Opinion

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Carolyn Huddleston, Liberal

The Seward County Health Department is only open four days a week, Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  None of the staff are working 40 hours per week.  At the current time hours range from 32 to about 36. 

However, as a result of an open records request, I learned that two sets of bonuses were given to staff of the Health Department this year.  In one bonus, 23 staff each received $2552.58.  It appears that every employee got one of these bonuses, which altogether totaled $58,709.  The second set of bonuses, which was drawn from a KDHE grant, totaled $45,000, and these went to only seven women.  Not all received the same amount.  Here quarterly payments were made, totaling $9000 for 2 women, $6000 for 4 women, and $3000 for 1 woman.  The Director, Brie Greeson, whose earnings for 2024 amounted to $107,446, is receiving one of these bonuses in the amount of $9000, and she also received one of those other bonuses in the amount of $2552 [as did all the other women in this group of 7]. 

GUEST COLUMN, Greg Doering, Kansas Farm Bureau

It’s hard to imagine waking up and going to work on payday only to find you have less money than you started with at the beginning of the pay period. That’s the reality many farmers are facing as fall harvest enters full swing in Kansas. Almost every acre of corn and soybeans across the state is expected to cost more to plant, grow and harvest than farmers will receive when they sell their crops.

Revenue from wheat, soybeans and corn is forecasted to decline by 12, nine and six percent, respectively, in 2025. It will be the third year in a row with declining receipts for those commodities while expenses have remained the same or risen.

GUEST COLUMN, J. Basil Dannebohm

Recently, a member of Congress who is infamous for the type of drama you’d expect to see during third shift at Waffle House attempted to have one of her colleagues censured.

The measure failed.

In response, the accused said to her censurer, "Would love to see you get the help you need next. You belong in rehab, not Congress.”

“We have to stop allowing members who are experiencing mental breakdown to continue to work without getting them the help they need,” she later wrote on social media.