News

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The state of Kansas has undergone some major changes throughout recent years, and 2024 was no exception, according to Gov. Laura Kelly.

“All in all, I feel like 2024 ended on a very high note. We were able to pass a budget that continues to fully fund our public schools, including a bit of extra money for Special Education,” Gov. Kelly said. “We were also able to continue on with our comprehensive transportation program – we closed the 'Bank of KDOT' and are fully funding that program now, so roads and bridges and broadband are being taken care of all throughout the state. We were also able to continue our record-breaking economic development, that has not slowed down since my administration took office. In fact, we were recently awarded our fourth consecutive Gold Shovel Award from Area Development Magazine, which is amazing for us. We've done all of that while also having the largest budget surplus in state history, the largest rainy day fund in state history, and also giving back $1 billion in tax cuts every year to Kansans. Overall, 2024 was a very good year.”

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ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

Winter has offically begun, and that means an increased potential for cold temperatures and severe winter storms.

With that in mind, Seward County Emergency Management staff wants to remind people to take some precautions to help stay safe.

“Typically, in Southwest Kansas, our bigger snowfalls happen in either February or March, so it’s usually closer to the beginning of spring when those chances increase, meaning those are the times people should be particularly careful of the weather,” Emergency Management Director Greg Standard said. “However, large snowstorms can occur in Western Kansas at literally any time, so people need to be prepared. It’s always recommended to plug any window and/or door drafts, which not only keeps everyone safe but also helps cut down on overall energy loss. It’s also important to keep your HVAC unit maintained and the filters updated so everything’s functioning the way it’s supposed to. Those are particularly important to do this time of the year, and we’d also like people to think about being prepared and take care of themselves during a winter storm event. We recommend having enough water and provisions and any needed medicines, etc., to last at least three days. In our community, we have maybe 100 responders to help more than 20,000 people, and we can’t be everywhere at once. With that in mind, the more you can have prepared on your end, the better off you’ll be, and it’ll also help our relief efforts. Around the house, have things set up so your water pipes won’t freeze – however, if they do, don’t use any type of fire to thaw things out, because that will end rather badly. If you’ve got travel plans and happen to be stranded on the road with no heat or anything, you want to be in a position where you can wait in your vehicle for help to arrive, so be sure you’re dressed warmly, and we recommend having a blanket or two in your car and an emergency kit.”

“We also recommend having one or two weather apps on your phone to follow, I know the National Weather Service does good about those updates, and Seward County has an app to keep track of for any severe weather,” Emergency Management Deputy Director Tim Newman added. “The main thing is, before you travel, check the weather, because you never know what could happen. It was just in January when that day of the blizzard, conditions were clear until about noon or so, and then the blizzard came through quickly and severely, which left some people stuck on the roads. If you take just a few basic precautions and do some looking ahead, that will save you a big headache.”

Standard added no matter what severe weather comes through, the Emergency Management staff will be ready to respond.

“When we hear of severe weather being predicted, we’ll notify our emergency personnel partners and public works partners like the Road & Bridge crews so they can plan accordingly and start treating the roads and all of that,” Standard said. “We’ll also share that information with the public through various media and advise everyone so they can be more prepared for what could come through. Our goal is always to get as much information out to the public as possible so they can know what’s coming and hopefully make good choices. Then, we’ll shift more into response mode and supply whatever support is needed, whether it’s working with state and/or federal partners or providing equipment to the local public works crews. With the blizzard that came through in January, we did have to rescue multiple people who had been stranded on the roads, so we helped them get to some sort of shelter and into safety so they could get out of the weather that night. We then worked with state and federal partners afterward for the disaster declaration, and we also worked with the utility companies to get power and everything else back to the community. Honestly though, our response could include anything and everything necessary.”

Newman added he hopes the winter remains relatively quiet.

“Best case scenario, we don’t have any severe weather that blows through and everything remains relatively calm weather-wise. However, if something does end up happening, we encourage everyone to heed the warnings that get put out and just overall be smart,” Newman said. “The easiest rescue to do is the one we don’t have to do at all. If roads get closed, stay off and stay home, because your trip is not as important as your life – yeah, it might be a bummer if you have to postpone a trip or get-together you’ve been looking forward to for a long time, but it’s not worth risking your life if the weather conditions aren’t conducive to traveling. Don’t make the emergency personnel come out and rescue you just because you felt you had to go to the store for something you probably could have done without for the next day or two.”

Overall, Standard and Newman said, taking some basic precautions will save a major headache in the long run.

“This really goes for any kind of severe weather, but any home emergency kit should include a flashlight, some type of battery-operated weather radio to keep updated on everything, a few days’ worth of food and water and other provisions, an necessary medications, warm clothing, and good shoes,” Standard said. “You never want to be walking around after any severe weather situation in just flip flops or something flimsy like that, so it’s good to have a good, sturdy pair of shoes so you can be more mobile and able to get around. Also, be ready to move to shelter – I always say if you wait until the last minute to move to where you need to go, you’ve waited way, way too long, so move to shelter early and then basically hunker down so you’re safe and secure and out of danger.”

“We also recommend having your car full of fuel and with some emergency items in there. I always tell people an emergency supply kit should be the same as if you were going camping, the necessities are basically the same,” Newman added. “And I would also like to remind people, the next CERT class will be Jan. 24 through 26, and anyone wanting to participate in that would just need to contact Norma Jean Dodge at Seward County Community College at (620) 417-1171 to register.”

By ROBERT PIERCE

• Leader & Times

As projects continue to be improved at county facilities, updates continue to be made as well by Seward County Contract Consultant Neal Coffey for county commissioners to get an idea of progress on those projects.

At the commission’s Dec. 16 meeting, commissioners approved a change order and a contract addendum for work being done on the Seward County Courthouse.

With the change order, Coffey said he initially sent the item to Melinda Baker, executive assistant to Administrator April Warden, but at that time, numbers were still in the process of developing and changing.

“We have had some change orders that have popped up, and rather than doing an individual small change order for each of these, we’ve compiled on this change order four elements,” he said.

Those elements included the main entrance area of the courthouse disbanding from its original surface, five exterior doors rubbing on carpet, an unplanned gap after the removal of entry doors and a rusted conduit providing power to the lights that illuminated the front wall. Coffey said the amount of the change order was $21,465, which, after commissioners approved the change order, brought the project’s total cost to $903,918.53.

Funding for the change order has been established in money the county received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

With the addendum, Coffey said pursuant to the commission’s request for the contract remodel, staff wanted to make sure funding had been set aside through the ARPA funding, and County Counsel Nathan Foreman helped develop a contract addendum to affix a not-to-exceed value at the end of the contract of $1.16 million.

“If you approve this addendum, that will not change the change order process,” Coffey  said. “The contractor will not get carte blanche to just go and spend the money. The change order process will from the general contactor to your architect, GMCN (Architects), to make certain their change order is something that was outside of the original scope. If the architect approves the change order, it’ll come back to me, and at that time, I will present the change order to you as a body for approval. That way, you continue to control the spending on the courthouse remodel.”

As of Dec. 16, Coffey said 80 percent of the interior work on the courthouse had been completed, and he estimated about 60 to 70 percent of the exterior work was done.

As with many county facilities, solutions are being sought to drainage problems at the courthouse, and Coffey said a contemplated solution has been found there.

“We walked down the project, and it looks like we can add some dirt to the west side of that building and roll that water to the middle from the building and from the sidewalk and roll it all south,” he said. “In order to do that, we’ll be stacking some dirt up on the building. We will have to make certain we waterproof that brick we put that dirt on.”

Commissioner Presephoni Fuller asked Coffey how many more change orders would be needed on the courthouse project. Coffey began by explaining the project’s discovery phase has been completed.

“The civil work for the landscaping up front is one,” he said. “There will be one for the dirt, for the grass and any shrubbery you want to put in. That may all be compiled into this one. In this project, we did put accommodations in and under the sidewalks to pass sprinkler systems through, but there will be some sprinkler system repair because of the lines that had to be removed during the extension of the parking lot, sidewalks.”

Under the project’s current scope, Coffey said there is a four-foot strip of existing dirt between the sidewalk and building on the courthouse’s east side.

“At some point in time, some flowers and things were planted in there, but now it looks like it’s just been sterilized, and it’s just a strip of dirt,” he said. “The thinking as we were walking through is to ask the contractor to provide us with a change order to 100 percent concrete that out. There’s some drainage pipes from the roof that come underneath there. We’ll have to make sure we secure those. There’s also some sewer clean   outs in there. We’ll have to make certain we secure those.”

Coffey said benches on the courthouse property were in horrible shape and removed as part of the project.

“The contemplation was to go to the landfill and buy some of the nice heavy benches they have,” he said. “That would be two benches up front, and the one over by the southeast back door is in horrible shape as well. Do we pull it out and replace it? I would recommend we do that.”

Coffey said most of the major parts of the project are now out of the way.

“We did get the concrete torn out of the Sally port area, which was a major step,” he said. “That’s 50 percent replaced. The city did come in and lower their water meters and lower their water valve boxes. Now we can straighten all that out and not have any big humps in there, so a lot of that risk has gone away. Most of the exterior painting has been primed first coat. We’ve got this end of the building we have to get into, which is in that far yard of the sheriff’s yard. That’s going to have some security concerns associated with that. We worked that out with the sheriff, but I don’t see any change orders necessary in there.”

The change order and contract addendum were both approved with unanimous votes.