'll let you work from anywhere you want to work. And that's huge. And so as these people look to flee the urban areas, as you said, and find a different type of life. We have to look as a community, what do we have to offer because we're in the competition, and they can go anywhere, right? They have the skills, they now can work remotely, so they can choose where they live? Well, how do we make sure that they choose here, at least some of them, obviously, we don't want 20 million, but some of them are some share of them are willing to come here. And that's why things like housing, that's why things like schools, that's like things like safe communities and activities in the community and, and that type of thing make a huge difference. And so part of our job within grow Hays as economic development organization, but also within this Imagine Ellis County committee is to identify the things that we need to put in place for this community to be able to attract those people because as I say, all the time, you know, I have lots of people say I like hate dislike it is we want to stay the same. And my response to that is we have to grow to stay the same, because our region is losing people. And so we have to increase in population, just to stay the way we are much less to grow and have more activities and more choices with retail or whatever it might be.
 
James Bell 
Yeah. And to dig a little bit deeper into that. Something that I hear pretty frequently is is the pull factor in Ellis County, or I don't know, maybe it's in Hayes, but it's a 1.7 1.8, I believe, which means that for every dollar spent here, we're getting point eight from outside of the community.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
That's correct. We're typically in the top three in the state, the county or pull factor, and then Hayes's about the same. And that's important, but we're we're slipping a little bit in that area, because other areas have done a better job of developing retail, and we have some shortcomings in that area. So we've got to do better. But our pull factor is still critically important. And we're still ranked very high. And but we've got to have, you know, as our as our region, our trade area shrinks, we've got to make it up someplace or will not have that typo factor for very much longer.
 
James Bell 
Yeah. And you know, the other piece of this on the remote work that I think about is, you know, unlike any other employer, if you're employed in Ellis County and you spend that money in Ellis County, that movie's just or money is just circling around. But if you're employed by Amazon, let's say, and living in Ellis County, you're getting money from other places and bringing that into the community. And as for my understanding, that is just going to be vital going on to the next 10/20 years.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Sure, we want to we're an exporter, if we can get those kind of people, we're exporting labor. Basically, we're bringing in money from the outside. These people are buying homes, they're buying cars are buying groceries, they're buying appliances, and everything else. And they typically have great jobs and make a good salary. So that's exactly the type of people we want coming into our community. So it's critical that we identify what's important to them, and then try and meet those requirements.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, you know, I'm curious if along with the input from the local community, is there any effort with this Imagine Ellis County committee to get that feedback from people say, from Denver, or the front range that are looking to move into a more rural setting?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, there is part of our marketing initiative. And we were fortunate to receive a grant from the Schmidt foundation to do some marketing, and part of that is going to be specifically targeting people on the eastern slope of Colorado, we, we believe that's fertile ground for people looking to relocate. And so we've got some marketing efforts, we've created some quality of life videos about what it's like to live in Ellis County, not only in Hays, but also in Allison Victoria, the smaller communities around the county, and to try and show them that we have a great quality of life here. We have lots going on, and we have a great place to live. And so but that's all great, but it's not if they don't know it. So we've got to let them know what it is. And that's what these videos and other methods of advertising are being produced to get to these people and help them understand the quality of life that we do have here.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. Well, Doug, I tell you, we've got just about a minute left. Anything else on this that he thought you want to share?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Well, I just I hope everybody you know, as many people as possible come out, we are going to feed you. It runs from 530 till eight o'clock at the Hilton Garden Inn on February 7. We will kind of go over what we've done so far. And then we're going to just kind of open it up to people and get their input we want input. We don't have any. As I said, we really don't have any preconceived notions. We have some recurring themes that we continue to hear and we know about but we know there's some things that people have on their minds that we're not seeing. So we're eager to get good representation out and tell us what they think. Very good
 
James Bell 
Free to attend but you are asking for registration in advance right? Just say of a meal count, right?
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
We would like you to register ahead of time. If you can't get that done and at the last minute find out you can come out, go ahead and come out. But if you can register that be great. You can do so on our Facebook page, the Imagine Ellis County Facebook page, call our office, email us, however, you want to do it but we look forward to having a big crowd.

DHDC kicks off year with upcoming downtown events

On this episode of the Post Podcast Downtown Hays Development Corporation executive director Sara Bloom and director of events and operations Allie Glidewell shares updates from downtown Hays.
Transcript
James Bell 
The Downtown Hays Development Corporation is getting ready for a busy spring season. Executive Director Sarah bloom and director of events and operations, Allie Glidewell stops by to talk to us about that on this episode of the post podcast.
 
Sara Bloom 
What are you talking about? First? We got a whole list?
 
James Bell 
Well, yeah, I thought it was kind of a slower time a year. But then I'm here. I know you guys actually are getting prepared for a lot of things going on. I think we got to do this chronologically. Right Valentine's Day. That's the first thing coming up.
 
Allie Glidewell 
Yeah, sure is.
 
James Bell 
What are you guys going on for that?
 
Allie Glidewell 
Sure. Well, it's kind of something new and different that we're trying to do just a promotional thing for businesses. But know that a lot of people spend money downtown, spend gifts, spend money for guessing their loved ones. So what we've done is we put together three baskets. And when you spend money in downtown, you can bring your receipts into us, whether that's paper or you know, I know a lot of square receipts go virtual. But bring that to us will stamp it and you can enter to win a basket will draw it on Valentine's Day. And there's all sorts of I mean, almost every single store is represented in those baskets. We
 
Sara Bloom 
had so much fun shopping, we picked, what Tuesday when it was 60 degrees outside, we walked all over downtown. And we're talking from like reds all the way down to Indigo and breathe and all the things in between.
 
Allie Glidewell 
Yeah, super awesome. So we spent a little bit of money in every store to put together different baskets. We got stuff from even like the baskets themselves, or from the ark. We went everywhere. There. I mean, there's great things we put together a little men's basket that's got Gosh, soaps and goodies and all sorts of Thai
 
Sara Bloom 
and mugs and coffee and trees and all sorts of stuff. Yeah, that's and that's just that. That's just the men's baskets, toothbrush and a really nice electric toothbrush for my smile. Yeah, yeah. So if you give love to our downtown businesses, you could have the opportunity to get the so we'll be posting pictures of those baskets later today along with that promotion. But essentially, starting next week, if you shop downtown, bring in a receipt, and it doesn't matter if it's for a $3 coffee from breeze or a $3,000 couch from furniture, luck. Bring your receipts in and you can enter to win one of these baskets and we'll draw Valentine's.
 
Allie Glidewell 
Yeah. Because we love you. Yes, amazing. Well, it's fun.
 
James Bell 
So you can the interim all the way up until Valentine's Day, so that Friday before Friday before okay.
 
Sara Bloom 
Or like bringing in your receipts from the weekend on that Monday. Valentine's is on a Monday and we could draw
 
James Bell 
on a Monday this year. It is
 
Allie Glidewell 
okay that Monday, we love Monday.
 
Sara Bloom 
That means you have all weekend to spoil your love. That's what that means. I suppose that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe we do Monday at the end of the day. That way you can bring in your seats. Have coffee yet.
 
James Bell 
It is still pretty early in the morning. It's especially talking about like Valentine's Day and all the craziness that comes along with that.
 
Sara Bloom 
And it's not that far away. We are at the end of January already.
 
James Bell 
It's sneaking up on us only 22 It's it's firmly here.
 
Sara Bloom 
Well, it's pretty cool Valentine's I would watch our Facebook page and other downtown business Facebook pages because I know there are a lot of Valentine dinners and events being planned right now and you have to make reservations right now specifically the strand and the Paisley pair are already booking very quickly for their Valentine
 
Allie Glidewell 
audience always has really great deals around this time too. And they book out so
 
Sara Bloom 
far. The new Brickhouse Spa has some ones going on. So be watching. We'll try and share as much as we can, of course, but just be aware that there's some really wonderful stuff happening in downtown makes it easy. And Halo it is a partnership going on. All sorts of stuff.
 
James Bell 
Awesome. Yeah, you support your loved ones. Or shows love to your loved ones, I guess and support downtown Hayes at the same time. Exactly. I love that. Very cool.
 
Sara Bloom 
Yeah. Also happening this weekend is the winter sidewalk sale. We did not go chronologically, but there are several businesses that have their winter sidewalk sale going on. Specifically couture has like 75% off simply refine, are all participating so check that out.
 
James Bell 
And I think we're gonna have decent weather this weekend. So it'd be a nice day to walk around and I think I'm gonna check a hole 35 today. Yeah, not nice today. Today is nothing better than the last two days it is currently eight degree by the way. Yeah, no, it looks like Saturday. Well, not not great, but mid 40s so decent weather is gonna be nice and sunny anyway
 
Sara Bloom 
there's no wind that's what a beautiful day that's walkable.
 
James Bell 
five mile an hour winds. That's doable.
 
Allie Glidewell 
It's great down there.
 
James Bell 
You know and
 
Sara Bloom 
actually buildings will block anyone that might be Oh
 
James Bell 
yeah, you always get that that nice buffer down there. But you know I already do this Saturday morning. You guys know this, but pretty much I take my kids in this what we do we walk down to On Hayes, we go when we hit different shops, they've got their little favorite hit spots they like to hit and we get some lunch at one of the restaurants down there. And it's a great time. And you see so many people down there even when there's no events going on. There's always people walking around and it's it's it's just a fun, energetic time to do it. And a third, some sidewalk sales on top of that, and it's just over the moon over the moon. That's what we're
 
Sara Bloom 
saying. Believe it or not, I did not know that you walk downtown every Saturday though. I'm not down there every I usually at a basketball tournament or a baseball tournament.
 
Allie Glidewell 
So to be fair, we're walking around downtown all the time.
 
Sara Bloom 
It's true. Time down Saturday morning.
 
Allie Glidewell 
Their weekend is his community theaters. It's showtime. It's a fun new thing that they're putting on that'll air on Friday and on Saturday, but the community theater has all sorts of Valentine's things coming up too. So if you want to support a really, really fun cause, go give them a show. They're always exciting.
 
Sara Bloom 
ks.com Yeah. For tickets.
 
James Bell 
Yeah. Yeah, we had the director for this one. Cheryl Glassman come in earlier this week, I think. Yeah. Sounds like a really fun show. And I last time I talked to him. I don't know for sure. But they still had some tickets available. So if you're interested, well, it's Friday. I guess you probably need to get him today anyway, but but don't wait because they might sell out. So get them if you're interested.
 
Sara Bloom 
Yeah. And Kylie Frey at the fox.
 
Allie Glidewell 
Kylie Frey at the fox. Yeah.
 
James Bell 
That's rodeo. She's a former country, right? Yeah, rodeo. Yeah, I don't know what I saw. It's, uh, yeah. It's really good. But it's kind of a little bit genre bending, I
 
Sara Bloom 
think, Oh, 20? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah, you
 
Allie Glidewell 
might say that genre bending sounds way cooler. And I just came up with it. I like that. That's why you're good at the job, James.
 
Sara Bloom 
What else is on your list? What else do we want to talk about?
 
James Bell 
Easter, you got to do some Easter stuff, too. I mean, that's a little bit down the road. But
 
Sara Bloom 
like your face, you can't see your face. But we're very excited for
 
Allie Glidewell 
Easter. Easter is going to be very fun. We're hoping to incorporate a lot of different stores and just put something on for the kids. We don't have all the details yet, which includes, you know, the full format or a date. But we had a great brainstorming session yesterday. So look out for marketing on that something was eggs and something with candy. Yes, candy and children come downtown. It's gonna be a good time.
 
James Bell 
Really, you get those two things together, and you're gonna have a good time no matter what.
 
Sara Bloom 
Maybe even cupcakes, I don't know, there's a lot of brainstorming happening. But something will be happening in downtown for Easter. So be watching our Facebook page for that. And then Allie had a great another great brainstorming session last night with our downtown Hayes market vendor. Yeah, we had
 
Allie Glidewell 
our little end of year meeting to talk about everything that went really great or things that need tweaking, and we want to kind of vision board in 2022. We're really excited, they're all very passionate about what they do. All of our market vendors are very excited to come back already. They were working their calendars for day one and figuring out you know, different promotions, especially for some of the bigger days like National honeybee day or what to do during Oktoberfest weekend. So it was really, really great. The markets gonna kick off October 28. And then go every single Saturday, maybe? Yep, May 28. So sorry. I was thinking October 20.
 
James Bell 
Of course, October.
 
Sara Bloom 
Definitely the last Saturday of May
 
Allie Glidewell 
springtime. Yes. And it'll still run 730 to 11. Every day. We're gonna have all sorts of fun things going on all the time. But stay tuned to our Facebook page for that as well.
 
James Bell 
Very cool. Yeah. And you mentioned a couple times now. But absolutely. If you want to stay tuned into what's going on to downtown Hayes, you guys do a really fantastic job of keeping that Facebook page updated. It's an easy and efficient way to do it on the website as well. You guys have the calendar. And it's all right there in handy. And yeah,
 
Sara Bloom 
yeah. And we kind of mentioned it too. Even if it's not an event organized by the DHDC. Office, we would love to promote it for you. Let us know anything happening in downtown. If it's if it's a benefit to downtown, it's bringing foot traffic and attention to downtown. Let us know we'll try and get it on our Facebook page. We'll get it in our weekly newsletter, we'll get it on the website, at least the events calendar, let us know how we can help promote what's happening in downtown Hayes, whether it's out of our office or not, because I support the community. But that's kind of it. We're working on a lot of things, but those are the most pressing.
 
Allie Glidewell 
It is a slow time of year, but it just leads a lot of room for game planning.
 
James Bell 
Yes, and that's you know, that's what I love about this time of year. It's all the ideas it's the energy it's thinking about, you know, all the stuff that is going to be going on and you know, as we as we warm up in the spring, and I love it because just the planning bit and then the excitement starts to build and you get to talk about things like the Farmers Market, which is going to be
 
Sara Bloom 
a next month we'll be telling you in brews tickets go on sale.
 
Allie Glidewell 
There's all sorts there's all sorts of things all the time.
 
Sara Bloom 
But yeah, always check the Facebook page. Always check downtown, he's calm. We've got a great Instagram. Lots of new businesses are opening it downtown. We just celebrated the fort opening. We're going to be celebrating the bloomin barber lounge opening soon. Lots of changes, and it's all very exciting. Yeah.
 
James Bell 
Absolutely. And, you know, and this is part of what we were talking about before we went on air downtown. It's it's full. I mean, it's not you know, if you remember if you're if you're listening, I can't imagine a lot of people that are listening haven't been in downtown Hays in the last couple years. But if you haven't, like come and check it out, because it is the the the energy is just so incredible. And there's this this attitude of just building and fixing and, and driving business and I love it. I don't know what else to say.
 
Sara Bloom 
Thanks for getting excited about it. We're excited. It's great.
 
James Bell 
Truly. Alrighty, guys. Well, any last thoughts when we go?
 
Allie Glidewell 
Downtown hayes.com Thanks for supporting
 
Sara Bloom 
local shop downtown. Downtown. Downtown.
 
Allie Glidewell 
Love downtown. Stay on the lookout for the Valentine. Yes.
 
Sara Bloom 
Yeah, we're very excited. We're like, well, maybe we can change our names on.
 
Allie Glidewell 
Yeah, maybe we can when we will give ourselves basket but they're really great and we want them to. We want to win. We picked out everything. They're very curated.

Heartland Community Foundation funds assisting Dec. 15 victims

On this episode of the Post Podcast Heartland Community Foundation executive director Sarah Meitner shares information about the new Emergency Relief Funds.

HCT to present ’It’s Showtime’

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Cheryl Glassman shares information about the Hays Community Theater's upcoming production of It's Showtime.

Forward Ever: Meteorologist Dan Holiday

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with Meteorologist Dan Holiday.

Friends of the Hays Public Library invites public to annual meeting

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Public Library communication coordinator Callie Kolacny shares information about the upcoming Friends of the Hays Public Library annual meeting.

USD 489 bond issue to impact more than education

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares potential impacts of the USD 489 bond issue proposal.
 
Transcript
James Bell 
As Hays residents consider another USD 489 bond issue Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams says school facilities are a key factor in recruiting people to the area. He talks to us about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
 
Doug Williams 
Particularly in this day and age where we have lots of people moving around the country. You know, there's studies that say, in the next 10 years, 20 million people will migrate from urban areas to more rural areas. And these are people that can work remotely that have good jobs and have, they're skilled, and they're looking for alternatives other than the rat race in the city. So they're, they're looking at alternatives. And when they look out, across the country, one of the key things that this demographic looks for is schools, you know, when you talk to people, you know, talk to people all the time in urban areas, when they move to a different neighborhood, the first thing they look at, are the schools. Mm hmm. And that's what these people are looking for, as well. And we feel like Hayes has so much to offer. And we've got a great story to tell, until it comes to the physical condition of our schools. I think our quality of education is very good here. But the physical condition of our schools has been neglected for far too long. And so we have no choice but to do something about that. Because we're in a competitive world. And if you look at lots and lots of other communities, they have made the investments in their school systems, and we have not.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, exactly exactly what you're saying. And you know, I think about I saw some comments on when I was on social media. And it was folks basically, kind of lambasted saying that no peep, nobody would make that decision based on the schools, nobody's going to move to Hayes, because we have good schools. But I think to your point, people do make that decision if they're going to move and I think about myself, for example, if I were to leave this job, I would work probably online and could pick anywhere in the world. Anywhere, right? And the schools would be I've got a couple nine year olds and a little one about to get into the school district. That would be the one of the first things I would look at.
 
Doug Williams 
Sure, it's very important. And I think those people who don't think it is, could spend a few minutes talking to the human resources department at Hayes Medical Center, or Fort Hays State University who are trying to recruit health care providers, or college, college professors, or even our school system, trying to recruit or keep teachers, those teachers that do a really great job. How long are they going to stay here, when they have to work in the kind of conditions that some work in and they're really nasty, you know, some of our situations are, are not good at all. And you know that the thing I continue to harp on is, there's a cost of not passing a bond. And I argue that it's far higher than passing a bond. Yeah, you can, you can quantify what $140 million is, and it's X number of dollars for a homeowner per month, blah, blah, blah. It's more difficult to quantify the cost of those lost opportunities, those people that didn't come to our community, those businesses that maybe chose not to expand here, because we don't have the type of school system that can recruit people to our community for labor force and that kind of thing. So there's a high cost of not doing what we need to do, not to mention the fact that it gets more expensive every year.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, and this is something I've shared, we were talking a little bit about this right before we went on air too. And I've shared this story, one of the initial bond issue, guys that was helping spread the word on this one on room when the first bond issue went through seven, eight years ago now. But that's exactly what his point was. He was he was a conservative guy. And he said, Look, I don't like spending money, and I don't want to increase my taxes, not one penny, but every year we wait, it just is going to cost us more. And that's what we've seen. So the bond issue then was I think about 108 100 9 million, and now it's 143, I think is the lowest of the three points, I could have that wrong. But that's an increase in materials cost and the cost of labor and all that, etc. associated expenses.
 
Doug Williams 
What absolutely is, you know, I've lived here all my life. And I remember the bond issues that they attempted to pass in the 60s and 70s. And I believe there were four failed attempts before they passed the $5 million bond to build Hayes high to give you some idea of what cost to the bond that built Hayes high and I think 1978 is when they passed the bond was $5 million. But through the 60s and early 70s, they had a number of failed attempts. And if you go back and look at the plans of the original high school they were going to build It's incredible what it contained. But then we went through the inflationary 70s And that kind of thing. So what we ended up with at the time was was nice, but it cost a lot more in the end than what that initial bond issue cost would have been. Had they has to the first go around. And we're kind of in the same situation now, and certainly in an inflationary time, there's all indications that, you know, we're dealing with some inflation, for sure, and materials and that type of thing. And so, to wait, it's just going to cost more later. And I continue to say, schools are critical infrastructure, no different than roads, no different than a sewer, plant water lines, you've got to invest in those things, if you want to have a productive community, and it affects all aspects of the community, seniors, young families, singles, you know, our local economy will suffer, if we don't invest in our schools and our infrastructure.
 
James Bell 
You know, one of the big things that we spoke earlier with on the morning show here earlier this week, and with our USD 49, report, we talked about the space. And I think that's another key component of this is, you know, our schools right now are basically maxed out with the number of children we can get in them. And if we want to have any sort of growth, we're gonna have to put those kids somewhere.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
That's exactly right. If you look at them and that's, that's my real challenge, my frustration with some of the social media things is that people don't look at the numbers, they just kind of spout off. And don't, don't think this through or don't educate themselves, because I've heard him say, you know, hey, size, enrollment is dropping? Well, that's not true at all, if you look at the numbers, and if you look at the capacity that was designed for, were about 150 kids over what it was designed to hold. And we think we're going to have some growth, we want to have some growth, no, we're not going to be Denver, or, you know, a large urban area, but we want consistent steady growth in our community, we need to have it if we're going to be the type of community that we'd like to have. And so space is a huge issue. And we've got to deal with that somehow or another.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, you know, you can I know one of the big arguments that I hear pretty frequently against the bond issues has been, well, we didn't take care of it the way we should have. And I think there is some we've talked about that a little bit in the past, there's, there's some truth to that, but the space thing you can't get around it, there's no other way. And you know, I've seen it, and I always encourage people to go into the schools and check it out yourself. I've seen the lunch rooms, as they're shifting around at 1015. In the morning, I've seen, you know, teachers teaching out of closets. And that's just not a good, you know, again, a should go back to your point earlier, those educators I think, are gonna be really questioning the decision, do I want to stay in this district, and you know, you teach in a closet for two, three years in a row? I think anybody to have that kind of mindset.
 
Doug Williams 
Sure. And we live in a society where talented people have lots of choices. You know, we're in a tight labor market all across our country. And if somebody is a good teacher, they can go get a job anywhere, you know, they can, they can teach wherever they want. So if they don't have a decent, good conditions with which to teach, they're going to go someplace else. And they and the whole, you know, they didn't handle the funds appropriately before, you know, I don't know, maybe they did. Maybe they didn't, I suppose there are some arguments that they made poor choices in the past where they spent the capital outlay money and that kind of thing. But that's irrelevant. Today. I think we have a good school board, I think with this vision committee is committed a large group of committed smart people. I think our USD 489 staff is smart, committed people, we got to trust them. You know, at some point in time, we can't be sitting back playing armchair quarterback all the time and saying we should do this, you should do that. When you don't really understand the situation. You know, we've got to trust these people that they're telling us the right thing and that they have the community and the school district's best interests in mind. And we need to act.
 
James Bell 
Yeah. You know, I'm glad you mentioned that, because that's one of the things that I think in this particular conversation, I've seen that this seems to be going well, is that a lot more people are involved. And they're interested in like, there was a bond meeting a couple of days ago, there was a fairly substantial crowd. And I remember in the first bond issue, you know, again, 578 years ago, you go to those meetings, and there'd be nobody there literally nobody. So I'm curious, you know, what you're hearing from, like business leaders about that, you know, is the tide kind of turned a little bit? Are more people supporting this? Or is it still going to be an uphill battle?
 
Doug Williams 
I think it has turned to some extent, I think that the real challenge I have seen in the past is that I don't think anybody disagrees that we need a bond. I mean, I say nobody there there are those out there that disagree and are not going to vote for it under any circumstance. But I think it has turned I think people recognize that we do need a bond. And most of what I hear is positive. So I think we are headed in the right direction, at least I hope so. You know, you're always going to have a vocal minority are going to voice their opinions and that's great. That's what this country saw about. But I think by and large people recognize the need and We this time I hope is different and I hope we can get something done. It's critical to our future that we do.
 
James Bell 
Okay. Well, before we run out of time, there's one other thing we want to talk a little bit about today. And that's some construction going on out towards, well, gosh, I don't know the roads but out east of town.
 
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 
Commerce Parkway.
 
James Bell 
There you go.
 
Doug Williams 
Heart of America has a development near Commerce Parkway, where Glassman climate control is that area behind Glassman climate control on Ninth Street out there. That is been out there for a long time, 20 years 20 plus years with some lots and things out there for commercial development. And we've had two lots sales in the last few months to local businesses who are going to do expansions out there. And we've got some interest in a third lot for a potential construction project for some factory microfactory project. And so some good activity out there good to see some local businesses, make investments and expand. And I think there'll be 2022, you'll see a lot of activity out there that be to the east of where Glassman Corporation is just off of commerce Parkway. So that's good news. Great to see.
 
James Bell 
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I wonder he, when businesses make that move, you know, and that's I don't know, that's out of city limits, right. Is there a is there an impact to like tax revenues or anything like that to be concerned about? Or is this is an all kind of good thing? Because it really it's not like a big move. It's in an expansion, of course, is always a good thing.
 
Doug Williams 
Well, expansion is good. And let me correct. That is in the city limits. So okay, that is annexed into the city, they do have access to city services, water, sewer, that kind of thing. Fire protection. So that is why they made that decision where they're going is it isn't a city. Gotcha. So it's all positive from that standpoint, because both of these organizations operate in existing buildings that pay property taxes. They're building new buildings, which will add property tax revenue to the tax rolls. So it's all good. Plus, I'll expand and employ more people. So I don't see any downside to this one.
 
James Bell 
Okay, win, win, win. Love that. Are you gonna tell us the businesses. You can't tell us, can you?
 
Doug Williams 
I will soon, not right now.
 
James Bell 
You always have the best information is what you can't share.
 
Doug Williams 
Always.
 
James Bell 
Love it. Well, it's very good to hear that, you know, that's happening. And I love seeing expansion out there. Because, you know, to me, that's one of those areas, one of those regions that can really use that it's kind of underdeveloped, I think and you know, and I didn't realize that had been out there that, that for that long,
 
Doug Williams 
It has been that those lots were developed quite some time ago, and it's time there was some expansion out there. It's a good spot with, as I said earlier, it's in the city limits. It's got access to city utilities. Part of America also owns 32 acres directly to the east of where these are. So the game plan would be just continue going east and find some other organizations to either come in or expand out there and keep it going.

Cold weather can be harmful to outdoor animals

On this episode of the Post Podcast Ellis County Sheriff Scott Braun shares information about protecting animals during cold weather.
 
Transcript
James Bell
With winter weather well in place in the area, Ellis County Sheriff Scott Braun says it's time to think about those animals that are outside. He talks to us about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Scott Braun
We've got a lot of animals out there, this is about the time when we start getting a lot of phone calls from concerned citizens and, and a lot of times, it's justified. But I just want to touch on what's required by state statute doesn't mean that you can't go above and beyond, it just means that this is the minimum. So by state statute, they have to have shelter, they have to have water, and they have to have food. And so we get a lot of phone calls from, from concerned citizens about not having those things, and we do do those checks on a regular basis, if we receive them. Unfortunately, we cannot make them take them inside, if they meet all those requirements, and it's been pretty cold, I would encourage those people to take their dogs inside and animals to, to make sure they're safe. You know. But as far as an enforcement action, we can't take any unless they're not meeting one of those standards. So a lot of people are, are concerned with that. And when we leave, we kind of leave sometimes with a feeling that we didn't do anything, it's because we just can't, and I want to explain that to the people and and we do encourage you to call in if there are those concerns, and we'll definitely take a look at it for sure.
James Bell
So that's got to be difficult to not be able to, you know, take that action, because I'm sure you know, any of your deputies, you know, dog, cat, whatever is out there, and it's cold, and you just got to walk away, that's got to be rough.
Scott Braun
Yeah, it is, you know, and again, it's extremely cold in animals are really tough there, you know, but at the same time, you know, they get cold, like everything, like we do. And so if we can give them that safe environment, I would encourage people to do so. But I can't make them do that. Yeah, so I have a husky at home and stays outside most of the time. But when it was really cold, put him put the dog in the garage, got him out of the wind, even though they have a dog house. So that type of thing. And, and that dog loves the cold. So
James Bell
I was gonna say Huskies are like the one you don't have to worry about. They'll go play in the snow all day long.
Scott Braun
Oh, yeah, lays in the middle of the pile. So so I get that. But we were just concerned with the extreme cold and we have a place to put him so we put her inside and just getting up there in age. So it wasn't a big deal. So I encourage people to do that. So the other thing I'd like to talk about is talking about the cold. You know, we're traveling right now we're gonna have some extreme colds again on Friday, I believe it is coming in. Yeah, I'm hearing zeros. Yeah. So make sure your batteries are good to go. Make sure you have a blanket in there. Possibly a heat source if you can, make sure you have a cell phone charger. And also let people know I know, we're so used to being on the road and talking and those types of things. But let people know your plans, maybe the road you're going to take, if you're two couple hours later, something like that. contact law enforcement. And we'll run those roads to look for them. We'll put an ATL out to try to locate that vehicle, make sure they're safe. Sometimes things happen. And we want to make sure that no one freezes. So make sure you have gloves and hats and a heavy coat. Maybe throw some coveralls in there if you have them, those types of things and just be safe and try to stay with your vehicle if you can do not get out and walk unless you can see a farmstead or something close by if you're running those roads, but obviously cell phones work pretty well. But everything fails. So take some precautions.
James Bell
Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. Because this is something I'm teaching my kids as they're growing up in this world of technology, and they've always got access to the internet, they've always got a cell phone in their hands. If that's not always the case, and those old school precautions that we used to think about 2030 years ago, are just as relevant even though most of the time unnecessary.
Scott Braun
Yeah, it doesn't hurt to put it in your trunk. It's there, you know, it's not like it's gonna cost you any more fuel to haul that around. Right? So I would encourage you to do so. And again, make sure people know the route you're going to take and in approximate time that you're going to be there that will help us and where they're coming from. So And last but not least, I know that we've heard a lot about this. The fires up north that started out west and worked away through Russell County. I want to recognize the Rural Fire Ellis County rural fire and those other agencies that came in to assist during the fires. I also want to definitely thank our dispatch center, all of the staff that was working the amount of call volume that they received and that was overwhelming. I tell you what, they are all true heroes for What they do, and they kept us safe.
Yeah, obviously, the best outcome is not having it happen at all, but unfortunately did and I'm with you. It is amazing how the community pulls together. Law enforcement, first responders, just in general how counties that were not affected by we're sending people by the groves to help help with those fires to get them out and protect farmsteads and homes. There were obviously some buildings damaged in that but I tell you what our rural fire people were trying to save homes for the for our farmers and there were homes lost and unfortunately, we lost the life too. And that's really sad. But in overall think it could have been a lot worse and I think everybody did an outstanding job and I just want to thank you.

Forward Ever: District 111 Representative Barbara Wasinger

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times host Gary Shorman speaks with District 111 Representative Barbara Wasinger.